Month: July 2019

Source: Blue’s News

Activision offers first details on multiplayer support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with the announcement of a two-versus-two mode called Gunfight that will be part of the next installment in the shooter series. This is just the start, as they say this “is only a fraction of the full, online multiplayer experience,” promising a full multiplayer game reveal for August 1st. On a related note, Activision also informs us of a preorder bonus for Modern Warfare that will unlock Captain Price as a playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4′s Blackout mode. Naturally this is coming to PS4 first: “Pre-order any version of Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® and immediately unlock the classic version of Captain Price as a playable character in Blackout! The character will be playable on PlayStation 4 today, with other platforms to follow on July 18.” The Activision Blog has details on Gunfight mode as well as their plans to show off more next month. We also have the following announcement with more:

A new generation of Call of Duty® multiplayer is coming. Mark your calendars for Thursday, August 1, when Activision and Infinity Ward will reveal the multiplayer universe of Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare®. Recently named “Best Online Multiplayer” by Game Critics Awards Best of E3 2019, Modern Warfare multiplayer delivers a game-changing online experience.

As players enlist in the heart-racing Modern Warfare story, multiplayer continues the experience as players head online into the ultimate playground for the global balance of power. Featuring unified progression across modes, Modern Warfare seeks to unite the community with plans to support cross-play across platforms and the removal of the traditional season pass in order to deliver a greater mix of more free maps, content and community events post-launch.

Moments ago, fans got the first glimpse of the game’s new 2 vs. 2 Gunfight mode, which is only a fraction of the full, online multiplayer experience in Modern Warfare. Shown live on Twitch, Gunfight delivers a new level of quick-action, close-quarters duo-based combat that is a blast to play and to watch.

Tune-in August 1st to Twitch.tv/CallofDuty for the full reveal of the Modern Warfare Multiplayer Universe and deep look at gameplay coming to fans at launch. In the meantime, fans can follow latest information on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s multiplayer on @CallofDuty and @InfinityWard on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Free the streets of Paris from Nazi control in both Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot

Bethesda has announced that Wolfenstein: Youngblood & Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot have gone gold. Click here to see the full PC specs for both games, as well as preload details.

In Youngblood you’ll be able to buddy up with another person and play as BJ Blazkowicz’s twin daughters, Jess and Soph, as they fight to find their missing father and kick Nazi ass along the way. Cyberpilot is a standalone VR experience that sees you taking on the role of a Resistance hacker turning the Nazis’ own war machines against them. Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot both launch on July 26. Youngblood will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC and Nintendo Switch, and Cyberpilot will launch on PC and PlayStation 4. 

Source: Blue’s News

Valve offers a look at what they’re cooking up by opening up the doors to the Steam Labs. This unveils “experiments,” works in progress which will not necessarily succeed in the long run. The first three of these are: Micro Trailers, the Interactive Recommender, and Automatic Show. Micro Trailers “are six-second looping videos designed to quickly inform viewers about titles on Steam with a presentation that’s easy to skim.” The Automatic Show is a bot-generated entertainment program. Finally the Interactive Recommender is a new recommendation engine. This last one seems to hold the most promise, as they offer a separate news post with extensive details on its operation. Here’s an explanation on how they hope this might improve upon previous ways of generating game recommendations:

Recommendations on Steam
Rather than introducing a big change to the way customized recommendations are determined on Steam, we’re introducing this new recommender as an experiment customers can seek out and try. This will help us get better usage data while avoiding any sudden shifts that we know can be frustrating for customers and developers who are accustomed to Steam. Should the interactive recommender or related experiments prove useful, we’ll share an update before rolling out any big changes to the way Steam recommends titles to people. The data driving Popular, New, and Trending is different from that of the Discovery Queue, this new recommender, and so on. We view this new interactive recommender as one discovery element among many, and look forward to introducing more ways to connect customers with interesting content and developers.

Recommendations and new games
New games in a system such as this one have a chicken-and-egg effect known as the “cold start” problem. The model can’t recommend games that don’t have players yet, because it has no data about them. It can react quite quickly, and when re-trained it picks up on new releases with just a few days of data. That said, it can’t fill the role played by the Discovery Queue in surfacing brand new content, and so we view this tool to be additive to existing mechanisms rather than a replacement for them.

Why it works for short games
The recommender knows that there are great short-form games you can finish in an hour, and those you’ll play for thousands. Your playtime data is normalized to reflect the distribution of playtime in each game, ensuring that all games are on an equal footing.

