SOE is going at the EverQuest II thing with streamroller-like momentum. Periodic updates are coming with startling regularity, and with a great deal of fanfare to boot (just check the game's official site). Yesterday, we got a good, long look at the game's first retail expansion pack, Desert of Flames, and from the looks of it, it will expand the game just fine, in terms of new content. A whole new area will be added, complete with a city from which to base your adventures, and a multitude of areas to kill things in. If you're a sucker for EQ lore, you'll likely be pleased with what's in store, and if you're dying for some new scenery, it doesn't seem like you'll be disappointed.

Veterans of the original EverQuest will doubtless appreciate where our demo kicked off: the famous Oasis of Marr. Or what's left of it, anyway, after Luclin, Norrath's moon, careened into it. Many of the area's features remain intact, however, not the least of which is the city of Maj'Dul, which serves as the expansion's focal point. Apparently, in the 500 years since the aforementioned catastrophe, the formerly murderous bandits and dervishes that inhabit the desert got their stuff together enough to found Maj'Dul.

"OMG INC SG TRAIN TO ZONE!"

Unfortunately, they've yet been unable to form any sort of meaningful treaties with the rest of the desert's inhabitants. The short of this is that the multitudes of sand giants that inhabit the area are as aggressive as ever. As are the crocodiles, orcs, desert madmen, and the rest. Luckily, due to EverQuest II's forward-looking pathing routines, the deadly (yet impressive) "sand giant trains" that the original game's adventurers endured as an unfortunate side-effect of leveling at the Oasis are a thing of the past. If you're blessed enough to not know what I'm talking about, I refer you to the following link: http://www.notacult.com/fansythefamous.htm. Reader discretion is advised.

Another classic site we got to visit was the Living Tombs, which, in the Desert's previous iteration, was known as the City of Life. It seems all sorts of vile creatures have taken over the place, including vicious gnolls with glowing eyes, giant spiders, and all manner of undead. All the water in the area's vast network of canals is of a sickly green hue, which is quite fitting, and the architecture is baroque and forbidding. This actually translates into a game feature: Desert of Flames is introducing climbable surfaces to the game, and Living Tombs is full of them. One quest that our host encountered involved finding a torch with which to burn off residual oil that was caked on one of these surfaces. Exciting stuff.