Crispy Gamer News

Spore and Spore Creature Creator owners will probably want to pick up the freshly released Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack. The Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack is the first add-on pack for the creature building game for the PC. Available for $19.99 (MSRP) for PC and MAC, Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack gives players more tools to create unique life forms using more than 100 new components. Spore Creepy & Cute Parts includes 60 new creature parts, 48 new paint options and 24 new animations including the robot, hoe-down, moonwalk and more.

Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack requires Spore or the full version of Spore Creature Creator for Mac or PC.

Despite all the Internet drama about DRM, Spore managed to eke out a decent second place showing in North America, right behind the latest The Sims 2 expansion, The Sims 2 Apartment Life. I This is according to NPD Groups retails sales data for the week ending September 6, 2008.

It is interesting to note that the PC charts are being dominated by only two companies this week: Electronic Arts and Activision Publishing. For EA’s part three key franchises have managed to take up 6 slots in the top ten: Spore, The Sims 2 and Crysis. Activision Publishing’s World of Warcraft and Warcraft III Battle Chest filled out the remaining four slots. It’s tough to call Spore a disappointment, though many expected it to be at the top of the heap as soon at was released. I expect that it will have a number one showing in next week’s charts. Full top ten after the break:

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While fans try to contain themselves for a mere seven days in North America and three days in Europe, EA is doing everything it can to make Spore the next big franchise since The Sims. One of the ways it is doing this is with a special contest using its game and the creations of a dozens of celebrities including Stan Lee, Adams West, Elijah Wood and more. Participants created their own species using the Spore Creature Creator and uploaded it to www.Sporevote.com, where fans can then log on, view the creatures and vote for their favorite.

Participants (in alphabetical order), after the jump:

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Development on Will Wright’s Spore is finally complete and the game will be released on September 7 in North America (and Asia Pacific) and September 5 in Europe, according to a press release from Electronic Arts. Spore Creatures for Nintendo DS and Spore Origins for mobile phones will also be available globally September 7. Given the power to create virtual life I wonder what kinds of life forms the community create. Once we get past all the goofy creatures that look suspiciously like genitalia, I’d like to think gamers create some truly wonderful creatures.

Naturally, EA has a special edition of Spore for those willing to fork over some extra cabbage; Spore Galactic Edition contains the ‘Making of Spore’ DVD, ‘How to Build a Better Being’ DVD (a 50 minute National Geographic Channel documentary DVD hosted by Spore mastermind, Will Wright), ‘The Art of Spore’ hardback book, an exclusive Spore poster, and a premium 100-page Galactic Handbook.

Retail research firm, NPD Group has released its list of the top selling PC games for the week ending July 26, 2008, revealing that Her Interactive’s Nancy Drew: The Phantom Of Venice took the top spot for the week. While the teen sleuth game taking the top spot is interesting, the rest of the list is a combination of hype driven sales, hold-outs and extensions of ultra popular brands.

The Sims franchise continues to rake in cash for EA with add-ons The Sims 2 Double Deluxe and The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff; meanwhile Blizzard enjoys much success with continued sales of the World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest compilation pack, The Burning Crusade expansion and the original game. Several games on the charts are due to a large amount of buzz for upcoming games: Blizzard’s Diablo III announcement has helped drive sales of the Diablo Battle Chest compilation pack and hype for Will Wright’s Spore is driving consumers to pick up the Spore Creature Creator.

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AT&T has inked a deal this week with Electronic Arts to bring the life simulation game, Spore, to its wireless and high speed internet customers. AT&T’s agreement with EA will provide both AT&T’s wireless customers and AT&T High Speed Internet customers with exclusive Spore content including Spore Origins (available exclusively on AT&T mobile devices until September 4, 2008) and the Spore Creature Creator demo. Of course, PC users could simply download that on their own, thank you very much.

Spore hits North America on September 7 for the PC and Mac along with Spore Creatures on Nintendo DS. Spore Origins for the iPhone and additional mobile carriers will be available September 4, 2008.

Learn more at www.att.net/spore. More Mobile phone game news here.

The SimCity Box, a compilation of SimCity games for the PC, is in stores today. But probably the most appealing thing within is a trial version of the Spore Creature Creator. (see I Call Bullshit for one man’s perspective on that little bauble) - of course you could have just downloaded that from the internet…

The package includes SimCity Societies and Destinations expansion pack, SimCity 4 and the Rush Hour expansion pack and The Sims Carnival SnapCity. Societies is a deeper SimCity experience where players not only build cities but shape the what kind of people inhabit them. The expansion adds more than 100 new buildings and other attractions to create cities that are even more interesting.

SimCity 4 brings the classic city building game to modern PCs with even more ways to build a metropolis and more ways to destroy it with new god-like powers and hazards. The expansion gives players control of the city’s transportation system, allowing for traffic that is more refined systems.

Finally, The Sims Carnival SnapCity is a city-building game with puzzle elements geared towards casual players. Players are challenged to position falling, colored blocks in just the right places to build the best possible cities.

Look for this compilation pack in stores beginning today.