Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Quite aside from the annoying DRM issue, I've heard from 2 friends who now have played it that it has been massively dumbed down, which is deeply ironic to me, because CLEARLY the people who have been waiting with huge anticipation to buy this game are not people who want to play a typical, obvious or simple game. The fascination with this game has been 100% about the deep, implied complexity of tinkering with creatures within the context of evolution, of the way species change and compete, of building things in one phase that seriously effect those in another. I have heard that NONE of these promises (in articles, interviews and countless previews of the game) have been carried through with anything but a superficial and almost insulting manner (in that these promises were essentially about a game they decided not publish, for fear of scaring away the supposedly revenue-driving middlebrow public). Here's one example: in the final version of the game, you can change a creature in every phase... without consequence, based on whim, doesn't matter what happened before. What a tragedy!! Clearly Maxis lost their nerve, or the executive team of EA -- with its almost genius capacity to destroy or lobotomize anything with true originality -- squashed the game down to the 3rd grade level. Problem is: take away the subtleties of cause and effect, of learning about choices and seeing their long-term influence through amazing graphics, fascinatingly-designed phases and a complex simulation engine... and the game becomes essentially a seen-it-before, run-of-the-mill toy. I just tried to cancel my pre-order, but it was too late. I'm really angry. Add DRM to that... and I never want to buy another EA game.