Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege will be available to play for free from May 17th to 20th. Interested players can join the more than 30 million Rainbow Six: Siege player community on all consoles and Windows PC. Players who try the game during the free weekend can carry over their progress and continue to play uninterrupted if they purchase the game. They will also benefit from a discount of up to 50% off on the Standard, Advanced, Gold, Complete Editions between May 17th and May 28th in the EMEA region.

The full details and timing of the free weekend are available via the following link: http://rainbow6.com/freeweekend.

In the upcoming Operation Para Bellum, two new Italian operators and a new map, The Villa, will be introduced, alongside many gameplay improvements such as the new Pick & Ban feature. The full reveal of Year 3 Season 2 content of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege will be made on May 19th – 20th during the Pro League Finals in Atlantic City. For more information about the game or news on the upcoming title update, please visit www.rainbow6.com.

*Free Weekend discount available May 17th -21st on PC, May 17th – 23rd on PlayStation Store and May 17th – 28th on Xbox store in the EMEA region.

Matrix Games today have announced that the new expansion in the Order of Battle series, Sandstorm, is now available.

Relive the deeds and battles of Erwin Rommel in North Africa in a new dynamic branching campaign spanning all of the North African theater. Command tons of new units from the Italian army, navy and air force. Learn how to master a new type of battlefield: the desert is merciless and only those who know it well will triumph.

This is a big day for the Order of Battle franchise: on top of the release of Sandstorm we’re proud to announce that the whole Order of Battle saga lands on GOG.com!

And to celebrate this day, we’re about to launch a new sale on all Order of Battle products! Starting from today until May 23rd, the following games will be discounted:

• U.S. Pacific – 75% off
• Rising Sun – 75% off
• U.S. Marines – 50% off
• Morning Sun – 50% off
• Blitzkrieg – 50% off
• Winter War – 50% off
• Kriegsmarine – 50% off
• Burma Road – 34% off
• Panzerkrieg – 34% off

Don’t miss this amazing chance to complete your Order of Battle collection from GOG.com! The offer is only valid for a few days, until May 23rd!

Get more information about Order of Battle: Sandstorm from its official product page!

476 Anno Domini. Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, has been deposed by Odoacer. The last vestiges of the first and greatest unifying power of Europe are now in ruins.

While the old western provinces of the Empire are now ruled by kings of Germanic lineage, the Eastern Roman Empire is solidifying its power, succeeding in preserving the ancient Roman legacy, but its frontiers are far from being at peace.

On its most eastern edges, the House of Sasan has dissolved the old Parthian rule, and on its ashes has created one of the most powerful and influential powers of Early Middle Ages: the Sasanian Empire.

A new age is coming, an age of transformation and bitter fights. An age of warriors and kings, of valorous emperors and generals.

To whom will you swear loyalty?

Age of Belisarius expands Field of Glory II forwards from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD to 600 AD, a period when the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) army transformed itself from a mainly infantry force to a cavalry army in response to the threats it faced.

You can be part of the flowering of the new “barbarian” kingdoms that replaced the Roman Empire in the west, and the conflict between them. You can play a major role in the resurgence of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire and the reconquest by the Emperor Justinian I’s generals, especially Belisarius and later Narses, of the Vandal kingdom of Africa, the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy and part of the Visigothic kingdom of Spain.

You can take part in the almost continuous warfare between the Byzantines and the Sassanid Persians in the East, and the Sassanids’ own troubles with their eastern neighbours, the Hephthalites and the Göktürks. You can lead the Avars to conquer a mighty empire north of the Danube, and to threaten the very existence of the Byzantine Empire – or you can defend against them.

Get more information about Field of Glory II: Age of Belisarius from its official product page.

By Richard Gouge @ HardOCP

AMD has very much upped its game with the latest generation of Ryzen processors. The Ryzen 2700X comes complete with a snazzy looking cooler that has served us well on our test bench, but what happens when you put it inside a hot case with a hot video card and put the screws to it in terms of GHz and wattage on our 4GHz Ryzen testing rig?

Read the Review Here

By Matthew Lambert @ bit-tech

MSI recently launched two new high-end gaming keyboards, the full-size Vigor GK80 and its tenkeyless sibling, the Vigor GK70, which we’re reviewing today. Pricing comes in at £160 and £130 respectively, earmarking them as premium models. As such, it’s no surprise to learn that they come with a full set of mechanical switches and per-key RGB lighting.

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.

• ASRock Launches the X470 Fatal1ty Gaming ITX/ac Mobo
• EK Water Blocks Releasing New Hard Tubing Series Kits
• Size Does Matter – CORSAIR Launches Obsidian 1000D Super-Tower PC Case
• ENERMAX Launches SABERAY, the Flagship RGB Gaming Chassis
• EK Launching Four New Water Blocks for AMD Threadripper CPUs
• GAMDIAS to Reveal the Latest Line-Up of New Products at COMPUTEX 2018
• GIGABYTE Introduces UD PRO Series SSDs
• Colorful Adds SL500 960GB Solid-State Drive
• Thermaltake Announces New View 32 TG RGB Edition Mid-Tower Chassis
• EK Releasing Full-Cover Water Blocks for ASUS GTX 1070 Ti Graphics Cards
• Spire Introduces Ergonomic Single and Dual Monitor Arms
• Jonsbo Announces NC-2 RGB Memory Heatsink
• MSI Reveals All New Radeon RX MECH 2 Series Graphics Cards
• Logitech Debuts New G305 Wireless Gaming Mouse
• Jonsbo Intros CR-201 RGB CPU Cooler
• Raijintek Intros Antila D5 Pump+Reservoir
• Antec Joins PC Building Simulator Adding High Performance Cases to Players
• NVIDIA Confirms G-Sync Ultra HD HDR Monitors Will Launch this Month
• Kingston Encrypted USB Drives are Key Component of Impending GDPR Compliance

Legendary Zero pilot Saburo Sakai was Japan’s most recognized ace, but few knew the man behind the legend 

By Barrett Tillman @ Aviation History Magazine

Saburo Sakai is probably Japan’s best-known pilot of World War II, with the possible exception of Captain Mitsuo Fuchida of Pearl Harbor infamy. In a seven-year combat career, Sakai survived horrible injuries and impossible odds, and almost got a chance to kill Lyndon Baines Johnson. The fact that Sakai never made a combat launch from an aircraft carrier in no way detracts from his significance as a naval aviator and Japan’s third-ranking fighter ace.

