Month: March 2021

Source: TechPowerUp!

AMD has released the Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.3.1 WHQL drivers. These drivers are identical in every way to the 21.3.1 beta drivers from March 18; except with WHQL signing. So, you get “DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part Two” optimization, support for the recently debuted Radeon RX 6700 series graphics cards, a performance stress test included inside the Performance tab of Radeon Software; four new Vulkan API extensions, and capability updates to Radeon Anti-Lag and Radeon Boost; which now come with support for DirectX 12 and VRS, respectively. The lists of fixed and known issues remain identical, too.

The Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.3.1 WHQL drivers are available online at the AMD driver download page.

By John Papadopoulos @ DSOGaming

Victura and Highwire Games, have released the first gameplay trailer for Six Days in Falljuah. Six Days in Falljuah is a tactical first-person shooter with procedurally generated mission spaces based on real-life events from 2004’s Second Battle for Fallujah in the Iraq War.

Victura and Highwire have spent more than three years building unique technologies and game mechanics that bring players closer to the uncertainty and tactics of modern combat than other video games have explored.

Over 100 Marines, Soldiers, and Iraqi civilians who were present during the Second Battle for Fallujah have shared their personal stories, photographs, and video recordings with the development team. The game gives these stories voice through gameplay and first-person accounts captured in original documentary interview footage. Six Days in Fallujah aims to be the most authentic military shooter to date and to tell these military and civilian stories with the integrity they deserve.

The game currently targets a 2021 release date.

First post-launch update goes live on Steam and GOG, with a full spring and summer content roadmap revealing Sun Tzu, new units, maps and missions

Firefly Studios has just released their first update for Stronghold: Warlords, adding an extreme difficulty mode, increased troop limits, a new map, AI improvements, balance changes and bug fixes. The castle sim developer also revealed the first part of Warlords’ post-release content roadmap introducing new a AI character and playable unit, as well as extra single player missions and warlords:

Patch Notes
Roadmap Reveal Trailer

“This first phase in our overall roadmap of updates for Warlords covers the spring and early summer period” said Nick Tannahill, Marketing Director and resident castle lover at Firefly Studios. “We have additional smaller patches planned of course and then more to come in the second half of the year, however everything covered in our announcement will be added to the game free for all players”.

Firefly’s content roadmap for Stronghold: Warlords is divided into two separate tracks, creatively titled minor and major updates. Minor updates, starting today with the addition of Extreme Difficulty and numerous AI improvements, will be aimed at improving core gameplay and adding smaller features. Later on players can expect further AI updates, stability improvements, more maps, fixes, quality of life features and series staple features, such as controllable AI invasions in Free Build mode.

When it comes to major updates for the spring and early summer period, two substantial content additions are scheduled as part of the game’s initial roadmap. As requested in post-release feedback, Stronghold: Warlords will first receive a new AI character in the form of Sun Tzu. Available in skirmish mode, multiplayer and all future updates, Sun Tzu will provide players with fresh armies to battle, castles to besiege and tactics to outmaneuver. Following this a larger ‘Skirmish Trail #1’ update is planned for the early summer. The game’s first skirmish trail update will add 10 single player missions, a new unit in the Samurai Lancer and two warlords with unique abilities. The Beetle Warlord in particular is a response to player feedback, introducing the power to heal battlefield units using the new Field Hospital structure. Both major updates, as well as future planned content additions, will aim to improve the content on offer in the core game in both single player and multiplayer modes.

Stronghold: Warlords is now available on Steam and GOG, with a Special Edition including a digital art book, new soundtrack by series composer Robert L. Euvino, ‘Making Of’ documentary and a copy of Stronghold HD.

Visit the official Stronghold: Warlords website for more game information.

Warplan Pacific, the second game in the Warplan series, will be released on April 29th.

Warplan Pacific is an operational level wargame that covers the events of 1941 to 1945 for every nation involved in the battle for the Pacific.

The game has up to 62 countries potentially involving themselves in the conflict. Each of these is given the care and detail you’d expect from a Warplan series game, so be sure to keep that in mind as you are planning your strategy.

If you are hungry for more information on Warplan Pacific, you can check out our product page on Matrix Games 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.

