Spore, The Year's Most Anticipated PC Game

From the team headed by Will Wright, creators of The Sims, comes Maxis's next wild burst of imagination, Spore. It's a game, it's a toy, and it's the most intriguing computer gaming experience to come along in years.

Matt Peckham, PC World

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The game Spore opens in a sort of primordial ooze. You start as a single-celled organism with tiny adjustable body parts that allow you to move and eat as you click around a 2D environment snarled with disruptive particulates and lethal predators.

Consuming bits of matter builds up your DNA, which you can then spend on new parts available inside a simple design tool that pops up whenever you choose to mate. These parts make you speedier or more formidable and can even change you from a vegetarian into a carnivore.

As you swim through the Cell Stage's psychedelic tidepool, with composer Brian Eno's hip synth pads throbbing and fluttering in the background, you'll make choices that have consequences for your species in the game's later stages.