Spore

[JohnC]

FFS, I go to register and it says "The registration key used to install this game cannot be verified." Is that a problem with me typing it in wrong (should it have stopped installation if that was the case?) or something else?

[spork]

Well my copy eventually came about an hour after the rest of the post today.

First stage I thought was okay. I started with a carnivore but after a while started again with a herbivore which was much easier as I could just run away from the bigger beasties.

Creature stage was far too long for what it was. Maybe thats because I was playing a herbivore and basically just went around dancing/posing/singing/whatever to all of the other creatures I came across which soon became a bit boring and repetitive. Hopefully playing through as a omnivore or carnivore will make it a little more interesting.

Tribal stage brought a few more things into the mix although was fairly similar as the creature stage with the fact that all I had to do was take over other tribes by playing instruments to them. Otherwise it's like everyone else has already said with it being a RTS (very) lite.

Half way through the civ stage which started off easily enough but soon swamped me with the amount of other cities which were attacking me and once I had my whole continent under my control it just seems like a case of building enough units and sending them all over to my neighbours and converting them. They didn't really put up much of a fight

I must however say that all of the editors I've used so far have been pretty awesome and I've probably already spent half of my play time just messing about with them, apart from the pointless clothes/armor which has pretty much seen my just put a top hat onto my creatures.

Hopefully a second play through as a carnivore will make it a bit more interesting!

[spaceyjase]

Woo, mine came today too I liked the first stage which made my little 'un a bit upset as the bigger fish start to pick on your little creature. Being a carnivorous type I had to retaliate and before you know it it's progress time I guess you don't have to progress straight away as I was enjoying the fishy bit. Graphics are nice and the interface is brilliant. I'm enjoying the creature stage at the mo although finding it difficult to feed without beating weedy creatures; there's always something bigger that comes along and has a go but luckily I can run quite fast

Love the weird AI too. I was making a group of creatures extinct and another curious lot come over and just watched me mince the hell out of the pacifist group, which felt really odd as I didn't know if they were going to fight me once I'd finished the current lot, heh. They did run away once I got closer. Combat is kind of similar to any MMORPG you can think of at present, point and clicky stuff which is non-taxing and works well in a fight.

Also, the music is brilliant and the little loves it too as there's nothing really difficult about it and she understands the silly little things like heart symbols mean love, so she runs off back to home and makes a new creature, etc... very intuitive and easy to understand. It's pretty good!

[Capwn]

I'm really trying to like this game but it just doesn't click. It's like 'do this and this and this..." and when your rewarded it never seems that interesting to me. I think it could just be a case of too much to take in.

[Campfire_Burning]

In the Creature stage I found a nest of cocoons. It was weird. There was one creature sat in the nest, and all around were wobbling, suppurating cocoons I couldn't attack. No idea what that was about.

Similarly, in the Space stage I traded with another race's ship that seemed stuck in a dust storm. There was a massive tornado with the ship stationary at the middle. They didn't seem too fussed about it, so I let them be.

[T Pot]

I found those cocoons too. Also in the creature stage, i had a UFO flying around over the top of my nest. Had all my baby "Wild Pogs" running around terrified. It ended up flying away after i got them to roar at it.

Im enjoying it at the moment, just got my ass kicked by a giant T-Rex thing in the Tribal stage. It was just stepping on and squishing my tribe members.

[layten]

The Mac version of this runs surprisingly well, although it does have some weird gfx glitches going on here and there. Now I just need to sort out an easy way to share my data between the PC and Mac installs I have.

[spaceyjase]

Anyone killed an Epic yet early on in the game? I image they're 'easy' later on perhaps but I just wondered if it were possible perhaps.

Just got into Civ mode. The tribal mode had me in stitches with their idiotic chants and banter, running into each other, etc... I killed all the other tribes

Seen the achievements? I wondered if

Earth

was in there and it is

[Captain Toss]

My favourite bit on Spore so far is when you're killed completely unfairly in the third stage, and then it turns out you have to start the entire stage again, even though in the two previous stages dying really wasn't a big deal, and the game made no indication of the change in stage three, nor was there any suggestion that saving regularly might be a good idea.

