Month: June 2016

NorbSoftDev, developers of the acclaimed real-time wargame Scourge of War series are ready to reveal that their first expansion for Scourge of War: Waterloo will be available on June, 16th!

From the Product Page:

“Following and expanding on the scope of the base game, Scourge of War: Quatre Bras heavily focuses on realism about units, formations, tactics, weapon ranges and more.

You will find all of the historical units that originally fought, in an extremely accurate order of battle. Each unit has its own commander and objectives: under the orders of Marshal Michel Nay, the Duke of Wellington or the Prince William of Orange, you are able to chose which side to take to victory in five new scenarios covering all the critical phases of the battle of Quatre Bras!”

Get more information about Scourge of War: Quatre Bras here!

The game will be available also on Steam!

Battlefield 1 Will Have Six Weapon Classes

Source:  PCGamesN

Battlefield 1 is heading back to the muddy murder fields of World War One, and that means an era where there weren’t quite the gazillion different guns that there are in the modern world. There will still be plenty of weapons to choose from in the game though, drawn from a pool of six types.

Available to use will be shotguns, SMGs, LMGs, semi-autos, sidearms, and sniper-rifles. Presumably ‘sniper rifles’ mean any kind of bolt-operated weapon, considering most standard infantrymen in WW1 were using non-scoped, manual rifles.

A short trailer shows some of those weapons in action, including a mace and a German LMG. It’s a mere 15 seconds though, but we’ll get a much better look at the game on June 12, when DICE will host a 64-player match at E3 to show off the game’s multiplayer.

Source: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA released the GeForce 368.39 WHQL drivers. These are the launch drivers for the GeForce GTX 1070, and see the merger of GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 support with the rest of the GeForce GTX 900 and older GPUs. The drivers also come Game-Ready for “Mirror’s Edge Catalyst,” including support for the game’s “hyper details” settings that enable the highest eye-candy; and “Edge of Nowhere.”

You can download the new GeForce 368.39 WHQL  drivers from GeForce Experience and GeForce.com.

Source: TechPowerUp!

AMD today released the Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.6.1, just in time for two of the month’s big game releases. The drivers come with optimizations for “Mirrors Edge: Catalyst” and “Paragon.” The drivers also add CrossFire profiles for “Dark Souls III.” The drivers address more instances of flickering noticed on CrossFire machines playing “Fallout 4,” and performance drops in “DiRT Rally” in tracks with night/rainy settings.

You can download the Radeon Software Crimson Edition version 16.6.1 drivers 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.

• GIGABYTE Launches GeForce GTX 1080 XTREME GAMING Graphics Card
• HyperX Refreshes Predator DDR4 and DDR3 Memory
• Turtle Beach Announces the Elite Pro Line Of Gaming Audio Gear
• Aqua Computer Launches Kryogrphics Water Blocks for GTX 1080 and GTX 1070
• NVIDIA Vows to Fix GTX 1080 Founders Edition Fan Bug with Next Driver
• Thermaltake Reveals Pacific V-GTX 10 Series Water Block for GeForce GTX 1080 FE
• ROCCAT Releases Suora Frameless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard – VIDEO

Heroes of The West Mod, Darkest Hour: Europe ‘44-’45 Mod Updated

Tripwire is very pleased to announce that a brand new content update is now live for Heroes of the West, the official community-made mod for Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm to coincide with the anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy on D-Day 72 years ago.

First made available in March of this year, Heroes of the West was created entirely by members of the community (as Kernow Interactive with support and assets from Tripwire and Antimatter Games) and showcases Tripwire’s commitment to its fans.

The update introduces 2 new maps, the first being a combined arms map featuring the British in a grueling fight to break out from the Normandy beachhead in summer 1944. The map, Caen Outskirts, introduces the British Bren Carrier troop transport.

The other map, Hill 400, recreates the bitter fighting in the winter of 1944 with the 2d Ranger Battalion struggling against Axis forces in the Hurtgen Forest.

There have been numerous balance, technical and cosmetic additions and fixes introduced in this update. To view a full changelog, please visit the Heroes of the West Steam Store Page.

For fans of the original Red Orchestra game, Darklight Games has also released a free update today for Darkest Hour: Europe ‘44-’45. More information about that new update can be viewed on its respective Steam Store Page.

To celebrate the release, Tripwire is also kicking off a 75% off sale for Red Orchestra, Red Orchestra 2, and Rising Storm. The sale runs from Monday June 6 at 10AM PST/1PM EST through Wednesday, June 8 at 10AM PST/ 1PM EST.

Paradox’s Grand Strategy War Game Now Available

Paradox Development Studio returns to one of its most popular game series with the release of Hearts of Iron IV. This giant war game gives you control of any nation in the world during the chaotic years in and around World War II. Vast armies are yours to command, industrial infrastructures are yours to build and the far reaches of science are yours to research.

The Hearts of Iron series has always been one of the deepest and most sophisticated games about humanity’s greatest conflict. Hearts of Iron IV brings greater attention to the big picture of battleplans and sweeping troop movements, with a heavier emphasis on accessibility without losing the depth that fans have long admired.

As the world tension grows, you will be tested as a president, a commander and an industrial titan.

