I first learned about Spore yesterday, although I’m sure I’ve heard about it before. Spore is a game that is going to come out for both the PC and the Mac. I’m not really a gamer anymore (although you’d think otherwise by my previous PlayStation 3 posts) but having heard the premise of Spore got me excited. The kind of game you always thought would be cool but never thought someone would make.
Spore is basically an evolutionary game. You start off as a single cell organism (or a spore) and through limited movement and eating you start to evolve into a more complex creature. After you “evolve” you can select what traits your creature will have. This can be from a set of eyes, a defense or attack mechanism, or a tail to swim/move faster, etc. Image everything you learned in biology, but you’re in complete control. Theoretically, no two players will have the same experience as you due to your personal choices and the fact that other creatures and elements in the world also evolve as you do in a completely random (procedural) manner. The world is affected by what you do.
There are several phases to this game, each with it’s own gameplay. The first is the “tide pool” phase where you are the spore, the gameplay here is reminiscent to pac-man. As you evolve you enter the “creature” phase, where you control your creature from a 3rd person point of view. Here you develop by eating smaller creatures, mating, and simply surviving. The next phase is the “tribal” phase where by increasing your brain capacity and amount of creatures (by mating of course) you create a small tribe. You’re able to evolve by working together as a tribe and competing with other tribes. The following phase is the “civilization” phase where your creatures have evolved enough to build cities and other modern contraptions. After the civilization phase comes the “space” phase. In this phase you are able to explore the local solar system through your UFO. By upgrading the UFO enough you can inhabit planets in which life can be supported, eventually even inhabitable planets can be converted to habitable planets by creating an atmosphere. It is even possible to venture out of the local solar system and into neighboring galaxies.
The potential to this game is completely limitless. It is truly an amazing concept that brings to life what you learned in school. It seems that the evolutionary process has been very well studied and reacts extremely realistically in the environments. For example, should you “abduct” a creature from your planet with your UFO and drop them on a moon, they will realistically die from the lack of oxygen. Examples such as this are present throughout the game and make it very VERY interesting (and time consuming I suppose).
For more information, check out the above video of actual gameplay footage from 2005 or visit the wikipedia entry for spore.
While I always liked James Blunt’s infectious single “You’re Beautiful” I always thought he was a one hit wonder. I never listened to the full album, but I did purchase the above track off of iTunes. It’s my most played song actually (I’m not exactly sure why). I recently downloaded both of his albums and I was simply amazed.
Not often do you have an artist who can make a good album, let alone make two good albums and have the latter surpass the original. I believe his second album is a stronger, more structured, more defined album. My favorite song being Shine On. Somehow most of these songs feel like I’ve already heard them. There’s an air to them that’s hard to explain. A strange mix of old and new. Elton John and Coldplay.
Anyway, I youtube’d Shine on by James Blunt and found the above video. At first I laughed at his expression while performing the song, but later realized how brilliant this performance is. Maybe it’s just him being extremely high, but his eyes and his expression just tell a tale. From the lost and panic in his eyes to the way he confronts the audience looking for an answer. I believe this is the most simple yet powerful performance I’ve seen in a very long time.
James Blunt has obliviously made an impact on me and I’m sure countless others. Hopefully he and others can continue to make impressive performances like this and forget about all the fireworks, lights, and sound effects that just get in the way of the message.
So come yesterday night I was surprised to hear that Demonoid may had been shut down by the Canadian entity that represents the Evil Empi…er the RIAA. So I dropped to my knees and let out some screams of pain and anguish, like kid who just saw his puppy ran over by an 18-wheeler, and then wondered what will happen with my torrent needs. Lost with no answers to be found, it hit me: Demonoid can’t be gone..right??
Demonoid was (still is?) one of the best torrent sites out there. It took the lead from the massacred Suprnova.org before it made its triumphant return by the hand of the Pirate Bay recently. It was a well stocked placed for all your needs. From music to Mac Apps, the demon had it all. But now, it was all gone. What about my decent share ratio? My future plans of apps to try (to then maybe buy)?? All gone, so it seems..
Not really. Recent news from the battlefront shed a light of hope upon the comeback of the Demon(oid). Nobody really knows what happend. Was the site, raided by authorities? put offline because their Windows NT machine decided to crap out on them? somebody forgot to hit the switch to the ON position? It’s all a mystery as of this writing. What we know for sure is that the site is offline. Captain Obvious with the breaking news!
I can only hope that Demonoid doesn’t bite the dust. Now yes piracy is bad and all that, but still.. We all torrent something every now and then. At the same time, I do try to purchase software that’s worth it (Apple’s OSX releases i.e.). Disclaimer of rightfulness aside, long live the Demonoid.
