Month: June 2023

Victura and Highwire Games has launched first-person tactical shooter Six Days in Fallujah in Steam’s Early Access, priced at USD 39.99. EUR 38.99 and GBP £32.99. Featuring four co-operative, four-player missions, Six Days in Fallujah’s urban maps are generated procedurally, simulating the uncertainty of combat, and offering unlimited replayability.

The most realistic simulation of urban combat to-date, Six Days in Fallujah is developed with help from more than 100 Marines and Soldiers who served in the Second Battle of Fallujah, as well as more than two dozen Iraqi civilians and soldiers. Based on true stories from the battle, Six Days requires players to overcome real-world scenarios with their fire team by using real-life military tactics.

In the coming months, additional features and content will be introduced, including:

Night-time Missions: Knowing what lies around the next corner is hard enough during daylight hours. Gameplay evolves with even more tension with the addition of night-time missions, as more are added throughout Early Access.

Weather variation: While night-time missions will add to the procedural architecture, weather variation will challenge players and add to the complexity of missions.

“Go” Command: Later this year, take control of your AI teammates with unique tactical control, drawing inspiration from real-life tactics.

Single Player Missions: Specific moments from the second battle of Fallujah from those who were there, including Special Operations Missions, Civilians and more.

Expected to remain in Early Access for one year, Six Days in Fallujah will expand its tense, and challenging tactical shooter, with a full release for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

More information about Six Days in Fallujah is available at www.sixdays.com.

Highly anticipated RTS to feature incredible wealth of content – multiple single player epic campaigns, tons of multiplayer modes, robust mod support, and more at launch

Fulqrum Publishing and Ukrainian studio Best Way are today thrilled to announce that the highly-anticipated next instalment in the beloved strategy franchise, Men of War II is coming to PC on September 20th, 2023 via Steam, Epic Games Store and other digital store fronts. Along with the release date, a new trailer unveils a plethora of never before disclosed content; even more, including gameplay features highly requested by fans of the previous Men of War games, will be showcased soon.

Watch the Men of War II Release Date Trailer HERE.

Epic Narrative Campaigns

At launch, the game will feature three huge single-player narrative campaigns, which will guide the player through explosive fictional stories set against a historically accurate background. Featuring plotlines from three global powers – the Americans, Soviets and Germans – players will utilise military strategy to lay waste to their adversaries and fulfil various tactical objectives.

The American campaign, ‘The Falaise Pocket’, sees players taking on the role of Allied troops facing the task of eliminating German forces west of the Seine.

‘Thwarted Blitzkrieg’ is the Soviet campaign, and follows an almost hopeless situation for the USSR, as they struggle to slow the encroaching German tank forces.

In the German campaign, ‘On Their Own Soil’, players act as an old soldier amidst the collapse of the Third Reich, following the difficult road of retreat and loss, in a war that was never truly his own.

Each story chronicles the breadth of struggle and conflict from the historical backdrops that they are set upon, giving the player a realistic experience with intense real-time battle action.

Alongside these heart-stopping narrative battles, six further bonus standalone missions provide players with even more heart-stopping action.

More game information is available on the Men of War II webpage or via Steam.

The latest update brings the first Indian tank to the game, new missile flight physics and more

Gaijin Entertainment announces the release of a major update La Royale for the military online game War Thunder. It begins the closed testing of the French fleet, which even in modern times has retained its traditional nickname La Royale (“royal”). In addition, the update adds dozens of other models of ground, air and naval vehicles – for example, the French SPG Au F1, the first Indian tank in the game; the Vijayanta and the American F-14B fighter jet. Players will also get updated flight physics and visual effects of missile flight, new maps and other content.

Watch the War Thunder ‘La Royale’ Gameplay trailer HERE.

