Independent UK developer Rebellion is delighted to announce the release date for Sniper Elite 4: its new entry in the award-winning, chart-topping World War 2 shooter franchise will open next year’s Q1 of big-hitting game releases, landing worldwide on February 14, 2017 for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Jason and Chris Kingsley, co-founders of Rebellion, explained the decision to release the studio’s marquee title in February:

“When we revealed Sniper Elite 4 back in March our plan was to release it at the end of 2016,” they explained, “However, we now know Battlezone will release in October as a launch title alongside PlayStation VR. That gave us a tough decision to make. Ultimately, we’re a relatively small independent studio, and releasing two major titles in the same quarter didn’t seem like a sensible thing to do. A few of our shared internal teams will probably sleep a bit easier now!”

While this does mean players will have to wait just a little longer to get their hands on the title, there is another big benefit to a 2017 release:

“Launching Sniper Elite 4 in February gives us the opportunity to take a game that’s already received some of the best preview feedback we’ve ever had, and give it that extra bit of attention,” the Kingsley brothers affirmed, “We know a lot of you will be disappointed you won’t get to play Sniper Elite 4 this year, but we feel this decision will prove in the long run to be a win-win for both us and you, the fans.”

Check out some new screenshots here (Hosted by Blue’s News).

TaleWorlds Entertainment has lifted the lid on upcoming title, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord‘s greatly anticipated siege gameplay.

Players will have the chance to take part in authentic medieval sieges, utilising a variety of siege weaponry, including ballistae, catapults, siege towers, battering rams and more. A variety of castles, that not only look realistic, but function as defences, making use of flanking towers, choke points and murder holes, which work just like those in reality.

Destructibility and fire damage create dynamic environments, which players can manipulate to their advantage. But intelligent AI will do the same, adapting while attacking and reacting to threats in defence.

Beyond the chaotic struggle of the assault, sieges also test players’ strategic abilities, when maintaining a besieging party, constructing siege engines and bombarding enemy walls.

In addition, this is the first look at the Sturgia faction in Bannerlord. The Sturgians occupy the northern forests of Calradia, preferring to fight on foot, with swords and axes. Fearsome helmets cover their eyes, giving them a demonic appearance and they excel in close-quarter melee combat, fighting in cramped towers and atop ramparts.

Videos:

• E3 2016 Siege Gameplay Trailer
• E3 2016 Siege Gameplay Short

More game information is available via the Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord website.

You fought on the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Order of Battle: Pacific, but now the war is global!

Order of Battle: World War II, formerly known as Order of Battle: Pacific, is a bigger project with a wider scope and the goal of featuring multiple fronts of World War II, and it is OUT NOW!

It is available to everyone for free: it contains the initial bootcamp missions plus the first scenario of every DLC Campaign, and they are completely free. Players will be able to try the game, play several scenarios and decide if they’d like to get the DLC Campaign.

The original campaigns of Order of Battle: Pacific are now split into two different DLCs:

• The Order of Battle: U.S. Pacific DLC, featuring the American campaign.
• The Order of Battle: Rising Sun DLC, featuring the Japanese campaign.

Important: if you already own Order of Battle: Pacific you will be given these two DLCs, Rising Sun and U.S. Pacific, and retain any other DLC you already own!

Stay tuned for more news in the future: the expansion Winter War is in development, and there are plans for more amazing content…

Grab Order of Battle: WW II via the Matrix Games webstore, or on Steam.

‘Empires fell. Teabags were invented’ – DICE on the brilliant Battlefield 1 – New Videos

By Martin Robinson @ Eurogamer

Battlefield 1, in case you had any doubt, is shaping up to be a fine video game, even if it’s a very familiar one. EA afforded us the chance to play it before the publisher’s E3 showcase, granting a quick 15-minute blast across the new map St. Quentin’s Scar in Battlefield’s trademark Conquest mode, with a full complement of 64 players. It’s a very impressive-looking game, bringing a heightened level of physicality to the series as players burst through doors or seamlessly transition into vehicles, and a new level of destruction as whole villages are levelled through the course of a match.

Following the hands-on, I caught up with Lars Gustavsson, creative director at DICE and a stalwart of the Battlefield series, to find out anything more I could about the new game.

Read on…

New Call of Duty Coming Nov. 4 Features Harington as the Face of the Enemy

Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced today that Kit Harington will be featured in the upcoming Call of Duty®: Infinite Warfare, scheduled for release 4th November. The role marks a dramatic shift for the popular actor as he portrays the face of the enemy in the new Call of Duty game in development by Infinity Ward.

“Kit is an amazing talent and the consummate pro,” said Taylor Kurosaki, narrative director, Infinity Ward. “Our story is about an epic showdown of opposing forces and Kit immersed himself into the role and truly became the embodiment of the enemy, the Settlement Defense Front. We can’t wait for fans to see Kit play an entirely different kind of character.”

