Month: March 2017

Source: TechPowerUp!

It would seem Microsoft is ever looking for more creative ways of pushing its Windows 10 operating system towards the masses. Some Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users have apparently encountered one of these: a lock on system updates. The error message, which reads “Your PC uses a processor that isn’t supported on this version of Windows”, points towards a hardware lock-in in exchange for added security and updates.

A Microsoft Support page sheds some light on this issue: that Windows 10 is the only Microsoft operating system to support particular hardware configurations. Namely, systems based on Intel’s “seventh (7th)-generation processors or a later generation” (Kaby Lake); “AMD seventh (7th)-generation (“Bristol Ridge”) processor or a later generation”; and “Qualcomm “8996″ processor or a later generation”. This move on Windows 7 might make some sense; however, Windows 8.1 is still in its lease of life (and Microsoft support) until at least 2018.

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.

• Corsair Announces New Tenkeyless K63 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
• EVGA Readies a Trio of Custom-design GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Cards
• MSI Releases New Z270 MPOWER GAMING TITANIUM
• Arctic Announces Free AM4 Retention Modules for Liquid Freezer Series Coolers
• Phanteks Launches Glacier G1080 Ti Founders Edition Cooling Block
• Alphacool Debuts its First Compressor Cooler – The Eiszeit 1500 W
• Zalman White Mechanical Gaming Keyboard ZM-K900M Unveiled
• AMD Ryzen 5 Processors Start At $169 and Launch on April 11th
• Bitfenix Portal ITX Chassis Announced
• EK Water Blocks Releases a New Monoblock for ASUS® Z270 Motherboards
• ZOTAC Announces GTX 1080 Ti Series – Include the GTX 1080 Ti Extreme Edition
• HyperX Announces Cloud Revolver S Gaming Headset
• ADATA XPG DDR4 Officially Validated by AMD as AM4/Ryzen Compatible
• ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti OC Specifications Revealed

Source: UbiBlog

The sniping-est operator in the Siege stable is about to get an upgrade in the upcoming Mid-Season Reinforcements update, which deploys Wednesday, March 15. As the story goes, Timur “Glaz” Glazkov lost a sniper competition to an Operator named Galanos, from Greece. After the event, Glaz chatted with Galanos about her attachment technology, and as a result he now packs an upgraded scope that offers a new layer of thermal visual feedback when aiming down sights. This feedback will appear even if the defender is obscured by smoke, but will only work if Glaz has line-of-sight to the target (it doesn’t work through walls).

A few Operators are getting buffs to their special abilities to help make them more useful in the field. Doc will now be able to overheal to 140 HP instead of 120 HP, in hopes that this buff will make more of a difference in a firefight. And Buck will get an extra magazine for his Skeleton Key underbarrel shotgun. Walls, windows, and floors beware.

There are a number of weapon balancing changes en route as well, chief among them a size reduction for the reticles on the red dot, reflex, and holo sights. This is to allow for better precision after the realignment of sights implemented with Operation Velvet Shell. Other specific changes include:

• The DMR’s maximum trigger rate has been lowered to prevent very rapid firing
• Echo’s MP5SD2 does more damage at medium range
• Thermite’s 556xi is easier to control
• Caveira’s Luison’s damage dropoff has been tweaked
• Jackal’s C7E’s recoil is getting balanced
• Capitao’s PARA-308 is getting a recoil buff

A developer on Rainbow Six: Siege once compared applying fixes to the game to trying to replace a car tire while the vehicle was in motion. To that end, the team will also launch a technical test server in the weeks following the Reinforcements to focus on refining technical systems and adding new features. The first such system will be a streamlined matchmaking process, and more information on the timing and progress of these projects will be available in the coming weeks.

For more information about Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, please visit the games official website.

Here we are, nearly a month after launch. We hope you’ve been enjoying your time in Italia so far, however we’ve still got a LOT of content in the works for Sniper Elite 4! Today we’re thrilled to announce the release date for the game’s first major singleplayer and multiplayer content update and share with you our longer-term schedule for free and paid content!

Remember new Survival missions, multiplayer maps and modes will be FREE for all players.

All paid content will be included in the Season Pass (including Digital Deluxe Editions) or available to buy separately.

Where possible, we aim to release content at the same time on PS4, Xbox One and PC, though there may be some scheduling differences because of the way digital stores work.

Allied Forces Rifles Out Now!

Take the fight to the fascists with these iconic Allied weapons – M1 Garand, M1 Carbine and Ross Mark 3, for use in all modes.

The Allied Forces Rifles pack is available to purchase on all platforms. Get it now at the Rebellion Gamestore or on Steam!

Beware the Snipes of March

Towards the end of March we’ll be releasing not one but TWO big add-ons for the game!

The first is Deathstorm Part 1: Inception, the opening chapter and mission in our BRAND NEW three-part mini-campaign with a completely new storyline for 1-2 players. Look out for more info soon and a first-look trailer!

