You see, proving intelligent design in a nutshell is quite fitting as the theory itself is nuts. The principle is easy: Take something grand, great, incredible and instead of taking its grandeur, apply something absolutely horrifyingly stupid to it. This is what creationists do to evolution. Funny enough, EA in turn does that to Spore which is essentially creation as a game.
Spore is about an omnipotent being (you) designing life on a planet by consciously evolving the many possible forms of life you do. Well, basically you only do one creature's evolution, the others come from elsewhere (usually other player's creations). Now, don't get me wrong: This is brilliant. Creating creatures is fun, guiding them through life and evolution is beautiful to fascinating (if boring at times) and once you reach the stadium of space-faring civilization it is omnipotence at its best.
And EA completely broke it. This game would be fully deserving of Eurogamer's 9/10, but the DRM is so draconian, the game is virtually broken. Seriously, three activations and you're done (after that you have to go and beg EA to reactivate, proving that you're not a pirate somehow), relying on an online activation process that might not even exist anymore should you try to play it again some 10 years past now (which is something at least I do regularly with old games such as Sim Earth).
I'd love to give it a higher rating, but using a DRM such as this, it is essentially broken. And according to EG policies, broken games get a 1/10. I went for a 2/10, because at least it works for the next two or three years. Unless, you develop a strange habit of actually buying new computers every few years. Or updating your OS or other fancy stuff that makes you require a new activation more often than, say, once a decade.
This, in turn is the prove for intelligent design: Obviously, you need a god to do it right. Humans will just screw up the DRM if they try their hands on evolution. However, Pastafarians may be delighted that (word has it) at least the pirates are somewhat better - EA should be scared of that, in turn; and it's their darn fault releasing a broken product in the first place. This is (nautically speaking) the equivalent in anti-piracy measures to sinking your ship in order not to get it sunk. Get the eventual console release as a must-buy (for the idea of the game still shines of brilliance), leave this one on the shelves.
