spore posts

Darkspore is finally out, and it's getting a decent amount of praise. After all, the action RPG market has been a little barren of good releases since Torchlight, and Darkspore isn't bad. As with all launch trailers, this trailer doesn't show anything of real substance, just snippets from reviews intermingled with random in-game footage. Showy and flashy. You shouldn't need much convincing at this point, though. After all, the open beta ran for quite a while!

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The latest character trailer for Darkspore unveils a hero that seems very familiar. Perhaps it's because he has all the classic assassin traits: backstabbing, dual-wielding, weakness exposing, and outright stealthing. It's certainly got us interested, especially given the combination potential with his stealth. Besides showing off Skar, this trailer doesn't really have anything else, so if you aren't particularly interested in Darkspore, it's best skipped.

Download Darkspore 'Skar Hero Spotlight' Trailer
Download Darkspore Open Beta Client (5.2 GB)
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Gallery: Darkspore Screenshots

It's time for more trailers about the Darkspore heroes! This one in particular covers the Meditron hero, who functions much like a support DPS and healer combination. He apparently has one of the only buff/debuff removal tools in the game, and his squad ability is a powerful channeled heal and maximum health buff. This doesn't really mean anything without watching the trailer, though, so if you have a hankering for some more information on Darkspore, here's your chance!

Download Darkspore 'Meditron Hero Spotlight' Trailer
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As promised earlier this month, Electronic Arts has now launched an open beta for Darkspore, the upcoming sci-fi action-RPG that's based loosely on 2009's alien evolution sim Spore. The open beta is available for anyone to download and play for free via Steam and will run through this Friday, April 1. The beta will include support for four player co-op along with 1v1 and 2v2 Player vs Player matches

People can also pre-order the game via Steam as well as a Darkspore four-pack that includes four downloadable copies of the game you can give to friends for the price of three copies. While the game was previously announced as being released this week, Darkspore is now scheduled to be released on April 26.

After spotting some changes to Darkspore's release date on several retail web sites Thursday, we emailed publisher Electronic Arts to find out if the upcoming sci-fi action-RPG's March 29 release date would be delayed. While we never heard back from EA, the game's official message board has now confirmed that Darkspore's release date will indeed be pushed back a few weeks.

According to the message the new release date will be April 26 for the US with Europe getting the game on April 28. According to the post the delay was decided after receiving feedback from gamers from the recent closed beta tests. More closed beta events will be coming and sometime before the game's release there will be an open beta for anyone to play.

If retailer web sites are to be believed, the upcoming sci-fi action RPG Darkspore from Electronic Arts could miss its scheduled March 29 release date to sometime in May. The Gamestop.com web site now shows a May 3 release date for the game while Amazon.com has moved the release date to May 31. Finally Steam's pre-order page for the game now shows a generic May 2011 release date.

The action-RPG based loosely on EA Maxis' 2009 life simulator Spore recently held a series of beta test weekends ahead of its planned March 29 launch. It's possible that EA felt that Darkspore needed more development time after seeing the results of the beta. If it has been delayed to May that means it will be entering an already crowded month full of major PC game releases. We have contacted the game's PR reps for confirmation of a new release date.

The man who created Sim City, The Sims and Spore says he's back making new games but is keeping specific details to himself, at least for now. Eurogamer reports that Will Wright, speaking at GDC 2011 this past week, did say that the games he is working on won't be shrink wrapped in a box.

Wright states that the unannounced game projects he is working on will be " ... a little more diffuse" using both mobile and web platforms. He also hints that the games he is making will be more than just to entertain people, saying, "I'm really interested right now in games that get people more engaged in the world around them rather than distract them from it." Wright's most recent project is the TV series Bar Karma which features audience participation in creating the show's storylines.

After a couple of years of teases and months of closed beta testing, the Gaikai streaming PC game service is now officially live. The CEO of Gaikai, Dave Perry, announced that the service was open to anyone to try out on his official web site late on Friday.

The streaming service is concentrating only on limited game demos, at least for now (unlike the OnLive service which has full games to play). The official Gaikai web site is offering a streaming demo of Mass Effect 2 (access to the demo pops up on the right hand side of the site after a few seconds). Gaikai is also being used to demo other EA games such as Spore and The Sims 3 which didn't have traditional PC demos released for them. Most interesting is that Gaikai is the only place to play a PC demo of the recent sci-fi horror game Dead Space 2 (after you fill out a survey). We've played it and on our connection it's pretty smooth. There's also a way to try out the quasi-MMO game Second Life via a Gaikai connection.

On his web site Perry states that at GDC next week he will be demoing a Gaikai-powered game running inside a Facebook page. He also states that " ... we will show some really high-end, high-performance games running at 60hz with no work needing to be done by the publishers / developers."

Not snake vipers, but rather the hero Viper. The latest trailer for Darkspore continues the trend of hero trailers followed by a little extra information. In this case, the hero ie Viper, a poison-based hero who excels at dealing significant amounts of damage. The segment at the end also covers itemization and how exactly it affects your hero. We've been liking these trailers thanks to just how much they tell us, and this one is no different in that regard.

Download Darkspore 'Viper' Hero Spotlight Trailer
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Will Wright may be a "god" when it comes to creating some of the most influential and best selling PC games of all time (The Sims, Sim City and Spore, among others) but that doesn't mean he thinks games have limitations. In a new article over at CNN Wright is pretty blunt when he states, "Games are not the right medium to tell stories. Video games are more about story possibilities." He pretty much slams story-heavy game like the Metal Gear Solid series with Wright saying, "That's not the kind of game I like playing."

Wright is now the producer of Bar Karma, the new sci-fi themed drama on the Current TV network that does try to tell stories, although those are based in part on suggestions made by viewers via a special web site. So does that mean Wright has abandoned games completely? Nope. According to the article, Wright says that he is "also working on new games" at his company Stupid Fun Club. We assume those games won't have stories either.