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.

A few days ago Twitch released two blog posts detailing changes they were going to be making to the storage and moderation of VODs in their system. The storage was to be limited in time and the moderation that much harsher on third-party music (and oddly in-game music according to the original post).

A recent AMA with Twitch’s CEO had him admitting that maybe there should have been a little more warning before these two practices were implemented on the streaming site, as well as clarifying that in-game music should NOT be subject to the new third-party rules (as long as it wasn’t something like the radio from GTA or Saints Row at least). Now, a new post has gone up detailing that feedback has made a difference.

The post says that the limit on highlights, previously to be restricted to just two hours, will be lifted. Highlights can once again be of any length, much to the relief of the speedrun livestreaming community on Twitch. The other change will be welcomed by all though: a simple method to appeal any strikes the new Audio Recognition system might put against you that you think are unfair or wrong.

“We’re deploying an “appeal” button for VODs that have been flagged… by the new Audio Recognition system. We recognize that the system is not yet perfect. We want to make this system as fair and unobtrusive as possible, and we greatly appreciate your help.” wrote Matthew DiPietro, VP of Marketing & Communication.

The post also says we can expect more changes, more clarity and generally more improvements to the new updates to Twitch in the coming weeks. Sounds promising.

Twitch blog “Two Important Updates. More to Come”: [x]

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.

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.

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.