i paid a lot of money for spore, 50 smackers, something i rarely do, because i couldn't wait any longer...
it IS different AND fun, and also, to some extent a bummer, different than i wanted it to be.
but there are a thousand reviews on this game at amazon, so if you go there, try to read some of the best as well as the negatives, as most of the bad rating the game gets there is solely due to the in-game DRM [copy-protection] and limited install software installed. EA has already curtailed the initial hard-nosed stance a bit, with the first patch, but it is important to understand what you can and can't do with the install process. Don't believe the gossip, go to the source.
After an AGGRAVATING few days of trying to get the second patch to work (V1.02), reading hundreds of others going through the same and similar issues on the spore site forums, trying in vain to follow suggestions to no avail..i finally stumbled onto some advise in one of the posts, that actually worked.
The problem i was having, was the in-game auto-patching process failed. I tried to run the patch manually from the C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts\EADM\cache\ {Anonymous}folder. The patch would act like its installing, going to "100%" numerous times, then the inevitable error would pop up: 'Invalid Patch File'. sigh...i'm not even going to go off on my luck with EA's patches of the last few games i've bought from them....[BF2/BF2142 anyone??].
SOLUTION:
Apparently, there was a bunch of bad patches at some websites, but I read that if you download the patch 'spore_dd_patch_all_v2.exe' from FILEPLANET, then
manually paste it [and over-write] whatever may or may not be in the above folder...then click on or "open" the patch from there...Eureka! it
finally installed without error.
Just thought i'd pass that along, as i was very frustrated. The patch changes a few things up, but not a lot of the core game-play dynamics. I was hoping for some more challenge, or at least a less fast second,third, and fourth stage...but have been happy to find that the final "Space" stage of the game, is much more involved than almost the entire rest of the game put together. And i think i noticed a little bit less of the annoying space pirate attacks on the home world...but they still happen more than i'd personally like. [Always when i am far from home they attack! ARGH...not
again.....]
The game in this last stage is simplistic, but still very addictive. The dev's give you quite a bit of candy to try to collect, with new weapon upgrades, new planet terraforming tools, and a myriad of custom/coloring style utilities to keep the game almost replayable indefinitely.
And when the core game starts to become 'been here, done this", you
know that EA has the next batch of add-on's and over-priced goodies lined up bi-annually for the franchise. "Think Sims 2"
Overall, I like this game though, and hope that the game i was hoping it to be [with the creatures parts actually affecting its interactions with other species and not always guaranteeing survival] might come out in another form someday-perhaps inspired by a spore of realism... :)
