Review: Spore 605
- Title: Spore
- Developer: Maxis
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- System: Windows / OS X
- Reviewer: Soulskill
- Score: 4/5
The game has five stages: Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization, and Space. It's best to think of the first four as mini-games, or as a four-part prologue. Each has its interesting and fun parts, as well as varying degrees of replayability, but the time each of them occupies (from a gameplay perspective) is dwarfed by the amount of time you can spend in the Space age. You can also spend a great deal more time playing around with the content creation system (and you will), but the main plot itself is fairly short in those stages. If you're going in with the expectation of playing around in the Cell stage for hours and hours, you're probably going to be disappointed — but that's not to say it isn't fun. I think each of the stages are appropriately paced for what they involve.
You start out as a cell, hitching a ride on a meteorite that delivers you into a planet's primordial soup. From there you wander around finding morsels of food and other critters who will compete with you for it. The way in which you go about that is up to you. You'll gain access to attributes you can use to customize your microbe, all of which have a "DNA budget." You can make a very efficient killing machine to keep your competitors away from your food, or you can simply make a very efficient eating machine. The editor that allows you to add and remove these attributes also lets you change the size, shape, and coloring of your microbe. It's a combination of very simple components, but the interactions between microbes allow for some cute moments. You'll occasionally run into a big piece of plant life that's swarming with herbivores, and the herbivores will attract a ton of carnivores, making for a frenetic scene of feeding and fighting. You can make your species into what is essentially a tail and a mouth, and have fun zipping around and stealing food out from under fat, slow enemies. You might even see a copy of yourself beating up some bug with way too many mouths. One of the coolest parts about this stage is the background visuals. The focus is on your microbe swimming through the water, but underneath you can see that you're swimming by larger pieces of debris and more advanced life-forms. As you feed, you'll grow into these background layers, so the huge, blurry, tentacled abomination you swam by a minute ago might now be trying to kill you.
Another thing you'll notice is that referring to your species' growth as evolution isn't really accurate. "Stylized evolution" or "not evolution" would have been more precise, so don't go in expecting it to hold up to scrutiny from PZ Myers. It's a decent metaphor for modifying your species, however. The editor is versatile and completely forgiving. Did you put that spike in a useless place for stabbing rival microbes? No worries, you can move it anywhere. Or remove it for a full DNA refund. This may bug you if you want every decision to matter, but as I said earlier, the first four stages are more about setting the table for Space colonization. Also, some decisions do matter. The way in which you interact with the environment determines your initial disposition in the Creature stage. Between stages, you're given a detailed history of your character, including physical revisions and eating habits. Carnivores start the Creature stage with an intimidating roar, while herbivores get a soothing song. Between stages you'll get to see cut scenes; they're short, but they all managed to make me smile. On a related note, I've got to give credit to Maxis for making the most interesting loading screens I've ever waited through. Instead of a progress bar, a series of cards gradually appears at the bottom of the screen. On each card is a different species (or other creation), some of which were made by other players. It's fun to see what they've come up with.
Going into the Creature phase, your microbe is given a set of legs. Your attributes from the Cell stage are mostly useless, and you'll have a chance to completely change how your species looks. You get a nest and a group of compatriots, and you're soon off to seek out new life and new civilizations (and food.) Other species are nearby and easy to find. There are two stances in which you can approach them; social or combat. If you started out as a herbivore, it'll be a bit easier to remain so, but it's not too difficult to change your mind. As you find other species, you're given quests based on the stance you choose. Kill them or impress them. Should you choose to kill them, you mash the attacks available to you until one they die or you do. To impress them, you get their attention and then mimic whatever they do. You'll get some friendly abilities — dance, pose, charm, and sing, each of which has its own animation — and you simply repeat the other species' actions. If they like you enough, they'll ally with you, which progresses you through the stage and allows you to venture out with a group rather than an individual. As you ally with or destroy other species, you gain access to new and more powerful bits of biology — a bigger claw, quicker feet, wings, etc. There's a much greater selection in this phase than in Cell, and it's worth collecting as many as you can. You also get a few cosmetic options. When you exit this stage, your species' physical form does not change for the rest of the game, so make sure you've got what you want. If you go the combat route, you may be annoyed trying to hunt down species that are faster, flightier, or more nervous than you. There were times that I ran so far away to catch Lobstermonkey #4 that I got lost and couldn't find my way back to the nest to kill Lobstermonkey #5 and complete the quest. And this brings me to a gripe...
