Month: October 2022

The new update brings flamethrower tanks and boats among other new features

Gaijin Entertainment announces that the Fire and Ice update for the military online action War Thunder is already available to players. It adds Finnish air and ground vehicle branches (including the famous BT-42 tank), dozens of other tanks, ships and aircraft like the modern American M1A2 SEP main battle tank with the TUSK kit, the legendary Japanese battleship Fuso, the latest Russian anti-aircraft gun 2S38 “Derivatsia-PVO”, as well as two new maps – “Arctic” and “Rocky Canyon”. The first flamethrower-equipped tanks and boats also debut in the game. Finally, aircraft fuselages will now feature realistic volumetric holes in addition to the local smoke and fire effects, and hitting the water will now produce a new, reworked splash effect.

Check out the trailer HERE.

The British Churchill Crocodile is one of the most famous flamethrower tanks in history. It is built on the design of the Mk.VII version with a 75mm cannon and excellent protection, but also equipped with a flamethrower, which is fed by a fuel trailer attached behind the tank. Thanks to this trailer, the Churchill Crocodile has the largest number of fire mixture charges among tanks, and also is the longest tank in the game. Also debuting in the game is the American flamethrower boat “Zippo”, created during the Vietnam War on the design of the LCM(6) landing craft. Flamethrowers, located on the sides in the bow, will be an excellent tool in battles at close range. Spectacular fires in the jungle can also be started by the American carrier-based A-1H Skyraider attack aircraft that has napalm bombs in its arsenal. Those three vehicle models are available with the release of the Fire and Ice update as prizes for the new Battle Pass season.

Flamethrower tanks are effective in approximately the same situations as the napalm bombings presented in the game earlier. The flame will not cause damage to the crew of a heavily armored vehicle, but light vehicles are extremely vulnerable to it: the fire mixture will instantly destroy the crew in the open cabin and set fire to the equipment. Tank mounts fire long jets of pressurized fire in a cantilevered trajectory, and they can reach the enemy even behind small cover. In addition, the wheel liners of ground vehicles are now ignited by napalm, so after driving through a burning puddle, the player’s tank will look very infernal.

The battleship Fuso entered the service of the Japanese Imperial Navy in 1915, was significantly modernized in the interwar period and participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle of World War II. That late version of Fuso is the one that made it to War Thunder now. The main caliber of the ship is six twin 14-inch guns, evenly distributed over the entire deck of the ship. Good aiming angles and no less decent ballistic characteristics of Fuso allow her to inflict colossal damage on the enemy.

The 2S38 “Derivatsia-PVO” is an anti-aircraft artillery module with a 57mm cannon mounted on a modified BMP-3 chassis. The first prototype of the machine was presented in 2018. The uninhabited turret includes an automatic target tracking for air targets, a laser rangefinder, a coaxial machine gun, a laser warning sensor and a thermal imager. Using the APFSDS rounds, 2S38 can even deal with a tank if it comes in from the flank.

More information about all the new features of the Fire and Ice update is available on the official War Thunder website.

The wait is over. Starting today, fans around the world can jump into the highly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. Following the biggest beta in Call of Duty franchise history, the entertainment blockbuster ushers in a new era for the franchise with a host of new gameplay and technical innovations, in the most advanced Call of Duty experience ever. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II delivers a massive amount of content on day one, including an epic and thrilling single-player campaign, incredibly immersive multiplayer action, and a new Special Ops tactical cooperative experience for Call of Duty players. Together with the all-new, free-to-play Warzone 2.0 coming on November 16, it’s an unrivaled offering for Call of Duty fans everywhere.

Watch the release trailer HERE. Watch the new Accolades Trailer HERE.

Modern Warfare II follows 2019’s blockbuster Modern Warfare across a gripping story campaign. The new release continues to advance the series with deep multiplayer modes, maps, playlist and technical innovations. Additionally, an evolved Special Ops mode from Modern Warfare 2019, brings a two-player Special Ops experience allowing players to explore large-scale hot zones with a fellow teammate.

With amazing audio and visually stunning graphics, Modern Warfare II not only delivers an action-packed experience, but also raises the bar as the most state of the art Call of Duty experience ever. One unified game engine powers both Modern Warfare II and the new Warzone 2.0, delivering a seamless gameplay experience across both titles.

