I'll start by saying I would have posted a blog with my thoughts on Spore sooner, had it not consumed so much of my time.

I had Galactic Edition preordered at GAME, which turned up a day early, Thursday 4th. After installing and getting past a few issues with it not detecting my 32-Bit settings, I dove into my first game. Several hours later I realised I had to put on a shirt and go out for a night.

Universities sure did pick an inconsiderate time to start. Luckily I have to wait till October 13th, so another month of gaming yet.

My thoughts on Spore, being one who followed the game since 2005, are mainly positive. I realise the gameplay has been cutdown to allow "casual" gamers a chance, but despite all the things missing it's still addictive. Furthermore, the power behind the creation tools is revolutionary. I'm confident that expansions will remedy the lost content, and maybe even give us some new stuff we never considered.

Really they want to capitalize on each Phase. If they release a couple of general improvement expansions, with new creator parts, and a few new features across the board, as well as a couple of specific expansions for each phase then I see it being my top game to waste hours in for some time.

I'd also like to note that the Galactic Edition was a really nice package. The DVDs arn't great, but the art book and expaned manual make up for it. Well presented overall.

I discovered Mount&Blade is being released in a week or so. For a game that's beta gave me so much enterainment, I chose to preorder it. The many mods look to improve on a game that already tops many big budget projects. Furthermore, there is an ASoIaF mod in progress, so I'm sold ;)

Finally I purchased The Witcher. It crossed my mind with it's initla release, but I never got round to playing it, despite my friend's ramblings. Despite Yahtzee Croshaw's rather hateful review, I decided the release if the "Enhanced Edition" was a sign to make up for past mistakes, so to speak. Furthermore, Yahtzee's reviews seem to be slipping lately. The man doesn't play RTS games; how can I trust a person who doesn't sample all the varieties on the pallette of gaming?

My book list came through for uni yesterday. Apparently I don't need many to begin with. Hopefully that means a cheap start. Hopefully.