By now I'm sure that anyone stumbling across this blog has already heard all about Spore and been exposed to at least some of the surrounding Hype about this game. Yes. The media storm surrounding the game as it built up to its release billed it to be one of the most innovative and original games ever made.
The famous video of Will Wright "um" using the creature creator when it was in its earlier stages was amazing and there is no doubt that the design of the creator and the technology behind it is absolutely astounding and revolutionary.
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Spore received mixed reviews upon release; a recent Amazon.com "glitch" meant that a thread of unfavourable reviews was somehow "lost" from the Spore product page, although after some questioning, the reviews were restored. The biggest controversy to overshadow the game was its stringent DRM (digital rights management) restrictions - which restricted users from installing the game on more than 3 machines and only allowed customers to create a single account capable of receiving the user generated content and adding a users own creations to the collective. EA have since announced that they will be relaxing the rules slightly, allowing the game to be installed on up to 5 machines. This issue is still a point of contention between developer and end user, but it's also a complex one and maybe a topic for another blog.
As Spore is cut up into five distinct sections, which means this review is really 5 mini reviews in one massive block of intimidating text. Sorry about that.
Phase 1: Tidal Pool Phase
This part of the game is awesome. You start as a small amoeba-like creature and have to swim through a primordial soup of other microbes, eating other animals or plant matter to grow in size. Once you have grown, you can munch on the creatures that have been eating you. You are offered the chance to upgrade your organism, giving it different mouths, weapons and methods of propulsion. This part of the game is very addictive, looks great and its great fun. My only real criticism would be that it is too easy and it is over too quickly.
Phase 2: Creature Phase
This looks like World of Warcraft or some similar MMO. You run around with your creature in third person, grinding computer controlled creatures in order to get you experience bar to the top level. You have some skills on a Warcraft-style action bar at the bottom of the screen that vary in degrees of uselessness. There are a few basic quests which give you extra XP, all in all - it is extremely easy and gets boring fast. You are offered the carnivorous "kill and eat everything" route or the herbivorous "eat vegetables and make friends with everything" route. I chose the former as the latter is for girls.
Phase 3: Tribal Phase
Phase 4: Civilisation Phase
The phase itself, again, only lasts a very short time and there is even an "I win" button that you unlock after defeating half of the enemies on the map, making the entire thing completely pointless. The vehicles do look really good but you are restricted in how many you can make, the enemies are very easy to defeat and hardly attack at all, even the "aggressive" ones. Also, this phase suffers the same lack of RTS functionality that the last phase did. Very disappointing. It takes roughly three and a half hours of game time to get to the end of this stage without rushing and this is the penultimate phase of the game.
Phase 5: Space Phase
The Space Phase is the proverbial carrot on the end of the stick which kept me playing through three and a half hours of brightly coloured disappointment.
The phase begins with the creator window again. This time you get to create a spaceship. Once you have created one, you are taken through the tutorials which teach you to master trade, diplomacy, terra-forming and changing the planets you have populated by introducing plants and animals.
This phase looks beautiful and the galaxy you have to explore is HUGE. You zip around in your ship and perform various quests in order to gain currency to improve your existing planets, expanding your empire. Think Master of Orion or Freelancer as a basis for comparison on this stage. My main criticism for this phase is that your massive galactic empire only supports one ship to defend its empire... YOU. If you expand your empire to more than 3 or 4 planets, you will soon find yourself zipping back and forth from planet to planet to defend them, without getting anything done. This is a huge game play design flaw in the phase in my opinion.
Conclusion
The best part about this game is, without doubt, the creature creator. Creating the buildings, creatures and vehicles is really good fun and seeing them come to life is great. I really hope the creature creator is implemented in future games. The game play elements are very poor. It's extremely easy, I doubt younger players would have a difficult time completing it at all and once you have completed it in carnivore and herbivore "modes" there isn't enough there to warrant a third run. The game genres it traverses are already dominated by far superior titles that are specialised in doing that genre WELL. While it has some great ideas I don't think it manages to pull them off to the standard people were expecting. A victim of its own hype, Spore is a jack of all trades, master of none.
Yesterday, the share prices for the Halifax (my building society) fell to an all time low, or something like that. Lloyds TSB bought them out, making them stronger and apparently saving them from the one terrifying event that all banks fear, as depicted so perfectly in Mary Poppins - a Run on the Bank. Which started me thinking... if there was a run on the bank, what fantastic repercussions could we expect? Undoubtedly our society would crumble and descend into anarchy, right? How far could this go?
