IGN.com has announced that the folks over at Jagex Software confirmed that the next edition of RuneScape will be revealed at E3 next month. Originally tentatively titled RuneScape III, it is now being called RunScape High Detail. Few other details have been made available at this time.

The Runescape team has been working on graphical improvements, and their monthly dev letter desrcribes their new offerings!

In the first Development Diary on our graphical improvements, we showed you the results of textures, texture blending, shadows and fog. In this, the second and final Development Diary on the release, we shine a light on the other effects we have been using.

Minimum specifications:

To play RuneScape's new detail level you will need:

• 1.5 GHz processor or higher
• 256MB of RAM or more
• 64MB 3D Graphics card, such as Nvidia(R) GeForce(TM) 3 or above

Today we have two updates from the folks at RuneScape.  The first is about Gnomecopters!

In a quiet field east of Draynor Manor, two enterprising gnomes have founded Gnomecopter Tours, featuring the latest development in gnomic flight technology. They're open for business now, offering free-players (and curious members) the chance to take a look at distant lands, including the beautiful elf village of Lletya, the frantic battlefield of Pest Control and the Trollweiss and Rellekka Hunter area.

The second is the follow up entry on Summoning!

What did we find out from the Forums? You told us that familiars did not stick around for long enough before they disappeared, and that renewing them was often a pain. With this update, each familiar stays out for a set period of time, regardless of the summoner's skill level, so there is no need to renew your familiar. The period that each familiar stays summoned has, in general, been increased - the spirit dagannoth, for example, stays out for a whopping 57 minutes!

Both entries are interesting, but only one includes flying!  Can you guess which one that is?!  *makes whhhhrrring noises*

RuneScape has lowered the cost of a monthly subscription for Canadians!

The price of a RuneScape credit card subscription in Canada has reduced from CAD7.30 per month to CAD5.00. There are a number of factors that determine how we set our prices (for example, currency and sales tax changes), and these have allowed us to lower our monthly credit card rate for our Canadian customers.

Both new and existing members can benefit from the reduction. The price changes will affect credit card payments in the following ways:

• If you wish to pay for a new subscription, the revised price is available now.
• If you make automatic monthly payments, the revised price will take effect on your next payment date.

Huzzah!  Finally a break for our northern MMOers!

RuneScape has gone to great lengths to update their sound, and this month it all comes to you!

Previously, travelling across the world of RuneScape meant frequent changes of music, often playing only the early parts of songs. Now, our new music system plays songs all the way to the end, at which point a new song is chosen that is appropriate to your area - provided you have unlocked it of course!

There are a couple of exceptions to this rule: if you unlock a track by entering a new area, the system will interrupt your current song in favour of the new tune, ensuring that you hear all new songs. Also, if you encounter a boss NPC or start a cutscene with added music, the system will, of course, interrupt your current song to play the appropriate tune to accompany the action.

Also, if you've unlocked 500 song, you get an air guitar emote, with sound!!  I'm not even close to that one.  Check out the rest of this update, which includes changes to the Edgeville Dungeon and more!

Runescape has posted their February look behind the scenes.

This month will start with a fanfare. February plays host to Audio Week - a collection of nips, tucks, changes and improvements that will jazz up your listening experience and make the music system easier to use. You can expect to hear songs all the way to the end, without them constantly changing as you move from area to area. Ardent adventurers who unlock 500 songs can expect an air guitar emote. Gnarly!

There's no room for this kind of tomfoolery in the graphical improvement for this month. The Edgeville Dungeon residents have been pretty grumpy ever since overground Edgeville got a rework - Postie Pete even got an irate letter from Vannaka. So - and not because we are scared of Vannaka, honestly - February brings a new look to Edgeville Dungeon which will make it seem suitably dank and dangerous.

There's some good stuff coming towards everyone in Runescape, and I'm excited!

The new year has brought many changes to the Runescape world!

• Unbalanced Trade Removal
• The Contact! quest
• Summoning Wallpaper #3
  

And other changes!

The Christmas event has now been removed from the game, but you can still throw snowballs at your friends. Players who managed to obtain a snow globe from the Snow Queen can store it safely in their POH costume room toy box.

We've also updated the crocodiles to create a snappy and sharp(toothed) new look, alongside some improved voracious vultures, hungry for your bones! Mess with them at your peril...

This is a fantastic webbased free game, and I've recently become rather addicted!  Give it a try!

The third part of RuneScape's summoning devlog is up!

In our latest Summoning Development Diary, we are going over what it takes to test and balance a skill so that it can fit in with the rest of the game.

While Summoning isn't just combat-related, its effect on combat will be significant. As such, a large part of this Development Diary's focus is on balancing combat, and the effect it will have on the Combat level. The Diary also covers where to pitch the skill in terms of difficulty, cost and training speed.

Find out what testing goes into getting these things right!

It's Christmas in RuneScape!

A white Christmas has come to RuneScape this year! It is a gift from the Queen of Snow, who has enlisted her cheeky snow imps for a festive task: to bring snow to some of RuneScape's major settlements. As far as the imps are concerned, you can do what you like with it: there's plenty more where it came from!

So, what can you do with snow? For a start you can make snowballs and, unlike last Christmas's snowballs, you can throw them at other players. If you ever get tired of pelting each other with snowballs, you can use the same snow to build snowmen. The snow imps will even provide a selection of hats to add a finishing touch. The hats are infused with Christmas magic, so they might do more to the snowmen than just make them look good.

You can find the complete Christmas celebration post right here.

RuneScape's week in review has some interesting items, including changes coming to player interaction.

As promised in last week's newspost, here are some of the initial ideas we have to further improve the player interaction in the game.

1. Expect the first new single-way player-vs-player combat area to hit the game in the first half of next year, along with a number of other PvP updates in the future.

2. As many people have suggested, we're planning to raise the 3,000gp staking/trading limit for certain players. This will be proportional to the number of Quest Points you have, with the top-end being ten-times what it is now! This should still offer protection from cheats, while also giving you more flexibility in your staking and trading activities.

Lots of other changes, and an apology and promise regarding The Grand Exchange are all there for your reading pleasure!