Spore E3 Review from Shacknews

In an effort to catch up with all the great reviews from E3, here's one from Shacknews:

"It was somewhere between ordering my army of blue-blooded Max Rebo soldiers to crush an enemy civilization, and conquering the galaxy from the comfort of a spaceship that resembled a four post bed, when I realized they had pulled it off. Spore is great."

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$80 Spore Galactic Edition from Gamestop

Via Ars Technica and Shack News, Gamestop will feature a special Galactic Edition of Spore for $80 that comes with the following additional material:

UNIQUE GALACTIC EDITION CONTENT

• 'Making of Spore' DVD video
• 'How to Build a Better Being' DVD video, by National Geographic Channel
• 'The Art of Spore' hardback mini-book
• Fold-out Spore poster
• Premium 100-page Galactic Handbook

Personally, I am more worried about getting the game as soon as it's available. That means within a day of release. For certain games, for me, it's important I have them right away or I feel like everyone else is having fun but me.

I ordered Spore Creature Creator (CC) through Amazon and it's not going to arrive until Friday. It got delayed (by Maxis, if I understand it right) and now it's sitting in the delivery hub. Waiting. Biding it's time. Plotting unspeakable evil. I'm not going to order anything important through Amazon again.

I ended up getting the CC from the direct download with EA. I don't think saving the $5 on the actual game is worth it at this point. Not only is it taking forever to get to me, but a gallon of gas is $5. I'm saving a lot of gas in shipping or driving out searching for it just by using the direct download. Is the $80 Galactic Edition worth it? You tell me.

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SecuROM, The Sims 2, and Spore

Spore fansites everywhere, like Spore Universe and Spores Illustrated, posted this email last week by Caryl Shaw--aka MaxisLucky:

Hey Spore Fans -

We wanted to let you know that we've been hearing your concerns about the online authentication mentioned earlier this week. I didn't want to head into the weekend without getting back to you with some information about how Spore is planning on using this new system.

A few things we wanted you to know:

-- We authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time.

-- We'll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads new content or a patch for their game.

-- The new system means you don't have to play with the disc in your computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a huge benefit.

-- You'll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.

-- You can play offline.

We do hope that players will play online - sharing creatures, buildings and vehicles with other players is something that is unique to Spore and one of the coolest features of the game. Every day, when I play the Creature Stage, I get to see wacky and awesome new creatures from my Buddies on the team coming over the hill at me and I can't wait to see what happens when our creative, passionate community starts sharing their creations.

I'd love to write more - but I need to get back to work. We've got a game to finish. :-)

-caryl

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caryl d shaw (aka MaxisLucky)
online producer
spore

What prompted that was a rumor on the Gaming Steve forum that SecuROM (which would be installed with Spore) had to do some kind of check online every 10 days or Spore would stop working. This was the case with Mass Effect.

On Friday, Shacknews posted an article that EA has responded to users complaints by removing the 10 day check requirement. But some users hate SecuROM so much, they have made a forum called SecuROM Must Be Destroyed, and they won't rest until it's no longer installed with EA products. Simmers should know that The Sims 2 products Bon Voyage, FreeTime, Deluxe, Double Deluxe, H&M Stuff, Teen Style Stuff, and Kitchen & Bath Stuff all install SecuROM. Spore will, and likely, The Sims 3 will, as well. If you feel strongly about the SecuROM issue, contact EA (support@ea.com) to let them know.

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