Month: May 2020

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.

• EK Water Blocks Introduces L-Shaped Brackets for FLT Series Reservoirs and Combo Units
• JONSBO Expands Angeleyes TW2 Pro Line of AIO CPU Coolers
• Cooler Master Intros Hyper 212 ARGB Turbo Cooler
• EK Releases the Long-Awaited Reflection Distro Plate for Lian LI O11D XL
• SilentiumPC Confirms Four Spartan 4 CPU Cooler Designs
• GELID Announces Black Diamond Gaming Case
• Bitspower Water Block for 3rd Generation Ryzen Threadripper and OLED
• MSI Rolls Out MEG Infinite X 10th and MAG Infinite S Gaming Desktops
• HyperX and DuckyChannel Announces HyperX x Ducky One 2 Mini Keyboard
• ADATA Announces its New Ultimate SU720 SSD
• BIOSTAR Announces the Racing Z490GTA EVO Motherboard
• XIGMATEK Launches the OMG! PC Case
• EK Is Fully Compatible With LGA 1200 Socket Motherboards

Winning creations will be assembled in a new charity DLC supporting the International Committee of the Red Cross

Bohemia Interactive today announce the Arma 3 Art of War contest , which will ultimately form the basis for a charity DLC of the same name in aid of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). A short promo video, has also been released to further publicize the event.

Arma 3′s creative community of artists and modders are all invited to submit original 2D artworks and cosmetic 3D assets across four contest categories. The winning entries – along with two new singleplayer scenarios, specially designed by Bohemia Interactive to showcase them – will be made available as a small downloadable content package (DLC) later this year.

100% of Bohemia Interactive’s proceeds from the Arma 3 Art of War DLC after taxes will be donated to the ICRC to support their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their continued humanitarian efforts in providing protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence. The expected price of the charity DLC is 2.99 USD / EUR / GBP, with two optional higher price tiers of 9.99 USD / EUR / GBP and 19.99 USD / EUR / GBP for those who wish to donate extra. After approximately 10 months of being on sale, the Art of War DLC will become permanently free for all Arma 3 players to enjoy, and Bohemia Interactive will announce the total donation raised.

The Arma 3 Art of War contest is divided into four categories: props, character accessories, character clothing, and a special 2D artwork category in any medium on the theme of International Humanitarian Law in future conflict. Entries in the latter will be displayed in a virtual in-game gallery, where players can learn about the challenges that various new technologies might present to organisations such as the ICRC. In addition, a second short scenario will be developed by Bohemia Interactive in response to the winning assets from the 3D categories.

Besides supporting a charitable cause, contest participants will also be able to win some art-inspired prizes. Bohemia Interactive will offer 1st place winners their choice of a Wacom Intuos S drawing tablet or a collection of professional art supplies, plus a limited edition T-shirt, silver medal, and a copy of the sumptuously illustrated book, War and Art. Similarly, 2nd and 3rd place winners will each receive a range of prizes, on top of the prestige of having their names in the developer credits.

Submissions are open as of today and will close on July 15, 2020. For more information on how to participate and the official contest rules, please visit the official Art of War page on the Arma 3 website.

Wargaming set to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe with first-ever online live-streamed navy parade of Allied Forces

Wargaming will join a host of nations this May in commemorating the end of World War II in Europe – with a virtual navy parade. This unique live event organized by World of Warships’ development team in close partnership with the community will take place on May 6, 2020 at twitch.tv/directory/game/World%20of%20Warships.

Instead of battling each other on the open sea, community members and volunteers will now have a different, more peaceful role of navigating the victorious ships in a graceful choreography.

The World of Warships parade will be live-streamed on Twitch to a worldwide audience and will feature some of the most iconic Allied warships with commentary from The New York Times bestselling author and naval historian, James D. Hornfischer. Alongside Hornfischer, popular influencers The Mighty Jingles, Drachinifel and Wargaming’s very own Chieftain will present more details about selected ships while providing historical context and highlighting the ships’ accomplishments during World War II.

The unique parade came to fruition after many nations truncated or cancelled their official World War II commemorations – which traditionally take place in early May – due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Being widely recognized for its efforts to popularize history through immersive gaming experience, Wargaming took on the role of commemorating the 75th anniversary of Victory Day virtually, by preparing a special treat for all those home-bound history buffs.

During the parade, random prize drops for any World of Warship player watching will also occur, gifting VE permanent camouflages and ships.

