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Spore System Specs Released, Creature Creator Coming Soon
Will Wright's long-awaited game, Spore, seems to be nearing completion, with a release slated for September. In anticipation of this release, EA has outlined the system requirements and will still be releasing their Creature Creator demo for experimentation on June 17th.
... they just consume all your computer's resources.
I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
Ever since he mentioned that you don't need to start at the beginning in order to get to a certain stage, i've just felt like it will be a bunch of mini-games, without present decisions being made in the current stage affecting your options in future stages of, what i assume, is the evolution of your creature(s). I have a feeling that the expansion pack he's been working on will be a ton better.
pixel shader 2.0 == directX 9 == 128MB video cards from 2003 :)
I suppose this is due to the long development. Hopefully the creative gameplay will overcome the lack of shiny and high res texture graphics.
I built a machine 6 months ago for about $400 that should work acceptably, according to these specs -- a $100 asus mobo, $100 for an old geforce 7600, $50 for the cheapest AMD dual-core proc, and $50 for 2 gig of ram.
Glad to see they took the time to make sure Spore will run on low end PCs.
Mine will not.
Why, yes, I do cry into my pillow every night...
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Not mentioned in the article or summary is the much more interesting news that the Sporepedia is live. Go check out some of the creatures that the Maxis team has created. Some of them are quite different from those I've seen in previous media.
In soviet Russia, RAM loves EWE!
I had to make room for a more imminent releases like Duke Nukem Forever, The Arrival of Godot and Jesus, The Second Coming.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I believe EA has backed off slightly after the outcry over that scheme. I believe now they check upon initial installation and whenever new content is downloaded.
Which is still pretty obscene, since downloading new content is one of the main features of the game. Your point still stands, I agree with it, and won't be buying this for the pc.
These registration schemes, along with constantly increasing requirements, are killing pc gaming.
That's better than bitting into your pillow every night, I guess.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
So what it sounds like is, if you upgrade your PC, the only way you can lay your paws on your software that you purchased from EA is if you also pay "protection" money to them. And then only for two years. Swell, huh?
Does knowing this before everyone else make me cool?
This is Slashdot. We're geeks. That's how we define cool.
The original Howling Frog is a fictional character and has no UID.
Not necessarily. It can just mean you have a bunch of predefined choices at each step. It doesn't mean you can't do better.
I mean, look at, say, Paradox's games. Different genre, I know, but they do illustrate the point nevertheless.
You can start Hearts Of Iron in 1941 and get directly to attacking the USSR, or being attacked if you play the USSR. In which case you'll start from the historical situation in 1941. But you can also start in 1936, build up your economy, and build up teh uber-Wehrmacht or Red Army, and deliver some serious smack down when 1941 comes. Or play a USA which didn't wait around for Pearl Harbour to start thinking about war, and is in much better shape to deliver a devastating punch when that happens. Play a France which picked different doctrines and built up its army, and can hold its own at the Maginot Line. Etc.
Essentially having the option to skip to 1941, doesn't make the 1936 option meaningless. You can and _do_ affect your options in the future by starting earlier.
Ditto in any other of their games. You can skip to the 1600's in EU2 and get to colonizing America, or even directly at the Napoleonic wars, or start in 1419 as an England bogged down in the 100 year war and work your way from there.
Heck, IIRC you can even export your world from one game to the next, and play it as one uber-campaign spanning 1000 years. You can start in Crusader Kings, export to EU2 when you reach the 1400's, export to Victoria in early 1800's, and (if you have the expansion pack) export to Hearts Of Iron when you reach the 1930's. The option to start directly with Hearts Of Iron doesn't make the previous stages meaningless minigames. Starting at CK can _massively_ affect your options later. You can end up in EU2 with a Byzantine Empire that regained the former lands of the Roman Empire and has the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum (our sea), instead of being a one-province victim of the Turks. Colonize, get to Victoria with it, and you can try to out-industrialize the English. Make Byzantium _the_ industrial and cultural capital of the world, like in the old days, and the empire over whose flag the sun never sets. Etc.
You can still ask, "why?" because it gets so ahistorical that it's not even funny. Still, the principle remains. And as Spore isn't a historical game, even that objection vanishes.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Assuming it's the same securom restriction as mass effect (and previously bioshock) - which it's been said it will be - you'll get 3 install activation 'credits', which must be done online. Uninstalling/reinstalling on the same computer and the same copy of windows will re-use the activation already made, as of course will having your activation checked when you retrieve more creatures.
Reinstalling windows on your pc, or upgrading hardware will then cost you another of your three activations.
Once you've hit the limit, you'll need to phone EA tech support - a premium rate phone call in my country - and request permission to install your game, most likely then having to provide proof of purchase. Permission is granted on a case-by-case basis, and not guaranteed.
They caved only insomuch as providing a more restrictive limitation than bioshock, rather than a more restrictive limit than bioshock plus constant 10 day online activation.
It's not a purchase. It's a rental. I for one have cancelled my pre-order.
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.