Spore finally sprouts

September 13, 2008 · Filed Under Entertainment, mo30dc2008 · Comments 

It seems like it’s been at least 2 full years since I first heard about this game called Spore. Finally, earlier this month, it hit the shelves.

Spore is a game created by the guy who created The Sims. In this game you start off as a tadpole, eat a bunch of food, grow, evolve and then move to land. Once on land you eat a bunch of food, grow, try to make friends to expand your pack and evolve some more. Eventually you build civilizations and take off in to space as well. I’m nowhere near that level yet. As a matter of fact, I haven’t even been able to make friends with any of the other species yet. I’m getting pretty good at attacking and eating them, though.

At each stage you get to edit your creatures. The edit tools are quite robust. I could see spending hours in that section alone. Several months before the game was released, they gave out some copies of the creature creator. Apparently some people started creating walking naughty bits. Apparently they started getting really good at creating them and they started showing up on flickr and youtube. The game makers scrambled to get the offending content down.

Another portion of the game that I have yet to get to is the ability to interact with creatures built by other people. I’m sorta hoping i run in to some of the adult content these people created. I think it would be funny to be running around and find a large set of boobs walking around hunting for food.

It’s too early to give a complete review of the game. I’ve been playing it for about 90 minutes and so far it’s pretty fun. There’s still a lot to figure out. But, I guess that’s what Sunday is for.

Here’s a snapshot of what my creature has evolved into so far.

Anybody else out there playing Spore? My account name is VegasGeek. Add me as a friend in the game so we can team up and take over the world.

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Rock Band and xBox 360

December 19, 2007 · Filed Under Geek Fun · Comments 

After all the delays waiting for the PS2 version of Rock Band, not to mention all the features that I would have been missing had I got the PS2 version to begin with, I went ahead and bit the bullet tonight. I went out and bought an xBox 360 and Rock Band. I’m so stoked.

New Toys 

The store was out of the middle of the road sized xBox 360, so I ended up getting the Halo 3 Special Edition. It comes with a couple games (not Halo 3, which I thought was odd) a battery charger and the unit itself is green and has some Halo 3 markings. I doubt it was worth the extra bucks I plunked down, but I was on a mission… they had me by the short and curlies.

After getting home with the goods, it took roughly an hour to unbox, unwrap and hook up all the pieces. The first thing I did was set up the video camera to capture the first time I played drums. I played on the easy level and I wasn’t entirely horrible. 92% playing Celebrity Skin by Hole.

I then played a few songs with my son. We switched back and forth between drums and guitar. I tried hooking up the microphone, but it didn’t seem to be working. Turns out, if you read some instructions once in a while, sometimes they have valuable information. I didn’t figure that out early enough, so I haven’t sung any songs yet. But, there’s always tomorrow.

I asked my wife if she wanted to play the drums. She played a couple songs and enjoyed it. She even mentioned playing some more in order to get better at playing. This makes me happy.

I sure hope I’m not too sick tomorrow and not able to make it in to work… That would be a real shame. OK, fine. I have 9 days off in row starting Saturday… I guess I can wait until then to rock my face off.

We’ll see.

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Rock Band for the PS2? Probably not before Christmas

December 18, 2007 · Filed Under Ranting · Comments 

Today was supposed to be the release date for Rock Band for Play Station 2. I took an early lunch break today at work to go out and buy it. I started out at Fry’s. I’m 99% certain that the lady I spoke with had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. I asked if they had the game for PS2. She sends me to a display up front and says if there are none up there, they are out. But, the thing is, the display was for Guitar Hero, not Rock Band. There was physically no space for boxes of Rock Band to have been sitting there at any point in time. I walked around for 5 minutes and then left.

 Next I went to Guitar Center. Yes, I know they sell REAL guitars there, but last month they were selling Guitar Hero 3 so I thought the trip was justified. Especially considering it’s in the same parking lot as Fry’s. Sadly, that was strike 2. However, the guy suggested I try the new Target store on Blue Diamond.

On the way to Target, I called Game Stop. They have a shipment in route, but it’s not arriving until Thursday. On top of that, they only have enough to cover their pre-sale orders.

At Target, I thought I struck gold. I walked to the back of the store, found the game section and THERE IT WAS! I could see 5 Rock Band boxes. When I got up close, 3 of them were for PS3 and 2 of them were for XBox 360. Poop. I found another shelf with more copies for the PS3. Asking the staff at Target was as helpful as the staff at Fry’s. They had no clue.

By this time my lunch break was mostly over. I headed back to work bummed out. After work I would try one more place. Toys R Us.

After stopping at our storage unit to pick up all the Christmas decorations, we headed to TrU. We found more copies of Rock Band for the PS3, but again, not for the PS2. We asked the lady behind the counter and she said that it has been delayed and they have no idea when it’s coming in. She sounded convincing (unlike the yahoos at Fry’s and Target) but I’m hoping she was wrong.

I have Rock Band pre-ordered through Amazon.com and yesterday they updated their release date for the game to say December 28th. I’m really hoping to have the game at the house before New Years Eve. We are going to have some friends over and I’m really looking forward to rocking our faces off!

Cross your fingers for me.

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