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Crusader Kings II Expands Towards China in New Eastern Expansion

“Jade Dragon” Pushes Borders Eastward with New Features Spanning India and Transoxiana

Paradox Interactive, a stately pleasure palace devoted to ambitious rulers from all corners of the globe, announces a new expansion coming soon to Crusader Kings II. In “Jade Dragon,” the richest empire on earth looks to the west, seeking subjects and adventure.

In Crusader Kings II: Jade Dragon, Paradox Development Studio introduces the Empire of China as an off-map influence that can give great rewards or great dangers to those whose realms lie in the shadow of the Dragon. Flatter the Emperor with gifts of gold or concubines. Ask favors from the mighty prince. Stay on the good side of his appointed marshals on your borders.

What’s the old saying about crisis being both “danger” and “opportunity”?

Paradox hopes you are not too Jaded to enjoy a new trailer.

Features coming in Crusader Kings II: Jade Dragon include:

The Imperial Majesty Request: A new “China Screen” lays out the status and desires of the Emperor of China, letting you keep tabs on what he wants and how to earn his grace
Kow-tow For Now: Submit to the Empire as a tributary, always keeping an eye on the waning power of the Emperor, so you can time your escape to freedom
Adventure in the Great Wide Somewhere: Disgruntled princes or curious adventurers may leave China to seek their own fortune to the west.
Booty and the East: Collect wondrous new Chinese artifacts for your characters, and explore a new Silk Road system that adjusts returns based on China’s stability.
Rally Points: Instruct your levies to automatically gather up exactly where you want them.
Dictionary of Chinese Characters: New Chinese and Tibetan portraits and Chinese units bring the empire to life
Eight New Casus Bellis: You can never have enough

For more information about Crusader Kings II, visit the games official website.

Crusader Kings II Strategy and Wargaming | Donster | August 29, 2017 |

BeQuiet! SFX-L 600W Power Supply Review

By Lee Garbutt @ PC Perspective

BeQuiet! recently expanded their power supply lineup with the addition of two new small form factor (SFX-L) units, the SFX-L 500W and SFX-L 600W. The new power supplies are fully modular and optimized for quiet operation as you might expect from BeQuiet!. The SFX-L 500W and SFX-L 600W are 80 Plus Gold certified for high efficiency and feature a high-quality 120mm cooling fan thanks to the lengthened SFX-L chassis design. While SFX-L power supplies are designed for use in small form factor enclosures, the BeQuiet! SFX-L power supplies can also be used in standard ATX cases to save room via the included SFX to ATX adapter bracket. However, keep in mind the cables are quite short as these power supplies are mainly intended for Small Form Factor builds. We will be taking a detailed look at the new BeQuiet! SFX-L 600W power supply in this review.

Read The Review Here

Hardware Power Supplies | Donster | August 29, 2017 |

ASRock X399 Taichi Review

By Hilbert Hagedoorn @ Guru3D

In this review we take a look at the ASRock X399 Taichi. This stylish AMD Ryzen Threadripper motherboard is available for 349 USD / 369 Euros and might be an attractive offer for the sheer amount of sweetness you receive in return. In this motherboard you will spot three locations for M2 SSDs combined with audio based upon a Realtek ALC 1220 and TI NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier. ASRock is embedding a 2 x GigaLAN Intel I211AT into the board and sure, a bit of RGB LEDs as well (albeit very subtle). The CPU can be powered by 8+4 pin power connectors. The board has four PCI-Express x16 slots and an array of OC buttons as well as a diagnostic POST LED. Since X399 will bring support of up-to 64 PCIe Gen3 lanes bringing anything and everything multi-GPU support multi-GPU into play, including full-on quad GPU support, the spacing on the mobo does support it. Unfortunately ASRock did not implement any Aquantia AQC-107 LAN chip can be spotted, a bit of a miss for such a high-end product, you do get 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac + BT4.2 Wireless Ethernet, however a rather poor implementation of it, we’ll show you that in the review. You’ll spot a nice design familiar to that Tachi design. The X399 board is among the cheaper ones available listed at € 369,- / 349 USD.

Read The Review Here

Hardware Motherboards | Donster | August 29, 2017 |

Just Announced Hardware for 29 August 2017

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.

Hardware | Donster | August 29, 2017 |

Rainbow Six: Siege Operation Blood Orchid Map Teased

Source: UbiBlog

There’s a new video showing off the dark, eerie interior of the new map coming on August 29 with the launch of Operation Blood Orchid. Dubbed “Theme Park,” the map is set in a deteriorating amusement park in Hong Kong, where smiling tiger and monkey mascots welcome players to the field of conflict. Proceeding past teacup rides into a spacious hall, players will have to resist the temptation to check out the arcade games and stop for a snack at the concession stands while proceeding to the objective. Gargoyles and mummies await inside what appears to be a haunted house section of the park, as you can see in the teaser video HERE.

The Theme Park map will be available for free to all players when Operation Blood Orchid launches on August 29.

For more information about Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, please visit the games official website.

First-Person Shooters Rainbow Six: Siege | Donster | August 17, 2017 |

Order of Battle: Burma Road Now Available – Release Trailer

order-of-battle-burma-road The anticipated new chapter of the Order of Battle series is here: Burma Road is out!

Lead the British forces and their allies in the desperate defence of south Asia against the invading Japanese army. Fight across an unexplored theater and defend the gate to India.

