Battlestate Games, developers of Escape from Tarkov, the hardcore FPS/MMO hybrid, have recently announced some new changes to the game – the core change being to the “Customs” map, which now offers several new tactical opportunities to players.

The Customs location now features a new way to cross the river along with an expanded (and ever-deadly) factory. Add to that additional hidden and visible passageways, loot spawn points and player spawn points – and the Customs location Raid becomes even more challenging than before!

Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore story-driven MMO featuring elements of FPS and RPG. The events take place in the Russian city of Tarkov, which has been sealed off by roadblocks and sunk into the chaos of local warfare between private military companies. Escape from Tarkov’s Hazardous Environment Combat Simulator employs a number of custom system modules to create incredibly immersive gameplay and make players feel the reality of what is happening in the game.

The closed beta-testing of Escape from Tarkov is planned for 2017. To learn more about Escape from Tarkov and to sign up for closed beta, visit the games official website.

Players can get guaranteed access to Escape from Tarkov testing stages by placing a pre-order on the games official pre-order page.

Get an Early Preview of the Game in the Shoes of Jon North

Beginning today and lasting until Feb. 5, a special Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 beta is available worldwide for PC players on Steam. Players can still register (till the end of day) here and get exclusive access to two single-player missions in the beautiful open-world setting of the Republic of Georgia: Cut Off and Blockout.

In honor of the beta kick-off, CI Games invites everyone to watch a new video highlighting what players will get to experience in the beta.

“We’d like to give everyone who registered for the beta a big THANK YOU. You have to throw away everything you know about the series, since Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 is a redefinition of the franchise developed from scratch and with a much-higher budget,” said Marek Tymiński, CEO of CI Games. “This beta includes two single-player missions from the beginning of the game, and is just a glimpse of what you’ll experience in the full open-world game. Every bit of feedback you give is invaluable to us, and we’ll listen closely to all comments. We’re committed to making Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 one of the best games you’ll play this year, and will do everything we can to meet your expectations. It’s a real treat to know the game will soon be played by so many of our fans.”

Below are descriptions of the two missions available in the beta:

Cut Off
The Separatists control a large antenna array, which lets them use satellites to track enemy movements and communicate with distant outposts. Jon needs to infiltrate this compound and manually reposition the dishes to intercept the satellite signal. Gaining access to enemy communications would give Jon and his team a tactical advantage over the enemy, as well as possible intelligence on his brother, Robert.

Blockout
Jon’s cooperation with the local resistance, the Rotki Lions, gave him the location of one of the targets from his Most Wanted list – a list containing the names of war criminals that Jon can neutralize to bring justice to the people of Georgia. The target is Ivan Krustchev. He’s hiding out in an abandoned apartment complex, surrounded by his guards. How will you complete this mission? Will you use your sniper rifle from the opposite building, storm the outpost with your assault rifle, or sneak past the guards and quietly take out your target?

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 launches on the PlayStation®4 system, Windows PC and Xbox One on April 4, 2017.

To learn more about Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, visit the games official website.

By Brian Nyhuis @ Legit Reviews

It has been a while since we’ve had a chance to take a look at NZXT cooler, but in the past, we’ve been highly impressed with their products. Quite frankly, there hasn’t been a whole lot of innovation in the CPU cooler market, because it’s just tough to improve on something that’s already awesome. Instead, we see a lot of manufacturers adding visual improvements to the coolers to help make them stand out, but this really only helps for those who have windowed cases. Today we’re going to take a look at a trio of NZXT Kraken coolers, called the Kraken X42, X52, and X62. These coolers are updated version of the already successful X41 and X61 with a little added flare and were released just this past November.

Read The Review Here

Source: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA released the GeForce 378.57 Hotfix drivers, designed to address glaring bugs. The driver update fixes a critical game crash bug noticed in “Minecraft” and other Java-based titles; and resolves “debug mode” being the default mode on GPUs based on the “Pascal” architecture. The rest of their features appear consistent with older releases. Find the driver from the links below.

You can download the new GeForce 378.57 Hotfix drivers from GeForce Experience and GeForce.com.

Source: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA released the GeForce 376.80 Beta drivers. These drivers are being released exclusively through the Vulkan developer support channel, and come with bug fixes for the company’s implementation of Vulkan API support. The change-log is limited to just “bug fixes,” and the drivers are not WHQL-signed. If you’re gaming on the Vulkan API, on titles such as “Doom,” “Ashes of the Singularity,” etc.

You can download the new GeForce 376.80 Beta Vulkan Support driver from the NVIDIA Vulkan Support site.

By Hilbert Hagedoorn @ Guru3D

We have a new GeForce GTX 1080 review ready, and not your usual one. Meet the all custom, cooled and tweaked Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 AORUS Xtreme Edition. We’ll heck out the new 8 GB beast fitted with a massive and impressive three slot cooler, extra RGB LED functionality and sexy clock frequencies.

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.

