   Darkspore in open beta
Darkspore a Diablo/Pokemon hybrid from Maxis, is in open beta right now. It's on Steam and probably elsewhere as well.Has anybody else checked this out? I downloaded it recently and am really pleasantly surprised. It looks like they took the great editor technology from Spore and found gameplay that actually fits rather than shallow minigames. It's a very, very multiplayer-centric hack'n'slash like Diablo, but it has some innovative changes to the formula reminiscent of Pokemon. You have a number of heroes; you can only use so many at once; they have different types, and no one type is effective against all others; your individuals heroes do not level up, but instead you just collect better equipment and body modifications which you can share with all your heroes, even brand new ones; and all data is stored on persistent online servers, eliminating all the hacked loot in Diablo II.The developers are (or were) also answering questions at reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gq03c/we_are_a_group_of_designers_programmers_artists/
  I saw this as well. I will be checking it out this weekend and will post my opinion. Looks very interesting.   ;  Sounds interesting but I had some trouble downloading/installing the game using the updater (I couldn't find any way to run the game). I am slightly apprehensive to try the full download, past experience has left a bad taste in my mouth about installing a possibly out of date multi-gb installation (damn you DC Universe Online, damn you!).   ;  I was very very excited about this after seeing some screen shots.  Sadly, it requires a persistent online connection to play single player, which puts it in my 'would not purchase' bucket.  If they ever release an off-line version (Console, PC, don't care), I'll be all over that.  Looks great!   ;  I'm not playing, certainly not buying, this game on principle.Maxis was one of the few developers left in the business making *good* simulation games (they were one of the few developers doing simulation games at all, if you look away from flight and car simulations). They should be focusing on Sim City 5 rather than compromising their resumé by making hack 'n' slash games.Bah!Where's Will Wright when you need him?!   