Gaming and Culture

SAN FRANCISCO--Electronic Arts said Wednesday that it plans this summer to release an all-new, stand-alone version of Spore for kids.

The new game, which will allow multiple children to play together in a very Spore-like universe, will be called Creature Keeper, said Lucy Bradshaw, the general manager of EA's Emeryville, Calif.-based Maxis studio, which created Spore.

In addition, at its "State of the Universe" event here, EA also unveiled plans for Galactic Adventures, the first expansion to Spore. It is planned for a spring release and will feature a set of new tools for the massive space stage of the hit evolution game that, in addition to the existing "play," "create," and "share" tools, will let players choose to create their own adventures in space.

(Credit: Electronic Arts/Maxis)

And EA topped off its set of announcements by saying that it expects to release all-new versions of Spore for the Nintendo Wii and DS game consoles, titled Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena, respectively.

The announcements were the first EA has made that showcase the video game giant's future plans for Spore, a game that it has clearly invested huge resources in. The game, from legendary designer Will Wright, tasks players with navigating five distinct stages--cell, creature, tribe, civilization and space. Though it has sold fairly well, some have argued that it hasn't lived up to its advance billing, particularly because it was years in the works. Also, the game was originally released with a version of digital rights management that limited the number of installs consumers could have. Many people resisted the DRM restrictions, and late last year, EA removed them.

However, either because of the DRM or in spite of it, Spore became one of the most pirated games of 2008.

Now, with Creature Keeper, EA and Maxis hope they can attract a much younger audience to the Spore universe. Unlike the original game, the kids version will allow multi-player play. It does not require Spore to play, but it will allow kids to import creatures from the original game. It will be released for PC and Mac, just as the original game was.

The idea, said Bradshaw, is to give kids an easier way to experience the fun and exploration of Spore, and to do so with other friends.

"They can invite friends over," Bradshaw said, "and have play dates with their creatures."

With the Galactic Adventures expansion (see video below), meanwhile, EA is attempting to address one of the biggest criticisms of the main space stage of Spore: That players could not directly interact with the worlds they encountered during their interstellar journeys. Instead, they would be restricted to flying above any planets they found along the way.

Now, however, they will be able to beam down to new planets. More important, however, may be that Maxis is making available to Spore players a set of planetary adventure creation tools they've previously only had in-house.

Among other things, the expansion offers players terra-forming tools, making it possible to build all-new planets from scratch, and populate them with all manner of buildings, creatures, rivers and other geographical features. Players can choose any creation from the 65 million item-strong, player-created Sporepedia, the official Spore social media system.

Bradshaw said that the tools that will be available in Galactic Adventures were not ones that were originally planned to be included in Spore. Nor was the expansion long in the works, she said. Instead, she explained, the team at Maxis saw the ways that people were playing Spore and listened to requests from players to have more interaction and control over the space stage.

While EA isn't talking about total sales figures for Spore at this point, Bradshaw did say that to date, there have been more than 65 million creations uploaded to Sporepedia, and more than 6 million downloads of the Creature Creator, a tool that allows people to make their own Spore creatures without owning the full game.

A screen shot from the forthcoming online game, 'Star Wars: The Old Republic.' The game, which is from LucasArts and BioWare, picks up where the 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' franchise left off.

(Credit: LucasArts/BioWare)

Updated at 4:13 p.m. PDT: This story now includes more information from the press event announcing 'Star Wars: The Old Republic' at LucasArts Tuesday.

SAN FRANCISCO--At a press event at LucasArts' headquarters in the Presidio here Tuesday afternoon, LucasArts and BioWare unveiled Star Wars: The Old Republic, a new massively multiplayer online game.

Click tio view image gallery.

(Credit: LucasArts/BioWare)

The game is set about 350 years after the popular Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games and about 3,500 years before the Star Wars movies.

The companies did not divulge a release date and it appears that they will not show any live game play. But with the announcement, LucasArts and BioWare--which is now owned by Electronic Arts--have pulled the curtain back on what appears a large-scale online game in which players will be able to take on roles and create their own, personal Star Wars story lines.

"We're excited to be working again in the Star Warsuniverse," said BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka. It's a "rich period, (a) dynamic period full of Jedi and Sith and other dynamic characters you get to play."

Muzyka explained that the designers of the game wanted to ensure that The Old Republic was a story-based MMO that followed in the tradition of the Knights of the Old Republic.

