Recently Blizzard have been sending out e-mails for the alpha testing of a new function that they’re hoping to implement into their Battle.net client at some point soon. What function? Voice chat.

Currently it’s at an invite-only stage, with Blizzard flagging certain accounts to join in the testing from Friday. At the moment it’s only in the “friends and family” stage, so expect to see bigger names in Youtube and Twitch taking part at some point soon.

“We’ve been hard at work creating an easier way to keep you connected with your guildies, teammates, and friends across all your favorite Blizzard games,” the e-mail states. “Although the feature is not available in all titles at the moment it is still possible to chat via the battle.net app while in a game, and Blizzard will be integrating voice chat “on a game by game basis as applicable.”

Of course at the moment the function is only available to those in the test, so if you get it but none of your friends do… well, you won’t be able to make use of it. There’s also the question of whether or not Blizzard can implement a voice chat good enough to lure people away from third-party apps such as Discord or Teamspeak – especially when such apps are well embedded into gaming culture by now.

We’ll keep you updated as trials continue.

VR hype is quite high right now, with at least 3 major competitors bringing out headsets soon. The group that arguably could be said to have started this off are even shipping off their pre-orders of the seconed generation of their headset. Or, at least they’d planned to be.

However from some e-mails that have been sent around to some people who pre-ordered the hardware it seems that Oculus have hit a problem – they underestimated the demand for the early adopters and have as a result run low on components needed to make the second Rift. Oops.

However, it’s not all bad. The Facebook-owned company have said that they’re planning to foot the handling and post costs as reparations for the delay. The e-mail says that this applies to “all orders placed through today” – although if that means it’d include anyone who ordered today is unknown. However, the fees for shipping and handling vary from between $50-$100 and so if that was standing in your way before… well, now could be your chance to own an Oculus Rift.

For those who have already pre-ordered, you can expect a revised shipping estimate by April 12th.

As we get closer to the release of Hearthstone’s next big expansion, Blizzard keep releasing peeks at the new cards all over the Internet. These are the ones that were introduced to the public in the last two weeks, with a good number of new Legendaries seeing the light of day for the first time.

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Master of Evolution

Minion, 4 Attack, 5 Health, 4 mana cost.

Battlecry: Transforms another friendly Minion into a random one that costs 1 mana more.

Hallazeal the Ascended

Legendary Minion, 4 Attack, 6 Health, 5 mana cost.

Whenever your spells deal damage, heal your Hero for that much.

Thing from Below

Minion, 5 Attack, 5 Health, 6 mana cost.

Taunt

For each Totem summoned in this game, this Minion costs 1 mana less.

Undercity Huckster

Minion, 2 Attack, 2 Health, 2 mana cost.

Deathrattle: Adds a random class card from your opponent’s class to your hand.

Tentacle of N’Zoth

Minion, 1 Attack, 1 Health, 1 mana cost.

Deathrattle: Deal 1 damage to all Minions.

Spawn of N’Zoth

Minion, 2 Attack, 2 Health, 3 mana cost.

Deathrattle: Give your Minions +1/+1.

Faceless Shambler

Minion, 1 Attack, 1 Health, 4 mana cost.

Taunt

Battlecry: Copies a friendly Minion’s Attack and Health.

Infested Tauren

Minion, 2 Attack, 3 Health, 4 mana cost.

Taunt

Deathrattle: Summon a 2/2 Slime.

Cult Apothecary

Minion, 4 Attack, 4 Health, 5 mana cost.

Battlecry: Restores 2 Health to your Hero for each enemy Minion.

Skeram Cultist

Minion, 7 Attack, 6 Health, 6 mana cost.

Battlecry: Gives your C’Thun +2/+2 wherever it is.

Tentacle of N’Zoth

Dragon Minion, 2 Attack, 8 Health, 6 mana cost.

At the start of your turn, this Minion’s Attack doubles.

Mukla, Tyrant of the Vale

Legendary Minion, 5 Attack, 5 Health, 6 mana cost.

Battlecry: Add 2 Bananas to your hand.

Ancient Harbinger

Minion, 4 Attack, 6 Health, 6 mana cost.

At the start of your turn, take a 10-cost Minion from your deck and place it in your hand.

The Boogiemonster

Legendary Minion, 6 Attack, 7 Health, 8 mana cost.

Whenever this Minion attacks and kills another Minion, it gains +2/+2.

N’Zoth, the Corruptor

Legendary Minion, 5 Attack, 7 Health, 10 mana cost.

