Batteries Included: 0
Binding: DVD-ROM
Brand: Electronic Arts
EAN: 0014633153521
ESRB Age Rating: Everyone 10+
Feature: Epic journey from the origin and evolution of life through the development of civilization and technology and outer space exploration
Format: DVD-ROM
Label: Electronic Arts
Manufacturer: Electronic Arts
Model: 15352
Platform: Windows XP
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: 2008-09-07
Studio: Electronic Arts
MPN: 19080

• Epic journey from the origin and evolution of life through the development of civilization and technology and outer space exploration
• Play any way you choose in the five evolutionary phases of Spore: Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, and Space
• Grow, evolve, interact with and battle other cultures, and conquer the planet
• Visit literally millions of planets full of other player's creations
• Single-player game provides unlimited worlds to explore and play

• Epic journey from the origin and evolution of life through the development of civilization and technology and outer space exploration
• Play any way you choose in the five evolutionary phases of Spore: Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, and Space
• Grow, evolve, interact with and battle other cultures, and conquer the planet
• Visit literally millions of planets full of other player's creations
• Single-player game provides unlimited worlds to explore and play

The creators of The Sims present the next big bang - SPORE. Create your unique creature and guide it on an epic journey through a universe of your own creations. Play any way you choose in the five evolutionary phases of Spore: Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, and Space. How you play and what you do with your universe is entirely up to you. Spore gives you a variety of powerful yet easy-to-use creation tools so you can create every aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even starships.

PC Minimum - Windows XP/Vista, 6 GB Hard Drive Space, 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent, 768 MB RAM, 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 Mac Minimum - Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher, 4.7GB Hard Drive Space, Intel Core Duo Processor, 1024 MB RAM; ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100

Customer Rating:
Summary: Spore: I Refuse to Buy Until DRM is Patched Out
Comment: I was EXTREMELY excited about this game when it was first announced. What's not to like about building a universe from scratch? I actually had it preordered until a week prior to its release. Then I got on Amazon and noticed that a large number of the forums devoted to Spore were complaining of something called "SecuROM." I did a little digging and discovered that SecuROM is a piece of Digital Rights Management software that is installed along with the game to prevent you from installing the game more than three times, in an attempt to combat piracy. I was fine with that. I then read further through the forums and the Wikipedia article and discovered that SecuROM does a number of other things too, including sending mysterious packets of data back to the company from your computer (identity theft, perhaps?), prevents you from using certain programs, such as DVD and CD burners, makes it impossible for you to modify your root drive and, worst of all, will NOT uninstall without the help of a third party application. So I canceled my order and got The Elder Scrolls 3 instead (which, incidentally, is one of the best games I have ever played). I encourage EVERYBODY to not buy this game until the SecuROM Digital Rights Management is patched out or removed from later releases. On a final note, the SecuROM didn't do a thing to stop the pirates: the day after it was released in the UK, a pirated copy was to be found on the internet, SecuROM and price free.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: DRM ? keep your game
Comment: I even have problems to get the creator demo to run error free on my high-end vista PC. With DRM and the limited installs, no thanks EA, I will not be the guinea pig unless you pay me.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Piracy prevention - Pucker up
Comment: The $10 demo version refuses to play on the fourth installation of the game. I'm pretty sure the full version (this game) does the same.

I'm a father who bought the demo game for my two boys. I use Acronis to image my kid's computer. I do it for a lot of reasons. Malware protection and limiting my child's potential internet freedom are among them.

The combination of my image habits and the DRMs of the demo led to issues. On the fourth Acronis restore, guess what? My SPORE CD became a TOASTER. This is the first and only title I've ever known to do that. And I've purchased some pretty pricey software.

I'm really considering shipping the disk back to Electronic Arts with a photo copy of my one finger salute.

In the mean time, trashing a very ill-thought DRM scheme will do.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A DRM revolt
Comment: Merely adding fuel to the fire, so read past reviews to see why DRM is NOT the way of the future and why everyone should think seriously before adding this game to thier cart. Here's a hint, EA: I might actually want to upgrade my computer sometime in the next five years. Of course, this wont stop it from selling out the wazoo like all Sims games, and it wont stop EA from trumpeting all of the extra copies that people are going to be inevitably buying just so they can play the game they already bought.

Either way, this game will be joining Mass Effect and Bioshock on my "do not purchase" list.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Dumbed down experience and draconian DRM
Comment: See these older 5-star reviews from 2006 (two years before the game was released)? Well, they had a reason to be excited. Spore was supposed to be a revolutionary experience, combining multiple genres while concentrating on evolution and genetics.

Fast forward two years and here we have the finished product, ready to be installed on our hard drives.

First of all, the game incorporates a draconian DRM system that requires you to activate over the internet, and limits you to a grand total of 3 activations. If you reach that limit, then you'll have to call EA in order to add one extra activation. That's not as simple as it sounds, since when you reach that point EA will assume that you, the paying customer, are a filthy pirating thief. You will need to provide proof of purchase, reasons why the limit was reached, etc, etc (it has all happened before with another recent EA product, Mass Effect). EA, of course, is not obligated to grant you that extra activation or even provide that service. In a couple of years they might very well even shut down the general activation servers, because "it's not financially feasible" to keep them running. What you will be left with is a nice, colorful $50 coaster. And you will be required to pay for another copy/license if you want to continue playing.

This basically means that you are actually RENTING the game, instead of owning it. The game WILL stop to function in the future. That's inevitable, because even if EA keeps the activation servers going, there IS going to be a time when EA will simply cease to exist because of financial issues or federal laws (like most business eventually do).

Second, the game was dumbed down to oblivion. Evolution doesn't even matter anymore. You can add as many legs to a creature as you want, but it won't be any faster than a one legged creature with higher leg stats. "Creating" your creatures is pointless (cosmetic only, because everything is based on stats), and brings you about the same excitement as dressing up a plastic doll.

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