When Sony Online Entertainment showed off gameplay trailers for EverQuest II at E3 in Los Angeles, this past May, there was a sense of wonder and awe. When Sony announced that almost every NPC would speak, there was a sense of wonder and awe. When Sony sent the invite for the closed beta and it was 3.5 gigabytes in size, there was shock. Expect the retail version to be much bigger.

Will it be worth it? That is yet to be determined, but as SOE has granted permission to speak about the first 10 levels of the game, from this limited vantage point, the answer has to be a resounding “you bet!”