Quite powerful at the beginning of World War II, the French fleet suffered a sad fate. France was defeated on land and capitulated, after which some of its ships were destroyed right in the ports by the British or scuttled by their captains. The former allies feared that French battleships and cruisers would be captured by Germany and used against them. In the La Royale update players will find ships of very different fates – from the cruiser Colbert, which was killed in Toulon by British shells, to the destroyer La Malin, which became part of the Free French Navy. To be among the first to take part in a closed test of France’s blue-water navy lineup and receive exclusive bonuses, players can purchase early access packages with premium ships bundled with them.

The Indian Vijayanta tank is an export version of the British Vickers Mk.1, which received an infrared spotlight, side shields, and HEATFS rounds for its accurate and rapid-fire Royal Ordnance L7A1 cannon. The powerful-looking French SPG Au F.1 on the chassis of the AMX-30 tank is equipped with a 155 mm caliber gun with an autoloader and mechanized ammo rack for 36 rounds. Such self-propelled guns are still in service with the armies of France, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The F-14B is an improved version of the formidable F-14A with a significantly increased arsenal of weapons and improved rate of climb. In addition to more advanced air-to-air missiles, the fighter received a sighting container as part of the LANTIRN system, and Paveway II guided bombs, as well as a new type of weapon – bombs with a stopping parachute for low-altitude attacks without the risk of damaging your own plane with splinters.

The new map “Iberian Fortress”, designed for mixed ground and air combat, takes players to a touristic town on the eastern coast of the Balearic Sea. And the new “Franz Josef Land” nautical map introduces new mechanics – destructible coastal fortifications with guns firing at players’ ships.

Learn more about the new content in the La Royale update in the development blogs on the War Thunder website.

Community Chosen Wards & Wardens Pack Tapped for August

In a dynastic system, it is very important to leave the throne in the right hands. In most cases, you can’t choose your children, so it is crucial that you instruct them in the lessons of life and leadership while they are still willing to listen. In Crusader Kings III: Wards & Wardens, the rough road of royal childhood is yours to experience.

Wards & Wardens is a new event pack for Crusader Kings III, chosen by the Crusader Kings community in a vote last winter. This event pack focuses on the perils and potentials of being a child ruler, educating the children at court and furthering your learning in adulthood. This event pack is scheduled for release on 22 August 2023, and is included as a part of Crusader Kings III’s Chapter II content pass.

Crusader Kings III: Wards & Wardens includes:

Childhood Education Events
Visiting Universities for adult characters
More Childhood Personality Events
Hostage Events for foreign children placed at your court
Child-rearing events with courtiers, including a new court position, the Wet-Nurse.
Child Regency Events for the training or usurping of rulers who have not reached adulthood.
Four New Music Tracks

This pack also includes a free update for all Crusader Kings III players, with a new hostage system, the new Eccentric character trait, new event art and new animations.

Crusader Kings III: Wards & Wardens will be available on 22 August 2023 for the suggested retail price of $4.99/£4.29/€4.99.

More information is available on the official Crusader Kings III: Wards & Wardens webpage.

Arms Against Tyranny Focuses on Northern Europe and New Arms Developments

In times of crisis, it is important to be nimble, especially when you are the weaker party. Pay attention to the swiftly changing winds of diplomacy, build an army that can take advantage of weather and terrain to outfox a superior foe, and find alternate paths to prosperity and security. Sometimes, Winter is your only ally. Even if you can’t retreat into the cold forests, there are tactics and techniques available to anyone who would take Arms Against Tyranny.

Arms Against Tyranny is the latest immersion pack for Hearts of Iron IV, Paradox Interactive’s best-selling grand strategy wargame about the years around World War II. In Arms Against Tyranny, players will encounter new alternate histories and National Focus Trees for the nations of Scandinavia and Finland, with a heavy emphasis on the Winter War and Finland’s struggle against Soviet invasion.

This pack also includes new ways to develop your armament industries, and sell weapons designs to warring nations.

Features of Hearts of Iron IV: Arms Against Tyranny include:

New Finnish National Focus Tree: Walk the diplomatic tightrope of a democratic nation trapped between threats, develop a capable defensive army, or pursue alternate historical paths of collaboration with the neighboring tyrants.