• MSI to Hike Graphics Card Pricing, Expects GPU Supply to Remain Tight Throughout 2021
• Arctic Triples Warranty Period For Liquid Freezer II Coolers
• be quiet! Announces Silent Loop 2 Liquid CPU Cooler
• Genesis Unveil Thor Series of RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboards
• GIGABYTE Outs GeForce RTX 3060 Ti AORUS Elite Graphics Card
• EK Adds a New Member To Its Classic Line With a Strix RTX 3070 GPU Water Block
• DeepCool Launches MATREXX 40 3FS mATX Case
• Samsung Unveils its High-Resolution 2021 Monitor Lineup
• PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 (non-XT) Fighter Pictured, Confirms 6 GB Memory Size
• PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound, Fighter, and Red Devil “Launched”
• Dynatron A38 CPU cooler for Ryzen TR supports up to TDP 280W Cooling
• Lenovo Unveils New Gaming Chair with a Katana Holster!
• MSI Outs Three Z590 Motherboards Including a Mini ITX One

The second episode of the Warplan Pacific weekly tour with Alvaro Sousa is now available: this week, we unveil more details on the games new scale and how it impacts some game mechanics, such as port supply interdiction, and port supply range.

We also cover changes to airfield placement and how to use engineering specialties to make the most out of them.

Episode #2 – Port Supply and Airfields

Visit the Warplan Pacific website for more game information.

Update 0.10.2 also brings a large-scale makeover to all in-game effects and part two of the Italian Battleships event with new combat mission rewards

Wargaming, developer and publisher of the widely popular, free to play naval combat game World of Warships (WoWS), has today revealed Update 0.10.2 for the game, launching today. The update introduces a new temporary battle type ‘Big Hunt’, updated visual effects and new rewards to be earned in part two of the Italian Battleships event.

The Big Hunt Begins!
The sea monsters are back with a vengeance in a revamped version of the Key Battle game mode which debuted last Halloween. The new battle type pits 16 players against each other and AI-controller monsters as they race to escape through the portal at the centre of the huge Polygon map. With a wide range of modules and consumables on the exclusive event ships, there are lots of build variations for players to experiment with to make an impact.

Players enter each battle solo but can build up a team of their own as the action unfolds, or if entering as part of a Division, they can find each other on the map and unite to coordinate their efforts.

By destroying monsters, other players and a new boss ship ‘Aurora’, players can earn a temporary resource—Battle Points that can be used to reinforce their ship directly in battle and exchange later for rewards in the armory.

Visual Enhancements
This new update ushers in a large-scale makeover across all in-game effects — from shell tracers and gun fire, to water splashes, fires on board ships, and all AA effects — they’ve all been enhanced and reworked to accommodate the new lighting system. This comes alongside a huge array of visual effects added for ricochets, citadel hits, incapacitated weapons and consumables. Imagery and assets related to these enhancements can be found here.

Part Two of the Italian Battleships Event
The Early Access rollout of Italian Battleships continues, as players continue to enjoy the tier IV to VI, as well as tier VIII and IX ships which hit the seas in Early Access with the release of Update 0.10.1.

Italian Battleship containers earned as combat missions rewards may now drop one of the following Premium ships: VI Leone, VII Duca degli Abruzzi, VIII Roma, or IX Marco Polo, as well as special signals, Free XP, Regia Marina expendable camouflages, days of Warships Premium Account, and Doubloons.

Visit the official World of Warships website now for more game info and to sign up to play World of Warships for free!

ENJOY THE OSTARA FESTIVAL UNTIL 8TH APRIL, GEAR CUSTOMISATION NOW AVAILABLE

Today, Ubisoft announced that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s first major expansion, Wrath of the Druids, will be available on 29th April. In addition, Season 2, Ostara Season, features exclusive narrative content and in-game events accessible to all players. Starting today, players can celebrate Spring as part of the time-limited Ostara Festival with new challenges and rewards.

Ostara Festival, the first update of Ostara Season, invites players to discover an in-game event active until 8th April in a dedicated area of Ravensthorpe. Various Easter-themed festivities will be available, including:

• Settlement decoration activity
• Drinking, Archery, and Fighting mini-games
• Three new character quests: Eivor can enjoy an Egg Hunt, the May-Queen celebration, and protect the settlement against night spirits
• Three new skills: Fearless Leaper lets Eivor land a mastered falling attack atop enemies, while the Raven’s Loot and Loot Food skills increase Eivor’s efficiency when at range or fighting close-up
• Exclusive rewards including settlement decorations and customisation items

To experience the Ostara Festival, players must reach England and complete one of the first narrative arcs – either Grantebridgescire or Ledecestrescire. The festival will then be triggered automatically when players visit the settlement. To access the May-Queen activity, players’ settlement must have reached Level 3.