He added that while people have often asked BioWare if the company would ever produce the third installment in the Knights of the Old Republic franchise, this new game amounts to installment Nos. three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and beyond.

"The game is that big," Muzyka joked.

As designers, Muzyka added, he and his team ensured that The Old Republic featured four main "pillars." These include exploration, discovery, combat, and story.

An exterior screen shot from Korriban in the new game 'Star Wars: The Old Republic,' from LucasArts and BioWare.

(Credit: LucasArts/BioWare)

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk also explained that the game is designed around making it possible for players unfamiliar with MMOs or with the Knights of the Old Republic franchise to pick it up and start playing immediately.

James Ohlen, the creative director of BioWare's Austin, Texas, studio, where the game was designed, explained that players would get to choose many different things in the game like class, whether they're good or evil, how the story unfolds, whether they represent the Galactic Empire or the Sith Republic and more. And within separate classes, he said, each class has their own story line to pursue.

For now, the companies are not saying when the game will be released--or even what year--or discussing the business model behind it.

But as Muzyka said, "Fans certainly expect a certain way to get into (an MMO), and we're going to accommodate them."

That suggested that the game would be based on a traditional MMO subscription model in which players would pay a monthly fee to play.

And while Star Wars fans will have to wait some time before getting their hands on the game, there is a full synopsis of the story line, as made available by LucasArts and BioWare in press materials:

The Galactic Republic stood for generations as a bastion of peace in a galaxy of warring star systems. Protected by its stalwart Jedi guardians, the Republic held the greatest hope for the progress of civilization and galactic unity.

Deep in unknown space, however, a mighty Sith Empire was forged, led by dark Sith Lords who dreamt of galactic domination and vengeance against their ancient Jedi enemies. After centuries of preparation, the time came for the Sith to make their return.

With a massive fleet and an awe-inspiring army of fearless troops, the Sith Emperor launched a surprise assault, quickly capturing dozens of worlds in the Outer Rim, and sparking a war unlike any other in the galaxy's history.

From the frozen wastes of Ilum to the desert plains of Dathomir, violent battles killed untold millions. Despite its avowed neutrality, surface structures on the water-covered world of Manaan were completely destroyed, forcing the Selkath to retreat to their ocean underworld. Other star systems fared worse--some destroyed, others left uninhabitable. The carnage concluded with the Sith Empire sacking the Republic's capital planet of Coruscant and forcing the Republic Senate into the controversial Treaty of Coruscant.

In the years since the treaty, fear and uncertainty have gripped the galaxy, enabling the Sith Emperor to pursue his own mysterious purposes while the Republic has made efforts to rebuild its infrastructure and adjust military priorities to the new galactic landscape.

Now, tensions between the Republic and the Empire are running high, and a series of border skirmishes and proxy wars have broken out, even on planets as historically peaceful as Alderaan. The uneasy truce established by the Treaty of Coruscant is quickly tearing apart at the seams, and a return to all-out war has begun in all but official terms.

A new generation of heroes, both light and dark, emerges to face the difficulties of these chaotic times, and fight for the fate of the galaxy in this most desperate age.

The Republic

For more than twenty thousand years, the Galactic Republic has been the most civilized and advanced power in the known galaxy. Governed by the Galactic Senate with representatives from hundreds of star systems and planets, the Republic has been the center of peace and progress, a bright beacon in the darkness of outer space.

The revered Jedi Order has sworn itself to defend the Republic, to battle the darkness, and to bring peace and balance to the greater galaxy. The Jedi have served for millennia in this capacity, and in that time they have earned themselves the admiration of their allies, and the hatred of their enemies.

Less than a century ago, the greatest of those enemies returned...

The onslaught of the Sith Empire caught the Republic and the Jedi completely by surprise, and during a long and arduous war, the Republic was broken. After the capital planet of Coruscant was ravaged by the Sith's Imperial forces, the Supreme Chancellor and the Senate were forced to sign the painful Treaty of Coruscant, which required the Republic to withdraw its support of several long-standing allies, including the ever-loyal Bothans.

Struggling with a wave of withdrawing star systems, an insurmountable supply crisis, and chaos on the streets of Coruscant, the Senate has become paralyzed in the years since the treaty. The bitter and divided nobility of the Core Worlds disputes every decision, damaging the morale of the Republic's already discouraged citizens.

Blaming the Jedi for the failures that led to Imperial domination, the Senate has distanced itself from the Republic's legendary guardians. The Jedi remain committed to protecting the Republic, but the Jedi Council has moved from Coruscant to the ancient Jedi homeworld of Tython.

