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'Spore (Mac/PC DVD)'. (EAN 5030930057060)

From the creator of The Sims comes the most ambitious video game ever made: here you don't just control a single family or city but control an entire species from a single cell organism to a galactic conqueror. As impossibly complex as that might sound, the most impressive thing about Spore is just how accessible and fun it all is. The game is split into six evolutionary phases, starting with almost action-style gameplay at the microscopic level. From there you move to the creature phase on dry land, before going on to the tribal phase and the beginnings of society and technology. From there it's onto the city phase, which plays a bit like SimCity, and from there to the Civilisation phase which plays something like, you guessed it, Civilization. The final phase takes part in outer space where by hook or by crock your species must reign triumphant.

Each phase has its own editing tools associated with it for things like vehicles and buildings. By far the most fun though is the creature tool, which allows you to create your own fully animated lifeform from scratch using a huge range of limbs, facial features and colourings. What's also interesting is that the other planets in the galaxy aren't all pre-populated by the game. Instead, by connecting online you can upload your races, and download those from other people, to fill the galaxy with civilizations from other players around the world. Any one of the six phases would normally be enough for any one game on its own, but this looks like it's going to turn out to be the world's first everything simulator.
HARRISON DENT

The game is due to be released in September. I never post reviews before actually using a product first-hand. What urged me to post this warning was the unbelievable information OFFICIALLY announced last week about the game. And it was what made me cancel my PreOrder of the game.
So, this is a PREVIEW posted only to warn about the dangers this release harbors. After all, who would not want his customers well informed? (And had this Review removed - TWICE?)

At first there was the smoke screen issue of WEEKLY ONLINE AUTHENTICATIONS - FOREVER. Was EA kidding? Apparently they were! The perpetual activation security scheme turned out to be nothing more than vapporware and a PR shenanigan to make the real issues (Limited Installations and SecuROM) more palatable (by generating artificial customer relief and all).
The irony, nevertheless, is that re-authentications will...still be required after every patch or update - including the automatic ones.

LIMITED INSTALLS? Yes, LIMITED INSTALLS!!! We only get to ride this shiny pony for...3 laps!
Well, we can all thank BIOSHOCK for introducing and opening THAT can of worms - but hasn't anyone at EA heard how hard BIOSHOCK's PC sales were hit by that disastrous decision? How ridiculous their customer community office had to become to explain such hostile measures to their own customers? Not to mention their relentless attempts to squash informative reviews such as this on). History does indeed repeat itself as a farce...
And, let me guess: in order to enforce the limited installations, exactly like BIOSHOCK, there will be IRREMOVABLE FOLDERS placed in our systems' Root that will effectively revoke our Administrator rights to our own PCs!

In the end it boils down to this: who actually will be owning my copy? Are we to pay £35 only to...RENT this from its publisher - and be potentially pestered with the weekly need to prove our purchase FOREVER? And what makes this even harder to understand: will such extreme measures actually prevent piracy? Of course not! They did not work for similarly DRM-plagued BIOSHOCK or MASS EFFECT, why should they start working now?

So, one has to ask: what is next in store for customers that make the mistake of buying such a product? Chinese water torture? The Iron Maiden? Orwellian rat-masks? Guantanamo?

NO THANKS! No game is worthy of such harassment!
I canceled my PreOrder today. I will give EA the chance to do the right thing by September, when the game will be released. If this idiocy persists however, well, there are a lot of other games in the sea...