...The controls. The key-bindings for Spore are fairly simple. They increase a little bit in complexity with each stage, but even the Space controls are straightforward. The trouble is that they aren't alterable, and they aren't what I would pick. They aren't bad choices, and you can do just about everything with the mouse, but if you're the type of player who rebinds WADS to ESDF in every game, or if you like an inverted mouse, or the ability to strafe, it will bother you.
The Tribal stage turns Spore into a miniature RTS game. You won't find Starcraft-level depth or gameplay, but if you've ever played another RTS game, your goals will be intuitively obvious. Your abilities from the Creature stage don't matter anymore, so you're free to design for looks alone. Wandering bands of non-sentient creatures still exist, but they're mainly just food (or pets if you're a herbivore). In addition, though, there are other tribes that you must conquer. You gather resources, pump out peasants, and put up buildings. Rather than creating tribe members for a specific job, you use the buildings to give them a particular task, and you can switch their task at any time. Want this guy to fight? Send him to the axe shop. Need him to impress another tribe instead? Trade in that axe for a horn. Or a Shaman rod to heal others. The focus in this stage is mostly on resource gathering; unfortunately, you have to send tribesmen out each time you want them to kill something, rather than setting them to harvest and forgetting about them. The gathering gets somewhat tedious, but the Tribal stage, like the ones before it, isn't too long. It's fairly easy to win over or beat down your enemies, just keep an eye on your raiding parties around hills. They sometimes get stuck. The AI isn't too hot, but enemies will try to take out your chieftain if they can. The editor in this stage is also less complex. Your species form is set, but you get a variety of hats, clothes, and accessories to outfit your tribe. Not as much room for creativity as in the Creature editor, but there are still myriad ways to customize.
When you reach the Civilization stage, you'll encounter a host of new creation and design tools. You'll be asked to design a city hall, a house, an entertainment facility, and a factory, as well as land, air, and water vehicles. If that sounds a bit overwhelming ... it is. At the start of the stage, I spent perhaps an hour tooling around with designs for a city hall and a land vehicle. You don't need to design the others until you build them, but it doesn't take long for that need to arise. Now, don't get me wrong; designing things is one of the best parts about this game. But after a certain amount of time you'll probably just want to get back to the actual game. Fortunately, there's the Sporepedia, which includes hundreds upon hundreds of designs from Maxis and from other players. Some of them are just phenomenal, and I'm sure the selection will only get better as time passes. Expect to see things out of sci-fi and other games. Expect to see anything Maxis doesn't specifically remove, really. Pick whichever constructions you want out of the Sporepedia to fill out the things you don't want to design, and you're ready to fight for control of the planet. Don't waste your time with the anthem composer. It sucks.
Civilization stage is like another, slightly different RTS. The focus is gone from resource gathering; you point a vehicle at a "spice geyser" and forget about it — once a mine gets built, you even get the vehicle back. It's more focused on vehicle tactics and managing your cities. Other civilizations pop up throughout the world (which is an actual globe now), and you try your best to cajole, scare, or apesmash them into seeing your point of view. You can set yourself up as a religious society to convert the populace of other cities. This stage, like the tribal stage, is straightforward and easy, but entertaining. Your species' history continues to fill out, setting your early disposition for the next stage. Before you think about bumping the difficulty setting up to "high," though, you'll want to give thought to how it will affect the Space stage, since that's where you'll spend most of your time. It has a bit more to throw at you.
Getting to the Space stage is reaching the real meat of the game. You'll be given some starter quests and tutorials to teach you how everything works. Pay attention to them, or you'll regret it later. Really. This stage plays like another RTS, yet is completely different from the previous ones. It isn't about pumping out units to stomp your enemies; you're limited to just one ship to start. As you get promoted, you can add more to your fleet, but not very many. Your colonies will harvest spice for you to sell. How much depends on how well the planet is terraformed. Terraforming a planet is somewhat complicated to learn, but it lets you set up a good financial base, which makes dealing with aliens much, much easier. And believe me, you'll deal with them a lot. Regardless of the way in which you interacted with your foes in previous stages, I'd recommend playing nice at least for the first few encounters of the Space stage. You can run some simple quests for other races to increase your standing with them. You can also bribe them. Once you're in their good graces, you can establish trade routes and alliances, which are much better than the alternative. When you run into a hostile society, you'll see what I mean. They like to raid your planets. A lot. They also like to raid your friends' planets. And your friends will occasionally have crises they need you to deal with. The demands on your attention range from "keeping you busy" to "driving you to distraction." This stage could really use a Leave-Me-Alone slider in addition to the difficulty setting, although cheat codes can accomplish that now. But, if you start out surrounded by friends, it's a lot easier to find time for developing your empire. Again, terraforming is important to learn. It's also the basis for creating custom planets. You get a variety of tools to alter the atmosphere and temperature, and you can bring in flora and fauna to make it more prosperous. But you also get devices that will shape, sculpt, and color the planet to look however you want. Once again, Maxis has provided a huge sandbox to play in. You can control the look and feel of literally hundreds of thousands of star systems.
