The third DLC pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Descent is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, transporting players to four new multiplayer maps that span the globe and an all-new Zombies experience, Gorod Krovi.

In the newest, twisted chapter of the Origins Zombies experience, Gorod Krovi takes players to an alternate-timeline of Stalingrad in which they must face-off against a swarm of mechanised zombie soldiers and avoid hell-fire from aerial dragon assaults, all in the midst of a raging battle within the remnants of Nikolai’s motherland. Gorod Krovi delivers a harrowing Zombies experience, filled with horrifying new enemies, exciting new gameplay mechanics and an epic set of undead-annihilating weapons.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III Descent includes four new multiplayer maps set in a cryogenic penitentiary, a Viking hamlet, a robot death-match arena and a contemporary reconstruction of an ancient Roman estate:

• Empire: Fan favourite map Raid returns, re-imagined in this classic, medium-sized map as an authentic Roman villa, where a classic map structure mixes with the new gameplay mechanics of Black Ops III.
• Berserk: A Viking village frozen in time enlists players to fight through blizzards, for control of the centre bridge. This medium-sized map features wooden buildings, deadly rocky outcroppings and tight chokepoints.
• Cryogen : Located far in the Dead Sea, this isolated compound holds some of the world’s most dangerous criminals in frozen isolation. Sentry towers keep watch over the small map’s circular design as frenetic combat and wall running attacks abound.
• Rumble: Gamers battle amongst larger-than-life mechanised warriors in this medium-sized map, which funnels high-speed combat to the central arena, where players battle their way through fallen mechs and pyrotechnics.

Descent is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC at a discounted rate via the Call of Duty: Black Ops III DLC Season Pass, which features four DLC Map Packs planned for the year, as part of the discounted bundle.

For more information, visit the Descent DLC webpage.

In 2002, the original Strategic Command game was a relatively simple construct. With a limited rule set and a much smaller 62×37 map of approximately 2300 hexes, the requirements for the AI were not necessarily trivial, but in general terms, they were straightforward.

Fast forward to today, and Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe has been expanded into a modifiable hexagonal game engine allowing map sizes of up to 512×512 or 262,144 hexes!

Inevitably, with an equivalent increase in game complexity and detail, the requirements and expectations of the computer opponent had to grow as well.

As a result, the primary challenges for the AI, with the player’s point of view in mind, was to not only ensure it continued to play well, but also to complete its turns within a reasonable amount of time.

Read on…

Naval Battles Launches in Closed Beta Later This Year with “Knights of the sea”

Gaijin Entertainment has announced the forthcoming start of closed beta for Naval Battles, the highly sought after combat mode in War Thunder, its award-winning MMO WWII online game with first exclusive hands-on at this year’s Gamescom. The inclusion of Naval Battles will provide fans with the ability to battle from the land, sea and air.

The participants of naval battle’s upcoming closed beta will be called the “Knights of the Sea”. Made up of torpedo, artillery and missile boats, coast guard vessels and submarine chasers, they are the so-called “small” naval contingent that served in all oceanic theatres of World War 2.

“The high level of realism is one of the key design features of War Thunder. Vehicles are as close to their real life counterparts as possible. Classic large ship battles during the war were contests of patience and planning, where engagements could last from several hours to several days. In War Thunder, where all kinds of vehicles fight in one battle and players can control aircraft, tanks and ships, it is not possible to change the size of the ships or make time run faster, as everything needs to remain consistent.

Our internal testing showed that battles with large battleships were too long and slow or required design changes that made ships entirely unrealistic. For this reason, we are leading with fast attack-based craft, which are rarely reproduced in games. Ships, that are more suitable for the formula of our game. These fast, agile and dangerous “Knights of the Sea” are worthy contenders for aircraft and tanks on the ground” – says creative director Kirill Yudintsev, Gaijin Entertainment.

All nations in War Thunder will get naval forces. Invited players and those who purchase one of two Starter packs with unique ships, will be able to join the closed testing as soon as the testing phase begins later this year.

The first Starter Pack includes a Soviet Project 1124 Armored River Boat. The T-34 turret and two 12.7mm machine guns allow the gunboat to efficiently eliminate enemy ships and low-flying aircraft; but the main destructive power of the Project 1124 lies in her M-13-M1 unguided rocket launcher, the legendary Katyusha.

The second starter pack includes the famous American PT-109, a motor torpedo boat on which the future US President John F. Kennedy served and performed acts of wartime heroism. During one of the operations the boat was subjected to a surprise ram attack from the Japanese destroyer, Amagiri. Despite a serious back injury, Lieutenant Kennedy acted wisely and decisively, saving all ten surviving crew members. In War Thunder, this boat is a fast and maneuverable ship destroyer. Her four torpedoes, each weighing almost 1,200 kg, come in handy for destroying large naval targets. Both ships will be available at the start of closed beta testing.

The first to take part in the naval battles of War Thunder will be the visitors of Gamescom 2016. In the game booth in Hall 6, Gaijin Entertainment has organized a special closed area, where guests can try their hand as captains of attack boats. For those unable to visit the exhibition, there will be a special video broadcast from the official Twitch booth and new devblog updates each day, where developers of the game will talk about the new regime, present ships of different nations and run giveaways of closed beta access codes for the viewers.

Watch the new War Thunder: Knights of the Sea – Naval Battles teaser trailer here.

Purchase the Naval Starter Packs at the Gaijin Store.

To find out more about Naval Battles, please visit the official War Thunder website.

