“Currently Playing…”
This week, I have been almost totally absorbed by Spore. It arrived on my kitchen floor last Wednesday and since, I’ve not done anything else: just lived and breathed it. Many people have said that it appears boring and its “not for them”. However, I beg to differ. Each stage is reminiscent of a different game and the final “space” stage is totally free and open ended.
The first bit where you are a single cell is a bit like pacman but on a more complex level. You have to swim around and eat the little blobs while monsters chase you and try and eat you. However, you can collect weapons and then the monsters run from you: sound familiar?
The second stage is potentially like a shoot ‘em up crossed with “The Sims”. Your pack of creatures must go and either, socialize and make friends with, or wipe out the other creatures.
The third stage is like the dark ages on Age of Empires. You have to forage and hunt to get food and build tribal buildings. You can use the supplies kept within these buildings to help you kill and destroy the other tribes (again you can socialize and make friends instead but wha’ts the fun in that?)
The civilization level is where all the action takes place. I would describe it as like a stripped down version of Red Alert 2. You have cities or ‘bases’ and you have to defend them from the other civilizations whilst trying to capture theirs too. You mine ’spice’ for currency, as far as I’m concerned, a direct Dune parody.
The space stage is by far the most open and, I think, the most fun. After the first few missions(obligatory I’m afraid), you are given an interstellar drive which allows you to zip across the solar system, marketing spice to other civilizations, dropping bombs that destroy entire planets and abducting creatures, 200 parsecs from your home planet. This is what gaming is all about.
“Next month’s award goes to…”
Red Alert 3 is due out mid-october and as far as I’m concerned, it looks absolutely fantastic. The most attractive aspect of it (aside from Gina Carano, yum yum…) is that Frank Keplacki is back to do the sound track. This was the big thing that I missed when playing Tib Wars and Kane’s Wrath. I’m looking forward to hearing Hell’s March 3 all the way through. Here’s the trailor:
Red Alert 3: Official Trailer
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