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Basilisk Games has released the fourth in its weekly Q&A series featuring answers to fan questions about the upcoming Eschalon: Book II. The latest installment covers the number of hours players can expect to spend exploring Book II, character walking speed, and the size of the game world.

Question #4: [Saxon1974] Do you have an estimated gameplay hours for this one? I think I heard it would be much larger than book I which I think was about 30 hours, so Im guessing it will be longer than that. Is the walking speed being changed at all? (I didn't have a problem with it but I know alot of people wanted to be able to walk faster).

[Unclever title] You mentioned three major regions for Book II, a temperate region, arctic region, and a volcanic region. About how large are these regions in comparison to the familiar Thaermore? In adddition, about how long can we expect this game to be? (ballpark estimate if necessary).

Book II will be longer than Book I in terms of more quests and areas to explore. But like Book I, Book II's length is largely going to be determined by how much extra stuff you do. It would be impossible to say how much time will be required since everyone plays at different speeds, but we would like to provide a 40-hour experience for the average player. In comparison, Book I was a 20-25 hour game for most people.

The walking speed has improved by about 20%, so your character does walk with a quicker pace than in Book I.

Each of the 3 regions in the game will roughly be the size of Thaermore (perhaps a bit smaller). But two of the areas (Arctic and Volcanic) are less populated than the temperate zone, so players can expect larger expanses of "wilderness" (i.e. areas that are explorable but not necessarily critical to the main storyline).

Basilisk Forum: Eschalon Book II Question Of The Week

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Outer Level has announced the release of their first iPhone game, Bullfrog Touch. In the game players must use tilt, flick, and touch controls to direct their bullfrog through 50 levels of "classic arcade action."

Classic arcade action comes to iPhone and iPod Touch, but with a twist. Tilt, flick, and touch your way through 50 challenging levels to earn your spot atop the online global rankings. Race against the clock to eat six unique bugs on 13 beautiful maps featuring animated water, lily pads, plants, and other obstacles.

Game Play Features:
• Addictive classic arcade action on your iPhone
• Tilt, flick, and touch controls
• 50 increasingly challenging levels
• 13 beautiful maps with animated water, lily pads, plants, and other obstacles
• Eat six bugs, each with its own unique behavior
• Race against the clock
• Bug radar helps you track down your prey
• Track high scores with global rankings
• Pause and restore game play at any time
• Family and child safe gaming

Bullfrog Touch

Outer Level

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Posting on Blizzard Entertainment's official forums, Diablo III Community Manager Bashiok recently offered some more details about the game mechanics of the upcoming action RPG sequel. His comments include discussion of the game's economy, loot mechanics, and the controversial Health Globes.

Azrabaine @ Maelstrom: Everyone seems to be worried Blizzard won't give us a currency or that they'll make sure there isn't any trading with BoE/BoP.
What's the problem with the way Diablo II did it? I'm not just saying my opinion, I'm asking the question: what were the problems with Diablo II's player-run economy and what do you want Blizzard to do?
So in my opinion, I like the idea of a player-run system. It seems much more fun to me. Sure, having a set currency like in WoW is simple, but I feel like it sucks the fun out of bartering (which is a reason I loved Diablo II).

Bashiok:One of the largest issues with a bartering system is that it prevents any ease of entry into the system for players. I have an item and I think it's probably worth something, but I have no idea what its worth and no easy way to find out. You have an item I want, but I have no idea what you may want for it or if I'm going to get a fair trade for it. You may throw a bunch of acronyms at me, get frustrated I don't know what I'm doing, and then leave. That's not going to be a positive experience for either of us, and neither of us get what we want out of it. With a stable economy and currency, there's at least a common language that anyone can understand regardless of their game knowledge.

Omnicide @ USEast: Say you pick up said item that only you can see and you don't need it. If you drop it, can your teammates then see it?

Bashiok: Yeah, so right now in a multiplayer game I'll see my items drop, if I don't want it or can't use it I'll need to pick it up and then drop it at which time everyone can see it. Then I can of course ask in chat if anyone wants it. It's fairly straight forward, and by no means final, obviously.
To clarify "can't use" we don't plan nor have any armor items at the moment that are class specific - although the bonuses and stats may be better suited to a certain class - anyone can pick up any chest/shoulder/leg/etc item and wear it. However, there are some weapons/off-hand items that are class specific.

Blizzplanet: Trade And Currency

Blizzplanet: Loot Mechanics, Etc.

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Guild Software has released a new patch for its massively-multiplayer online space strategy game, Vendetta Online. The latest update brings the game to version 1.8.25 and includes 11 new missions and updates to the new Voice Chat feature.

Changes in version 1.8.25

• 11 New missions have been added.
• Updated Voice Chat, fixes device enumeration for some linux/amd64 installs.
• Removed Voice Chat 'Quality' setting due to changes in Voice Chat SDK.
• Player-defined Ignore list is loaded and saved at different times so plugins can update the lists.
• Version is now displayed in Credits window.
• Back-end enhancements.

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