New content and Hexagonal Hexing Hexstasy Coming to Fantasy Wargame

Warlock 2: The Exiled, the fantastical turn-based strategy wargame from Ino-Co Plus and Paradox Interactive will soon release its first expansion: “Wrath of the Nagas.” Featuring a new game mode centered around the new-game creatures, a pair of new mages to lead that new race, and a new game campaign centered around that new race and their new mages, Wrath of the Nagas will add more magical mayhem to Warlock 2 than is probably safe. The new expansion will be available later this year on Windows PC from digital retailers worldwide, but only on this particular shard of Earth.

Wrath of the Nagas introduce the ancient Naga race to the worlds of Warlock 2 – a sinister people who have lurked outside the realm of Ardania since time immemorial, waiting for their chance to break back through the barriers and unmake reality. By purchasing the Wrath of the Nagas expansion, you have given them that chance. Way to go.

PRESS RELEASE/SCREENSHOTS

By Stuart Davidson @ Hardware Heaven

Today we take a look at a couple of gaming peripherals (a mechanical keyboard and mouse) in our Tesoro Lobera review. Which also features the Gandiva mouse.

Read The Review Here

By Ron Perillo @ Modders Inc.

Design-wise, the Cooler Master Hyper D92 cooler is a re-engineered Hyper N520, improving upon its design based on current system building concerns such as better RAM heatspreader clearance compatibility, better looks and improved efficiency. The direct-touch design has worked well for Cooler Master’s mainstream CPU cooler offerings so the Hyper D92 utilizes it as well. The Hyper N520’s signature offset fan design remains to compensate for the airflow deadzone, albeit using superior 92mm Cooler Master rifle-bearing Xtra Flow PWM fans and the mounting design has also been improved for convenience.

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.

• AMD Begins Slashing the Prices of its Radeon R9 290, R9 290X GPUs
• QPAD Launches MK-70 Mechanical Keyboard
• Aerocool Debuts the Strike-X Cube Micro ATX PC Case
• Cooler Master Unveils the CM Storm Octane Keyboard and Mouse Combo
• Gigabyte Reveals New Z97-HD3P Motherboard
• Palit Reveals Geforce GTX 980 (Super) JetStream
• MSI Silently Introduces GTX 970 Gaming 4G Lite Edition
• BenQ Outs the XL2430T Gaming PC Monitor
• Mushkin Introduces the Chronos G2 Solid State Drives
• SMART Modular Expands to DDR4 With Its Ultra High Reliability Enterprise Memory
• Aqua Computer Intros Kryographics GTX 980 Full Cover Water Block
• Aqua Computer Also Announces Airplex Radical 2 Series Radiators

The Siege of the Fortified Islands of Manila Bay 1942

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

Hundreds of Japanese heavy artillery shells smashed down upon the still smoking, darkness shrouded island fortress of Corregidor in early May 1942, shattering the momentary stillness with ear shattering noise and blindingly bright, explosions. The shells landed all around the fortress’ remaining undamaged coastal gun batteries, and especially upon seacoast mortar Battery Way’s glacis wall and into the gun pit itself. To any onlooker so many staccato shell bursts must have sounded like a near endless machine gun of howling shell fire landing all around the island. As soon as this latest artillery barrage momentarily lifted, Captain “Wild Bill” Massello dashed out of the bomb proof shelter into Battery Way’s gun pit with broom in hand to sweep away this latest batch of blast-broken chunks of concrete and spent shell shrapnel from the approach leading to the last functioning 12-inch sea coast mortar remaining of the four gun battery. The other three mortars had been put out of action following a long week of sustained heavy Japanese artillery bombardment. With the approach now cleared, Massello shouted and waved to the men crouching in the shelter and to those in the nearby reinforced concrete magazine to reload the mortar. Instantly the men dashed from the shelter to service the mortar as several others wheeled a trolley carrying a single 12-inch, high explosive shell from the magazine. As the gun crew man-handled the big 650 lb. anti-personnel shell into the mortar’s breech, a second trolley arrived carrying bags of high explosive propellant. These too were methodically loaded into the breech and they quickly primed the piece before closing the gun’s breechblock. As the gunner re-set the mortar’s range and azimuth settings using his quadrant and the gun’s elevation wheels, another attached the long firing lanyard to the mortar. The gun Captain raised his arm in readiness and he took up the tension on the firing lanyard as the gun crew quickly disappeared once more back into their shelters. He yanked hard on the lanyard and the remaining mortar again roared out its defiance with a flashing, ear splitting roar as the shell arched high over Manila Bay toward Bataan’s Cabcaben Docks several miles away.

Read on…

Herding Cats…In Space

By  T.J. Hafer @ IGN

I made the jump into Ancient Space, looking to replenish my fleet-based, sci-fi RTS reserves, and what I found did the trick—but only just. Around me shimmered a constellation of gorgeous environmental art, strong mission variety, and impressive tactical depth. But the more I saw, the more I felt weighed down by the gravity of uninspired story presentation, and gameplay elements that sound better on paper than they are in practice.

