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Basilisk Games recently released a screenshot for the company's upcoming Eschalon: Book III. The third title in the old school fantasy RPG series is currently in development and will complete the epic saga. The new screenshot features a glimpse of one of the areas currently in alpha testing.

Eschalon: Book III brings the trilogy to a climatic end as you seek to uncover the mystery of your past, the secrets of the Crux stones, and who the Orakur really are. You’ll traverse miles of virtual wilderness and dungeons, filled with secrets and danger, in an unparalleled role-playing experience designed to feel like a true pen-and-paper RPG.

• The end of a saga! The final Book in the Eschalon Trilogy brings the story to an epic conclusion and all your questions will be answered. Of course, we’ve made sure Book III can be fully enjoyed even if you’ve never played the previous games.

• Dozens of fan-requested features and updates to the engine and rule set.

• Hundreds of graphic updates including re-rendered tiles, new spell effects, and enhanced environment effects. New sound effects and music in crystal-clear HD audio via an updated sound engine.

• Expanded stats for creatures give them new abilities, defenses and vulnerabilities. Combat will require new levels of strategy.

• New spells and hundreds of new items for you to discover. A huge world filled with secrets, riddles, traps, treasure, and glory awaits you!

• Book III is not a dumbed-down “RPG for the masses”. Rapid button clicking won’t save you here. Eschalon pays honor to the greatest RPGs of the past, with unlimited character development options and freedom to explore the world as you wish. The difficulty of the game does not scale to your character.

• Developer tools to be released shortly after the availability of the game. Build your own maps and make your own adventures!

• Single player only, like a great RPG should be.

Eschalon Book III Alpha Screenshot

Basilisk Games

Eschalon: Book III

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Harebrained Schemes has released a new update on the status of the upcoming Shadowrun Returns RPG. The lengthy post includes information about features currently functional in the game as well as plans for the future.

On the code-side, over 30 character skills and abilities are in the game and working. That’s stuff like etiquette, snapshot, and conjuring. On top of that, decking, rigging, spirit summoning, and spellcasting are in too! This list represents a huge push from our engineering team to get the first draft of these features in before the end of the year and they delivered. Now, before you get too excited, all these systems are using “programmer art” so they’re. . . not pretty. But they prove the systems, can be tested, bug-fixed, and iterated upon before we spend the time prettifying them. It’s starting to feel like a game. It’s got bugs and there’s a lot to do but it’s starting to feel like Shadowrun.

But wait, there’s more. NPCs are talking! Our base conversation system is in and working. We’ve got branching dialog in the game that performs checks to determine what dialog options to give you - we plan to note the skill/attribute/race, etc. that allowed that option to appear. We (and you) can do all sorts of cool things with our conversation system combined with our trigger system. Things like attaching a conversation to a window prop so it feels like you’re overhearing people on the other side of the window or having a conversation that convinces someone to turn off the fog of war in an area and escort you to the mainframe.

Shadowrun Returns Update

Shadowrun Returns

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InXile Entertainment recently announced that the minimum pre-order cost for the upcoming Wasteland 2 RPG will increase from $20 to $25 after January. A sequel to the classic post-apocalyptic RPG of the 80's, Wasteland 2 will be a top down, turn-based, tactical RPG that the developers promise will "stay true to its roots."

Wasteland 2 is the direct sequel to the first ever post-apocalyptic computer RPG. The original Wasteland was the inspiration for the FALLOUT series of games, and the first RPG to allow players to split parties for tactical considerations, to face players with moral choices, and to make them deal with the consequences of their actions. It was the first to provide far more than the one-key-for-one-lock style of puzzle solving. It was groundbreaking, which is why IGN named it one of the top 25 PC games of all time, Computer Gaming World named it the Adventure Game of the year in 1988, and it was short-listed for inclusion in the Smithsonian Institution’s current “Art of the Computer Game” exhibition.

Wasteland was set in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic world in the American Southwest. Over the course of adventures rangers would receive promotions, acquire new skills and equipment, then face new challenges with outcomes that changed depending on the strategy used to defeat them. The game featured a strong storyline which required painful decisions by players; and a storyline that allowed for maximum re-playability. Wasteland 2, with your participation and insights, will recapture all that and provide more. It'll finally be the game worthy to be a Wasteland sequel, as challenging and rewarding as the original, with all added capacity and dazzle of games today.

Wasteland Store

Wasteland 2

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Apple Daily Report has posted a new review of Feral Interactive's Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition. Developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for consoles and PC, Batman: Arkham City GOTY features all previously released downloadable content, including the Harley Quinn’s Revenge pack.

From the review:

As in Batman: Arkham City, you, as Batman, will face off against multiple bad guys. You’ll use the Freeflow Combat system of combining attacks, counters and gadgets together to do battle. Then there’s the predator mode in which you (Batman) have to use your stealth and wits to systematically take out your enemies. I really found the the predator maps, with options such as “double takedowns,” usable.

At some points in the game, you play as Catwoman, sometimes as Robin, and sometimes as Nighthawk. Unfortunately, you don’t always get to choose when to switch between characters, which I found to be a bit jarring.

Also, you’ll need a fairly beefy Mac (see the system requirements below) to truly appreciate the game, especially since you’ll want things to flow smoothly in your role as crimefighter.

Apple Daily Report: Batman Arkham City Review

Feral Interactive

Batman: Arkham City Game Of The Year Edition

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