Gaming Steve Episode 6 - 03.31.2005

Another week, another podcast. Here's the latest and greatest where I cover:

• Sony gets dual shocked.
• PSP not a sellout?
• Clinton jumps on the violent videogames bandwagon.
• GameTalk: So what's up with the PS3, Xbox2, and Revolution?
• SporeTalk: New weekly feature talking about Will Wright's upcoming Spore.
• In-depth review of the PSP.
• “Name That Game!” contest winner from last week and a new clip.
• Plus some more random thoughts.

You can also subscribe to the weekly podcast.

Posted by Gaming Steve at 6:30 PM | Posted to Podcast | Review | Spore |      

Gaming Steve Episode 5 - 03.24.2005

Hey all, if you downloaded the podcast which was up for the first few hours it was missing the sound effect for the "Name That Game!" contest. This has been fixed and the new podcast has the sound effect. Now back to the show!

Another crazy week, another crazy podcast. Here's the latest and greatest where I cover:

• The future of the web site.
• A bit of Spore stuff.
• The PSP launch.
• Why are Xboxes catching on fire?
• EA gets pounded.
• GameTalk: Should game designers unionize?
• Quicktake on the new God of War for PS2.
• In-depth review of World of Warcraft for the PC.
• “Name That Game!” contest winners from last week, a new clip, and format for this week.
• Interview preview.
• Plus more of my random thoughts.

You can also subscribe to the weekly podcast.

Posted by Gaming Steve at 4:30 PM | Posted to Podcast | Review | Spore |      

Gaming Steve Episode 4 - 03.17.2005

Wow, what a week! Just a few days ago this site didn't even exist. Then I go to GDC, record some thoughts, talk about Will Wright's Spore and the site explodes. Now reaching close to 25,000 visitors since Monday I made sure to get the new podcast up nice and fast where I talk about -- what else -- Spore, and answer the dozen or so questions I got over the week. So without further ado, here is the latest podcast of Gaming Steve:

In this show I personally thank everyone who has come to the site and given me their support and great comments. In the News segment I talk about the PSP and its big launch next week. In Gametalk I answer about a dozen different questions I got over the week about Spore. So once again I talk about Spore in extreme detail and try to answer all the various questions I got over the week. Next, I introduce the "Name That Game!" weekly contest where I play three different tunes for you to try and identify. Be the first one to tell me what they are and win a $20 gift certificate to Amazon!

In Reviews I take on Resident Evil 4 for the GameCube. Sure it's a great game, but just how great is it? And what makes this Resident Evil so different from those in the past? And finally I talk a bit about the upcoming Jade Empire for the Xbox and give you some inside dirt about the game.

Also make sure to check out the new Spore Forum.

Get the podcast from this page: Gaming Steve Episode 4.

Enter the "Name That Game!" contest on this board.

You can also subscribe to the weekly podcast.

Posted by Gaming Steve at 7:00 PM | Posted to Podcast | Review | Spore |      

Added New Forum Section

Wow, thanks for all the interest in Spore and my podcasts! Since I launched this site all of a week ago over 50,000 people have visited the site and I'm getting lots of questions! So rather than trying to answer all my emails I instead created a new forum section to try to corral all of the various inquires, including a forum just for Spore.

You can get to the forum from the sidebars or you can link here as well: Jump to the Forums

You can also go directly to the crazy-popular Spore forum as well (over 14,000 posts 6 months after the original post).

Posted by Gaming Steve at 3:00 AM | Posted to Spore | Stuff |      

Pictures of Will Wright's Spore!

Well I'm not sure how long these will be able to last on here before EA legal comes to take them down. I got several new pictures since yesterday including city combat, making a Care Bear, the stellar nursery stage and a few others. Keep checking back for new pictures and information as I get it.

Oh yes, for those of you interested the demo was running on a PC computer. However I don't see why this game couldn't run on a console or portable gaming device (as long as it could connect to the Internet to download new items).

