By design, Spore is all-encompassing, with nigh infinite possibilities for gameplay, from crafting the very essence of life to managing entire galaxies. But sometimes, you have to go to the bathroom, it's a scientific fact. For those moments, there's the Spore Galactic Edition announced today by Gamestop, available for $79.99. In addition to the game, you'll get:

• 'Making of Spore' DVD video
• 'The Human Toolkit' DVD video, by National Geographic
• 'The Art of Spore' hardback mini-book
• Fold-out Spore poster
• Premium 100-page Galactic Handbook

So whether nature calls and you need reading material or your significant other wants to watch some TV, you'll have no problem keeping it Spore-centric. And yes, now that you mention it, that was a very depressing sentence.

[Thanks, Dalibor and KrAzYmAn]

According to Game|Life and Dengeki Online, Namco Bandai is bringing Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii's latest film, "The Sky Crawlers," to the Wii in the form of a flight combat sim. The genre (not to mention Namco's Ace Combat team) makes for a perfect fit given the movie's focus on a group of fighter pilots, albeit in an alternate setting.

Though it won't be measured in Japan until fall, the success of Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces will likely hinge on how well the controls are implemented -- the Wiimote functions as the throttle and the nunchuck acts as the control stick -- and how popular the film ends up being. At least the game will let us skip all the existential chatter, right?

In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this our progress via our various profile pages:

• Justin McElroy
• Ross Miller
• Randy Nelson
• Alexander Sliwinski
• Kevin Kelly

For the final day, we tried to commit ourselves to pulling out all the stops, but a very long day of blogging left us with some epic failures that will never see the light of day (e.g. Big Bird). We do feel, however, that we have a much better understanding of Spore's limitations. (You can read about them in our gallery.) You can see all the creatures from the week starting here. Each page contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.


Put your skills to the test and win some gear. BigDownload is offering BigPrizes to see your Spore creations.

Today's daily recap is going video. If hearing "Crank Dat Souja Boy" one more time is going to cause you to drill a hole in your head, we'd advise you not to press play (thanks, Myke). Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
A week with Spore Creature Creator: Day Three
Counting Rupees: Bust Blox
Metareview -- Don King Presents Prizefighter (Xbox 360)
Off the Grid reviews Power Grid
X3F Week in Review: June 13, 2008 - June 19, 2008
Wii Wheel + Balance Board = racing simulator

News
GameTap Thursday: MDK, Cosmic Osmo and Descent II
Pain gets some free content
NCAA Football 2009 demo hits Xbox Live
Ubisoft needs help picking Prince of Persia achievements
LucasArts confirms Star Wars: The Clone Wars games for DS, Wii
Square Enix: Final Fantasy Versus XIII not on hold
250,000 Spore creatures shared, interstellar plague to follow
Puzo's son sues Paramount for Godfather game money
LucasArts reconfirms E3 attendance, not announcing new titles
New Diablo II patch lets you play without disc
MGS4 runs 12 circles around closest competitor first week in Japan
Take-Two makes good with FTC
New Sonic Unleashed clip highlights speedy foot-age
Eidos showing four titles at E3; Lady Croft will attend
See the first image from Quantum of Solace
GDAA mate, Aussie developer group chief quitting
The secret weapons of Metal Gear Solid 4
PSN Thursday: The MGS4 Database, Fatal Inertia EX
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway deploys August 26
LittleBigPlanet: Story mode, private level sharing, PS Eye use and Sackboy Plushies confirmed
Sony planning new clampdown on PSP piracy
Reminder: TF2 Pyro update now available, free to play this weekend
McCain campaign ad features Medal of Honor music, composer 'dismayed'

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: MadCatz Rock Band controllers arriving soon
Rumor: Dark Cloud 3 in the works for PS3

Culture & Community
Guitar Hero Aerosmith sponsors NASCAR ... car

In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this our progress via our various profile pages:

• Justin McElroy
• Ross Miller
• Randy Nelson
• Alexander Sliwinski
• Kevin Kelly

Today's highlights include a living guitar, a chocobo and a failed attempt at recreating the faun from Pan's Labyrinth. You can see all the creatures from the week starting here. Each page contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.

In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this our progress via our various profile pages:

• Justin McElroy
• Ross Miller
• Randy Nelson
• Alexander Sliwinski

For day two (new entries start here), we've got an elated peppermint, an attentive dinosaur, and a hiphopapotamous with flows that glow like phosphorous. You can see all the creatures from the week starting here. Each page contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.

