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Protospore
August 16th 2008, 04:21 CEST by BobJustBob Maxis/EA have quietly been releasing new programs to their Spore site. These are unpolished, mostly undocumented development prototypes used to test and balance gameplay concepts. Such as the ParticleMan prototype, which comes from early in the process when the game was still being called SimEverything. The plan was for the game to simulate an entire universe, with you or some procedural generation algorithm manipulating gravity and space dust in order to coalesce planets on which life would later hopefully arise. A few of these prototypes are almost playable games and the rest are interesting simulations if you can figure out what the hell is going on. For example, some of the Gaming Steve forum members delved into BIOME and crafted their own rulesets. I'm amazed that Maxis is willing to release these. I can only imagine the deluge of help requests they must be receiving from people who ignore the fact that this is unsupported software. Or what kind of backlash this could cause; if people cancel planned purchases based on demos, are they likely to do the same here? Might these actually increase sales? It does seem like a nice way to lead up to release and keep the hype level up. In what turned out to be the final issue of Games For Windows Magazine, the massive Sims 3 preview included a description of some similar prototypes that were supposed to be released on 1up.com. They never were. I hold out hope that Maxis is going to do something similar and trickle them out as that game's release nears next year. Spore is just a little over three weeks away at this point, coming out on Sunday September 7th. I hope for many more prototypes to be released before then. In the meantime, get to downloading and let the rest of us know how you got that binary planetary system to form. |
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Oh Em to the motherfucking Gee!, there's a layer to Braid I hadn't picked up on at all. Jesus Christ there are some well-hidden objects in that game! "GUY WHO OUTRANKS YOU: Take Superfly here and reconfooble the energymotron."
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Tried them all except for SPUG. Space is definitely the best of the group. I'd say you shouldn't even bother with ParticleMan, BIOME or Cell Culture. |
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I ended up YouTubing some of the super-über-tricky stuff in Braid. There's this great three-tiered YouTube video I luckily came across that tries to spoil you gently. First it just tells you which levels you should focus on, after that it gives a hint for each level as to what to do, and only then does it show everything step-by-step. It worked out great, because I seriously had no fucking clue what to do or what to look for. But watching the first segment sent me investigating with renewed vigor, I ended up playing the whole game from scratch and had my mind blown all over again. I ultimately had to dive partially into the 2nd segment for a couple of them though, kinda sucks but I tried my best to only step-frame through the spoilars and still work out as much as possible by myself. There were still two that I had to give up on and just spoiled my way to victory, I hope Mr. Blow can forgive me. Good times. The game's been worth the 1200 points to say the least, I still think it's damn brilliant. "GUY WHO OUTRANKS YOU: Take Superfly here and reconfooble the energymotron."
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I can't forgive you. I figured out every damn puzzle in Braid on my own and I shall look down upon you until the end of time. Noob. "That's not to say that games shouldn't have stories, I just think the story should be the player's story, and find more ways to celebrate and promote that, rather than the game designer's story that you're imposing upon them." - Will Wright
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Did I miss the post where bob bought a 360 or is he secretly a time traveler? Don't forget garnishes such as: Fish shaped solid waste.
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If you include the stars in your statement then I am impressed. "GUY WHO OUTRANKS YOU: Take Superfly here and reconfooble the energymotron."
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#55 by None-1a Did I miss the post where bob bought a 360 or is he secretly a time traveler? Bob was part of the beta. He's playing on PC. Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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I don't know if the stars are in the version I had. But no. Still, better than you. Next time I complain about the three health points in Mario Galaxy, you'll have to find something else to impugn me with besides my supposed lack of skill at games. Pwn. "That's not to say that games shouldn't have stories, I just think the story should be the player's story, and find more ways to celebrate and promote that, rather than the game designer's story that you're imposing upon them." - Will Wright
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No stars no glory boy, get them and your words might ring slightly less hollow. "GUY WHO OUTRANKS YOU: Take Superfly here and reconfooble the energymotron."
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So random things I noted while playing Soul Calibur 4 for PS3 for a half hour: First makes you download a patch from PSN when you put the game in. It will take 16 MB of your hard drive space. They make you sit through this long silly opening crawl in story mode. The load times are crazy long. Now it says that I leveled up? What am I leveling up in Soul Calibur for? I'm totally button mashing. Now there is a cinematic leading too...? Nothing in particular? Just random artwork. That load time is way too long to require confirmation after its over, unless the confirmation is much more conspicuous. You also can't pause the game in the middle of a splash screen at the end or between rounds. This leads to the enemy on his way to charging you when you're trying to pause. Some matches get long and you want to pause it so you can take a break. The AI has almost figured out my strategy of button mashing by side stepping. I can't find any kind of sweeping attack to catch them sideways. |
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hmm... my japanese sucks... I can't understand anything they are saying in these cinematics The Kingdom of Wolfcrame is Victorious! looks like I beat the game totally button mashing and now a long credits sequence. |
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Are you liking it? "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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On the 360 there's no noticeable loading, but I only played VS mode, so that could explain it. Lizardman has the 300 kick. Yoda sucks. |
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They should have just put the Highlander in. Not that big of a departure from any of the existing fighters so they wouldn't have to go and try to make it unbalanced like they did for yoda and the apprentice. |
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I'm liking it because its mindless and I'm trying to unwind today. |
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who is the apprentice? |
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He's secret. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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Darth Vader is meh... |
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i haven't noticed any crazy loading times on my version. "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" - "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely."
"LP, your big balls are a religion." - Jibble |
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maybe I'm impatient. |
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Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say? |
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I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience. |
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This is what you get for playing idiotic fighting games. Invention is the Green Goblin of Necessary Lemonade.
