'Spore' gets cute and spacey add-ons

And you thought your Spore creature was cuddly before...

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

Your Spore creature could soon get even creepier--or cuter, depending on your preferences in primordial beings. Electronic Arts on Monday officially confirmed rumors that an expansion titled Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack will be available worldwide as soon as November 18.

The expansion, announced just a month after the game's release, will offer more than 100 new creature-building components in two styles--charming, cartoon-esque creatures and scary, monster-like beasts.

The long-awaited game from EA and The Sims creator Will Wright tasks players with evolving from primordial ooze to creature, civilization, and all the way out into space. The expansion pack will include body parts, paint options, animations, and backgrounds, so players will have even more options for customizing their creatures.

But that's not all, creature creators. EA says it also expects to release a space stage expansion pack in spring 2009 that will let players' space-faring beings beam down from their spaceships to explore new planets and earn rewards for completing challenging missions. A new adventure creator will let players build and share online their own custom missions.

[rboluyt]

As someone who canceled their Spore pre-order because of the draconian and anti-consumer DRM, unless this expansion also removes the DRM from the game entirely, I will not be purchasing it either.