My painfully slow leveling pace kept me from participating in this week's player-versus-player frolics in The Elder Scrolls Online beta, but fear not! Rev3's Tara Long made it, and she gives a full accounting direct from the battlefields of Cyrodiil.

I've never been a game tester, not by choice, but reviewer is often one step up from that front line in the war against game-killing bugs.

Spore is an amazing creative experience diluted by a broad gameplay focus. Darkspore has one focus: Building a better killing machine. I took my monster squad to task in story mode and player-versus-player combat and lived to tell the tale.