Month: January 2016

Source: PCInvasion

Battlestate Games has been slowly teasing their action online survival FPS/RPG Escape from Tarkov for a few months and today they launched their pre-order deals.

Escape from Tarkov looks impressive enough but there’s not been a massive amount of detail released about the game and perhaps pre-orders are a little premature. Despite the lack of actual hands-on reports and a small amount of video footage, Battlestate Games obviously feel there’s enough interest to entice gamers with pre-orders.

The different options can be purchased on the official website’s pre-order page.

Source: AnandTech

This week AMD has pushed out their first video driver release of the year, Crimson 16.1 Hotfix. Between this latest hotfix and their previous Crimson update, AMD is making a solid showing, as the company has assembled rather sizable quantity of bug fixes for only a month’s work.

Crimson 16.1 Hotfix brings AMD’s drivers to version 15.301.1201, and contains several fixes for multiple games, including Fallout 4, Star Wars Battlefront, and Just Cause 3. Also mentioned in AMD’s release notes are a number of display-related fixes, with some FreeSync issues addressed and several Eyefinity setup/configuration edge case issues taken care of. And though none of us have encountered this issue with prior drivers, AMD notes that frame rate target control support has been tweaked to be more consistent – just be sure to disable V-Sync.

As always, those interested in reading more or installing the updated hotfix drivers for AMD’s desktop, mobile, and integrated GPUs can find them either under the driver update section in Radeon Settings or on AMD’s Radeon Software Crimson Edition download page.

By Hilbert Hagedoorn @ GURU3D

We review the Zalman ZM1000-EBT power supply. This 1 kilowatt powerhouse of the model comes Gold certified, that means it’s roughly 90% efficient at 50% load. Efficiency matters. The PSU itself is fully modular, for most of you with a side panel window in their chassis that is a must really as you’ll want modular cables. Have a peek at the article. This 80 Plus Gold certified power supply is profoundly advertised as a PSU with solid Japanese capacitors, and offers a fully modular design in cables.

Read The Review Here

By Steven Walton @ TechSpot

With its vast experience of case building, Corsair must have foreseen that the Carbide 600C we reviewed last month wouldn’t appeal to everyone with its inverted ATX layout, so its counteroffer seems premeditated. The new Carbide 400 series is a more traditional approach that still maintains the clean lines and curved solid-steel exterior of the 600 series for a great minimalist look.

Read The Review Here

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.

• SAPPHIRE NITRO R9 FURY Series Video Cards Announced
• DeepCool Debuts GENOME Liquid Cooling
• GIGABYTE Launches New Feature-packed Power Supplies
• TRENDnet Announces High-Performance AC1900 Wi-Fi USB Adapter
• Corsair Shows Off SF Line of SFX PSUs
• Sea Sonic Announces its Flagship PRIME Titanium Line of Power Supplies
• Tt eSPORTS Unveils the New CHALLENGER Prime RGB Membrane Gaming Combo
• Enermax Announces the DF Fan Series
• Mushkin Shows Off a 4TB SSD with Estimated Price of US$500
• AMD Intros A10-7890K, Fastest Godavari APU Yet
• G.SKILL Announces DDR4 3000MHz CL14 128GB Memory Kit
• BIOSTAR Announces RACING Z170GT7 Motherboard
• AMD’s R9 Nano Just Got More Interesting With Big Price Drop
• Dell Unveils a 30-inch Ultra HD Monitor with an OLED Panel
• Intel Admits to Skylake Bug that Freezes Windows and Linux Systems
• EK Releases EK-XLC Predator 240 with Quick Disconnect!
• MSI Releases R9 380 GAMING 2G LE
• EK Announces CrossChill EK Hybrid Cooling Block for ASUS MAXIMUS VIII Formula!

Source: Blue’s News

A Steam community announcement unveils details on Sky Fortress DLC for Just Cause 3, the “air” portion of the Air, Land and Sea expansion pass announced a few months ago. The post also offers details on a small release coming to the action sequel today on all platforms which will add the ability to buy content previously offered as preorder bonuses, and say they are also working on addressing issues with the game. Here’s word:

For those of you who picked up the XL Edition, or for anyone interested in the Air, Land and Sea Expansion Pass we announced earlier last year, we’ve got some exciting news for you all. Whilst one side of the studio is working on patches, fixes and optimisations for the game, which will continue to roll out over the coming weeks, the other side is busily bringing this additional content to life. The first pack – ‘Sky Fortress’ which is the “Air” pack, is nearing completion, and will bring new missions, features and other exciting surprises to the skies of Medici. We’re play testing this content right now so watch this space for more news on this very soon.

On top of this, we’ve got a small release of additional weapons and vehicles landing across Steam, PSN & Xbox stores today. This isn’t strictly new stuff – all of this content was previously available as part of our pre-order programmes, so for the early adopters out there you may already have most of these items. However, if there’s any particular pre-order incentives you missed out on that you want to pick up, you can now do so. Check out the store pages for more info.

