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Basilisk Games has released the second installment of its October creature features, showcasing one frightening denizen of the world of Eschalon: Book II. Each week the company will unveil a new creature, offering both concept artwork and a detailed description. The second creature showcased is the Mire Troll, a frightening resident of the marshlands and bogs of Eschalon. Possessed of supernatural regenerative powers the monster will challenge those adventuring in the swampy areas of the land.

DESCRIPTION:
The Mire Troll is a foul beast that lives in marshlands and bogs across the temperate zones of Eschalon. Little is known of the origins of the troll-kin races, but many scholars have noted prominent reptilian and Hobgoblin similarities, suggesting a common history. One of the most fascinating and dangerous aspects of the Mire Troll is its ability to regenerate lost health during combat, making it a very difficult creature to best in battle. When engaged in combat, it is necessary to destroy the beast as quickly as possible lest it will regenerate its health and never succumb to death! They have a dreaded fear of fire, a weakness that should be taken advantage of whenever possible.

Mire Trolls are also known to be very territorial, savagely protecting their claimed range from trespassers. They care little for gold or valuables, but they often collect the shiny trinkets that are scattered about after they've dismembered an adventurer who foolishly wandered into their territory.

Eschalon Book II: Mire Troll Feature

Basilisk Games

Eschalon: Book II

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Inside Mac Games has posted a review of the SAT-prep edutainment title, futureU, from Aspyr Media. Here is an excerpt from the review:

FutureU has pretty average graphics. All the backgrounds are pretty empty aside from stylized shapes that your character flies towards when you go from menu to menu. The character itself can be colored and changed in a variety of ways, but not enough to be truly interesting. After all, why do you care if your shirt is a different color when the character does nothing but do a non-skippable animation whenever you change menus?

IMG Review: futureU

futureU

Aspyr Media

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Macworld UK has posted a new review of Neverwinter Nights 2. The RPG once again returns players to the Forgotten Realms setting using the Dungeons & Dragons rule set. Macworld gave the game a score of 4 out of 5.

From the review:

The graphics are more varied and detailed than the murky textures of the earlier game, creating an impressive and realistic 3D world for your adventures (though you’ll need a fairly powerful Mac, with a 2GHz Intel processor to run the game properly). The storyline is more complex too, allowing your character to progress from simple country bumpkin to legendary hero. The game begins in the small village of West Harbour, which is suddenly attacked by a band of orcs. The orcs are searching for the broken shards of an ancient magical sword, and it falls to you to recover the lost parts of the sword and generally save the world. As you progress through the game you’ll develop greater powers and skills, and graduate from bashing orcs to taking on dragons and some really impressive large-scale battles against the invading armies of evil.

However, it’s not just straightforward good-versus-evil stuff. As you encounter new characters and events within the game you will always have a choice between good and evil. Your choices affect the way that the game unfolds, altering events and influencing the other characters in the game. You also attract a band of followers along the way, and you can choose up to three additional ‘henchmen’ characters to fight at your side – but only if they approve of the way you behave and consider you a worthy leader.

Macworld UK: Neverwinter Nights 2

Aspyr Media

Neverwinter Nights 2

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StarCraftWire.net has published a new video interview with Blizzard Entertainment's Frank Pearce about the company's upcoming projects. The interview includes discussion of World of Warcraft, Diablo III, StarCraft II, and even a few comments on the Blizzard's mysterious "fourth project."

Frank commented on the BlizzCon event itself, how they prepare games for events like these, the MMO-inspiration in Diablo 3, WotLK Launch details, D3 development history and philosophy.

In addition to this, we get a few minimal comments on the FOURTH Blizzard project, and that StarCraft II will get the "Eye of Sauron" focused on the game development after WotLK launches. Just like Sigaty said , Battle.net is the great focus, together with Single Player, as the multiplayer aspect is more or less nailed. This is naturally also good news for Diablo 3, which will be heavily centred on co-op and Battle.net. Through the Battle.net we'll also see achievements at launch of the games, and he denies any current plans of Battle.net fees.

StarCraftWire.net: Frank Pearce Interview

Blizzard Entertainment

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Diii.net has posted a new video interview with Blizzard Entertainment's Jay Wilson about the upcoming action RPG, Diablo III. The conversation ranges across a variety of topics including details about items, difficulty modes, and the runes system.

During BlizzCon, Flux sat down with Jay Wilson who was on hand to answer a few questions. Topics included waypoints, autoparty, anti-griefing, player teleports, item info for stats/drops/quality, rares & uniques info, difficulty modes and more. He also goes into some detail on why they decided to remove assignable attributes, and how important it is to avoid having "hot-spots" that gives the most efficient experience, and letting people play however or wherever they want. Another interesting topic that he delves deeper into is the new runes system, and how they improve spells.

Diii.net: Jay Wilson Interview

Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo III

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Positive Spin Media has announced BombSquad 3.2, an update to its minesweeper clone for Mac OS X. Version 3.2 expands BombSquad's global coverage into seven complete localizations: English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese.

BombSquad genetically splices the good looks of Mac OS X and its Aqua interface with the popular "Windoze" Minesweeper puzzle/game. It is fantastic freeware for Mac OS X. It thinks different with features like "Crunch Time", "Zap Clicks", and other names unworthy of trademark protection. It also features an online record book and individual preferences for sound, training, and difficulty. Localized into English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese, you are guaranteed to find some fun in a language that is pretty close to something you understand.

How does this product improve on the original? BombSquad starts with the ingredients that make minesweeper great puzzle fun, and then adds the ability to resize the game board and the grid size to your heart's content. An aqua candy shell makes sure you look good while having fun, and then an online record book and scoring system makes sure you get the recognition you deserve.  In short, it's the perfect puzzle game to while away a few spare minutes. The fact that it's free means you can have fun while knowing you didn't break the bank on the way. Try it today!

BombSquard

Positive Spin Media

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