Week 1: Ground Zero
HBOS - The Halifax and the Bank of Scotland share values drop to an all time low of 51%. Thousands of British shareholders see their share values drop from £10 to £1.85. Shocking. Apart from the odd suicide and a few unhappy savers, nothing too exciting happens. The cogs, however, are well and truly in motion.Week 2: Run On The Bank
On Tuesday 25th September 2008, due to some misguided financial advice from a friend at her local bridge club, Sixty five Year-Old Emily Higgins walks into her local branch of the Halifax building society in Chichester and asks that they transfer all her savings and pensions to her newly opened HSBC savings account. The young teller, James Woodcock, a fine arts graduate of 25 years, informs her that because of a technical issue with their internet connection, they would be unable to do that until the following week. Having no grasp of modern technology or what the internet even is, Miss Higgins panics and kicks up a fuss, loudly declaring that the building society will not give her access to her funds. Within just a few minutes, already worried account holders begin to demand their money be drawn out of their accounts, either in cash, or wired elsewhere. The clamour turns into panic as the painfully slow customer service of the Building society staff exacerbates the situation. Among the growing rabble of angry customers, Dave Watson - Reporter for the Chichester local newspaper makes the call to his editor that would change life as we know it.Week 3: Financial Apocalypse
several of the panicking Halifax patrons post tweets online about their ordeal in the Chichester branch. Many more post phone camera footage onto YouTube of the riot that ensued in the branch and the resulting armed police presence sent to quash them. Dave Watson’s story, however, is sold to Meridian television and broadcast across the nation that evening. Thousands of people turn up at the Halifax branches the following morning in dismay and those that can, withdraw or transfer all their savings. The inevitable knock on effect and rioting occurs in every major city in the UK. No Bank is safe as people stupidly horde cash which is rapidly declining in value. Jails overflow and the BBC news website reports scenes of brutal Police crackdowns all over the country. By the end of the week, the economy "crashes". The cities descend into anarchy; riots, protests and looting are rife. The police battle to restore order against the populace, their lines of riot shields reflecting the fires that are raging in the husks of looted electronics stores and supermarkets.Week 24: The Future
The cities across England are all smouldering husks. The inhabitants of which pick their way through the broken buildings, seeking out food and water to add to their caches. Several gangs have taken refuge in shopping centres and the larger supermarkets, defending their stores of food with fierce and deadly aggression. The police and fire brigade have broken down, unable to cope with the strain. The brave men and women who managed to hold a resistance against the massive tide of looters and rioters have elected to save their own families and flee to more rural areas. Martial law has been declared across the nation and a thin force of British soldiers Police what little is left and enforce curfew. What is left of the emergency medical services use their dwindling supplies to treat the wounded in small makeshift emergency medical HQ's. Dave Watson, reporter for the Chichester Local Newspaper, shivers alone in a dark abandoned flat, his mind crazed through regret and remorse as he sees the outcome of his sensationalist news report.Week 48: The New Curse
Driven mad through grief, remorse and hunger, Dave Watson - Reporter for the Chichester Local Newspaper- steps barefoot into an abandoned street. His filthy black fingernails scratch at a sore on his back, his gums bleed and his matted hair is thinning through mal-nutrition. He casts his glazed and vacant stare slowly from one end of the street to the other, looking for movement. There is none. No one will go near Dave Watsons street. Dave Watsons street is a cursed and fearful place.
These are some pics I took with my phone at the butterfly exhibit at the Natural History Museum, London. (click on them to see them better)
Freemasonry and all the secrecy that surrounds the practice has become an obsession of mine of late. The Masons are a highly ritualised organisation that has spread throughout Europe and most of the westernised world. The organisation currently claim to have over 6 million members indoctrinated and at various levels of rank and power all over the world.
The members of the Freemasons call themselves "The Lightbringers" and it is their mission to spread their light to every corner of the world. They publicly focus their rituals towards a theocratic figurehead called simply, The Great Architect. Because modern day Masons can be of any faith, The Great Architect represents which ever deity the members worship in their own religion. They claim this is so a
ll the members of the lodge can focus their energy on a single iconic figure whilst still remaining true to their own individual faiths. Interestingly enough, the majority of Freemasons last century were Protestants. The Roman Catholic Church shunned the Freemasons and so Catholics weren't allowed to be indoctrinated. I find this strange as the Protestant religion is very specific about not worshipping idols or covering their places of worship in decadance and finery, however this contradicts what you would see if you stepped into the Grand Lodge in London.
