Month: July 2015

company-of-heroes-2-the-british-forces-logoStandalone Multiplayer Army Pack Enhances the Depth of Company of Heroes 2

SEGA of America, Inc. and SEGA Europe Ltd. today announced Company of Heroes 2: The British Forces from Relic Entertainment  - an all-new standalone multiplayer army pack launching September 3, 2015 for $12.99, £9.99, €12.99. The British Forces features 15 new units, six new commanders with unique abilities and a total of eight new multiplayer maps portraying historic battlefield locations representing the shattered infrastructure seen throughout Europe at the end of World War II.

An authentic representation of the British army, The British Forces brings to life the iconic vehicles, weapons and multicultural makeup of World War II’s longest standing Allied force. The portrayal of the British army also extends to how their fighting style was implemented into the overall game design. With a military tactical doctrine that balanced mobility and defense, The British Forces gives players a choice in how they progress through the tech tree. They can either follow an ‘anvil’ approach by adopting powerful defensive positions through the use of emplacements or they can take an aggressive ‘hammer’ approach by using fast, hard-hitting units to wreak havoc on the battlefield.

Additionally, coinciding with The British Forces’ release, every title in the Company of Heroes 2 catalogue will receive a major design upgrade that will greatly improve the overall balance of all five factions featured in Company of Heroes 2. The game also features animation and visual improvements to most infantry units in the game, which further increase the authenticity of Company of Heroes 2.

“The British Army has been one of the most requested factions since we first announced Company of Heroes 2 three years ago. The British were a major player in WWII and we are excited to bring their unique makeup and overall tactical doctrine to the Company of Heroes 2 battlefield,” said Greg Wilson, Executive Producer at Relic Entertainment. “Finally, every player – whether they are new to the franchise or a long standing fan – can play The British Forces and have a compelling multiplayer experience with an army that can certainly go toe-to-toe with every other faction in the game.”

The British Forces will be available from September 3, 2015 as a stand-alone package that is the perfect entry point into the vibrant Company of Heroes 2 community. New players will also have access to all pre-existing Company of Heroes 2 maps via auto-match as well as the ability to battle against all other existing factions.

Pre-order on Steam to receive a 10% discount. Owners of any Company of Heroes game will receive a 20% discount. The pre-order incentive will be live from July 9, 10AM PST/6PM BST/7PM CET.

Click here to view the announcement trailer.

For more information on Company of Heroes 2, please visit the games official website.

ocz-trion-100-ssdWritten By: Nathan Kirsch @ Legit Reviews

OCZ Storage Solutions today launched the Trion 100 series of Solid-State Drives (SSDs) that are the company’s latest value-oriented storage option for those wanting an affordable SATA III SSD. The OCZ Trion 100 series is an all Toshiba solution that features a Toshiba TC58 SSD controller paired with Toshiba A19 2D planar Triple-Level Cell (TLC) NAND flash. TLC SSDs have been made popular in recent years by Samsung and SanDisk as they have been shipping TLC drives in volume on their entry level drives. TLC memory is more affordable to manufacture, so the drives on the market utilizing TLC NAND Flash memory have allowed for lower SSD pricing. TLC NAND Flash memory is less durable than Multi-Level Cell (MLC) memory, but when parred with the proper controller that has error-correcting abilities it has been proven that TLC NAND is acceptable for use in consumer SSDs. Now that OCZ has a TLC SSD solution they should be better able to compete with the big name brands when it comes to pricing.

Read The Review Here

Hardware Storage | Donster | |

Source: techPowerUp!

AMD released the Catalyst 15.7 WHQL driver suite, its first WHQL-signed Catalyst driver in 212 days (since 14.12 Omega). These drivers add official support for all the new AMD Radeon R9 300 series and R9 Fury series graphics processors launched in the past two months, and comes with a ship load of new features and game optimizations. They also include WDDM 2.0 support, letting you use them with Windows 10.

To begin with, Catalyst 15.7 WHQL adds support for AMD FreeSync in CrossFire setups, on DirectX 10 and higher 3D applications. Features such as VSR (virtual super-resolution) and FRTC (frame-rate target control) are now official. CrossFire profiles have been added/improved for over a dozen games since 14.12 Omega. Frame-rates have been increased for Far Cry 4 and Tomb Raider.

You can download the AMD Catalyst 15.7 WHQL drivers here.

Hardware Video Cards | Donster | |

nvidia-geforce-logoSource: Legit Reviews

NVIDIA today released GeForce 353.45 Hotfix drivers that resolve an issue where Sony Vegas Pro was crashing on some users. This driver build includes all the fixes that were in the previous 353.38 hotfix driver release, so this is the latest and greatest driver from NVIDIA. The NVIDIA forums have a number of users saying that GeForce 353.45 Hotfix drivers are causing issues on Windows 10 though, so you might want to avoid this driver if you are running Windows 10. You can download GeForce 353.45 Hotfix drivers here.

