Sunday September 21, 2008 Spore
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Even though it's got abysmal DRM, (and the game has been given a virtual bitch-slap by a swarm of reviewers on Amazon all giving it a 1-star rating), Duncan and I have been happily playing away at Spore and have reached the Space Age stage. |
It's mostly Duncan. I'm just there to read the fine print in the Game Guide and shout out any tips that might be useful. He's played Red Alert (2) before, and that knowledge has really helped in keeping all his people busy and doing the right things. I admit to being amazed at how quickly he's picked up this game. He breezed through the Civilization stage. All the reading he's had to do has helped improve his reading skills (although I personally wish we could get him as interested in reading some of the books his teacher would like him to read).
It was I suppose inevitable that given the choices of economics, religion or military tactics as a means of achieving world domination, that he'd pick the one where he can destroy things. One could argue that maybe he doesn't understand the other two yet.
But it is all fun. With humorous touches for the grownups with the ability to do alien abductions via space ship and make crop circles. The audio ambiance is wonderful. From the grunts, squawks and squeaks of all the creatures through to the chants of the tribe and to the superb made-up language(s) in the latter stages, that you almost think you are starting to understand.
I see that EA has retooled their DRM (slightly). Too little too late. It's a sad day for gaming where it's easier for software pirates to play the game than for those who try to do the right thing and obtain the game legally.
( Sep 21 2008, 09:46:42 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [7]
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I was going to ask you how it ran in VirtualBox and/or under Wine, but in light of the DRM issues your answer, I assume, is "Google it." :-)
Posted by joanie on September 21, 2008 at 08:06 PM PDT #
To be honest, I've no idea.
It has fairly heavy graphics requirements:
http://www.spore.com/what/specs_spore
Lynea's MacBook runs it nicely though.
I don't think Wine would cut it, but xVM might
if your underlying hardware was modern.
Posted by Rich Burridge on September 21, 2008 at 08:29 PM PDT #
Ah, but of course my underlying hardware is modern. :-) Addiction is a terrible thing. Worse when fueled by that phenomenon known as "available credit." ;-)
The one trick/road block I suspect will be getting VirtualBox/xVM to "fake" the video card. I've never had a need to do that before, so I've not investigated it yet. But the one thing I miss, being nearly 100% in a Linux and OpenSolaris environment, is Civ IV. (Unlike Duncan, I *do* appreciate destruction brought about via economics and religion.)
You know, I think I'll have to give that a try.... Thanks Rich! "For what?" he asks. For the idea. :-) And the additional info.
Posted by joanie on September 21, 2008 at 08:54 PM PDT #
Well before you rush out and buy Spore, I suggest
you try it out with the demo of Spore Creator. See
a previous post of mine on this:
http://blogs.sun.com/richb/entry/spore_creature_creator
and in particular:
http://www.spore.com/trial
Posted by Rich Burridge on September 21, 2008 at 09:06 PM PDT #
Well, the answer to running it in VirtualBox seems to be "no".
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=9380&sid=b2fcdace0d396bf48b357d15d87eb818
Posted by joanie on September 22, 2008 at 04:16 PM PDT #
Ugh. Well that sucks. Thanks for trying.
Time to pull out your Mac and/or Windows
XP/Vista machine.
Posted by Rich Burridge on September 22, 2008 at 04:37 PM PDT #
i have a question... my computer freezes A LOT and its freezing more and more, especially that im in the space stage.. CAN ANYONE HELP ME???
P.S. i have windows xp
Posted by poke guy250 on January 16, 2009 at 05:56 PM PST #