Eugen Systems are known for RTS games, the most recent they worked on being Wargame: Red Dragon. Now it seems that they wish to revisit 0ne of their older games, Act of War by releasing a sequel called Act of Aggression. Which could be exciting for those of us who grew up with the traditional base-builder RTS games of the 90s, as Act of War was of this ilk and so will its sequel.

The teaser trailer below shows off what the game will offer, vehicles, base building, tracking down and securing deposits of various resources across the land, setting up facilities to ensure smooth running for your forces and of course, seeking the enemy encampments and then rushing them with your forces to cause them to hurt. In short, all the things that used to make RTS a genre of careful building and planning back in the 90s. A genre I very much enjoyed back then.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to this one.

The latest edition of Japan’s most popular gaming magazine, CoroCoro, has revealed three new Mega Evolutions of existing Pokémon which are apparently going to feature in the upcoming Pokémon titles, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

Revealed in pictures and short descriptions in the magazine are Mega formes of Altaria, Lopunny and Salamance. According to translators, Mega Altaria will be a Dragon/Fairy with the Pixilate ability, while the decidedly odd-looking Mega Salamance does not have any typing mentioned, but will receive the Aerilate ability. Finally, Mega Lopunny completes its translation from cute bunny rabbit to serious bunny brawler, becoming a Normal/Fighting type with the Scrappy ability and also being able to now learn the move Hi Jump Kick.

      
Click images to enlarge. Images Courtesy Serebii.net

Also revealed in the magazine was more information about contests, which are already known to be returning in OR/AS. During a contest, it appears dressing up certain Pokémon in particular clothing will allow them access to unique moves specifically for use in a contest, Pikachu was confirmed to have four unique costume moves – a Rock Star costume grants it the move Meteor Mash, while a costume referred to as “Pikachu Ph.D” gives it Electric Terrain. Pikachu Pop Star knows Draining Kiss, Pikachu Belle knows Icicle Crash and Pikachu Libre knows Flying Press.

The special clothes will be made available by meeting up with a Contest Idol in the game called Lucia, though she may not be the only source of such clothing. It appears the clothing items now are more complete costumes, rather than the individual props as featured in Gen IV’s Super Contests and Gen V’s musicals – though whether such props still exist is unconfirmed. Also still unconfirmed are exactly how contests will work in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, as while signs point towards a system akin to the Gen IV Super Contests, no screenshots or information about a contest in-play have yet been shared. Surely though, it’s just a matter of time.

Now the last week or so I’ve been play (and streaming) World of Warcraft, but there is another MMO that I routinely play and that’s Star Trek Online

Following last week’s Star Trek Las Vegas Convention, publisher Perfect World Entertainment and developer Cryptic Studios have revealed the second expansion for Star Trek Online titled Delta Rising. With the upcoming expansion, players venture to the far reaches of the galaxy to the Delta Quadrant.

The expansion is set 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Voyager in which players are tasked with exploring the Delta Quadrant after discovering a portal in a Dyson Sphere. It has also been revealed that Garrett Wang will reprise his role as the Voyager series character Harry Kim. In regards to gameplay features, the expansion will raise the player level cap to 60, which in turn will unlock a new tier of ships, gears, and officers to earn after reaching level 50

Newly added in this expansion will be the Talaxians…

And Ocompa seen strongly in Voyager from the start

Along with the return of Garrett Wang as Harry Kim and new enemies in the form of Kazon and other Delta Quadrant aliens from the series!

View the official blog post for complete details on the Delta Rising expansion. Star Trek Online: Delta Rising will be available this fall for PC.

Battlefield 4’s launch was not a good one. With all the server issues, game crashes and immersion-breaking bugs most people got turned off from it long before the patches came along to try and fix those issues, and what’s more, they gave the game a reputation that meant that fewer people wanted to buy it or take the risk of buying it.

Now however a week-long free trial of the game is being offered to people who might buy, but would prefer a risk-free try first. Starting from August 14th you will be able to download the trial from Origin; which includes the core game and its multiplayer.

What’s more, if by the end of the week you’re still playing and want more, there’s a sale on the game both in its normal and digital deluxe forms for 50% off the normal price. Buying the game together with Premium membership will net a 40% reduction and even the latest DLC patch is selling for 20% off right now.

Let’s hope for the sake of all who will be tempted by this freebie that the patches have actually made the game what it was meant to be in the first place.

Yesterday’s biggest news was the two changes to Twitch’s system of VODs, both in storage and the playing of third-party musics. For those of you who missed it, VOD storage time is now limited, highlights are only allowed to be 2 hours long and a system similar to Youtube’s Content ID system is now being employed to scan VODs (although not live broadcasts) for third-party music and muting 30-minutes blocks if it finds it.

In an AMA on Reddit a few hours ago, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear took on all questions. Except those about Google’s purchase of the streaming site, those were off-limits it seems. He did answer questions about Audible Magic, the company they’re running the new music identifying system with though. He also admitted that maybe they should have put out word of the new system before they implemented it; as it left streamers with very little time to take down problematic content for themselves of their own free will beforehand.

“Simply put: we screwed up and should have announced it ahead of time,” says Shear. “Sorry.”

He also says that the part of the blog post that talked about in-game and ambient music also being subject to content checks was poorly worded. Simply, he says that original in-game music will NOT be subject to checks and any that gets flagged will be quickly dealt with if the counter-notifications get filed. However background ambient music is subject to checks, so if you’re going to stream make sure to switch off all phones and hope no one turns on a television or radio within hearing range of the computer.

Shear said that the reason the system has been set up and is being rolled out now is due partly down to plans to bring VOD to other systems, such as the Twitch app on the Xbox consoles. As mentioned above, questions about Google were forbidden so how much of it is due to their influence is uncertain.