More bugfixes and optimizations are in store for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures players come the 27th. A long list of preliminary patch notes has just been released detailing what's going to change in the game's August 27 patch. More bulleted items than you can shake a stick at in the full article.

Hail fellow Hyborians! Funcom has rolled out yet another patch for their MMORPG, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. The developers of the game have thrown in a number of fixes and improvements which players should know about. Check out the full patch notes in the full article

Undocumented changes for the the PC version of Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures have just been revealed. To find out more about this, head on over to the full article by clicking on the "read more" link below.

More of the same? Hardly - Nintendo's Wii-bound entry in the Mario Kart franchise will be carrying some admittedly cool new tweaks that put it in a class of its own. Now if you want to know exactly what sort of goodies Mario Kart Wii has under its hood, you can check them out in the full article.

This week saw a lot of changes in Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. NCsoft have released the Weekend Wrapup which gives gamers information on a new known issue, an event called the Blind Race, as well as a preview on patch 1.5. In addition, it also gives a few details on both the Mid-week Massacre and Friday Night Fights. If you're lagging behind on intel, head on over to the full article to update your information log.

Countless numbers of lives have already been taken by the H5N1 virus and it's not going to stop unless something is done about the problem. The avian flu, more commonly known as the bird flu, is still continuing to infect people.

But an Italian group of scientists have found that something can be done by simply getting annual flu shots. If you want to know more about their study, just click the "read more" link below.

An article was posted last time about how women are more vulnerable to alcohol than men. Now a new study from Oregon Health and Science University has gathered evidence that suggests that women are also more vulnerable to alcohol withdrawal.

Using mice as their subjects, scientists first identified alcohol-related gene pathways and then subjected these mice to a series of alcohol-related tests (lucky mice). We all know that an alcohol is a poison that kills slowly. One of the scarier things it does is cell death in the brain.

What the researchers found upon studying the mice was that during withdrawal, the males' genes just clear up while the females experienced cell death. This suggests that females are literally more susceptible to brain damage from alcohol.

They also found that during consumption, testosterone rises in females and drops in males. Scientists are now trying to see whether testosterone may play a part in alcohol damage immunity. They aren't ruling out the possibility that the males just experience cell death at a later date though.

Ironically, last October a study on rats revealed that alcohol improves memory.

The Guild Wars metagame changed radically when Nightfall was released. Tons of new skills and a couple of new characters make for a more demanding PvP gameplay. Since the dervish was introduced, players have tried and experimented all sorts of builds to make the most efficient scythe-wielding, transforming dude. Christian Bellisford, an established GW critic shares his views on the gods the dervish turned into.

Bellisford believes that nothing compares to Avatar of Melandru at the moment. Only through hexes and a proper strategy can you win against this havoc-wreaking god of nature.

    

More info about the analysis after the jump!

Yes, way. Or at least that's what the recent studies show. Research on the indigenous people of Panama, the Kuna, shows that drinking cocoa might just be good for you.

The Kuna people drink around 40 cups of cocoa per week as their local tipple or alcoholic beverage. According to study by Dr. Norman Hollenberg of Harvard Medical School, less than 10% of the Kuna population have strokes, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. They also have longer life expectancies than other indigenous people in Panama and they do not succumb to dementia, though experts argue that genes and other factors should also be taken into account.

Dr. Hollenberg said that his interest was piqued when he learned that the Kuna people do not develop high blood pressure. He studied whether the Kuna's immunity was due to great genetics or an environmental factor. He found that it was indeed environmental since the Kuna people who migrated to the urban mainland got hypertension with age and ultimately had (read: died from) ischemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes mellitus and cancer.

Cocoa contains a flavonoid (plant metabolites that have antioxidant properties) called Epicatechin. It is found in tea, wine, chocolate, and some fruits and veggies. Epicatechin is believed to get nitric oxide levels up which relaxes blood vessels thus improve blood flow. The bad thing is, it also gives food a bitter taste and are thus stricken off commercial cocoas.

Dr. Hollenberg is continuing his research with the good effects of epicatechin and receives financial backing from a big chocolate company, M&M/Mars Company. Some experts are still torn. Ellen Mason from the British Heart Foundation had this to say: This is an interesting observation of a unique culture. We do not advise that people in the UK take up drinking cocoa in high quantities in order to protect their hearts.

Fair enough. It wouldn't hurt to try it, but then rock solid evidence is yet to be found.

The final patch for pre-expansion WoW is here. Nethaera and Greyson, two of Blizzard's community managers, posted two different announcements for this latest patch, which sets the scene for the arrival of the long-awaited expansion.

Within the update, perhaps the biggest expansion-related addition is the arrival of Kazzak's subordinate, Kruul. Kruul and his own small platoon of monsters will be appearing near the major cities, as well as in the Azshara, Eastern Plaguelands, Hinterlands, Searing Gorge, Silithus, Stranglethorn Vale, and Winterspring regions. Be sure to look out for these guys and to either avoid them entirely or chase them down to fulfill a new pre-Burning Crusade quest.

In the meantime, here are the patch notes for 2.0.3, which Greyson also calls "The Burning Crusade". Expect the real Burning Crusade next week, and make sure you have a fresh quiver of arrows. You're definitely going to need them.

General

• A stirring of events has begun throughout Azeroth and rumor points to the Dark Portal as its source.
• Mazk Snipeshot in Booty Bay now sells bullets.
• The Auction House now sorts by buyout price first, then by current price. This should filter all of the items with outlandish buyout prices to the bottom of the list.
• Players will now need to be level 58 to pass through the Dark Portal. (The Burning Crusade Expansion must be installed.)
• Collector Edition pets are now blue items and a confirmation dialogue will appear to prevent accidental deletion.
• Pets will no longer attack targets that are under the influence of crowd control (sheep, banish, etc.).
• The title "Scarab Lord" can now be chosen in game for select players.

More patch notes for the humble warrior after the jump. Note: It's 174 MB.