Read on…

There is something rather dark lurking at the centre of Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which just might make it the most mature offering this gaming franchise has seen in a while.

By Nick Cowen @ CVG

It’s not reinventing the series in terms of mechanics and structure by any means. Advanced Warfare looks, sounds and plays like its predecessor for the most part – the addition of jetpacks notwithstanding. The E3, Gamescom and more recent reveals have ticked the usual COD boxes: layered multiplayer, high octane campaign set-pieces and – this just in – the addition of a Survival mode similar to that in Modern Warfare 3.

And yet, on closer inspection, Advanced Warfare seems to be treading in far more nebulas moral terrain than its predecessors. In past entries in this series, players controlled Rangers, Marines, SAS thugs and Black Ops bagmen, but never at any time were they under the impression that the soldiers at the centre of the action weren’t the good guys. Advanced Warfare has no such safety net.

Read on…

Release date set for Crusader Kings II expansion and other DLC

“Charlemagne stubbornly did what he wanted and refused to listen to doctors, indeed he detested them, because they wanted to persuade him to stop eating roast meat, as was his wont, and to be content with boiled meat.” – Einhard

And who more stubbornly does what they want than Crusader Kings II players? In ten days you will have another century to beat into shape. New kingdoms, new characters, new events; Roland has sounded his horn and Charlemagne is coming.

Paradox Interactive today revealed that “Charlemagne”, the newest expansion to the best-selling strategy game Crusader Kings II, is scheduled to release worldwide on Tuesday, October 14, 2014. Charlemagne adds new story events, the ability to create new kingdoms, and an additional century to play. The expansion also features game options to allow players to follow their progress in history with the inclusion of a new in-game “Chronicle” that highlights a dynasty’s conquests, marriages, and labors for the faith.

The new video developer’s diary from the Crusader Kings II development team goes into some of the gameplay changes that await you.

Charlemagne will be available for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs via digital stores everywhere for 14,99USD. In addition, Paradox will also release four new pieces of downloadable content (DLC) to accompany the new expansion for Crusader Kings II, which will let players further customize their in-game kingdoms beyond the options already included in Charlemagne.

New DLC designed for Crusader Kings II: Charlemagne will also be released alongside the expansion. Period appropriate clothing and portrait packs for the Early Middle Ages will be released for both Eastern and Western Europe and the Dynasty Shields: Charlemagne collection will give appropriate coats of arms. An e-book of the medieval epic “Song of Roland,” will also be released on October 14.

To learn more about Crusader Kings II, visit the games official website.

Gary Grigsby’s War in the West, the massive new strategy masterpiece, confirmed for 2014!

“No amphibious attack in history has approached this one in size. Along miles of coastline there were hundreds of vessels and small boats afloat and ant-like files of advancing troops ashore” (Dwight D. Eisenhower – Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe)

July 1943 – The German war machine is jammed. On the Eastern Front the Soviets are progressing relentlessly, and Rommel had to retreat and finally leave North Africa. But to make the Axis capitulate, the Allied forces have to turn up the heat on the Western Front. Even if the German army has been weakened after 4 years of ruthless combat, its soldiers are battle-hardened veterans and its commanders are building almost impenetrable defensive lines in Italy. The time for launching massive seaborne and airborne operations has come; the Western Front is re-opened!

Gary Grigsby’s War in the West 1943-45 is the most ambitious and detailed computer wargame on the Western Front of World War II ever made. Starting with the Summer 1943 invasions of Sicily and Italy and proceeding through the invasions of France and the drive into Germany, War in the West brings the players all the Allied campaigns in Western Europe and the capability to re-fight the Western Front according to their plan.

Today we have the pleasure to unveil that the game will be released in early December 2014! So watch out for more details and get ready for the release!

Get more information on Gary Grigsby’s War in the West from the official product page.

Developer claims AMD tech has “kick-started” a new generation of lightweight APIs

Independent UK developer Rebellion today announced that summer chart-topper Sniper Elite 3 is the latest in a small but growing list of high-profile games to include support for AMD’s advanced Mantle API.

Released today as a free Steam update timed to coincide with AMD’s recent Catalyst™ 14.9 WHQL driver release, the Sniper Elite 3 update also includes a new Benchmark mode for both Mantle and DX11.

Writing in an in-depth analysis of Mantle’s performance impact on Sniper Elite 3 for the Rebellion website, the studio’s Head of Programming, Kevin Floyer-Lea explained why Rebellion was so keen to support the API from the beginning:

“This brings the PC closer to console programming, where developers are used to having direct control over available resources and squeezing the most out the hardware.”

Floyer-Lea continues “Whatever else may happen with Mantle in the future, it’s most definitely kick-started a move to more lightweight APIs”, referencing the recent announcements made around Microsoft’s DirectX 12, Apple’s Metal, and Khronos’ Next Generation OpenGL initiative.

Check out the “Benchmark Mode” video HERE.

Find out more at the official Rebellion Blog.