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SPORE by Electronic Arts

EA screws itself

Written by JM from Salisbury

Sep 17, 2008

This IS a great game but DRM completely ruins it.

203 of 337 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Not Impressed

Written by PF from WEST HOLLYWOOD

Oct 6, 2008

Beware that this game has a frightening digital rights management system (DRM) that prevents you from installing it more than three times or selling it to another party when you're done with it without giving them your personal information and having your name linked with the account. Forever.

I have a MacBook Pro 2.4 dual core with 4GB ram and the 256 Video and still have problems with the planets rendering properly and the game frequently crashing.

The game play itself is quickly stale and not much fun when slogging through frequent technical problems.

I do NOT recommend this game. I recommend saving your money for something else if you can. If you have played World of Warcraft and expect that level of integration and performance you'll be sadly disappointed.

91 of 125 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Crashes on Start

Written by TC from Fort Lauderdale

Sep 24, 2008

I purchased three copies of this game, one for myself and two for family members who also have Macs. (Mine is a Mac Pro, theirs are a MacBook and MacBook Pro).

I've been playing games since I purchased my Apple II 30 years ago. I've got one big pet peeve....when you pay $50.00 for a game and it hangs on start. That's exactly what this game did at the splash screen. (The machine in question is in perfect working condition and has no problems running any other software). I have some sympathy for developers when this happens in a Windows environemnt due to the wide disparity of hardware configurations but in a Mac world (IMHO) this just shouldn't happen if the software vendor has completed proper QA testing prior to release. Shame on you EA!

EA, if you don't want to see alot more posts like this I strongly suggest you release that patch you are already teasing us with on your website that is in the making due to "reported instability and compatibility issues." Once the game actually runs, I'll reconsider my rating.

104 of 170 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

DO NOT BUY - PATCH FAILS

Written by VC from Honolulu

Nov 8, 2008

EA has not addressed a patch failure for this program. The patch does not install properly and you will be stuck in an infinite loop where it keeps trying to install the patch and it fails. Search the Internet for this issue, it is widely known, yet EA does not address it.

49 of 72 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Not Compatible with Snow Leopard as of 9/28/09

Written by JG from Currituck

Sep 28, 2009

Since upgrading to Snow Leopard, I have not been able to play "Spore." As a previous reviewer noted, the game will lock up about every 10 minutes or so, and no commands to close the program will work. Your only option is to hold down the power button until the computer shuts off.

I am running a MacBook Pro that is well within the "recommended" system requirements.

32 of 39 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Interesting idea, too short and anti-climatic

Written by JC from West Hempstead

Sep 21, 2008

The theory of this game is really interesting, but it is unbelievably short- i beat it in about four hours. It is also really repetitive, almost all of the stages are the same exact thing and they're not really fun. The game is definitely not worth $50, it should probably be around $20 (max) only because of the graphics. If i could go back I would not buy the game again.

45 of 71 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Spore no more

Written by JM from Marion

Sep 20, 2008

After purchasing the Galactic Edition with great anticipation, I was bitterly disappointed to find that after three hours of trying to install the game, I ended up having to use my recovery disks to get my computer back. Even Time Capsule/Time Machine was of no help. I have seen many similar reviews, and I truly thought, "This happens to others, never to me," because I have never had an installation problem with any product in recent years. I have concluded Spore no more.

51 of 84 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

SPORE = BORE!

Written by MS from Longview

Sep 26, 2008

I gave in to the hype and purchased Spore. Good grief! How do they expect good reviews from a game that has no adventure or entertainment value after you create your creature? This is ridiculous! The DRM is also a shameful addition, and EA should be ashamed of themselves for playing the Microsoft game with that stupid DRM. One user per purchase? Get real! The "wow" factor goes away quickly once the game begins. Repetitive, repetitive, repetitive = boring. SPORE = BORE!

40 of 74 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

DONT BUY

Written by RM from alexandria

Dec 27, 2008

I have wasted hours trying to get the game to install and work correctly. Called Apple, EA and contacted Intel as well. Dont waste your time, this game was not meant to run on a Mac, they will say things about not supporting this card or that. I have the correct hardware, it wont work right. Even with Windows and boot camp, you may still have major problems. Dont take my word for it, take a look at the gillions of forums and threads. Some games just have too many issues. I know people who have Macs and PCs and have fun and run it fine, but the odds are much against you. Dont try it unless you feel very lucky.

