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Spore Promo Video Leaked to YouTube

Posted by Zonk on Sat May 06, 2006 04:19 PM
from the so-shiny dept.
PC Games (Games)
Khamura writes "As E3 draws near, those of us who have been following Will Wright's newest brainchild, Spore, are abuzz with expectation. And lo! Someone posted to YouTube a video that shows 'unedited footage of Spore that will be going to TV networks covering E3 next week'. It includes a look at the overhauled creature editor, a first glimpse of the texturing tools, and various other exciting things that had not been shown this clearly in the early prototype seen at the 2005 GDC. One of them is the ambient music when the UFO visits different planets." It certainly looks like the game we saw last year, but take with a grain of salt just the same.
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[+] Spore Is EA's New Ace 406 comments
BusinessWeek reports on EA's Next Big Thing. From the article: "EA is stumbling, and a big part of its time-tested strategy is about to change. The company hopes that its next mega-franchise will revolve not around a football star, a boy wizard, or a dashing British spy, but...a microbe. The game is called Spore. Developed by Will Wright, the creator of SimCity and The Sims, it lets players design an invertebrate in its primordial stages and then guide its evolution until the creature's offspring develop into a thriving civilization with cities, religion, and spaceships. EA's ambitious goal is to create more such innovative, internally developed games while lessening the company's dependence on professional sports and Hollywood movie franchises."
[+] Will Wright's Next Game: Spore 41 comments
1up.com has a look at Will Wright's newest game, revealed today at the Game Developer's conference. Entitled Spore, the game promises to be (in a word) unique. From the article: "Wright's latest creation spans the rise of a space-faring civilization from its humble beginnings in the primordial soup. 'It's actually a lot like WarioWare...It features a wide variety of game types as a sort of homage to my favorite games.'" PC Magazine has details as well, as does Gamasutra.
[+] Spore Hands-On Impressions 57 comments
Spore is being kept locked down on the show floor, available for preview only to members of the "Best in Show" committee, but there is still some information available for the rest of us. The official Spore site is now available for your examination, including an option to sign up for a newsletter. For hands on impressions, we turn to Gamespot and Gamespy. From the Gamespy article: "The game opens within the primordial soup, which absolutely teemed with blobs and squiggles of prehistoric life. As your creature evolved into a 3D environment and swam around in the sea, the water swarmed with life: plants, bubbles, little microorganisms. That same detail carried out once your critter walked out onto the land, where tiny insects buzzed around. Outer space was cluttered with comets, meteorites, gas clouds, and all sorts of interstellar phenomenon. Visually the game is a treat, not from state-of-the-art graphics but simply from a standpoint of detail and variety." Update: 05/20 15:43 GMT by Z : Wired has an interview with Wright at the expo on the game and what it means for gaming in general.
[+] Will Wright's E3 Spore Presentation 77 comments
moto writes "ThinkGaming is reporting from E3, and had a chance to take a look at Will Wright's Spore during the early-hours press access. From the article: 'To start, Will showed an overview of the latest creature editing system. He mentioned that almost all parts of the editing system, from hands to the mouth, control the creature in its entirety - from its personality to the way it sounds, etc. In addition, the color system is a procedural texturing system that lays initially colors, then various textures (scales, etc.) and more all on top of your creature model. It looks like an incredibly intricate system, as has been seen quite a bit so far in previous videos. It looked like it was nearing completion and would allow for endless possibilities.'"
[+] Spore Coming to Consoles? 61 comments
Wowzer writes "EA was previously planning to bring Spore from PC to handhelds. In an interview this week Spore creator Will Wright was quoted as saying they are looking at bringing Spore to all platforms. From the article: 'You might be playing part of the game on a handheld platform, you might be playing the entire game but maybe more avatar-based on a console. The consoles are getting kind of different now, I think there's a really interesting distinction between the Wii and the Xbox 360 and PS3. Something like the Wii offers a lot of interesting creative opportunities for the editors, with the controller.'"
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Spore Promo Video Leaked to YouTube 50 Comments More /

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  • I still remember watching the 30 minute demo video that came out of GDC. I just can't wait for this game. The only thing that worries me is I don't think my computer (1.67 GHz PowerBook with 1 Gig of RAM) won't run it (very well). I think they said they would bring it to consoles so I guess I'll play it on the Wii/PS3/XBox360.
    • Over the last few months the Spore team has had a vareity of job openings for people who have experience in the handheld market. (Similar to this [ea.com])

