Month: December 2014

Get ahead of the game by signing up for the beta now to acquire a tank commander!

My.com and Obsidian Entertainment are giving away a new commander to all players who log in to their Armored Warfare account or sign up for beta access before January 18th, 2015.

Collecting commanders is vital to success in Armored Warfare. Each has a completely unique set of skills and characteristics that can be leveled up, so having a diverse range of them will contribute hugely to the player’s chances of victory. Commanders take time to acquire, however, so this giveaway brings players the chance to get the jump on their enemies early.

This commander, Anthony Diaz, was a military career man that worked his way up from humble beginnings as a Private. Having exhausted the many possibilities the army brings, he felt the only way to find new challenges was to enter the private sector, bringing him to the modern battlefield of Armored Warfare.

To get this exclusive gift you should go to this page by January 18th, 2015.

Please find more information about commanders in Armored Warfare in this article.

Don’t miss your chance to secure this awesome advantage for upcoming battles. Merry Christmas from all at My.com and Obsidian Entertainment!

Battlefront.com today released the v1.03 patch for Combat Mission: Red Thunder. The patch provides a number of important improvements and fixes, including the infamous “26% bug” for those affected, improved stability of internet play, improved building entry for some systems, a mouse text targeting feature indicating range, improved TacAI logic, and much more. It is all-inclusive and can be installed over any version of the game (1.0 thru 1.02)

The v1.03 patch is available for PC and Mac.

To get complete patch details and to download the patch, click here.

Wake Island The Battle and Siege 8-23 December 1941

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

The first shrieking Japanese aerial bombs to land upon Wake Island that hot early December morning exploded among the 8 Marine F4F-3 Wildcat fighter planes parked along the island’s airstrip. As the first bombs impacted, two Marine pilots sprinted towards their waiting Wildcats, then warming-up on the airfield apron and parked outside the unfinished protective revetment plane bunkers. Direct bomb hits killed both pilots and destroyed their planes as well as the other 6 Wildcat fighter planes standing close nearby. The four remaining Wildcats, who were aloft and still on the outbound leg of their air patrols well offshore, never saw the Japanese bombers because of extremely poor visibility. By the time they returned, much of their island atoll was under a thick pall of black smoke. The 34 land based Mitsubishi “Nell” Japanese bombers, flying from their airfield at Roi in the Marshall Islands, made a leisurely slow turn above the island as if happy and pleased with the viewing of their handiwork. They returned home without loss. The enraged Marines on Wake Island who watched their departure could do little more than curse, impotently grit their teeth, and angrily shake their fists at their attackers. The next time the Japanese bombers came, the island garrison would be ready and would give far and away much better than they received then and during the days to come.

Read on…

As one of the most exciting years for our studio comes to a close, we’ve deployed a special dev blog in which various members of the Arma 3, Take On Mars, and DayZ development team recap the past (15th anniversary) year, take a brief look at the near future, and thank everyone for their incredible support!

For more information about Bohemia Interactive, please visit www.bistudio.com.

To honor the Christmas Truce of WW1, Verdun is getting its own version of the event in- game. It will be enforced with some friendly competitions and a 40% Steam Sale discount! Verdun is currently available on PC, Mac and Linux via Steam Early Access.

Watch the trailer on YouTube.

A season of celebration and giving!

After 4 months of heavy fighting wherein many lives were lost on both sides, something remarkable happened during Christmas 1914. Both sides set aside their weapons in order to celebrate Christmas together. German, French and British soldiers exchanged gifts, had Christmas dinners and sang carols. There was even a mention of a few organized football matches. In the spirit of such a unique event of peaceful humanity, the developers of Verdun will implement an actual in-game Christmas Truce where players put down their weapons to exchange seasonal greetings, throw snowballs at each other and engage in a football match!

During Christmas Truce a few competitions will be held where you can win one of the exciting Christmas packages. The packages with amongst others a Verdun Christmas card, a trench whistle, trench order booklets, and a secret surprise!

