Spore probably delayed.

[Fabricated]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUKWEN784620070508?feedType=RSS&pageNumber=1

Maybe until Fiscal 2009. Heh. Thank god I don't care about Spore.

[Trippy]

My guess is that they saw the true multi-player community aspects of LittleBigPlanet (none of this single-player planet-sharing crap) and EA said "We need that too".

[Xerapis]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[schild]

Hahahahahahohohohohohohohoho.

* schild draws a line through Spore on the big white board.

Too much hype + too Many Delays = Consider me completely unimpressed at any innovations that anyone may have come up with.

[Selby]

Too much hype + too Many Delays = Consider me completely unimpressed at any innovations that anyone may have come up with.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who thought that when I first heard about it.  Sure, it's Will Wright and the guy has an impressive resume of games, but until it's on the shelf and actually something you can play, it is nothing more than just some zany idea that likely won't work (just like every other unmade game out there).

[Sky]

You guys are hilarious. Bitch if it's shoved out the door, bitch if they take time to finish it properly. Luckily you've got a gazillion shitty console games to fill your time.

When It's Done. Will Wright is no Pete Molyneux.

[schild]

I never bitched. I never really gave a shit either. Go back, go see how much I ever hyped Spore. Answer, zero.

[Xerapis]

I'd like to take things way too personally for $500, Alex.

[schild]

I'd like to take things way too personally for $500, Alex.

Heyo. There was a 50% chance he was talking about me. And there's no hard rocking in my avatar, so 75%.

[Morat20]

My two cents:

Either it's going to suck or it won't. If it's going to suck, it doesn't matter if they launch it now or keep fucking with it for another year or two. It's STILL going to suck.

On the other hand, if it's not going to suck -- launching too soon could turn "not suck" into "suck".

So all in all, I don't mind them taking their time. Rushing just increases the odds of 'suck', and if it sucks already, I'm not in any hurry to find out. :)

[CmdrSlack]

This also means that I can postpone upgrading my desktop machine for a while.

[raydeen]

I can wait. If they do add in multiplayer, all the better. I hope it's not the disappointment the Sims was for me. I really thought that game was gonna be awesome to the max, but it gagged me with a spoon.

[Morat20]

I can wait. If they do add in multiplayer, all the better. I hope it's not the disappointment the Sims was for me. I really thought that game was gonna be awesome to the max, but it gagged me with a spoon.

I don't see how Spore lends itself to a multiplayer mode. You could fight it out with flying saucers but, frankly, there's no actual strategy or anything involved. I can't think of any realistic way to give Spore a working multiplayer mode without significantly altering the game, or 'pasting on' the equivilant of an entirely new game.

[Sky]

I'd like to take things way too personally for $500, Alex.

Yes.


While I'm the resident spore fanboi, I don't have my expectations built up too high. I just figure it'll be a fun game, and I hope Wright can muscle enough to keep some science in there to keep it interesting. The sims was ok, but it was just soap-opera crap, if you don't like the premise, you won't like the game, eh?

I hope no multiplayer. Git off mah galaxy.

[WayAbvPar]

The good news is this pushes my need for a new PC back a few months, which will make it easier to sell to the wife.

[Azazel]

This is a game I'm interested in, but not in love with. When it's released and what the requirements are will decide if I buy it or not. DX10/Vista would be a deal-breaker.

[Xanthippe]

When it's done?  Will Wright's games always crash if you play them long enough without a restart.  Don't get me wrong - I like sim stuff but I'd like it a million times more if the games didn't tend to have memory leaks.

[Trippy]

This is a game I'm interested in, but not in love with. When it's released and what the requirements are will decide if I buy it or not. DX10/Vista would be a deal-breaker.

It's not published by Microsoft so assuming it comes out sometime this decade it's highly unlikely it'll require Vista/DX10.

[Miasma]

Did they ever scrap the idea of DX10 only being available on the "Ultimate" vista version?

[Trippy]

Did they ever scrap the idea of DX10 only being available on the "Ultimate" vista version?

Not sure what you are referring to but DirectX 10 is standard with all editions of Vista.

[Sky]

Maxis VP giving interviews at E3, saying Spore is full-playthrough-complete and in internal alpha testing. I hope they take all the time they need, but 2008 would be cool.

