Mega-game from Will Wright, creator of the Sim line of games (SimCity, SimFarm, The Sims, etc.). Follows a character from a single-celled organism evolving up through sentience, colonization of a planet, to interstellar travel.

Commentary

• PZ Myers on how hard science lost to cute

Reviews

• Ars Technica. Decidedly mixed.
• Slashdot. More positive. Observes that Spore is little more than a huge “casual” game, which is just what Maxis and Wright want it to be, I think.
• IGN. Noting that the game is very wide, but not very deep.
• Macworld. “Brilliant and quirky overall.”

http://www.nihilogic.dk/labs/wolfenflickr/

http://www.sporcle.com/games/

http://ken-jennings.com/blog/?p=775

It’s the same old story. Gamer has tricked-out Xbox 360, including custom artwork and signatures from the Bungie crew. Gamer has problems with Xbox, sends it in for repair, taking care to inform Microsoft of the value of the graffiti, and sending along a written reminder as well. Console comes back fixed, and completely clean. Gamer upset.

That’s not where this story ends, though — Microsoft and Bungie send him a very valuable care package. Case closed, right?

No, still not enough. Microsoft sends him a custom Xbox 360, autographed by most of the Xbox crew, and Bill Gates himself. (who, incredibly, has handwriting very similar to my first-grader.)

Microsoft gets a lot of criticism from a lot of places, myself included, and the vast majority of it deserved. Here’s the other side of the company. Nice one, guys.

A hallmark of Nintendo console gaming, beginning with the original Super Smash Bros. for the N64, SSB Melee for the Gamecube, and SSB Brawl for the Wii.

The game is typically simple by Nintendo standards: All of Nintendo’s best-loved franchise players all get together and beat the crap out of each other. Easy enough for a button-masher to win matches, yet there are subtle strategies that you can employ that rewards the player who actually learns the moves.

SSB Melee was released in 2001 and was still on the GameCube charts at the introduction of the Wii in 2006. When my sons convince me to pick up a GC controller, it’s typically for SSB.

Resources

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)

• The Ars Technica review

http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/002363.html

http://www.amnesta.net/other/monopoly/

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6818&Itemid=2