Okay, after much agonizing deliberation, I have decided to purchase Spore despite what I would consider to be one of the most horrific acts of DRM ever released. Well, except for maybe StarForce. By the way, Electronic Arts has gone on record saying that they will reset the activation count if you call them. This was a seller for me... I was prepared not to buy it at all, but it's in writing that they'll reset the count if you run out. I would rather not have to worry about the DRM at all, of course, and it seems that reviewers at Amazon.com agree, seeing as how there are over 500 reviews of 1 start simply because of the DRM... This makes the game the lowest rated on the entire site. Perhaps EA will notice this and decide to patch the game like 2K did with BioShock? One can only hope... Honestly, if there was no DRM, I would recommend this game to absolutely everyone.

That being said, I bought it yesterday because I downloaded the leaked release late last week and I absolutely loved it. (I feel I can say that I downloaded it after I actually purchased the thing.) I never really wanted to play it as thoroughly as I wanted since the cracked copy can't get online, which is, to be honest, the reason for buying Spore in the first place... But now I have and I feel I should address a few things for people who might be expecting something other than what you're actually getting.

As we all know, there are five phases of gameplay:

There's the Cell Phase where you move the mouse and hold a button and you move your little slug around, eating meat, killing other cells or eating plants. It's very much like the game Flow that was released as a Flash game a while back (and also a PSP game). You pretty much slide around, eat stuff, kill stuff and grow into the creature phase. That's it.

There's the Creature Phase which comes after you've outgrown the Cell Phase. When you play the game for the first time, you have to progress up through the phases in order, but after you've reached a particular phase, you can start a new game in any phase you've already completed. The Creature Phase is more or less a Cell Phase with a 3D environment. You still walk around and eat stuff, kill stuff and grow. Here's where the Creature Creator is given its full potential, but you need to walk around and collect glowing piles of bones and kill Alpha creatures to unlock access to parts. Unfortunately, unlike unlocking Phases, parts are only unlocked for that particular game, so if you play the creature phase again, you'll have to unlock parts again. Kind of annoying, but it encourages exploration and sightseeing, which IS the reason you're interested in Spore, right? To separate it from the Cell Phase, they throw in a migration aspect which will relocate your main nest every so often... Other than that, it's a 3D Cell Phase. Not much excitement... Just a whole lot of walking and eating. (So invest in parts that grant the Sprint ability and increased Speed or you'll be walking around SLOWLY.)

There's the Tribal Phase. This is where things start getting more complicated. Personally, I think this is the most difficult phase of them all. (Of course, I've only ever played on Easy.) You have a village and you have a village leader. Before the Tribal Phase, you'll have a chance to finalize the appearance of your creature, because during and after the Tribal Phase, all you'll be able to do is dress them up... Their "evolution" will cease at this point. But anyway! You have a village, and in your never-ending quest to grow, you need to locate a food source so you can create more villagers. This is essentially the "Age of Empires" RTS. You're limited to ground units and rudimentary tools and weapons, but, like I said, it can prove to be the most difficult phase. Your job is to visit each neighboring village (I believe there are 5) and either befriend them or conquer them... While keeping your village defended and prospering. I usually hoard food for a while and then zerg-rush the villages... I'll lose a lot of villagers, but I'll have enough food to repopulate afterwards. As you destroy or ally with villages, your own population cap will grow and you'll learn to make new tools that will help you interact with the harder neighboring villages. (They'll grow with you, but I've never witnessed them grow AHEAD of you, like most RTS games seem to do.) After you ally or destroy all other tribes, you once again advance, but that's about it for the Tribal Phase. (You can also domesticate animals and farm eggs from them... But I've never had them actually lay an egg, yet.)

There's the Civilization Phase... Quite literally like the Civilization game series, only real-time instead of turn-based, which is what I enjoy. (That is, I enjoy real-time far more than turn-based.) This is a vastly more complicated Tribal Phase since now you're able to have multiple cities and each city can be managed by placing Houses (for population cap), Factories (for earning money) and Entertainment (for city happiness) in a strategic fashion... Like, honestly, if you place buildings helter-skelter, you will have a very poor performing city. There IS a strategy to building a city, which is a really neat aspect. Here's where the Building Creator is unlocked... You can actually design your own Town Hall, House, Factory, Entertainment, Land Vehicle, Sea Vehicle and Air Vehicle, You can still dress up your creature but, like I said, "evolution" ceased in the Tribal Phase. Once again, your goal is to either ally with all the neighboring cities (there's 8 additional cities, if I recall correctly) or conquer them all. If you conquer them (which is what I do), you gain control of their cities and you can then build them and make lots more money in order to drive your deadly war machine. Scattered about the planet are Spice Geysers that you can mine for money without use of Factories. (But I would recommend Factories.) This phase goes by incredibly fast for me... I'm used to playing RTS games in a military capacity, so I've perfected the art of the "Zerg Rush" and never allow my neighboring cities to get a stable foothold. So... In a nut shell, this is an advanced Tribal Phase. Also, this is when you start seeing your creature's innate abilities. Since I've been a meat-eating, dominating, conquering soldier race for the entire time, my special abilities turned out to be a wonderful array of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Can I get a "SWEET"? Sweeeeet.

