Command the Seas and Control the Trade in Mare Nostrum

Your nation has long been at one with the sea. Salt water runs through the veins of your sailors, and no sound is as stirring as that of the wind whipping a top-sail just before the full gale arrives. The sea lanes hold the wealth of the East. Heave ho, and set sail for profit.

Mare Nostrum has arrived.

Mare Nostrum is the newest expansion DLC for Europa Universalis IV, Paradox Development Studio’s best-selling grand strategy game set in the adventurous days of the Age of Exploration, the Renaissance and the wars of Reformation and Revolution. Mare Nostrum adds a number of improvements and updates to the game, bringing more control and detail to the naval game.

Features include:

• Naval Missions: Naval interface improved to make control of your fleets less hands-on and more mission oriented
• Barbary Raids: The Berber nations of North Africa can raid their neighbors for money and extra sailors
• New Espionage System: Build a spy network and call on it to undertake actions in enemy lands
• Trade Leagues: Merchant republics can recruit minor nations into their Trade League for common defence and, more importantly, common riches
• Condottieri: Rent out your army so it can fight someone else’s wars while you earn gold
• And, as always, the expansion DLC is accompanied by a massive update that is free to every Europa Universalis IV player – even if they never buy Mare Nostrum. This update will include an updated map, a new state system to organize your nation, tweaks to naval combat and the introduction of sailors to man your ships.

Mare Nostrum is available from major digital retailers for $14.99.

Watch the release trailer here.

For more information, visit the official Europa Universalis IV website.

By E. Fylladitakis @ AnandTech

Cougar is a German manufacturer of PC components that was founded in 2007. The company originally focused on cases and PSUs, but recently diversified towards gaming peripherals as well. A year ago we had a look at their first and, at the time, the most advanced keyboard and mouse they had to offer. Following the success of their 700-series peripherals, Cougar released nearly a dozen additional keyboards and mice during this past year, designed to cover many tastes and budgets. Today we are having a look at one of their newest keyboards and mice, the Attack X3 mechanical gaming keyboard and the 450M optical gaming mouse respectively.

Read The Review Here

Source: TechPowerUp!

AMD released its latest version of the Radeon Software Crimson Edition drivers. Version 16.4.1 comes with optimization for “Quantum Break,” with up to 35 percent higher performance seen a machine running the Radeon R9 Fury X, compared to the previous 16.3.2 drivers. It also provides software support for the two hottest VR headsets – Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The drivers also address a bug seen on “Hitman” (2016), which cases the game to flicker when shadow quality is bumped up to “high,” in DirectX 11 mode. Most importantly, the drivers fix a frame-rate capping issues noticed on some DirectX 12 applications.

You can download the Radeon Software Crimson Edition version 16.4.1 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 X99A GODLIKE Gaming Carbon Motherboard
• ASRock Announces Z170M OC Formula Motherboard
• EVGA Releases NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 Low Power Cards
• Amped Wireless Ships First High Power AC1200 Wi-Fi Extender with USB Charging Port
• Razer Updates the Hammerhead CNC Aluminum Chassis In-Ear Headsets
• MSI Socket LGA2011v3 Motherboards Ready for “Broadwell-E”
• Intel Support Site Leaks Core i7-6950X Broadwell-E Info
• Kingston Announces the HyperX Revolver Gaming Headset
• Amped Wireless Intros ATHENA-EX 15,000 sq.ft AC2600 Wi-Fi Range Extender
• Comtrend Delivers G.hn Ethernet Over Coax Adapter
• BenQ Releases GC2870H 28-Inch Full HD Monitor With Flicker-Free Technology

Independent game development studio Bohemia Interactive is proud to introduce a game-changing product to complement its critically acclaimed series of military games: “Arma” Eau De Combat. Designed for those who love risk-taking, this brand new perfume appeals to your most basic instincts with the captivating scent of battle.

Offering an unapologetic blend of florals, with a touch of soft gunpowder aroma, topped off with fresh notes of wood, mosses, and dirt, “Arma” Eau De Combat captures the heat of the moment and boosts your chances of victory in the trenches of seduction. Wear this perfume with confidence to throw others off their game. With its distinctive, triangular bottle design, and excellent lasting power, “Arma” Eau De Combat is set to become your provocative weapon of choice, sans compromis. At your service: “Arma” Eau De Combat - The New Fragrance for Players.

“Arma” Eau De Combat is the result of almost a full year of active product development. This process involved an expert team of perfumers, dermatologists, industrial designers, military advisors, and game developers. Their mission: create a perfume that extracts the essence of Arma’s core brand philosophy, and combine it with the values of passion, purpose, and play. Over 30 prototypes were created before arriving at the final product.