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

​​​​​​​Road to Berlin will see fierce battles against AI on ad-hoc maps with plenty of rewards to reap

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the armistice that marked the end of the Second World War in Europe, World of Tanks is introducing a brand-new PvE mode: Road to Berlin — running from May 4th to 18th.

Tankers will have the option to join one of 5 different Units (Soviet, American and British). Each unit consists of three middle-tier vehicles of the same type and has a set of Combat Boosts, such as Airstrike, Artillery Strike, Special Shells, etc., to fight with enemies more efficiently. Once a player has made their choice, they will team up with four other commanders to take on AI-controlled adversaries.

Each battle has 5 sequential objectives, or Battle Missions, where players will need to harness a variety of battle tactics, from capturing to defending special zones to toppling the opponents and finally defeating enemy commanders.

Battles will take place on four maps that have been crafted specifically for Road to Berlin, including the brand-new Berlin map. Three of them will be available from the start; however, the Berlin map will only become available from late into the evening of May 8th, the time when the ceasefire became official 75 years ago.

“The end of the Second World War in Europe is a key part of global history,” states Max Chuvalov, Publishing Director, World of Tanks. “By creating this mode, we intended to remind people all around the world of this anniversary.”

As players progress in the mode, there are a variety of rewards to unlock, including Decals, Bounty Equipment and a special Medal. Those who can prove themselves in the mode, will be rewarded with the grand prize: the IS-2 with spaced armor.

Watch the Road to Berlin: Our New PVE Mode! teaser video HERE.

Watch the Road to Berlin: Event Details video HERE.

For more information on World of Tanks, visit the games official website.

This would probably be enough to send shivers down the spine of every strategy and simulation gamer out there. MicroProse has always been about the games, and this announcement is intended to show everybody how we intend to take the market by the storm with original and high-quality games in the strategy and simulation genres.

We are proud to announce three new games that are in development right now and on Steam.

This is only the beginning, though. Other announcements will follow soon as our line-up is constantly growing, together with our ambitious plans. Enough with bragging, let’s get to the games!

Sea Power – Developer: Triassic Games

Brought to you by the lead designer of Cold Waters, Sea Power lets you control NATO and Warsaw Pact forces in a modern naval conflict.

Whether it’s gunning it out with Boghammars in a surface duel, fighting off aerial attackers armed with long-range missiles, or hunting for enemy submarines with aircraft and surface ships, advanced weaponry and sensors are at your disposal.

Can you successfully hide your forces while detecting and tracking theirs? It is up to you to play an advanced game of cat and mouse on the high seas, to seize the initiative and attack with the advantage of surprise on your side. And at all times, you have to observe rules of engagement and take care not to cause an unnecessary incident that could lead to escalation. After all, you cannot really be sure just who that radar contact at 30.000 feet is, can you?

Second Front – Developer: Hexdraw

Second Front is the tactical WWII game that genre enthusiasts always wanted and never really got. Sporting a full-fledged 3D engine and an easy to use user interface, the game is easy to play but hard to master.

Playing a tactical game that is deeper than your average X-Com clone, with a competent AI and a powerful editor to create scenarios and campaigns has been the dream of tactical players for long.

Second Front comes with multiple campaigns covering different fronts of World War II and sporting German, American and Russian units. Scenarios are fought in a 60 turns battle cycle, from morning to night. Fight and rest or push your troops to the limit and press the attack. These are not set-pieces scripted battles but continuous emergent skirmishes with persistent loss, fatigue, and experience.
Task Force Admiral – Developer: Drydock Dreams Games

Task Force Admiral Vol.1: American Carrier Battles is a single-player experience centred on the command of an early Pacific War US Navy carrier task force.

As the overall commander, you are in charge of seeking the destruction of the enemy naval forces and preventing your opponent, the Japanese Navy, from accomplishing its objectives. To achieve your aims, you have at your disposal the most fearsome sea projection weapon known to Man in 1942: your carrier air groups and the task forces that support them.

Forget about the limitations of the past and let the best of wargaming and simulation blend and blossom together in this new take on command at sea! Re-live the great battles of the first year of the Pacific War as if you were there yourself. In here there is no dice roll, no artificial skill-tree, no arbitrary stats, selective fog of war or supernatural crystal-clear communications. It is real-time crisis management for you, realism and historicity without concession, as little abstraction as can be, and loads of action, suspense and refreshing gameplay packed in the same single computer software.