The Republic has trained up new squads of Special Forces, disciplined teams capable of working together with near-perfect efficiency. These elite troopers still work often in conjunction with the Jedi, but in many places, the troopers have taken the prominent role in providing the Republic's defense.

Despite a post-war economic depression and the continued expansion of its enemies, the spirit of the Republic remains independent, brave, and strong. New leaders are stepping forward even now to stand against the dark Sith Empire, liberate the galaxy, and restore the Republic to its former glory.

The Empire

The true origins of the Sith remain shrouded in mystery. The Sith race was, in fact, largely unimportant until three thousand years ago, when Dark Jedi exiles arrived on Korriban and subjugated the Sith beneath their rule and their philosophy.

As the years passed, the Dark Jedi intermarried with those they ruled, and within generations, the word "Sith" took on new meaning. This powerful new civilization began expanding rapidly, led by a growing population of ambitious dark Force-users. Fifteen hundred years ago, the Sith civilization's boundaries reached the Republic, and the Great Hyperspace War began.

Dark Lord of the Sith Naga Sadow led his armies in an aggressive campaign to destroy the Galactic Republic. Though the Sith were successful at first, the Jedi Order rallied back to defeat their dark counterparts, systematically destroying the Sith civilization on Korriban.

Unbeknownst to the Jedi however, the last Emperor of the Sith managed to escape the carnage and fled into Deep Space with his most trusted Dark Lords. These surviving Sith began rebuilding their society on a distant planet, hoping to one-day return for revenge.

Over the course of the next thousand years, the Sith Empire recovered its strength. The Emperor developed a massive Imperial military, a fleet of advanced warships, and undertook dark rituals which prolonged his life and his undisputed rule.

When the time for vengeance arrived, the Sith began infiltrating star systems in the Outer Rim, sowing seeds of discord and making secret deals with local criminals and warlords. With all the pieces perfectly in place, the Sith launched an enormous offensive which caught the Jedi completely off-guard. In the first wave alone, the Sith succeeded in seizing control of several star systems in the Outer Rim, destroying the Republic's shipyards in the Sluis sector, and strangling the popular Rimma Trade Route.

After the initial crush, the Emperor's brilliant strategies continued and the brutal force of the Imperial military slammed the Republic time and time again, from the deep sinkholes of Utapau to the tall forests of Agamar. Though it seemed the Empire was capable of waging war indefinitely, the Emperor surprised the Republic yet again.

While the Emperor's Dark Council engaged Republic leaders in peace talks, several Sith Lords and an elite Imperial army sacked the Republic's capital planet. Destroying the Jedi Temple and holding the planet hostage, the Sith left Republic leaders no choice but to surrender several outlying star systems by signing the Treaty of Coruscant.

Since the treaty, the Emperor has withdrawn to pursue his own mysterious goals, deferring control to the Dark Council, and setting the stage for a brutal power struggle. In the political vacuum, the strongest and most cunning Sith and Imperial leaders are rising up to assume authority, consolidate the Empire's dominion and crush its enemies.

Spore, the new evolution game from Electronic Arts, has sold a million units since its September 7 launch, the publisher said Wednesday.

The sales figures are for copies of the game on the PC, the Mac, and the Nintendo DS.

The results are impressive and important for EA, especially given the heavy expectations that awaited the game, which was first announced in 2005 and was first expected in 2006, and also because the game has been beset by some controversy surrounding its DRM (digital rights management) restrictions.

And early indications from retailers around the country showed that the game was selling well in its first few weeks on store shelves.

However, the sales numbers don't match those delivered by recent hits like Grand Theft Auto IV, from Rockstar Games and Guitar Hero III, from Activision, which sold multiple millions of copies right off the bat.

Still, for a game with what some might see as a wonky or overly intellectual theme--the evolution of species and the colonization of space--a million copies sold in just 17 days is a good sign.

The big question, of course, is whether Spore can continue to sell over time and justify EA's stated hopes that the game could end up becoming a full-scale franchise along the lines of The Sims.

'Star Wars' creator George Lucas made a surprise appearance Monday night at the launch event in San Francisco for the new video game, 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.' Click the image above for a full gallery of game launch photos.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

Update 12:27 p.m.: This story has been modified to reflect comment from LucasArts about interest in the game, as evidenced by pre-sales and number of sales at retail.