The second is the Night Fighter Expansion Pack, a value-stuffed content drop featuring three new weapons, night-time camouflage rifle skins for eight weapons, and two new characters.

BUT we also have tons of FREE content arriving around the same time! This month’s freebies include a brand new multiplayer mode called Elimination, in which two teams try to whittle down their opponent’s numbers. If you’re killed you’re forced to sit on the sidelines – but not permanently! If your team kills an opponent player, they get to tag back in one of their sidelined teammates. All may seem lost in Elimination, but all it takes is one kill to turn the tide!

Fan Made Movie

We’ve seen some great fan-made Sniper Elite videos in our time, but this latest effort from Hoodoo Operator is something special.

Shot entirely using in-game footage, this is one video you shouldn’t miss!

Visit the Sniper Elite 4 News Page for more info on future content releases and screenshots!

There’s a pot o’ loot waiting for you under the rainbow beginning this week in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered

Gosh and begorrah, soldiers! Starting today in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered you’ll notice that a lot of green will be popping up in loadouts everywhere. Plus, you won’t need to chase any rainbows in search of treasure because in honor of St. Patrick’s Day we’ve free Supply Drops, a new, free map, two new camos to earn, and loads more heading your way!

FREE SUPPLY DROPS

So that pot of gold we mentioned? It’s actually emerald green, rectangular, and looks like a Supply Drop. That’s right, we’ve got themed Supply Drops throughout Operation: Shamrock & Awe, and we’re making one available for free each week when you log in starting today through 12:01am PST on April 3.

Note: Only one free Supply Drop per week, and they don’t stack up, so make sure you check in and download by Sunday at 11:59pm PST every week between now and the end of Operation: Shamrock & Awe or you’ll miss out.

DOWNPOUR TURNS INTO DAYBREAK

Besides being known for its long sightlines, mounted machine guns, and sneaky peripheral routes, Downpour is a map also known for its fierce weather. But a bit of luck has landed on your side as the clouds have parted and shed sunlight on this map. Daybreak is a free map, available only during Operation: Shamrock & Awe, that turns Downpour upside down and replaces it with a lush, green countryside filled with St. Paddy’s décor and a rainbow, naturally.

FREE SEASONAL CAMOS

Daybreak also comes with a nice bonus that you won’t have to catch a leprechaun to unlock. Complete the in-game challenges on the map and you can earn two exclusive St. Paddy’s-themed camos for your weapons: the Shamrockin’ “Folium” and the rainbowtized “Prism.” There are different challenges to unlock the camos for each of the weapon classes, but those challenges disappear when Operation: Shamrock & Awe is over.

GET GRAVES

As part of Operation: Shamrock & Awe, three new themed collections will provide you with St. Patrick’s Day theme reticles, camos, calling cards, and emblems. Each set will also include a bounty for completing the set: assemble the “Luck” collection to earn a new character, “Leprechaun” rewards you with a Shillelagh melee weapon, and “Pot o’ Gold” gives you a unique calling card worth fightin’ for.

But that’s not all. If you craft or unlock all three themed collections, you’ll also unlock Darren “Graves” Cosgrave as a playable character for the first time ever! That’s right, you can put the master of the Depot right into your loadout. However, he’s available for a limited time as part of Operation: Shamrock & Awe which expires after April 2, so get busy!

So jump into Modern Warfare Remastered and test your luck! Operation: Shamrock & Awe runs now through 12:01am PST on April 3. Sláinte!

For more intel about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, be sure to visit the official Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered webpage.

The bond between brothers can be complicated, yet unmistakable. From the creators of the Sniper Ghost Warrior and Lords of the Fallen series, CI Games is proud to share a sneak peek into the deep relationship Jon and Robert North have in the Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 “Brothers” Trailer.

Having been raised on a ranch at the foot of the Colorado Rockies, Jon and his younger brother, Robert, were always best friends and also their own greatest rivals. Their family always considered military service the highest form of patriotism, so it was no surprise that both of them enlisted as soon as they were able to.

But while Jon has been shaped into a resolutely “follow the book” type of Marine, Robert quickly rose through the ranks of the US Navy–despite using sometimes using unorthodox methods–and became more rebellious and skeptical of authority along the way. Robert deeply loves his older brother, but also believes that an old-school way of thinking in warfare will inevitably leave Jon behind.

The question that remains is who captured Jon’s brother, Robert, and did he want to be captured?

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 tells the story of brotherhood, faith and betrayal in the most complete sniper experience ever. Take the role of an American sniper named Jonathan North, who is dropped into enemy territory in northern Georgia, nearby Russian borders. Explore large open-world maps with dynamic weather and a day and night cycle that actually impacts play and decisions. Customize weapon equipment, accessories, vehicles and a drone, and utilize the three pillars of gameplay to your liking: Sniper, Ghost and Warrior.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 launches on the PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One and Windows PC on April 25, 2017. To learn more about Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, visit the games official website.