No need for developer optimization
Sometimes, computer-driven discovery makes creators focus on optimizing for “The Algorithm” rather than customers. You might ask, how is this any different? We designed the recommender to be driven by what players do, not by extrinsic elements like tags or reviews. The best way for a developer to optimize for this model is to make a game that people enjoy playing. While it’s important to supply users with useful information about your game on its store page, you shouldn’t agonize about whether tags or other metadata will affect how a recommendations model sees your game.

The day has come! Today you’ll have the opportunity to get one of the most anticipated strategy games, set in the Ancient Era. Today is Field of Glory: Empires day!

Choose one from among 77 civilizations of that time and be prepared for the greatest challenge ever made: to preserve and to enrich the Culture of your Civilization, making your Legacy stand for centuries.

Field of Glory: Empires is a grand strategy game in which you will have to move in an intricate and living tapestry of nations and tribes, each one with their distinctive culture. Set in Europe and in the Mediterranean Area during the Classical Age, experience what truly means to manage an Empire.

Expand your dominion through wars of conquest and make your culture a beacon of light, but be careful though. The risk of Decadence is not trivial. Many civilizations have collapsed for not having seen in time the signs of impending crisis. The older your empire, the more challenges will lurk in the shadows. Just expanding your borders without carefully shaping your form of government and culture won’t be the wisest of strategies.

Have a look at the tutorial videos recently released!

For you willing to have direct control over specific battles, if you own Field of Glory 2, you can import tactical battles from Empires into FOG2 and vice versa. We have set up a Field of Glory Masters Edition. This edition is a bundle including FOG2 and FOG Empires 25% discounted. This means:

• If you already have FOG2 in your library, you can buy FOG Empires at 25% off, and vice versa
• If you want to buy both, the cumulated price for FOG2 and Fog Empires is 25% discounted

The Masters Edition is available only on Steam. The non-Masters Edition is also available on Steam and at the official Matrix Games Store.

By Bill Gray @ Wargamer

BLUF – Bottom Line Up Front: They nailed it. Slitherine-AGEOD’s new grand strategy game Field of Glory: Empires is here and I think it just set the standard on how challenging is was to be top dog in the days of Rome. I’m talking at least XII Ave’s for not only producing one of the best ancient grand strategy games on the market, but because the designers have also taken the genre one step beyond.

Read The Review Here

Episode 1 – D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions To Be Released on July 23rd 

Ubisoft has announced new details of its first episode of free content for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2. The episode is titled Episode 1 – D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions, and will be available for Year 1 Pass holders from July 23rd, and for all players from July 30th. Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 is available on the Xbox One family of devices including the Xbox One X, PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. The game will also launch on the new generation gaming platform, Stadia.

Episode 1 – D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions is part of the game’s Year 1 free content plan, and takes the fight outside the streets of Washington D.C. The episode features new locations to explore and picks up where the story leaves off after the final boss at Tidal Basin. Players will be taken to the surrounding areas of Washington D.C. in two new main missions and a new game experience where players will investigate the fate of a lost convoy, encountering unexpected threats along the way. Players can look forward to the following content in Episode 1 – D.C. Outskirts: Expeditions:

Two New Main Missions

• Camp White Oak: Division Agents stage a well-planned attack into the presidential compound, as they seek to bring the now-traitor President Andrew Ellis to justice.
• Manning National Zoo: Emeline Shaw, leader of the Outcasts, fled after her defeat in D.C. and is now held up at the Zoo regaining strength. Agents are on the hunt to eliminate Shaw, nipping the Outcasts’ reawakening in the bud.

New experience: Expeditions

• In this new experience, players enter Kenly College, where contact has been lost with a military convoy full of vital supplies. When they receive what appears to be a final broadcast, they form an expedition to find any surviving members in need of rescue. Expeditions will be split in three different wings for players to complete. Each wing will have a specific theme and tone, to be released on a week-by-week basis. Completing all three wings grants access to an exclusive treasure room full of rewards.

New Weapons and Gear: Players can obtain:

• One exotic weapon: Diamondback Rifle
• One exotic gear: BTSU Datagloves
• Two weapons: Stoner LMG and Carbine 7

Classified Assignments:

• Agents can take on two new classified assignments in Washington’s Central Aquarium and NSA Site B13 (Exclusive only to Year 1 Pass holders).