More info about MicroProse and its new games can be found on the official MicroProse website!

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.

• InWin Announces Availability of the 216 PC Chassis
• GELID Solutions unleashes a BATTLE STATION X (a PC Chassis)
• HP Announces the Omen 27i Monitor: 27″ QHD, Nano IPS, 165 Hz, 1 ms, Adaptive Sync
• Zadak Reveals Low-profile Twist Series DDR4 RAM
• ASRock Launches the Z490 AQUA Flagship Water Cooled Motherboard
• SilentiumPC Intros Spartan 4 MAX EVO ARGB CPU Cooler
• MSI Teases Z490 Gaming Motherboard With Integrated EKWB Monoblock
• Enermax Launches its Libllussion LL30 RGB Case
• ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 Now Available
• MSI Intros Codex R 10th and MEG Trident X Gaming Desktops with 10th Gen Core Processors
• Deepcool Refreshes GAMMAX X 400 Towards EX with Improvements and Dual Fans

Armed to the teeth with machine guns and a 75mm cannon, B-25s played a key role in World War II as low-level bombers and strafers.

By Stephan Wilkinson @ History.net.com

The North American B-25 Mitchell was present for the overture of the Pacific War and was still onstage as the curtain fell on the final act. On April 18, 1942, 16 B-25Bs flew one of the first American offensive missions of the war—the famous “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” Doolittle Raid. On August 19, 1945, four B-25J gunships escorted a surrender-negotiation delegation aboard two Mitsubishi Betty bombers from Japan partway to Manila and back.

Read on…

A time-limited event called “Pentagon vs. Euro Forces vs. Minoboron” will be available this weekend

Gaijin Entertainment announces that the military online action game War Thunder will get a special event planned specifically for the peaceful combined training of US, European and Russian helicopter and ground vehicles crews. Modern Abrams and T-80U tanks, BMP-3 and Bradley APC’s, Mi-28 and Apache helicopters, as well as European vehicles like Leopards and Leclercs from the French, Italian, Swedish, German and UK armies will clash at the virtual battlefields this weekend. The designated training grounds will be Alaska, Finland, Middle East, Mozdoc and the Sea Terminal maps.

Anton Yudintsev, the founder of Gaijin Entertainment, said: “We read an article at the US Army website describing how the quarantined tank crews choose to use War Thunder as their preferred remote training tool. We decided to support this initiative and help all crews of modern tanks and helicopters to keep in good combat shape and boost the morale of soldiers, while safely staying at home to avoid the new coronavirus infection”.

The participants of the special event “Pentagon vs. Euro Forces vs. Minoboron” will choose one of three available sides, and all the relevant tanks, APC’s, helicopters and self-propelled anti-aircraft systems will be provided automatically without any need to unlock them in the game. While we hope that this initiative will be useful for the military personnel, any experienced War Thunder player will have access to this event – the only requirement is to have at least one rank V combat vehicle of the relevant countries.

The full description of the event is available at the official War Thunder website.

Source: Blue’s News

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is now available for Windows and Xbox One, offering the chance to reenlist for another tour of duty in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the military shooter first released in 2009. The Activision Blog has details on the release along with the previously released Official Trailer showing the update look (though this is mostly cinematics). The PC version can be picked up through the Blizzard Shop and runs through Battle.net. Here are details on the remaster and the bonuses provides for players of the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Warzone:

One of the most iconic, blockbuster video game story experiences in gaming entertainment history is now available for Xbox One and PC. Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2 Campaign Remastered is a complete enhancement of the critically-acclaimed single player experience that includes the full campaign with stunning high-definition visuals – up to 4K resolution and HDR support on console; and, additionally, uncapped framerate as well as ultrawide monitor support on PC via Blizzard Entertainment’s Battle.net® platform.

Players who purchase Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered will also receive, Underwater Demo Team Classic Ghost Bundle for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare including the UDT Ghost Operator skin inspired by the ‘The Only Easy Day…Was Yesterday’ campaign level that featured an action-packed hostage rescue attempt from an oil rig in in the arctic. Alongside the Ghost Operator skin, players will also receive two weapon blueprints, a weapon charm, new finishing move, voice quip, animated calling card, emblem and two Battle Pass tier skips all for immediate access in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the recently released Call of Duty: Warzone.