--Flowers |
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There's totally loading in the 360 version. I mean, it's not at all horrible but it's certainly there. "Bioshock, sadly, is no Painkiller." - BobJustBob
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Smash Brothers is fun. "That's not to say that games shouldn't have stories, I just think the story should be the player's story, and find more ways to celebrate and promote that, rather than the game designer's story that you're imposing upon them." - Will Wright
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Idiotic fighting games rock. Those who disagree are broken. |
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I like this part HAHA Maxis/EA have quietly been releasing new programs to their Spore site. These are unpolished, mostly undocumented development prototypes used to test and balance gameplay concepts. Such as the ParticleMan prototype, which comes from early in the process when the game was still being called SimEverything. The plan was for the game to simulate an entire universe, with you or some procedural generation algorithm manipulating gravity and space dust in order to coalesce planets on which life would later hopefully arise. A few of these prototypes are almost playable games and the rest are interesting simulations if you can figure out what the hell is going on. For example, some of the Gaming Steve forum members delved into BIOME and crafted their own rulesets. I'm amazed that Maxis is willing to release these. I can only imagine the deluge of help requests they must be receiving from people who ignore the fact that this is unsupported software. Or what kind of backlash this could cause; if people cancel planned purchases based on demos, are they likely to do the same here? Might these actually increase sales? It does seem like a nice way to lead up to release and keep the hype level up. In what turned out to be the final issue of Games For Windows Magazine, the massive Sims 3 preview included a description of some similar prototypes that were supposed to be released on 1up.com. They never were. I hold out hope that Maxis is going to do something similar and trickle them out as that game's release nears next year. Spore is just a little over three weeks away at this point, coming out on Sunday September 7th. I hope for many more prototypes to be released before then. In the meantime, get to downloading and let the rest of us know how you got that binary planetary system to form. |
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Copypastebot? Also, Spore comes out three weeks from today. Hooray! "That's not to say that games shouldn't have stories, I just think the story should be the player's story, and find more ways to celebrate and promote that, rather than the game designer's story that you're imposing upon them." - Will Wright
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Hello Suriname!? "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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Icon or GTFO. Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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My xbox RROD'd! |
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Did I mention Mass Effect is awesome? Because it is. Sabrina Poirier, a student at Pensacola who withdrew in 1997, was disciplined for what is known on the campus as "optical intercourse" — staring too intently into the eyes of a member of the opposite sex. This is also referred to as "making eye babies."
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Spore will suck. Gogo wotlk. |
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Mass Effect was awesome, and could be awesome again with more DLC. Game Developers: Don't forget the zombie monkeys.
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#81 by Squeaky My xbox RROD'd! My xbox died, so I bought a new one. One with an hdmi port. |
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You certainly don't fuck around. Was it off warranty? Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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#86 by Shadarr You certainly don't fuck around. Was it off warranty? Dunno. I'm gonna call MS tomorrow and find out. If it is under warranty, I'll just return the new one (maybe). I always did want one with an HDMI port, so maybe I'll keep the new one and give the other one to my brother-in-law. |
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Give? Dude wtf. |
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dude, just look at the MFG date on the back. If it's under 3 years, it's under warranty. Go online, fill out a form, end of story. "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" - "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely."
"LP, your big balls are a religion." - Jibble |
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make more headlines failtards! |
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Isn't the RROD supported for ever and ever now, not just three years? "the concept that a happy worker is a productive worker is hardly an entry from Matt's Big Book Of Things The Fairies Said." - Dum
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No. "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" - "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely."
"LP, your big balls are a religion." - Jibble |
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Email Bill Gates |
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Wow, there's a whole Wikipedia article on RROD. I didn't know this: "All repairs provide a one year warranty from the date of repair, or continuation of the original warranty (whichever is longer)." So if you got your xbox repaired on month 35 of your 36 month warranty, you have another year on it. blog | photoblog | PlanetCrap Flickr group
"It was a little hard to tell how bad I was bleeding on account of the salsa" -- Jibble |
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I've hit the dreaded RROD once. I hope to never see it again! /me hides in fear. "the concept that a happy worker is a productive worker is hardly an entry from Matt's Big Book Of Things The Fairies Said." - Dum
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I didn't get the RROD or any other error message, but mine did get flaky to the point where it would randomly lock up. I sent it in and they sent me a replacement very quickly. blog | photoblog | PlanetCrap Flickr group
"It was a little hard to tell how bad I was bleeding on account of the salsa" -- Jibble |
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I have a launch 360 that has not RROD'd, which pretty much makes me believe that I will be buying a second one. :-( |
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McBain (#97): I have a launch 360 that has not RROD'd, which pretty much makes me believe that I will be buying a second one. :-( I don't think all of them die. Just 95%. Good luck! "the concept that a happy worker is a productive worker is hardly an entry from Matt's Big Book Of Things The Fairies Said." - Dum
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my launch 360 RRod about 4 months ago. Was about a 2 week turn around time, but now I don't trust it and find myself buying PS3 versions of games if they are on both consoles. "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes" - "He has testicles, and they dangle nicely."
"LP, your big balls are a religion." - Jibble |
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Toys R Us is having a Buy 1, get 1 50% off sale on Xbox 360 games. I wouldn't mind picking up Soul Calibur 4, but I'm having trouble coming up with a second game to justify spending $90 on two games at once when I still have a backlog and plan on buying Rock Band 2 on release day. Hit me with suggestions. blog | photoblog | PlanetCrap Flickr group
"It was a little hard to tell how bad I was bleeding on account of the salsa" -- Jibble |
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