Alongside new content, Episode 1 will also bring game updates based on player feedback:

New Discovery Difficulty setting for the “Operation Dark Hours” Raid

• The new Discovery Difficulty setting, along with its corresponding matchmaking option, will allow more players to experience The Division 2 in its entirety. While Operation Dark Hours Exotic loot remains exclusive to the Normal difficulty setting, Agents playing the Discovery Difficulty can expect a variety of great rewards, while training for the Normal Difficulty.

Crafting improvements

• Players can now craft their gear up until Gear Score 500 and share blueprints across characters. Additionally, crafted weapons can now be recalibrated.

Weapons balancing and skills buff

• As part of the ongoing updates to answer community feedback, awaited balance and buffs will be added to the next title update.

The Year 1 Pass gives players even more content in The Division 2. Click here for full details on what’s included with the Year 1 Pass. You can also purchase your Year 1 Pass for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 to get early access to Episode 1 content.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 will also be available on Uplay+, Ubisoft’s subscription service. More details on Uplay+ can be found on Uplay.com.

More game information can be found on the official Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 website.

Source: Blue’s News

Activision and Treyarch announce Operation Apocalypse Z will commence tomorrow in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 for PS4, bringing an onslaught of zombies to the shooter sequel. This will presumably come to PC and Xbox One in a month, and in the meantime, a new trailer accompanies the news, as do these details:

“Operation Apocalypse Z unleashes the hordes of undead in all game modes. Fans will find exciting new ways to play, including Multiplayer maps and modes that channel the Zombies legacy, a new Zombies experience, eerie changes throughout the Blackout map, and more new weapons for players to unlock and master.”

For more, there’s a roadmap of what to expect on the Treyarch Website.

By Hilbert Hagedoorn @ Guru3D

It’s time to review some next-level M.2. NVMe shizzle, yes we review the Corsair MP600 PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD. Of course it is an SSD you can seat into any PCIe 3.0 compatible PC, however, if you place it into a Ryzen 3000 / X570 based PC, some magic happens as you are running 4000 MB/s numbers and higher, thanks to the new PCIe 4.0 interface and a little TLC from Phison, well Toshiba strictly speaking. The past few weeks has seen a lot of PCIe Gen 4.0 related announcements. Of course, the dazzling numbers from SSDs at that speed do impress. Corsair released the MP600 at roughly 25 Cents per GB and you can purchase it in a 1TB and 2TB model, the MP600 units will be available at €249,- and €449,- respectively.

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.

• Patriot Expands its Viper 4 Series with AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen-Optimized Models
• EK Water Blocks Introduces the EK-Torque Fittings for the Modern Enthusiast
• FSP Announces New High End Cases For All Major Form Factors
• Intel 10th Gen Core “Comet Lake” Processor Lineup Allegedly Revealed – Prices and Specs
• EK Water Blocks Covers the MSI MEG Z390 ACE With a Momentum Monoblock
• Creative Celebrates 30 Years of Sound Blaster with New AE-9 AND AE-7 Sound Cards
• MSI Drops Functions from BIOS of AMD’s 300 and 400 Series Motherboards to Support Ryzen 3000
• BIOSTAR Launches the Newest AMD Radeon RX5700XT and RX5700 Graphics Cards
• MSI X570 Motherboards Astonish the Market with Ryzen 3000 Series Processors
• AMD X570 Chipset and Motherboards Draw a Crap Load of Power (VIDEO)

Source: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA has released the new GeForce 431.36 WHQL software, which adds support for the new GeForce RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070 Super graphics cards that went on sale from 9th July. The drivers also improve optimization for “Tom Clancy’s The Division 2,” “Strange Brigade,” and “Metro Exodus.” The drivers add SLI support for “F1 2019.” The drivers address the issue of performance counts appearing over the Windows 10 1903 Start menu (since the Start menu is now its own 3D-accelerated process). A “Code 43″ error that appears on Windows 1903 machines with Intel “Sandy Bridge” processors has also been fixed. Another critical bug where Windows 1903 doesn’t write a crash-dump on BSOD has been fixed.

Among the game-specific fixes are screen flickering noticed in “Grand Theft Auto V” with MSAA enabled; a game-crash experienced in “Forza 4″ when driving through tunnels; “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” may experience a TDR crash on GeForce “Pascal” GPU; and staying with this title, its internal benchmark may quit when ray-tracing is enabled.

You can download the GeForce 431.36 WHQL driver through GeForce Experience or via GeForce.com.