      [speculation]
      While this is hardly conclusive, its quite possible they are trying to hit all the markets. PCs/Consoles/Handheld Game Devices/Smart Phones/etc. On the PC or console you would have a full toolset and on the smaller devices it would be a scaled down version. (Spore Tamagochi)
      [/speculation]

    • Re:I can't wait (Score:5, Insightful)

      by modecx (130548) on Saturday May 06 2006, @05:11PM (#15278612)
      Totally agree, but the only idea about it that I dislike at this moment is that EA is involved in any way with it. I can't help thinking that it'll be like Battlefield 2, in that it's a cool idea, and it's pretty fun even despite the frustrating bugs, crashes, and in game imperfections that make an otherwise excellent game merely mediocre...

      Frankly, when the game comes out and it feels like it's a whole and complete, finished game, with a suitable level of polish, I'll be suprised. Then again, such a game might not be as likely to sell expansion packs!

      And another thing that really irks me: Battlefield 2 copy protection. It makes you disable certian functions of CD drive emulators like Alcohol 120%, even if you're not using them to play the game! In the modern age of online multiplayer games, why the hell would a publishing company even care? The singleplayer mode isn't the draw of many gamers today. People want to go online and interact with other people. The key to going online is usually quite literally a unique key that is shipped with the game. If you haven't paid for the game, tough luck going online! A copy of the game is therefore useless for 99% of the people interested in playing it.

      I like to make a CD image for games that require the presence of a CD in the CD reader, so I don't have to deal with it when I want to burn a CD, so I don't have to listen to the drive ramp up and down, and so I don't risk damaging my precious disc. Is that so bad? I still have to use my unique key to play online, and so does everyone else. There's not a practical way to cheat that system, so what's the deal?! iD didn't require that I have a CD in the drive to play any of their games since Quake3, I think. My Diablo II account was tied to my CDkey, so it didn't matter if I ripped it to the hard drive, and singleplayer was a yawnfest. That's something I actually like about STEAM; there's no need to screw around with discs and crap.

      If someone wants to play the singleplayer aspect of a game there's usually a crack or two that will let one easily do this regardless of any protections the developers care to throw at us, so it's futile trying to protect a relatively miniscule part of a game that is clearly intended to be a multiplayer online game in that way. Make a compelling, fun, online game, and they will come--because they have no choice! Gaming is a unique industry because of this. If the music industry could make it so that you had to go online to get the full value of your music for whatever reason, they'd shit their pants with excitement.

      • Re:I can't wait (Score:5, Informative)

        by bedessen (411686) on Saturday May 06 2006, @08:03PM (#15279156) Journal
        People want to go online and interact with other people. The key to going online is usually quite literally a unique key that is shipped with the game. If you haven't paid for the game, tough luck going online! A copy of the game is therefore useless for 99% of the people interested in playing it.

        While this is generally true, I think you underestimate the number of cracked/private servers out there that don't check CD keys. Witness sites like epcgaming.com [epcgaming.com]. Now obviously with a legit CD key your choices are much larger, but if you limit yourself to cracked servers you can still play a lot of multiplayer games online to your heart's content.
        • This is true, and I probably underestimate the number of people that may participate on hacked servers, but at the same time, I think that it would be relatively easy on the part of the publishers and game associations to police these servers to the point that it would be effectively impossible to find one to play on; and that doing so would certainly be more friendly than to assume that all of your customers are criminals that would rob your bank accounts if given the chance. Of course, that kind of activ

        • While this is generally true, I think you underestimate the number of cracked/private servers out there that don't check CD keys. Witness sites like epcgaming.com [epcgaming.com]. Now obviously with a legit CD key your choices are much larger, but if you limit yourself to cracked servers you can still play a lot of multiplayer games online to your heart's content.