New Swedish National Focus Tree: Resource rich and fiercely independent, Sweden can be the center of a unified Scandinavian resistance, or a game-changing ally in the ongoing battle of ideologies.

New Danish and Norwegian Focus Trees: With the benefit of hindsight, can you prepare these small nations for the storm of war that is about to wash upon their shores?

Military Industrial Organizations: Customize your armaments industry by encouraging national corporations to specialize in the types of weapons and technology you desire for your armed forces.

International Arms Market: Become the quartermaster of the world by selling arms and equipment to the warring nations, receiving civilian factory capacity in return.

And more: New unit art, 10 new songs, customization of Special Forces units and greater divisional specialization.

Hearts of Iron VI: Arms Against Tyranny will be accompanied by a major free update available to all Hearts of Iron IV players.

Watch the Hearts of Iron IV: Arms Against Tyranny Official Announcement Trailer HERE.

For more game information please visit the official Hearts of Iron IV website.

Modern War Through the Eyes of Those Who Were There

Victura and Highwire Games today announced their upcoming first-person tactical shooter Six Days in Fallujah will release on June 22, 2023, through Steam’s Early Access program. The game will launch with four co-operative four-player missions. These missions are set in urban maps that are generated procedurally every time the game is played to recreate the uncertainty of combat along with unlimited replayability.

Six Days in Fallujah is a highly realistic first-person tactical shooter developed with help from more than 100 Marines and Soldiers who served in the Second Battle of Fallujah, as well as more than two dozen Iraqi civilians and soldiers. Based on true stories from the battle, Six Days requires players to overcome real-world scenarios with their fire team by using real-life military tactics.

Watch the Six Days in Fallujah Early Access Announcement Trailer HERE.

“The way we play video games right now is not how people fight in real life,” says Sgt. Eddie Garcia, a Marine who was wounded during the Second Battle of Fallujah. “Six Days in Fallujah requires tactics and teamwork that are more like real combat than any other game I’ve played.”

Six Days introduces many new technologies that make combat more realistic:

Procedural Architecture re-shapes the inside and outside of every building each time the game is played. Just like the real battle, players never know what to expect.

Tactical Indoor/Outdoor Sandbox. Players — and their AI enemies — are free to approach challenges from any direction in Six Days in Fallujah. Rather than breaching a house through a front door, for example, players might choose to climb to a rooftop, or cross rooftops on wooden planks, to attack from the top down.
In Early Access, Six Days in Fallujah will focus initially on the experiences of US Marine fireteams on the first day of the battle. As Early Access develops, players can also choose to play cooperatively as special operations or Iraqi soldiers fighting alongside coalition forces, and players will begin to encounter civilians as the battle progresses. Victura also plans to release additional co-operative missions, as well as story campaign missions recreating real stories from the Second Battle of Fallujah from the perspective of both coalition forces and Iraqi civilians.

The Second Battle of Fallujah began in November 2004 after Al Qaeda in Iraq seized control of the city of Fallujah. Six months later, Iraq’s prime minister ordered a military operation in which Iraqi soldiers fought alongside American and British forces to re-take the city. Within a few days it had become one of the world’s bloodiest battles in half a century.

Six Days in Fallujah began development 18 years ago, just months after the battle ended. Conceived by a Marine who was wounded during the battle, more than 100 Marines and Soldiers, along with more than two dozen Iraqis, have helped with its development. The game was canceled in 2009 by the game’s original publisher, Konami. Development restarted in 2017 when publisher, Victura, partnered with developer Highwire Games, a studio founded by many of the original Halo and Destiny leadership.

The PC version of Six Days in Fallujah will launch into Early Access on the Steam store on June 22, 2023 at a price of US$39.99. The full release of the game is expected to be available for both console and PC in 2024. More information about Six Days in Fallujah is available at www.sixdays.com.