Month: December 2021

assassins-creed-valhallaUbisoft has announced that Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla’s next major expansion, Dawn of Ragnarök, will be releasing on 10th March 2022. Dawn of Ragnarök will be available as a separate purchase for all owners of the main game. Additionally, Ubisoft announced Assassin’s Creed Crossover Stories, with two stories that feature Eivor and Kassandra available for fans tomorrow, 14th December. Both stories are available for free for owners of the respective base games, with one story featuring Eivor and Kassandra available in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and one story featuring Kassandra or Alexios available in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

With development led by Ubisoft Sofia, Dawn of Ragnarök is the next major expansion, continuing Year 2 of post-launch support for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. In this expansion, Eivor must embrace their destiny as Odin, the Norse god of Battle and Wisdom. The dwarven kingdom of Svartalfheim is crumbling, and amid the chaos, Odin’s beloved son, Baldr, has been taken prisoner by the unkillable fire giant, Surtr. In Dawn of Ragnarök, players will be able to unleash new divine powers as they continue their legendary Viking saga by embarking on a desperate rescue quest through a mythological world of contrasts.

All players purchasing Dawn of Ragnarök between 13th December 2021 and 9th April 2022, will receive the Twilight Pack and will have immediate access to the main game. This exclusive bonus includes the Dellingr’s Envoy Raven Skin, the Havardr Lynx Mount, the Twilight Gear Set and the Algurnir Dane Axe Weapon.

Watch the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök – Cinematic World Premiere Trailer HERE.

Assassin’s Creed Crossover Stories were also announced, the first cross-game project on the franchise, led by Ubisoft Quebec in close collaboration with Ubisoft Montreal. The content aims to answer the question, “What happens when two Assassin’s Creed heroes meet?”, exploring the connections in space and time between these Assassin’s Creed heroes to provide a unique narrative experience to players.

Assassin’s Creed Crossover Stories will be available for free for owners of the respective base games on 14th December; one story will be available in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and one story will be available in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. These stories explore the ties between the heroes of the two games, featuring new environments to explore as well as a rich story line. For the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla story, A Fated Encounter, players must have reached Settlement Level 4 and completed the quest “A Wise Friend,” where Eivor helps Valka establish herself in Ravensthorpe. For the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey story, Those Who Are Treasured, players will need to have completed Chapter 1 and reached Megaris to access the content, but it’s recommended that players finish the main game’s three story arcs (Family, Cult of Kosmos and Mythology) to avoid spoilers.

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 dynamic dual-wielding combat system and experience exciting gameplay features such as raids, assaults, and the settlement, as well as a substantial 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.

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

newhardware-iconCheck 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.

Hardware | Donster | |

Players are getting the Israeli aviation tech tree and cruisers equipped with reconnaissance aircraft

Gaijin Entertainment announces that the next major Content Update “Winged Lions” for the military online action War Thunder will be released later this December. It will bring the Israeli aviation closed beta test, launchable shipborne reconnaissance aircraft, dozens of new air, ground and naval vehicles and more.

Since the Israeli Air Force was formed after the end of World War II, the Israeli aircraft lineup begins immediately from rank IV. While researching new machines, players will follow the way that the Israeli engineers have chosen. Domestically assembled Spitfires were one the first planes in the force later joined by French Mirage III fighters that became the base for developing original Israeli Kfir (literally, “lion cub”) machines, while the US gives access to F-4 fighter jets and A-4 attackers. Aviation of Israel mainly consists of imported aircraft, but with a distinctive local feel, as they are highly modified, adapted to local conditions and equipped with new weapons. Their arsenal includes unique rockets with a shape-charge warhead, new to the game calibers of aircraft bombs, air-to-air missiles and even guided bombs!

All owners of early access packs will be able to take part in the closed testing of the Israeli aviation immediately after the “Winged Lions” update is live. After the end of closed testing, to start researching the Israeli Air Force aviation, the player will need at least one purchased aircraft of rank IV in any of the following playable nations: USA, Great Britain, France or Israel.

The update brings ship-launched reconnaissance aircraft, a feature that many large WW2 era warships were capable of. The reconnaissance aircraft will allow the players to better examine the enemy grouping, scout a ship hidden behind rocks, fight enemy aircraft, destroy an enemy boat with cannons and machine guns, or damage an enemy cruiser or destroyer with bombs. Just like regular seaplanes, reconnaissance hydroplanes will be able to capture points – a small plane can decide the outcome of a battle for large ships. Powerful and fast German battlecruiser Scharnhorst that is equipped with such aircraft will be added to War Thunder in the “Winged Lions” update.

Ground vehicle fans will get several modern tanks like Challenger 2 TES (2008) and Leclerc SXXI (2003). The most interesting one is probably Type 10, the latest Japanese MBT that entered the JSDF service in 2012. One of the main new features of Type 10 is the automatic loader located in the rear of the tank, which increases the rate of fire. The new diesel engine doubles the reverse speed in comparison with the predecessor. The Type 10 also receives a new APFSDS round, that has the same name as the tank itself – Type 10. It complements the range of shells, already familiar with the JM12A1 HEATFS and the JM33 APFSDS rounds.

Watch the “Winged Lions” Update Teaser HERE.

Follow the news at the official website to get more information on the “Winged Lions”.

MMORPGs War Thunder | Donster | |

nvidia-geforce-logoSource: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA has released the GeForce 497.09 Game Ready drivers. These introduce launch-day optimization for “Icarus,” including support for NVIDIA DLSS, and RTX ray-traced global illumination (RTX-GI). The drivers also add optimization for “Chorus,” including DLSS support; and “Halo Infinite.” Six new displays receive NVIDIA G-SYNC support. Among the fixes released with these drivers are TDR or system crashes with “DOOM Eternal” and RDR2, a display corruption with ye olde “DOOM 3 BFG Edition,” extreme gamma/contrast issues with YouTube on hardware-accelerated web-browsers; NVIDIA Image Scaling resolutions not correctly appearing in-game after a driver update; and incompatibilities between Adaptive Sync and G-SYNC.

A curious addition with these drivers is support for the GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB graphics card. We’ve been hearing reports of NVIDIA resurrecting the RTX 2060 “Turing” with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory to target the 1080p gaming crowd; and these drivers confirm it. The 12 GB SKU could be achieved by pairing the “TU106″ GPU with 12 GB of memory across its 192-bit wide memory interface.

You can download the GeForce 497.09 Game Ready drivers via GeForce.com.

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