The United Grand Lodge in Covent Garden is the focal point for all the masonic lodges in Europe. Freemasonry as we see it today began with this building, formed by the merger of 4 smaller masonic lodges from around the country. Its architecture was designed and built around the strange rituals that are carried out by the Masons during their meetings. There are strong ties to the occult and Freemasonry. The two main doorways to the lodge are preceded by large Pentagrams laid into the floor. Apparently this is to "shrink a persons aura" on entry. The handles of the doors on exit and the symbols and sygils carved around the inner doorways are meant to empower Masons as they leave the lodge and enter the outside world.
The invlovement of the Freemasons in world history has been 
discussed many times before in various books, documentaries and films. If you would like to know more about this, I recommend The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Shea. There are many documentaries about them on line, The Lightbingers, Emissaries Of Jabulon is my favourite to date. Basically, the background is that the Freemasons have, throughout history, been composed of some of the most powerful and influential people on the planet. George Bush is a member of a lodge called Skull and Bones, Tony Blair is a Mason of the 33rd degree (the highest rank obtainable in the organisation) and so was Lenin. Using the power of their members, the grand masters of Freemasonry, it is said, manipulated the outcome of wars, destroyed cities, caused the French Revolution and are currently to blame for the wars in the middle east. The infamous Masonic motto "New World Order" can be seen on the back of every US dollar bill currently in circulation.
The dollar bill contains many symbols that are allegedly related to the Freemasons. The eye atop the pyramid is also a famous Masonic symbol which is clearly visible in photos of masons in their regaila that are decades old. The number 13 is said to be a mystical and occult number to the Freemasons. The base of the pyramid in "the great seal" below is made up of 13 sections which is said to have special masonic relevance. The phrase annuit cœptis consists of 13 letters and the ribbon beneath the image shows 13 sides.
The Masons are made up of 33 seperate degrees. a mason progresses through these degrees as he moves through the ranks of the organisation.
It is said that the 33 degrees of Masonry are represented in the flag of the united nations, covering the world. Notice the 13 leaves on the olive branches on either side of the globe.
The "Great Seal Of The United States Of America" is also full of these apparently occult and symbolic numbers. The eagle in the seal has 33 feathers in total on its wings. The 13 stars above the eagle are laid out into the star of David (the Jewish Kaballah is the source for alot of this Masonic mysticism. ) The eagle holds 13 arrows in one talon and an olive branch with 13 leaves and 13 olives in the other. There are 13 stripes on the shield in the foreground. There are also 13 letters in the phrase e pluribus unum or "out of the many, come one".
Well... It would be rude not to ...
- right?!
So due to an underground fire, an extraordinarily malicious virus or your negligence in paying the phone bill, the internet as you know it has disappeared. What better way to spend those sorrowful hours, being cheered up by some of the best drumming, the best saxophony, the best piano playing or the best and wittiest banter in the city. I am talking of course, about live jazz music.We went over to the Blue Note Jazz Club in Manhattan last night to witness some of the greats show us how live Jazz is done. With Sax, Piano, Double Bass & Drums, the James Moody Quartet played us through our dinner with a mixture of fast and eclectic Jazz and also some beautiful meandering numbers that make a listener stare off into the distance and lose themselves in thought and relaxation. The man himself, James Moody, a spritely 86 years old (!!!), was extremely funny with his crowd banter. We were lucky enough to be at the club for his 17th year wedding anniversary – so I’d like to imagine he played especially well on that night!
I couldn't write a blog about a live music event without focusing on the percussion, so here we go. We were fortunate enough to see Joe Farnsworth play in the Quartet. He is an exceptional Jazz drummer and regarded as one of the best in the world. You should difinitely look at his website or try to listen to examples of his playing if at all possible.
James Moody took us through the first half of the set, then passing
the front spot over to Jon Hendricks. James Moody is the oldest person on his bandstand, but Jon is only 3 years younger than him. The 83 year old bee bopped, scatted and sang for a good 40 minutes, giving us a great selection of Jazz and Boss nova and the history that goes with it. This Guy should know. His university course on the history of Jazz has been the number 1 course at the University of Toledo for the past three years running!
I would definitely recommend going to steep yourself in some old time jazz, especially if you are fortunate enough to witness people who have lived and breathed the music for the past few decades. New York’s Blue Note was fantastic, You could also try Ronnie Scott’s in London or Matt n Phred’s in Manchester, all of which are fantastic Jazz venues.