Month: January 2015

Just Announced Hardware for 28 January 2015

Check out these latest hardware announcements for today from around the web. Also included are some hardware news bits, and on some days, a few rumors tossed in for good measure. Click on the links below to read the official press release, visit the products web page, or to an independent news source.

Hardware | Donster | January 28, 2015 |

Historical Article: Tokyo Firestorm

The US Strategic Bombing Campaign of Japan – Part 2

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

US Navy battleship and cruiser shells fell thick and heavy upon the Marianas island of Saipan’s landing beaches on the early morning of 15 June 1944. Well offshore, more than 300 LVT amphtrac landing craft carrying over 4,000 Marines cruised in circular formations, chasing each other’s rooster tails of spray emerging from the rear of their tracked amphibious landing vehicles. They were awaiting the “Go Order” to proceed ashore. At 0830 hours Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner gave that order and the LVT’s fanned out towards the Saipan shore. Somewhere off BLUE BEACH 2 a grizzled, flinty old pre-war Marine gunnery sergeant gave his neophyte troops his final orders. He shouted and pointed to a nearby track then running alongside. “Listen up you people! We’re crossing the final line of departure. That’s Lt. Smith’s amphtrack over there. When we get ashore, un-ass this vehicle as soon as we stop, get ashore and tie in with his herd! One other thing. Don’t get killed! That would make me most unhappy because you know how much I hate doing paperwork. Now lock and load and keep your damned heads down!” As the Marines loaded their M-1 Garand rifles, the old “gunny” put a five round clip into his much older Springfield 1903 bolt action rifle. He winked and grinned at the other Marines in the landing craft. All too soon and with a terrifying crashing suddenness, Japanese artillery and mortar shells began falling thickly and heavily around the Marine amphtracks as if someone had unzipped the very heavens above. Japanese anti-boat guns located in the still hidden pillboxes and caves ashore began taking an ever increasing toll of American landing craft. Meanwhile, Japanese artillery gun batteries located well behind the landing beaches began firing upon the incoming amphibious landing force. The sergeant’s LVT lurched to a halt at the water’s edge and the Marines aboard launched themselves over the vehicle’s gunwales onto the sandy beach, but there was no Lt. Smith or any of his men to be seen. His LVT lay still burning on the coral reef offshore like a number of so many other burning, broken toys out there, all of them victims of an anti-boat gun’s direct hit. A mortar shell concussion knocked down the gunnery sergeant, but aside from a few minor metal splinter cuts he was unhurt. As he brushed the black coral sand from his face, eyes and forehead, he looked up at the smoking, mountainous and craggy heights that lay far above and well behind the landing beaches. He shook his head and said incredulously. “How in hell are those doggy pricks going to build a B-29 bomber airfield way up there?”

Read on…

Military History | Donster | January 22, 2015 |

33 Things About Arma 3 Trailer

With a very exciting year ahead for its tactical military shooter, Bohemia Interactive today deployed a brand new trailer, highlighting some of the most impressive content and features in Arma 3.

Exploring the game’s core components, such as the 270 km² terrain, its selection of weapons and vehicles, and the in-game scenario editor, the video also takes a closer look at the more hidden details, such as the simulation of projectile ballistics, Arma 3’s many character stances, the accurate star map over Altis, and many more.

In addition, Bohemia Interactive posted a new dev blog revealing some of its plans for Arma 3 in 2015. Starting with the release of the Arma 3 Marksmen DLC in April, the studio will be adding new weapons, showcase missions, a new multiplayer mode, and several much anticipated platform features related to weapon handling. Later in the year Bohemia Interactive also aims to deliver a completely new and fresh terrain for Arma 3. More details are available in the ‘Scanning The Horizon: Arma 3 in 2015’ dev blog.

For more information about Arma 3, please visit the games official website.

Arma 3 First-Person Shooters | Donster | January 22, 2015 |

Decisive Campaigns: The Blitzkrieg Released on Steam

A not so Phoney War

1939-1940: The war machine is released. Plans for the invasion of Poland and Western countries have been carefully prepared by the German commanders. But the Wehrmacht effectiveness is still not proved and its opponents have some serious military assets. Speed and surprise are key success factors that armchair generals will have to master to seize Warsaw, Paris, and London … or the German troops will be sent packing back to Berlin!

Since its first release, the game has benefited from regular and in-depth support from the developers. Today, the game is reaching a new level with a release on the Steam platform, and we are very excited to be able to show this classic strategy title to a whole new audience!

