The latest twist to the story of the Aliens: Colonial Marines lawsuit came yesterday. Seems that Sega of America are prepared to pay a settlement to the plaintiffs before the suit comes to court.

Despite having not yet admitted to any wrongdoing with regards to the presentation of the much-maligned game last year, Sega have entered negotiations with the person who brought the lawsuit against them for around $1.25 million. If it’s approved then it’ll see them cleared of further litigation with regards to this case.

The class action lawsuit was brought against both Sega and Gearbox by John Locke and a second person as representatives of all those people who bought the game based on what the lawsuits claims were misleading trailers and gameplay footage presented at E3 and PAX the previous year. The second plaintiff had to drop out before it could be decided if the suit would go ahead and recently Gearbox have made an attempt to be exempt from it as well.

If the settlement is accepted then $312,500 will cover attorney fees, and the rest will be used to pay players who bought Colonial Marines before February 13, 2013, the day after its release. To receive their payment customers will need to fill in a three-question claim form and be approved, and will then receive compensation of exactly what they paid for the game. It’ll also mean that although Sega will be cleared of litigation Gearbox will be left to fight the case alone.

So the third week of Naxxramas has come and gone, bringing with it the third wing in the five-week release schedule for the single-player Hearthstone expansion. And the first one that wasn’t troubled in some way by server or purchasing issues, so that’s a plus. The Military quarter once again offers three bosses to battle: Instructor Razuvious, Gothik the Harvester and the Four Horsemen/Baron Rivendare. All three have some pretty unique battles for you to play through and win.

Razuvious has a hero ability for 2 mana-cost called Unbalancing Strike to attack for 3 damage, has 40 HP and starts with two Understudies, 0/7 minions with Taunt. However you also have an extra Mind Control Crystal card, for 1 mana cost. Take my advice: play it. Also, beware his Massive Runeblade which can strike your Hero for twice the damage, which is usually 10 damage at once.

Gothik has 30 HP, a 2 mana-cost Hero Power called Harvest that allows him to draw a card and plays a lot of ‘Unrelenting’ minions. If you must kill them, be warned: they will come back to your side of the field as Spectral versions (each with 0 attack) who will each cause 1 damage to your Hero at the start of your turn. A good way to deal with them is to make them Taunts or give them some attack to force them to break themselves and die.

The Four Horsemen are really just Baron Rivendare as Hero with the other three Horsemen as minions on the field at the start of battle. All four have just 7 HP (including Rivendare), with the three minion Horsemen all have just 1 attack and Rivendare’s hero power lets him draw 2 cards for a mighty 5 mana. The catch however is that although they’re the only three minions Rivendare has, the 3 minion Horsemen make him immune until they’re dead or Silenced. My tip is to use as much Silence and Taunt as you can and be ready to slam Rivendare once you can get at him.

The two Class Challenges this time are Shaman and Warlock and both are also pretty challenging, if not quite as random and insane as last week’s Hunter challenge was. Both are perfectly beatable though with a little quick thinking, careful planning and as always with Hearthstone; a little luck of the draw.

Overall this week lacked the pure joy that I got from the Plague Quarter last week, but I still immensely enjoyed the time I spent playing and beating each boss and Class Challenge this week. Especially figuring out the ‘proper’ way to handle each boss (and then using my Hunter deck anyway). As always, can’t wait for the next wing and the chance to win some lovely new cards.

Seems that EA aren’t done making improvements and tweaks to Battlefield 4, and not just in the usual “we’re adding new things to make the game better” way of most games. They’re still making changes to core elements of the game. What’s even more unusual about this one is that they’re actually changing something so it’s more like one of the previous games in the same franchise, in this case Battlefield 3.

Part of the September patch is that soldier movements will once again act as they did during the third Battlefield game. The move shouldn’t compromise visual fidelity though and has been done to enable players to escape undesired firefights if they should wish to. They’re part of an effort to make shootouts of a more consistent timeframe, reducing visual recoils with an improved tickrate to better keep track of movements. DICE hope that this will enable players to react quicker to attacks, making for a better game all around.

Other things coming with the September patch include working to make deaths from behind cover a bad memory, a series of buffs and nerfs to vehicles and the general tweaks and tidy ups.

Battlefield 4 is currently due to have a week-long free trail starting from August 14th and the core game and last DLC are all on sale right now.

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.

Last week’s release of the Plague Quarter was notable for two reasons. The more obvious and unintended one was the hiccups on launch that lasted well into the second day of its release. The other was that it marked the first time that Blizzard asked for money for anything besides Arena and packs of cards within Hearthstone. However it seems to have paid off for them.

According to the statistics last week was Hearthstone’s most popular on record, with loads of people logging in to play cards against the likes of the Plague Quarter bosses and take on its Class Challenges too. This bodes well for the future of any other planned expansions Blizzard might have had in the drawing up stages for Hearthstone’s future.

“The fact that last week was our strongest week ever for Hearthstone in terms of both revenue and engagement, I think, is a really strong sign,” Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. “I think that it really bodes very well for the engagement that we’ll be able to drive in the future with additional content for the game,”