Four New & Unique Vehicles Are Obtainable In This Year’s In-game-Event Series, Plus Plenty of Decals, Decorations And More

Gaijin Entertainment’s vehicular combat MMO War Thunder has launched the “Chronicles of World War II”, a series of in-game events recreating some of the most important battles of World War II. Between mid-April and Victory Day in May, players can take part in more than 40 of the biggest military clashes of the 20th century and earn four new and unique premium vehicles in the process. Available are the armored car T18E2 for the United States, the Lorraine 155 MLE.50 tank destroyer for France, the Whirlwind P.9 attacker for Great Britain and the TANDEM-MAI multipurpose fighter for the USSR. Apart from the exclusive vehicles, event participants can earn dozens of dedicated decals and decorations, which all will be available only during this year’s series.

All in-game events of the series are held in their historical chronological order, beginning with the German invasion of the USSR in 1941 until the final Battle for Berlin in 1945. Pilots and tankers will clash on the hot deserts of North Africa, fight along the narrow streets of European cities and hunt each other in the skies above the Pacific Ocean. Every day, six new events are available in all difficulty settings, through which participants can earn the “Chronicle Awards” necessary for unlocking the aforementioned content.

In addition to the exclusive rewards obtainable in the events, special bonuses including premium vehicles are also available by fulfilling tasks in War Thunder’s regular random battles and earning “Parts” in the process. With those, players can obtain decorative items and decals that were previously available only in specials and later also use them to unlock the premium lend-lease Matilda Mk. II infantry tank for the USSR and premium PV-2D Harpoon bomber for the USA. The number of tasks performed by all players of War Thunder is tracked on the game’s official website, and whenever it reaches a certain milestone, in-game participants receive awards and, ultimately, the blueprints to assemble both the tank and bomber for free.

More information about the events and obtainable awards, including historical and technical information on the unique premium vehicles, can be found on the official War Thunder website HERE.

A great classic game returns, as Strategic Command Classic: WWII is now available!

The Matrix version is the Gold Edition of the Original Strategic Command: Blitzkrieg and Weapons and Warfare combined. It also Patton Drives East expansion and Strategic Command Pacific Theatre.

From the product page:

“Combining the ease of play, accessibility and addicting gameplay, Strategic Command Classic: World War II adds tons of features in a single game.”

Weapons and Warfare (the expanded & enhanced version of the original Blitzkrieg)

Rewrite history with 6 full length, open ended campaigns beginning at key stages of World War II. Begin the war from the historical invasion of Poland in 1939, Denmark and Norway in 1940, Russia in 1941, Stalingrad in 1942, the invasion of Sicily by the Allies in 1943 or the epic beach landings of D-Day in 1944.

Pacific

Players will be able to wage war across the massive expanse of the Pacific Ocean. From British occupied India, Tibet, Nepal and China in the West to Pearl Harbor and the West Coast of the US and Canada. WWII Pacific Theatre features a very large map, at 198×82 tiles in size.

Patton Drives East

Patton Drives East allows players to explore the historically possible what ifs of WWII such as:

• What if the Western Allies and the Soviet Union went to war after defeating the Axis?
• Could America liberate a Europe subjugated by the Axis?
• What if the Western Allies had accepted a surrender from Germany and together they would fight against the USSR?”

Important!

This is not a new game. We are taking over from Battlefront as the publisher of this game.

The Gold Edition allow players to play:

• Blitzkrieg + Weapons and Warfare
• Pacific Theatre
• Patton Drives East

To purchase Strategic Command Classic: WWII  and get more game information, visit the official webpage.

By Steven @ GamingIntel

Activision including Black Ops 4 Battle Royale Mode in the next Call of Duty title seems a strong likelihood to us. Back in March we reported it would not be a surprise to see Battle Royale introduced, this was for many reasons.

WHY BLACK OPS 4 BATTLE ROYALE MAKES SENSE

• The success of Fortnite and PUBG
• Huge revenue generated in Fortnite from Microtransactions
• Battle Royale concept is still fresh and in-demand
• Call of Duty is stagnating as a franchise

A recent report from Polygon states “Black Ops 4 won’t have traditional single-player campaign, will instead focus on Multiplayer and Zombies”. On top of this Charlie INTEL recently tweeted a report stating “a tipster also informed CI that Raven Software has reportedly been tasked with adding a Battle Royale mode to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 to fill the content gap of no campaign”.

