EverQuest II: Desert of Flames Previews

Both GameSpot and IGN PC are offering up previews of Sony Online's EverQuest II: Desert of Flames, both of which are based on a recent demonstration of the expansion pack. A snip from GameSpot's article:
Regardless of how you choose to interact with other characters in Maj'Dul, you'll quickly come to realize that there are three rival factions vying for control of the city and that if you hope to make any friends there you'd do well to enlist with one of them. Enlisting with a faction will make you a lot of enemies in the city as well, of course, but at least you'll have friends around to back you up anytime there's trouble. Enlisting with a faction will also let you play an active role in helping that faction gain control of the city by taking towers and other key structures from rival factions. The number of buildings controlled by a single faction will determine how many of its NPCs are present in the city and what services it's able to offer its players, so it will definitely be worthwhile for you to help your faction out when you have an opportunity to do so. We've heard rumors of a mysterious fourth faction operating in Maj'Dul, by the way, but the SOE representatives we met with today were far too fearful for their own safety to divulge any information to us on who they might be.

And a snip from IGN PC's article:
Our presentation started out in the Oasis, only a sliver of which is left from the original EverQuest days. The huge rock wall no longer exists; instead, you can vertically climb a face of about a hundred feet, which leads you to the desert plateau. From here, we hopped on a magic carpet and took a scenic ride to Maj' Dul, the town Dervish Cutthroats raised out of the desert over the course of the last five hundred years. On our way there, we came across caves, oases, and other points of interest dotting the land, not to mention roaming beasties. We're told that there's over 40 new creatures, including some updated monsters from the original EQ, and a dozen new zones to explore.