The greatest game ever, some say, is available now — almost two weeks before its scheduled release.

But don’t think you can actually play it yet.

Game publisher Electronic Arts says it has started allowing early loads of the massively single-player real-time strategy / life simulation / god game “Spore” to gamers who pre-ordered the PC version. The game’s not actually available for play in North America until Sept. 7. It will be playable on Macs, the Nintendo DS handheld system, and mobile phones as well, but the early download is reserved for PC users.

Basically, “Spore” lets players create a species and regulate its evolution from single-cell organism to social creature and, eventually, intelligent space-traveling being. It’s touted as quite possibly the most popular game not yet played, and the “Spore Creature Creator,” a stand-alone version of the “Spore” Creature Editor software released in June, has been used to generate more than 3 million critters ready to use in the game.

However, the early loads of “Spore” transfer only about 99 percent of the game, with the final 1 percent shipping on the release date. The early download is available through the EA Store.