There's the Space Phase... What I consider the core of Spore. After you conquer (or ally with) the other cities in the Civilization Phase, your race collaborates on their very first spacecraft and launches into space. I haven't even scratched the surface of what you can do here... The other phases go by so incredibly fast (I could finish them in less than an hour) and, on the flip side, the Space Phase is SLOW to progess through. You've seen all the videos of the UFO doing all sorts of amazing things to planets... Don't expect to be able to do ANY of that for a while. You unlock tools for the UFO by progressing through an interesting quest system... You can take Missions from your own planet, or from neighboring planets, in order to make money and earn positive reputation. As you complete missions and finish objectives, you gain Badges and certain Badges unlock certain abilities for your UFO. You need to purchase these tools, so you'll need to develop a good economy, and some tools have charges (or ammo) that you need to purchase... Money is still key here. But... You can terraform (which is amazingly fun), you can fight, you can trade, you can explore planets and moons and look for alien artifacts to sell for great profit. It's the true face of Spore... It's the exploration phase... The entire reason you should buy the game. Not for the other phase gametypes! You need to buy Spore for the Creature Creator and the Space Phase, and this is what people are having a hard time coming to terms with because they didn't expect it.

The first four phases go by QUICKLY and SIMPLY. It's not a hardcore game... It's very simple and easy to master. People expect each phase to be the pinnacle of each gametype, but they shouldn't expect that. In fact, I read on a forum somewhere (I forget which one, sorry) where a member explained perfectly what to expect from Spore. Basically, they said that once they understood that the first four phases are, more or less, the fine-tuning of your creature for the Space Phase (which is the core of Spore), then they were more able to accept the "short-comings" of the first phases. They're just there to determine and test your creature and develop the special abilities for the Space Phase. (Remember that I'm a warrior? I get a special tool in the Space Phase that allows me to fire a Raider Rally on a planet that calls down pirates to ravage the planet and leave it in a beaten state so I can come in and take over without a lot of trouble.) The first four phases go by quickly and go by without much difficulty, but once you understand them to be mini-games that shape the personality of your creature, they become much more acceptable as being "shallow"... That's like the perfect explanation. People are expecting Spore to be the supreme amalgamation of every gametype and they're going to be sorely disappointed.

To recap: The first four phases go by very quickly and should not be treated as phases you WANT to dwell on... The gameplay is simple, but vital for determining the direction of your creature. Where Spore really shines is the Space Phase, where you can now fly absolutely anywhere and explore all the other planets and creatures and societies that have been downloaded from other players. The Space Phase, being the core of Spore, is vastly more complicated and slow than all the other phases, but not necessarily hard. Don't expect to be able to fly anywhere and do everything as soon as you get to the Space Phase... Slow down! Develop your empire's economy and trade routes. Make alliances with neighboring empires and establish yourself as a space-faring race to be reckoned with. The missions will train you in many aspects of using your ship and give you a taste of what you can do, so don't ignore them! As you do more things, you'll earn more Badges that'll unlock more things to do. It'll take a while, but this is THE Spore, so I'm glad it doesn't go by as fast as the other phases. Flying arounds sometimes get a little monotonous... Especially in the transitions from planet to system to galaxy. But I quickly learned that you don't actually have to LAND on a planet to communicate with them. All you need to do is APPROACH the planet, and that cuts out the slowest transition and makes progression a lot faster. That might seem like "DUH!", but it took me two days to figure that out... Just thought I'd toss that out. It can be slow and monotonous, but there are ways to expedite progress.

So! My verdict: I like Spore. I really do... The procedural technology is AMAZING. Do you realize that creatures are stored as PNG images? Like... You can share the Sporepedia Creature file, and since it's a PNG image, people can load it in browsers and photo viewers and actually see what your creature looks like, but if they drop that PNG into their Sporepedia folder, the Spore program will use information in that PNG file and extrapolate the creature so you can play it in the game. It boggles the brain! All that in a file the size of a webboard forum avatar. This is how Spore can download VAST amounts of creatures without busting your hard drive or Internet connection... This is the reason you should want Spore. For any other reason, you're wasting your money, plain and simple. If you don't want Spore because of the fact that it downloads player content that you can see and explore once you reach the Space Phase, then you shouldn't buy it, because you WILL be disappointed.

That all being said... Myst fans will LOVE it! It's the epitome of exploration.

Matthews and Olbermann Removed as Election Coverage Anchors

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

I think that verse perfectly sums up the entire fiasco. I know I won't miss them!