Through the press releases, some independent sites are covering Spore as an artificial life game. Hats off to them. Here is PCGabe;

For those who are uninformed, SPORE is an artificial life simulator game similar to that of The Sims, also developed by EA. But the major difference between the two is that SPORE is focused on 5 different stages of evolution of your creatures life (I say creature because if you plan to make a human in this game you should get ready for your eyes to be burned out of your skull) versues the Sims where the goal of the game is to live your characters life.

There is an AFP article which offers some inspirational hope to future artificial life curious folk;

"It is still probably the most interesting question for scientists and five-year-olds: What is life?" Wright said.

MTV paraphrases Australian Gamer's concern;

The larger flaw, however, is not one that can be fixed. It’s the nature of the game: “Spore” in uneven. This is the imperfection of a game made of five connected games, the inevitable imbalance that results from any one stage-game hinging on another that isn’t as fun or doesn’t produce the same feeling of consequence connecting player to character. Players will have favorites but will be forced, on first playthrough, to go through them all. The connected games are tone-shifters, for better and for worse, and some “Spore” players will likely be disappointed when the leaps the game makes from stage to stage don’t meet their hopes of what the next step could be. Where, for example, is the stage that determines how a town of the player-created creatures, or even a family of them, relate to each other?

More in tonight's discussion on Biota Live.