SAN FRANCISCO--George Lucas was the "surprise" special guest at the official launch party Monday night here for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the new video game that marks the latest chapter in the epic story line. And despite his only making a two-minute speech, most on hand were excited at the rare opportunity to see him.

Indeed, Lucas doesn't venture into public very often, so for many of the people who had come to line up to buy the new game when it went on-sale at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, his appearance and quick talk were a treat.

The event took place Monday evening at a Best Buy outlet in this city's Mission district, an odd choice of venues for the launch of what many have been calling one of the biggest video games of the year.

On the other hand, the place was packed, something that one store employee said was a very unusual occurrence. So, all in all, the energy generated may have been worth it for Lucas and his crew.

A man dressed as Obi-Wan Kenobi makes some of the guests at the launch event smile.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

The new game, known by many simply as The Force Unleashed, is the first Star Wars game to be considered by Lucas an actual chapter in the overall story line that begins with the three prequel films--The Phantom Menace; Attack of the Clones; and Revenge of the Sith--continues with this summer's animated film, The Clone Wars and then, of course, concludes with the original three films, Star Wars; The Empire Strikes Back; and Return of the Jedi.

In the new game, the main character, played by actor Sam Witwer, is an apprentice of Darth Vader, and the story line centers on that apprentice's path to redemption.

Two fans pose for pictures bearing light sabers at the San Francisco launch party for the new video game, 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.'

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

SAN FRANCISCO--In four hours, the latest--and maybe greatest--Star Wars game, The Force Unleashed, will go on sale.

No one knows if the game will be a best-seller, but if you judged by the energy at the Best Buy in this city's Mission District on Monday night, where the game's official launch event is being held, it's got a bright future.

There is a special guest scheduled to speak in about 15 minutes, and by now, it's no secret that it will be George Lucas himself.

For now, however, fans of the game--and hired hands--are milling around the Best Buy here in all kind of Star Wars costumes, and every now and then I hear the easily recognized beep bleep bloop sound of R2-D2.

Stay tuned to this blog for more on this event as the evening goes on.

Darth Vader 'chokes' a Best Buy employee at the launch party for 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed' on Monday night.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

In its first week on the market, the long-awaited evolution game, Spore, from Electronic Arts and The Sims creator Will Wright seems to be holding its own at retail.

In interviews with retailers across the country, there is ample anecdotal evidence that the game is doing well, especially for a PC title. However, its initial sales don't appear to be in the same ballpark as massive hits like Grand Theft Auto IV, from Rockstar Games, Guitar Hero III, from Activision or Wii Fit, from Nintendo.

There are no official sales numbers available yet, as industry analyst NPD won't likely release such information until the end of September or early October, and Electronic Arts itself said it relies on NPD for its sales data.

But in cities across the U.S., Spore definitely seems to have struck a chord with gamers, though it is unclear if the game's strong initial sales will hold up in the coming weeks and months.

"The day it came out, we were sold out (within an hour)," said Douglas Shepard, who works at a San Francisco GameStop store. But "I'm willing to bet that it is going to go slower at this point, because the big hype around its release has passed."

Shepard added that he thinks the game's sales this weekend and next week will say a lot about whether Spore can continue to command a significant audience over time.

For EA, there's a lot riding on the game. It first announced Spore in 2005, and in the interim, delayed its release several times. It was first supposed to come out in 2006, then in 2007, and then earlier in 2008. But it locked in its September 7 launch date several months ago and in recent weeks, EA looked ready to put a lot of muscle into promoting the game.

And no wonder. It is the latest from Will Wright, the industry genius behind not only The Sims--the best-selling PC game of all-time--but also SimCity and other big titles.

And given its theme--evolution--as well as its innovative creature editor, many people have been expecting very big things from Spore.

Its initial reviews have largely been good, though not superlative. And some people wonder whether its scientific theme may make it a bit too wonky for mass audiences.

Still, there seems to be a lot of excitement behind Spore.

"We did pre-sales before it came out, and there were tons of people interested in it," said Shane, the media specialist at a Best Buy store in Milwaukee. "On Sunday (when the game launched), there were about 50 people waiting outside" to buy it.

Tyler Block, the manager of a Game Crazy store in Las Vegas, said his store sold out its initial allotment of 15 copies of the game in a couple of hours, and has nearly gone through a second shipment of 15 it received shortly afterward.

"We see people of all ages picking it up," Block said. "It's appealing to a lot of people."

But Block agreed that it's too early to tell how the game's sales will hold up.

