I got the demo for this little as soon as it was released and about 20 seconds after creating my first creature I went straight to the site and bought the game. Though to be perfectly honest its more of an investment than a purchase because i get the price taken off  the full game when it finally gets to a stage that i can buy it. For anyone who doesn’t know I have been following this game since Will Wright’s talk at the 2005 Game development Conference. Just another 70 odd days to wait before I get my hands on Spore but the Creature Creator will more than tide me over.  The game is the most simple thing you could get your hands on. Following the instructions of ronseal’s marketing department this game does exactly what it says on the tin. All you get to do in this game is create creatures. But you can create any creature that your twisted mind can conjure up. There are some limitations on the overall complexity so giving your creature 47 legs will pose some problems but other than that you can make anything that takes your fancy. At the time of writing this post there were approaching 1 million different creatures in the sporepedia. This is an online resource of creatures created by users and shared. Each one is unique. There may be similatisies but the variations are incredible. This is all down to the control scheme.

Making your own little monster is simple, intuitive and above all fast. withing 1 minute of starting the game you can have your own multilimbed abomination running around on screen shouting and dancing and punching to its heart’(s) content. Of course to really craft something special you will need time. Each and every part of your creature can be manipulated. there is no rules on where anything can be placed. no set shoulders, hips or neck. All that is set is that there must be a spine of indeterminate length and a mouth to allow the creature to feed. of course multiple mouths are not a problem either and size is not set. A quick roll of your mouse wheel and the selected part or part of a part can be enlarged or shrunk. There really are no limits on the variations that can be created.

What really Makes this game though are the finishing touches. While already accomplishing what it set out to do the development team went that bit further and added in a few extras. The first is the ability to instantly post a video of your creature to You tube from within the game. This has caused You tube to be flooded with peoples videos of their characters, including a few unsavoury ones.

A quick verdict – BEST GAME EVER. Or its is at the moment anyway, my opinion on that is prone to rapid and unpredictable change. The most staggering thing here is that this is only one aspect of a much larger game which will allow for even greater variation and interaction. come on 70 days time, I’m sick of waiting

Ok its been some time and i couldn’t take notes due to the fact i laughed so much i got hiccups so this will be pretty short. I went to see Billy’s show in Ireland’s National Event Center on May 26th. It was his second show in the venue and to be honest i was luckily to snap up the tickets having missed the opportunity to grab them in the fiasco surrounding tickets for the Cork Opera House Gig. But that is a different Story and one which i will save you from having to endure here.

The location itself is well laid out with ample parking and all that usual boring stuff. Basically I arrived in my car and i got parking quickly and easily so i am happy. In the hall where they gathered all the patrons there was a loud man shouting and trying to sell merchandise. Why he was yelling i have no idea as there was no competition and he was located right next to the entry. He could have sat in a corner blindfolded and still have sold the same amount. And to add insult to injury, this man was entirely in no way funny but to be honest you wouldn’t know that from looking at him.

After some hanging around and getting irritated by the man selling t-shirts The doors were opened and off we marched to our seats. I can tell you now that i lucked out with the seats. I simply went for whatever seats the ticket master machine would assign me so i was quite surprised that my seats were 6 rows from the front and the first row to be elevated. Score one me. The other single ticket i got my hands was not so great. Up high in the yellow section which was to the left of the stage and a little further away but Ian, who was sitting in the seat, assured me it was still great from there.

Which leads me on to the show which as i mentioned was great. We were all worried before he started that he was becoming a cranky old man due to his performance in his last few shows so when he got started we were all pleasantly surprised. He did draw on alot of old material through the show but always with a different angle on the story. His trademark wanderings and jumping from subject to subject was alive and well and still as much fun as ever. Time and time again he would remember an unfinished story that he had trailed off of earlier and while i wasn’t gasping for breath i was trying to keep up with his fast rambling train of thought. The interaction with the crowd was also excellent with taunts and joke being thrown both ways and his new material had me crippled with laughter but you will have to go see him to find out what i am talking about.

Overall I would have been happy to finally see Billy live. I have always rated him as one of the funniest people on earth and this show has just cemented him there in my mind.