Ever heard of a little game called Anarchy Online? Well your's truly got the chance to beta test the little critter - something I really wanted to do. Troubles started before I even got to play, though. The client files totaled way over 600megs, and after the time it took to get all that patched and the works, I didn't play as long as I would've liked ... but it was a dream come true nonetheless. :)

My character ... kinda sad looking, isn't he? This was what I got when I first logged into the game. A server-side character creation process! That's kinda cool. I poke around with buttons to choose my profession and name and whatnot, all in this sorta shnazzy interface. A tip, though - when choosing your face, don't do it while the camera position can only see his back. Otherwise, you may wind up with a face like Marylin Manson.

So Chris "Charlie" Cyros was born that day. A grand Nanosapien-specied Fixer, a great dresser, and who had the remarkable talent of ... sitting down. Yes, that's right. Interface for driving your character's a little clumsy at first, and like a brick wall to any newbie. I had this one guy, Alphabetti, shouting in my ear because he couldn't get the normal method of conversing with a player to work. Me? My character was walking around like he had slept with his head in the toilet all night. He was also pretty good at getting killed by leets (no, not those sissys from 'Hackers') - they look like little bunny rabbits. It was cute how I'm being eaten alive by dozens of these ravenous creatures while the guard robots stand about, beep a few times, and walk away.

In conclusion, Anarchy Online is a damn fun game when/if you ever figure out what the jackle-piss you're doing. Otherwise, I hope you like getting killed by small woodland creatures and people shouting in your face.