20 of 38 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Disappointing

Written by TM from Orlando

Sep 16, 2009

This is not a native mac application - it's the windows version running with WINE, which I'm guessing is the source of many of the problems others are reporting. I've also had problems getting the software to work after any updates are applied. After reinstalling from the disk I was able to launch the application only if I declined the updates.

11 of 21 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Lame Gameplay and Draconian DRM.

Written by CJ from longmont

Jun 21, 2009

Spore was touted as a revolutionary gaming experience in the way that the evolution that took place during the game somewhat reflected real life. This is not the case with Spore. You can add as many legs on your monster as you want but it doesn't make any game play difference other than cosmetic. Also the copyright protection is horrible. You have to verify your copy over the internet and you can only install it 3 times and it then its useless. This is a typical DRM nightmare.

6 of 12 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Got boring real fast

Written by MH from Provo

Jan 16, 2009

While the concept is interesting, I found the implementation poor. There was so much that could have been done better that would have kept the thing interesting, and that they start to do, but it seems to me that they got distracted by the gaming aspect of it.

If you are really interested in this kind of thing, try to find Creatures3. It does not run on Macintosh in OSX but it will under windows and it is a much more interesting program.

7 of 29 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Doesn't work with Parental Controls

Written by AL from Hauser

Jun 22, 2009

Installed and tested the game as admin, then tried to let the child play under a different account managed with Parental Controls.

The game would not start for the Parental Controls account. Would just abort with "Cannot contact the licensing server. Try again later." Called EA tech support that evening and got sent into a maze of teleprompts that ended with "We are now closed. Please call during business hours."

I found a post that said you can (as admin) right click Spore.app in Applications folder, Show Package Contents, go into Macos folder, and delete the cider_noui file and then the game will start for the child. True it does start, but this is going to break again at the next patch/update.

This game is a stupid waste of money.

14 of 48 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

over-rated, (not a drm complaint)

Written by CA

Oct 11, 2008

its like 4 games in one, and all 4 games couldnt stand alone ( the stages are under-developed and quickly boring)

the excitement runs out after about 2 days.

30 of 81 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Two in one

Written by DD from West Jordan

Oct 30, 2008

This game was so awesome and I loved it until it turned into World of War Craft which is the stupidest game ever created and the same is with any other game like it. Don't buy this unless that is what you like they should have stuck with how it was at the beginning instead of changing the game once you get to tribal stage. I suppose it is a good thing I hate this game now because it was taking away from homework time.

14 of 56 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Grr

Written by SJ

Oct 20, 2008

I spent all of my birthday money on this game and believe me I dont get much for my birthday and i cant even play it. It dosnt work on my 2 year old mac, my dads or any of my friends computers. I rly rly want to play it but iv owned it for 2 months and i havnt even gotten to play it.
I did mangie to download it on my dads computer but it wouldn't play so i took it off his computer and know im pretty sure it will not play on any other computer ever again.

65 of 190 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Dissapointing game play

Written by BC from Folsom

Sep 23, 2008

I have been waiting for this game for years, and bought it the day it was released. I spent an entire afternoon playing with it, all the way to the Space stage... and have not really touched it since.

Someone else described it best as "the world's largest kiddie pool. 5 miles wide and three feet deep."

I'd add... as designed by Disney.

Once you realize that most of the changes you make, such as the shape, color, and to a large degree, the behavior, or your creature doesn't matter except as an animation, it becomes less interesting. Adding more legs does not change the speed. Longer or stronger arms does not affect combat. Changing the eyes does not affect vision.

Pretty much no matter what you do, you'll always end up in the same place.

And that gets boring too quickly.

122 of 161 people found this useful

SPORE by Electronic Arts

Crashes during loading of civilization stage...

Written by DS from Altamonte Springs

Sep 15, 2008

Loved this game... from the cell stage through the creature stage, where the possibilities seem limitless, on to the tribal stage... but then, exception error, can't advance to the civilization stage no matter how many times I try. Running the game on a brand new Mac, and I get a division by zero error and the game exits to the desktop every time. Put a ticket in to EA Games... waiting for a reply. Sure would love to evolve!

83 of 119 people found this useful