In addition to the look and feel, a new land has been added -- Ilshenar, which is geared for more advanced players. The monsters that inhabit the area are typically powerful and in groups, and there are no guards and very limited settlements. Lone characters can quickly be overwhelmed in the densely populated areas and with no ability to gate or recall from a fight, it's either win or outrun the enemy. Even advanced parties are in jeopardy, as elder land wyrms and demons roam around accompanied by other nasty denizens. And let's not forget the gazer town, or the fallen city that holds "The Lord of the Abyss" and more nasties than can easily be counted. As an added bonus to people concerned with aesthetics, there will be no new housing on Ilshenar. There will be new monsters, armor and weapons, though, throughout all of the game, not just in Ilshenar. There won't, however, be changes in terms of gameplay; this will be the same UO as that being played right now.

You can read the whole preview here.

That's where the team structure comes in. Becoming a member of a corporate empire isn't just about selecting a color scheme -- the designers have said that while most of the weapons, implants and vehicles will be similar across the empires, there will be some differences in the advantages and disadvantages of each corporation. While it's not to the extent of Everquest, mind you, it's a way to give you a unique experience playing under the different corps. Each corporation will have its own unique look, and the team has even mentioned using a variety of logos to designate ranking within the corporations, so that you'll be able to instantly recognize someone's rank and experience by just looking at their logo and clothing.

You can catch the rest of the preview here.

But endless combat isn't the only way to progress through AO. Even at the beta stage, Anarchy Online includes a limitless number of randomly generated quests that can be found at a task-generating booth in town. I've already been on some low-level quests that include such things as delivering books, nano-augmentations, and even assassinating someone with a sacrificial krys knife. The quest system works by not only giving you a task, but also a key for a particular building in the city. Once you enter said building, the server creates a randomly generated interior where the quest takes place. All in all it's pretty interesting stuff and, unlike EverQuest, you can get some pretty rewarding quests early on in the game that don't take all that much time.

I remember logging on to the City Works BBS (Bulletin Board System) in Toronto, under the handle "Guido the Killer Pimp." Hey, give me a break--I was like 14 or something. BBSes in those days were considered amazingly high-tech if you could have two users on simultaneously. There were simple message boards, which I'd browse using a 300 baud modem (I later upgraded to a whopping 2400 baud). Whenever I went online, I'd tie up the phone lines for literally hours downloading 32 KB files. And believe it or not, I would play online games on these BBSes.

One of those games was Trade Wars.

Also similar to Diablo II is how addictive Redmoon can be. Even though it gets monotonous killing off gangsters for the first twenty levels, the game will grow on you. And you'll need that dedication just to get started with the real game -- you need to be at least level 100 to start the first quest. As you can guess, you can raise your character to levels higher than 100, which you'll need to in order to use better weapons. Weapons in Redmoon are purchased and require certain attributes to be at a set minimum. Items in the game will also become less effective as you gain levels, forcing you to move on from the one-dollar gold fish to the more expensive French fries.

You can catch the rest of the preview here.

Honestly, I was thrilled to see the online game tutorial. I always find tutorials helpful because of the "hands-on" gameplaying experience you get early on. Also, available in the game interface is a help button at the bottom. It pops-up a window with a basic help guide and chat commands. You would think with all this 'help stuff,' I would have sailed through gameplay. Unfortunately, I found the game hard to adapt to in the beginning because of a lack of true understanding of how to play the game on my part.

I didn't realize how important specific abilities were to the success of the advancement of my character through levels. I made many mistakes that I ended up learning by either 'trial and error' or from seeing helpful comments in the chat window.

You can read the rest of the preview here.