The upcoming EverQuest II expansion, Sentinel's Fate, features early access to the content with the purchase of the retail box.  As we reported earlier, this caused disconent with the community of non-US players, as the details of international distribution had not yet been nailed down. Online retailers distributing the expansion are US-based and unable to accomodate overseas players in a timely and affordable manner.

Christine "Kiara" Renzetti, EverQuest II Community Manager, posted today on the official forums that a digital download will be made available on the early launch date to international customers only.

The status of retail distribution for Sentinel's Fate at launch internationally is still uncertain. However in an effort to properly serve our international community we have partnered with several digital distributors who will be providing the expansion to our international customers only starting on Feb 16th 2010. The digital downloads will be IP locked so that only the international community can take advantage of this.

We will have more details on this special distribution as they become available.

We've just acquired 39 new screenshots of The Hole, the contested group zone with level 82+ content from EQII's upcoming Sentinel's Fate.  With our exclusive screenshots, this makes a whopping 41 images of what's looking like a gorgeous, huge and involved zone!  Click the image to the right to see the whole gallery!

Be sure to check out the EQII Players feature on this zone, with commentary from Brett "Timetravelling" Scheinert, Carlos "Gninja" Mora, and super nifty wallpapers!

At Fan Faire 2009 when Sentinel's Fate was revealed to take place in Odus, one question on everyone's lips was "will the Hole be there?" In the original Everquest, the Ruins of Old Paineel, commonly called "The Hole" has always been a popular place for players, and has been revisted for epic quests and most recently the EverQuest Underfoot expansion. 

ZAM has obtained two exclusive pictures of The Hole, which we hear will be a group contested zone. Click the thumbnails below the jump for a closer look at this highly anticipated zone!

The bonus appearance armor for Sentinel's Fate was revealed yesterday on the EQII forums.  The Guarding of the Reasoned comes with the retail boxes and the Guarding of the Learned with the digital downloads.

Also released was a video of the Collector's Edition mount choices.  It was recently confirmed that the Highland Stalker-style mounts will only be available with the collector's edition.  See whe video after the jump!

Alan "Brenlo" Crosby is again teasing the EQII Twitterverse with pictures of mysterious feline mounts that we presume are from the upcoming expansion, Sentinel's Fate.  UPDATE: Tom Tobey, EQII Sr. Animato, posted that this is a Collector's Edition Mount, and that the lynx mount will not be available elsewhere in the game.

Kiara posted today on the official forums that the Highland Stalker mount is receiving a runspeed increase, courtesy of the dev team.

Quick update.  Brenlo has let me know that the team discussed the run speed issue.  They agree that it could be a little more awesome to compliment the cool that is the kitty mount, so it has been adjusted to 65%.

Player feedback FTW!

EQII Players has just revealed the goodies included in the Collector's Edition of Sentinel's Fate, including the much-discussed highland stalker mount!  The Highland Stalker will be available to characters from level one through level 90 and will have a 50% boost to run speed. According to EQII Players,  This mount is exclusive to the Collector's Edition of Sentinel's Fate. There will be no other Highland Stalker mounts!

This just in, registration for EverQuest II's beta of Sentinel's Fate is now open! 

Click here to go to the registration page and accept the terms of the NDA.  If you attended Fan Faire, you will be admitted into the beta program, but you must still register and accept the NDA.

For more information, see this post on the official EverQuest II forums.

A new batch of Sentinel's Fate screenshots were released on the official EverQuest II site!  There's a lot of beautiful scenery and more mob pictures to speculate over.  See them at the EQII site or click here for the ZAM gallery!

Players eager for a sneak peak at the upcoming EverQuest II expansion have been diligently datamining, and some have struck paydirt!  As reported at EQ2 Wire, player Vulkoor found some Sentinel's Fate files being downloaded via the EQII patcher.  This seems to happen every year, but they aren't usually seen until after Beta starts.  He reports 13 mob models with a heavy sword and sorcery, classical mythology, and D&D influence including Cerberus. Chimera, and Beholders.  He's also identified eight sentient races, two dragons, and six models of floating disk.

Meanwhile EQ2 Wire noticed the distinctive filenames in the SOE-released Sentinel's Fate screenshots, and has identified seven potential zones.  Some, like Stonebrunt Mountains and the Hole, were mentioned at Fan Faire.

While it's very early to nail down expansion info, the vpaks are usually a good source.  Vulkoor claims that he's called it right the last two expansions, and we've no reason to doubt him.  It's safe to speculate that at this late date the races and general models are pretty solid.