Month: May 2017

Ace Combat franchise director Kazutoki Kono announced in an open letter addressed to fans that Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is being delayed until sometime in 2018. Here’s that letters content:

Dear Ace Combatants,

I wanted to take this opportunity to speak with you directly, our loyal ACE COMBAT fans, and give you a first-hand update on the launch timing for ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN.

The Project ACES team and I have been working hard on ACE COMBAT 7 and we’re determined to achieve the vision we have set for the game. To reach that vision, we have decided to move the launch of ACE COMBAT 7 to 2018.

We would have loved to launch ACE COMBAT 7 at the end of 2017 as we originally intended, but doing so would compromise our goal for the game. We take our art very seriously and that means we have instead chosen to devote additional time and effort to perfect and optimize this newest chapter of the ACE COMBAT saga. The combination of the Unreal 4 Engine and the power of current generation consoles and PC hardware have literally opened the “skies of opportunity” to us to develop the best ACE COMBAT experience to-date. At no other time in ACE COMBAT’s 20+ year history has gaming technology allowed us to deliver the minute details of flight combat – such as cloud cover and air currents – or give players a new way to experience dogfights and attack sorties through hardware such as the new PlayStation VR.

We’ll have a lot more information and details to share with you in the coming months, starting at E3 2017 where we plan to reveal a brand-new demo showcasing one of the non-VR missions in ACE COMBAT 7 for the first time ever!

On behalf of the entire Project ACES team, I want to thank you all for your patience and for your continued support.

Sincerely,
Kazutoki Kono – ACE COMBAT Franchise Director

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is currently rated PEGI 16. The game will be coming for the PlayStation 4 system, Xbox One, and PC via STEAM. To find out more about Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, head over to the games official website.

Last February, developers from M2H and Blackmill Games visited the Western Front together with the The Great War YouTube Channel.

The Great War dedicated a special episode to the French fortress called Fort Douaumont. The fortress protected the city of Verdun and was captured without a fight by the Germans in February 1916.

In this episode, the Verdun developers explain to host ‘Indy’ Neidell how they rebuilt the fort in their game Verdun, staying as historically accurate as possible.

Verdun is the first multiplayer FPS set in a realistic First World War setting. The merciless trench warfare offers a unique battlefield experience, immersing you and your squad into intense battles of attack and defense.

The game takes place on the western front between 1914 and 1918, in one of the bloodiest conflicts in world history. The developers were inspired by the infamous Battle of Verdun France in 1916. The game offers 4 distinct game-modes; Frontlines, Attrition, Rifle Deathmatch and Squad Defense. Also many historically accurate features are included such as realistic WW1 weaponry, authentic uniforms, gore and maps based on the real battlefields of France and Belgium.

Find out more about Verdun at the games official website.

Today, Ubisoft announced that the second expansion for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Fallen Ghosts, will be available to season pass owners simultaneously on Xbox One, PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system and Windows PC on May 30th, 2017. The expansion will release for individual purchase for all players a week later, on June 6th, 2017.

Fallen Ghosts takes place after the fall of the Santa Blanca Cartel. With Unidad’s military force unable to maintain control over Bolivia, the country is in a state of civil war. To help restore order, the Unidad enlists cartel members, veterans, mercenaries and criminals from various nearby countries as volunteers. Together, they form a new brutal special unit, Los Extranjeros, which is ordered to track and eliminate all American agents.

In this chaotic situation, the Ghosts have one last mission: evacuate the last CIA members and American civilians remaining in the country. Shot down enroute to their mission, the Ghosts find themselves in the middle of the jungle, without external support, facing deadly enemies equipped with the latest gear and technology. These dangerous elite soldiers are separated into four distinct classes:

• Armoured: Equipped with heavy bulletproof plates, they are especially threatening in close combat.
• Elite Sniper: Geared up with an advanced movement detector, these Elite Snipers are able to spot far away targets, and never miss their shot.
• Jammer: With a jamming antenna directly in their backpack, they are able to neutralise drones and interfere with all electronic equipment.
• Covert Ops: Equipped with a new prototype cloaking device, that makes them almost invisible, and a powerful crossbow, they give a new meaning to the word “Ghost.”

The Fallen Ghosts campaign will feature 15 new missions in which players will have to take down four new bosses located in three different regions. In the expansion, players will start with a new character at level 30 and equipped with all of the main game skills. The level cap will increase from 30 to 35, and players will be able to unlock nine new skills, including physical, weapon and drones skills.

