Anyone else looking forward to SPORE as much as I am? I certainly think so.
Probably not for the same reasons, mind.
A main point for me, no matter which game I play, be it real-time-strategy, first-person-shooter, beat-'em-up or action game, is customisation.
You have to realise that when you pick up a game, pop it in and play it, most people are happy with what they get. They get a character or two, a story, personalities and amazing situations (well, unless you play the Sims, but that hardly counts as a game, does it), all created by someone with a world of their own in mind.
I'm never happy with this. I play games and look through what we get, and the first thing I always want to know is: All well and good, but how about what I want? I don't want to play as an army of pointy-eared nazi elf bastards, I want to play as an army of giant floating eyeballs with bat wings and a fondness for books. Heck, I don't want an army, I want a horde, a rabble, a mob!
As a result I often come across as a bitching, miserable bastard who's never satisfied and won't be unless he has something to complain about. Which isn't entirely true.
I lust after customisation and definition; when I play a game with someone else, they can pick one of the out-of-the-box factions or characters or cars, whatever. I want to be able to say, 'You know what? I'm going to use my own creations.' Be it a car made out of cheese and dreams or a fighter whose special move is called The Nostril Raper (left-left-right-medium punch and medium kick together!), I don't want to use what I'm told to use, I want something I've made for myself!
Which is why SPORE is going to become (possibly; Dawn of War 2 has yet to be finished) my favourite videogame. The level of control and customisation is extraordinary, and the possibilities near-endless. Over a million creatures have been donated to the SPORE galaxy already, and I haven't added any thanks to my lack of a 'net connection (though I have 18 and counting ready to go).
To summarise, go and look at the site, download the trial, get the creature editor and for the sake of the God-Emperor, get SPORE the moment it comes out.
DO IT.
Love, Odsox
P.S. Just for the record, my creatures are all middling to high levels of effort; I average two hours per creature. The only ones that I feel really belong to me are the Odling, the Lankiflora, the Rumblebum and the Vicious Bastard. Copyright (as much as that's possible :S), motherfuckers!