CVG is spawning articles like there’s no tomorrow. This time we get a thourough look at all the phases and their look and feel. The previewer Ed Zitron sounds pretty excited on the outlook of Spore.

As Spore stands, it’s unbelievably beautiful and mesmerising. Will Wright and Maxis may very well have created something with the mass-appeal of the original Sims, with elements to draw in tougher-edged gamers in the Civilization and Space Age modes - though their complexity does remain to be seen.

Five more months on Monday!

ComputerAndVideoGames.com got a one-page preview up that delivers some interesting pieces to the puzzle. Editor Tom Francis tells us of maracas producing factories, the art of diplomacy, and the epic monsters you might encounter during the different phases of the game.

…that race of fanged bunnies you experimented with on your first time through may come back to haunt you in hundred-foot-high form.

We are also told that the five sub-games are simple but addictive, and that you can unlock new features and bodyparts by eating and studying other creatures.

British based magazine Total PC Gaming got a huge preview of Spore in their latest issue. Captainrave over at hookedonspore.com got a hold of it and reports the following:

• You don’t have to evolve if you don’t want to. Create a super creature at any stage.
• After you’ve reach the tribal phase you can longer evolve physically.
• Civilization phase will feature different stages like medieval, modern and future.
• There are over 500,000 procedurally generated star systems in the game.
• EA promises to bring us the standalone editor soon!

What EA showed us was almost the complete game - every phase, plus their respective editors, with virtually no glitches. The only thing that remains to be seen is Spore’s online features” - Confirming what we already thought. Much of the work now is on the online part of the game.

More of this and scanned images can be found here. Hurry on and get it if you can! Below is the cover.

A new video of Will Wright demoing Spore has popped up on youtube. It’s a 5 minute talk Will gave at Gadgetoff 2007 in New York. In it, Will creates a new creature, walks around a very interesting looking forest and encounters a HUGE creature! The game is looking even more polished and I’m dying to get my hands on it.

Check out the video

According to Eurogamer Maxis executive Patrick Buechener was quoted saying, “Not right now, but we see this as a franchise”, when asked about possible console ports at the demo sessions of Spore. Furthermore he added, “It just won’t be at launch.”

So there you have it folks!

Eurogamer also has a preview of the game up for those who just can’t get enough reading about Spore. The game is easy on the eyes, the space part looks exciting and gameplay is simple and intuitive. That pretty much sums it up!

Articles from the Games Convention in Lepizig continue to pour in. Destructoid’s take on it resembles the ones we’ve already seen, but there are a couple of things that can still catch your eye. Interesting hands-ons are always welcome, and this one is.

I was told that completing the four stages running up to Space would only take around nine hours if the player didn’t spend any time with the customization sections — and frankly if you don’t do that, I don’t think I want to know you any more.

The preview features the four first stages; space missing out.

Australian Victorian based newspaper The Age has an article featuring Spore in their August 27 issue. The preview has a few interesting bits concerning building types in the game.

Structures you can now create and build include houses to expand your population, and factories to build vehicles which can be used to harvest spice, automatically fetching money for you like Command & Conquer. You can also build vehicles that let you explore, or military units to kill.

Thanks to Masada for the news tip.

Joerg of GamersGlobal sends word that they have a fresh hands-on from GC. The five-page preview tells us about the powerful Spore editors and covers all five stages of the game.

…to get to a Spore presentation in Leipzig was not so easy. You had to (a) have access to the business part of the Games Convention (e.g. by registering as a journalist), (b) get into the EA hall (by having an appointment) and (c) find and get behind the following door. Luckily, GamersGlobal did and can tell you about it.

It’s very comprehensive and gives a good overall view of the game, check it out!

More news from the 2007 edition of the Leipzig Game Developers Conference. IGN brings us a 3-page hands on preview of Spore. They got to play the latest build of the game for one hour covering the three first phases of the game; cell, creature and tribe, and a small portion of the beginning of the civilization phase.

For each creature you attack, you have the chance to gain a new evolutionary part that you can use when upgrading a later generation. Since each new evolution leads you into more and more hostile territory, you’ll need to evolve to stay ahead of the action.

Once again, don’t miss our YouTube channel. It’s a handy way to keep track of the game’s development all in one place.

It’s definitely an exciting day for Spore fan’s as the first news rolls in from the Leipzig Game Developers Conference 2007. To start it off, the Official Spore website has been updated to showcase two new videos which include great interviews with Spore developers and of course, new footage from Spore.

The first is the game footage with interviews and the second is the same footage sans-interviews.
GC 2007 Exclusive Trailer
GC 2007 Exclusive Trailer 2

As if that weren’t enough, Gamespot has posted an article detailing their impressions from their private half hour Spore demo behind closed doors.

The creature created during our presentation had four legs, two of which were inverted. It had two arms, it had spikes on its knees, its eyes were on what we would’ve assumed was the chest, and its mouth (beak, actually) was positioned high above its torso at the end of a long neck. In short, it looked like nothing we’ve ever seen before, but as our presentation progressed we got to see the ungodly creation walk, run, dance, sing, fight, and even re-enact a famous scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey by tossing a piece of wood up into the air in slow motion while orchestral music played in the background.

Worth a read and you can find it right here.

1up.com also posted an article detailing their impressions from their hands on experience with Spore.

Spore is finished. That’s the first thing I learn as I head in to my demo at the Leipzig Games Convention. Obviously, the game isn’t finished finished (as in ready to ship), but in terms of its offering, it’s all there — the game is complete. At this point, EA is spending the next several months paying attention to feedback from players to tweak and polish Spore for its release next Spring. But otherwise, it’s done.

Check out that article here.

And, of course, Gamespy has posted a great Spore preview.

Hearing about what Spore is all about and seeing it in action are two totally different experiences. After all, how can you even begin to comprehend a game where you start off as a simple microscopic organism and then evolve from there to a space-faring species out to explore and, perhaps, conquer, the cosmos? How would a game like this look? How would it even work? Wouldn’t it be grossly complicated? Today we got answers to all these questions and more during a short demo behind closed doors at the Leipzig Games Conference.

Give it a read here.

And as if all that first hand news and footage isn’t enough to keep us fans satiated, A heap of great new screenshots has been made available. Definitely worth a look!

Well, a big update today and that’s about it for now, stay tuned for more great stuff from Leipzig!