If you’re looking for a tense, tactical game where skill and cunning are equally important, then look no further than Rainbow Six: Siege. Starting Thursday, August 16, PS4, Xbox One, and PC players can play the game for free until August 20.

If you find yourself hungering for some more Siege after the weekend, you can pick up the Standard, Advanced, Gold, and Complete Editions of the game for a discount of up to 60% off if you purchase before August 27. Players who participate in the free weekend will see all of their progress carry over.

The free weekend coincides with the Six Major Paris tournament, Europe’s largest Rainbow Six: Siege competition ever. Tune in to witness the best professional players from around the world compete at the highest level. The tournament will take place from August 13 to August 19 and be broadcast on twitch.tv/Rainbow6.

The Six Major Paris broadcast is also the place to see the full reveal of Siege’s next season, Operation Grim Sky. The new season will feature two new Operators – an American Attacker and a British Defender – as well as a completely reworked Hereford Base map.

The free weekend is the perfect time to join the more than 35 million Siege players around the world. Rainbow Six Siege is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Get into the Free Weekend August 16-20th.

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.

• Thermaltake Releases New Level 20 GT RGB Plus Edition and Level 20 GT Edition Full-Tower Chassis
• SilentiumPC Announces Regnum RG4T(F) RGB Chassis
• Turtle Beach Announces New Line of Gaming Headsets Branded Atlas
• Thermaltake Riing Plus and Pure Plus RGB Radiator Fan Series Now Amazon Alexa Supported
• Lian Li Announces New Lancool One Case With Tempered Glass and RGB
• Cooler Master Launches its MasterLiquid ML360R RGB CPU Cooler

BattleGoat Studios has released a major update to its flagship strategy game title “Supreme Ruler Ultimate“, featuring new content, modern world updates, and a set of world-building and editing tools.

The original Trump Rising DLC brought the world a hypothetical future featuring President Donald Trump. Today’s Trump’s World update adds a new 2018 Sandbox featuring modern day tensions and relationships, plus new opportunities and threats. Commented Lead Programmer George Geczy, “Starting in the modern day, players can take on the provocations of Russia, Iran, North Korea, and much more. They can play as the US to Make America Great Again, or take on the challenge of other countries trying to make their way in a rapidly changing and unstable world.”

Existing Sandboxes and Campaigns have been updated with new leaders and relationships resulting from recent elections and geo-political changes. Gameplay has also been updated with a number of new features, AI improvements, and other additions, including regular tweets by President Trump to the rest of the world (some are real, some are not – will you be able to tell which are which?) Continue building a wall with Mexico if you desire, or else search for new ways to influence, or maybe alienate, the rest of the world!

The 2020 future scenarios have also been updated to reflect real world changes while presenting hypothetical situations including “Divided States” (the US has collapsed along political lines) and “Global Crisis”, a world where individual nations become increasingly isolationist and aggressive.

In addition, BattleGoat is pleased to release the Supreme Ruler Map Editor and Content Editor tools, for the first time allowing players to not only modify existing maps and sandboxes, but to create entirely new past, present and future scenarios, and even entirely new worlds.

Availability: The Supreme Ruler Trump’s World Update is available immediately as a FREE update to Supreme Ruler Ultimate. The Supreme Ruler Map Editor and Content Editor tools are also being released for free to all players.

You can purchase Supreme Ruler Ultimate via Steam.

Indian Themed Dharma Add-on Coming Next Month

The riches and intrigue of Indian politics are the focus of Europa Universalis IV: Dharma, the newest expansion to Paradox Development Studio’s classic historical grand strategy game. Will you defend the subcontinent against foreign commercial empires? Can you set up a European trading empire in one of the richest lands on the globe?

You will get your chance to build a new world-spanning empire on 06 September, 2018, less than a month from today. You can watch the Europa Universalis IV: Dharma – Release Date/Story Trailer HERE.

Features in Europa Universalis IV: Dharma include:

• Design Your Government: Unlock reforms that will define how you govern your kingdom or republic, earning free policies and boosting the power of some estates.
• Reworked Policy System: Policies get a new look in the free update, but Dharma will include special bonuses that make this system even more attractive.
• Trade Company Investments: Upgrade and improve the provinces tied to your trade companies, conferring bonuses both to the European master and neighboring Indian nations.
• New Cossack Government: Exclusive for owners of The Cossacks expansion.
• New Indian Mission Trees: Unique mission paths for the most important Indian sultanates and kingdoms.
• New Indian Estates: Alongside a free update to the estate system, India gets five new castes. Raise the brahmins to reduce unrest in a province or install Jain governors for a boost to income while reducing manpower..
• New Mughal Culture Bonus: The Mughal Empire can assimilate and accommodate newly conquered cultures with ease.
• Charter Companies: Europeans can buy a foothold into trade charter zones in Africa and Asia, if they can find a prince that trusts them.
• Upgraded Trade Centers: Invest in the development of your Centers of Trade

And more, including: new ways to suppress rebellion, the monsoon season, new uses for colonists in non-colonial development, scornful insults, multiplayer teams, new art, and a host of new achievements.

As usual with Paradox expansions, Dharma will be accompanied by a large update, free for all Europa Universalis players. The Mughals update will include a more detailed map of the Indian region, a renewed Estate system, and a new approach to Policies.