Remember if you want to hear my entire preview you can download my podcast here: Gaming Steve at the GDC Day 3.

You can also subscribe to the weekly podcast.

This is during the early stage of the game. Notice the light yellow object with blue fins on the left side of the screen, that is "you" in this stage. The green objects and the brown objects will attack you if you're not careful.

This is your creature during the water stage. At this stage he has two fins and a tailfin. In time he will evolve and have three legs and a "tailhand".

This is the heart and meat of the game, the character editor. Notice the menus on the left side of the screen, this is where you can add and remove new items to your creature. The menus look and work very similar to those found in The Sims 2. Your creature itself is fully adjustable; notice the bones in the chest. Those can be changed and the creature dynamics (walking speed, animation, texturing, etc.) will automatically change to adapt to your new creature design.

These are all creatures which were creating within the game. Notice the huge variety ... amazing.

Oh yeah, and here is a carnivorous Care Bear created by Will. The creatures during the design stage were fully interactive and could be made to walk around the screen in order to "test them out".

Once you get some legs you can go onto land the game changes locations. The green creature is "you" and the little brownish creature is lunch!

Two of Will's creatures mating (with Barry White-type music playing in the background).

This is during the "tools" part of the game, where you have to learn how to create a society. Notice the little spears in their tail/hand and the two creatures playing the drum.

After you get tools and advance enough you can build large cities. All the items in the city are player created using the same dynamic interface as the creature creation. At this stage of the game it becomes sort of a hybrid RTS/SimCity.

Right next door to Will's fun city was this computer controlled city. Will pointed out that this city not only had completely different architecture but their culture and society were different as well.

And here is that industrial city attacking Will's city. All the combat vehicles are customizable as well and utilize the same interface as the creature creator.

Will shows off various vehicles created by players within the game. The vehicles on the top of the screen are from Will's city and the two on the bottom are from the industrial city.

Once you get the UFO technology you can start to explore the solar system. This is what your planet looks like from high orbit. Your city is in the lower left corner and the industrial city is in the center.

Zoom up a bit farther and you can explore the entire solar system. The second planet is the home planet while the others were all created by other players or the computer. Notice the cool asteroid belt as well.

This is an barren world in your solar system. If you notice on the world there is a tiny little red dot ... this is where the creature dropped onto this planet (with no atmosphere) exploded.

Eventually you get an interstellar drive for your UFO and you can explore your corner of the galaxy. The yellow sun with the box around it is where we just came from. By moving your mouse over the other stars you can listen to radio static and try to make contact with another civilization. You also have to watch out black holes, white dwarfs and other potential deadly space phenomena.

And this is as far as we got in the demo. The small yellow box in the lower part of the solar system is your home planet. Notice the various galaxies in the background? I'm not sure if you can explore those as well, but I wouldn't be surprised!

Posted by Gaming Steve at 11:30 PM | Posted to PC | Spore |      

Gaming Steve Episode 3 - 03.11.2005

Today was the third and final day of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and today was the day of big announcements!

In this podcast I have an extensive, detailed preview of Will Wright’s new game Spore. My preview is almost an hour long and I go through painstaking detail of every screen, mouse-click, and item I saw during the Spore demo. In addition I’ll gladly answer any and all questions anyone might have, feel free to email me or post a comment and I'll respond.

I also cover a lecture on The Sims 2, find out how to get a free lunch at the GDC, check out some of the independent games featured at the conference, preview new games on the show floor, and talk about the worst presentation I have ever seen!

Get the podcast from here: Gaming Steve at the GDC Day 3.

You can also subscribe to the weekly podcast.

Okay, so I didn't manage to get any pictures of Spore. But after getting yelled at twice I didn't want to get kicked out of the presentation (you couldn't take pictures during the presentation). So here is a nice picture of Will Wright instead, enjoy!

Hey lookie! Another picture of Will!

This is where the Independent Games Festival show off their stuff.

Posted by Gaming Steve at 11:30 PM | Comments (4) | Posted to Culture | Podcast | Spore |