You may not have noticed the new patch, since it was server side. Here's what Funcom has to say about it: Among the many bug fixes, game tweaks, enhancements and additions to the world of Rubi-Ka, we have made a major update to how Anarchy Online handles zoning. With this very important update, we expect that many of the disconnection problems that have plagued players in the past have indeed been remedied. In addition, we have identified and fixed many of the most frequent client crashes within Anarchy Online.

Here's today's AO Daily Update: Today we will talk about the patch we released today, billing and account information, and the Testlive server. We are very enthusiastic about the patch that was released today. This patch should solve most of the problems people have had with disconnects and it will also solve nearly all of the client crashes. Today we will start the monthly billing cycle for the first people who created accounts with the game. We are very happy with our new account system and are confident that you will be too. However, should you experience any problems with anything regarding the payments on your account, we are here to help you. We will also not close any accounts right away and we will never delete accounts. Your CD key is valid for the lifetime of the game, and although your character will be deleted after 3 months of your account being "on hold", we will never delete the actual account. All you need is your username and password to log in and play again. For our last bit of news today, after some short downtime, the Testlive server is back up and running. We hope many more players will pop by this server from time to time. We will be back with more tomorrow.

Server Upgrades: August 10th, 12:01 AM PDT to August 24th, 11:59 PM PDT Over the next two weeks, we will be upgrading our servers in an effort to improve the quality of service that we are providing. During this time, one or two worlds per night will be down between the hours of Midnight and 6 AM PDT. The preceding evening, the affected worlds will be informed by in-lobby messages and later by in-game announcements. We appreciate your patience during these downtimes as we work to improve our level of service

Gamespot has published a basic game guide for Anarchy Online. Among other things, it does a pretty good job of covering the strengths and weaknesses of the various professions. Nice reading if you are still wondering what professions to pick, or if you want some pointers on game play. You can check it out at this link.

Here's Today's Daily Update from the official site: Today's update talk a little bit about how we are going to step up our community work, and how the new position as community manager will influence you as participants of this community. We have now started to focus a lot more on the community of Anarchy Online. We have had tremendous support from the fan-sites for quite some time. They have been very understanding of the fact that we have been swamped with work on all ends and that we have not been able to follow up with them to the extent we would have wanted. Now is the time to repay that patience. With our new Community Manager and the creation of a new community team, we should be set for the future challenges that lay ahead of us. The community team's primary goal will be to keep in touch with fansites. Second they will use a lot of their time to read different bulletin boards, and provide you with more official feedback which we know is sorely wanted. In this process you will also see some changes on the forums, and an increase of official activity there. The boards will be what they were always intended to be; a liason between you, the community member, and us the Development Team. This will also allow the Support Team to concentrate more on helping you to have a pleasant gaming experience. So, you may see less posts from some familiar names in Support, but you should see more of an official and active presence from our Community Team, who will work closely with Support. We hope these are changes that you will enjoy, and we are excited to be providing you with more of the information you deserve.

Voodoo Extreme gave Anarchy Online a 78% in a new review. Here's an excerpt: The design of this game is solid- all characters can solo and group effectively, choose their own progression, and even progress up a ladder of importance for the side they choose. While the high-level game is still unknown, the low-level game seems solid- I had a lot of fun playing it, when it actually worked. It all comes down to the software’s stability and the condition of the server. At the game’s launch, it was pretty much a complete failure. This game should have never been released in the condition that it was in, it was pretty much unplayable. Things have gotten better, but this game is still far from polished. If you can brave being part of this polish stage in exchange for being part of something that’s new and a little bit of a break from the norm, then give AO a try. Otherwise, I’d give this game a few months to work things out. You can read the whole review at this link.

According to the patch news, both dimensions are scheduled to come down on Wednesday, August 8th. The exact time they will come down and the exact amount of downtime are still to be determined.

Here's today's daily update on the official site: Hello again everyone! We hope and trust you had a good week-end. Today’s update will contain info on our next client patch, problems in registering clans, and the in- game surprise we promised a while ago. At the moment we are in the process of completing a new client patch. It will be a data patch that will contain a lot of bug- fixes, but also additional content. There will be brand new MOBs, and a range of new items for you to enjoy. We can’t give you an exact ETA for when it will be put on the test server, but we are working extremely hard to get it ready ASAP. We have noted lately that there has been problems with clans, and the registration of clans, and it seems this has caused some unexpected problems. We are thoroughly looking over the situation at the moment, but unfortunately can’t give you a lot of information about it now. We wanted to let you all know that we are making this a priority and will be back with more info as soon as possible. For those of you who thought we’d forgotten about our promise of an in-game surprise, we can assure you that we haven’t. All the players that were with us for the first couple of weeks will receive something special. We have several ideas as to what it could be, and we’re currently reviewing the technical aspects of implementing them.

In case you don't feel like going there to read it, here's today's daily update from the official site: Today’s topics are our most recent patch, more info on our account management interface, and downtime on the test server. Earlier today, we patched our server again which a fixed a nasty mission bug where the missions didn’t time out. We hope it will meet with your satisfaction. We have received several questions in regards to our newly established account management interface. We would like to point out that the default page is insecure in order accommodate those who may be behind a firewall, or for browsers that do not support a secure site. If you would like to ensure that your information is secure, you can log in to https://register.funcom.com instead. You are able to choose this secure site from the default page, we just wanted to make sure everyone is aware of the options. Those of you who have bought the game online, and do not have a CD key to edit your account information, will receive an e-mail from us with a CD key to use for this purpose. Because we are physically moving some of our servers to a new location, we will have to close down the test server for the week-end. We plan on having it back up and running on Monday, but we will give you an accurate ETA early on Monday if that plan changes.

Derisor has put up a nice, comprehensive list of bugs in the official AO forums. It is worth checking out. You can see it at this link.