The Age of Empires Online Beta is publicly available for download over the next two days. The beta will continue past that time, but if you've been curious about the title, now's your chance to grab it without needing tokens or a special invite, through the morning of Saturday, May 7 at 9:01am (presumably London time, since the press release was issued from London, so ... 4:01am Eastern).

We were impressed during our Age of Empires Online preview and, despite its cartoony exterior, found something that isn't Age of Empires "Lite." We've appreciated that it's trying to be a core "casual" title that, in Microsoft's own words, is "not a nickel and dimey microtransaction thing."

[Thanks, Sean]