Yippee, I bought Spore for the fun interactive game it is, and stayed for the EA install goodness
I finally bought Spore. It's the MAC/PC DVD combo (not sure if it has always been this way) regular version (not Galactic).
I partially bought this for my 5 year-old as it looked like a cute game, and I've liked Will Wright games of yore.
Anyway, I knew of the DRM restrictions, but figured I'd be using 2 installs at most on my 2.4GHz MBP (Mac OS X and Windows 7 boot camp).
The install in MAC OS X seemed to go fine until it needed to patch. The patch seemed to hang at 90% or so for what seemed like forever. I thought it stalled so I force quit. After a reboot, it still needed to patch, but would fail every time, and required a re-install. Arrgghh! I did this 4 times.
At various times during these 4 installs, I would try to launch the game (not during a patch procedure, or the actual install), just to show my ever-so-patient 5 year old what the game was. I was never able to play as once the game loaded, I could not see my little cell. A Google search led to 1 other person with this issue, but no solution
I Boot Camped over to Windows 7, and installed. It seemed to go smoothly, but EA's lovely Download Manager got in the way once the install was done. It said no updates were found, but now I could not launch the game! Arrrggghh!
I rebooted, and had to run the executable from the Spore folder as the icon in my Start Menu was just decorative. No biggie I thought!
Well, it finally launched, slowly, and I was able to briefly play. At this point though, my patient 5 year old had fallen asleep. Keep in mind this is easily 3-hours after I started this whole thing. Luckily the Pens were kicking ass, so the night was not a total loss
Anyway, I thought there must have been something more to this MAC OS X install thingy, so I did more Googling, and found that if I leave the installer alone, it might just finish.
I booted back into MAC, deleted the Spore Application folder, again, and re-installed.
Sure enough, 35 minutes later or so at 90%, it finished and found another update. I said YES to update, and it finally worked.
So, 4 hours of installing, and I can finally play
The game is interesting, and I can see the potential. I showed my daughter this morning what the game looks like and she is mildly impressed. We'll sit down and play some more this afternoon.
Man though what a joke! I now remember why I mostly play console games. I now know that if I had been a bit more patient with the first install I might have saved myself lots of time, but what a joke the installer is. I was not the only person who thought it had stalled. The Spore forums are loaded with similar complaints. And in fact in some cases, it has stalled. No amount of waiting for the installer works for some peeps.
Anyway, just needed to vent a little. I'm not pissed, but it is silly that in 2009, a publisher cannot get an install to appear to be working (both MAC and PC). Gheesh!
I finally bought Spore. It's the MAC/PC DVD combo (not sure if it has always been this way) regular version (not Galactic).
I partially bought this for my 5 year-old as it looked like a cute game, and I've liked Will Wright games of yore.
Anyway, I knew of the DRM restrictions, but figured I'd be using 2 installs at most on my 2.4GHz MBP (Mac OS X and Windows 7 boot camp).
The install in MAC OS X seemed to go fine until it needed to patch. The patch seemed to hang at 90% or so for what seemed like forever. I thought it stalled so I force quit. After a reboot, it still needed to patch, but would fail every time, and required a re-install. Arrgghh! I did this 4 times.
At various times during these 4 installs, I would try to launch the game (not during a patch procedure, or the actual install), just to show my ever-so-patient 5 year old what the game was. I was never able to play as once the game loaded, I could not see my little cell. A Google search led to 1 other person with this issue, but no solution
I Boot Camped over to Windows 7, and installed. It seemed to go smoothly, but EA's lovely Download Manager got in the way once the install was done. It said no updates were found, but now I could not launch the game! Arrrggghh!
I rebooted, and had to run the executable from the Spore folder as the icon in my Start Menu was just decorative. No biggie I thought!
Well, it finally launched, slowly, and I was able to briefly play. At this point though, my patient 5 year old had fallen asleep. Keep in mind this is easily 3-hours after I started this whole thing. Luckily the Pens were kicking ass, so the night was not a total loss
Anyway, I thought there must have been something more to this MAC OS X install thingy, so I did more Googling, and found that if I leave the installer alone, it might just finish.
I booted back into MAC, deleted the Spore Application folder, again, and re-installed.
Sure enough, 35 minutes later or so at 90%, it finished and found another update. I said YES to update, and it finally worked.
So, 4 hours of installing, and I can finally play
The game is interesting, and I can see the potential. I showed my daughter this morning what the game looks like and she is mildly impressed. We'll sit down and play some more this afternoon.
Man though what a joke! I now remember why I mostly play console games. I now know that if I had been a bit more patient with the first install I might have saved myself lots of time, but what a joke the installer is. I was not the only person who thought it had stalled. The Spore forums are loaded with similar complaints. And in fact in some cases, it has stalled. No amount of waiting for the installer works for some peeps.
Anyway, just needed to vent a little. I'm not pissed, but it is silly that in 2009, a publisher cannot get an install to appear to be working (both MAC and PC). Gheesh!