The combat system is simple, but a bit clunky. Some of your weapons require Diablo-style button clicking, which can be a problem if there are a ton of ships flying around. Battles tend to be lopsided, but the more often you fight, the better weapons you'll have access to. Enemy ships will occasionally beat a hasty retreat when low on health, then stop, heal to full, and turn on you. It doesn't usually change the tide of a battle, but it can be annoying to track them down and finish them off. Other aspects of the game give you more tools the more you participate as well, which is why Spore is so open-ended. Don't want to run around blowing up enemy ships and cities all the time? Do a bunch of terraforming, get good at it, and then cause an enemy homeworld to turn into a burning, hazardous rock incapable of supporting life. Want to explore the galaxy or collect rare artifacts? Feel free, just watch out for the mysterious and powerful Grox. Make sure your borders are secure before straying too far, though, or enemies will pick your empire apart. The Space stage will keep you occupied as long as you're still entertained by it. Building an empire is a job with no end.
Spore isn't about deep, innovative gameplay. If you're looking for a next-generation RTS, look elsewhere. None of the stages, individually, would hold up in today's game market. But all of them combined, in addition to the almost limitless capacity for creativity, make Spore into a good game that will only get better with time and participation. The low learning curve and the ease with which you can pick a point in the game and find something to play around with makes it very appealing to the casual gaming market, while still offering a ton of achievements and ways to squeeze out every last bit of efficiency for the hardcore gamers. Despite the DRM fiasco, it's definitely worth picking up.
It maters not what the review says (Score:5, Insightful)
The DRM means I will never buy it anyway.
Shame really, but I'm not putting that DRM crap on my system.
Worth picking up, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
How do I pick it up?
I'm not about to run a Sony rootkit on my machine.
Please explain how I can legally play Spore without the rootkit. (And no, I will not take anyone's word for it that there is not a rootkit in SecuROM. And no, the Mac port doesn't omit SecuROM.)
If you could post an explanation of how I could safely play this game without buying a dedicated machine which will never do anything but play this one game, that'd be great.
Not interested in pretty spyware. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Worth picking up, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Please explain how I can legally play Spore without the rootkit.
You can't, its that simple, the cracks are all in breach of the license. Its unlikely you'd find one that let you play online still.
It's not a game.... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a toy.
You just muddle around in the world, you play here and there, and don't accomplish much of anything.
While it's a neat 'toy', for a *gamer* like myself it's ridiculous. Besides, while I love Will Wright, and I *want* to support him -- he knew what EA would do, I'm sure he was aware of the DRM scheme, and he let it go in. While it might be ignorance on his part, I will not buy this game in an effort to send that message that even a good game developer will not be tolerated if they infuse their brilliance with the stupidity of draconian DRM.
That said, Pirate Bay is very appealing in this instance and has been for me to determine it's not worth buying anyway, DRM or not.
Re:Worth picking up, but... (Score:1, Insightful)
Not a troll.
This is the only way to avoid the DRM Rootkit.
+5 Informative.
Good review (Score:5, Insightful)
My biggest disappointment so far are the controls, the camera to a degree, and the lag. The lag is particular bad when you land on a planet for the first time. I wouldn't mind a longer wait screen, but when I have 6 minutes to find one particular creature, and it takes 2-4 minutes for the landscape to finishing rendering, it sucks. This particular shortcoming is killing my fun in the later stages of the space game. The 'radar' sucks too, as it doesn't start working properly until the landscape renders. (Imagine the 'pop in' problem on loading textures, but it's not just textures but entire cities.)
The lack of a randomize button on a lot of different creatures is sad too. Sometimes I don't care how the building or ship works, and I'd rather use something unique. heh
Re:Sure (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Worth picking up, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
The DRM uses activation and counts how many machines you've activated it on. So does the Windows operating system you're most likely to be running on the machine on which you're running Spore. Why do you object to the DRM for Spore so much you won't run it on your machine, but do not object to the DRM for Windows so much as to not run it on your machine? If you're using Linux, well, how did you think you were going to run this anyway, Wine?
