The dispute over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea has reached a turning point.

China has never hidden her intent to extend her power in the region, both diplomatically and militarily. And the nearby countries have always tried to do the same, in temporary coalitions or alone. The United States, despite their interest in countering the Chinese’s ambitions, have been involved too much in the Middle East to be able to have a strong presence in these waters.

But now, Beijing has decided to raise the stakes deploying the aircraft carrier Liaoning, switching the balance of power in her favour.

How long this situation could last before it escalates in a larger conflict?

Spratly Spat, the third title in the Command LIVE series, has been released! This scenario is an exploration of what could happen if the regional powers around the Spratly Islands unite and – with limited assistance of the US – challenge the Chinese Navy!

Command Live: Spratly Spat is an expansion of Command: Modern Air / Naval Operations and requires the base game to be played

The Command LIVE News Team has just sent his last reportage, directly from the frontline!

Things are getting critical around the Spratly Islands, as China seems to have deployed her aircraft carrier PLAN Liaoning, and rumors of military exercises run by Vietnam, Philippines (with a limited support from the US) in the region have been confirmed!

Are we close to an open conflict in the South China Sea?

Watch the latest report here.

Source: Rainbow Six Website

The Rainbow Six: Siege PC Starter Edition is back! Available for a limited time, you will be able to purchase the Starter Edition on PC through Uplay.

PC players looking for an inexpensive way to jump into Rainbow Six: Siege no longer have to wait to get their fix. Starting September 15th on Uplay, a special Starter Edition of the game will be available for $15/€15 on PC for a limited time. The Starter Edition offers the full Rainbow Six: Siege experience, with all maps and Operators available, but unlocking new Operators works a little differently.

If you’re familiar with the Starter Edition from June, it is exactly the same as last time. For new players, those who buy the Starter Edition will immediately get access to two Operators, along with 600 R6 Credits to spend on two more Operators (or other unlocks) of their choice. The two initially available Operators are randomly chosen from a pool of six – Rook, Sledge, Ash, Fuze, Mute, and Smoke –determined to be the most intuitive for entry-level players. Additional operators can be unlocked in the Starter Edition by earning 12,500 renown (compared to 500-2,000 renown in the Standard Edition).

Battlestate Games has presented a new video of the online game Escape From Tarkov. The action takes place in the different weather and time of day, from the perspective of a former operative of USEC, one of the two Tarkov factions.

Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore and realistic online first-person action RPG/Simulator with MMO features and a story-driven walkthrough.

With each passing day the situation in the Norvinsk region grows more and more complicated. Incessant warfare in Tarkov has sparked massive panic; the local population has fled the city, but those who stayed are looking to improve their fortunes at the expense of others. Having accepted the new reality, savage Tarkov locals – “Scavs” flocked into well-armed gangs and started the redivision of the city. Nowadays, Tarkov is separated by unseen borders, controlled by different groups. Gain-greedy gunmen would go to any length to have their way, including the murder of civilians and direct confrontation with the two private military companies.

The players will have to experience living in the skin of one of the mercenaries who survived the initial stage of the Tarkov conflict. After choosing one of the sides – USEC or BEAR – the player’s character starts to make his way out of the city. Tarkov is sealed off by UN and Russian military, supply chains are cut, communication with operational command is lost, and in these conditions everyone has to make his own choices of what to do and how to get out of the chaos-ridden metropolis.

More info on Escape From Tarkov can be found at the game’s official website.

Activision and Infinity Ward have released a brand new story trailer gives fans a glimpse into the narrative featured in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s rich story campaign. The game returns to the roots of the series for a classic war story that, for the first time in franchise history, extends beyond the reaches of Earth into the vast expanse of our solar system.

The trailer also features the first in-game footage of actor Kit Harington, who plays Admiral Salen Kotch of the Settlement Defense Front, and UFC fighter Conor McGregor, who plays Captain Bradley Fillion of the Settlement Defense Front.

You can watch the explosive new trailer here.

Additionally, fans can pre-order the game to get access to the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Multiplayer Beta that begins October 14, first on PlayStation 4.

For more information, fans can check out: www.callofduty.com

Sunflower Update Brings Host of Improvements to Wargame

Today, Paradox Development Studios released the first major update for its hit World War II grand strategy wargame, Hearts of Iron IV. The “Sunflower Patch” is largely devoted to improving the game’s AI and user interface, as well as the usual changes to Hearts of Iron’s balance and historical database, plus a number of bug fixes.

You can read the full list of changes and updates on the official Paradox Community forum here. But read on for a brief list of some of the highlights in Sunflower.