Fuck off, Spore.

[spaceyjase]

You're only angry 'cos it was on easy too

[T Pot]

holy Shit. I've been playing for 8 hours Solid...

[The-G]

My favourite bit on Spore so far is when you're killed completely unfairly in the third stage, and then it turns out you have to start the entire stage again, even though in the two previous stages dying really wasn't a big deal, and the game made no indication of the change in stage three, nor was there any suggestion that saving regularly might be a good idea.

Fuck off, Spore.

PROTIP : Don't die, like any other game.

[Captain Toss]

PROTIP : Don't die, like any other game.

Oh, yeah. Good point.

Only, when a game has established that the punishment for death is practically non-existent, it's generally not a great idea to go and change that rule without telling the player, especially when that rule-change can result in the player losing over an hour of progress. And what would be even better, would be if the game didn't tell me to attack an enemy tribe, then send another tribe to attack my base, then send an epic creature to attack my villagers at the same time, when I'm still trying to figure out the clunky interface.

But you say I just have to avoid dying? Thanks.

No, really. Thanks.

[therev]

Creature mode. How do you invert the y-axis? I can't think of anywhere else to look and it's driving me crazy.

[Campfire_Burning]

Jesus, that game swallows time.

I've found a really annoying thing in the Space stage. Every few minutes a nation I'm at war with attacks my home planet, and at the very same time, without fail, two of the nearest planets declare war on each other and both ask me for help. Also, so long as I turn up to help my guys out in the battle, they thank me. It doesn't matter if my last remaining city gets blown up or not, they sincerely thank me. I've taken it to mean my race is the most sarcastic species in the galaxy.

I've been concentrating on exploration and finding rares. It seems like every time I find a new one a new set opens up - God knows how many sets there are. I've only just started buying the terrain-changing tools. For anyone who spent ages leveling the playing field in Populous, you'll love this. I even found a tool that turns the surface of planets into giant squares of chocolate.

[spaceyjase]

Oh, yeah. Good point.

Only, when a game has established that the punishment for death is practically non-existent, it's generally not a great idea to go and change that rule without telling the player, especially when that rule-change can result in the player losing over an hour of progress. And what would be even better, would be if the game didn't tell me to attack an enemy tribe, then send another tribe to attack my base, then send an epic creature to attack my villagers at the same time, when I'm still trying to figure out the clunky interface.

But you say I just have to avoid dying? Thanks.

No, really. Thanks.

Ah yeah but this is all part of the God-game lite you get in the Tribes game. I'm sure it says that if you lose the Tribal leader than it's game over but I guess you've found that out The way I played it was to just max out my resources and just watch where the other tribes are on the map. Wait for them to attack you, kill off the raiding party them immediately go and attack their base thus wiping them out I found the tribe leader was excellent for defending your area as he has special abilities like trap and fire bomb (well, mine did). My creature had a combat rating of five too, so I guess that helped

I suppose it depends on how you're playing really though!

Anybody know if it is possible to defeat epic creature early on in the game (assuming you can defeat them later)?

[JPickford]

Creature mode. How do you invert the y-axis? I can't think of anywhere else to look and it's driving me crazy.

It's pointer controlled.

[Marzipan Travolta]

Just picked this up from PC world by getting them to price match Play.com for £26.19. Bargainous. It best be good, I've been waiting years

[IronChicken]

Got this yesterday and the install has wiped all my creatures from errr... My Creatures bit of the Sporepedia.

A bit annoyed I thought I would have a quick go and discovered my creatures do appear in the game (no idea if anyone else gets them though) and ended up playing about 7 hours till 3.30AM (I don't think I've done that since The Settlers), the epic Mr. Tickle was rather disturbing though, luckily you can see his arms waving about over the trees so is easily avoided.