This sounds to be the making of an extremely shrewd business decision by Activision on multiple levels. I’m sure a previous Activision meeting went along the lines of “Why include a campaign which takes up a considerable portion of the budget and development time, when you can include a new hyped game mode which has the potential to generate huge amounts through micro-transactions”. This ties in with our earlier article where a report suggested “Activision is keenly aware of how other publishers have benefited from releasing titles in the popular Battle Royale genre”.

With no single player campaign, this also allows Activision to use the established and popular ‘Black Ops’ brand without having to tie it into the storyline. The setting and mechanics do not have to corroborate with the timeline of Black Ops 3, which is important given the general dislike of boost jumps and Exo Suits. Of course we expect Easter Eggs and references back to the previous series but this is much less of an undertaking than fitting in a whole new storyline.

Read on…

By Morry Teitelman @ PC Perspective

The ECS Z370 Lightsaber motherboard is the latest offering in ECS’ L337 product line, offering support for the Intel Z370 chipset. Similar to previous iterations of the Lightsaber board, the Z370-Lightsaber builds on the those board by adding dual-m.2 slot support, enhanced power support, as well as support for the latest Intel Coffee Lake-based processors. With an MSRP of $199, ECS priced the Z370 Lightsaber to be price-competitive with other mid-tier Z370-based offerings.

Read the Review Here

By Hilbert Hagedoorn @ Guru3D

NZXT super-sized their Kraken series liquid coolers, meet the x72 for cases with 360 mm radiator mounts. This new cooler is compatible with CAM software. This allows you to program, customize and monitor this all-in-one liquid cooling solution for your processor. Armed with three 120mm PWM fans and a nice radiator to go with it, the performance is really good, next to being extremely silent, NZXT probably has got the best-LED lighting system implementation in the industry as well.

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 Releases Full Copper C7 Cu Heatsink
• MSI Announces Intel 8th Gen Gaming Desktops with G.A.M.E. Unlimited
• Cooler Master Announces Its First Addressable RGB AIO Liquid CPU Coolers
• exklim Presents Their eX Core Portable eGPU That Turns Any Computer Into a Gaming Rig
• AOC Announces AGON Monitor with AMD Radeon FreeSync 2 and VESA DisplayHDR 400
• AVerMedia Introduces the SonicWave GH335 and GH337 Gaming Headsets
• ASUS Officially Announces to Reposition Radeon Cards Under AREZ Branding
• Crucial Releases Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4 Gaming Memory
• Benq Goes FreeSync 2 With 32-inch EX3203R Monitor
• Lian Li Launches Their PC-O11 Dynamic Chassis
• Thermalright Announces ARO-M14 Series Ryzen CPU Coolers
• WD Adds New Ultrastar DC HC530 14TB Hard Drive

By Charles Ellis @ The Wargamer

Eugen and Paradox have released their second piece of premium DLC for Steel Division: Normandy ‘44. This time rather alarmingly titled: Back to Hell. We’ve been a tad tardy with our coverage on this one, but in this humble writer’s opinion, if you’re in the market for buying just one Steel Division add-on (out of the two available), this is the one you want.

Read on…

Order of Battle: Sandstorm is the new DLC for Order of Battle. It brings the series to North Africa for the first time, putting you in the shoes of Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox himself, commander of the Axis forces in North Africa between 1941 and 1943.

The DLC’s developer The Artistocrats have released a glimpse of the new campaign and reveal more information about the new scenarios coming in Order of Battle: Sandstorm. New screenshots are shared too!

Visit this Matrix Games news page and take a look!

By Thomas Soderstrom @ Tom’s Hardware

If you’re the kind of builder who shops extensively before making a purchase, you’ve probably seen Colorful components pop up from time to time on the domestic market. Certain foreign sellers have long sought to cash in on the U.S. market by filling gaps, and Colorful has the volume to help it do just that. Yet for most of us, the volume that reaches our shores has represented little more than a trickle. The iGame Z370-X might change all that.

Read the Review Here

By Darksaber @ TechPowerUp!

The Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic is not simply an updated version of the existing PC-O11. It is a unique beast of its own that essentially only shares its timeless looks with the current variants. Thanks to the input of German pro-overclocker der8auer the PC-O11 Dynamic aims to offer loads of radiator support, while allowing for an uncompromising choice of high-end hardware.

Read the Review Here