On Sunday, my girlfriend came home with Spore. For herself. Even though she knows I've been dying to play it. Instead, she played her copy of Spore, taunting me, and I couldn't help but watch with a dreamy expression on my face. Yes, I actually spent an entire day watching someone else play a game. =oP Although, I did design her Dragon people for her. In any case, that game is bad, horrible, awfully awesome, and it distracted me from getting anything done.

Who else has been unfortunate enough to be exposed to its addictive potential? What are your thoughts? Have pictures of the things you've created? Feel free to share and discuss.

There's my Hydralisk.

I have had this game for a quite a while. I would love to play it as much as you want to, but I can't :[! I think this game is just awesome. I especially love the cell stage, it's challenging and not too easy to get through(if you chose hard anyways). I haven't passed the tribal stage: here are 2 videos of me owning another tribe and one in creature creator !

Killing another tribe: http://www.xfire.com/video/2a707/ (Best viewed full screen)
Creature Creator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prRFrydmC_U

I would recommend giving it a try to anyone who wants it, however the Civilization age I found utterly dreadful.
I would have to review it by the ages, since, in essence, they are different games.

The Cell Age was probably my favorite age, I loved being a carnivore (and when I got the sucker, an omnivore), but it was too short to be enjoyed to it's full potential. The best description for it is Pac-man on steroids.
Gameplay: 9/10
Variety (IE: Cell Parts) 6/10
Difficulty: 7/10
AI: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

The Creature Age was like a half-assed MMORPG. It was fun, but too easy at the start, and just annoying at the end. I went Carnivore again, and never added any communication parts, and consequentially ended up being a lone wolf fighter.
Gameplay: 7/10
Variety: 8/10
Difficulty: 7/10
AI: 6/10
Overall: 7/10

The Tribal Age was my second favorite age, if only it was a little harder...I again dominated everything in sight. The AI was rather retarded, their attacks ridiculously easy to fend off, and each village offered no variety in the weapons they attacked with. On the bright side, I liked the food gathering system, and the general idea of the age.
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Variety: 7/10
Difficulty: 5/10
AI: 6/10
Overall: 7.5/10

The Civilization Age...I didn't even play for 5 minutes because it was so fucking retarded. The only units usable are the 3 vehicles you can create, and the gameplay idea was horrible. Overall, it sucked. Maybe it was just because I didn't play long enough, but I absolutely hated it.
Gameplay: 4/10
Variety: 8/10
Difficulty: N/A
AI: 5/10
Overall: 6/10

And finnaly, the Space Age; I found this a rather interesting Age, even if the invasion gameplay was quite repetitive and boring. The general idea was quite well thought out, with an actual story (albeit a basic one). Personally I only made 2 colonies, then just started blowing shit up, and helping out my 3 allies.
The PvM was another repetitive part of the game, basically all you do is point your laser and shoot, or in an invasion's case, drop bombs until the city is yours. However I found one thing ridiculously annoying, when the ships run from you and then, while you are following them, randomly heal, turn around, and start attacking again.
Gameplay: 8/10
Variety: 8/10
Difficulty: 7/10
AI: 6/10
Overall: 8/10

Wholefully agreed. While the entire game felt like the developers had worked a great deal more on the engine than the game itself, Civilization age was just terrible hands down. The AI in general is very bad for a game that starts picking up RTS aspects in tribal and after and from what I heard, space age just gets excessively more annoying as time passes. (I got bored of it pretty fast myself)

Overall the game is okay but it's just way too short. Cell age is gone in like 15 minutes... when it could have easily been expanded to be pretty epic. That was my most enjoyable stage and the game just got more ho hum for me as time passed. I think the game could have really benefited from an extra year or two in development so the actual gameplay could have been worked on a lot more. A lot of corners were cut and they stand out like a sore, bloodied thumb.

Also, EA's DRM is freaking stupid and I hope they fall on a spiked fence and kill themselves. (Good thing I don't have to deal with it).

But all of this is made up for by the epicness that is the Abduction ray. You can throw dudes into suns, send them into sustained orbit, and more. I show this in my newest video, XXE 4.2. It is amazing.

Also I made an Armageddon demon in it, the Animus.

The game is fucking awesome, but it's lacking a lot. The Cell Stage is probably my favourite, but it's too short. The gameplay for the cell stage is addictive and can be quite creative, but it's lack of development shows(few cells, dearth of parts).

The Civilization stage was a disgrace. It was repetitive, way too easy, and lacked any variety or strategy. The concept is pretty good, but it's so superficial is lacks re-playability.

Tribal Stage was interesting at times. This was another stage that had much potential but was generally pretty ignored.

Creature Stage has the MMO feel, which I found appealing. Of the first four stages, this one probably has the most detail and options available to you, but like every stage, lacks the depth you foresaw in the trailers.

Space stage is my favourite. While repetitive, your possibilities are endless and you can set any goal you desire. There is nothing more satisfying than incinerating a T3 or bringing an atmosphere-less iceball to supporting 3 colonies. Only problems here are lack of depth and repetiveness, again.

Got it a few days ago, main game is in the space age, I'm working my way to the galatatic core.

Recently been messing around making stuff with the editors. Currently flying around planet busting stuff in my Terran Banshee (from SC2)

Speaking of which, one thing that really annoyed me was that you couldn't tell what was reusable...The Planet Buster being a prime example. 5 Million fucking dollars to waste.

General rule, stuff on the bottom action bar has "ammo", stuff on the top is reusable. Doesn't apply to cargo bay obviously.

I didn't like the game, but I found a few things addictive.
The cell stage was the most enjoyable of them all, I like to munch on little buggers and poison larger ones.

The creature stage, ehh.... grinding and grinding and grinding.

The tribal stage was the point where I began to have second thoughts about the game.

Civili-crap-ation stage was when I decided Spore is a pile of steaming shit.

I never got to the space age, but Spore was something that I was worked over by EA, then crushed by it's below average quality.

My roomate got this game the day it came out. Here's my creature:
[attach=1806]

Attachments:

That rule doesn't work when you are BUYING weapons.

There are way too many penis creatures made from this game...

A couple NewGrounds members even made Penicorns...
I doubt anyone here knows what that is, but you can use your imagination.

I played it the day it came out at a friend's, and the cell stage was sweet. We got to civilization and while it was fun and all, his graphics card sucks so it looked really ugly. :[ Anyways, I probably won't get it for awhile. It didn't live up to my expectations, like every other game with a lot of hype, even though it is fun.

I never fall for hype, I just get games I think look good or are what I would like, and I predict i'll like this game enough to play it through.
As always: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/218-Spore