Spore Galactic Edition
by Electronic Arts
Our Price: $49.95
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $1.27 (click here)
Category: Video Games
See more product details and other editions
Product Summary
Brand: Electronic ArtsFormat: DVD-ROM
Release Date: 2008-09-07
Platform: Mac OS X, Mac OS X Intel, Windows Vista, Windows XP
Model: 19080
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Product features:
- Create Your Universe from Microscopic to Macrocosmic - From tide pool amoebas to thriving civilizations to intergalactic starships, everything is in your hands.
- Evolve Your Creature through Five Phases - It's survival of the funnest as your choices reverberate through generations and ultimately decide the fate of your civilization.
- Explore Other Players' Galaxies - Will your creature rule the universe, or will your beloved planet be blasted to smithereens by a superior alien race?
- Share with the World - Everything you make is shared with other players and vice versa, providing tons of cool creatures to meet and new places to visit.
Video Game Reviews of Spore Galactic Edition
Customer Review: Over-simplified, shallow play, poor value rentware
Summary: 1 Stars
I really wanted to like this game, after the years of buildup, Will Wright's history of innovative design, and the (in)famous GDC demo of Spore (look it up on YouTube if you want to see what I thought they were going to publish, from a tech demo years ago). What got delivered was a severely simplified collection of minigames slapped together with some overly cute animations, shallow play, badly thought-out and misbalanced endgame (space phase), with one of the worst and most personally offensive copy protection schemes wrapped around it. In interviews post-release, Wright has basically confirmed that what was wanted by the publisher (note: not by the customer) was a simple game for casul gamers that would have superior sales, e.g. Sims 2. Unfortunately what they wound up with was a game that's too simple even for hardcore Sims fans in the early phases and perplexingly difficult in the last phase even for hardcore players, not because the game is actually more difficult, but because it's very poorly thought out.
OK, DRM scheme first, since that's what people are up in arms about and what some 5-star reviewers are apparently confused by. This version of SecuROM limits you to 3 activations, after which you can maybe possibly get more if you call EA support (toll call with long wait times and poor response) with a convincing explanation, after which they may or may not honor your purchase. In many cases, the answer is not judging by previous titles that use this limited activations scheme (Bioshock, Mass Effect) and the customer nightmares that ensured. An activation by the way is not the same as an installation; installations are a subset. An activation includes a fresh OS install, major hardware change, MINOR hardware change such as plugging in a USB device... nobody can actually tell you what constitutes an activation.
Furthermore, SecuROM, while not as overtly offensive as Starforce, does in fact install registry entries and administrator-level monitoring software in your system without your knowledge, and it cannot be removed without either a drive wipe or a multistep command line process that I would not recommend to a casual user. It gets installed as soon as you start up Spore for the first time, and you don't get told this. It is therefore part of the product and is a legitimate topic to discuss in a review (for everyone who thinks you shouldn't rate the game low because of the DRM).
The gameplay itself is charming and amusing... the first time you play it, I suppose. The first time I played it, not trying to powergame through, I made it to the space stage within a few hours, without even trying to. This was the point that I looked back at the gameplay and wanted to know, "Is that it?" And it pretty much was.
For those people who are offended by the idea that the game espouses evolution, don't bother. There is no actual evolution in this game. There is absolutely no natural progression from one form to the next. As long as you have the parts available, you can change from a six-winged butterfly thingy to a gazelle with nine eyes to a landgoing slug that spits poison. Your environment doesn't force any changes on you whatsoever.
The first four phases of the game (cell, animal, tribe, civilization) are incredibly simplistic versions of other genre games, and are over before you know it. At the end of each one, when I was suddenly winning without knowing how, it actually felt more like I had finished one phase of a tutorial for a bigger, more interesting game that I never got. In the cell game, it's move, eat, avoid, win. In the animal game, it's eat, attack (using the 1-4 keys), impress (also using the 1-4 keys), win. In tribal, well things get slightly more complex as you have to pick out clothing and huts, but it's still get food, impress or kill, win. In civilization, you think FINALLY here's where thingsget interesting, but only in that instead of fighting/impressing, you now have the choice of buying (with trade), killing (with military) or converting (with religious), combined with a mini-city builder game that plays more like Connect Four than Sim City.
The space phase is fairly difficult, but this is only because of logical inconsistencies and missing systems in the game. Without going too in-depth, here are some of the highlights: your empire can afford to terraform planets, bribe empires, and the like but can't build a second ship to help you out. Your empire also cannot send out a few guys with guns to hunt down diseased animals, and have to commandeer your ship (its ONLY ship) to fly around the planet, zapping sick deer with a laser. Your cities have auto-defense turrets that don't fire on the enemy. Your empire is incapable of setting up regular shipments of spice (apparently the only commodity anyone wants), and require you to move it around yourself, in between shooting sick deer, pirates unmolested by planetary defense turrets, and paying for city upgrades. What, don't planets have tax bases to put up their own houses? No, apparently it's up to you, the commander of the only ship in the empire, to put up condos for your hapless people.
I won't even go into the bugs involved in basic installation of the game, authentication errors, buggy Sporepedia, C: drive overflow (even if you install in a different drive/partition, everything goes into the My Documents folder which is in C: by default), ONE ACCOUNT PER INSTALLATION (this was supposed to be allowed and even says so in the basic edition's manual, but apparently they considered this to be a typo... even with the change account buttons present in the UI), and other numerous technical problems. You can go check the EA forums for some of those before they get deleted or locked down.
