Source: Blue’s News

The Battlefield website has details on a new map called Prise de Tahure coming to Battlefield 1 as part of what they’re calling the “Summer of Battlefield,” a somewhat incongruous twist on the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. They recap all the new content coming to the game, and offer a bunch of screenshots from the newly announced map. Here is some of what they have to say about it:

We’re glad to announce that a new map called “Prise de Tahure” will be released shortly for testing on the CTE (Community Test Environment). Set in the autumn after the Nivelle Offensive, Prise de Tahure sees French troops desperately holding on to re-captured heights in the Butte-de-Tahure region. The frontline trench networks cut right through several villages facing obliteration from the constant skirmishing between German stormtroopers and French raiders. This is a war of attrition. Adaptability and tactics are the means to wear your adversary down.

Stay tuned for more details and join the CTE to try the content early and give your feedback.

The “Release Candidate” (ie. public beta) phase of the v1.12 update (the companion to the upcoming “Chains Of War” DLC pack) is wrapping up on the MatrixGames forum.

The feedback on the new additions like sonar masking, the new 2x time compression step and much improved 4K/UHD support has been very positive. We have already covered two of the new major features in the DLC, communications disruption and aircraft damage.

Today we are looking at some of the new weapon systems introduced in v1.12.

Chains of War is a new DLC release for Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations, the premier game of air & naval combat and the Pentagon’s hottest new simulation tool.

About Chains of War:

20 minutes into the future, a spark erupts in the Korean peninsula that will lead to a theater wide conflagration embroiling the entire Western Pacific and drag all major powers into it. With nothing less at stake than control over the world’s busiest trade routes and containment of the emergent superpower, the Pacific becomes the world’s stage – and the players are getting down to brass tacks, for this is the game that no side can afford to lose.

The geopolitical nightmares of the new century: The creators of the award-winning “Northern Inferno” shift their gaze from the Atlantic to the Pacific and bring into focus the challenges of the early 21st century: The ever-present tensions between North and South Korea reach a boiling point, while China and the US vie for control of the strategic choke points and bases through which the world’s commerce functions. Will the US maintain its strategic pre-eminence in the most important world theater or will China complete its ascend to superpower status?

The new gears of war: Think the new war in the Pacific will be just like the 1940s but with better bullets? Think again! All-new systems and technologies radically change the face of modern high-level conflict. Network and cyber attacks pull apart carefully constructed communications networks, leaving forces in the field blind and separated from their consorts. Electromagnetic pulses delivered from high-altitude nuclear detonations or tactical EMP weapons fry vulnerable electronics, disarming powerful units in a split-second. Massive anti-ship ballistic missiles threaten to turn aircraft carriers into sinking, burning hulks. Railguns deliver accurate, punishing fire at long ranges, challenging the post-WW2 reign of guided missiles. Anti-satellite weapons disrupt the critical communications & intelligence nodes orbiting high in the stars. High-energy lasers burn their targets with intense beams invisible to the naked eye. Are you ready for the intricacies of 21st century war?

By Cecille De Jesus @ Futurism.com

Retired United States Air Force Colonel Gene Lee recently went up against ALPHA, an artificial intelligence developed by a University of Cincinnati doctoral graduate. The contest? A high-fidelity air combat simulator.

And the Colonel lost.

In fact, all the other AI’s that the Air Force Research Lab had in their possession also lost to ALPHA…and so did all of the other human experts who tried their skills against ALPHA’s superior algorithms.

And did we mention ALPHA achieves superiority while running on a $35 Raspberry Pi?

Read on…

Source: TechPowerUp!

Not to let itself be outshined by arch-rival NVIDIA, AMD has released a new driver suite that introduces support for the impending release of Arkane Studios’ Prey. A totally new IP in an era of sequels and re-releases, which has been paired – even if only so slightly – with AMD’s own Vega teaser campaign, Prey promises to offer a mix of Bioshock and System Shock, with Arkane’s own peculiar blend of game mechanics and art direction. Go on ahead fighting the invasion – I’ll be joining you shortly.

These drivers promise an up to 4.7% performance improvement measured on Radeon RX 580 8GB graphics when compared to Radeon Software Crimson ReLive edition 17.4.4, as well as multi GPU profile support. As always, you can grab these right here on your favorite hardware site on the universe.

You can download the Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.5.1 Beta drivers here.

Developer Cats Who Play has announced that it is working on the first big expansion to “Syrian Warfare“, titled “Syrian Warfare: Return to Palmyra“.

