Spore is better than fucking

On Thursday I downloaded (yes I'm a scoundrel pirate ahoy) Spore , which has been out in Australia for almost a week now and officially released on Friday, I think ... it's probably safe to say this was one of the most anticipated games in a while and I can certainly see why.

The first night I played with Spore I gamed for seven hours straight, even though I'm hardly a gamer at all, but this was captivating and I do believe I've put in more gaming hours these past four days than I have before in a few years. Spore is truly a magnificent game from many viewpoints.

One of the things I love best about Spore is the whole concept, you start off with a cell and end up conquering other planets. How cool is that? I'm sure it won't teach certain crazy bastards that evolution does indeed exist, but I believe it's safe to say Spore entails everything we currently understand of evolution perfectly.

You evolve through the creature creator once you have a certain amount of points and find a mate. Therein you can put together exactly the kind of creature you want and Spore, through some advanced use of procedural programming, then actually uses the species you've created in all animations and gameplay. This is much different to a standard approach found in RPG's where there are several pre-rendered animations with slight variations to account for the kind of armour and weaponry you have. In Spore, however, your character looks exactly like what you created. The game even figures out how the character moves no matter what (I even made a snake once).

Another thing that is truly magnificent about this game is that it's both an RPG, a third person adventure game and an RTS, all in one, all beautifully done. Don't fret that it'd be a jack of all trades - master of none, oh no, Spore is master of all the traits it goes for. You know the creature creator? Well later on in the game Spore let's you design houses, vehicles and pretty much everything throuhg it, how cool is that?

There are however a few small qualms I have with it. Like for example that at times it's a little childish with all the giddiness and oozy feel-good stuff the creatures do on every turn, Spore, overall, seems to promote happiness and joy in life, which is all well and good, but that's not how life works. This is most probably done like so in order for Spore to appeal to all generations (you know, like Spongebob) and it does appeal to everyone, even your girlfriend will play this game! In fact, once you show her you might have a hard time playing again.

The other thing that's a bit silly is the rigidity of the creature creator which seems bent on having everything very symetric and it can get frustrating at times. Well there's another thing, some unrealistic in the way weapons work. For example if you put antlers on your arse, the creature will still attack with its head and if you put many antlers on, it doesn't increase the damage you do ... which is silly, but I'm sure it makes sense in a way.

Overall, I prefer Spore to a good night of sex, not that there's antyhing wrong with sex, it's just that Spore is better.