Month: November 2015

Destructibility Improvements, New Maps and First British Tanks

Gaijin Entertainment today announced that its award-winning MMO WWII online game, War Thunder, will be introducing a host of new and upgraded features in a forthcoming update for War Thunder’s 10 million players to enjoy.

War Thunder is starting to implement an improved version of its engine, known as Dagor Engine 4.0, and part of this is physically based rendering. War Thunder has always prided itself on its unrivaled attention to detail, even going as far as to correctly interpret the way light interacts with objects within its environment, including the diffusion and reflection of light on shiny and opaque surfaces and materials, such as wood, steel, rubber and glass. In short, it means that War Thunder will look even more realistic than ever before.

Another part of the improved engine is the integration of NVIDIA GameWorks technologies. NVIDIA PhysX Destruction aids War Thunder’s quest for increased realism by enabling the introduction of larger destructible objects to the game: wall fragments, ruins and entire buildings will all react to in-game ballistic physics. Players now have the ability to destroy enemy’s cover or create new firing positions, changing dynamics of tank battles.

The inclusion of NVIDIA WaveWorks technology generates incredibly realistic waves and foam for oceans, seas, rivers and lakes, which will also factor wind direction and strength. All of the maps in the game will benefit from this addition, aerial and ground combat ones alike.

The name “Firestorm” for update 1.53 comes from the introduction of a deadly set of new multiple rocket launcher systems: namely, the American M26 Pershing tank with mounted T99 system, the German Panzerwerfer 42 and Russian BM-24-8. These vehicles provide a formidable barrage of high-explosive rockets and continue to expand the armored vehicle design variation in the game.

Fans anticipating British tanks will rejoice, as an initial set of four exclusive vehicles become available: the A13 Mk II, the Sherman Firefly, the M10 Achilles and the A43 Black Prince Infantry tank. The main British Ground Force line-up will appear in War Thunder in the next updates.

In total, there are over 20 new vehicles in update 1.53, including the amphibious Soviet tank PT-76, Cold War-era Jagdpanzer 4-5 and, eagerly awaited by fans, the top-range British jet fighter the Hawker Hunter.

Finally, two new ground combat locations were added, a winter map of the Stalingrad tractor plant district, which has been painstakingly reproduced based on real photographs taken during the bloody battles for the city and “Advance to Rhine,” based on late-war Cologne with its towering cathedral and maze-like streets that will provide the optimum challenge for urban warfare.

Steam Achievements are now available for the PC version of the game. There are many more improvements and features in this update, of course. To see a detailed list, click here. Or visit the War Thunder developer’s blog.

If you’ve not dived in to 2013’s massive strategy game yet, now’s the time with a collected edition of Total War: Rome II featuring a selection of additional content and expansions available now from selected retailers.

Collecting together a wealth of content from the Rome II opus, players will discover the best of the Ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Thousands of hours of challenging conquest await across a massive main game, two epic campaign expansions and dramatic extra content that introduces additional playable factions and ferocious elite warriors.

The unique mix of real-time massive battles and turn-based campaign map strategy, Total War offers conflict and empire-building on an unparalleled scale, with jaw-dropping attention to detail.

Check out the Total War: Rome II – Spartan Edition release trailer here.

The Total War: Rome II – Spartan Edition contains the following premium content:

• Total War: Rome II
• Imperator Augustus – Campaign Pack
• Wrath of Sparta – Campaign Pack
• Greek States – Culture Pack
• Daughters of Mars – Unit Pack

The Total War: Rome II – Spartan Edition is available from selected retailers, for more information please read our wiki.

Source: techPowerUp!

This year’s installment to the Call of Duty franchise, Black Ops III, has just hit stores, and is predictably flying off shelves. As with every ceremonial annual release, Black Ops III raises the visual presentation standards for the franchise. There is, however, one hitch with the way the game deals with system memory amounts as high as 12 GB and video memory amounts as high as 8 GB. This hitch could possibly be the reason behind the stuttering issues many users are reporting.

In our first play-through of the game with its highest possible settings on our personal gaming machines – equipped with a 2560 x 1600 pixels display, Core i7 “Haswell” quad-core CPU, 12 GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card, NVIDIA’s latest Black Ops III Game Ready driver 385.87, and Windows 7 64-bit to top it all off, we noticed that the game was running out of memory. Taking a peek at Task Manager revealed that in “Ultra” settings (and 2560 x 1600 resolution), the game was maxing out memory usage within our 12 GB, not counting the 1.5-2 GB used up by the OS and essential lightweight tasks (such as antivirus).

Read more…

Source: techPowerUp!

NVIDIA released the GeForce 358.87 WHQL drivers that are Game Ready for Call of Duty: Black Ops III. The driver comes with game-optimization, SLI profiles, and GeForce Experience optimal settings for this year’s installment of the Call of Duty franchise. In addition, the driver adds/improves SLI profiles for Act of Aggression, NBA 2K16, StarCraft 2, Sword Coast Legends, and Triad Wars.

You can download the new GeForce 358.87 WHQL drivers from GeForce Experience and GeForce.com.

Bohemia Interactive today deployed a brand new video guide for their tactical military shooter Arma 3. While previous episodes in the official Community Guide series focused on the attack, this new episode explores the basic principles of mounting an effective and efficient defense – making it a must-watch for everyone with an interest in tactical gameplay.

