morphosiscraft wrote:

theultimateend wrote:

Hell HL2 in the Orange Box came with two of the most acclaimed games of the last year.

Portal and TF2

Oh, don't even get me started on Portal! *swoon*

You know, there was an earlier game with Portal's mechanics that failed, people just didn't buy it. It was some game about a guy rescuing a princess from a demon and he had to use portals to do it. People just didn't like the concept, I guess.

So they took that really awesome game mechanic of the portals and put them in a new game with a great idea of the science lab experiment thing. So sweet, very clever. GLaDOS is awesome, but the little turrets are probably my favorites. "Please come out so I can see you." LOL

The previous game (Narbacular Drop) was a senior project. The people who worked on that game were employed by valve to make Portal. Check Wikipedia

P.S. Portal rocks!

raekreborn wrote:Well TF2 is a mod of HL2... yes it's a very popular mod that you have to pay for... but still it's not technically finished. And because its a mod... well they can basically do whatever they want to it. Its not a standalone like spore.

How is it a mod? It just runs off the same engine. It's still heavily modified. If you didn't know it had anything to do with Valva/Half Life would you assume it did?

theultimateend wrote:
Hell HL2 in the Orange Box came with two of the most acclaimed games of the last year.

Portal and TF2

OMG, Portal...! Now THERE was a simple game with a lot of depth!

I mean, think about it...the concept of Portal is almost embarrassingly simple: blue portal, orange portal, jump, use, move...those are the only commands you get. Those are the only commands you NEED.
And around that, they crafted a world that is deep and rich and intriguing without ever allowing you to engage in dialogue, without filling the game with tons and tons of unique content. Heck, your worst enemies are those little robot dudes...and falling hazards.
...and yet Portal has to be one of the most beloved games I've seen, the very definition of instant classic. And it's not just for that song at the end!

The reason Portal is so beloved, though, is because of the intersection between gameplay and style/flavor. The gameplay was innovative and different and new, with lots and lots of possibilities for the player to be innovative as well. The world it was set in and the story told created a feeling and mood that really captured both the imagination and the theme of the game.
Between those two things, Portal turned a very simple concept into an award winner that people will talk about for years. Portal is like the Firefly of the gaming world, I think.

Now, Spore COULD have been this. Unfortunately, it's lacking in the two critical areas: gameplay and flavor.
Spore has a great concept, I've never not-liked the concept behind Spore. But the gameplay is repetitive and the world it's set in is impersonal and both are quite shallow. Spore doesn't make me FEEL, it doesn't intrigue me the way a game like this should. It doesn't produce that feeling of wonder or excitement that other games do/have, and it's entirely due to the fact that it's a very shallow game.

If Spore dropped a few of the editors--vehicle, building, clothing, etc--and focused more on giving the game a soul, I think I'd be a lot happier with it.

morphosiscraft wrote:

theultimateend wrote:

Hell HL2 in the Orange Box came with two of the most acclaimed games of the last year.

Portal and TF2

Oh, don't even get me started on Portal! *swoon*

You know, there was an earlier game with Portal's mechanics that failed, people just didn't buy it. It was some game about a guy rescuing a princess from a demon and he had to use portals to do it. People just didn't like the concept, I guess.

So they took that really awesome game mechanic of the portals and put them in a new game with a great idea of the science lab experiment thing. So sweet, very clever. GLaDOS is awesome, but the little turrets are probably my favorites. "Please come out so I can see you." LOL

That game had an incredible story... a bit short of a game, but it was worth the price!

RocketGirl wrote:

theultimateend wrote:
Hell HL2 in the Orange Box came with two of the most acclaimed games of the last year.

Portal and TF2

OMG, Portal...! Now THERE was a simple game with a lot of depth!

I mean, think about it...the concept of Portal is almost embarrassingly simple: blue portal, orange portal, jump, use, move...those are the only commands you get. Those are the only commands you NEED.
And around that, they crafted a world that is deep and rich and intriguing without ever allowing you to engage in dialogue, without filling the game with tons and tons of unique content. Heck, your worst enemies are those little robot dudes...and falling hazards.
...and yet Portal has to be one of the most beloved games I've seen, the very definition of instant classic. And it's not just for that song at the end!

