If we've learned anything in our long-term relationship with games, it's that no matter how much we love a title, sooner or later we're going to demand a bit of plastic surgery to bring back those youthful looks. Happily, EverQuest II's user interface got a much-needed facelift with today's GU57 patch. The update ushered in a new hotbar, merged windows, and a choice between a red and a blue theme.

GU57 doesn't just stop at the UI, however. New tradeskill quests now available at levels 10, 20 and 30, granting both advance recipes and mounts upon completion. Lowbie players should enjoy the revamped Greater Faydark and Darklight Wood zones, and SOE has moved a number of group-oriented spells to higher levels so that greenhorn characters won't feel as overloaded as they take their first few steps into the game. Players should also find that EQII's spell effects have a bit more of a kick to them.

In all of the hubbub of the new patch, it's important not to overlook EverQuest II's other big update: the kickoff of the public beta for EverQuest II Extended (EQ2X), the F2P version of the game. You can check out the full patch notes over at EQ2 Wire.

SOE updates EverQuest II's UI and kicks off the Extended beta originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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