Battlecry: Summons all your Deathrattle Minions that have died this game.

Y’Shaarj, Tage Unbound

Legendary Minion, 10 Attack, 10 Health, 10 mana cost.

At the end of your turn, take a Minion from your deck and place it into the battlefield.

Vilefin Inquisitor

Murloc Minion, 1 Attack, 3 Health, 1 mana cost.

Battlecry: Your Hero Power becomes “Summon a 1/1 Murloc.”

Steward of Darkshire

Minion, 3 Attack, 3 Health, 3 mana cost.

Whenever you summon a 1-Health Minion give it Divine Shield.

Ragnoros, Lightlord

Legendary Minion, 8 Attack, 8 Health, 8 mana cost.

At the end of your turn, heal 8 Health to a damaged friendly Character.

Infest

Spell, 3 mana cost.

Give your Minions Deathrattle: “Deal 1 damage to all Minions.”

Cabalist’s Tome

Spell, 5 mana cost.

Add 3 random Mage Spells to your hand.

Shadow Word: Horror

Spell, 4 mana cost.

Destroys all Minions with 2 or less Attack.

Herald Volazj

Legendary Minion, 5 Attack, 5 Health, 6 mana cost.

Battlecry: Summon a 1/1 copy of all your other Minions.

Mark of Y’Shaarj

Spell, 2 mana cost.

Give a Minion +2/+2, if it’s a Beast draw a card.

Tentacle of N’Zoth

Minion, 1 Attack, 1 Health, 1 mana cost.

Battlecry: Equip a 1/3 Rusty Hook.

Tentacles for Arms

Weapon, 2 Attack, 2 Durability, 5 mana cost.

Deathrattle: Return this card to your hand.

Renounce Darkness

Spell, 2 mana cost.

Replaces Warlock Hero Power and class cards with those of another Class. The cards cost 1 mana less.

DOOM!

Spell, 10 mana cost.

Destroy all Minions, then draw a card for each.

Xaril, Poisoned Mind

Legendary Minion, 3 Attack, 2 Health, 4 mana cost.

Battlecry & Deathrattle: Add a random Toxin card to your hand.

Bloodthistle Toxin

Spell, 1 mana cost.

Return a friendly Minion to your hand, it costs 2 mana less.

Briarthorn Toxin

Spell, 1 mana cost.

Give a Minion +3 Attack.

Fadeleaf Toxin

Spell, 1 mana cost.

Give a friendly Minion Stealth until your next turn.

Firebloom Toxin

Spell, 1 mana cost.

Deal 2 damage.

Kingsblood Toxin

Spell, 1 mana cost.

Draw a card.

July last year (2015), Station manager Digmbot was stupidly excited for a new shoot ’em up, or shmup that he’d found on STEAM.

That was Steredenn and we’ve loved it on STEAM ever since, but a week ago the guys at Pixelnest (Thanks Damien) dropped us a review copy for Steredenn on XBox One and I had to yoink it before any of the team found out.

I love this game, it’s crazy hard but in a great way and makes you want to carry on killing the evil aliens and by evil I mean seriously, what other scifi game have you seen alien skips shaped like chainsaws?!?

The controls are perfect on the Xbox One, they are fluid and responsive, just as you’d expect them to be.

The graphics look lush for a pixel based game aswell, so much happens on screen you forget this is a pixel game.

But what really stands out in steredenn is the music, I would happily buy this soundtrack if I could (Please damien, if you read this review, drop me a copy for the station PLEASE!)

I can’t reccomend this game more, it’s the perfect example of this genre of game and very few have grabbed me since R-Type way back in the old days of my teens.

Steredenn gets a Super shmup 9 out of 10 from me!

~Lone

Steredenn is available on XBox One now for £10.39.

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada (releasing April 21, 2016) takes the idea of tall ship combat and places it the Warhammer 40k universe. Based on Games Workshop’s tabletop game, you can take command of the Imperium, Chaos, Eldar and Ork fleets in real time space battles.

This beta version of the game includes the prologue of the campaign as well as solo skirmish and multiplayer. To avoid spoilers, I’ve only demonstrated solo skirmish in this video.

The game features deep ship customization, detailed maneuvering options for your ships as well as a plethora of upgrades, skills and faction alignments. Only three fleets are available as yet, but each places extremely differently. It’s fun, flashy but can be daunting to newcomers to the RTS genre, or those that are intimidated by multitasking. Fortunately, Tindalos Interactive has taken that into consideration in the gameplay systems.

Let’s dive in and take a look!