By Steven Kean @ Legit Reviews

Thermaltake and BMW DesignworksUSA formed a partnership several years ago to develop a line of PC gaming hardware. First came the legendary Level 10 case, which broke barriers with it’s modular design and won many awards. Next they worked together on developing the Level 10M, a gaming mouse that featured an aluminum base, height and tilt adjustment, 8200DPI laser sensor, and three custom lighting zones. Now, several years later, Thermaltake has continued to develop the Level 10 products with new features and enhancements. The latest Level 10 gaming mouse is the Level 10 M Advanced. It continues the overall look and feel of the original, with some changes.

Read The Review Here

By E. Fylladitakis @ AnandTech

BitFenix owes a lot of their recent success as a company to the Pandora. It is a case that was loved for its design and price to performance ratio. However, the Pandora was compact and could only take up to Micro ATX motherboards, with limited expandability and cooling options. In this review we are having a look at a newer version of the Pandora, the Pandora ATX, which shares the aesthetic design of the original Pandora but is both much larger and comes with extensive support for liquid cooling systems.

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.

• Corsair’s Hydro GFX GTX 1080 Is Available Now, But Only From Corsair
• AeroCool Unveils the DS-230 Chassis
• Lian-Li Announces PE Series SFX-L PSUs
• Thermaltake Toughpower DPS G RGB Titanium Series PSUs Announced
• BitFenix Unveils the Aurora and Alchemy 2.0 Magnetic RGB LED-strips
• ZOTAC Unveils its New GeForce GTX 1080 Arctic Storm
• BIOSTAR Announces its Coolest ITX Board Yet: RACING B150GTN

By Fraser Brown @ The Wargamer

ArmA 3 is a gargantuan toybox for military connoisseurs, as much a platform for the creation of diverse scenarios – from survival sandboxes to duelling tanks – as a game itself. ArmA 3: Apex, then, is a new compartment in that toybox. Slide out the drawer and you’ll be able to pick up and play with VTOLs, AK-12 assault rifles, Prowler light strike vehicles and sexy night vision goggles.

But it’s more than just these new toys, however. If you’ve grown tired of the idyllic but sometimes war-torn fictional Greek archipelago created for the core game, then good news! There’s a whole new set of islands to explore in the stunning South Pacific locale of Tanoa. Bid farewell to the gentle rolling hills and seemingly infinite fields of Altis and Stratis, and prepare to spend a lot of time in the humid jungle and striking beaches of your new home.

Read on…

1C Game Studios is excited to announce that IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Moscow is available digitally starting from today. The game can be purchased at our website in two editions, Standard and Premium, for the price of $49.99 and $79.99 correspondingly. For additional information on both editions please visit www.il2sturmovik.com.

The game is also available via Steam as DLC for the previous title IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Moscow is a combat flight simulation dedicated to the Battle of Moscow, one of the most decisive battles on the Eastern Front in WWII. This new project from 1С Game Studios continues the next generation of combat flight simulations with the latest development technologies – from a new higher level of physics modeling, damage modeling and aerodynamics to modern modes of gameplay with detailed, immersive environments.

The Russian-based Battlestate Games Studio has announced the start of its technical Alpha testing of Escape from Tarkov, its hardcore online game. First players, those who have claimed their eligibility for participation by pre-ordering the game from the official website – have already been admitted into the game.

Further admittance of eligible players will be conducted in waves, every new wave being formed with one or two day intervals in chronological order: first players who pre-ordered the game, will also be the first to try it. The avant-garde of the Escape from Tarkov heroes will be welcomed by two already familiar raid locations “Factory” and “Customs”, and they’ll come across 15 types of weapons and a wide variety of equipment and supplies.

The main purpose of the technical Alpha testing is for the developers to fine-tune the basic mechanics over high loads, exploring the locations for possible issues, hunting for bugs that are likely to occur in the early stages of testing both in offline and online modes. Along with collecting player feedback, the developers will be optimizing the Escape from Tarkov Alpha version game performance, fixing the discovered issues and adding new content. At this point, the online game mode already includes the majority of essential features, including inventory management, trade, medical treatment, weapon modding and ballistics. Also, players will be able to check out the daylight and weather changes with impressive weather effects.

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 of 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.

Square Enix and Avalanche Studios today announced that Just Cause 3: Bavarium Sea Heist, the third and final content pack of the AIR, LAND & SEA Expansion Pass, will be available to all expansion pass holders from August 11 and will go on sale as a separate add-on for everyone else from August 18. To celebrate the release, a brand new launch trailer is now available.

“Our aim with the Air, Land & Sea Expansion Pass was to completely alter the way players tackle the game and we’ve achieved just that,” said Marcus Andrews, Lead Designer of the Air, Land & Sea content at Avalanche Studios. “Each of the three packs of new tools allows the player to wreak havoc in fresh, creative, and unique ways that ensures both new and existing fans of Just Cause 3 will have hours of additional content and an enormous number of ways to approach any situation”.

Brave the dangerous waters of West Medici in your new rocket boat and infiltrate the Stingray, a mysterious research facility, home of the rarest and strongest weapon ever created by the Eden Corporation. This content pack includes a brand new location to explore, missions, a new challenge type, the heavily armed rocket boat and the devastating “Eden Spark” lightning gun.

• Liberate the Medici coastal waters of Scolio, home to Eden Research stations and the mysterious “Stingray” base.
• Drive the deadly rocket boat “Loochador”, using its multi-lock missile launchers and miniguns to defeat the formidable Black Hand Fleet.
• Infiltrate the Stingray base to steal the deadly “Eden Spark” lightning gun and unleash elemental death on your enemies in all new storyline and missions.
• Power up the Eden Spark further with mods earned in the “Boat Invader” challenge.

The Just Cause 3: Bavarium Sea Heist content pack is priced at $5.99 / €5.99 / £4.99 whilst the entire AIR, LAND & SEA Expansion Pass is available for $24.99 / €24.99 / £19.99.

More game information available at the official Just Cause 3 website.