The competitions that are held are:

• 19 December; a YouTube Christmas Truce video contest for the best video about this event
• 20 December; a Steam Hub screenshot competition for the best in-game Christmas Truce screenshot
• 21 December; a Twitch TV giveaway for the Verdun streamers
• 22 December; a Twitter competition for the best WW1 Christmas carol text twittered @VerdunGame
• 23 December; a Facebook Christmas Card contest for the most entertaining Verdun best wishes card

Submissions will last until the 24th 10am Eastern time (GMT-5), winners will be announced on the 25th of December 2014. More information can be found on the Steam Hub.

Also, as it is a season of giving too, there will be a big Steam Sale with a 40% discount on Verdun (including the 4-pack!) during the Christmas Truce event.

Christmas Truce will takes place on the 18th of December and lasts until the 25th of December. Better get in your Holiday spirit!

US tanks join the fight

Gaijin Entertainment announces that Update 1.45 (code named Steel Generals) for the award-winning MMO WWII online game War Thunder is now live. Now War Thunder’s eight million players worldwide have access to a slew of new and improved features, including new maps, new armored vehicles and aircraft, an improved damage model, a tow cable system and reworked Artillery Strikes. To see the full list of new improvements and features, visit the War Thunder developer’s blog.

The biggest addition to War Thunder with this update is the beta of the Steel Generals expansion, which includes the first six American tanks available now. By the end of Q1 2015, more than 30 US WWII tanks will be available. This release schedule allows Gaijin Entertainment to test each of the tanks to ensure that they are ready for battle when commercially launched. In honor of the update launch, special packages are available for purchase that contain premium US tanks and other bonuses alongside closed beta access. Players can participate in the Steel Generals beta by entering into contests and in-game events in War Thunder.

Click here for more information about the special US tank beta packages.

War Thunder is a free-to-play, cross-platform, massively multiplayer military masterpiece for PC, PS4, Mac and Linux with more than eight million players worldwide, that allows players to fight their way across air and ground with access to almost 500 of historically accurate planes and armored vehicles from WWII and Korean War. Fans can expect hundreds more added as Gaijin Entertainment commits to ongoing development via regular updates. For more game information, please visit the official War Thunder website.

New combat mode, map and custom warplane added to game

Wargaming today announced that the new winter game mode Snowball will be added to the action MMO World of Warplanes. The new Snowball combat scenario available starting December 18 through January 15 includes a unique battle arena, daily missions, new consumables and custom built aircraft for pilots to enjoy during this holiday season.

In Snowball mode, players will battle to eliminate the opposition in standard Team Deathmatch rules on the Lapland map created exclusively for this mode. The only aircraft available is the UFO Odin 42M vehicle that fires snowballs instead of rockets. This aircraft comes with 100% trained crew, hangar slot and is free to all registered players.

During the holiday event, special consumables—Fireworks, Sparklers and Smoke Flare—will be available for players that accomplish specific combat missions and earn achievements.

Players that complete the “Happy New Year!” mission will be awarded the Dornier Do 17Z-7 Kauz warplane.

For more information about World of Warplanes and additional information on holiday events, visit:

• http://worldofwarplanes.eu (Europe)
• http://worldofwarplanes.com (North America)

Flexibility, Sandbox and Creativity are the new pillars of Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations

In the spirit of the coming Christmas holidays, the restless developers at WarfareSims have unleashed an Arc-Light strike with a new huge free update for Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations, continuing their support to this deep military simulation. With this update, the players have been given some great tools to keep them occupied during the winter! Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations was already lauded for its technical accuracy, attention to detail, gameplay flexibility and its powerful integrated editor and version 1.06 really takes it to the next level.

The new update brings two great boons to airwar enthusiasts, and an a-bomb for modders and scenario creators.

Surge and Quick-Turnaround air operations allow players to faithfully recreate the frantic tempo of historical operations like the Six-Day War or the first nights of Desert Storm (or apply the same sortie rates on their own hypothetical conflicts), while also having to deal with the inevitable punishing wear and tear on both crews and airframes that this relentless pace enforces. The faithful depiction of the critical choice between sustained or “surge” rates is a first for any unclassified strategy/wargaming title on the market and pushes Command into the arena of hardcore flight simulators.

