See Senior Game Designer Alex Hutchinson of Maxis talk about the creature stage (or phase; they changed that again?), and watch woundrous creations dance, sing and interact with eachother in this brand new video!

Also, here’s four new screenshots!

Game sites are literally pumping out reviews for the soon to be released Creature Creator. IGN’s got a video review, along with Eurogamer, and GameSpy, GamesRadar and Joystiq all got regular hands-ons. The latter saying this:

There’s virtually no learning curve to the creator. It’s stupendously intuitive. Without even a shred of guidance, we were instantly resizing a colorful floating blob to form the body of our creature. This was the full version of the creator, so we had access to all of the various creature parts it ships with…

Remember that the Creature Creator will be included in the gold release of the full game, in case anyone was wondering.

The game looks more and more ready to ship - as it should. In this latest video you’ll see Will Wright talk about how science and Spore interconnects. The footage contains to much awesomeness to discuss here, so just enjoy and be amazed.

In other news the FAQ at the official site has been updated with info on the upcoming Creature Creator. Nothing new if you have been following the news.

The cell phase is looking really cool, as shown in ten new screenshots and this video:

The specs required to run the upcoming Creature Creator are now known to all mankind. Rejoice:

• 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
• XP: 512 MB RAM / Vista: 768 MB RAM
• At least 300 MB of hard drive space for installation, plus additional space for created creatures. (600 MB for digital download)
• A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0*

Expect final requirements for the full game to be fairly close to these. A complete fact sheet can be found here.

Spore is set to use an online authentication system, most likely to prevent and hinder illegal distribution of the game. In an open letter to Spore fans Caryl Shaw, online producer, gives us the following information regarding this “feature”:

• We authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time.
• We’ll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads new content or a patch for their game.
• The new system means you don’t have to play with the disc in your computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a huge benefit.
• You’ll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.
• You can play offline.

Whether this means they will be using Sony’s SecuROM or another specially adapted anti-piracy tool is still somewhat unclear. We have probably not heard the last of this.

Seems that the actual EA Store had the wrong date on the release of the Creature Creator. It’s June 17, not 15. And voilà, here’s the box art.

(snatched from the Spore newsletter )

The official site has been updated with two new videos - the second part of studio stories and some footage from Yuri’s Night.

They’ve also updated the FAQ with a few answers to Creature Creator questions. Nothing new if you are up-to-date with the latest going-ons.

The standalone Spore Creator Creator is now available for preorder at the EA Store, and will ship June 15. As previously observed the price is set to $9.99. Also note that it will be available as a direct download.

Maxis veteran Thomas Vu sat down with Play to answer a few questions about Spore. We seem to get a definite answer regarding what platform versions are planned; PC, Apple Macintosh, Nintendo DS, and Mobile Cell phones. Furthermore here’s what he has to say about the ending:

This may surprise Maxis fans, but Spore does have an ending, though it is probably not what you’d expect. Players can continue playing past the end if they choose to and continue to explore the hundreds of thousands of planets that populate the Spore galaxy. We are not ready to announce what the end of the game will be, but trust that it will take a dedicated player some time to complete the game.

Don’t forget to stop by our YouTube Channel now and then. There are some more videos there apart from what we delivered earlier this week.