"The verdict's still out on that," Block said. But "I'm a big fan, and I'd like to see it continue selling, and it hasn't slowed down yet."

And while Spore didn't produce midnight madness-like first-day and ongoing sales, Block said that the game--which is available on PC and Macintosh--is doing well for those platforms.

"It's not on (the) level (of GTA IV)," he said, "but still, it's rare to see a PC title do this well these days."

'Spore,' the new evolution game from Electronic Arts and 'SimCity' and 'The Sims' creator Will Wright, started with a series of small prototyping systems.

(Credit: Electronic Arts/Maxis)

Electronic Arts' much anticipated evolution game, Spore hits store shelves Sunday in North America, and for those that have been on the project since the beginning, it has been a long road from concept to completion.

The game's creator, Will Wright, who is famous for previous games like SimCity and The Sims said recently that the game has been seven years in the making, meaning the project was getting under way not long after The Sims launched and became the best-selling PC game of all time.

Wright has talked at length about how Spore's origins lie in the SETI project and other flights of his fancy.

"The original concept was sort of a toy galaxy you could fly around and explore," Wright told me last month. "As we thought about, it became apparent that evolution was a very important component. Some of the very first prototypes involved how you would move around and visualize the galaxy."

In the highly anticipated lead-up to the Spore's release from EA studio Maxis, in Emeryville, Calif., almost all the attention has been on the game itself or on its Creature Creator, which gives users an easy and sophisticated way to create complex beasts and which was made available in June as a free download.

But for many people, an equally exciting element has been the series of prototypes available for free download on the Spore Web site, each of which provides a look at the origins of a small piece of the larger game.

In fact, the prototypes were a crucial part of making Spore a reality. For example, since the procedural animation of the creatures in the game is one of its most-heralded elements, it's notable that before the system was ever built into the game, it started as a prototype.

"The earliest prototypes were making strange topology creatures and seeing if we could teach the computer to make them move plausibly, and later, show emotion and behavior," Wright said. "We had to find out whether the project was doable or not, or if some part of it wasn't doable, where we have to scale it back."

The first programmer on the Spore team was a Maxis veteran named Jason Shankel. Prior to joining Wright on his evolution project, he'd been working on a project known as SimMars, which was essentially a Mars terraforming game that was supported financially by NASA before the plug was finally pulled.

GameSpot review by Kevin VanOrd.

GameSpot score: 8.0

The good

• Intuitive and comprehensive customization tools

• Oozes charm at every turn

• Impressively broad scope

• Great audio and art design.

The bad

• Individual game play elements are extremely simple

• Early stages aren't very engaging.

Spore is an enjoyable game that pulls off an interesting balancing act.

On one hand, it lets you create a creature and guide its maturation from a single cell to a galactic civilization through an unusual process of evolutionary development.

Because the tools used to create and revise this creature are so robust and amusing, and each creation's charms are so irresistible, it's hard not to get attached to your digital alter ego. On the other hand, this intimacy is abandoned in the long, later portions of the game, when you lead your full-grown civilization in its quest for universal domination.

The idea sounds ambitious, though Spore isn't as much a deep game as it is a broad one, culling elements from multiple genres and stripping them down to their simplest forms. By themselves, these elements aren't very remarkable; but within the context of a single, sprawling journey, they complement each other nicely and deliver a myriad of delights.

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...

(Credit: Electronic Arts/Maxis)

Spore's greatest asset, by far, is its intuitive set of creation tools. If you've played the separate Creature Creator, released earlier this year, you're only seeing a small piece of the puzzle.

At various stages, you'll construct, for example, town halls, land vehicles sporting cannons, and aircraft that spout religious propaganda. The creatures are the true stars though, and you can mix and match legs, arms, mouths, wings, and lots of other parts into a beautiful work of art--or a hideous monstrosity.

Each part of your creation can be turned, resized, and twisted, so whether you wish to re-create a favorite cartoon character or develop an original concept, you'll probably find what you need in here. You don't need to be a budding Pablo Picasso to make an interesting creature, however; just slapping a bunch of random parts together can result in a truly hysterical beast.

Yet even if your onscreen buddy is a three-armed ogre with scales running up his belly, you'll be spending some time getting to know him in the first few hours of gameplay, and you'll probably develop some affection for him despite his hideousness.

Extensive community tools
You will need to put some creative energy into Spore, but if you aren't the artistic type or don't find the building- and vehicle-creation tools as interesting as those for your creature, you can use pre-made designs that ship with the game. Even better, you can utilize Spore's extensive community tools, inserting other players' innovations into your own game in progress. It's actually a lot of fun to sift through others' creations, if only to marvel at the remarkable amount of imagination on display.