• Changes to how peace conferences are handled, based on a design by Steam user Neutrino
• Hotjoin now available for multiplayer games, so you can connect to a match already in progress
• Custom difficulty settings let you adjust the relative power of Germany, Italy, France and the Soviet Union
• More nations can now be released as independent countries
• Re-sync button added to address connection issues without rehosting the game
• AI more likely to update templates, build nuclear reactors and cancel unnecessary production
• AI less likely to risk encirclement, opt for a Communist France or throw everything at North Africa
• Naval combat has been balanced to prevent light cruiser spam
• Changes to national territorial cores (Portugal loses, Sinkiang gains)
• A number of crashes caused by modding have been fixed
• Submarines better at finding surface ships, worse at finding other subs

Go to the Community Forum for the complete rundown of all of the improvements and updates now available for everyone that owns Hearts of Iron IV.

For more information on Hearts of Iron IV, check out the games official website.

The hit Order of Battle: World War II will be expanded with a new campaign DLC focused on the first blitzkrieg wars of Germany in the Second World War, and a free major update!

Order of Battle: Blitzkrieg

On 1 September 1939, under the pretext of reclaiming the city of Danzig, German armed forces invade Poland. Honoring their diplomatic treaties and driven by the desire to maintain the balance of power in Europe, France and Great Britain swiftly declare war on Germany. This chain of events sets in motion the greatest war the world has ever seen: a Second World War…

Order of Battle: Blitzkrieg brings you to those frantic years which saw Germany successfully incorporating modern aircraft and tank technology in their military doctrine, and then unleashing their newly rebuilt war machine on the rest of Europe. This new DLC aims at representing those years and those brilliant campaigns, from the invasion of Poland to the Fall of 1941 and the Wehrmacht advance being halted only by the cold bite of Russian winter.

It brings several new nations, tons of new units and 12 new scenarios! Pure, unadultered, 100% Blitzkrieg gameplay.

Get more information on the product page.

Important: the game is entering its beta testing phase; we need your help to quash bugs and we want to hear your feedback, so please feel free to apply here. It’d be of great help!

A new major update for Order of Battle: World War II

The Blitzkrieg DLC will be accompanied by a big free update to the base game! What does it add?

Well, along with many balance changes and bugfixes, a brand new Specialization System is being added to the game! Complete major and minor objectives during scenarios and earn Specialization points, then spend them in the Specialization tree and completely customize your army as you see fit.

It’s not all. We’re adding a new Import Tool to carry over your core army between campaigns! Play through Morning Sun, then carry over your troops to Rising Sun! Or maybe play through the entirety of the Blitzkrieg campaign, and then use your battle hardened regiments in future-yet-to-be-announced campaigns I’m probably speaking too much 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.

• MSI Announces the GeForce GTX 1080 30th Anniversary Edition
• Sharkoon Announces the Skiller SGM1 RGB Gaming Mouse
• MSI Launches Aegis Ti Gaming Desktop and Z170A Gaming M6 Motherboard
• Raidmax Readies the SIGMA Mid-tower Chassis
• Logitech Buys Saitek From Mad Catz For $13 Million
• Overclockers.co.uk Announces the 8Pack Rocket Compact LAN PC
• Rosewill Intros the Gram Mid-tower Chassis
• NZXT Announces the Aer Series RGB LED Fans
• New EK Water Blocks EK-XLC Predator 140 and EK-XLC Predator 280 Available for Pre-Order

The South China Sea is an area where the economic and geopolitical struggles bubble just covered under the surface. Numerous low-intensity conflicts have erupted over the years, and many countries have tried to extend their territorial claims over key islands and atolls.

In particular, domain over the Spratly Islands have been strongly disputed by China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Philippines and other nations. The large reserves of oil and the huge volume of maritime traffic make this area crucial to the regions balance of power.

China, the strongest player in this delicate game, has recently strengthen her sea power, deploying her first aircraft carrier – the PLAN Liaoning – with the clear intent to achieve definitive military superiority, dissuading her rivals from direct military action.

However this deployment itself has disrupted the balance of power. Could it lead to an escalation that ends with open conflict for regional supremacy?

Command LIVE: Spratly Spat, the third installment in the ambitious Command LIVE series, will explore this fictional – although perfectly credible – situation!

A full analysis of the situation has been dispatched and it is already available!

Stay tuned! Command Live: Spratly Spat will be released on September, 20th!

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

By  Jeffrey Edson @ PureOC

NVMe SSDs are the enthusiast topic of interest right now. The storage industry has become affordable in the SSD market, but is trending towards NVMe as a replacement. This is faster and can reach GB/s rather than MB/s. It does this by bypassing the ACHI protocol and pushes the boundaries of what basic SSDs can’t. I will be looking at a Zotac implementation of NVMe using an HHHL PCIe card at 480GB. This is Zotac’s first consumer NVMe drive, and claims speeds of up to 2600 MB/s over PCIe gen 3. Let’s see if this drive can push the limit of NVMe and stand out among its competitors.

Read The Review Here