Starting today, players will be able to change Eivor’s gear appearance with visual customisation, better known as transmogrification or “Change Appearance” in-game. The original gear and armour stats remain unchanged as Eivor is visually customised, allowing players to stick to their build and unleash their inner Viking in style. Once a piece of gear or a weapon is found, its visuals can be equipped in exchange of silver by visiting the Blacksmith in Ravensthorpe if the item is from the same category.

To celebrate the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla community, players will receive Altair’s Outfit, the Yule Gear Set and cosmetics, and 300 opals for free. To claim the rewards, they must access the Animus Store.

Two future updates will add more content for Ostara Season, including:

• Mastery Challenge: A second update will add a new game mode building on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s core combat mechanics, bringing a highly replayable combat experience. A Master arrives at the settlement, inspiring Eivor to train and perfect challenges to become a Master.
• Additional rewards

In Wrath of the Druids, available on 29th April, players will journey to Ireland and unravel the mysteries of an ancient and mysterious druidic cult, tracking and discovering their members. Diving into Gaelic myths and folklores, they’ll need to fight their way through haunted forests and dazzling landscapes while gaining influence among Gaelic kings. The Wrath of the Druids expansion can be purchased as a standalone. Players can also access the expansion through the Season Pass, available now or as part of the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Gold, Ultimate, and Collector Editions.

With development led by Ubisoft Montreal*, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla offers players the captivating experience of playing as Eivor, a legendary Viking warrior, driven from Norway by endless wars and dwindling resources in ninth century AD. Players can relive the ruthless fighting style of Viking warriors with a revamped dual-wielding combat system and experience new gameplay features such as raids, assaults, and the settlement, as well as a revamped progression and gear upgrade system. Political alliances, combat decisions and dialogue choices can influence the world of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, so players must choose wisely to protect their clan’s home and their future.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is available on Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One consoles, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store on Windows PC, as well as on Stadia, Amazon Luna and Ubisoft’s subscription service, Ubisoft+.

For more information about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, please visit assassinscreed.com.

1941 was a crucial year in World War II.

Having secured western Europe, now the Wehrmacht looks east. The largest front in the war is about to open, and the biggest and most decisive battles are about to take place.

Panzer Corps 2: Axis Operations  1941 brings the decisive battles of 1941 to Panzer Corps 2. Relive the invasion of the Balkans, of Greece and of the Soviet Union and fight both popular and more obscure battles in its 20 scenarios campaign.

As part of the Axis Operations series, you can decide to import a core army from the previous DLC, 1940, or play with a brand new army. You will also be able to export your core army at the conclusion of the 1941 campaign, and export it to the next DLC.

Watch the new Panzer Corps 2: Axis Operations 1941 in 2 minutes video HERE.

You can read more about the DLC and its new features on the product page.

Source: TechPowerUp!

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2021 drivers. Version 21.3.1 beta comes with support for the new Radeon RX 6700 series. It’s interesting that they didn’t specify the RX 6700 XT, which means other SKUs such as the RX 6700, could be right around the corner. Next up, the drivers come with optimization for “DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Part Two.” The drivers also introduce many new feature updates. Radeon Anti-Lag technology now supports DirectX 12 games. The Radeon Boost performance enhancement has been updated with support for DirectX 12 and Variable Rate Shading on select titles. The Performance Tuning section of Radeon Software now comes with an internal stress-test. The drivers also introduce support for new Vulkan API extensions, including VK_KHR_synchronization, VK_EXT_4444_formats, VK_EXT_conditional_rendering, and VK_KHR_sampler_ycbcr_conversion.

Among the issues fixed with Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.3.1 include high CPU utilization for Radeon Software, even when idling; Oculus VR headset causing system crashes when connected to GCN (pre-Polaris) GPUs; corrupted or missing textures for “Minecraft DXR,” a crash with “Call of Duty : Modern Warfare” with raytracing enabled on RX 6000 series GPUs, improper lighting with “Star Citizen” on RX 6800 series; Enhanced Sync + V-sync causing black screens on Vulkan games; and a black screen on Hybrid Graphics systems; a crash with Bethesda Launcher, color corruption with Epic Games Social Overlay; display flicker or corruption on high refresh-rate multi-monitor configs using RX Vega series GPUs, and audio loss on TV displays connected to the video card’s audio output.

The Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.3.1 beta drivers are available online at the AMD driver download page.