For more info visit the official Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II website.

Source: TechPowerUp!

AMD released the latest version of AMD Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 22.10.3 beta comes with optimization for “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II” (2022), and support for Radeon Boost with Variable Rate Shading in “Dying Light 2.” In addition, it fixes a launch-time game crash with “Elite Dangerous” on Radeon RX 6000-series GPUs; a persistent black screen when updating drivers or resetting graphics settings in Windows 11 version 22H2, and lower than normal performance with “Gotham Knights” on AMD processor-powered machines with GPUs such as the RX 6950 XT.

The Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.10.3 drivers are available online at the AMD driver download page.

Source: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA has released the latest version of its GeForce Game Ready drivers. Version 526.47 WHQL adds support for two new GPUs, namely the GeForce RTX 3060 8 GB, and the RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X, the two SKUs NVIDIA launched to improve its standing against the RX 6650 XT, RX 6600, and Arc 7-series. Among the game optimizations with this release are for “Sackboy: A Big Adventure,” “Victoria 3,” “WRC Generations,” and DLSS 3 frame-generation support in F1 22. Among the handful issues fixed with this release are game map corruption in “Cyberpunk 2077,” a crash and reboot issue noticed with the Dell XPS 9560; lower performance noticed in Minecraft Java Edition; the 165 Hz refresh-rate option not being available with Samsung Odyssey Ark monitors; GeForce Experience selecting the wrong display-head with Shadowplay; and certain online video artifacting noticed with NVIDIA Image Scaling enabled.

You can download the GeForce 526.47 WHQL drivers via GeForce.com.

The military simulation game is getting a new playable nation

Gaijin Entertainment announces “Fire and Ice”, the next major content update for the military online action game War Thunder. It will bring Finnish ground and air force to the game, as well as a new map inspired by this Scandinavian country. Tech trees of other countries will also get new ground vehicles, naval vessels, aircraft and helicopters, including those equipped with a weapon type completely new to War Thunder. The “Fire and Ice” update will become available to the players in the coming weeks.

Check out the trailer HERE.

The Finnish Armed Forces has quite an experience in military conflicts as it took part in the Winter War against the USSR, in World War II and a number of joint peacekeeping missions with NATO. The country typically used imported equipment from various manufacturers (including captured vehicles), adapting it for its own needs. For example, the British-produced Vickers Mk.E light tanks have not been adopted by the UK military, but were widely used by foreign operators, including Finland. Another unique example is the BT-42, a strange but very interesting conversion of captured Soviet BT-7s, recreated into assault guns with a British 4.5-inch howitzer and a turret of local Finnish design. After WW2, Finland purchased equipment from both the USSR and Western countries, so a user playing for Finland will have access to the strangest combinations of vehicles, i.e. the British-produced Vampire FB 52A fighter jet and the Soviet-produced T-72M tank (export version of the T-72A, appearing in the game for the very first time).

Finland land and air research lines will be a part of the Swedish tech tree (similar to how the South African vehicle line is a part of the UK tech tree) in War Thunder. This approach will greatly expand the tactical options for players who are already using Swedish vehicles and would like to experiment with their vehicle setup.

Information about other new features of the Fire and Ice update will be published on the official War Thunder website in the coming weeks.

Today, 1C Game Studios released the Churchill update for their WWII tank simulator IL-2 Sturmovik: Tank Crew – Clash of Prokhorovka, which is just one part of the Great Battles series for IL-2 Sturmovik. The Churchill update includes the release of the Churchill Mark IV battle tank which was used in WWII and a lot more which you can read about here.

In IL-2 Sturmovik: Tank Crew, players operate some of WWII’s greatest battle tanks in close quarters ground combat missions during the Battle of Kursk. The game can be enjoyed as either a stand-alone product or integrated with other Great Battles titles such as Battle of Stalingrad, Battle of Moscow, Battle of Kuban and Battle of Bodenplatte to create a massive WWII air and ground combat simulation.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Tank Crew allows players to command a tank crew in single and multiplayer environments and battle enemies in highly-detailed intense missions with grueling combat where maneuverability and exposing tank vulnerabilities is vital to surviving and winning.