Re:Sure (Score:5, Insightful)
How does "Bought" sound?
It sounds cynical. Without evidence it also sounds childish.
I'm not a regular gamer any more, but I like to keep an eye on titles which push the genres a little - e.g. GTA IV, Little Big Planet and Spore. Even though I run only Linux now, and won't be able to play it anyway, I found the review interesting and not out of place.
Not exactly sure (Score:3, Insightful)
On one hand, true, I haven't seen a game review here before.
On the other hand, let's face it, Slashdot _is_ running out of newsworthy things for nerds. We have the _Idle_ section on the front page. You know, something as lame as what flames the Slashdot mods received per email. Honestly, filling the space with reviews instead sounds like a step _up_ to me. It _could_ be a genuine experiment in finding some better filler than Idle.
(Mind you, I'm not saying it _is_ so. Just that I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.)
On yet another hand, it _is_ one of the most (A) anticipated and (B) innovative games of the decade. Duly noted, it has a rather annoying and oppressive DRM, and it does miss the mark in a few categories anyway. But it does try to do something new, in a games industry which mostly just pumps out more clones of whatever sold well last year. I see no problem with giving it a fair review, much as the DRM trolls would rather see only "Spore sucks", wall to wall. Yes, the people must be warned about the DRM, but I see no problem with mentioning whether it's otherwise fun to play.
Re:Sure (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If EA is reading this (Score:5, Insightful)
So you'll live up to the expectation and act like a criminal. Yeah, really bright.
Let's try an analogy:
That's like walking into a store you've never been, and the owner keeps an eagle eye on you because he doesnt recognize you and suspects you might try to steal something, so in return you steal a candy bar.
Yes, software piracy is not physical theft, but your attitude is a good mirror of the situation I just described. Rather than simply saying "I won't buy it," threatening to pirate it is actually ENFORCING and ENCOURAGING the decision for further, stronger DRM.
The DRM isn't nearly as bad as people make out (it is NOT a root kit - it installs a Ring 3 service, which is the least privileged, but only if you aren't running under an admin account), and I would not be surprised if EA ups or eliminates the install limit a month or two after release.
It does have one advantage: I don't need the CD to play.
Hopefully the backlash makes EA change it's mind regarding Securom, but attitudes like yours are the least helpful of all.
Re:Good review (Score:4, Insightful)
To quote the ever popular car analogy it's like a car that you can only ever park in your garage. Park it anywhere else including somewhere in your driveway and your car won't start until you call the manufacturer and have it restarted.
Re:It gives you something just as bad... (Score:5, Insightful)
To an extent...you *are* still supporting a company that thinks it's OK to DRM their products.
Re:It gives you something just as bad... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm interested - do you guys complaining about the DRM (and I don't like it either) have an issue with buying the console versions?
I don't, because it's utterly invisible on every system I've ever owned. Buy a game, pop it into some random console, and it'll work without activations or calling home or even network access. If my Wii breaks, I can buy a new one and use all the same games without calling EA and begging for their kindness.
Why do people complain? (Score:1, Insightful)
I don't get it. A game review is on the front page for a game that was anticipated for three years. It is good. There are crackable software locks on it like every other major commercial game for the past twenty years. Test Drive II for my Mac Plus required the floppy in the drive.
Get over yourselves.
Also, it's Slashdot. It isn't the fastest or the broadest or even the best, but you're here and commenting, just to say so. Whatever. It's by the guy who did Duckpins and was hosted by MacOSRumors' stupid owner so it's cool, and it was a damn pioneer for all this Digg and Linux crap.
Re:It gives you something just as bad... (Score:4, Insightful)
If you can do DRM without breaking the host operating system, fine.
Not in my opinion. Even well-behaved DRM for general-purpose PCs is anti-consumer.
Re:It's not a game.... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a toy.
You just muddle around in the world, you play here and there, and don't accomplish much of anything.
While it's a neat 'toy', for a *gamer* like myself it's ridiculous.
In Go, you just muddle around and put stones here and there. While it's a neat 'toy', for a *gamer* like myself it's ridiculous.
I'm not defending the anti-consumer Spore, but can't stand hearing people dismiss fun things like Sim City or Animal Crossing solely because they don't have immediate goals that have to be met. Sometimes playing for the sake of playing is enough for an enjoyable game.
Re:It gives you something just as bad... (Score:4, Insightful)
Just like any console program distributor...