• Command the Great Powers: The seven strongest nations in the world come with exclusive National Focus trees to guide you through your new history
• Battleplan System: Set plans in advance for your armies and watch them execute their missions with the click of a button
• Two Historical Scenarios: Start the game with the explosion of war in 1939, or begin in 1936 to build up for the coming conflict
• Eleven Research Trees: Upgrade your weapons and vehicles, learn new military doctrines and unlock the mysteries of the atom and computing
• Change History: Can you bring the mighty Soviet Union to its knees? Get to Berlin by 1942? Build an alternate American empire in South America

Hearts of Iron IV is being released alongside the first minor power National Focus DLC, Poland: United and Ready which is available to all customers for free!

As well, the heavy metal band Sabaton, a popular group in the studio, has licensed a number of their World War II themed songs for a special Hearts of Iron music pack now available for purchase.
Take up arms in defense of your country, or sign up to impose your ideology on a hostile world. Hearts of Iron IV is here.

For more information on Hearts of Iron IV, check out the games official website.

New Trailer Shows Off 28 Minutes of Intense, Action-Packed Gameplay

Battlestate Games, developers of the much-anticipated military-themed FPS/MMO Escape from Tarkov, today announced the highly anticipated launch date for the game’s Closed Alpha. Aspiring combatants who have signed up for the Alpha (HERE) should keep a close watch on their inboxes for an invite as we get closer to the Alpha launch, as a select group of gamers will get their first hands-on taste of Escape from Tarkov’s furious battles starting on August 4.

Along with the news of the upcoming Closed Alpha, Battlestate Games has also delivered a 28-minute-long gameplay video, showcasing battlegrounds, weapons and combat, which can be downloaded at the links below.

Watch the video on YouTube HERE.

Sim155 Ltd. has announced that Combat Air Patrol 2 (CAP2) will launch today via Steam Early Access at (6pm GMT/12:00 PM Eastern USA). Check out what veteran programmer Ed Scio at Sim155 had to say about today’s release:

Well, this is early access launch day so I thought it’d be good to explain what to expect over the coming days, weeks and months. I have to admit its been a scramble to get ready for the launch though without a deadline I’d probably never get around to releasing CAP2. I’m looking forward to getting feedback, both good and bad. Bear in mind this is an Early Access title. For instance, the main strategic feature of CAP2, the dynamic campaign, is approximately 75% complete. There are lots of minor items on my release list which won’t make the 6pm (UK) release build so expect a stream of updates over the next few days. All elements will likely evolve with your feedback.

After the initial flurry of updates this week, we’ll run a general beta build for those of you who want to try new features/bug fixes as soon as they are available. Based on feedback we’ll then transition them to the main build. There may be several beta builds per week so only subscribe to those if you are OK with that. I’ll be primarily using this blog to keep you up to date with development.

Here are our main areas of upcoming development:

• Dynamic Campaign. We’ll be improving the dynamic campaign by adding more targets, enemy capabilities such as mine laying, offensive capabilities such as integrating Tomahawk strikes into a mission package.
• VR. Its been difficult to hold off starting on this, especially with all the recent buzz around the official launches but we managed to show some restraint. We’ve got the Rift kit, Vive is on the way so we should start on this next week. We’ll create a VR build which anyone can opt into. Initial builds will be a simple implementation followed by UI upgrades.
• Multiplayer. As described in previous posts.
• Rendering. Expect to see graphical improvements such as SSAO, DOF, self shadowing terrain, shadow casting vegetation.
• Carrier. We’ll create a fully populated deck and also have animated lifts, defenses and radars.
• Aircraft. Expect graphical updates to the AV8B cockpit together with increased control functionality.
• In Flight refueling. We have the animated refuel probe in game already, just waiting for drogue logic/physics implemented.
• Scenery. A high priority feature to be added is OSM (Open Street Map) data for accurate road and building generation.
• 3D Models. In addition to generated OSM scenery models we’ll be adding custom models not adequately described in OSM,
• Map Areas. We plan to add Yuma and well known training areas such as the ‘Mach Loop’ and the ‘Jedi Transition’.
• Satellite Imagery. We’ll begin sourcing satellite imagery to apply to the terrain.
• 32/64 bit build. We have both builds running now though as they are functionally identical only the 32bit is published. We’ll make the 64bit build available together with larger terrain cache sizes.

You can follow the development of Combat Air Patrol 2 on Facebook. Find out more about Combat Air Patrol 2 at the games official website.

Dick Cole, the man who copiloted the lead B-25 on the famous 1942 Doolittle Raid

By Michael Dolan @ HistoryNet.com

After he spent those 30 seconds over Tokyo that made him world famous, Richard Cole—Colonel Jimmy Doolittle’s copilot on the innovative April 18, 1942, raid against the Japanese capital—parachuted into China. With help he reached India where, for the better part of a year, he flew transport planes carrying cargo over the Himalayan “Hump” between New Delhi, India, and Kunming, China, and back, then transported glider-borne troops in an invasion of Burma.

Between those assignments Cole met, wooed, and wed fellow aviator Lucia Marta Harrell. Retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1966, the former B-25 pilot took up orange growing in Comfort, Texas. His neighbor Warren Reed—who once had been a P-38 pilot—was growing grapefruit. For 14 years, the two former airmen delivered produce to a circuit of customers. Now, at age 100, Dick Cole travels to aviation-related events, has closed down more than one hotel bar, and at home enjoys rummaging in his barns. He recently sat for a phone interview facilitated by daughter Cindy Cole Chal.

Read on…

(Originally published in the July/August 2016 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here.)