Read on…

Tripwire Interactive and Antimatter Games Announce Massive Incoming Update for Award-winning First-person Shooter

As part of its continued commitment to support its active community with regular and significant free updates, Tripwire Interactive and Antimatter Games announced today that the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) update for Rising Storm 2: Vietnam is scheduled to launch soon on May 29, 2018 via Steam.

Over one million Vietnamese served in the ARVN over the course of the Vietnam War, with over 250,000 lost in action. Largely equipped with older US military equipment and trained by foreign military advisors, ARVN soldiers bore the brunt of frontline fighting throughout the war both prior to the escalation of US military involvement and after the US began reducing its troop presence.

With the release of the ARVN update on May 29, 2018 for Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, players will be able to play as soldiers in the ARVN faction for the first time with new weapons and five brand-new maps.

Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Weapons:

• M1 Garand
• M1D Garand Sniper Rifle
• Thompson M1A1 SMG
• M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)
• M1919A6 .30-cal Browning LMG
• Douglas A-1 Skyraider ground-attack aircraft

New Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Maps:

• Quang Tri: Set during 1972, Quang Tri is a daytime supremacy map set in the citadel of the provincial capital, pitting the new ARVN forces with limited US helicopter support against NVA main-force units.
• A Sau: Set on an airfield and fortified camp in the A Sau valley, this nighttime territory attack map finds ARVN forces defending against attacking NVA main-force units. Visibility is limited under the cover of darkness with occasional flares lighting up the battlefield.

New Community Maps:

• Made by fans for fans, the following player-made maps from Tripwire Interactive’s recent RISING STORM 2: VIETNAM $40,000 Modding Contest will also be officially introduced to the game with the release of the ARVN update.
• Firebase Georgina: Daytime attack by main-force NVA on a series of positions held by the US Army.
• Borderwatch: Australian forces attack territory held by the NLF (Viet Cong), pushing through jungles and across open fields to the VC’s final hidden base.
• Resort: US Marines stage a heliborne assault from the sea on a resort area held by Viet Cong guerrillas.

Available now on PC, Rising Storm 2: Vietnam is the sequel to Rising Storm, PC Gamer magazine’s 2013 ‘Multiplayer Game of the Year’, published by Tripwire Interactive and developed by Antimatter Games. Command your team to victory in massive 64-player battles with authentic weapons, aircraft, and maps that pit conventional military forces against guerilla forces.

Stay up-to-date with the latest Rising Storm 2: Vietnam news and information at www.rs2Vietnam.com.

Eugen Systems announced today that ‘First Blood’, the free anniversary update for Steel Division: Normandy 44, will be available on May 17th and will feature 2 new FREE divisions and unlock 2 ace models.

Let’s focus today on the most famous and dreaded division of the Waffen-SS, 1. SS-Panzerdivision “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler“.

ORIGINS

LSSAH traces its origin back to Hitler’s Stabswache (staff guard), his small group of bodyguards, back in 1923 when the Nazi party was still in its infancy and mostly involved in brawls with communists. It was their leader, Julius Schreck, who resurrected for them the old Totenkopf (Death Head) symbol & black uniform of the elite Totenkopfhusaren from Frederik the Great & Napoleon’s wars. Disbanded in 1923 after Hitler’s failed coup in Bavaria, it was recreated in 1925, expanded and reorganized several times that same year, until finally being known as Schutzstaffel (roughly “Protection Squadron”), more commonly referred to as SS.

Among the new members of that reformed SS was Heinrich Himmler, who in under two years was to rise as deputy-commander of the SS, and two more years later as its supreme commander. From a battalion-size unit when he took command, Himmler was to build an organization of a bit under a million men by the end of the war, with control over the army, the entire State security apparatus (from intelligence services to police and concentration camps) and a large part of the economy, etc.

But prior to the beginning of WW2, the SS was still a modest force. Membership started to rise in the early 30’s, concurrently with the Nazi party’s political successes. In 1933, when Hitler rose as Germany’s chancellor, his bodyguard had expanded to a regiment, 1. SS-Standarde, which provided the nucleus of the new chancellor’s guard. This new elite unit went on by several names before being finally named Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler in April 1934, under the command of Josef “Sepp” Dietrich for most of the war, throughout its expansion.

Read the rest of this blog post HERE.

Source: VideoGamer

Intrepid Battlefield 1 players appear to have discovered the reveal date for Battlefield 5 via a new Easter egg in buried in the depths of 2016′s acclaimed World War I shooter.

The Room, as it’s called, is a pretty complicated affair though rewards gamers with a special dogtag featuring morse code that spells ‘Secrets Revealed.’ However, it goes just beyond that. Once the tag is unlocked, it’ll cue a special music track, as well as a barely-discernible sound of dripping water coming from the hidden room.

This isn’t just any odd dripping water coming from a leaky tap though; it’s rhythmic, and later discovered to be morse code. When translated, fans discovered it points to this website.

Read more…