Re:Worth picking up, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
You can buy a real version and install it, then crack it so the DRM is disabled. That's what I did, and if it isn't legal, it's the kind of "illegal" that I don't care about.
Re:Worth picking up, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
EA themselves have said there's a 3 install limit. Many users have hit that limit and the game has only been out a few days.
You go ahead and convince yourself that SecureROM is OK, right up until the point you can't play the game you bought and it's fucked up your DVD drive in the process.
Re:Good review (Score:2, Insightful)
The DRM issue will go away with this particular game, I feel. Without the DRM, the game still has it's own set of problems though. It's got it's good aspects as well. In the long run, they can start to remove the DRM through patches or by just setting the server to say 'yes' to any installs under 10. The initial DRM is important to them because they don't want the game to be pirated more than bought.
The game is also a misleading on what it is. It says evolution, but in the end it's a dummied down RTS. Which is fine, as it's fun, but 'eh' it's not everything we were lead to believe, I guess.
Keep up the campaign on the DRM, really, but just don't let it overshadow the fact that there is a game involved here too, and if they remove the DRM, you want people to play it, to prove that it was the DRM preventing them from doing so.
Re:Sure (Score:4, Insightful)
Rootkit? WTF are you talking about? (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously, WTF are you talking about?
A rootkit [wikipedia.org] is a piece of software that modifies your computers behavior to allow back-door access to unauthorized users and hide traces of activity. DRM [wikipedia.org] is designed to prevent you from copying other people's data. I'd take DRM over a root kit any day.
As far as I know, there has only been one major instance of DRM installing a rootkit [wikipedia.org].
Do NOT bastardize computer industry terms in order to sensationalize your agenda. It undermines the terms, and makes you look like a tool to anyone who understands their meaning.
Re:Sure (Score:5, Insightful)
Just because one thing gets reviewed, doesn't mean all things must be. Hell, the new Civ doesn't even necessarily belong getting reviewed here, since this is a fairly PC-centric site.
This "review" is very unusual and suspect at the least.
No it isn't.
It's very positive (without talking about actual gameplay)
There's nothing wrong with being positive, and it does talk about the gameplay.
while being critical of interface and mechanisms from other games most readers are familiar with.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
All in all a template review.
Not in the slightest. It isn't even a wholly positive review, for God's sake. It specifically says that the individual parts of the game are weak on their own merits.
Delusional is a strong word and you should do your research before throwing it about.
It's a highly accurate word. I did do my research, I have played the game, read the review, and for extra credit, I read this site every day, and have seen several reviews. This is not out of the ordinary in any way, shape, or form. I will say it again: saying that this positive review was "bought" is purely delusional.
Re:Worth picking up, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes it is.
1. It hides itself from the user. It is installed without the users knowledge or permission.
2. It cannot be easily removed.
3. It performs intrusive monitoring of the system, causing some applications (and even some hardware) to fail.
4. It sends data back to EA, whether you're running the game or not.
It's malware plain and simple. A few years ago people who designed that kind of stuff would have been fighting lawsuits. Nowadays people actually try to defend them. That's fucked up.
Re:It maters not what the review says (Score:4, Insightful)
Despite the DRM fiasco, it's definitely worth picking up.
No. Allow me to misquote you on this.
Because of the DRM fiasco, it's definitely worth keeping well away from this game.
Let me now step into a different role:
I don't know much about computers, but here's what my friend who knows tons about this stuff had to say, "Its decent. It has DRM though. That's a real shame, because DRM is bad - really bad. Just stay away from games that use DRM and your machine will thank you."
Re:Not interested in pretty spyware. (Score:5, Insightful)
This analogy also opens the door to comparisons to pirates stealing the recipe and then making it without the shit, and how pie makers who don't use shit in their recipes sell more pies.
Re:Not interested in pretty spyware. (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps a better metaphor would be, "I don't care if it's the Venus Di Milo underneath; if it's covered in shit, then I don't want it in my living room."
Your metaphor implies that the problem is the game itself, and it's been prettied up to cover up inherent worthlessness. My metaphor implies that it's something crappy attached to the game that doesn't need to be attached to the game at all.
Re:Why do people complain? (Score:3, Insightful)
There's a *huge* difference between requiring a floppy or CD in the drive and installing malware on your PC which sends 'marketing data' back to the mothership, screws around with the OS and will turn your game in to a coaster if you have audacity to install it once too often.
Read up on SecureROM. It really isn't in the same league.
