Sims creator: Spore has too much hype!.

Thursday 28th August 2008 - 17:00


Will Wright tries to play down new Spore game, Christian rock version of Guitar Hero in the pipeline and Supreme Commander Xbox 360 screens



In what some are considering to be a troublesome sign, legendary games developer Will Wright - he of Sims fame - has purposefully embraced the media spotlight to talk down his hotly anticipated - and long overdue title, Spore.

In an interview with website gamesinformer.com, the industry legend talked about his new open-ended life creation game as if it were almost something to be disregarded. Wright stated: "I think it's too much hype. About a year ago, we were realising how much hype we were getting and we decided we should start to say that it's going to suck just to de-hype it. That is a certain amount of pressure. When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way you want them to be filled in. That's true of almost anything. Then, when the actual thing comes out some people will be disappointed that it's not 'hardcore enough' or it's not 'easy enough' or that we didn't do this or that. We've gotten to that point any additional hype isn't serving us well. It's a concern." Will Spore live up to the hype? We'll know for sure when it comes out next week on PC and Mac.

Meanwhile, Guitar Hero fans with a penchant for religion should be very happy to learn that a Christian Rock version of Guitar Hero called Guitar Praise is set to hit the shelves. The latest version - so far only announced for a US release, isn't associated to the famous Activison brand, but from what we can tell that's the only difference. Admittedly, promising axe wielders will be wigging out to the sounds of God rockers rather than Metallica, but the premise remains the same. The developers Digital Praise want to 'glorify God through interactive media'. Four levels of play are offered-as the player completes songs, more tracks are unlocked and the challenge increases. Guitar Praise features 52 of the most popular tracks from the Christian rock world, all by the original artists. Sound familiar? If the game ever gets a European release we'll be sure to seek divine inspiration.

Finally, from the divine to the Supreme. Take a look at a brand new volley of shots from the Xbox 360 version of Supreme Commander - forthcoming in September courtesy of 505 games. The PC original launched in 2007 and is widely considered to be one of the best Real Time Strategy titles on the market today - we hold high hopes for the Xbox 360 next-gen version.