Month: March 2016

Legendary Naval Fleet Ships And Galleons Deliver The Broadside

Gaijin Entertainment today announced that its award-winning MMO WWII online game, War Thunder, will be introducing legendary sailing ships in its latest update for War Thunder’s ten million players to enjoy.

Available for all players, these historic battleships will take the fight to distant lands and contested waters. The first test-session starts today and will last until the end of the weekend.

Long before the history books documented the modern toil of land and air warfare in tanks and planes, the oceans were ruled by huge battleships decked with cannon and shot.

War Thunder ‘s latest update will introduce British fighting ships from the beginning of the Eighteenth Century with other nations to be added later.

“It’s been a very interesting and challenging task to recreate historic battles of the most powerful sailing nations. We started working on it last year, adding interactive water, and then a few days ago we added interactive weather conditions, which are very important for realistic sailing conditions,” said Gaijin Entertainment CEO Anton Yudintsev. “The weather can change from complete calm to raging storm.”

Like their tank and plane counterparts, War Thunder’s sailing ships will also have their own interactive damage model (no health points). Gaijin Entertainment has taken care in crafting these sailing behemoths to be armored the way they were during their dominance of the oceans of long ago.

Naval battles will be available in the War Thunder Events menu in the game and will be available in Arcade mode. Players will be able to take the rank 1 British ship, the legendary “Golden Hind” galleon and join a battle on the shores of the lost islands. More ships of the Royal Navy and other nations will become available soon.

Information videos:

• Planned Royal Navy line-up
• Interactive weather conditions in War Thunder
• Interactive water effects in War Thunder

To download War Thunder, please visit the official War Thunder website.

New Video and Special Edition Tanks Now Available

Developer Obsidian Entertainment and global publisher My.com present the special edition Wolf Pack vehicles, featuring four of the most renowned steel machines of destruction. These unique vehicles will tear enemies to shreds and are available in celebration of Armored Warfare’s latest update 0.14.

Armored Warfare’s Wolf Pack vehicles feature a unique look (bloodthirsty red stripes on deep black with Wolf’s emblem), created especially for this limited time offer. On top of the awe inspiring graphics, these vehicles come fully upgraded with maximum level crews and premium status. The pack containing the Centauro 120, Challenger 1, BMD-2, and Wiesel 1 will go on sale as part of the coming update and will be available for purchase individually.

Get more details on the new Wolf Pack for Armored Warfare and watch the Wolf Pack video here.

Days of War seeks to bring the online FPS back to it’s competitive roots by simplifying gameplay and returning to a classic WW2 setting. Armed with a fully functional Alpha prototype and a $100k budget to get to early access ($50k from backers and $50k studio match), Days of War will be hitting the store at the end of this Summer.

For players who can’t wait that long, Alpha and Beta tester access can be secured by backing through Kickstarter. Full copies of the game are also available at a highly discounted price ($19).

Days of War is rejuvenating FPS fans of old. Clans from Medal of Honor, CoD 2, Day of Defeat, and Enemy Territory are reassembling with great enthusiasm due to general dissatisfaction with the evolution of the mass market shooter and lackluster annual releases.

Days of War also appeals to the younger generation who have yet to experience a great online WW2 shooter. (even Call of Duty: World at War was 8 years ago)

Days of War has reached its first stretch goal, guaranteeing the British forces make an appearance in game, and is looking like it’s on track to hit the next goal, the Soviet Army.

You can find the official Days of War website here.

“There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and the enemy. Everyone else has a second-hand opinion.”
Gen. William Thornson, U.S. Army

With the release date of Order of Battle: U.S. Marines drawing near, we have decided to prepare a little treat for everyone interested in the WW2 era: some infographics showing the maps and interesting facts from three of the eleven new scenarios included in this expansion. Which is completely focused on the “uncommon valor” of the American Marines in the Pacific Theatre.

Order of Battle: U.S. Marines is the second expansion for Order of Battle: Pacific and it’s due to release on 7th April!

Source: TechPowerUp!

AMD made its second release of Radeon Software Crimson Edition for March 2016, with version 16.3.2. The new drivers come with official support for the two popular VR headsets, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. It also adds support for the recently announced Radeon Pro Duo dual-GPU graphics card. The drivers improve CrossFire performance for “Hitman (2016)” in DirectX 11 mode, and “Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.” It also fixes critical bugs related to the Radeon R9 Fury, which saw display corruption on system idle mode; and XCOM 2 stuttering.

You can download the Radeon Software Crimson Edition version 16.3.2 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.

