Dude. Space Cowboy Online rocks so much. It was worth the 30 hour download absolutely. This is quite possibly the best online game I've ever played.

See, what they call "grinding" is still fun, because you're shooting stuff down. Quests are interesting. And you get to spend a lot of time in newbie quests learning to control your Gear. I've pretty much gotten the hang of my controls now as an A-Gear, which is a tank that works better on the ground, but I know how to fly it well. If I had homing missiles I'd be more effective in the air, but the A-Gear was really better designed for being on the ground. I can't wait to get to level 20 so I can use Siege Mode. :D

Surprisingly the game isn't as graphically hardware-intensive as I'd originally imagined it to be. o_O For a full-3D flight sim, I thought I'd be in chop city. But they probably optimized everything so that it runs smoothly, even when there's a lot of players or monsters in the screen. Additionally, this game is designed in a way that lag doesn't interfere too much. I think even dial-up players can enjoy this game. I think it registers everything client-side first, then sends it to the server-side. Unlike in most normal FPS, where if you aim late because of lag, you miss completely, if your client says you hit, the server will recognize, even if according to the server, the target has already moved out of your target area. That is just smart thinking.

A little added bonus that I'm sure a lot of people appreciate, myself included, is the music player thing. You can put your own music into the game's music folder, and it'll put them in a playlist in-game. So you can listen to whatever you want to without having to possibly lag your game by running WinAmp or WMP in the background to listen. Flawless victory.

Mad propz to the developers of this truly awesome game. Looks like I've found my "hang-out" game for a while.