And you can do this from within the game proper using an online database called the Sporepedia. In Spore, community and gameplay come together in a fresh and user-friendly manner. In fact, to get the most out of the game, you should be online whenever you play. Not only will doing so give you access to the Sporepedia, but most of the other creatures, vehicles, and even entire planets you encounter will have been created by other players. The early release of the Creature Creator has already proven that community involvement is a core aspect of the Spore experience, and the sharing factor is poised to give the game remarkable longevity.

In a game of Spore proper, however, you won't start off by molding the creature of your dreams. The game is split into five stages, starting with the cell stage. (However, once you unlock a stage, you can start a new game there and bypass any stage that comes before it.)

The creation tools at this stage are simple, limited to a 2D cell and a few odds and ends, like flagella and spikes. The accompanying game play is similarly minimal, and if you've played Flow for the PlayStation 3 or PSP, you will have a good idea of how it works. You choose the path of a carnivore or an herbivore at the outset, which determines what sort of food bits you can munch on. From here, you maneuver your cell about the screen using the keyboard or mouse, avoiding creatures that are looking to you for their next meal while grabbing a bite or two yourself. If you're an herbivore, you seek out the green algae; if you're a carnivore, you need meat, which means waiting for a fish fight to break out and gobbling up the remains, or starting the fight yourself.

You'll also uncover new parts as you swim about, and can then attach them to your organism.

To enter the cell creator, you send out a mating call, which lets you get romantic with another member of your species. Then, you add a few bits that make you swim faster or jab harder, and jump back into the gene pool.

However, it is all ultra-simple: You swim around eating so you can get bigger, and avoid being eaten. If you do fall victim to a sharp-toothed protozoan, you'll re-hatch with no real punishment. All in all, the cell stage may last you 20 or 25 minutes, which is just as well, since it's not very interesting and wears out its welcome quickly.

Soon enough, you'll leave the environs of the sea, add some legs, and lumber into the creature stage. You'll still find new parts scattered about, this time hidden within the skeletal remains of other beasts.

Again, the game play itself is pretty simple: You wander around exploring for other creatures and advance through the stage by either befriending other nests or conquering them.

If you want to go the aggressive route, you should equip sharp claws, tusks, and spitters; if you want to make friends with the local duck-billed orangutans, you'll go with parts that let you charm, sing, dance, and pose.

Should you decide on violence, the encounter plays out much like a very plain online role-playing game, in which you click on your target and use one of your four special abilities to do damage. If you want to make friends by singing and dancing, you'll play a little game of Simon Says, mimicking the actions of your hopeful buddies.

As you progress through the stage, you build up a little pack of followers, and they will join you in your battles--and your posing routines.

For carnivores, this truly is forbidden fruit.

(Credit: Electronic Arts/Maxis)

The gameplay in the creature stage may be simple, but it's here that you start to see what can make playing Spore such a special and rewarding experience.

Seeing your creature slowly evolve from a flat cell to an awkward, gangly land dweller is fun, particularly if he doesn't look as though such a beast in real life would be able to walk, much less bounce around the forest.

This is where your relationship with the creature is most prominent, and that connection is what makes the exploration of the creature stage so interesting. When you encounter a towering six-legged atrocity charging at the locals, you'll hightail it out of there--yet still be in awe, just as if you were the little guy himself.

It's more about the gawking than the playing, but whether you're joining a pack of polka-dotted parakeets in chorus or catching a glimpse of an overhead UFO, there are some legitimately appealing moments to be had.

Controlling a tribe
Once you reach the tribal stage, you will lose some of that connection with your creation. You will no longer be playing as an individual, but rather controlling a tribe, and the stage plays like a slimmed down real-time strategy game.

It's disappointing that you can no longer make adjustments to your tribe's main features past this point; you can, however, adorn the creatures with different clothing items for the duration.

Fortunately, the charm and personality of the creature stage is still very much evident, and you'll still have the same thrills as you encounter excellent and unusual creatures as you order about your small group of wacky travelers.

Conceptually, the tribal stage is similar to the creature stage, only now you focus the violence on an entire village, including structures. If you like that sort of thing, you can go so far as to equip tribe members with torches and set the enemy village ablaze. If you'd rather woo your neighbors with the sweet, soothing sounds of song, there are a few instruments at your disposal.