• Team Group Announces the Delta Line of DDR4 Memory Modules
• Corsair Packs 12,000 DPI Pixart PMW336x Sensor Into M65 Pro RGB Gaming Mouse
• EKWB Announces EK-RAM Monarch Modules
• BenQ Unveils the BL2420Z Low Blue-light Monitor
• Seagate Launches World’s First USB-Powered Desktop Hard Drive with Innov8
• Razer Ripsaw Game Capture Card Debuts For $180
• AOC Launches C2783FQ 27-Inch Curved LCD Monitor

By Alex Connolly @ The Wargamer

The Drinking Glass. The Crocodile. The Flying Tank. Whatever you call this iconic Russian gunship, the Mi-24 HIND looms in the imagination as a brutal piece of Cold War engineering. As arresting as it grotesque, Moscow’s answer to the Huey went beyond its role as a robust troop carrier in becoming a bristling carnivore, stalking the Mujahideen during the ill-fated Soviet invasion.

I’m happy to say, bellowing from the rotor wash and feeling Bagram grit collect in my gum line, the chopper love seen in Heliborne continues with Air Missions: HIND. Unlike Jetcat Games’ multi-era celebration of Cold War rotorcraft, the armoured bully is the sole focus of 3DIVISION’s simucade project. On higher difficulty, Air Missions: HIND flies much closer to a Gaijin Entertainment level of control fidelity and feedback, sidling alongside the forgotten Apache Air Assault in laying an acceptable level of realism atop slightly more forgiving flight physics.

Read on…

Source: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA released its latest “Game Ready” driver in wake of the latest AAA game launches. Version 364.72 WHQL comes “game ready” for Dark Souls III, Killer Instinct, Quantum Break, and Paragon. It also comes with optimizations for VR headsets such as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive; for some of the earliest big VR-ready titles, such as EVE: Valkyrie, Elite Dangerous, and Chronos.

You can download the new GeForce 364.72 WHQL drivers from GeForce Experience and GeForce.com.

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.

• Logitech Announces The Ambidextrous G900 Chaos Spectrum Gaming Mouse
• Razer Expands BlackWidow Line With New Budget Friendly Option
• GIGABYTE Launches GeForce GTX 960 Xtreme with RGB Lighting
• Thermaltake Launches the Latest Riing Silent 12 CPU Cooler
• KINGMAX Launches Stylish ZEUS DDR4 Gaming Memory
• GIGABYTE Launches the X170-Extreme ECC Motherboard
• 8Pack Asteroid SFF Gaming Desktop Now Available
• SilentiumPC Announces the Regnum RG1 Pure Black Chassis
• ADATA Releases Durable Micro USB Cable with Reversible Type-A Connector

Source: The Wargamer

Last year’s Vietnam ’65 was a fantastic game, a wargame in which controlling the hearts and minds of the local population is just as important as which hexes your units occupy. Developer Every Single Soldier isn’t done delving into wargames with a slightly political bent, as their next game will delve into the Middle East, specifically Afghanistan ’11.

There was a time when war was fought by two regular armies on battlefields. That time is over. The year is 2011, you are commanding the US army operations in Afghanistan. But contrary to the previous generations of military officers in your family, killing the enemy is only a secondary mission. Most of your efforts and resources are spent elsewhere. Providing security to the civilians, persuading local tribes to reject the Taliban and isolating insurgent leaders are your main focus.

Counter-Insurgency will have better results in the long run than conventional tactics but a simple incident during a routine patrol can ruin your relationship with the locals and damage your image in the Western newspapers.

Afghanistan ’11 will include:

• A full nation building module, whereby player can affect the hearts and minds of the local population via non-military means (constructing infrastructure and delivering UNICEF aid)
• An intense 19 battle campaign covering the iconic Afghan war operations from establishing Camp Rhino to the Bin Laden Raid (Neptune Spear)
• Command the American and the Afghanistan National Army during ground and air operations
• Drones, multirole fighters and ground-attack aircraft are available to help you to spot and eliminate enemy units
• Upgrade your bases with specific buildings to offer a better support to your soldiers and military vehicles
• Random social and political events – like Afghanistan National elections – affecting the balance of power in the Afghan theatre
• Taliban operations are financed from the growing and harvesting of opium crops. Locate and destroy these fields to cripple the opponent’s resources
• Full range of modern military units including artillery, mechanized and infantry units, engineers, helicopters, etc
• Special forces including sniper and forward air controller actions, offering you plenty of tactical options.

Aside from Afghanistan ’11, Every Single Soldier is working on another game right now that puts you in control of the USS Ronald Reagan supercarrier in the middle of a warzone. It’s called Carrier Deck, and sounds more like a management sim than a straight-up wargame. That’s not a bad thing.

No clue on when either of these two new games are hitting the shelves, but we do know that Afghanistan ’11 is slated for both PC and iPad. Not sure what platforms Carrier Deck is coming to, but we should be talking with Every Single Soldier soon and have a lot more info to pass along.