Dear hunter,

I am writing to you, with great difficulty I might add, about a matter very dear to my heart. I understand that not all members of the human race find us endearing, but I would greatly and truly appreciate it if you would be a dear and stop hunting my kind, the deer. Isn't that what your dearly beloved technology is for?

Why not purchase a copy of Atari's "most intense virtual hunting experience ever created," Deer Hunter Tournament? Set for release this Fall on Xbox 360 and PC, it promises "true-to-life animal behaviour," a variety of hunting modes, techniques and tools, and online multiplayer (though I'm sure you would prefer online mullet-player). And for only $19.99, or $39.99 for the Xbox 360 version, you'll get to hunt deer without forcing me to deal with all the painful repercussions.

Plus, you know, it'll help you with your dire aiming and embarrassing tracking abilities. I'm writing this with your stationery and making a complete mess of the study.

Yours truly,
John Deer

If you've been living under a rock lately and haven't heard about the Spore Creature Creator, we forgive you. However, if you actually just live under a rock and look like something spawned from the Creature Creator, and have been pouting because you have an Interl Mac Mini or an older MacBook with Intel's GMA 950 integrated graphics, then turn that frown upside down.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog will let you know how to fool the program into thinking you're sporting a different graphics chip, and you'll be able to play God on your precious piece of outdated, but still loved, hardware. Just don't blame us if your now hacked machine becomes sentient and starts spawning.

How intelligent is your design? Our friends at BigDownload want to see your best work using the Spore Creature Creator demo, and they're offering 10 copies of the full version, a Wacom tablet and two NVIDIA video cards to tempt you. Click here for details and contest rules.

In our quest to familiarize ourselves with the laws of nature (and subsequently defy them), this week we're going to share at least five abominations, one each day, that we've concocted in Spore Creature Creator. You can keep track of this writer's progress via this Spore profile page.

While we've got no Murlocs today, we did try our hand at making a Moogle. Check out all our creations via the gallery below. Each one contains a link to the creature's respective Sporepedia page where you can download and edit our work.

Of the many things we look forward to when unwrapping a new game, box art ranks just above the new game smell and that little card that falls on the floor when the box is opened, quietly pleading for feedback. This is not the case, however, for Atlus creative designer Jeremy Cail, who makes it his job to judge books -- make that games -- by their cover, and in a recent blog post breaks down all of the effort that went into designing the cover for next month's Trauma Center sequel for the DS.

Besides the differences between North American and Japanese boxes, the designer expounds on the virtues of title placement (can't have it be covered by the shelf, can we?) and the importance of Derek's glowing hand (Uh oh, it's magic). He also discusses the title itself, noting that Under the Knife 2 was not the team's first choice, with subtitles such as "Surgeon's Oath" or "Under the Gun" also in the pot for consideration. And what of Nurse Angie's new maid cafe-inspired attire? Cail writes that "I hope that gives you cosplayers out there some extra inspiration this year at anime conventions." Man, it's like you read our minds. Creepy.

We know your type. You've been waiting for a demo of SimCity Societies to see if the game is right for you. Finally, after 213 impatient days, the now self-publishing Tilted Mill Entertainment have released a demo for the city builder, which you can find at Big Download.

Metareviews and Yahtzee be damned, check the game out and decide for yourself. SimCity Societies is part of The SimCity Box, due out June 23.

Both XSEED and Marvelous Interactive have confirmed plans to bring the Wii-exclusive sim-style RPG Little King's Story to North America. Previously known simply as "Project O," the game marks the second "key" title to emerge from the companies' recent co-publishing alliance.

Not to be confused with that other game about kings and town building, Little King's Story is said to combine simulation, strategy, and adventure game elements as players build their kingdom, manage townsfolk, and conquer rival nations. The art style alone has our interest piqued, and with devs and designers from such games and series as Harvest Moon, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Super Mario RPG attached to the project, we doubt that we'll be able to resist waving the Wii remote in the air like a scepter when Little King's Story drops this winter.

We're not exactly sure how long it's been up on the official Spore site, but below we've posted the basic system requirements for running the sim-everything title on PC and Mac. The "recommended" (read: real) requirements are not currently listed on the site. For the super-breakdown of supported graphics cards and other nit-picky details, check out the Spore site.

Windows XP:

• 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
• 512 MB RAM
• A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
• At least 6 GB of hard drive space

Windows Vista:

• 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
• 768 MB RAM
• A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
• At least 6 GB of hard drive space

Mac:

• Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher
• Intel Core Duo Processor
• 1024 MB RAM
• ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
• At least 4.7GB of hard drive space for installation, plus additional space for creations.
• This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac).
  

[Thanks binturong]