Spore then pulls an about-face when you reach the civilization stage. Gone are your creature-controlling days; your beloved brutes, once the jewels of your eye, will now populate the cities, and you will instead create fleets of land, sea, and air vehicles.

Now you don't have just a tribe--you have an entire society to handle, though you shouldn't let the name of the stage lead you to think that you'll find the complexity of Sid Meier's classic series here.

The creation tools are just as easy to use--and just as comprehensive--as those of the creature creator. Designing a mass of metal may not have the same charm as molding a living being from scratch, but the tools give you more control over patterns and colors, so expect to lose more hours of your life tinkering with the possibilities.

You'll also create a town hall, a house, a factory, and an entertainment venue, and placing these in your cities has an effect on the happiness of your residents. However, the happiness mechanic is so simple that most players should be able to beat the stage on even the highest difficulty setting without giving it much thought.

A religious conversion is in progress. Preach it!

(Credit: Electronic Arts/Maxis)

The stage plays out like an even broader version of the tribal stage, though you will be dealing with some light resource gathering.

However, the main strategic element comes from the three different ways you can conquer your foes: economic, religious, or military. Each city is limited to one of these three brands based on how you choose to play, though the process plays out remarkably the same, regardless.

For example, if you go for military victory, you send your attack units toward your enemy cities in standard RTS fashion. To convert the same city, you send religious vehicles over to broadcast a holographic image that preaches to the citizens.

It's neat to watch the transparent creature spouting the word over the opposing city--it's just too bad that the game play is so limited. Each city can produce only one type of land vehicle, one type of air vehicle, and one type of sea vehicle. If you go for a pure military victory, for example, you will see only three units in the stage. It's breezy and enjoyable, for sure--it's just not deep or challenging.

The final frontier
And in its final transformation, Spore enters the space stage, where many of the previous gameplay elements coalesce.

As a result, this stage feels like an actual destination, and while it's not nearly as complex as the space exploration games it cribs from, it does exhibit the great charms of the early stages that are missing from the civilization stage.

This is partially because it harks back to the creature stage, putting you in control of a single spacecraft (one you build using the wonderful creation tools, of course), and sending you off to explore the great black beyond.

The scope of this stage is suitably massive. You travel from star to star, exploring newly discovered planets and searching for your galactic neighbors, and you can skim the terrain of a planet--or pull the camera light-years away to see the entire galaxy at a glance.

This stage is somewhat reminiscent of 2002's terrific Space Rangers and its sequel, and even exhibits some of that game's wacky humor.

You travel from system to system, grabbing missions from the local civilizations who will crack jokes about everything from cake to umbrellas. Most of these missions are quick and to the point: abduct this creature and bring it back, eliminate a bunch of sick animals on this planet, eliminate all of our enemy's turrets on a neighboring world, and so on. Just as in the creature stage, you will eventually pick up some AI companions, further allowing you to expand across the galactic map.

To expand, you can't just plop down a colony and watch it evolve. The economy moves much more slowly in this stage than in previous ones, so you need to be careful about how you spend funds based on how you wish to play.

Nor can you just choose any planet. Some worlds are simply incapable of supporting life, while others need to have the environment altered to allow for expansion and population. This is where the terraforming tools come in. Not only may you need to drop items onto the terrain to increase the density of the atmosphere or make the air hotter, but you'll need to jump-start the ecology by throwing in plants and creatures abducted from other worlds.

Space stage keeps players busy
These tools don't just limit you to gameplay necessities, however. You can terraform entire swaths of land, putting craters and plateaus where you see fit, or even dyeing the water purple. In space stage there is, for the first time in Spore, a lot to do. At times, you are shooting lasers at enemy saucers, like a 3D action game; at others, you're outfitting colonies with turrets; at still others, you're negotiating trade routes with your allies. It's a pleasant and accessible mix.

Unsurprisingly, none of these elements is as deep as you would expect in a deep space strategy game, but the real joys come from swooping onto a planet and skimming its surface to see your own creations--and those of others--populating them, and in various stages of advancement.

The stylized, colorful visuals keep your eyes constantly engaged, from big, bulbous trees to herds of tentacled younglings frolicking about. The animations are top-notch, so while it's hard to imagine what a bowlegged, long-necked crane with four toes on each foot would actually look like as it ambled about, Spore makes such sights look goofily authentic.

It isn't a technical powerhouse; there is a good bit of geometry pop-in, and the game does not appear to support anti-aliasing. Its charming, exaggerated look more than makes up for it though, and on three separate machines of various specifications, Spore ran smoothly at the highest settings without a single crash.