In the video, Andrew Gluck (better known as Dslyecxi, leader of the Arma community group Shack Tactical) examines the most essential planning considerations for a solid defense, such as understanding the terrain, defining areas of responsibility, and identifying potential force multipliers. In addition, the video describes what vehicles and weapons are most suitable for defending a location. To increase your odds of surviving in battle, Dslyecxi concludes the video by discussing individual actions, such as positioning and communications, and knowing when it’s time to retreat.

Previous episodes in the Arma 3 Community Guide video series covered topics such as infantry combat, multiplayer teamwork, helicopters, sniper- and launcher teams, combined arms warfare, air assaults, guerrilla warfare, ground vehicle crew, machine gun teams, and the Arma 3 Zeus DLC. The complete Community Guide playlist is available on Arma 3’s YouTube Channel.

Get more game info at the official Arma 3 website.

Discover new maps, tackle a new game mode, and reap greater rewards in Ranked Battles

Wargaming is excited to announce update 0.5.1 for World of Warships will go live on November 5 in North America and on November 6 in Asia, the CIS and EU. This update brings a boatload of great content including three new maps—with the very first night map—a brand new game mode “Zone”, and further improvements.

Three new maps for World of Warships are set to test players’ skills by plunging them into new and exciting waters. For the very first time, commanders will find “Northern Lights”, a reimagining of a once-familiar locale, doused in darkness and the spectacle of the Aurora Borealis. New maps include “Land of Fire”, inspired by South America and “The Trap”, which is modelled on the fierce battles between U.S. and Japanese fleets, complete with an active volcano.

The new game mode “Zone” pits opposing teams in contention of one giant base in the middle of a map. However, this base only becomes available for capture two minutes into the battle. With “Zone”, players will have to reevaluate their old tactics and techniques, trading off the vulnerability of open waters for glory. Also in update 0.5.1 are various additions and enhancements such as “Events”, “Challenges”, “Missions, and “Daily Missions”.

Ranked Battles now feature even more rewards in the form of flags to deck out a vessel and make it the envy of others on the high seas. Also for those still finding their sea legs, Introductory Missions have been added with a tutorial to help commanders develop their tactical skills and strengthen their grasp of the game.

For the latest game information, visit the official World of Warships website.

By Marc Adams @ HardOCP

Enermax is back today showing us their newest space-saving design that strikes a balance between cooling and noise. Enermax has been busy as of late engineering new cooler after new cooler. The Enermax ETS-T40F-RF continues this trend and brings some new technologies with it. Enermax calls these new designs the Vortex Generator Flow and the Vacuum Effect Flow. Together these designs ensure better airflow and more efficient cooling. At least, that’s what Enermax is claiming and those are some big claims coming from a design that’s been used and improved upon countless times by many different companies. To say I’m skeptical is a bit of an understatement but that’s why we’re here today. So let’s put this thing to the test.

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.

• Cryorig Announces A-Series Hybrid Liquid Coolers
• ID-Cooling Intros FrostFlow 240G All-in-One Liquid VGA Cooler
• ASRock Announces the Fatal1ty Z170 Professional Gaming i7 Motherboard
• MSI Launches Z170A SLI Motherboard
• Acer Intros XB271HK and XB271HU G-sync Predator XB1 Series Monitors
• EK Releasing a New EK-DBAY Spin Reservoir
• GIGABYTE Shows Off their Z170X-Gaming 6 Motherboard
• Crucial Announces the BX200 Solid State Drive

Gets Steam Greenlight on the same day!

Today Campfire Games is excited to announce that War of Rights has been approved on Steam Greenlight along with reaching 50% funding for their Kickstarter campaign for this American Civil War FPS game.

“This has been a remarkable day for us! Thanks to our fans and backers we have managed to get approved on Steam Greenlight, on the same day we achieved 50% funding!” said Emil Alexander Hansen, co-founder and technical artist at Campfire Games. “We’re very happy with the way the campaign has gone and very hopeful that we can achieve our funding and bring this game to life.”

The team at Campfire Games is also thrilled about the Collector’s Edition Box Set for War of Rights being offered at the Kickstarter campaign that will include several items such as a physical copy of the game, a soundtrack CD, a poster signed by the team, Private, NCO and Officer papers for either side of the conflict, a War of Rights mouse pad and even a bullet from the American Civil War packed in a paper cartridge!

War of Rights is a multiplayer game set around the tumultuous period of the American Civil War, during the Maryland Campaign of September 1862. Campfire Games is devoted to presenting the gruesome and glorious elements of the period, while maintaining the highest level of historical accuracy and realism as possible thanks to the wonders of CRYENGINE.

Visit the War of Rights – Kickstarter page for more game information, screenshots, and video.

Director Wayne McClammy Helms Call of Duty Trailer Featuring Cara Delevingne, Michael B. Jordan and Marshawn Lynch

Black Ops is back! With only a few days to go until what Nielsen dubbed the “most anticipated multiplatform holiday game” of the year releases worldwide, Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s live-action trailer has hit the airwaves. Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc., kicked its creative and marketing campaign into high gear yesterday in the U.S. during Sunday’s football games with the release of the new trailer helmed by director Wayne McClammy and featuring Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Fantastic Four, Fruitvale Station), Cara Delevingne (Suicide Squad, Paper Towns, Valerian) and Marshawn Lynch (Seattle Seahawks). The intense 1:40 high-action piece is titled “Seize Glory.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops III Launches Worldwide November 6th.

More game info available at the Call of Duty: Black Ops III official website.