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Spore Creature Creator (Mac/PC DVD)
| Overall Customer Rating: | (Not Yet Rated) | | | | Graphics: | (Not Yet Rated) | | Sound: | (Not Yet Rated) | | GamePlay: | (Not Yet Rated) | | Addiction Level: | (Not Yet Rated) |
No Customer Reviews Yet.
RRP: £4.99
Amazon Price: £4.98
You Save: £0.00999999999999979 (0%)
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Platform: Windows XP
Publisher: Electronic Arts
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"Don't bother" - 10 September 2008
Read the American reviews. This game can only be activated 3 times because of rubbish DRM. Stick it EA.
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"Contains malware, poorly thought out end game, buggy " - 6 September 2008
Once reaching the space-age you realise that it is nothing more than a series of minigames, shoot pirates with your ship, do repetitive missions. There are no macromanagement features, you must attend your homeworld every time it is attacked, even if its capable of defending itself without you because they accuse you of not helping. This does not add a challenge, it adds boredom and frustration.
This also contains the malware SecuROM, this limits the installs of the disc to three, if you install it on 3 machines thats it your disc is now useless, if you upgrade your hardware 3 times your disc is useless, if you have to uninstall for space, if there are errors in installing the game they can all make the disc uselss after three installs, either forcing you to buy another copy, crack it or not play. Essentially EA are renting software which you are purchasing, here is how SecuROM works:
No installation option for SecuROM? Check.
Installed without my knowledge or consent? Check.
EULA for malware contained in a hidden directory so I cannot read it? Check.
Games bundled with SecuROM malware? Check.
Difficult for me to identify, locate and remove it? Check.
And the final nail in the coffin is the amount of bugs, including but not limited to:
* Random crashing (primarily in the Space Stage)
o Many cases is when zooming out to galaxy from Homeworld
o Dasmx86Dll.dll is the cause mostly.
* The bug related to the DasmX86Dll.dll file and the WINMM.dll file
o Also people have got the d3dx.dll error. (I think thats spelt correctly)
* SPORE not loading upon startup
* Unable to download user content
* License Server Issues
* Graphical Glitches
o Texture Corruption (In some cases, Major corruption)
o Main menu freeze
o Planet fine, Galaxy map just black (Toolbars etc still work)
* Mobile Graphics Card Issues (Even supported ones)
* Possible SECUROM issues
* Public Content / Buddy Sharing issues
* EA Downloader not detecting SPORE installation
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"Note, this is not the actual Spore game!" - 21 June 2008
I just thought I should warn anybody who is potentially confused that this is not the main Spore game. This is an additional kit that lets you design creatures without following the gradual progression involved with the main game. You can import creatures made by Creature Creator into the main Spore game if you own it. But you cannot play with the creatures you make with just this kit on its own. I know 99% of people will already know this, but there is room for confusion.
That said, Creature Creator is good fun. The design system in Spore is amazing. Constructing creatures is as simple as if you were using modelling clay. What amazes me is the freedom you have. You shape the creature's spine, drag limbs to any part of the body and shape them, add other parts and shape those too. The game rarely limits where you can attach things, so if you want you could have a creature that hangs below its legs, with its mouth on it's rear and eyes on it's stomach, or even more bizzare! It's not just a matter of choosing what combination of limbs you want, pretty much every aspect of the creature is controlled by you.
Yet amazingly you don't have to tell the game what moves where: the game animates the movements of even the most unusual creatures. On rare occasions I've had some animations that look a bit unusual, but even these are easily resolved (eg. just thin that part of the body, or move the arms a bit further from the head etc.).
But overall, I would simply suggest that you get the main Spore game (which of course lets you build creatures anyway) and buy this as an extra if you are particularly taken by the creativity aspect. I definitely wouldn't buy creature creator on its own.
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"A fiver's worth of fun" - 25 June 2008
I don't care that this will be part of the main game to come - I'd hate to be so mean that I wouldn't buy this now because it's so much fun. The building system is very easy and right from the earliest components you add, the creature reacts to the building process (start with the mouth - that way you get 'comments' as you go along). Your creature shows its pleasure at the way you build it and this makes the urge to be creative really strong. There are seemingly infinite adjustments to each part you add and an enormous colour palette to choose from when you come to the painting stage. What really got me hooked, though, is the testing stage, when you find out how your creature moves, reacts...and dances. You can also blow a whistle to attract its attention to make it look at you. Best of all is the ability to hatch out up to three babies, who then attempt to recreate the movements of the adult, eventually, after mistaken efforts, moving in synch. All this can be recorded as still pictures or videos if you are so minded. A wonderful bargain - if you have nostalgic memories of plasticine (it's over fifty years since I last used it) you'll love it. It isn't a game, but it's not meant to be. It's a way of having fun. It can be used by fairly young children, who won't be buying the actual game anyway, so it's perfectly acceptable as a stand-alone product. I'm very pleased that EA has released this separately; I shall probably buy the game when it comes out, but I'll get plenty of use from this until then and pass it on to a young relative to have fun with.