          Yes, and I'm sure CD protection schemes stop this. They'd break that very quickly, as evidenced by the ease in which I can get no-cd cracks these

      • who the hell modded this insightful? parent is completely off-topic!
      • Actually, it's very easy to defeat the CD checks for Battlefield 2 (and most other games - the only exception is StarForce protected games), assuming the disc image is made properly. Check out a program called 'CureRom'. First, use A-ray scanner to determine the copy protection that is on the disc. Then, use the appropriate copy protection profile in Alcohol 120 to make the image. Then, use the CureRom profile editor to create a game profile (which specifies the location of the CD image, the executable

      • The singleplayer mode isn't the draw of many gamers today. People want to go online and interact with other people.

        That's a nice theory but it seems that Spore is a single player game.

        I like to make a CD image for games ... is that so bad?

        No, it isn't bad. But you also aren't entitled to it.

        Let's put this another way. It is inconvenient for me that when I buy something in a busy store I must wait in a queue to pay at the counter. It would be much simpler if I could simply throw the right money in

        • Well, uhm, when put like this it becomes obvious - you aren't allowed to do that because so many people would abuse it.

          Here in Sweden, one of the large food store chains have been using what they call "Shop 'n Go" for a few years, without any obvious problems. This system gives every customer a hand scanner at the entrance, the customer scans the bar code of every item they put in their cart, and instead of a counter where you pay, they have a check-out point. At this place, the customer places the hand

        • No, it isn't bad. But you also aren't entitled to it.

          Who says? Some shrinkwrapped EULA that is displayed only after I've opened the package and inserted the CD into my computer, thereby automatically ruining any chance that I could return that product for anything but another copy? Did it say somewhere sufficiently visible on the front of the package, that I wouldn't be able to make a backup copy of my bought software? I don't know where you're from, but here in the US we've got this thing called fair u
  • So what's the big deal? On every metasite the same comments, "The 30 min GDC vid is so awesome. This is the best game there could ever possibly be. If you don't like this game you should become a suicide bomber." I'm not that impressed, really. Maybe it's shooting over my head. I am sure a dumb sonovabitch, I admit, but what's the big deal? It's like SimEarth only you drive the bugs now? I don't get it.
    • If it's any consolation, I felt like I'd wasted a few minutes of my life watching that video. I don't see what the big deal is.

      The fogging is also dire.

    • Re:Carlos Mencia is really funny and original (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MobileTatsu-NJG (946591) on Saturday May 06 2006, @05:29PM (#15278688)
      "I'm not that impressed, really. Maybe it's shooting over my head. I am sure a dumb sonovabitch, I admit, but what's the big deal? It's like SimEarth only you drive the bugs now? I don't get it."

      I'm really impressed with the game, but I wouldn't call you names for not liking it. Frankly, I'm sick of that attitude on the web.

      But, anyway, what I got out of it was that you could create a species pretty much from scratch. Then you could guide them through various phases of evolution until you get them to become super aliens that can buzz the galaxy and affect other species. Then, the planets you've touched get uploaded to a server somewhere. Eventually your game goes and downloads those planets so you can see what others have done. Essentially, it's a big open-ended game with a lot of variety. (And humor...)

      To me, the game does look slick, but I think it's one of those things that just manages to appeal to several things I like. (sci-fi, evolution, advancing through the ages, behaviour of society, mindless torture of small innocent creatures...) I wouldn't say it's for everybody. I also wouldn't say that those who criticize others for not liking this game have much ground to stand on.
      • I agree with your comments, and believe that quite a few people will be quite impressed by the game. It's hype, publicity, and innovative ideas will really push the sales of this game. (I use the term "innovative" loosely, though, as there are many other games built, or being developed, that are very similar.)

        This type of game has been a long time coming..

        The initial stages are going to be really fun to start out as a basic organism and working up the evolutionary ladder (like the classic E.V.O). It's al
        • I've seen a lot of hints that the final game will include quest/missions that you can choose to complete. Of course when your already a god what reward will you get? I have seen a buy mode where you can buy others creations so maybe virtual money (though being single player it will be worthless like sims 1 money) will be the reward. With the right quest/rewards model it can stay addictive like other online games.

        • You misunderstood how it'll work.

          Basically, every planet & specie created by players will pe uploaded on the intarwub, and every copy of Spore will be able to "get" them from the servers to include them into the single-player environments. You will see and interact with the creations of other players (or even your former creations), but they will be controlled by your computer, not by other player.