Terrain is a double edged sword, it will hinder and endanger both your troops and those of your enemy. Turn this to your advantage: only by mastering the intricacies of jungle warfare will you manage to overcome your opponent. Make use of expert jungle fighters and train your army to adapt to the theater.

Execute deep infiltration attacks into enemy territory, striking unexpectedly and disrupting the Japanese supply lines! Make them pay for any progress until they have bled enough that they can be beaten back.

Watch the release trailer HERE.

Burma Road adds a vast number of new units (over 70!) to an already huge roster. With new planes, artillery, infantry and several new factions, specializations and commanders and a campaign 13 scenarios long, Burma Road is a must have for any Order of Battle fan.

It is accompanied by a big update which brings the game to v.4.1.1. Among all new content being added to the game, some Burma Road units and commanders will be made available in other campaigns.

For more game information please visit the official Order of Battle: Burma Road product page.

Order of Battle: Burma Road Strategy and Wargaming | Donster | August 17, 2017 |

Gigabyte X399 Aorus Gaming 7 Motherboard Review

gigabyte-x399-aorus-gaming-7 By Hilbert Hagedoorn @ Guru3D

Recently AMD launched their mega-core Ryzen Threadripper processors and a new chipset to support these heavy duty processors. In this review we take the brilliant Gigabyte X399 Aorus Gaming 7 for a spin.

Threadripper processors do not only offer many CPU cores and threads, they also offer quad channel memory compatibility as well as 64 PCI-Express Generation 3.0 lanes on the processor alone. That last fact opens up a tremendous amount of possibilities for any motherboard manufacturer, as restrictions are lifted since there is plenty of bandwidth to work with. Well, leave it up-to Gigabyte to design something intricate and tasteful, they designed a motherboard that is going completely off the chart when we talk features. Triple M2 SSDs (full x4 PCie gen 3), a U2 connector, how about eight DIMM channels. You will spot many PCIE connectors, USB 3.1 ports as well as an abundance of storage options.

Read The Review Here

Hardware Motherboards | Donster | August 17, 2017 |

Just Announced Hardware for 17 August 2017

Hardware | Donster | August 17, 2017 |

Sudden Strike 4 Review

By Ian Boudrea @ The Wargamer

The problem facing any developer setting out to make a real-time strategy game today, particularly one set in World War II, is how to distinguish their title from a pack that’s already chock-full of very good games. StarCraft II’s success frightened off most competition for years, and between the excellent Company of Heroes and the janky-but-loveable Men of War series, it’s tough to keep your steel pot above the water line. Kite Games’ Sudden Strike 4 doesn’t try anything fancy, and while it’s a nice return to tactical basics at its core, the flaws make it hard to shake the feeling you could be playing a better, older game.

Read on…

Strategy and Wargaming Sudden Strike 4 | Donster | August 14, 2017 |

Update 1.7 for Tom Clancy’s The Division Available Tomorrow August 15th

Try the Survival Expansion for Free between August 18th and August 20th

Today, Ubisoft announced that Update 1.7 for Tom Clancy’s The Division will be available tomorrow, August 15th. The update will be free for all players and release simultaneously on consoles and Windows PC.

Update 1.7 will bring several new features to Tom Clancy’s The Division, including:

Global Events – The update will introduce a new event system that will challenge players to find new ways to play through time-limited activities featuring new gameplay modifiers. New Events will be available regularly and grant exclusive rewards upon completion. Players will also be able to activate additional modifiers for some missions and incursions, adding an extra layer of challenge that gives them a chance to yield more rewards.
Commendations – Previously called Feats, Commendations are a new built-in achievement system that will provide players with a series of tasks and subsequent rewards.
Encrypted Caches – Caches are loot boxes with random customisation items and emotes inside. Players will be able to obtain Caches by gathering keys in the world, or purchase them with Premium Credits.
New Gear and Customisation Options – New gear includes Classified Gear sets, new facemasks and Arm Patches. Players will also be able to re-customise their agents for free at the Barbershop.
Survival DLC improvements – New scoring items will allow players to achieve higher scores. The reward economy has also been reworked so that time investment is more on par with other activities.

Update 1.7 is the first of two main free updates planned for Year 2 of Tom Clancy’s The Division. In addition to these major updates and in line with the development team’s commitment to continuously update and improve the game, Year 2 has already introduced several gameplay and quality of life updates and will add more in the coming months.

The first Global Event, Outbreak, will start on August 15th at 6PM UK time and end on August 22nd, and challenge players with new enemy behaviour due to the severity of the virus outbreak.

Additionally, Tom Clancy’s The Division’s second expansion, Survival, will be free this weekend from August 18th, 2PM UK time to August 20th, 8PM UK time simultaneously across all platforms. During this time, all players will be able to access the expansion for free and experience a completely new way to play the game with Survival mode. In this session-based mode hosting up to 24 different players in either PvP or PvE, agents are stripped of gear and must survive both the hostile environment and the threat of other agents and deadly Hunters scattered around the open world. Finding supplies, warm clothes and survival equipment is vital as players attempt to make it out of the Dark Zone in the midst of a devastating blizzard.

Survival is part of Tom Clancy’s The Division Season Pass and can also be purchased separately. In conjunction with the free DLC weekend, there will be discounts on Tom Clancy’s The Division Standard and Gold editions, Season Pass and standalone expansions.

For more information, please visit the games official website.

RPG Tom Clancy's The Division | Donster | August 14, 2017 |