A new single-player campaign, as you might infer from the title, will be focused on the dramatic events between December 2016 and March 2017, when the ancient city was once again captured by the terrorists, and an imminent threat loomed – the enemy could now quickly advance into territories controlled by the government, with access to large cities. However, thanks to the tenacity of the Syrian army and its allies, including the Russian air forces, the opponent’s advance was halted and then turned back.

The plot will focus around a detachment of the elite Syrian unit Tiger Forces. Despite being caught flat-footed by Daesh’s sudden assault, they defended their positions on Palmyra’s outskirts to the end, got surrounded and fought their way to the T4 air base, where they had a big role in the defense of the air base and the following retaking of Palmyra.

The player will have control over new squad types (including, as mentioned, Tiger Forces squads); Lebanese volunteers; and the forces of the 5th Legion, freshly formed with the help of Russia. The game’s arsenal will be expanded with new weapons: mounted grenade launchers, recoilless guns (both infantry variants and mounted on technicals), high-caliber heavy machineguns. The game’s tank park will have new modifications of the T-55 and T-62 tanks in store. The air forces will see the additions of the Russian Ka-52 “Alligator” helicopter, Syrian “Gazelle” light attack/scouting helicopter and remote-controlled drones. The terrorists will also have weapons previously unseen in the game: American Humvees captured from the Iraqi military, anti-tank TOW missiles, heavily-armored VBIEDs, quadcopters.

The game’s mechanics will also be refined, including the dissatisfactory pathfinding algorithm.

The “Syrian Warfare: Return to Palmyra” expansion’s release is planned for the end of summer 2017. It will require the base game “Syrian Warfare” to run.

Find out more on the official Syrian Warfare webpage.

Kalypso Media is excited to reveal that the launch date for Sudden Strike 4 has been set as Friday 11th August 2017 for a worldwide Steam release, as well as retail and the PlayStation® Store in UK and European export territories, and then in North America on Tuesday 15th August for retail and the PlayStation® Store. The release of Sudden Strike 4 sees the legendary RTS series return on Windows PC, Mac, Linux and – for the first time in the series’ history – on console with the launch of the PlayStation®4 version.

To accompany the announcement, Kalypso Media is also proud to share a selection of new screenshots, which perfectly illustrate the detailed, dynamic environments and incredible attention to detail that has been lavished upon the units and gameplay mechanics. For an even more detailed look at the game from a developer’s point of view, Kalypso has also recently released three videos in a new ‘General’s Handbook’ video series on YouTube, in which Sudden Strike 4 Producer Christian Schlütter runs through the basic gameplay principles of the game and discusses how the title has evolved and changed throughout the development process.

Pre-purchase is available now on Steam, which includes a 15% discount, plus a digital soundtrack, digital artbook and the ‘Battle of Kursk’ DLC. Steam customers can download the free Sudden Strike Quiz app on iOS and Android devices in order to unlock further stackable discounts for a total of up to 25% off the pre-purchase of the game.

Watch Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the ‘General’s Handbook’ video series.

Watch the latest gameplay trailer here.

About Sudden Strike 4
Developed as a fully-fledged series entry and not a remake or reboot, Sudden Strike 4 sends you off on three extensive campaigns set amongst the battlefields of World War II. Commanding the British and American, German or Soviet troops, you will lead over 100 different units into battle, including the German bomber Heinkel He111, the Russian T-34 tank, the British Hawker Typhoon fighter plane and the notorious German Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger. In a first for the Sudden Strike series, you can now choose from one of nine individual commanders, such as George Patton or Bernard Montgomery, who will each allow for different approaches to combat and boast unique abilities.

Prove your tactical expertise in over 20 demanding single player scenarios, the challenge-focused skirmish mode, and the competitive multiplayer mode. A new reward system rewards clever and tactical play, awarding the player with skill points and bonus content, such as historical film footage of the era.

Source: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA today released the GeForce 382.05 WHQL drivers. These drivers come “Game Ready” for the week’s hottest game launches, beginning with “Prey” (2017). “Prey” is the season’s most anticipated first-person survival horror, and releases this Friday (5th May). In addition, the drivers also come with optimization for the indie tank shooter “Battlezone,” and the latest “Gears of War 4″ multi-GPU update, by including an NVIDIA SLI profile for the game.

You can download the new GeForce 382.05 WHQL drivers from GeForce Experience and 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.