          It's a purely single player game upgradable via the web, kind-of like Total Annihilation was if you didn'

    • what's the big deal? It's like SimEarth only you drive the bugs now? I don't get it.

      The big deal is content-creation. In most multiplayer games that's the duty of the game provider, and at their expense. Here you do it, and they sell it! Everybody wins!
    • I admit, but what's the big deal? It's like SimEarth only you drive the bugs now? I don't get it.

      DT, why do you hate America?

  • Populous (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BrookHarty (9119) on Saturday May 06 2006, @04:41PM (#15278519) Homepage Journal
    Kinda reminded me of a old game, Populous.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populous [wikipedia.org]

  • Awesome! (Score:3, Funny)

    by ZephyrXero (750822) <zephyrxeroNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Saturday May 06 2006, @04:47PM (#15278539) Homepage Journal
    I'm gonna lose about 3 years of my life when this comes out...

    I just hope that it works well with WINE ;)
  • This week's 1up show [1up.com] also has a new Spore clip with some Will Wright commentary.

  • Publicity hurting Spore (Score:5, Interesting)

    by reldruH (956292) on Saturday May 06 2006, @04:56PM (#15278563) Journal
    I think Spore looks like an absolutely amazing game, but the worst thing that could happen to it is all this publicity. Even I realize my expectations are so high right now that Will Wright needs to go to the future and get a microchip to plant inside my brain (for total immersion) for this game to meet my expectations. As much as I love seeing it covered on Slashdot, I think all this publicity will lead to massive disapointment when a million people all fire up their computers, realize it's a great game, but it's not the end all be all of gaming.

    On the other hand, part of me really believes Will Wright has a time machine in his backyard.
    • EA is riding on this game as it's next major cash cow. Following grand-stupid-publisher tradition, they for some reason still believe it's a good thing to destroy hopes and dreams with all the hype before release.
    • but the worst thing that could happen to it is all this publicity.

      To me publicity will never destroy the game. What could destroy the game is the publicity causing EA to dictate changes in design. Scary Scary thought.
      • The publicity (hopefully) won't change the game at all, but it'll have a huge effect on your perceptions when you play it. If you're expecting total nirvana, and only get greatness, you're going to be dissapointed, and people don't enjoy/play/spread the word about games that they were dissapointed in. On the flip side, if you're expecting next to nothing and you get greatness out of a game, you're going to go rave about it. Same game, two totally different reactions.
  • All the youtube video downloading sites are down. I think that this article has produced an Indirect Slashdot Effect!
  • Did anyone else read that as Space Porno Video leaked?

    The text is so small on the front page... yeah.

  • "unedited" video (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The video looked pretty edited to me. When I think of "unedited," I imagine seeing things like loading screens, and generally seeing things in chronological order; the youtube video seems to be a random collection of highlights, which have been edited together. Maybe it's an ad minus the voiceover? Standard promotional leak, really.
  • YouTube is blocked at work here. Is there any other source for this video yet?
    • You need to watch the GDC video to get a good idea of the gameplay. To put it briefly, it's a universe simulator. You start off controlling a single microbial organism, and evolve it up to a cognitive level as a human brain, then you control a community of the creatures and it's sort of like sim city for a while, then you can battle other civilizations, and eventually travel to other planets...
    • "Spore is a computer game designed by Will Wright that simulates the complete history and future of life. (...) Spore is, at first glance, a 'teleological evolution' game: the player molds and guides a species across many generations, growing it from a single-celled organism into a more complex animal, until the species becomes intelligent. At this point the player begins molding and guiding this species' society, progressing towards a spacefaring civilization."

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(game) [wikipedia.org]
    • If you liked any of Civ/Sim City/The Sims, or even GTA for its openness, do yourself a favour and watch the GDC demo. [google.com]

      The video in this article looks more graphicly polished, the editor has more tools and now shows textures, and I belive some of the control mechanisims might have changed (UFO flight looks different).

    • Reportedly, this isn't an official trailer, but rather a set of clips released to the press. The evening news will go through it and pick the bits they like, and add a voiceover based on the information in the press kit. The official trailer will almost certainly be saved for a big unveiling at E3.

      In terms of titilation, it would be better to watch the gameplay preview [youtube.com] (including Will Wright's voiceover, explaining what the heck is going on), or just wait for the E3 clips which will invariably hit the net

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