Pirate ships will zoom off with stolen spices. Rival civilizations aren't so cowardly.

(Credit: Electronic Arts/Maxis)

Spore's sound design shines from beginning to end. The creatures themselves sound terrific, and are the source of much of the game's overflowing charm. The creature and tribal stages sound enchanting, from the thumping beat of the drums when you order tribal units to the squawks and squeaks of your creations. The subsequent stages are of similarly high quality. Of particular note is the customizable ambient music introduced in the civilization stage, and the hysterical incomprehensible Simlish spoken by the various galactic leaders.

Spore keeps a timeline of events, pinpointing every decision you've made and assigning you into broad categories based on your overall behavior (social, adaptable, and so on), so there are plenty of reasons to try a different approach.

Not that these varied approaches make for drastically different gameplay, but they do give you a reason to revisit the amusing moments that make Spore unique.

Taken on their own, its pieces are nothing special. As parts of a singular ambitious vision, they work far better. Throw in the best customization tools seen in years and an enthusiastic community brimming with creativity, and you have a legitimately great game that will deliver hours of quality entertainment.

This 'Spore' creature, created by comic book legend Stan Lee, is one of dozens made by 'creative celebrities,' in a promotion the video game publisher announced Tuesday.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

It seems everyone is getting in on the Spore fun these days.

In less than a week, Electronic Arts' hotly anticipated evolution game will launch, most likely to large initial sales and significant excitement.

But since June, fans of the game--which was first announced and has been the talk of the video games industry since 2005--have been able to play with the Spore Creature Creator, a free, downloadable editor, that allows anyone to craft their own creature and upload it to what is known as Sporepedia, a vast, sharable, database of millions of other people's creations.

And on Tuesday, EA said that it had lured dozens of "creative celebrities" into making creatures, each of which is now viewable online in a bit of a fan-voting popularity contest.

This creature--and a couple of little versions of itself--is the most viewed of the dozens created in the promotion. It was made by online TV show personality Philip DeFranco.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

Among the well-known and maybe not quite so well-known among the group recruited by EA are Spider Man and X-Men co-creator Stan Lee; "I Kissed a Girl" pop star Katy Perry; Carlos Santana; baseball pitcher Curt Schilling; actor Elijah Wood; Digg founder Kevin Rose; TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington; Spore creator Will Wright himself; video game blog Kotaku editor Brian Crecente; film director David Lynch; Virgin Group mogul Richard Branson; celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse; Laughing Squid photographer and blogger Scott Beale; Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, and many others.

In each case, fans can see the celebrity's creation, how many times others have looked at it (on YouTube, where they can rate it), and how many people have "liked" it.

It seems that the various celebrities and their Spore creatures are sorted by the number of times people have viewed them, and it's not clear whether they were presented in this order or whether they self-sort by the number of times they've been looked at.

Another popular creature is this one, by video game blog Kotaku editor Brian Crecente.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

Either way, the most "liked," and viewed, creature is known as DeFranco, by Philip DeFranco, the host of the online hit, the Philip DeFranco Show. As of when I looked at it, it had gotten 134,961 views and 112,922 "likes."

It's hard to tell why that would be the case. His creature is very well conceived, to be sure, a refined red beast with a large mouth and intimidating horns.

But others on the list made very nice creatures as well. And certainly, you would think that someone like Stan Lee would get a ton of views, just because of who he is. Yet, Lee's creature, a tall, upright, drink of water with four arms and four legs got about a 10th the number of views as DeFranco's.

Rock star Carlos Santana got in on the act, as well, with this creature, called Batuka.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

And those at the bottom of the list--whether because people just weren't interested in their creations or perhaps because the interface for this project is a little bit unwieldy--got just hundreds of views.

Regardless, it's nice to see the participation by some of these very well-known and respected people. Some of them clearly put thought into their creations, and the results are often rather impressive. In each case--except for a few who didn't manage to finish their creations--they've presented a YouTube video of their work so that you can see not only what it looks like but also how it moves, and in many cases, what smaller versions of it look like.

Within days, the full game will be out and millions of new people will be exposed to Spore. Already, the game's ad campaign has gotten under way, with billboards on buildings, signs in bus stops, and even a full takeover of a Boston subway station.

And once the game actually launches? Let's just say it's impossible to know how far Spore-mania will go. But I'm betting it will be extreme.