The Churchill Infantry Tank

One of the heaviest Allied tanks of the war, the Churchill entered the war during the Dieppe Raid in France in August 1942. It saw action in North Africa, Italy, and on the Eastern Front. The versatile chassis design was used as the basis for many specialized vehicles throughout the war.

The Churchill Mark IV was the most numerous of the series, with 1,622 produced. Virtually identical to the Churchill Mark III, the main difference being a cheaper and better-protected cast turret. A Bedford 12-cylinder gasoline engine powered the tank and capable of 350 horsepower. The tank’s top speed was around 24 km/h (15 mph), but Soviet tests claimed that a Churchill Mark III reached 28 km/h (17 mph). The main armament of the Churchill Mark IV was the Ordnance Quick-Firing (QF) 6-pounder gun of 57mm caliber. The secondary armament consisted of one coaxial 7.92 mm Besa machine gun mounted in the turret, second Besa machine gun fitted in the hull and 2-inch mortar in the turret roof. The model featured in the sim is produced by the Leyland factory and has Mk.V gun with a 50-caliber long barrel.

In the game, the Churchill Mark IV represents tanks used in the battle of Kursk and can be used in both single and multiplayer scenarios but we recommend the Tank Crew Prokhorovka map since it’s designed for ground engagements and has higher landscape detail than the other maps designed for aerial battles.

For more information on the game, please visit IL-2 Sturmovik: Tank Crew’s Steam Page or via the game’s website.

NVIDIA has released its newest graphics card, the GeForce RTX 4090. We have assembled a number of reviews on the Founders Edition and cards from NVIDIA partners, posting the links below. Here is a bit of info from NVIDIA on this new monster graphics card:

Powered by the new ultra-efficient NVIDIA Ada Lovelace, 3rd generation RTX architecture, GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards are beyond fast, giving gamers and creators a quantum leap in performance, AI-powered graphics, more immersive gaming experiences, and the fastest content creation workflows.

Gaming performance in the latest titles rockets by up to 2X, and by harnessing DLSS 3 and new Ada innovations, developers can boost performance by up to 4X in fully ray-traced titles. In creative apps, GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards provide up to 2X the performance in 3D rendering, video export speed, and AI tools.

• HOT HARDWARE – (Founders Edition)
• PC PERSPECTIVE – (Founders Edition)
• TOM’S HARDWARE – (Founders Edition)
• TECHPOWERUP! – (ASUS GeForce RTX 4090 STRIX OC)
• TECHPOWERUP! – (MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim X)
• GURU3D – (Colorful GeForce iGame RTX 4090 Vulcan OC-V)
• GURU3D – (Gainward GeForce RTX 4090 Phantom GS)
• GURU3D – (MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim Liquid X)
• TECHPOWERUP! – (Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming OC)
• TECHPOWERUP! – (Palit GeForce RTX 4090 GameRock OC)
• TECHPOWERUP! – (Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 Amp Extreme Airo)

Source: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA just released the GeForce 522.25 WHQL Game Ready drivers. These are the first official drivers with support for the new GeForce RTX 4090 “Ada” graphics card, and the CUDA 11.8 compute language. The drivers also fix a handful of issues. Lower performance observed in “Teardown” when MSI Afterburner overlay is used; this has been fixed. Texture corruption noticed in “Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands” after extended gameplay, has been fixed. Unreal Engine 5.1 crashing when enabling path-tracing in some drivers has been fixed. Game optimizations were added for Gotham Knights, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, and Dakar Desert Rally.

Besides RTX 4090, these drivers officially introduce support for DLSS 3, which works only on RTX 40-series (or later) GPUs, as it needs the Optical Flow Accelerator hardware component. Day-zero support is added for a number of titles, including A Plague Tale: Requiem, Justice, Loopmancer, F1 22, Bright Memory: Infinite, SUPER PEOPLE, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered. NVIDIA is also said to have improved the performance of DirectX 12 applications across the board on RTX 30-series “Ampere” graphics cards.

You can download the GeForce 522.25 WHQL drivers via GeForce.com.