Spore

(rating thing appears to be a bit broken. actually not supposed to be 5 stars there, but 2.5.)

Revealed to much fanfare and mindblowingness at E3 2005, Will Wright's next miracle promised to contain an entire universe populated with weird creatures created by the players themselves. It all sounded so majestic and magical one could but dream of what a fantastically wondrous experience it would be to engulf oneself in the creative result of the brilliance of the mangod that is Will Wright.

So it's not his fault the game ended up a disappointment. His creativity is infectious and inspires you to imagine wonderful things. I don't really know what I was expecting, but more than what I got obviously. What you get is more or less precisely what was shown in the E3 demo. And nothing more. That I expected at least, more.

The actual gameplay is ferociously simple and thin. There basically is none. You walk around and click on things and push a key every now and then, rinse and repeat until tedious repetition gets thrown in your face like some kind of something or other. I know all games can ultimately be described like that, but what the hell, it rings true here. That's what it feels like.

No the appeal of this game instead comes from its communal aspect, and of course the creation aspect, the combination of the two one might say. If you can invest yourself into that stuff I bet you'll love the game, but I sadly couldn't. I'm all for the whole "Create, Share, Play" thing that's so popular these days, but I find the creating and sharing hollow if the game ultimately is not fun to play.