Month: September 2019

Source: Blue’s News

Ubisoft discusses what will go on before and after the release of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint by revealing plans for the beta of the shooter sequel as well as the post-release content it will receive. Word is the closed beta client is now available to preorder customers, and the beta will include a charity event. Here’s a new live-action Jon Bernthal trailer and here’s word:

Players can now pre-load Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Breakpoint Beta to play from September 5-8 on all available platforms. Access to the Closed Beta is available to players who pre-order the game, UPLAY+ subscribers, players who participated in the game’s Online Technical Tests as well as randomly selected players who registered on the Beta sign-up page. Closed Beta players will also have the opportunity to take part in Man Down, a special in-game charity event to raise money for the global NGO Child’s Play.

During the Closed Beta players will have access to several provinces and missions to explore in up to four player co-op or solo. Missions available include two Operation Greenstone missions, taken from the main storyline; Auroa Missions, which include side missions to discover more about the island and its inhabitants and Faction Missions which include eight new missions per day. Drone Areas are also available to test player’s strength in battle, where they can face-off against Murmurs, small flying drones that can swarm players; Aamons, mid-size land drones and Behemoths, huge, heavily armored drones with intense firepower.

Find more information about the Closed Beta here.

During the Closed Beta, players can participate in Man Down, a special in game charity event, donating to Child’s Play by teaming up in co-op and helping their teammates by reviving them when they are down. The more players participate, the more Ubisoft will donate, so team-up and protect your squad mates!

In addition to Closed Beta details, the Post-Launch plan for Year 1 is now available. Year 1 Post-Launch starts at launch with Operation Greenstone, followed by Episode 2 and 3, coming every 4 months. Each Episode will receive hours of new content and support including a New Adventure, New End-game Content (Raid and Updates), Faction Missions as well as PvP Updates and regular new content, detailed below:

• New Adventures: New story-driven content that expands the main story of the game will be available with each episode.
• New End-Game Content: Every Episode will bring new End-Game content. Episode 1 brings the Project Titan Raid. Players will explore an active volcano on a new island in the Auroa archipelago where they need to use all the skills learned on Auroa in intense four-play co-op challenges. The Raid is replayable and adaptable for all play styles.
• New Faction Missions: Factions in the game will evolve over time and every month, new narrative Story Faction Missions will be released, bringing context as well as character development. New Faction Missions will be available daily and will provide objectives to support the factions and their narrative arcs.
• New Classes: Three new classes will be introduced in Year 1, starting with the Engineer which brings an expertise in hacking.
• Live Events: These events will feature VIPs that will help Nomad tackle new, terrible threats. A new Event will be available with each Year 1 Episode and lasts one month.
• PvP Updates: In addition to the three new classes coming Year 1, which will be fully playable in PvP, new maps and updates will keep Ghost War players on their toes.
• Regular New Content: New content such as new missions, activities and unlockables will be available with each new episode.

For players looking to dive deeper in Auroa, the novel “The World of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint” releases on October 31. The book is now available to pre-order here and includes for insight into the making of the game, the creation of its universe and into Auroa’s secrets.

Also released today is a new trailer featuring critically-acclaimed actor Jon Bernthal who portrays Cole D. Walker, leader of the Wolves. The trailer follows Walker’s journey from becoming a Ghost and fighting alongside Nomad, to becoming leader of the Wolves, the organization that took over Auroa from tech-giant and drone producer Skell Technology, shutting it off from the world and weaponizing their drones.

For more information about Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, visit ghostrecon.com.

Source: TechPowerUp!

AMD today posted the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition drivers. Version 19.9.1 beta comes with day-one optimization for “Gears 5,” with up to 5 percent performance improvement in the DirectX 12 mode. It also expands the Vulkan API feature-set with four new extensions, “VK_AMD_device_coherent_memory,” “VK_EXT_calibrated_timestamps,” “VK_EXT_line_rasterization,” and “VK_EXT_shader_demote_to_helper_invocation.” Lastly, the drivers address a bug that causes GIGABYTE RGB Fusion 2.0 software to hang the system on graphics cards based on RX 5700-series GPUs.

The new Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.9.1 beta drivers are available online at the AMD driver download page.

The King is Back

You thought lightning strikes just once? Think again! Command: Modern Operations, the sequel to 2013’s Wargame of The Year “Command – Modern Air/Naval Operations” is coming soon.

The first release of Command rocked the foundations of modern PC wargaming, steamrolled its way into the Pentagon and won numerous “Wargame Of The Year” awards. Now, the restless rascals at WarfareSims are back at it with a vengeance! The already legendary game of modern cross-domain operations returns with an all-new UI, even more refined simulation mechanics and a host of new features and content to engross you into the challenges of warfare post-WW2 and in the 21st century. Are you ready? Are you up to it?

