Darkspore

[Ixtab]

So, I missed the email again.... but I did get to still play a bit, since they extended the beta until last night. I enjoyed it. I was a little unimpressed tat you can't create your own heroes from scratch, but that's okay, at least you can edit them a lot. As long as you aren't expecting a 'spore 2', its a pretty good game. Very diabloish, like a lot of other games, but instead of just picking up new weapons and armour, you gear weapons and a lot of other parts that have stat boosts, and any old gear that you like the look of, you can just make into detail, without stats, so it doesnt take up an equipment slot.

The one thing that i didn't really get is the online aspect. I played mainly alone, but i did one map with random people. It seemed like loot was sometimes random, but a lot of mob drops were just whoever picks it up first gets it. There didn't seem to be a way to change it, and I didn't notice anywhere to trade parts or anything. Multiplayer seemed a bit pointless - since every area is instanced, and there arent even common 'towns', why does it have to be online to play it at all? It felt like it was just added becasue every game needs multiplayer, but in that case, why is the entire thing online? I would much rather see it done more like NWN, TQ, etc, where its basically single player, but then you CAN go online to play others, rather than being pointlessly online all the time.

Anyway, thats my two cents. Here's hoping that another beta event is coming so I can experience it a bit more.... and hopefully see the email in time to play more than just a few hours.

Edit - I just noticed the preorder stuff for it on steam. I do plan on getting it if i can, and hopefully it will be in time to get the fancy preorder stuff this time (missed out on dragon age 2 stuff - still can't get that game either). I also noticed that it comes out on the 29th, which is... a very nifty day. So yeah, do other people for sure plan on getting it when/before it comes out?

[metacide]

I would much rather see it done more like NWN, TQ, etc, where its basically single player, but then you CAN go online to play others, rather than being pointlessly online all the time.

You go online so that they dont need to install DRM on your machine, you being online is the authentication. Also I heard that they were going to incorporate it to the "community" so that your avatar is the portrait of the character you create or something to that effect.

The loot drops sound exactly like D2, keep in mind it's still a beta so maybe trade windows will be coming soon.

[Ixtab]

I guess that makes sense, but it would still be nice if you could play when your net is down, or if you ave a bad connection, or while downloading something, etc. It seems so singleplayery that if its designed that way more for anti-piracy than anyting else, well.... thats just silly.
Ah well, it's a minor complaint for me, since my interwebs is usually stable enough, especially for that type of game.. its really just becasue of bandwidth caps, and being online for it all just seems to be a bit of an unnecessary use.

I kind of had a similar thought towards hellgate. roi and I had to go online together becasue it had no LAN capability... kind of needless internet usage and lag. Not a huge deal though, I still wants me the game. Here's hoping they do add in some sort of trading though, while in your ship or whatever.

[Ixtab]

Wow, I just read this on the beta forums:


"When installing Darkspore, if you changed your target installation directory to be one that you share with other data (games, files, etc.), uninstalling Darkspore might delete the entire directory, including files that are not Darkspore-related.

This bug will be fixed in this week’s patch. Please be sure to download the patch this weekend prior to uninstalling the Darkspore Beta from your computer. The patch will download automatically when it is available."


That is horrible. I remember when Overlord had that same issue.... Luckily I noticed in time. Anyway, in case anyone who was in the beta did not update it, or is just paranoid (like me), you might want to be wary of this bug. By the way... anyone think there's a chance for another beta before launch? it's getting close, but I am really hoping for another one.

[Ixtab]

So, Darkspore has been pushed back a month to April 26th. Kinda sucky, but there will be more closed betas, and an open beta in April. Apparently, there are a lot of updates and new stuff that they are working on, so that's cool.