In conclusion, I have to say that you should not buy this product due to its poor shallow gameplay, insidious and anti-consumer DRM, and most of all 3-install limit. But the real question is not why would you NEED to install more than 3 times; we know the answers to that, and they are totally legitimate. The question is why you would WANT to install it even once.
Description of Spore Galactic Edition
Maxis, makers of The Sims, present the next big bang - SPORE. Create your unique creature and guide it on an epic journey through a universe of your own creations. Play any way you choose in the five evolutionary phases of Spore: Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, and Space. How you play and what you do with your universe is entirely up to you. Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships.Create universal wonder in Spore, an exciting new simulation game that lets you develop your own personal universe. Work your way through five evolutionary phases, including Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization and Space, that offer unique challenges, thrills and goals. For example, you can start in Cell and nurture one species from a simple aquatic organism all the way until it becomes a sentient life form. Or you can jump right in and begin building tribes and civilizations on multiple planets. What you do with your universe is totally up to you.The powerful creation tools of Spore are easy to use, allowing you to effortlessly design every aspect of your universe. Creatures, vehicles, building and even starships are all within your grasp. While Spore is a single-player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, offering a nearly limitless number of worlds to visit and enjoy. You can also go online to view the incredible things other players have made and can even pull those items into your universe. Spore gives you the chance to make worlds and beings that evolve, grow and delight you every step of the way.
SPORE GALACTIC EDITION
- 'Making of Spore' DVD video
- 'How to Build a Better Being' DVD video by National Geographic Channel
- 'The Art of Spore' hardback mini-book
- Fold-out Spore poster
- Premium 100-page Galactic Handbook
SPORE CREATURE CREATOR
Finally all that hard work creating the perfect being can be put to good use. Import creatures that you created with the Spore Creature Creator and watch them live, breath and thrive in the full version of Spore.TAKE YOUR SPORE ONLINE
While Spore is a single player game, your creations and other players? creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play within. Internet Connection Required.Minimum System Requirements
This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac)- PC Minimum - Windows XP/Vista
- 6 GB Hard Drive Space
- 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
- 768 MB RAM
- 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
- Mac Minimum - Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher
- 4.7GB Hard Drive Space
- Intel Core Duo Processor
- 1024 MB RAM
- ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
Simulation Games
- Video Games > Categories > PC > Simulation
- Mac
Computer and Video Games
Bestsellers in Simulation Games
Star Wars: Episode I Racer (Jewel Case)by Unknown
LucasArts; LucasArts Entertainment; Release date: 2002-04-15; Published: 2002; Windows 98; Video Games
Best price: $23.99
Fly2k Special EditionGlobal Star Software; Global Star Software; Windows NT; Video Games
Best price: $1.50
Price in other shops:
Railroad Tycoon 2 Platinum EditionGathering of Developers; Gathering of Developers; Release date: 2001-09-25; Windows 98; Video Games
Best price: $55.99
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 ProfessionalMicrosoft; Microsoft; Release date: 2001-10-23; Windows 98; Video Games
Best price: $49.99
Season Ticket BaseballWizard Works; Wizard Works; Release date: 2001-07-03; Windows 98; Video Games
Best price: $19.95
Sim Farm (Jewel Case)Electronic Arts; Electronic Arts; Mac; Video Games
Best price: $74.95
F-15 (Jewel Case)Electronic Arts; Electronic Arts; Windows 98; Video Games
Best price: $79.95
Sim CoasterElectronic Arts; Electronic Arts; Release date: 2001-01-31; Windows 98; Video Games
Best price: $4.94
Battle for MidwayAbacus; Abacus; Release date: 1999-07-26; Windows 98; Video Games
Best price: $53.89
Fly!Gathering of Developers; Gathering of Developers; Release date: 1999-08-27; Windows NT; Video Games
Best price: $24.45
Price in other shops:
Similar Video and PC Games
Spore Galactic Adventures: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides)by David Knight
Prima Games; Published: 2009-06-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.69
Price in other shops:
Spore HeroElectronic Arts; Electronic Arts; Release date: 2009-10-06; Published: 2009-09-30; Nintendo Wii; Video Games
Best price: $5.79
Price in other shops:
Spore: The Evolution (Prima Official Game Guides)by Rusel Demaria
Prima Games; Published: 2008-09-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.68
Price in other shops:
DarksporeElectronic Arts; Electronic Arts; Release date: 2011-04-26; Windows Vista; Video Games
Best price: $1.48
Price in other shops:
Spore: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides)by David Hodgson
Prima Games; Published: 2008-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.11
Price in other shops:
Spore Creature CreatorElectronic Arts; Electronic Arts; Release date: 2008-06-17; Mac; Video Games
Best price: $10.54
Spore Creepy and Cute Parts PackElectronic Arts; Electronic Arts; Release date: 2008-11-17; Windows Vista; Video Games
Best price: $74.94
Spore Galactic AdventuresElectronic Arts; Electronic Arts; Release date: 2009-06-23; Windows Vista; Video Games
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
![Spore [Mac Download] Image](/images/Spore-Mac-Download-B0052GJMJ2-X.jpg)
Spore [Mac Download]Electronic Arts; Electronic Arts; Electronic Arts; Release date: 2008-09-07; Software Download; Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard; Digital Video Games
Best price: $14.77
Price in other shops:
SporeElectronic Arts; Electronic Arts; Release date: 2008-09-07; Windows Vista; Video Games
Best price: $11.99
Price in other shops: