Parents have been told by headteachers that they will be reported to police and social services for neglect if they allow their children to play over 18 computer games, according to the Sunday Times.

The newspaper reported that a warning was issued by primary and secondary schools who found children had been watching or playing games like Call of Duty and Gears of War or Grand Theft Auto.

The group wrote to parents, saying sexual content and violence and sexual content in the games are inappropriate and could lead to “early sexualised behaviour” and leave children “vulnerable to grooming for sexual exploitation or extreme violence”.

It goes on to say:

If your child is allowed to have inappropriate access to any game, or associated product, that is designated 18+ we are advised to contact the police and children’s social care as this is deemed neglectful.”

– Letter to parents

Earlier this month, the Prime Minister said social workers, councillors and teachers could be jailed for up to five years if they failed to speak up when they suspected or re­ceived allegations that children were being ill-treated, abused or wilfully neglected.

“We are trying to help parents to keep their children as safe as possible in this digital era. It is so easy for children to end up in the wrong place and parents find it helpful to have some very clear guidelines.”

– Mary Hennessy Jones, the head who drafted the letter

Nantwich Education Partnership, made up of 16 schools in Cheshire, sent the letter. Safeguarding guidance from the local authority told schools that if the behaviour of a pupil, or concerns about them, arouse suspicion the school should consult the children’s service “if in any doubt”.

Parents’ groups have responded by saying reporting families for allowing children to play unsuitable computer games was a step too far.

Hearthstone’s new expansion is just on the horizon, and bringing with it a whole host of fiery new abilities and creatures along with the new Dragon minion type and even some abilities that depend on what is in your hand at the time it’s played.

So, as I’ve done this for Naxxramas and Goblins vs. Gnomes in the past and we’re so close to a release, here’s your update on exactly what new cards have been released publicly so far:

  Axe Flinger
Minion, 4 mana cost, 2 attack and 5 health. Deals 2 damage to the enemy hero whenever this Minion takes damage.

  Volcanic Drake
Dragon Minion, 6 mana cost, 6 attack and 4 health. Costs (1) less to summon for each Minion who died in the turn it is summoned.

  Blackwing Technician
Minion, 3 mana cost, 2 attack and 4 health. Battlecry: Gains +1/+1 if you’re holding a Dragon Minion in your hand.

  Hungry Dragon
Dragon Minion, 4 mana cost, 5 attack and 6 health. Battlecry: Summons a random 1-cost Minion for your opponent.

  Dragonkin Sorcerer
Dragon Minion, 4 mana cost, 3 attack and 5 health. Gains +1/+1 when you target this Minion with a spell.

  Imp Gang Boss
Demon Minion, 3 mana cost, 2 attack and 4 health. Summons a 1/1 Imp whenever this Minion takes damage.

  Dragon’s Breath
Spell, 5 mana cost. Deals 4 damage. Costs (1) less for every Minion that died in the turn it is played.

  Blackwing Corrupter
Minion, 5 mana cost, 5 attack and 4 health. Battlecry: Deals 3 damage if you’re holding a Dragon Minion in your hand.

  Drakonid Crusher
Dragon Minion, 6 mana cost, 6 attack and 6 health. Battlecry: Gains +3/+3 if your opponent has 15 or less health.

  Lava Shock
Spell, 2 mana cost. Deal 2 damage. Unlocks Overloaded Mana Crystals.

  Rend Blackhand
Legendary Minion, 7 mana cost, 8 attack and 4 health. Battlecry: If there is a Dragon Minion in your hand, destroy a Legendary Minion.

  Neferian
Legendary Dragon Minion, 8 mana cost, 8 attack and 8 health. Battlecry: Adds 2 random Spells to your hand from your opponent’s class.

  Dark Iron Skulker
Minion, 5 mana cost, 4 attack and 3 health. Battlecry: Deals 2 damage to all undamaged enemy Minions.

  Grim Patron
Minion, 5 mana cost, 3 attack and 3 health. Summons another Grim Patron every time this Minion survives damage.

  Dragon Egg
Minion, 1 mana cost, 0 attack and 2 health. Summons a 2/1 Whelp every time this Minion takes damage.

  Flamewalker
Minion, 3 mana cost, 2 attack and 4 health. Whenever you cast a Spell, deal 2 damage randomly split among all enemies.

  Core Rager
Beast Minion, 4 mana cost, 4 attack and 4 health. Battlecry: Gains +3/+3 if your hand is empty.

And that’s it, seventeen of the thirty or so cards that we’re going to get with the Blackrock Mountain expansion. A few more could be revealed before the release date, but it’s likely the majority of them will be made public along with the expansion.

Blackrock Mountain’s first wing will release in the Americas on Thursday April 2nd, and everywhere else on Friday April 3rd.

It has been announced that the next installment in the Batman: Arkham series has had its release date delayed by a few weeks, pushing it back from June 2nd to June 23rd.

Batman: Arkham Knight was originally supposed to have been released last year but Warner Bros then decided to delay the release until 2015, with the date of June 2nd being announced soon after. This further delay is probably down to wanting to make sure that the game is as functional as possible.

In a press release from the developers they explain the delay by saying “We’re a developer that hates to make any compromises, so we are sorry to say this means it’s going to be just a little bit longer until you can play the epic conclusion to the Arkham trilogy.”

The game will be released on the platforms of PC, Playstation 4 and the Xbox One. Pre-ordering the game will net you the Harley Quinn and Red Hood story packs.

In an interview with PCGamesN, the game’s director Eric Dodds spoke about how the new Dragon cards coming in the next Hearthstone expansion Blackrock Mountain next month were going to shake up the game and how they tailored the expansions to balance as well as expand the game.

He said that their aim with the expansion whether they’re smaller like Naxxramas and Blackrock or larger like Goblins vs Gnomes, is always to shake up the metagame and to make players want to create new deck types by asking what the new cards can do. He also said that they aim to introduce cards to solve problems that they’ve identified in the metagame, often working on cards to shift that balance around three to six months in the future of Hearthstone and inventing cards to cover possible metagame shifts that could come up, although he admitted that they’re often taking a guess.

On the subject of nerfing cards Dodds said that unless a card takes the game “into an unhealthy place” that they don’t think about nerfing or changing it. He gave the example of the Undertaker card which he says the team felt was being played in too many decks, so it got cut down to be not as ridiculous as it once was. He said that the Dr. Boom card which many saw as being too overpowered as well was not considered at the moment to be a card that made the game less fun to play, so they weren’t thinking about touching it. He also said that cards would be changed rather than removed from the game.

Blackrock Mountain is going to be released next month sometime in April and can be pre-ordered now.

Earlier this month we were given a first look at the new Rollercoaster Tycoon World and the main common consensus was… not great. The game was pretty much compared to Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, one of the game’s predecessors  that came out over 10 years ago in 2004.

In a blog post though Executive Producer “Mattlab” said that the reason the game looks like  it does right now is because it’s in a pre-alpha state and has a long way to go before it is completed.

“Since the switchover of our development team this past Fall, we have focused on core functionality and ‘under-the-hood’ engine work. This is why there has not been significant visual progress on the title,” he wrote. “Engine work is critical to the overall stability of a game, and it requires significant labor and time to get right. We knew in the Fall we still had a lot of work to do to achieve the core engine we wanted—one that could support a game like RCTW. Now, however, we are able to finally continue working on the higher level functionality and visuals.”

He does say that Atari hopes to have the updated graphics ready to show off this summer. “We hope to take full advantage of the many new environmental, lighting, and shadow improvements as well as many other features in our original Unity 4.6-based engine to create a game that looks great. Our early results are extremely promising.”

As of yet, there is no launch date for the game but it’s fair to say that a date should be announced sometime this year.