At the same time, customizable unit-level proficiency settings allow scenario creators to model both hard-seasoned eagles and green nuggets on the same side, even down to the same squadron. The effects of unit proficiency are also even more amplified than before, and veteran or ace operators now have decisive advantages over their less experienced counterparts. So now not only do you have to manage and favorably arrange the hardware, but the people too. How do you know your crews are entering battle with a vastly more proficient enemy? Maybe your briefing will tell you…. or maybe you’ll find out the hard way.

The third, and perhaps the most far-reaching improvement is the integration of the popular Lua scripting language right into the scenario editor, allowing unprecedented (indeed, undreamed of) levels of editing power and flexibility! Amongst other things, the use of Lua scripting allows players to write their own mission scripts, swap units between missions, place new units on either specific or random locations, set a wide range of unit properties, change the Doctrine/RoE settings during the course of the scenario as response to events happening (or not), and much more.

Of course there is a lot more to this update, including interface, AI & mechanics improvements and gameplay additions. The list here is so long, that the document containing the full list of changes is over 53(!) pages long.

All combined, these updates takes some of the features of Command that players love the most – such as attention to realism, vast amount of detail and the freedom to set up scenarios as you wish – and took them to the next level. All of this means that version 1.06 marks another key point in the continues improvement of Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations.

Check the full list of changes by reading the pdf file online.

Get more information on Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations from its official product page.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge – a battle generally regarded as the turning point of World War II and referred to by Winston Churchill as “arguably the most important victory in American military history.”

The battle began on December 16, 1944 when German troops unleashed a brutal artillery on the Ardennes region with an intense barrage that took Allied troops by surprise. Leveraging poor weather and thinly spread out Allied forces, the German forces then invaded the area in an attempt to divide the U.S. and British troops. Despite being significantly outnumbered and struggling with the coldest weather on record, U.S. forces valiantly held the line until reinforcements arrived. The Battle of the Bulge would ultimately go down in history as the bloodiest battle for U.S. forces in World War II, helping to set the stage for Allied forces to finally end the war. The sacrifices made by all soldiers involved were significant both in losses sustained and in the role this victory played in the war.

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is based on the Battle of the Bulge, and allows players to take on 18 all-new single player scenarios as they attempt to drive the advancing German forces out of the Ardennes region and lead their heroes on a path to glory.

You can watch the new Ardennes Assault trailer HERE.

In this completely standalone Company of Heroes 2 experience, players will be able to utilize the unique abilities and skills of four US Force Companies; Airborne, Support, Mechanized and Fox as they tackle the German forces on Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault’s revolutionary new meta-map system. This all new feature to the series adds an extra layer of non-linear strategy and tactical planning to an already deep and challenging RTS experience and allows players to plot their own way through the campaign, adding a huge amount of variety and replayability.

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is available on Windows PC to purchase online and in stores with an MSRP of £29.99/$39.99/€39.99.

For more information and to keep ahead with the latest news, find us at our official website.

My.com and Obsidian Entertainment are delighted to bring you the second dev diary, which once again goes behind the scenes at Obsidian Entertainment to find out more about Armored Warfare.

In Armored Warfare, players will take on the role of private military contractors who are called into action throughout a modern virtual world. Overseeing their own personal command base, players will expand, enhance, and customize their headquarters, manage and upgrade their military convoy of vehicles, and train and develop their crews through a robust reputation and experience system. Dynamic environments in Armored Warfare require players to change strategies on the battlefield at a moment’s notice keeping them ever vigilant to the tides of battle. In addition, players will be able to join Clans and participate in large scale Territory Wars in the power struggle for world domination.

To learn more about the level of detail in the vehicles and environments, the importance of strategy, and the development team’s dedication to realism, watch the video HERE.

For more information on Armored Warfare, visit My.com.