14 DAY TRIAL // Some said that this day would never come. Others expected this day to come much sooner. Still, it's good that Electronic Arts and Mythic managed to get Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning to this date, the date when the game goes gold. Going gold means that the development is not over and that copies are not created and distributed to various game stores in anticipation of the launch date, which is set for September 18.
If you have not pre-ordered the game until now, it's about time to do so, especially if you want to play the only MMO which launches this year with a serious chance of challenging the domination of World of Warcraft. Warhammer Online is a different breed of MMO, with public quests and realm vs. realm battles taking center stage. The public quest system is designed to eliminate the tedium of creating a party. You only need to walk around certain places to be able to join in a task in which more players take part, with a chance to acquire a part of the loot after the final boss of the public quest is vanquished.
According to the people playing the beta at the moment, it seems that the game is pretty solid, with a great deal of variety in the classes that are available and with surprisingly little technical glitches for a title which is still not launched.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning was announced back in 2000. The idea behind it is that fights between players are created to have clear economic and strategic impact on the faction to which they belong. The two sides, Order and Destruction, have capital cities that can be captured and, after launch, players should probably be expecting factional capitals, too.
If you live in North America, you can take part in the preview weekend and early buyers also get a weekend of play before launch. Otherwise, be prepared for September 18, the day that WAR begins.