Anarchy Online: Shadowlands announced

Funcom has announced Anarchy Online: Shadowlands, its upcoming expansion pack for the sci-fi online role-playing game Anarchy Online. The expansion will feature new areas to explore, a new profession specialization, additional breed variations, higher-quality armor and items, enhanced graphics, and other improvements.

"Anarchy Online provides players with more freedom to develop their characters than any other massively multiplayer online game on the market," said Henning Solberg, online services director for Funcom. "With Shadowlands, players will be able to take that to an even higher level while having intriguing new areas to explore and new modified breeds to choose from. We are having a lot of fun making this expansion, and we are happy to include many things our current players want to see."

Anarchy Online was launched in June 2001 in what the publisher has described as a "rocky start." The game, which lets players assume the role of a character in the midst of a war on a remote planet thousands of years into the future, has since been upgraded and changed numerous times. For more information, take a look at our extensive coverage of the game.

Anarchy Online: Shadowlands is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2002. We'll post more information about the expansion as it becomes available.