Fallen Ghosts also features six exclusive new weapons, ranging from new assaults rifles, sniper rifles and a crossbow that can be equipped with explosive arrows.

Finally, the more hardcore players will be pleased to know that the advanced and expert difficulties have been tweaked to offer an even higher challenge. By turning the HUD off, players will get the most extreme and tactical experience possible in Ghost Recon: Wildlands.

For more information about Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, please visit games official website.

[North Africa] was the only theatre where the principles of motorized and tank warfare, as they had been taught theoretically before the war, could be applied to the full-and further developed. It was the only theatre where the pure tank battle between major formations was fought.” — Field Marshall Erwin Rommel

Matrix Games is very proud to announce a new wargame is in the making, Desert War: 1940 – 1942!

Take the lead of the Italian-German forces or the Commonwealth and relive the key moments of the war!

In Desert War, your main concern will be the safety of your supplies! Make sure to not overstretch your lines and be prepared for enemy incursions within your perimeter!

The game employs a WEGO system that will make you plan your moves very carefully: will you wait for reinforcements, leaving the initiative to the enemy or will you try to exploit his mistakes, possibly risking your entire frontline?

The choice is yours!

Get more information about Desert War: 1940 – 1942 from its official product page!

Source: UbiBlog

Rainbow Six: Siege boasts a thriving community of online players, and the game’s overall health is always chief among the development team’s priorities. As such, the team has made the decision to focus on improving the overall Rainbow Six: Siege experience over the next three months with a series of improvements and changes called Operation Health.

Operation Health is a hard push toward tech improvements and bug fixes, and it introduces a new three-stage deployment process for updates, with new features first rolling out on a Technical Test Server, then on PC, then on consoles. (There’s also a new on/off feature in case a rollback is needed). Because of this new focus, the planned Hong Kong season will be pushed back to Season Three in August, while November’s Season Four will feature South Korea. Poland will no longer have its own season in Year Two, but its GROM Operators will be available at the start of seasons three and four. The number of new maps has also been reduced to three, and includes the most recent map set in Spain.

Read on…

A Tsar is Born. Can You Bring Third Rome to Glory?

For 500 years, the princes of Russia have kept the faith. Through civil wars and Mongol conquest, the word of God has not just survived, but has united our people. Those princes who embrace the church will find glory, those who turn their back will be cast to dust. There have been two Romes, and both have fallen. Muscovy is the third.

There shall be no fourth.

Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studio are thrilled to announce Europa Universalis IV: Third Rome. The first immersion pack for the best-selling historical strategy game introduces a wealth of region-specific content, and takes a deeper look at one of the greatest powers of the early modern era – Russia. Russian cultured nations will find new interactions for their government and the Orthodox Patriarchate, deepening the experience of playing this rich and fascinating region.

Russia now gets two unique governments, with special abilities that allows them to tighten their grip on power. Use your administrative ability to reduce provincial autonomy. Call on your diplomatic resources to suppress incipient revolts. Use your military resources to quickly recruit streltsy units for your army. Rule with the iron fist that comes with a divine blessing.

Features of Europa Universalis IV: Third Rome include:

• Tsardoms and Principalities: New ranks of Russian government with new abilities and, for Tsars, strong bonuses including the right to claim entire States – not just provinces
• Iconography: Commission great religious icons for the Orthodox Church, boosting your empire’s power depending on the saint you choose to revere
• Patriarchs: Consecrate highly developed provinces with Patriarchs, adding to the authority of the Orthodox Church, but for a cost.
• Streltsy: Special Russian soldiers that excel in combat, but raise the cost of stabilizing your empire
• Siberian Frontier: Russian nations can slowly colonize uninhabited border regions, with no fear of native uprisings
• New Graphics: Includes three full unit packs and new portraits for Eastern Europe.

As usual, Third Rome will be accompanied by a free update to Europa Universalis IV, available for everyone who owns the base game.

Watch the Europa Universalis IV: Third Rome Announcement Trailer here.

Without any doubt, the United Kingdom as we know today, couldn’t exist without the conflict known as the “English Civil War”. For 9 long years, from 1642 to 1651 the country saw two major factions fighting each other to the end not just for supremacy, but to build the foundations of the new English Society for centuries to come.

