Month: January 2016

Hardware | Donster | |

heliborneAlex takes a look at the alpha version of tactical helicopter shoot ‘em up, Heliborne

By Alex Connolly @ The Wargamer

Indie outfit JetCat Games are certainly playing my kind of Wagner in Heliborne. Based in Vilnius, Lithuania, they’re a six-strong studio comprised of Belorussian, Russian, Ukrainian and American developers, and bring with them an earnest love for the flexible nuances of the whirlybird. Heliborne is aiming squarely at the team-based military multiplayer market, currently dominated by World of Tanks, Armored Warfare, and War Thunder. I recently had the chance to throw the JetCat cofounders, Raman Ulasau and Diana Leer, and community manager Anthony Keeton some questions surrounding their debut project. The first question was, simply, why helicopters?

Read on…

Heliborne MMORPGs | Donster | |

tom-clancys-the-divisionBy Jon Ryan, IGN

After almost three years of various trailers and demos, I wasn’t sure I understood exactly what type of experience The Division wanted to focus on. Was it strictly an open-world adventure? A traditional MMORPG? Or was it staying close to the classic Tom Clancy framework and focusing on being a tactical co-op/PVP shooter? After spending a few hands-on hours with it, I realized that it manages to be all of these things simultaneously – and it seems like it’s just the game I’ve been looking for.

Read on…

RPG Tom Clancy's The Division | Donster | |

order-of-battle-pacific-boxYou will have the chance to be immersed in the 1937 Sino-Japanese War very soon as Morning Sun – the second expansion of the extraordinary wargame Order of Battle: Pacific – will be released on January 28th!

In Morning Sun you will revive this undervalued conflict, taking control over the Japanese forces fighting for territorial expansion and rich Chinese resources.

Expect all of the fantastic features that made Order of Battle: Pacific one of the most innovative wargames recently made, plus a new array of possibilities, like the chance to employ cavalry units and invaluable Construction Group units!

Stay tuned for further information and if you want to know more, please check out the product page here!

Order of Battle: Pacific – Morning Sun will be available also on Steam.

Source: Eurogamer

The family of Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi have filed a €1m lawsuit against Activision over his portrayal in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Three of Savimbi’s children claim Activision depicted their father as a “barbarian” during his appearance in the 2012 shooter, The Guardian reports.

“[He's portrayed as] a big halfwit who wants to kill everybody,” prosecution lawyer Carole Enfert explained. In reality, she continued, Savimbi had actually been a “political leader and strategist”.

Jonas Savimbi was the leader of an opposition movement against Angola’s communist-backed government (and thus had the support of the US) throughout the country’s bloody civil war that left 500,000 people dead.

He appears in Black Ops 2 during the level Pyrrhic Victory, where he encourages his troops to kill as many opponents as possible, while waving a grenade launcher.

Activision has, unsurprisingly, disagreed with the claims, and said its portrayal of Savimbi showed him to be a “good guy”.

It isn’t the first time Activision has been sued over someone’s appearance in Black Ops 2. In 2014, actual ex-Panama dictator Manuel Noriega complained he had been depicted as “the culprit of numerous fictional heinous crimes”, for which he wanted damages.

In that case, Activision sought to get the “absurd” lawsuit dismissed, and went to the lengths of hiring US Attorney and ex-New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani to help. A judge agreed with Activision, and the case was thrown out of court.

tom-clancys-the-divisionSource: UbiBlog

Tom Clancy’s The Division doesn’t arrive until March 8, but if you’re itching to jump in, you’ll get an early chance to explore Manhattan’s pandemic-ravaged streets starting January 28, when the closed beta goes live. Xbox One owners will get the first crack at the beta, with 24-hour early access, while PS4 and PC players can begin on January 29.

Beginning on Manhattan’s Chelsea Pier, the beta will take you through early story-driven missions that establish your foothold in New York. You’ll team up with other agents to battle for loot and outwit other agents in the PvP-enabled Dark Zone. The closed beta runs through January 31; you can sign up for a spot on the waitlist, or get guaranteed access on the platform of your choice by pre-ordering The Division.

Have more questions about The Division’s closed beta? Be sure to check out the official FAQ for answers.

Check out a new gameplay trailer here.

RPG Tom Clancy's The Division | Donster | |

Arma 3 Apex now available for pre-order on the Bohemia Store

Entering its third year since official release, Bohemia Interactive today revealed some of their plans for Arma 3 in 2016. Via a new video blog, Creative Director Jay Crowe provides an overview of the ten most significant highlights of 2015, and a list of the ten most important things to look forward to in the upcoming year. Among the most anticipated items will be the release of the Arma 3 Apex expansion, which will bring players to the 100 km² South Pacific island archipelago of Tanoa. The Apex expansion will be supported by new vehicles and weapons, a co-op campaign – and a free platform update that will improve Arma 3′s graphics, audio, usability, and more.

