14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, Electronic Arts and Maxis issued a patch for both Mac and Windows versions of Will Wright's God game, Spore. While Windows users appear to be generally satisfied with the update's offerings, every Mac user leaving a comment on Softpedia has signaled a malfunctioning Spore 1.1 patch.
Bringing the game to version 1.1, the patch offers a variety of bugs and performance tweaks, but also brings a new “cheat” feature that turns a creature into a blocky representation of itself. Another such cheat, allowing players to start a new game with a more evolved creature, is also included in the patch, as is a new inspection feature for browsing part stats applied to a creature.
While PC owners also have the alternative to download the installer package to update Spore, Mac users can only obtain the patch by opening the application. The game is supposed to prompt users to install the patch. All was well a couple of days after our report on the existence of the update, when, all of the sudden, readers started complaining about game / installer freezing issues.
“the updater freezes up... and i have had trouble launching spore before the update too,” broseph wrote.
“My installer also froze up and now the game just hangs when trying to go to another planet!!! DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS PATCH!,” said Aqua.
Another disappointed Mac Spore player revealed she couldn't even download the patch. “It just stops and launches the game. And it's not patched. It's nice that EA doesn't make another way to download this,” Jenna wrote.
Commenter Dave claimed that “the patch did nothing...the updater froze and i can't get past the city stage just freezes up when i try to launch my spaceship,” while Scott could also confirm the updater's freezing issue. Although the game still worked for this last user, he was no longer able to login to his Spore account, “so I'm stuck with the Maxis creatures only,” he wrote.
Other users posting over at the Electronic Arts UK Community website are also reporting issues with the patch. Spore Patch Thread Problems & Solutions on the Spore Forum (the Sporum) points out some of the possible causes for these problems, along with possible solutions and workarounds.
EA and Maxis say that, in order to receive automated prompts for patches that are available for your game, you must be registered and logged into the game, and have the EA Download Manager (EADM) installed. PC users can download the patch without using EADM. “For players,” the two companies say, “the patch can be obtained by simply starting your game.” No additional instructions or hints are offered. Hopefully, EA and Maxis acknowledge the issues surrounding the first update for the Mac version of Spore soon. Anyone else having trouble with the patch?