UPDATE: NVIDIA has released GeForce 353.49 Hotfix drivers that solve the Windows 10 issue introduced with GeForce 353.45 drivers, so be sure to download those!

Hardware Video Cards | Donster | |

newhardware-iconCheck 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 | |

historical-article-gung-ho-marine-raid-makin island-logoBy John Dudek @ The Wargamer

Makin Island is a triangular shaped atoll in the Gilbert Islands about four degrees north of the equator, It is eight miles in length and less than a half mile wide and covered with coconut palms. It had been under Japanese occupation and control since 10 December 1941. D-Day for Carlson’s Raiders was set for 0300 hours on 17 August 1942. If all went well, the raiders would come ashore unobserved while it was still dark. However, “Murphy’s Law” soon made an appearance and would remain in evidence throughout the entire raid.

Read on…

Military History | Donster | |

tom-clancys-the-division‘They said it was just the flu… But it turned out to be something else entirely…’

Source: Gamer’s Hell

Ubisoft has unveiled a new video for Tom Clancy’s The Division, an online, open-world RPG developed by Massive Entertainment and due to launch on March 8th, 2016 for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Those from North America can pre-order two additional editions of the game: The Gold Edition will include the game, an exclusive National Guard Gear Set and the Season Pass with a full year of major expansions and exclusive benefits; The premium Collector’s Edition will include all the content found in the Gold Edition plus an array of exclusive memorabilia including the Agent Watch Replica.

Those who pre-order any version of the game will receive guaranteed access to the upcoming betas, starting with the exclusive beta on Xbox One this December, and get the Hazmat Gear Set for their agent. Players can also sign up for the beta program now here. Further details on the betas and Season Pass content will be revealed at a later date.

More game information can be found on the games official website.

First published in 1998, this legendary series of operational wargames has seen six releases, including the latest Operational Art of War III, released to the wargaming audience in 2006. Now, as we conclude The Operational Art of War III, we are also taking a new step to continue the series into the future. Publisher Matrix Games and the TOAW Development Team have been working behind the scenes for nearly two years to take this landmark brand to new heights.

First, a long-promised update… with development for The Operational Art of War once again in full swing, many months of development both past and present have allowed us to complete the final update for The Operational Art of War III, version 3.4.1.9! This update allows us to bring the TOAW community a parting gift for TOAW III, including a feature enhancement, quite a few bug fixes and new and revised scenarios, while also laying the groundwork for a new release, The Operational Art of War IV.

The Operational Art of War IV started as an update intended to be TOAW III version 3.5, but when we were able to re-start full development on the series, it allowed us to do much more in the way of significant improvements than we had originally considered and it kept growing until it became a full release plan. As a result, we’ve invested the time and resources to continue the series while also continuing support for TOAW III and the TOAW community in the form of this update. As many bug fixes as possible, basically anything that was not too tightly intertwined with new features and code, were removed from the Operational Art of War IV process and are included in this 3.4.1.9 release.

The Operational Art of War IV will fully support modern computer hardware and operating systems. This will make it more user-friendly and able to scale to higher resolutions, especially in terms of font and button size. It reorganizes and adds functionality to many very useful screens and dialogs to make them more informative and easier to use. Once released, TOAW IV will continue to be supported for some time, hopefully leading to many more updates and improvements. TOAW IV will be the new base point for the TOAW series and future updates will be based on this new release.

For a complete list of changes for the 3.4.1.9 update, check here.

(You can download the patch here)

Get more information about TOAW III from its official product page.

Lead Designer Outlines How Crusader Kings II Will Change

With the newest expansion for Paradox’s hit medieval history game only a week away, Crusader Kings II lead designer Henrik Fåhraeus has taken time out of his busy schedule to shoot a short video outlining some of the major changes that Horse Lords will bring.

From the peculiar succession rules of the nomadic tribes to the trade wealth that passes through the Silk Road, Fahrëus takes you on a tour of the coming attractions in what we think will be an expansion with exciting new ways to plot, marry and fight your way to power in the Middle Ages.

For more information on Crusader Kings II, click here.

asus-strix-gtx980-tiBy: Hilbert Hagedoorn @ GURU3D

We review and benchmark that owl of a card, the ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti STRIX, the graphics card is named after a beast, and is one. The product comes factory overclocked at great levels and has got that all new three fan cooling. Albeit not the best performing cooler, it is the most silent one we’ve tested thus far. Merge all that with the default goodness the GeForce GTX 980 Ti has to offer like the 6 GB graphics memory and this product simply is a h00t.

Read The Review Here

Hardware Video Cards | Donster | |