Starting with inconclusive battles and with practically untrained troops, this conflict ended with the establishment of probably one of the best armies England ever had – the New Model Army – and with the initial structure of a Constitutional Monarchy that remains a part of England to this day.

Even though Parliament only achieved final supremacy in the management of government affairs 40 years later during the Glorious Revolution, the seeds of change which ultimately lead to the creation of the English Kingdom similar to its present form, can be directly linked to the battlefields of Edgehill and

The new turn-based grand strategy game developed by Ageod and published by Matrix Games aims to recreate this bitter and decisive war with historical precision. With a detailed selection of the historical units of the conflict you will find the Covenanters, Newcastle’s whitecoats, Cromwell’s Ironside’s, the New Model Army or the Cornish legendary infantry.

Players can build and manage their armies, throughout the campaigns set in the various theaters of operations like Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Bristol, Lincolnshire, and more.The game includes an innovative card system that lets you trigger general “war” events such as the Commission of Array, Recruitment, Break Blockade.

More Historical Events are triggered throughout the game giving the player crucial decision points. These cover anything from the seize of a city, The arrival of the Queen to Covenanters intervention.

Watch the English Civil War release trailer here.

By Joe Evans @ Legit Reviews

Corsair has added yet one more product to their ever growing gaming peripheral repertoire with their launch of the GLAIVE RGB Gaming Mouse. If you’re like me, the word glaive drew a big blank so I had to look it up to find out that it simply means ‘sword’. Being that a sword is an instrument of warfare and many games are combat based, it seems as an appropriate a appellation as any. It also follows the seemingly growing trend of titling it in all caps which is probably some clever marketing trick to make the product stand out in a listing or triggering some memory mnemonic in prospective customers. Maybe it’s none of the above and I’m simply reading too much into it. Either way, we have our hot hands on one to see if it meets one of their taglines of “Winning never felt so good”. Sword in hand, we plunge ahead.

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.

• ZOTAC Announces GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ArcticStorm with Full-cover Waterblock
• Raijintek Intros the Leto Tower-type CPU Cooler
• New AMD 16 Core Ryzen Whitehaven Engineering Samples Surface
• Linksys EA9300 Tri-band MU-MIMO Router Unveiled For $300
• NETGEAR Nighthawk X10 R9000 Tri-Band Router Supports 4600Mbps
• BIOSTAR Intros Radeon RX 580 8GB Dual Cooling Graphics Card
• Inno3D Squeezes a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Into a Single Slot

The public beta phase of the v1.12 update (the companion to the upcoming “Chains Of War” DLC pack) has been concluded, and the “Gold” version is now going through the production paces. We have already covered most of the new major features in the DLC, such as communications disruption, aircraft damage and the new weapon types. Today we are looking at arguably the most anticipated new feature of v1.12: Cargo, amphib and airdrop operations.

About Chains of War:

20 minutes into the future, a spark erupts in the Korean peninsula that will lead to a theater wide conflagration embroiling the entire Western Pacific and drag all major powers into it. With nothing less at stake than control over the world’s busiest trade routes and containment of the emergent superpower, the Pacific becomes the world’s stage – and the players are getting down to brass tacks, for this is the game that no side can afford to lose.

The geopolitical nightmares of the new century: The creators of the award-winning “Northern Inferno” shift their gaze from the Atlantic to the Pacific and bring into focus the challenges of the early 21st century: The ever-present tensions between North and South Korea reach a boiling point, while China and the US vie for control of the strategic choke points and bases through which the world’s commerce functions. Will the US maintain its strategic pre-eminence in the most important world theater or will China complete its ascend to superpower status?

The new gears of war: Think the new war in the Pacific will be just like the 1940s but with better bullets? Think again! All-new systems and technologies radically change the face of modern high-level conflict. Network and cyber attacks pull apart carefully constructed communications networks, leaving forces in the field blind and separated from their consorts. Electromagnetic pulses delivered from high-altitude nuclear detonations or tactical EMP weapons fry vulnerable electronics, disarming powerful units in a split-second. Massive anti-ship ballistic missiles threaten to turn aircraft carriers into sinking, burning hulks. Railguns deliver accurate, punishing fire at long ranges, challenging the post-WW2 reign of guided missiles. Anti-satellite weapons disrupt the critical communications & intelligence nodes orbiting high in the stars. High-energy lasers burn their targets with intense beams invisible to the naked eye. Are you ready for the intricacies of 21st century war?