In order to celebrate this important milestone, we are offering a 50% discount during the week of the launch! We are also going to offer a free Steam key to anyone who bought a copy of the game from the Matrix Games or Slitherine store, once the game is available on this digital platform!

Get more information on Decisive Campaigns: The Blitzkrieg from Warsaw to Paris from its official Steam page.

Decisive Campaigns: The Blitzkrieg from Warsaw to Paris Strategy and Wargaming | Donster | January 22, 2015 |

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Reviews

nvidia-geforce-gtx-960 NVIDIA has launched its new mid-range GeForce GTX 960 graphics card. This is the latest incarnation of NVIDIA’s Maxwell GPU. We have collected a large number of reviews and we’ve posted the links to them below for your convenience.

Hardware Video Cards | Donster | January 22, 2015 |

NVIDIA Releases the GeForce 347.25 WHQL Game Ready Driver

Source: techPowerUp!

Alongside the GeForce GTX 960 launch, NVIDIA rolled out its latest Game Ready drivers, the GeForce 347.25 WHQL. The driver adds support for the GTX 960, and is “game ready” for Dying Light, a new zombie apocalypse first-person game, from the people who are good at it – Techland (Dead Island). It adds SLI profiles for Black Desert, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, and Nosgoth. Grab the driver from the link below.

NVIDIA’s GeForce 347.25 WHQL drivers can be downloaded from GeForce.com or through GeForce Experience.

Hardware Video Cards | Donster | January 22, 2015 |

Just Announced Hardware for 22 January 2015

Hardware | Donster | January 22, 2015 |

Microsoft Claims DirectX 12 Graphics Performance 50% Better than DirectX 11

Source: GamesBeat

Microsoft revealed more about the next generation of its DirectX graphics application-programming interfaces today.

In a presentation during Microsoft’s Windows 10 event in Redmond, Wash., Xbox boss Phil Spencer revealed that DirectX 12 will represent a major upgrade over the previous generation of APIs. This is the backbone graphical fidelity in PC and Xbox One games, and better performance means developers can squeeze more details and better framerates from older hardware.

“Direct X will make your games even better,” said Spencer. “For CPU-bound games, DirectX 12 will increase the performance of those games by up to 50 percent.”

To give an example of the new capabilities in DirectX 12, Spencer rolled a video of a scrolling complex cityscape running on two machines with the same hardware. One of the systems, running DirectX 11, struggled and eventually froze as the scene drew in more details, but the DirectX 12 box continued rendering the scene smoothly.

But Spencer didn’t just talk about performance.

“With DirectX 12, we also know that people are playing games on phones and other devices powered by battery,” he said. “We wanted to focus on performance but also on battery life. We’ve cut the power consumption required in half for the same scenes on Direct X 11.”

DirectX 12 will roll out with Windows 10, and Spencer revealed that Epic Games’ popular Unreal Engine will support the new standard.

Software | Donster | January 21, 2015 |

Assassin’s Creed: Unity – Secrets of the Revolution DLC Released

Source: Blue’s News

The cancellation of season passes for Assassin’s Creed: Unity resulted in free DLC for the action/adventure sequel, but the release of new Secrets of the Revolution DLC on Steam provides the chance to buy additional content for the game, including missions, weapons, and gear. Here’s word:

The Revolution is not over, the people of Paris still need your help.

Discover the last secrets of the French Revolution with this pack including:

3 missions: “The Chemical Revolution”, “The American Prisoner”, and “Killed by Science”
8 weapons ranging from powerful rifles and pistols, to razor-sharp axes and swords
6 pieces of gear to equip Arno with the finest and most resistant armor

Action/Strategy Assassin's Creed: Unity | Donster | January 21, 2015 |

Windows 10 to be Free Upgrade for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 Users

Source: The Verge

Microsoft’s Windows 10 event is just getting started, and it sounds like the company is eager to make it as easy and cheap as possible for those running older versions of Windows to upgrade. Terry Myerson just announced on stage that, for the first year after Windows 10 launches, any device running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows Phone 8.1 will be able to upgrade to the latest version of MIcrosoft’s OS — for free. How exactly this program will work isn’t clear just yet — it’ll certainly be subject to some hardware requirements, particularly for older machines running Windows 7. But a simplified upgrade path will likely do a lot to help Windows 10 adoption — rather than dealing with a number of different versions of Windows and different upgrade costs, most consumers will simply take this free update and enjoy running Microsoft’s latest.

Read on…

Software | Donster | January 21, 2015 |