Is it sad that I blocked the window during the video interview so I wouldn't see any of the gameplay? Like Bioshock, it's one of those games I want to discover on my own without spoilers :) Before I hid it, I did see the cellular game was revamped again, this time with 100% more googly-eyes. There are interviews available at places like G4, and also some new gameplay footage if you're interested.

[Ironwood]

I'm not sure I understand :  What's to spoil ?

[Sky]

I don't even want to see it, I just want to experience everything fresh. Spoil may have been too strong a word. I mean it in the sense that it would no longer be fresh, I'd have seen the different planet types and whatnot. Also, I don't want to see any cool stuff that will inevitably get cut before it's released (like the original cellular game vs the current more cartoony one).

[Ironwood]

Ok, cool beans.

I watched the last 'big' video of the gameplay.  I was kinda impressed, but I wondered what kind of longevity it had.

[CmdrSlack]

I don't even want to see it, I just want to experience everything fresh. Spoil may have been too strong a word. I mean it in the sense that it would no longer be fresh, I'd have seen the different planet types and whatnot. Also, I don't want to see any cool stuff that will inevitably get cut before it's released (like the original cellular game vs the current more cartoony one).

I haven't seen anything on the cellular game in a long time, but I was always hoping it would turn out kind of like fl0w, but with more complexity in the "design your cell" sense.

[Big Gulp]

I personally get the impression that this is a string of mini-games with a somewhat coherent theme.  I've never seen what all the hype surrounding the game is about, really.  Then again, Will Wright has never really impressed me overly much as a designer.  Out of his entire stable I like SimCity 2000 and SimAnt.  For such an extensive development history, that doesn't impress me much considering that even though I liked those two games, I was never really ga-ga over them.

[TripleDES]

Looking at the increasing amount of newer screenshots since the GDCe presentation, it looks a lot like Maxis is cutifying everything, making things more cartoony. E.g. remember the cellular stage presented like it was on GDCe? More or less 2D with a remotely natural look? Now it's bugs with eyes. Like what the fuck? Or any higher gameplay stage? Lots of brownish and greenish color, and if something else, rather pastel than anything else. The newest feature bright colors all over the place, including things like cartoon eyebrows, mouth and other appendages.

I do not approve.

[Yegolev]

I blame the Wii.

[Samwise]

[MrHat]

Props to Triple on the avatar.

[Sky]

zomg Signe!!!! Look out!

[Merusk]

Props to Triple on the avatar.

Is that the e-surance girl getting it from behind, or is it just me and my dirty mind that thinks it?  There a source for it I'm missing out on?

[Sky]

Maxis is cutifying everything, making things more cartoony.

Richard Dawkins would disembowel Wright at this point, I'm thinking. He's all against cutifying and dumbing-down science to give it 'mass appeal'. I'm with him. Though I kinda had a feeling from early on that the more hardcorish science aspects would be weeded out by launch :(

[Morat20]

Maxis is cutifying everything, making things more cartoony.

Richard Dawkins would disembowel Wright at this point, I'm thinking. He's all against cutifying and dumbing-down science to give it 'mass appeal'. I'm with him. Though I kinda had a feeling from early on that the more hardcorish science aspects would be weeded out by launch :(

I haven't seen any of the new screenshots, but I more or less expected the cutifying. Just take a look at early descriptions and images from the vehicle editor, and the "Populus" style of the world-game.

Wright's own talks stress the important of a unified UI, and a unified "look and feel" for the entire game and ALL the editors. Frankly, I don't care about "cute" so long as the gameplay works like it's described. And if editors are as flexible as Wright claims, what can make "cute" can also make "covered in spikes with four-foot teeth".

I'd expect ad campaigns would mix and match -- cute to appeal to the Sims type, nasty to appeal to the teenage boy wanting to creature land-sharks that don't stop to chew (and that will eat the cute things), and both together appeal to the guy that wants to put together something really out there. (The kind of guy who, for instance, bought Gal Civ 2 solely because of the ship editor...)

[Big Gulp]

Maxis is cutifying everything, making things more cartoony.

Richard Dawkins would disembowel Wright at this point, I'm thinking. He's all against cutifying and dumbing-down science to give it 'mass appeal'. I'm with him. Though I kinda had a feeling from early on that the more hardcorish science aspects would be weeded out by launch :(

Now I'm torn.  I don't like most of Will Wright's games, but I really fucking hate Richard Dawkins.

Decisions, decisions.