Gamespot has the scoop on the playable version of the current status of the full game. Besides mentioning the game feels pretty much finished, they also had a couple of interesting little details:

Spore has a very dry sense of humour, and it calls on you to collect creatures for your own nefarious ends. However, there's a downside to your scientific experimentation, and in our demo we managed to introduce a rogue infection to our city by collecting bug-ridden creatures. The result: You have to eradicate the surrounding colonies with your onboard laser, using the left mouse button to fire. Before you can start exploring and colonising other worlds, your final task on your home planet is to colour it purple, although we couldn't quite understand why.

Joystiq plunged into the world of Spore Creatures (the name for the DS version of Spore) and closed up saying that the handheld game did not seem to target the same crowd as the full version.

Spore Creatures lets players save up to ten different creations, including those from friends over a local, peer-to-peer connection. Those creatures propagate into the game in a similar way as the PC version, letting your friends' creations take on their own lives. Gamers can also trade creatures over Nintendo's WiFi network using friend codes.

IGN jumps on the PR bandwagon with an in-depth interview that answers many questions that we still have.

Morgan Roarty: Right we've put a lot of energy there in getting the online features, getting the buddy lists and the Spore-casts and getting that all…we have a website that's going to mirror with that so folks can interface with the website when they're not online with the game, and having those two work seamlessly... other ways for people to engage with the content.

Check out the full interview at IGN.

The worldwide gaming press has conspired against us, I'm sure. This well-orchestrated media barrage was just what people needed to believe in Spore again. Good job EA! There is simply too much to post but if you feel like it, here's some of the more interesting stuff happening out there:

MacLife interviewed Will & Lucy: We had hundreds of prototypes which involved you actually controlling the birth of a star. And the formation of the planets on the planetary disc. And other areas of the game that I think we’ll probably eventually develop and we ended up cutting because they didn’t seem like a good return on investment.

VideoGamer previewed the PC version: While Spore gets progressively hardcore as you work through its phases, it still has an overall casual feel which EA hopes will lend the game to every type of gamer out there.

CVG previewed the PC version: Let's say you happen upon another player's Sporecast that contains, oh, say an Art Deco-themed set of creatures, buildings, vehicles and space ships, and you think it's the best thing since the Lean Mean Fat Reducing George Forman grilling machine. Download it and it's yours.

Pocket Gamer previewed the Mobile version: And Spore's online capabilities offer more than most mobile games. If you connect online through your phone, Quick Battles can be played against other players' creatures.