Darkspore.
Spiritual sequel to Spore.
Character construction and all that jazz.

Closed Beta, I got a key, will be saying more about it later.

Here, have a link. http://www.darkspore.com/

I don't expect it to be good, based on the trailer I saw.

Hmm... looks quite snazzy. I signed up, how difficult is it to get in?

I'unno. One day I signed up for kicks, less than a week later I'm in.

I, unlike you, only ever heard of spore after it's release, or at least very shortly before then. I've only ever known it as the soft-cuddly game it was released as. Having looked through the website, I am pretty sure this version is more manli-fied.

Oh god, what I wouldn't give for a complete version of the game that we were shown years and years ago, rather than the Spore that they released.

It suffered from the same thing that Fable got.
Watering down of the original idea, so it's marketable/easier.

Patching is nearly complete, you'll have impressions within the weekend.

This game, what happened to it? I miss it so.

Darkspore is pretty fun. I'm in the beta.

Just got my key today, Unfortunately Im hosting a minecraft server ATM.

I will report feedback here though.

Your statement embodies my opinion on the matter to a tee, I'd add more but it'd be redundant.


--Fairly short wall of text approaches
Anyway, I made it into the Darkspawn beta and it's quite fun. For those lacking an adequate description I'll try and give it but keep in mind I've not gotten too far as I just got access a few hours ago and it spent two of them patching.
It's a mouse based hack-n-slash mmo. The gameplay is squad based; you pick squads of three genetic heroes (creatures) and go and do a mission or pvp with them. As far as I know you can't create them from scratch but you can modify them with items you get doing missions or via the shop. This changes how they look and gives them bonuses - I'm sure you all know the drill. The number of heroes you can have in total is dependent on your level, you can have 1 for each level. Each hero has various skills and 1 (perhaps more) passive. They're also oriented to a certain element (in lieu of a better word) which means that they'll take twice as much damage from mobs of that element, I'm not sure if the reverse applies but I don't think so. It's room based so it can be played essentially single player and to be honest I'm not sure how the matchmaking system works (as mentioned above I've not gotten too far).
There are more mechanics to both the fighting side of things and the creature customization side but I don't want to go into detail since I'm not far enough along in the game to speak confidently about their nuances (laziness also plays a factor - this post is long enough as is). There's also a decent enough backstory with progenitors, cryofreezing, ai and genetic manipulation & its consequences but I'm also not going into that.
To reiterate, it's quite fun. Also, if I made any mistakes with info on the game someone please correct me.

I signed up, waiting for akey to arrive, how big is the download?

Download is ~150MB.
And EA are taking their time opening up the new Beta... they said it'd be open Friday 25th, Noon PST.

I just signed up too. Eagerly waiting for the key, this sounds awesome.

Yeah, I just got the key, and I downloaded the installer. Looks pretty beast, if you ask me.