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"Hours of fun...for little ones as well as grown ups!" - 26 June 2008
First of all, as already stated it is important to note that this is NOT the full version of Spore - it is just the creature creation part. I understand that people might feel slightly ripped off that this costs a fiver, but there IS a free demo out there that you could settle for until the full game is out in September. I tried out the demo with my two children, (4 and 2 1/2), and we were all totally hooked. Therefore we decided to buy this to get more parts to play with in the hope that it'll keep us happy until the real release date!
To start with you get a randomly generated body section, (which you can change the shape, height etc of), and then you've got a series of grouped body parts which you can add on...just about wherever your imagination wants. The creations that you come up with can range from the terrifying to the totally hilarious, and everything in between! The creature seems to cope fairly effortlessly with whatever body parts we throw at it and test driving it - seeing it running, flipping, dancing(!) is really cool.
For those with little ones this can be a great game. It is all controlled with the mouse so, if your child is relatively proficient with mouse control, (particularly drag and drop), then they should have few problems. My two are absolutely hooked and love creating all sorts of monstrosities and then painting them in day-glo colour schemes. That said, my four year old would now like to be able to take his creatures roaming instead of them being stuck inside a small circle as they are in this game...so I'm not sure if this will hold his interest for more than a week or two. Still, even for the hours of fun that we've already had I'd say it's well worth the money!
Roll on September...
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"Significant technical problems on the PC version" - 3 September 2008
Right from the start there are significant problems using this product with several technical challenges involved in even getting the game to start properly including removing dll files from the installed game and replacing them with new ones from the spore website, never mind the infuriating habit of only adding shortuts to the Vista "game explorer" tab rather than on the desktop or in a normal menu.
Once you do get the programme to work it looks lovely however there are more challenges in store for unaware purchasers if your creature gets even slightly complex the programme hangs when you try to save it.
Looks like EA have released a barely tested excuse for a finished product, if Spore the game is this poorly executed i'll be very disapointed.
AVOID.
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"A SLICE FROM THE BITTER FRUIT OF GREED" - 23 June 2008
Apparently EA does not care much for my Review and had it removed - TWICE. They would rather keep their potential customers in the dark regarding certain issues, obviously.
Corporate greed is a fact permeating everything nowadays, so gaming could not escape I guess. If anyone needed any proof of this, the fact that all EA's latest releases come burdened with a draconian DRM scheme (SecuROM 7+) and the LIMITED INSTALLATION idiocy should be more than enough.
SPORE is a long awaited, greatly delayed and overhyped project that is to be released in September. However, SPORE: CREATURE CREATOR is ***NOT*** that game. It is its mere demo, containing (as expected) a part of the game.
In fact, once SPORE is released, this CREATURE CREATOR will be redundant as it is INCLUDED in the SPORE game.
Even for EA, that they would stoop so low and would CHARGE £5 FOR THE...DEMO is breaking new lows!!!
Well, there is always another level of hell, is there not?
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"I got a blank disc?" - 11 August 2008
Ok I jsut got this,put the CD in the drive,waited for somethign to happen and...nothing. My processor whirred a bit but nothing, and my PC is fine ( Running vista and can play any game top graphics so stats are no issue), this CD just doesn't show up in the drive or when it does it's apparantly just a blank disc. Now i've looked around on forums etc. but can't find a fix for this. Waste of money.
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"Sell A DEMO?" - 21 July 2008
This is terrible, its just a demo of part of the game coming out in september. This is a rip off just like the expansion packs for the sims. Not to mention the draconian DRM. I for one will no longer be buy ANY EA games. I am sick of the DRM Securom Issue, I had enough of that with the sims 2. There is a lack of support and care from EA when things go wrong with your computer/game and you can't play a game you paid for with your hard earned money. I will not be buying Spore now and nor will I be buying Sims 3 - I am seriously disappointed.
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"I can't wait." - 23 June 2008
The creature creator is great, its much better than the free downloadable version as ther eare more parts available to create with and also i have not encountered any problems with this version ( i did with the free version, it froze upon saving, and failed to save) I can't wait for the full version of the game to come out in september :)
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