Spore - it's out of the Box

Spore has officially been released here in Oz today and I have been surprised at the number of computer games stores in Sydney that have either sold out or only have the Galactic edition left (possibly some stores are saying this to increase sales of the more expensive Galactic version).

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of Spore 2 days ago - EB Games were selling them early. Since then I have had a few opportunities to play the game at the various level - except Space faring. I have to say it is a little more involved than I first thought - but no less addictive. The game really makes you think about what you are doing and without realising it the decisions you make help shape your civilization - this becomes apparent when you look back on your history. I have only just played the civilization stage a few times and found this to be very interesting and challenging - it could possibly have been due to the fact that it was early in the morning but my creative juices to build my own cars, aircraft, cities, houses and boats was not at it highest and I quickly fell behind the back as an also ran tribe.

The game appears to be very addictive and will have appeal across a wide cross section of people, it is easy to pick and play and will have lots of potential for classroom use and application especially if you choose to be an omnivore and you and your tribe need to eat, do you make the decision to eat the tribe or wild animals next door OR do you eat the fruit available?!?!!? Do want to build relationships or do you just want to conquer everything - what will this mean for your future - all this without even touching on the looks and genetics of your tribe.

More to come...

Comments

[Darren]

Cool! Seen this link? Maybe helpful for educators? http://sporelearning.ning.com/

[Darren]

Podcast from Popular Mechanics, pretty interesting

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/upgrade/4198889.html

blurb:

Does the future of video games spell the end of the world? Or does humanity have more to learn from a virtual world inhabited by connected kids, intelligent robots ... and the Obama campaign? You've seen the video and the outtakes from his chat at the 2008 Breakthrough Conference after winning in the products category. Now download PM's entire wide-ranging chat with Will Wright, the gaming guru and geek god behind Sim City and Spore, on a Breakthrough Award season finale of The Popular Mechanics Show.

[Tony]

Darren - I will have a look at the site. Thanks for the heads up, as always greatly appreciated.

Tony