Regards tony
im not shy in public toilets anymore.
nazmi Kossa
*Sigh* Every morning I’m greeted by at least 20 of these. Not to mention the extra 50 or so that come in during the day.
I found this one to be pretty funny though. I still don’t know what the point of these emails is but I worry more about who actually falls for these scams.
Just a dose of humor and a needed update to the blog.
This adorable daschund (aka the “Hot Dog” dog) suffers from narcolepsy (sleeping disorder). Watch the video above for yourself. IT’S HILARIOUS!Even my girlfriend which has a daschund of her own found it cute/funny.
Last night I came across a website with the above ad and I was laughing out loud yet shocked all at once.
Considering that it’s a google ad, I’m extremely surprised that this is for real. Either google has loosened up a bit or this slipped through its radar. Either way, it’s still hilarious. And NO, I’m not racist and shame on you for not being able to see the funny-factor in this.
So today Apple flipped the switch on their, previously announced, Ringtones service for the iPhone. Funny thing is, that the Ringtones category is only suppose to show up when you dock your iPhone. Well, turns out I can purchase ringtones for my non-existing iPhone! How nice of you Apple..From vintage list of iTunes purchases that I made moons ago, there’s only one song that I can “Ringtone”. The chosen song: Aretha’s I say a little prayer … Now I can explain, parents bought that not me. C’mon…. serious man..Now if only Apple would send me an iPhone to go along with the moment I wake up..before I put on my makeup..
Considering the lack of games and demos the PS3 currently has to offer you can imagine my frustration at realizing that some game demos wouldn’t output sound. I did notice a pattern, only EA (Electronic Arts) sports demos seem to have the problem. It first occurred with Nascar 08, then Tiger Woods 08, and finally NBA 08 but oddly enough NBA 07 worked just fine.
So I spent a while online looking for others with the same problem and noticed there are quite a few with the same problem but there were no answers. I decided to dive in and try to find a solution on my own and was surprised to find the fix is pretty simple.
First your going to enter the sound Sound Settings (the speaker icon) under the Settings menu (the toolbox icon) in the home menu. Go to Audio Outputs Settings and then select your cable connection for your audio (I have an Optical cable, so I chose Digital Out). The picture below might help.
Your then presented with all the Audio Output settings your PS3 can output. I had them ALL selected, but deselecting the top two and leaving AAC and below checked solved my sound problem with the demos. The picture below will give you a better idea.
You might have to play with different sound outputs to see what works for you. Like I said, for my sound receiver selecting AAC and below works just fine. I guess my receiver can’t handle the Dolby Digital/DTS audio outputs (although I thought that the Kenwood VR-209 had these outputs) or maybe EA sports programmers need to find a way to make their demos audio work better.
Oh well, at least my PS3 isn’t a sitting duck with these games and I was able to get it working just in time for this weeks demo release of FIFA 08 (by EA sports no less *SIGH*)
Having had the PS3 for a good two weeks now, I have had enough time to play with it to post my thoughts on it.
I hate to say it, but there’s little great about it right now(there is hope in this view). It sucks to spend $600-700 in a system, extra controllers, cables, warranty, etc. and then realize you have NOTHING to use it for. The only thing I’ve been able to use it for is to play the 3 blu-ray movies I bought (honestly, how many times can you watch the same shit over and over), the Playstation Network (PSN) games I’ve bought like fl0w, calling all cars, and super puzzle fighter (which is awesome), and finally Warhawk (which is OK).
I knew what I was getting into though. I knew games for it weren’t going to be released until September or October and on. It’s just hard to not think how much fun (and usage) I could be having playing with a TON of downloadable or some affordable games on the Xbox 360 or playing online with the few friends that actually an Xbox 360 (and not a PS3). It’s also hard to think of what the people that have bought the PS3 last year have been through.
The most usage I get from the PS3 is playing two or three Super Nintendo quality games with my girlfriend or in multiplayer. I’m using a $500-600 system to play revamped 1996 content. Makes me wonder why I didn’t just plug in my Nintendo.
I know things will get better and the Playstation 3 IS a better “investment” for the long run and it’s only a matter of time until things match up (or exceed) competition. It’s a more elegant system and it oozes of good engineering and quality and I honestly rather own the PS3 than the Xbox 360 on the hardware side of things (just feels like better quality). Having said that, it would have been probably been wiser to have gotten the Xbox 360 for a good year or two and by the time the PS3 had some great content, make the switch.
When the PS3 software/features/content match up to the Xbox 360, the PS3 will win hands down in my book (this is why I have hope).