• Cooltek Announces the NC-Series Gaming Cases
• Corsair Announces the GLAIVE RGB Gaming Mouse
• MSI Launches Its GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Sea Hawk EK X
• ASUS ROG Maximus IX Extreme Motherboard Comes With Preinstalled Monoblock Cooler
• Colorful Launches Its iGame GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Vulcan X OC
• A Pair Of Gently Overclocked GIGABYTE RX 550 GPUs Debut
• Temperature Spikes Reported on Intel’s Core i7-7700, i7-7700K Processors
• ViewSonic Adds 42-inch VX4380 Ultra HD IPS Monitor

Major Update 1.69 “Regia Aeronautica” Adds Italy As Sixth Playable Faction

Gaijin Entertainment announces the impending release of a new playable nation for the vehicular combat MMOG War Thunder. War Thunder Update 1.69, called ‘Regia Aeronautica’, will introduce Italy as the sixth playable nation, represented with its own vehicle tree, alongside USA, Germany, Great Britain, Japan and USSR. This is the first new nation to be added to the game since the launch of War Thunder.

“With the addition of Japanese Ground Forces at the end of last year, all of the game’s nations are now represented with more than 800 aircraft and ground vehicles in total, early testing of Naval Forces is full steam ahead and very soon War Thunder will feature a new nation. We will add more than 20 new Italian vehicles and update the existing models, so Italy will be represented with several dozens of aircraft on its launch,” says Kirill Yudintsev, Creative Director of Gaijin Entertainment.

Italy’s initial aviation lineup consists of several dozen aircraft, ranging from the famous light and maneuverable Italian biplanes of the 1930s to post-war Jet aircraft. Among those machines is the Fiat CR.32, one of the most mass produced aircraft employed by the Regia Aeronautica at the beginning of World War II. This robust all-metal biplane can withstand serious damage and even carry bombs into combat – a feature that allows it to temporarily act as a light attack aircraft instead of a fighter, either to destroy light ground units or suppress the enemy’s anti-aircraft resistance.

Another symbol of Italy’s aviation besides the CR.32 are its famous heavy three-engine bombers, which will also be featured in War Thunder right from the start. Next to the well-known SM.79 Sparviero (the ‘Sparrowhawk’), other indigenous three-engine designs will be included, such as the CANT Z.1007bis Alcione, or ‘Kingfisher’. Although the latter was mostly overshadowed by the mass produced ‘Sparrowhawk’, it exceeded its counterpart in both speed and maneuverability and could also be equipped with a heavy 840 kg torpedo. This will make it especially useful as an attack aircraft in the coming full-scale Naval battles.

Read more about the incoming Italian machines in War Thunder’s developer diaries here.

The first Italian fighter aircraft are available for pre-order in Gaijin.net store:

Fiat CR.32 bis

Fiat G.55S

To download War Thunder, please visit the official War Thunder website.

Today, Ubisoft announced Tom Clancy’s The Division kicks off a free weekend, May 4th 2017 until May 7th 2017 on Windows PC, and until May 8th 2017 Xbox One and PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system.

Players will be able to access the games on each platform during the following times:

• Xbox One: 04/05 at 7AM UTC to 08/05 at 7AM UTC.
• PlayStation 4: 04/05 at 7AM UTC to 08/05 at 7AM UTC.
• Uplay PC: 04/05 at 5PM UTC to 07/05 at 8PM UTC.

To coincide with this free weekend, there will be discounts on Tom Clancy’s The Division’s Standard and Gold Editions on all digital stores. Please visit www.thedivisiongame.com/freeweekend_news for downloads and detailed information about the Tom Clancy’s The Division free weekend.

All progress from the free weekend will carry over to the full game if players purchase it. The current free trial offer, which gives players full access to the main game until they reach level 8 or complete six hours of playtime, will be on hiatus during the free weekend but reinstated once the free weekend promotion ends. Players who have downloaded the free trial before May 4th will see trial restrictions lifted until the end of the free weekend.

Tom Clancy’s The Division takes place weeks after a devastating pandemic sweeps through New York City on Black Friday. One by one, basic services fail and in only days, without food or water, society collapses into chaos. The Division, an autonomous unit of tactical agents leading seemingly ordinary lives among us, is activated to save society. In this immersive online open world action RPG, discover a hostile and dynamic environment where exploration and player progression are essential. Team up with other players to investigate the sources of the virus and reclaim the city from the overwhelming turmoil.

Year 2 of Tom Clancy’s The Division will see the release of two new major updates in the coming months. Both will be free and released simultaneously across all platforms. For more information about Year 2’s upcoming updates, please visit: http://blog.ubi.com/division-celebrates-anniversary-free-year-2-content-plans-revealed

Tom Clancy’s The Division is now available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. For more information, please visit the games official website​.