Watching Spore in action was pretty neat. I picked up the Sport Creature Creator a month ago, but I got kinda bored with it. It takes actual effort to make a neat lookin' character and I'm rather lazy when it comes to that.
The Creature Creator was really just a way for Maxis to fill the universe with all this user generated content. The demonstrator showed off some really pretty aliens too. There was a Land Octopus and a Yoda. Incredibly detailed.
The creature you actually play in the game is completely customizable every time you're birthed. In the beginning, you're a little amoeba guy and you run around and eat stuff. You'll gain evolution points and also find body parts too. You can find a mate, if you'd like and then you'll create a child. You'll play as this child, but can re-custom it anyway you'd like before actually moving around again.
In the amoeba stage, you keep eating and grow and grow. Eventually, you'll be able to walk on land. Then you do the same thing. Run around, eat stuff, make babies, evolve.
The next stage is tribal. Now you've started to build a community with your creatures and can control multiple creatures at the same time. It takes teamwork to kill creatures, and fetch food to feed the entire tribe. The tribal stage ends when you've either befriended a rival tribe, or killed them to extinction.
Then you've got the city stage where you control populations. Then you've got the space stage where you explore and conquer the universe.
Throughout the game your decisions will decide whether you're more of a violent attacking species, or a peaceful society. Either way is fine! It's how you want to evolve.
Watching one of the producers run through the beginning of the game was pretty eye opening how the evolution process of Spore gives legacy to all of your actions. If you're a peaceful race, you've probably evolved from Herbivore in the primordial stages. Are you aggressive? Perhaps you killed and eaten your prey in the beginning.
Despite all the hype and the backlash and the re-hype, I'm still pretty excited for Spore. It's only a week away! Hopefully my Desktop computer with Vista won't hassle the installer.