The latest and most anticipated game since Grand Theft Auto 4 has landed. EA's Spore arrives in stores this week and expected to sell 2 million copies by the end of the month. 

The evolutionary game designed and produced by Will Wright, who has previously created such classics as SimCity, and the Sims takes on an unusual though fascinating challenge, Evolution. The gamer selects a name for his or her tide-pool amoeba  determining whether it is a carnivore, herbivore or both and then starts moving around mutating and growing off other organisms. Eventually, and fortunately not in real time, I hasten to add, the creatures grow from microscopic organisms into a fully fledged creatures crawling around, even venturing on land, mutate a bit more and then finally venture off into space to colonize the galaxies.

The video game is no doubt a welcome relief for many parents eager for their kids to engage in something a little more creative and educational than the violence of first person shooter games. Still, that is no guarantee of course that nature will be any less friendly.

It will be interesting to see just how well the game doses in certain communities given its basic acceptance of of Darwin's evolutionary theory. No mention of a God, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or creationism anywhere in the game as a viable option. I say this because it is hard to believe in this day and age, but surveys still show 50 percent of all Americans firmly believe that human beings did not evolve which for Electronic Arts could potentially cut the marketability of Spore in half.

Still there is a nice de facto come-back for the games creators, given the game involves selective choices, of the "Almighty" variety, made by the gamer to "intelligently design" his, or her creature in order to survive and adapt to the changing environments.

Phew, well I am glad we cleared that up.