Afghanistan ’11 features a long campaign: players can experience the whole length of the war through 18 unique scenarios. Each scenario puts you in very different situations, and you’ll have to employ different strategies to beat the scenario and advance in the campaign.

But there’s more outside of the campaign: Afghanistan ’11 offers a very detailed Skirmish mode.

You can play on randomly generated maps and set several parameters, completely customizing your game to your liking. You can set geographical parameters, starting conditions, victory conditions, as well as disable or enable additional modules such as Political events and Elections.

You can even disable any kind of turn limit, making your game unlimited and you’ll be able to play as long as you want!

Read more…

World of Tanks and Dolph Lundgren put manliness back on track in their latest ad

Once, long ago, the world knew what manliness was—lifting weights, chopping wood, tuning up your muscle car, not looking another man in the eye when you’re both answering the call of nature. But somehow along the way, the lines blurred. Ciabattas? Frappuccinos? Skinny jeans? Has manliness lost its cool?

Now it’s up to World of Tanks and Dolph Lundgren to get manliness back on track.

In the latest advert from Wargaming, we embark on a journey with Dolph to discover how to choose a real man’s hobby in the hectic world of today. It’s a tough mission, requiring a man who is not afraid to put his mind, body, and soul on the line to stay, what the Vikings (probably) call, skǫruligr (manly).

About World of Tanks

World of Tanks is a team-based massively multiplayer online action game dedicated to armored warfare of the mid-20th century. Throw yourself into the epic tank battles of World War II with other steel cowboys all over the world. Your arsenal includes over 450 armored vehicles from the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union, France, Great Britain, Japan, China, Czechoslovakia carefully detailed with historical accuracy.

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

Better performance and crisper colors with new ‘Engine Room’-update.

Performance is key when making a difference in World War 2 as portrayed in the MMOFPS Heroes & Generals. This is something the game developers at Reto-Moto are acutely aware of and one of the major reasons for introducing a new render engine for the game.

“Our community has been very active and helpful in testing the new render on our prototype servers. We have seen a 20 percent framerate improvement on average, and 70 percent of the players that took part in latest test of the new render reported either a better or much better performance,” says Henning Semler, Lead Render Programmer and co-founder of Reto-Moto.

Heroes & Generals is running on its own proprietary technology called Retox. The ‘Engine Room’-update is the result of a complete rewrite of the render engine optimizing it for a modern dataflow by using advanced multi-threading techniques so it better utilizes multiple CPU-cores, improving game performance.

Another reason that Heroes & Generals is seeing a general boost in performance is the decision to end support for DirectX 9 based graphics cards as the old technology in part served as a hindrance to game performance.

Heroes & Generals now supports mixed resolution rendering making it possible for players to keep the user interface at a higher resolution while playing with low resolution gameplay setting to further increase performance on low spec computers.

In addition to the improvements in performance, the ‘Engine Room’-update also introduces a new tone mapping system providing crisper and more saturated colors in the game. As well as Temporal Anti-Aliasing giving players a more stable image with less pixel flicker when in motion.

As part of the ‘Engine Room’-update players also have been given the option to try out a new DirectX 12 experimental setting.

Heroes & Generals is now translated into Brazilian Portuguese bringing the total number of language options for the game to nine.

The full changelog for the ‘Engine Room’-update can be found here.

Heroes & Generals is available for free at HeroesAndGenerals.com.

Square Enix Collective®, the platform that brings diverse and quality indie titles to market, has inked a deal with Derby-based Bulkhead Interactive™ to exclusively publish ‘old-school’ multiplayer WW2 shooter Battalion 1944 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

This time last year Battalion 1944 smashed its crowdfunding campaign with a promise to recapture the core action of classic multiplayer FPS game and propel WW2 into the next generation. Having grown up playing the sensational WW2 shooters from the turn of the century, the designers at Bulkhead Interactive have utilized the most up-to-date industry technology to create a visceral and heart-thumping multiplayer experience featuring raw, skill-based infantry combat across tight, focused, and competitive maps.

After the huge success of last year’s The Turing Test™, Bulkhead Interactive chose once again to partner with Square Enix Collective for their latest title. Fans are the heart of multiplayer games and by choosing to work with Square Enix Collective, Bulkhead Interactive knows the task of expanding and nurturing Battalion 1944’s community is in very experienced hands.

To announce their partnership, the team at Bulkhead Interactive released this video explaining why Square Enix Collective is the ideal publisher for Battalion 1944.

Fight in real world locations such as the streets of Carentan, the forests of Bastogne and many more in our spiritual successor to the great multiplayer shooters of the past. Precise aim with your Kar98, covering fire with your M1 Garand and quick thinking with your Thompson are key to your success, all packaged into a competitive multiplayer environment. In short, Battalion 1944 is an infantry based first person shooter with an emphasis on raw skill. No grinding, no ‘exosuits’, just you and your skill as a player.

More game info available at the Battalion 1944 website.