For those of you that are still having some issues with your game, rest assured that we’re working on optimisations, bug fixes, performance enhancements and improvements, and we’ll continue to roll these out as soon as they’re ready, with the next patch expected later in the month. We’re doing everything we can to get to the bottom of all the issues that are reported to us.

Your Council Would Like a Word With You

The new year will bring new goodies from Paradox Development Studio and the team behind Crusader Kings II, Paradox’s best-selling and critically beloved medieval grand strategy game.

Conclave, the newest expansion for the game, will give your vassals some bite to go along with your bark, as the council that governs your realm will now demand some say in how you rule. Powerful dukes, regardless of competence, will require a seat at the table, and those left on the outside will be more likely to plot against you.

Keep your council happy, and the mighty vassals will resist the pull of faction and civil war. Dismiss their interests, though, and you may find yourself trying to hold together a council at war with itself.

Balance councillor skill and power to keep your dynasty safe and strong. Ignore powerful underlings at your peril, or simply buy their loyalty with favors. Conclave makes the royal council a force unto itself.

Other features of Conclave will include:

• Councils can now vote on changes to realm laws – or you can try to limit their power and influence
• Revised education system for royal children, with new traits and events designed for childhood
• New diplomatic system that prioritizes marital alliances and non-aggression pacts, as well as the possibility of coalitions
• Improved military combat model with a greater emphasis on morale, as well as new rules for mercenary companies
• And many more smaller changes including the usual tweaks to how the AI prioritizes its decisions.
• So the choice will be yours; do you dare to challenge your vassals on their council at the risk of challenging them on the battlefield? Can you move your nation towards greater centralization and power without your advisors realizing how much they are losing in the deal?

Crusader Kings II appreciates the subtlety of court intrigue. Conclave will give you new avenues to test that skill. You can watch the Crusader Kings II: Conclave Reveal Trailer here.

Conclave will be available in early 2016. For more information on Crusader Kings II, click here.

By Brian Nyhuis @ Legit Reviews

Today we’re going to take a look at a brand new case that Thermaltake is announcing at CES 2016 in Las Vegas, NV. Kicking off our review coverage today, we’ll take a look at what this full-tower case all has to offer, and show you what makes it so special.

The Core X71 is a massive full-tower chassis, featuring two chambers for advanced cable management and/or various liquid or air cooling opportunities. Inside this case you will find no shortage of cooling potential, so right off the bat I think this case may be a hit amongst enthusiasts. We will have to find out how well these features look like they will work, along with how well the case is built.

Read The Review Here

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.

• GIGABYTE Launches High-End Desktop Motherboards and Next Gen. BRIX at CES 2016
• EVGA Readies GeForce GTX 980 Ti VR Edition Graphics Card
• MSI Showcases Future of PC Gaming at CES 2016
• Thermaltake Launches Pacific R360 D5 Water Cooling Kit
• EVGA Introduces New and Innovative Products at CES 2016 – VIDEO
• Kingston Digital Ships Encrypted USB with Keypad Access
• Thermaltake Unveils the Core X71 and Core X31 Chassis
• Syber Gaming’s New Mid-Tower and Small-Box PC’s are Ready for VR
• Thermaltake Announces Core W Series: W100 and WP100 at CES 2016
• Patriot Announces Release of New Viper USB and Mega USB Drives
• AMD Demoes Quiet and Groovy New Reference CPU Cooler – VIDEO
• Thermaltake Shows Off its First PSU with RGB Lighting
• Patriot Releases New SSD Enclosure with Type-C Connector
• OWC Announces Mercury Extreme Pro 1TB SSD
• Kingston Announces SSDNow KC400 Series
• Lexar Announces New JumpDrive C20i, a 3-in-1iOS Flash Drive
• Lexar Announces New Plug and Stay JumpDrive S45

The developers from Battlestate Games, a Russian game studio, have released the hot new video with gameplay of their online game, Escape from Tarkov. The video is set in the outskirts of the Tarkov city, in one of the chemical plant’s dorms that is now being used as a staging post by local raiders. At this location, characters of Escape from Tarkov can encounter Scavs, who have made the place their headquarters and are unlikely to welcome surprise guests. The video showcases inventory management, partial weapon tweaking, search for items, and investigation of the player’s surroundings.

Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore story-driven MMO which combines the elements of FPS/TPS and RPG. The events take place in the Russian city of Tarkov, which has been sealed of by roadblocks and sunk into the chaos of local warfare between private miltray companies. The extreme conditions combat simulator employs a number of custom system modules to create an incredibly immersive gameplay and make players feel the reality of what is happening in the game. The closed beta-testing of Escape from Tarkov is planned for 2016.

You can sign up for the closed beta and get more game info at the Escape from Tarkov official webpage.