Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
95 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Note, this is not the actual Spore game!, 21 Jun 2008
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
I just thought I should warn anybody who is potentially confused that this is not the main Spore game. This is an additional kit that lets you design creatures without following the gradual progression involved with the main game. You can import creatures made by Creature Creator into the main Spore game if you own it. But you cannot play with the creatures you make with just this kit on its own. I know 99% of people will already know this, but there is room for confusion.
That said, Creature Creator is good fun. The design system in Spore is amazing. Constructing creatures is as simple as if you were using modelling clay. What amazes me is the freedom you have. You shape the creature's spine, drag limbs to any part of the body and shape them, add other parts and shape those too. The game rarely limits where you can attach things, so if you want you could have a creature that hangs below its legs, with its mouth on it's rear and eyes on it's stomach, or even more bizzare! It's not just a matter of choosing what combination of limbs you want, pretty much every aspect of the creature is controlled by you.
Yet amazingly you don't have to tell the game what moves where: the game animates the movements of even the most unusual creatures. On rare occasions I've had some animations that look a bit unusual, but even these are easily resolved (eg. just thin that part of the body, or move the arms a bit further from the head etc.).
But overall, I would simply suggest that you get the main Spore game (which of course lets you build creatures anyway) and buy this as an extra if you are particularly taken by the creativity aspect. I definitely wouldn't buy creature creator on its own.
|
|
|
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
My son thought it was a Spore add-on, but it killed off his main Spore game, 16 Jan 2009
Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars
My son [12] really likes Spore [the main game]. When he got a GAME voucher for Xmas he spent it on this cheap Spore Creature Creator thinking it was an add-on, i.e. more new fun creature parts for his Spore game. He installed Creature Creator himself without asking me for help [on his 'Spore' PC] and now neither this game or the Spore main game will run - Spore just instantly crashes back to desktop. So great! Creature Creator is little more than a pre-release demo of the Spore game's creature builder anyway - so just buy the proper Spore game now it's available.
Four uninstalls/reinstalls later and Spore still wouldn't run. Turns out EA Download Manager was somehow installed twice - I uninstalled one EA Download Manager but another was still lurking about unseen. Only when I looked in Program Files, EA Games did I find a left over EA Download Manager folder was still there, and it had another uninstall exe file [so I ran it]. Once EA DM was uninstalled [again], I reloaded Spore, and it sprang back into life! Major downside was that all my sons saved games were gone, which annoyed him greatly having lost billions of years work. Internet searches reveal that EA Download Manager often causes this fatal Spore conflict, and ironically you can't patch Spore without running it. Once all traces of EA Download Manager were removed I re-installed Spore from it's DVD and the latest version of Download Manager from Spore's website, and all now functions perfectly [with Spore faultlessly patching itself from v1.00 to v1.03]. So Creature Creator is now on the naughty list, and we won't install it on any of our PCs again. Installed on a Spore enabled PC, this Creature Creator 'game' never appeared on the PC anyway.
The idea of using this Creature Creator on a 2nd PC to create creatures seems the only use for this 'game', otherwise if you have Spore [the proper game] avoid this offering like the plague - but you might as well just buy another full Spore game licence now prices are falling. Irritating that EA Games haven't made sure that Spore can't be damaged by attempting to install this older Creature Creator sampler. What my son needed to add new body parts to the main Spore game was the £10 'Spore Cute & Creepy Parts' Pack - I have now ordered this for him as compensation for his bad experience with Creature Creater. Although this is beginning to look like the high cost of SIMS 2 ownership - whats next 'Spore Night Life'. Plus EA print the licence code on the inner booklet not the case or DVD - the perfect way to loose it with kids about [I now transcribe the activation code onto the back of the DVD case].
|
|
|
23 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fiver's worth of fun, 25 Jun 2008
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I don't care that this will be part of the main game to come - I'd hate to be so mean that I wouldn't buy this now because it's so much fun. The building system is very easy and right from the earliest components you add, the creature reacts to the building process (start with the mouth - that way you get 'comments' as you go along). Your creature shows its pleasure at the way you build it and this makes the urge to be creative really strong. There are seemingly infinite adjustments to each part you add and an enormous colour palette to choose from when you come to the painting stage. What really got me hooked, though, is the testing stage, when you find out how your creature moves, reacts...and dances. You can also blow a whistle to attract its attention to make it look at you. Best of all is the ability to hatch out up to three babies, who then attempt to recreate the movements of the adult, eventually, after mistaken efforts, moving in synch. All this can be recorded as still pictures or videos if you are so minded. A wonderful bargain - if you have nostalgic memories of plasticine (it's over fifty years since I last used it) you'll love it. It isn't a game, but it's not meant to be. It's a way of having fun. It can be used by fairly young children, who won't be buying the actual game anyway, so it's perfectly acceptable as a stand-alone product. I'm very pleased that EA has released this separately; I shall probably buy the game when it comes out, but I'll get plenty of use from this until then and pass it on to a young relative to have fun with.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