• A dark UI for our dark times: Command’s user interface has been radically overhauled with a dark, sleek theme that emphasizes usability and style. In addition, Command can now be played either as a standard desktop windowed application or as a more traditional full-screen game.
• Command in comfort: Hundreds of tweaks, changes and improvements on the user interface and gameplay experience directly based on player feedback. Minimaps? Check. Quickly load recent scenarios or saves? Yup. Real-time dynamic ORBATs of both friendly forces and known contacts? Yessir. Time-step sim execution to prevent “runaway sim”? Can do. Glorious victories or crushing defeats have never felt so easy to experience.
• Treat your eyes while punishing your foes: Feast your vision on Command’s new smooth-flowing global map, complete with new high-resolution map layers that must be seen to be believed. More than half a terabyte’s worth of imagery & terrain information at your fingertips to exploit in combat or just wander around. Optionally link up with Tacview for real-time 3D visualization of the battlefield.
• The war just got more ruthless: Don’t spend too long gawking at the pretty UI and maps, because the battlefield is even more alive and ready to crush you! Expanded ground ops let you take advantage of distinct terrain types (desert, forest, urban, swamps etc.) for mobility, weapon effects and visibility. Enhanced AI routines for dogfights and even more technical factors make your grip on air superiority more tenuous. The groundbreaking features of the “Chains Of War” campaign are now standard: Disrupt your enemy’s communications to isolate his units (but watch out for your own), perform scriptless amphibious, airdrop or pickup operations, watch as aircraft limber back shot almost to pieces and marvel at exotic new weaponry.
• Jump quickly into battle, or build your own war: The new “Quick Battle Generator” lets you quickly get into the action without worrying about wider strategic or political complexities. Or use the scenario editor to put together your own dream battle just the way you want it. Enhanced scripting capabilities through the built-in Lua engine mean you can even create your own combat AIs. Think you can create your own WOPR/Joshua? Prove it!
• Six years on and still the best: All the original Command official scenarios remastered from the ground up by professional scenario designer Rory Noonan (author of the “Silent Service” DLC), plus brand-new official and community scenarios to quench your mayhem appetite. Updated cold-war and modern-day databases with the latest in hardware and systems mean you’ll never run out of setups to try out. Seamlessly import and use your existing Command scenarios, saves, .inst files and more!

Watch the Command: Modern Operations Announcement Trailer HERE. Find out more about Command: Modern Operations at the games official website.

Source: TechPowerUp!

Ubisoft’s games SaaS (software as a service) subscription platform, UPlay+, has gone live in select markets, such as the UK. The month of September is completely free, and is charged £12.99 per month thereafter. Unlike Origin Access, UPlay+ isn’t tiered, and you get full access to over 100 AAA titles from Ubisoft, including their premium editions and DLCs. UPlay+ subscribers also become eligible to early-access beta access to upcoming games. You also get SaaS essentials such as the ability to cancel your subscription at any time, and renew it later (along with your data intact). There’s a catch to the September FFA – you need to provide your credit card details upfront, which UPlay authenticates with a £1 reversible charge. On October 1, the first charge for £12.99 takes place, and your subscription rolls on. Reddit members have reported teething troubles with the payment gateway such as failed credit card charges.

By Peter Donnell @ eTeknix

Regular eTeknix readers may recall our review of the Lian Li 011-Dynamic just a couple of months ago. Well, Lian Li is back and they’re going big! The new Lian Li 01–Dynamic XL is their latest monster-case built for those with big intentions. Massive water cooling and air cooling potential, huge tempered glass windows, and uncompromising hardware support? It has them all, and then some. If that’s not enough, it’s also ROG Certified. Albeit, to my knowledge that means the built-in RGB can be used with Aura Sync and it has a ROG logo on the side. But hey, that’s still cool with me.

Read The Review Here

By Hilbert Hagedoorn @ Guru3D

High-performance NVMe SSDs tend to run hot. Ergo you have seen the manufacturers offer solutions with heatsinks, incl motherboard manufacturers making that even easier for you. Team Group takes it to the next level, as they are fitting the Cardea NVMe SSD with a heatsink holding liquid. That’s right, that is passive liquid cooling for you.

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.

• Be Quiet! Unveils the Pure Base 500 Case
• ENERMAX Introduces a New CPU Air Cooler ETS-T50 AXE ARGB Version
• AOC Launches CQ27G1 Curved Monitor: 27 Inch, 144 Hz, FreeSync, Sub-$300
• HyperX Now Shipping the Cloud Orbit and Cloud Orbit S Gaming Headsets
• EK Water Blocks Announces the EK-Momentum MSI Z390 MEG Godlike D-RGB Monoblocks
• Antec Striker Open-air Mini-tower Launched at $249.99
• ASROCK Radeon RX 5700 XT TAICHI OC Pictured
• MSI Rolls Out MAG Optix G27C4 1500R Curved Monitor with 165Hz Refresh Rate
• AMD To Handle Boost Clock Frequency Differentials with Firmware Update
• Intel Releases Graphics Drivers with Integer Upscaling – Only Available on Ice Lake