To lend additional support to the production, Activision and Infinity Ward worked closely with director Guy Ritchie, who is familiar with the Call of Duty ® franchise, having helmed the acclaimed live-action trailer “Surprise” for Call of Duty®: Black Ops II.

Read more…

Good news! Victory and Glory: Napoleon has been updated to version 1.0.1, bringing several improvements and bug fixes!

Among all, now there is no activation cost for moving Generals, the strategic AI has been drastically improved and Russia is more aggressive than before!

Take a look at the full list of changes below!

You can download the patch from here.

Get more information of Victory and Glory: Napoleon from its product page!

Liked the game? Leave a review on Steam!

Changelog:

• Generals’ names appear on their tiles
• Generals may now move for free on their own (no activation cost).
• Players may discard Event Cards when their hand gets full and they can accordingly draw a different card if desired.
• When a nation’s capital is taken, there is a percentage chance that it will surrender every turn that it is occupied. This means that nations will hold out longer and have a better chance to re-capture their capital and to receive help from other nations before surrendering. This applies to the ‘General’ and ‘Emperor’ levels of difficulty.
• The Friendly Neutral period has been extended from 6 to 9 turns (‘Corporal’ level of difficulty only).
• Improved strategic AI on re-taking capitals
• Improved strategic AI for Russia: Being more aggressive in driving more armies into Austria and Prussia
• Improved tactical AI
• Adding a combat bonus for Cavalry vs. Disordered Cavalry. This means that attacking infantry with cavalry is more dangerous if there is enemy cavalry in the same area.
• ‘Passing’ in the advanced battles. When the player ‘passes’, the AI automatically wins initiative for the next move.
• The 1800 scenario now lasts until 1815
• A few small improvements in the strategic AI dealing with Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
• There is now a small political cost when France declares war. The exact cost depends on the level of difficulty.
• A few minor reliability fixes.
• Improvements in user control over the game’s hardware preferences.

By Robert Purchese @ Eurogamer

CI Games has moved the Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 worldwide release date to 27th January 2017. It’s due on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

The statement was made by CI Games for the Warsaw Stock Exchange but was spotted by Eurogamer Poland and then relayed to me.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 had been due this year. This game will be the biggest and most expensive in the popular series so far. There’s a new parkour system this time, there are vehicles, and there are War Crimes side missions, gruesomely.

Find out more about Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 at the games official website.

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.

• Palit Released GeForce GTX 1070: GameRock & JetStream Series
• Inno3D Introduce New GeForce GTX 1070 Graphics Cards
• Colorful Announces the GeForce GTX 1070 X-TOP and U-TOP Series
• EVGA Announces the DG-8 Line of Full-tower Cases
• SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 480 NITRO 8GB Pictured
• Anidees Launches AI-Crystal Tempered Glass Chassis
• Intel Optane Client SSDs to Debut Alongside “Kaby Lake” Processors

Experiencing the finer points of all-out war in a truly grand strategy simulation.

By TJ Hafer, IGN 

Hearts of Iron 4 is an incredibly complex World War II simulation that will require potentially hundreds of hours to master, both in-game and poring over wiki articles that read like an economics textbook. And as someone eager to invest that kind of time into a game as long as it continues to reward me with new layers of depth, I consider that a very good thing. Thanks to an unusually striking look and clean, easily navigable interface, the biggest challenges we Hearts of Iron 4 presents us with are the good kind: strategic planning, division composition, and fine-tuning economic and political policies. The payoff is brilliant for those willing to put in the time to learn.

Read on…

Source: Blue’s News

The Division website announces that Ubisoft is adopting one of those trendy (and quite welcome) zero tolerance policy toward those caught cheating in multiplayer games in Tom Clancy’s The Division. They say to date they have already taken action against over 30,000 accounts and have issued 3,800 permanent bans. It sounds like that latter number is going to rise, as they say they are now applying perma-bans on a first offense. Here’s word:

As a direct result of this improved cheat detection, last month we announced “the biggest wave of suspensions and bans to date”. This marked the beginning of an intensive campaign during which actions were taken against a total of over 30,000 accounts, including 3,800 permanent bans. This led to a significantly improved experience, particularly in the Dark Zone.

Following this campaign of suspensions and bans, it also became clear that while huge progress has been made in terms of cheat detection, our 14 days suspension on first offense policy has not been dissuasive enough. Judging from your feedback, and based on what we witnessed when cheaters came back to the game, we have now decided to push our policy one step further: we will now start applying permanent bans on first offense when players are caught using cheat engines and we will communicate clearly when new ban waves are taking place.