ID - FerrousFowl

[Geo]

the epic Mr. Tickle was rather disturbing though, luckily you can see his arms waving about over the trees so is easily avoided.

I love this game!

Am I right in thinking that past the Civilisation stage you can't go back into that kind of strategy mode? Like to try and take over a planet from another guy plomp down a city and have at it old school style?

[marillion Col]

Just made a spur of the moment purchase today - got the Galactic Edition as I thought it'd be nice to keep.

As I've said a few pages back, this won't work on my MacBook, but it does (just about) work on my PC. It's crashed on me a couple of times and the sound sometime goes off and I can't set the graphical detail very high, but it works.

Think I'll have to update my drivers - I've not bought a PC game for at least a couple of years so I suppose it could do with a bit of an update.

[Sng]

I quit out during the tutorial of the Tribes section and now I've gone back in I dunno what I'm meant to be doing! I can't move any of my guys? If I click somewhere for them to walk or attack they do nothing. I assume I gotta do stuff that the tutorial said first but I dunno what. Any ideas?

The last thing I did was the tribal outfit bit.

[therev]

It's pointer controlled.

Sorry, I don't understand. I just want to pull back on the mouse to look up, like every game ever.

[Marzipan Travolta]

I quit out during the tutorial of the Tribes section and now I've gone back in I dunno what I'm meant to be doing! I can't move any of my guys? If I click somewhere for them to walk or attack they do nothing. I assume I gotta do stuff that the tutorial said first but I dunno what. Any ideas?

The last thing I did was the tribal outfit bit.

After you've done that it sends you to gather food. Try right-clicking on some fruit trees.

It's a wonderful game so far, utterly charming.

I made a pink fluffy elephant covered in windmills and called it the Hellbeast of Doom. I'm worried that my complete lack of any combat skills may come to hurt me though. I'm all about the love guys.

[JPickford]

Sorry, I don't understand. I just want to pull back on the mouse to look up, like every game ever.

I don't get you. It's not a first person game it's a pointer game.

[therev]

I don't get you. It's not a first person game it's a pointer game.

Okay, so I did the first stage. That was top down. Fine.

Then I came out on to land and started walking around in classic 3rd-person view. You hold down the right mouse button and move the mouse to look around. It's classic mouse look. However, I can't find a way to invert the y-axis for the look controls, so I keep looking up instead of down and vice versa. I'm having a hell of a time trying to play the bloody game because I can't see what I'm doing.

I just want to know where the option to invert the mouse look is, that's all. Every game since 1996 has had the option, so it must be somewhere.

[sid]

first crash after 1 hr, not happy enjoying it up to that point as well grrrr

[Flub]

I'm annoyed. I like the game but it still won't let me go online. Just says my license code is invalid or I don't have the privileges needed to go online.

[marillion Col]

As I've said a few pages back, this won't work on my MacBook, but it does (just about) work on my PC. It's crashed on me a couple of times and the sound sometime goes off and I can't set the graphical detail very high, but it works.

Think I'll have to update my drivers - I've not bought a PC game for at least a couple of years so I suppose it could do with a bit of an update.

I've updated my Radeon 9600 driver and (touch wood) it's been ok for the last hour or so. Managed to get through the Cell stage without it crashing - I just had one moment of severe slowdown - and I'm working my way through the Creature stage, so far without any issues. Obviously, I'm not playing on very high settings, in fact they're probably quite low settings by todays standards (I'm a bit out of touch with PC gaming) but they're ok for me. Whether my system will start to encounter problems when I get to the more intense stages, I don't yet know.

Not quite sure what I'm doing in the Creature stage. I'm playing as a Herbivore so just trying to make friends with everyone, although I don't really know how I'm doing it - just randomly clicking on Sing, Dance etc. Will have to find some time to read through the manual.

[Sng]

It's annoying how each section seems to have a different control scheme that needs relearning. I'm on the space section and am pretty bored to be honest