AMD today announced the release of the 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors, featuring the new 2990WX processor with 32 cores and 64 threads, along with the 16-core, 32-thread AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X processor. We have collected a number of reviews on AMD’s new 2nd Gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs, and you can read them via the links provided below.

• HARDOCP
• GURU3D (2950X)
• GURU3D (2990WX)
• ANANDTECH
• TOM’S HARDWARE
• HARDWARE CANUCKS
• HOT HARDWARE
• PC PERSPECTIVE
• HEXUS
• BIT TECH
• THE TECH REPORT
• TECHPOWERUP!

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.

• AMD Launches World’s Most Powerful Desktop Processor: 2nd Generation Threadripper
• Cooler Master Announces the Wraith Ripper for 2nd Generation Threadripper
• INNO3D Entering a New Era, Introducing iCHILL High Performance Gaming Memory
• ENERMAX Readies LIQMAX II 240 Liquid Cooler for 2nd Gen AMD Threadripper
• Thrustmaster’s New T.Flight U.S. Air Force Edition Gaming Headset Available Soon
• MSI Announces the MEG X399 Creation Motherboard
• EK Water Blocks Releases Acetal C6H Monoblock for ASUS ROG Crosshair VI and VII
• ADATA XPG Unveils SPECTRIX D41 TUF Gaming Edition DDR4 RGB Memory
• EK Water Blocks Releases CPU Monoblock for ASRock X470 Taichi Series
• Alphacool Announces New RGB-Enhancing Products – The Aurora Frame and HardTube RGB Ring
• NZXT Announces H700 Nuka-Cola Limited Edition Fallout Themed Chassis
• Cooler Master Introduces MasterBox MB530P with Three Tempered Glass Panels and Addressable RGB

‘Evil Twin Artworks’, the award winning indie team behind PC RTS classic, ‘Victory At Sea’ discuss the difficulties in developing an open world sandbox for their upcoming RTS, Victory At Sea Pacific.

“When we first started developing Victory At Sea Pacific we took the stance that it would be similar to the original, where you focused on one fleet,” said James Carroll, Director at Evil Twin Artworks. “However as the scale of the game increased it became obvious that the player would be better off taking control of the entire Pacific Theatre.”

“One of the hardest aspects of building an open world RTS covering the entire Pacific war was creating a sensible system that would allow the player to manage the whole thing. If we had any brains we would have made the top level turn based, with the individual battles played out in real time.”

To prevent it from being overwhelming the player is introduced to the Bridge in stages, bringing a huge amount of control and customisability, as well as emphasising the cat and mouse aspects of running naval battles over such a vast area.

To find out more you can visit their blog HERE.

The Steam page for Victory At Sea Pacific can be found HERE. Get more game info on the Victory At Sea Pacific official website.

Source: TechPowerUp!

AMD has released version 18.8.1 Beta of its Radeon Software Adrenalin drivers that keep your graphics card’s performance equal to that of a well/oiled machine (figuratively, of course). The new software version brings driver-level support and improvements for the upcoming (and highly awaited) Monster Hunter: World. for that game, this driver release promises up to 5% and 6% increased performance on AMD’s RX Vega graphics card and RX 580, respectively, compared to AMD’s 18.6.1 driver release at 1080p.

This driver also adds support for World of Warcraft : Battle for Azeroth, We Happy Few, and Madden NFL 19. Another interesting additions are the extended functions for the Vulkan API, supporting more commands than previous driver versions.

The new Radeon Software Adrenalin 18.8.1 Beta drivers are available online at the AMD driver download page.

Source: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA has released GeForce 398.82 WHQL drivers. These drivers are game-ready for the week’s hottest game releases: “World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth,” and “Monster Hunter: World.” The drivers also add or update SLI profiles for “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4″ and “World of Warcraft.” The drivers fix color corruption seen on “World of Warcraft: Legion” on machines with G-Sync HDR and Windows HDR mode enabled. The drivers also bring back graphics settings in “Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus,” and missing G-Sync Control Panel on machines with G-Sync Surround.

You can download the new GeForce 398.82 WHQL drivers through GeForce Experience or via GeForce.com.

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.

• MAD CATZ Announces All-New Range of Products, Including Iconic R.A.T. Gaming Mice
• In Win Launches 915 Chassis with Motorized Top Vent
• AMD Announces 2nd Generation Ryzen Threadripper 2000, up to 32 Cores/64 Threads!
• Deepcool Launches MATREXX 55 ATX PC Case w/ Tempered Glass
• GIGABYTE Releases AORUS M5 Gaming Mouse
• GIGABYTE Raises the X399 AORUS XTREME Motherboard
• AMD Announces the B450 Chipset
• ASUS Launches AMD B450 Series Motherboards
• ASRock Announces AMD B450 Motherboards
• GIGABYTE Announces B450 AORUS Motherboard Series
• MSI Announces New Range of AMD B450 Chipset Motherboards
• Antec Announces Mercury RGB Series Liquid CPU Coolers
• Be Quiet! Expands PSU Cables Line Up To All Black Modular Cables
• HyperX Announces HyperX Pulsefire FPS Pro RGB Gaming Mouse