Month: September 2014

Just Announced Hardware for 5 September 2014

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 | |
Historical Article: USS Enterprise The Big-E

historical-article-uss-enterprise-the-big-e-logoThe US Navy’s most combat decorated ship of WWII

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

Enterprise and her aircraft carrier kith and kin were still considered something of a revolutionary anomaly when she first entered the waters of the Newport News Shipyard and Dry Dock Company on an October Saturday in 1936. Theodore Mason in his book “Battleship Sailor” later observed. “If some seer had told me then that the Enterprise would steam to glory on one of the most brilliant combat records of any ship in the history of the US Navy, I would have given him the pitying smile one normally reserves for fools.” She was christened Enterprise, the seventh ship so named to serve the United States Navy. The aircraft carrier was then one of two ships in the Yorktown Class of warships. She was 824 feet in length and 114 feet wide. She was powered by 9 x Babcock & Wilcox boilers with 4 x Parsons geared turbines that generated 120,000 ship horsepower to her four huge bronze propellers, giving her a top speed of 32.5 knots. Enterprise had a range of 12,500 nautical miles at a moderate cruising speed of 15 knots. The crew compliment she took into battle in 1941 was some 2,217 officers and men. Her defensive armament consisted of 8 x single 5in/38 caliber guns, 4.x quad 1.1″ flak guns and 24 x .50 caliber water cooled machine guns. This armament would be changed and greatly augmented many times over in the coming months, especially after the ship’s first taste of battle against enemy aircraft. Enterprise’s primary offensive and defensive punch lay in the 90 fighter planes, torpedo planes and dive bombers carried in her hangar deck below. To warn of incoming enemy aircraft, the aircraft carrier carried a CXAM-1 RADAR atop her main mast that enabled them to see the approach of planes at a range of 70 miles or more.

Read on…

Military History | Donster | |
New Information and Screenshots for Pike & Shot

pike-and-shot-box“War is not a river, or a lake, but an ocean of all that is evil” (Gustav II Adolf, King of Sweden)

Initially introduced to the lucky few who attended our 2014 annual convention “Home of Wargamers”, Pike & Shot is now mature enough to show more of the game to public! This upcoming strategy game designed by Richard Bodley Scott – the mastermind behind the Field of Glory table-top wargame rules – aims to simulate the majors battles in the age of Pike and Shot – the 16th and 17th centuries.

The period covered by this game is particularly interesting from a tactical point of view as lots of changes occurred on the battlefield at that time. In only two hundred years commanders have been substituting traditional medieval tactics with modern ones, inserting musketeers and artillery in the armies. Obviously the players will be able to feel this tactical revolution in Pike & Shot!

This setting, combined with the approachable and visually immersive Battle Academy engine, makes Pike & Shot a very engaging title for any gamer that has an interest for this period. 3 huge campaigns, a skirmish mode that allows to generate an infinite number of “What-if” scenarios and a multiplayer system powered by the famous PBEM++ come together for a captivating experience in the heart of the bloodiest battles of the Renaissance.

Pike & Shot is currently in beta and will release later this year for PC, with an iPad version following soon.

Click here to view the new screenshots and get more game information!

Pike & Shot Strategy and Wargaming | Donster | |
Supreme Ruler Ultimate Announced

supreme-ruler-ultimate-boxBattleGoat Studios is proud today to announce Supreme Ruler Ultimate, the most ambitious and comprehensive title in our Supreme Ruler strategy game series. With the announcement of Supreme Ruler Ultimate David Thompson, Lead Designer and Co-Founder explained, “Our recent release of Supreme Ruler 1936 has proven to be very popular with our fans and strategy/wargame players as it revolves around World War II, but one of the biggest requests we’ve received has been to blend it with the near future game we released back in 2008, Supreme Ruler 2020. That game provided players with the opportunity to make anything they wanted of our modern world, from any starting nation, without any preconceived expectations.”

Supreme Ruler Ultimate will incorporate the content from all of BattleGoat’s Supreme Ruler series, letting players take control of a nation from the historic troubles of World War II, through the Cold War, and into the near future where established relations are undermined by disorder and turmoil. Thompson went on to comment, “With what is currently going on internationally and the intense domestic polarization forming within various countries, it certainly is not hard to imagine a spark spreading unparalleled chaos through our world.” Thompson indicated that BattleGoat will continue to add historic events and content to the game for players that want to start in the 20th century, as well as updating the near future storyline to incorporate new technology threads and to reflect the new international crises that have developed.

Supreme Ruler Ultimate will be released on October 17, 2014 at an SRP of $29.99, and an announcement regarding a Steam Early Access Beta is expected soon. BattleGoat have also announced that owners of Supreme Ruler 1936 will be given a special upgrade price to the new title.

Find out more about Supreme Ruler Ultimate at the games Steam Store Page.