The reason Portal is so beloved, though, is because of the intersection between gameplay and style/flavor. The gameplay was innovative and different and new, with lots and lots of possibilities for the player to be innovative as well. The world it was set in and the story told created a feeling and mood that really captured both the imagination and the theme of the game.
Between those two things, Portal turned a very simple concept into an award winner that people will talk about for years. Portal is like the Firefly of the gaming world, I think.

Now, Spore COULD have been this. Unfortunately, it's lacking in the two critical areas: gameplay and flavor.
Spore has a great concept, I've never not-liked the concept behind Spore. But the gameplay is repetitive and the world it's set in is impersonal and both are quite shallow. Spore doesn't make me FEEL, it doesn't intrigue me the way a game like this should. It doesn't produce that feeling of wonder or excitement that other games do/have, and it's entirely due to the fact that it's a very shallow game.

If Spore dropped a few of the editors--vehicle, building, clothing, etc--and focused more on giving the game a soul, I think I'd be a lot happier with it.

NOW THAT! was an excellent representation of this game. I was DRAWN into the world .. no more like ripped out of this one. That game bugged me out! Almost trippy.

Rush430 wrote:I'm not convinced that Maxis has all that much say about the business end of things here. I n any case I just wanted to say one thing about EA.

EA likes money. This is true of every company. But EA is also not stupid. If EA attempts to sell the things "left out of Spore" for $40 each in expansion packs then they will kill the majority of the market for Spore from both overpricing and popular backlash. ...

If I'm wrong that EA is too smart to kill off Spore, like everyone appears to be saying, then EA will deserve to lose our business then. I choose to wait and see what EA decides to do.

They are charging for a parts pack. A PARTS PACK! Dumb move, EA - it's one thing to charge for an expansion in a game like Diablo II, with new characters, abilities, and missions, but a parts pack? Not to mention the upcoming space "expansion" - a couple new abilities that should have been there from the beginning, and a mission creator so your customers can create new missions? Next you'll start charging us for each creation we download - what's better than capitalizing off of others' artistic efforts? Isn't that a little too similar to the pirated software sites that charge a membership fee? I love this game, it's absolutely amazing, but I just lost all respect for the company that sells it - the fundamental problem with the world today has it's roots in greed.

MrRogersHasAGun wrote:How is it a mod? It just runs off the same engine. It's still heavily modified. If you didn't know it had anything to do with Valva/Half Life would you assume it did?

Look at how many games run off the Unreal engine. They're not mods, they just share the same core code.

Styles420 wrote:

Rush430 wrote:I'm not convinced that Maxis has all that much say about the business end of things here. I n any case I just wanted to say one thing about EA.

EA likes money. This is true of every company. But EA is also not stupid. If EA attempts to sell the things "left out of Spore" for $40 each in expansion packs then they will kill the majority of the market for Spore from both overpricing and popular backlash. ...

If I'm wrong that EA is too smart to kill off Spore, like everyone appears to be saying, then EA will deserve to lose our business then. I choose to wait and see what EA decides to do.

They are charging for a parts pack. A PARTS PACK! Dumb move, EA - it's one thing to charge for an expansion in a game like Diablo II, with new characters, abilities, and missions, but a parts pack? Not to mention the upcoming space "expansion" - a couple new abilities that should have been there from the beginning, and a mission creator so your customers can create new missions? Next you'll start charging us for each creation we download - what's better than capitalizing off of others' artistic efforts? Isn't that a little too similar to the pirated software sites that charge a membership fee? I love this game, it's absolutely amazing, but I just lost all respect for the company that sells it - the fundamental problem with the world today has it's roots in greed.

The very IDEA of charging for a parts pack is not offensive to me. Especially considering the sheer AMOUNT of parts being added by this, and the fact that Maxis need to pay people to model and test these things.

However, the benefit...isn't worth $20 to me. Half that, and I'll probably consider it, since it has the same appeal to me as the Creature Creator(the FULL version being basically a Parts Pack for the free trial edition).

If they're going to charge $10 for the parts in the Creature Creator, I'd hope that the next Parts Pack would be $10.

I might change my mind if I see something really special about it, or I receive it as a holiday gift. However, it's just not at the price point where I can buy it on impulse, especially SO soon after I bought the full game.

But I can respect that Maxis wants to continue to expand on Spore and continue to make a profit off it. But I don't appreciate the current pricing.

gravelz wrote:Also, remove the SPORE "one account per CD key" SPORE.

Please see this thread