TTGamer has written a very in depth preview of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. Here is a sample.
...it combines good combat gameplay with just about all the proven MMO features you can think of. In fact, while you'd naturally expect a MMORPG to feel "open" and its world to feel "alive", Tabula Rasa takes this one step further by making sure, with the use of AFS NPC's, the feeling of war is never put aside.
You can read the entire article here...
http://gaming.tweaktown.com/articles/842/tabula_rasa_hands_on_pc_preview/index.html
(be sure not to miss page two here)
http://gaming.tweaktown.com/articles/842/2