Re:It gives you something just as bad... (Score:2, Insightful)
He's the fundamental difference: on a console you put in the CD which is needed to authenticate that you have the disk, but it doesn't actually update the firmware of your system. When you eject the disk, the system is exactly the same as it was before.
That was true; however today's console get "forced" updates: when you put a game disc in them, if you don't have the good firmware version, either you update or can't play the game.
What does firmware update does ? Of course they fix occasional bugs and bring "useful features", but most of the time it's only a pain for people with custom firmwares.
Re:It gives you something just as bad... (Score:5, Insightful)
I am more comfortable wtih Reloaded, than EA. (Score:5, Insightful)
Pirated version Secure. You bet.
These days Reloaded is a more trusted brand than EA.
Re:It gives you something just as bad... (Score:5, Insightful)
Consoles aren't general purpose PCs, and yes, that's an important distinction. Console DRM has never affected me in any way, since I can still sell the games or play them in any other machine.
No "call home" DRM even if the game was great. (Score:5, Insightful)
I am not 12 years old anymore. I don't have to have any game. By accounts of actual reviews this is an OK game, not a must have.
But in this case it is an ok game with egregious DRM. They are renting you the game with 3 installs for $50. You don't think that is an incredibly steep price for a rental?
This has to be fought vigorously. Ignore this game, move along. If you are insatiably curious, visit the Torrent networks, it is widely available ,obviously this DRM does nothing to reign that in.
We have to fight this as this strips everything from the consumer. Make no mistake this is not aimed at "pirates", it is aimed at the honest paying customer.
It stops the paying customer from selling his game used. The next great evil the game companies are chasing. Honest folks selling their games. Now if you buy a game that you don't like, you can't return it and you can't even sell it.
It stops the honest paying customer from playing his old games. I have a lot of old games and I still like to play them, part nostalgia, partly because they were great games and still are (Total Annihilation, Baldurs Gate 2). Do you really think game DRM servers will be running in 10 years. How long did yahoo music DRM servers keep going. Not to mention the support to staff for you to convince when your 3 activations are up.
I am not even getting into what else the DRM installs/does/messes up on your computer, I am just completely offended by this shift to a rental model. Don't take this lying down. Don't give them money for this. You are giving them the right to veto your playing of a game you purchased. Why would you do that.
Re:It gives you something just as bad... (Score:3, Insightful)
What does firmware update do? Of course they fix occasional bugs and bring "useful features", but most of the time it's only to stop you from playing "illegally copied" games thanks to an "unauthorized" mod-chip.
There, fixed that for you.
Re:DRM should be mentioned in reviews (Score:3, Insightful)
A review not mentioning the region would be incomplete for example. Things like unskipable ads should also be mentioned.
Re:I am more comfortable wtih Reloaded, than EA. (Score:5, Insightful)
This actually is the truth. I will much rather trust the known scene groups then most of the better-known game companies. There's a lot smaller chance of something going awry. Kind of shows there's something wrong with the system, doesn't it.
Re:No "call home" DRM even if the game was great. (Score:4, Insightful)
I TOLD people that this is the sort of thing that allowing Microsoft into the console gaming market would bring about. Now you can't play your old games without hacking them or happening to still have the original hardware around and in working condition - another feat to perform since today's consoles, while vastly more superior in performance, fail like racecars made out of lead in comparison to old consoles like the NES/SNES. Not to mention that BROADBAND (a great subject for a completely different rant) is now used to support these companies crippling implementations as if everybody has it and has it turned on all the time and doesn't even check to see what's coming in or going out. Let us do what we want with the crap you allow us to buy from you, publishers. We are getting tired of this and this is why there is a desire to pirate your games in the first place. Release good games and play fair and people will want to be able to play their games online with an legal key and experience everything instead of torrenting them and then uninstalling them an hour later because it wasn't worth it in the first place.
Re:Not interested in pretty spyware. (Score:4, Insightful)
Your metaphor implies that the problem is the game itself, and it's been prettied up to cover up inherent worthlessness.
It's an EA game. I actually don't think that's a long shot.
Re:But... (Score:4, Insightful)
If you buy a PS3, Wii or Xbox 360 system or any other console for that matter you are buying a system with DRM integrated into it.
Complex DRM systems added to computer software can cause problems with your computer's proper operation.
Additionally no console game will have the restriction of limited installations. In fact you can sell your copy of the game when you get bored of it or you can give it to a friend. They won't need to call EA to allow them to install it on their console.