In terms of updates, the year will be kicked of by the release of the free Arma 3 Eden Update in February. This update will introduce the Eden 3D Editor – a brand scenario editor which will enable users to place and edit objects, define waypoints, set mission objectives, and more, directly within the 3D game environment. This represents a massive leap forward from the classic scenario editor, which has been a staple of the Arma series since its conception. Another welcome addition will be the new Launcher-based Server Browser, which will make it much easier for players to search and join a multiplayer server of their liking. Another highlight of the Eden Update will be the audio improvements, which come in the form of new audio configurations and samples. The update will be further complemented by a variety of usability improvements. Among the changes will be the replacement of the in-game font, which should make in-game text better legible.

Next up in line is 2016′s Apex. Similar to previous Arma 3 DLC, the Arma 3 Apex expansion will deliver new premium content, and a free platform update available to everyone who owns Arma 3. In terms of premium content, Arma 3 Apex’ crown jewel is Tanoa – the new terrain which was first revealed at E3 last year. In addition, the expansion will include new vehicles and weapons, and a co-op campaign. While more specific details will be unveiled at a later date, new vehicle classes, namely Light Strike Vehicles and VTOL aircraft, have been confirmed to be among the Apex arsenal. To make the new content shine, the free platform update will provide a graphics upgrade that will apply to the entire game. The upgrade includes an overhaul of the game lighting configuration, and introduction of new Sea Shader and Screen-space Reflections technology.

Bohemia Interactive also plans to build upon their new (web-based) service, Arma 3 Units. Launched in basic form at the end of last year, Arma 3 Units aims to connect players and Arma community groups. In the near future, Bohemia Interactive will increase the functionality by enabling users to join units with their Bohemia Account, manage unit roles, schedule events, post announcements, and more. Further down the line, the studio intends to integrate parts of the service into the game itself.

The Arma 3 Apex expansion, and the supporting free platform update, is scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2016. As of today, enthusiasts will be able to pre-order the Arma 3 Apex expansion on the Bohemia Store (regular price: 29.99 EUR / 24.99 GBP / 34.99 USD – pre-order price (20% discount): 23.99 EUR / 19.99 GBP / 27.99 USD). Those who are new to Arma 3, but want the most complete experience, can choose to pick up the Arma 3 Apex Edition (price: 59.99 EUR / 44.99 GBP / 69.99 USD), which includes the Arma 3 Digital Deluxe Edition, all Arma 3 DLC released so far (Karts/Helicopters/Marksmen), and the Arma 3 Apex expansion.

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

Arma 3 First-Person Shooters | Donster | |

rainbowsix-siege-logoSource: Blue’s News

The Ubisoft Forums offer details on a new patch that’s now live in Rainbow Six: Siege, updating the first-person shooter sequel to version 1.3, and the UbiBlog has further word. The patch notes outline what’s changed, including anti-cheating improvements, an update to their ban policy, and an exploit fix that’s being tested and should go live on all platforms today. Here’s the overview:

Today we are sharing our third update. This one is smaller because we felt we needed to quickly fix some issues. The changes described below will take effect on January 13th for PC and on January 20th for consoles, except the server tick rate improvement, the anti-cheating and banning policy improvements as well as the out-of-zone insta-kill option which is effective for all immediately (read below for details). This patch will be released on PC first because of the faster deployment process, in order to test the impact the fixes have and adjust if needed. Note that tomorrow, January 13th, Patch 1.2 takes effect on consoles. A much bigger patch, Patch 2.0, will be released at the same time as Season 1, on February 2nd. This update will be made available on PC and consoles at the same time.

Please refer to our post about our top priorities and known issues to see our current plans and steps we are taking to improve the game as we move forwards. Note that this update, Patch 1.3, will not fix all of our current top issues and that we are actively working on fixing them as soon as possible.

nvidia-geforce-logoSource: PC Perspective

NVIDIA has been pushing for WHQL certification for their drivers, but sometimes issues slip through QA, both at Microsoft and their own, internal team(s). Sometimes these issues will be fixed in a future release, but sometimes they push out a “HotFix” driver immediately. This is often great for people who experience the problems, but they should not be installed otherwise.

In this case, GeForce Hotfix driver 361.60 fixes two issues. One is listed as “install & clocking related issues,” which refers to the GPU memory clock. According to Manuel Guzman of NVIDIA, some games and software was not causing the driver to fully wake the memory clock to a high-performance state. The other issue is “Crashes in Photoshop & Illustrator,” which fixes blue screen issues in both software, and possibly other programs that use the GPU in similar ways. I’ve never seen GeForce Driver 361.43 cause a BSOD in Photoshop, but I am a few versions behind with CS5.5.

Download links are available at NVIDIA Support, but unaffected users should just wait for an official driver in case the patch causes other issues, due to its minimal QA.

Hardware Video Cards | Donster | |
Hardware | Donster | |