Blizzard just announced that the Cataclysm soundtrack is now available as an iTunes LP from the iTunes Store. The album costs $9.99 and features 17 tracks, as well as bonus content including artwork, liner notes and behind-the-scenes interviews. If you already purchased the album from iTunes prior to the release of this special LP version, you can get the extra content at no additional charge.

Wowhead's Malgayne is a huge fan of video game music and he recently wrote a review of the Cataclysm soundtrack. Give it a read if you're on the fence about purchasing the album.

David Brevik, the former president of Blizzard North and a major force behind the Diablo series and Blizzard's Battle.net service, has been promoted to president and COO of Gazillion Entertainment. Prior to his promotion, Brevik was the studio director and project lead for Gazillion's upcoming Marvel Universe MMO.

In addition, Jeff Lind was named vice president and studio head for Secret Identity, the Gazillion studio that's developing Marvel Universe. Lind was formerly a director of development for several projects at Electronic Arts and the director of engineering for Turbine West.

Gazillion is a developer and publisher of various MMOs, including Marvel Universe, Marvel Super Hero Squad, LEGO Universe and Jumpgate Evolution. We've been excited at the thought of a Marvel Universe MMO since Gazillion announced its partnership with Marvel Entertainment back in March 2009, so we'll definitely be keeping an eye on how these developments affect the game.

For more details, check out the press release after the jump.

UPDATE: Blizzard updated the patch notes on Jan. 28 at 7:20 p.m. PST. The updated patch notes can be found after the jump.

As promised, Blizzard has updated the PTR patch notes for patch 4.0.6. The list has nearly doubled in size thanks to all the changes, which include the shaman updates that Zarhym recently posted and retooled Heroic dungeon encounters. Also, many rare creatures have returned to Azeroth and will drop new and improved loot.

Worgen and troll druids should be happy to find out that the patch finally includes new art for Swift Flight Form! Check out videos of the flight forms in action after the jump, followed by the lengthy patch notes. What are your thoughts on patch 4.0.6?

Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has written an absolutely massive blog entry that focuses on the difficulty of Cataclysm's Heroic dungeons and raids. He covers a lot of topics, but here's one of his main points:

"The bottom line is that we want Heroics and raids to be challenging, and that is particularly true now while the content is new and characters are still collecting gear. They’re only going to get easier from here on out."

Ghostcrawler explains at length why Blizzard thinks that Heroic dungeons and raids should actually challenge players, and then he provides some tips on how you can improve your game. He gives advice for tanks, healers and DPS; suggests analyzing your gear if you're wiping on trash mobs regularly; and mentions that running a hard dungeon with friends tend to be a better experience over a PUG.

Ghostcrawler ends the blog entry by listing Blizzard's mistakes related to dungeon difficulty. For example, he says they should have made it clear that "Heroic dungeons are intended as a destination, not a first step."

The entire post is definitely worth a read, so check it out after the jump and discuss it in this thread in our WoW general forum.

Community Manager Zarhym just posted the tentative list of shaman changes that will likely be added to the PTR patch 4.0.6 patch notes tomorrow evening. The changes include redesigns for the Tremor Totem and Mana Tide Totem. Check out the entire list of upcoming shaman updates after the jump!

Zarhym states later in the thread that the next draft of the 4.0.6 patch notes will be double the size of the current notes. Players can expect to see new notes for virtually every class, so keep an eye out for the next draft in the near future.

Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton has written a dev blog entry that explains Blizzard's design approach to Tol Barad, the new outdoor PvP zone that was introduced in Cataclysm. The bulk of the article emphasizes that the battle is supposed to be challenging for the attackers to make sure that control of Tol Barad matters. However, Stockton does acknowledge that it's currently a bit too challenging for attackers, and Blizzard is actively working to balance things out.

Blizzard will be addressing design and balance issues that affect attackers in the next minor patch: "For example, we plan to alter the battle slightly so that a team with two bases captured can more quickly and easily capture the third, as opposed to a team with one or zero bases. This way, if the defenders turtle up, it'll be a little easier for the attackers to take their last base before the defense can take one of the attackers' other bases."

For more details, check out Stockton's dev blog entry after the jump.

Collecting rare items has always been a favorite hobby of mine in World of Warcraft. I farmed the Deathcharger's Reins back when the drop was 1/10,000. I ran Magister's Terrace solo until I had won the Orb of the Sin'Dorei, the White Hawkstrider and the Phoenix Hatchling. To date I've farmed Sethekk Halls 43 times without finding the Reins of the Raven Lord. But when the Cataclysm broke, it unearthed a whole slew of new, exciting and exceedingly rare items for players. Many are cosmetic, some are fun and almost all of them are one in a thousand.

Think you have the patience to find these rare treasures? Read on!

Breaking news: a lot of players bought Cataclysm! Blizzard announced today that more than 4.7 million copies of the third World of Warcraft expanion have been sold in the first month of its release, setting a new record for monthly PC game sales. You can read the full press release after the jump.

This is not the first time that Cataclysm has broken a sales record. More than 3.3 million copies (including digital pre-sales) of the expansion were sold in the first 24 hours of its release, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. Of course, the previous record was set by Wrath of the Lich King in November 2008, which sold 2.8 million copies in 24 hours.

The Razer Switchblade is currently making the rounds at the Consumer Electronics Show, and this tiny device looks like it could bring portable PC gaming to a new level. It's just a concept design, so it's not available for purchase yet. Considering it's not for sale, pricing is also up in the air.

The Switchblade is similar in design to a small netbook. It has a touch screen, but the most noteworthy feature is its innovative keyboard. The tactile dynamic keyboard actually changes on the fly to match the game being played. Here's what Robert Krakoff, president of Razer, had to say about using the Switchblade with World of Warcraft:

"Take World of Warcraft for example. With the Switchblade, not only can you interact with what's happening on-screen, but having all of your skills and commands magically laid out on the keyboard. It's just a whole new level of experience."

While we're always excited to take our MMOs on the go, the Switchblade will work with all gaming genres. Click through the jump to watch a demonstration video and check out some pictures that show off the size of the device.

While many players are busy combing through the PTR patch notes for the upcoming patch 4.0.6, Blizzard has implemented another round of hotfixes on the live servers. This batch includes multiple Tol Barad hotfixes:

• If a player is already in Tol Barad and does not join the battle, the player will be ported back to the camp.
• Using /afk ejects players out of the raid and back to the camp.
• Entering Tol Barad via the bridge during an active battle by joining the queue will port the player to the correct starting place of the battle, but players who do not join the queue will be ported back to the camp.
• Both the Hellscream's Reach Battle Standard and the Baradin's Wardens Battle Standard now have a 10-minute cooldown.
• The spawn rates of all three Tol Barad quest micro dungeons have been adjusted to a more reasonable level. This should alleviate the issues players were having with creatures respawning too quickly.

You can read the full list of hotfixes after the jump.