I think you'll need a medium graphics card and alot of memory, but that's just my input on the requirements.
what you need to realize is that the graphics arent as intense as you think. If you have 512mb of ram you should be fine. A 128 mb graphics card should be fine. The procedual animations and the games extremely immense enviroments are going to leech processing power like crazy, but honestly, do you think they would make a game that couldnt be run on a majority of their fanbases comps? They have estimated minimal system requirements for Spore over at Sporewiki. They say that it should require 2 gigs of Processing power minimum, which is decent for most games. What i am saying is, dont worry about it until they actually announce the requirements. :spin:
And BW2 was published by EA games as well..VERY high specs.. it depends more on the devolopment company or w/e than the publisher.
I doubt the graphics card will need to be so great (even though this game does seem to be highly based on looks...) but you will deffinatel need alot of processing power. And the downloading/uploading at the same time actually shouldn't be a problem. You'd only upload things you've made once, and you only download before you make something. I wouldn't think they'd get in eachother's way too much.
YES you CAN run this game if you can run any other decent 3d game. Ask yourself this: Why would the heck Maxis create a game where someone who can "play almost all games at high res" couldnt run it? I swear people ask stupid questions sometimes. It's not going to be any more graphically demanding than, say, Age of Empires III. Your processor might be running on hot coals, but you'll be fine. I'm absolutely sure it'll take less system resources than Oblivion.
Maxis hasn't run tests on everyone who's ever played a 3D computer game, y'know. Diablo is 3D (and kinda decent) so if someone's computer could handle that pretty well, then that doesn't mean they can play Half Life 2 with no lag. Different peices of the computer can affect things. You can have everything really good, but a really bad graphics card, and you probably couldn't play it.
Diablo and Diablo2 are absolutely NOT 3d. It's animated 2d frames. My previous post was just a reply to someone who said "my computer can run most newer games flawlessly" or something like that. This game isnt going to be that demanding. If you can play most graphically demanding computer games now, or run a 3d editor like Maya on your computer, then you're fine.
Thats true Strillor, Will Wright did say the System Requirements where a bit less than The Sims 2 so thats good for who can get the game to work
That'd be nice, seeing as Sims 2 makes Mr. Laptop meet Mrs. AAARGHI'MGOINGTOBLOWUPAND/ORFREEZE, and it becomes awkward to play. I'd like to think I have a new computer by the time I (probably) get Spore, though, and one that doesn't hate my guts and spit upon the idea of... *shudder* GAMES.