Strategy and Wargaming Supreme Ruler Ultimate | Donster | |
2K Announces Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Season Pass for Upcoming Add-On Content

borderlands-the-pre-sequel-box2K and Gearbox Software announced today that Borderlands®: The Pre-Sequel™ will offer four add-on content packs following the release of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Windows PC. The four add-on content packs will encompass new characters, challenges, missions, and experiences and each pack will retail individually for $9.99 on all available platforms. As Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel nears completion and the teams shift their focus to add-on content, additional details will be announced as development progresses.

Additionally, the Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Season Pass bundles the four add-on content packs at a discounted rate. Priced at $29.99, the Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Season Pass includes access to all four of the add-on content packs – a $39.96 value – and will be available for purchase when Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel releases on October 14, 2014 in North America and October 17, 2014 internationally. Once purchased, the Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Season Pass enables the download of all included add-on content packs as they become available on the PlayStation®Network, Xbox Live online entertainment network from Microsoft and PC.

Gamers who pre-order Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel from participating retailers will gain access to the Shock Drop Slaughter Pit bonus content. Taking place in an old Dahl facility on Pandora’s moon, players will meet TR4-NU, who once was one of Dahl’s military recruiters until he went crazy. TR4-NU is now hosting the Shock Drop Slaughter Pit and giving awesome loot to those who succeed against the moon’s toughest enemies. The Shock Drop Slaughter Pit will not be included in the Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Season Pass, but it will be available for purchase at a later date, for those who do not pre-order Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. To pre-order Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, please visit the official Borderlands website.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel First-Person Shooters | Donster | |
Wargame: Red Dragon Gets Free New Second Korean War DLC

Wargame is back with a second dose of free DLC for the million-selling franchise’s third installment, Wargame: Red Dragon. In this new expansion for the spectacular real-time strategy game from Eugen Systems, which will patch automatically into the game today, 12 new units and an additional full-length story campaign are added, which takes the war to 1992 charging an uchronical alternate-history narrative.

Fielding some of the most advanced military technology of the time, The Second Korean War will see China, North Korea, and the Soviet Union pit themselves against the might of the United Nations’ coalitions. Armed with the Patriot missile system, the USA buffs their anti-air defenses, as do the Chinese with the JH-7. The South Korean K9-Thunder marches onto the field, to the detriment of the USSR’s elite Spetsnaz GRU infantry units.

In the all-new campaign, a coup against Mikhail Gorbachev succeeded in 1991, a year prior to the events of the narrative. The former guard succeeds Gorbachev, and restores Soviet order, bringing them closer to the communist leaders in Asia, as leaders in the West grow ever-distant from the Soviet super-power. After a year of friction, the entire Korean peninsula is at war as the Soviets and UN coalitions take their increasingly distancing ideologies onto the battlefield.

And there’s more good news: Wargame is the MidWeek Deal on Steam!

Strategy and Wargaming Wargame: Red Dragon | Donster | |
Armored Warfare World Premiere Gameplay Footage Released

My.com and Obsidian Entertainment have released an exciting video showing off Armored Warfare gameplay footage for the very first time, as shown to the public at PAX Prime.

Rich Taylor, Executive Producer at Obsidian Entertainment, goes through brand new, previously unseen gameplay footage, giving a more in-depth and detailed look at the action.

You can watch the video here:

In Armored Warfare, players will take on the role of private military contractors who are called into action throughout a modern virtual world. Overseeing their own personal command base, players will expand, enhance, and customize their headquarters, manage and upgrade their military convoy of vehicles, and train and develop their crews through a robust reputation and experience system. Dynamic environments in Armored Warfare require players to change strategies on the battlefield at a moment’s notice keeping them ever vigilant to the tides of battle.

To learn more about Armored Warfare, please visit the games official website.

Armor Combat News Armored Warfare | Donster | |
AMD 2014 FX Refresh- FX-9590, FX-8370, and FX-8370e Review

amd-fx8370e-cpu-boxBy Josh Walrath @ PC Perspective

It seems like yesterday when I last talked about an AMD refresh! Oh wait, it almost was. Some weeks ago I was able to cover the latest AMD APU offerings that helped to flesh out the Kaveri lineup. We though AMD was done for a while. Color us wrong. AMD pulled out all the stops and set up an AM3+ refresh! There is a little excitement here, I guess. I am trying to contain the tongue-in-cheek lines that I am oh so tempted to write.

Read The Review Here

Hardware Processors | Donster | |
AMD Radeon R9 285 Reviews

amd-radeon-r9-285-graphics-cardAMD has released the Radeon R9 285 graphics card. It comes packed with the latest Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture1 innovations like support for the upcoming DirectX 12 and AMD’s revolutionary Mantle API3. The newest addition to the Radeon family features an engine clock speed of 918 MHz, and 2 GB of frame buffer running at 5.5 Gbps. The Radeon R9 285 GPU is capable of delivering up to 3.29 teraFLOPS of computing performance, offering extreme gaming detail that outshines any card at 1080p and beyond in its category.

A number of reviews have become available featuring cards from various manufacturers. You can check out the various reviews via the links posted below.

Hardware Video Cards | Donster | |
Just Announced Hardware for 2 September 2014

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 | |