If you go to Best Buy and pick up a $10 pre-order box, you can get in game early. You then get that $10 taken off your purchase price (so it goes against the cost of the game.) You also get a Rhino mount with that Best Buy order.

Once you have set up your account, you can download the retail client. The client gets patched starting tomorrow 5/14 and the servers open at 1 PM EST on Saturday 5/17 for the "early access crowd." The game officially launches on 5/20.

I played closed and open beta and think the game looks as beautiful as Vanguard but runs better than EQ2 (at least on my machine.) It's more of a dark and seedy EQ2 looking world than a WOW world. Graphics are great, Classes are unique and interesting, and there are lots of features that are being saved for release so the jury is out on how those will perform. They have content 1-80 and WOWish leveling times. You can solo to 80 or group. Raids are already in game as well as FFA PVP and Siege PVP. They have player built cities and keeps to fight over, mounted combat, crafting, Oblivion sytle quest dialog, great sound and innovative / interactive combat unlike anything you have seen before.

I have some buddies who have seen a lot of the world and it's pretty epic once you get out of Tortage. I'd say if you are burned out on the current MMO offerings, I think your money would be well spent. That being said, there is a leap of faith involved because there were issues during open beta and it will be interesting to see how well Funcom learned from that experience and what kind of game performance and stability they will provide at launch. I'm fired up about it but I think with any new release you have to have some patience and expect a few bumps in the road. Hope to see you in game.