There's no question in my mind that Spore is going to be fantastic on pretty much every level and I can already tell that I'm going to be have to be very careful when it's released. Too much exposure and I can easily see myself getting addicted to the game. In that sense Spore stands to be hugely successful - more so than Guitar Hero or even The Sims. I find the backstory of Spore fascinating too, not just the up-front gameplay. Electronic Arts gets a lot of stick from the gaming press and from gamers at large and a lot of people hold the uber-publisher with ire - the company is well known for its repeated visits to Sequelville.

Spore does have flaws in some regards and it's plainly obvious that most players aren't going to enjoy parts of the game. Personally, while I loved everything from the Creature Stage onwards, I did find the first part of the game-the Cell Stage-to be a little tiresome and pointless. I've nothing against simple arcade styled games at all, but there are titles that do that better than Spore.

Spore's strength though lies in that the game overcomes the personal loves and hates of certain people and frees players up totally. You can do almost anything you want with the tools on offer here and the game is totally open to let players skip to the parts they want. If all you want is the micromanagement and sense of control then Civilisation Stage is there for you from the get-go. If on the other hand all you need is cuddly animals and something to show off to your friends then you'll rarely need to stray beyond the creature editor.