Evolving spikes

After watching this 35 minute presentation about Spore by none other than Will Wright, I have to say that I’m really excited about this game. It’s funny because this is the first time I’ve been honestly pumped about something game-related for about four years. That’s a long, long time in the industry. Seriously, it’s scary to think how long it’s been since I really got into a game. I think it was probably Tribes 2 and that was, what, 2001 or so?

I suppose having a shitty laptop as your sole PC gaming platform limits you to zero new-releases and that’s a big factor in my not having played anything new for ages. I will tentatively admit that I’m kind of looking forward to heading home in August and stealing a couple of hours here and there on my brother’s tiny god, catching up on all the great stuff I’ve missed out on.

But yeah, Spore, what’s interesting there is how open-ended it is. There’s very little of the traditional reward structure in the game, the further you progress the more open-ended it gets. It looks like it’s essentially a huge sandbox for you to evolve a species. From scratch. Black and White gone galactic if you will. If it was anyone but Wright talking up the game I think I’d be more sceptical than I am. He’s got the ideas though, and the passion, and the money to back them up. And this game looks fantastic.

Posted in 8-bit on Friday March 3, 2006.