• BIOSTAR RACING GM5 Gaming Mouse Launched
• GALAX Launches Low Profile GTX 1050 OC and GTX 1050 Ti OC
• Acer Unveils Ultra-wide XR382CQK 38-inch Display
• ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero Flagship Motherboard Detailed
• Noctua Presents Three Special-Edition AM4 CPU Coolers for AMD Ryzen
• ASUS Intros the B150M Expedition Motherboard
• The AOC Q2781PS Announced: ‘Frameless’ Rose Gold 27″ QHD with Swarovski Crystals
• EVGA Introduces the CLC 120/280 Liquid CPU Coolers
• ASUS Unveils Their Z270-WS Workstation Motherboard

Today, Ubisoft announced that it is working on a ground-breaking documentary, which is set to offer one of the most revealing insights to date into the drug trade in South America, and the battle to contain it. Scheduled to release on March 6th, 2017, the feature length film, titled “Wildlands”, will showcase the real stories behind Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands’ fictional Bolivian setting. The documentary provides a fascinating insight and wider context to the inspirational themes in the videogame, further highlighting the incredible lengths that the Paris based development team has gone to in order to create a truly believable setting.

This feature length documentary explores the real-life stories of key figures, who have been at the centre of the war on drugs from the past thirty years. Viewers will accompany narrator Rusty Young, author of New York Times best-seller, Marching Powder, as he meets the people, who have been involved in shaping the cocaine trade in South America, many of whom are telling their stories for the first time. Travelling from Bolivia, and up through to the United States, he will listen to the fascinating stories of characters from both sides of the law, from the coca farmers, through the drug supply chain, to the Special Forces soldiers fighting the war on drugs – to get a raw snapshot of drug trafficking and production in South America.

Developed in partnership with Chief Productions, Wildlands captures the stories of some of the most influential voices on the matter. For the very first time, these diverse characters are brought together to give a broad perspective on a global crisis. Bolivia, Colombia and North America form the landscape for this complex story of the battle between law enforcement and criminal organisations seeking to monopolise a multi-billion-dollar illegal industry.

Wildlands introduces the compelling, unbelievable, and often devastating, life stories of a number of individuals, including – George Jung: The man known for hooking North America on cocaine, George Jung was a major player in the cocaine trade during the 70’s and 80’s and was immortalised by Johnny Depp in the movie ‘Blow’. Adam Newbold: A former Navy SEAL with over 20 years’ combat experience, Adam has worked throughout South America. Tomas McFadden: Reformed drug trafficker, and subject of “Marching Powder”, reveals the tricks of his trade, which saw him become a prolific smuggler, until the day he was arrested with 5kg of cocaine at La Paz airport – leading to a lengthy stay at the notorious San Pedro Prison.

Alongside these individuals, Wildlands introduces traffickers, smugglers, money launderers, informants and law enforcers that shape the complex jigsaw forming the criminal underworld profiteering from this thriving industry and those seeking to defeat it.

Developed by Ubisoft Paris, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, the latest installment in the critically acclaimed franchise, is a tactical military themed shooter videogame set in a massive and stunningly rendered open-world set in a near-future vision of Bolivia.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands will be available on March 7th 2017 for Microsoft Xbox One, PlayStation®4 entertainment system and Windows PC.

For more information about Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, please visit www.ghostrecon.com.

For more details on the ‘Wildlands’ Documentary, please visit www.ghostrecon.com/wildlands.

New gameplay trailer details all you need to know about the most expansive World War 2 game ever

With Sniper Elite 4 just two weeks from launch, Rebellion has released a brand new gameplay trailer profiling the highly anticipated World War 2 shooter in detail.

Captured entirely from in-game footage, this six-minute ’101′ trailer showcases all-new gameplay from Sniper Elite 4‘s extensive feature set, including:

• An expansive campaign for 1-2 players: Explore 1943 Italy and fight alongside the brave men and women of the Resistance. Hunt down a terrifying new weapon that threatens the entire Allied fightback.
• A deep and rewarding sniping simulation: deliver pinpoint assassinations at extreme distance, adapting to wind and gravity, and adjusting for range with scope zeroing.
• Traverse massive environments featuring hundreds of enemies and vehicles: Find your ideal sniper’s nest, outmanoeuvre your enemies or hunt them up close. Combine suppressed weapons with deadly traps to torment enemy formations and isolate priority targets.
• Employ a massive, personalised arsenal including iconic World War 2 rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, explosives and heavy weapons. Adapt your loadout for each mission and upgrade core attributes like scope magnification, stability, recoil, muzzle velocity and more.
• Challenging online co-op & multiplayer modes set across six gorgeous custom-designed maps. Take on dedicated co-op modes for up to 4 players and prove your mettle across 7 competitive modes for up to 12 players.

It’s time to deploy, sniper. It’s time to liberate Italy and set the wheels in motion for victory in Europe.

Sniper Elite 4 releases for PlayStation 4, Xbox One & PC on February 14 2017.

For more game info head to the Sniper Elite 4 website.

The release date of the first DLC for Tigers on the Hunt is approaching, so it’s time to take a closer look!

In this video introduction, our friend idjester will give an overview of the three scenarios featured in Kursk. These scenarios are three times larger than the ones in the base game, covering different moments of the greatest armored battle in the entirety of World War II!

With a huge focus on historical accuracy, Tigers on the Hunt: Kursk will be a nice addition for every lover of tactical wargames!

Get more information about the game from its official product page!