Why didn’t anyone tell me about Spore sooner? veblefetzer hosted this gameplay video, and I’m pretty dang impressed. Now *that*’s my kind of sandbox.

The game allows the player to begin with developing a creature as a cellular entity and eventually creating a creature with more sophisticated brain functions, which will change the nature of the game to a more RTS-type game (he cited a particular favorite of his, Populous), where players will control herds of creatures. Once you upgrade the “hut” around which the creatures centralize, the game changes into what he called “a simple version of SimCity” where the player manages technology and interacts with other cities that have sprung up around the world.

The creature creation tool is quite simply amazing, not to mention the programming that regulates (automatically!) how the creatures walk, run and move

He demonstrated how the player can eventually purchase a UFO to travel between planets–and eventually star systems–to populate, conquer, or simply observe. Particularly impressive was the game’s emergent gameplay and seemingly infinite possibilities for playing creatively

Definitely worth a BANGS!

[edit – more info on Spore here, at wikipedia. sharp!]