Myrik Greene, Senior VP of Brand Execution at Bohemia Interactive:

“With the Apex expansion already set to become a pinnacle moment for Arma 3, we felt that we should leave no stone unturned, and create a brand experience that stimulates all senses, including smell. “Arma” Eau De Combat expands the horizon of our line up with a synergistic product that enables us to deliver on that promise.”

“Arma” Eau De Combat is now available for pre-odor exclusively on the Bohemia Store (limited supply). Check out the “Arma” Eau De Combat – The New Fragrance for Players (TV Commercial) at the “Arma” Eau De Combat official product page. (Bwahaahaaaahaaaaaa!)

Take your tank to the sea, warship to the Jacuzzi, and shoot pool on the Moon

April Fool’s Day is generally celebrated by playing a good-natured practical joke, an amusing hoax, or, in Wargaming’s case, an entire parade of special in-game events created for its passionate community.

In “Moon Mayhem” (April 1 – 5) World of Tanks PC establishes its first colony on the Moon. Why? Because why not? In this event, you command the latest weapon in spherical tank technology: the IS 8-BALL. In your space-age vehicle, you must knock other commanders on the “Crater” map into one of several billiard-type holes.

Of course, we’re on the Moon, which means less gravity. You’ll find that IS 8-BALL feels a little different than a regular tank. That’s because it’s so smooth. With less friction, various in-game hazards, like Meteor Showers and strange gravitational anomalies, this mode offers an out of this world experience. To play, all you have to do is enter your Garage, choose the IS 8-Ball and click the Battle! button. You will be added to a special queue with other players who have also selected the event vehicle.

April Fool’s Day in World of Warships (March 31—April 11) exchanges the high seas for hot tubs in the special “Ruinberg In Jacuzzi” map. Take charge of the captain’s boat from the animated series “Bad Advice” and battle other players in a not-so-relaxing hot tub. All you have to do is start the game and search your Port for the 4 types of vessels available: the Pokeboat (JP), Botishkaff (RU), Das Boot (DE) and Bottlesheep (US). Choose whichever ship you take a fancy to, then click the Battle! button.

Each ship sports a Fish captain at the helm, stylized with the nation of its ship. When the little boat is bobbing in your port, a 3D model of “Bad Captain” will be visible on the ship. While the captain lacks a bikini, you can hear some of his trademark sounds from the show. Why not stick your toe in the water?

We have something for everyone this April Fools’ Day, so make sure you don’t miss out!

Also, Don’t Miss Exciting New Gameplay Footage, And This Weekend’s First-Ever Twitch Stream

Escape from Tarkov, the upcoming FPS/MMO that has all of the Internet buzzing, is going to show just how flexible the game’s weaponry is in a new video released today. It’s not simply about adding a bigger magazine, or a flashlight, or even a laser sight…no, in Escape from Tarkov, from developer Battlestate Games, it’s about thousands, possibly millions of combinations of tactical weapon add-ons that will take a basic pistol, and make it a handheld war machine of epic proportions.

To show just how incredibly deep Escape from Tarkov’s weapon modding system is, today we’re releasing a new video showcasing various weapons and the available mods. Stocks, magazines, muzzles, barrels, they’re all there for the modding. Along with the video, we have an overview dossier that explains the options available in the modding system. Watch the new video, and see why PC Gamer calls Escape from Tarkov, “The FPS that’s taking weapon customization to absurd heights,” and why the game is on every FPS fans’ wish list.

Battlestate has also released an Escape from Tarkov clip showcasing two minutes of gameplay from the game, if you can’t get enough Escape from Tarkov, this Saturday. Battlestate will be hosting the first ever Twitch stream for the game. Tune in to Twitch this Saturday April 2nd at 11AM Pacific Time (2PM Eastern) to experience even more of this exciting FPS/MMO.

Tackom Ltd is developing a new Tactical Simulation Art of Combat: Anzio 44.  This new game will be a hybrid game with a complete strategic layer, as well as a battle layer for real time battles.

The best way to imagine Art of Combat is as an old table top game. The Table is the Strategic [Strat Map] This is where the operational aspects of the game take place. You move your Bgs [Battle Groups] around, [Infantry – Armour – Recon – Heavy Infantry – Engineers – Mixed etc] . You endeavor to outmaneuver your AI or human opponent as you would on a real table top, using real tactics. Once you have moved units, sorted supply, intel etc out, you finish your “turn” hit next, the opponent moves in the same way. At this point Battles will occur, this is where you drop down to the battlemap, to actually fight your battles in realtime.

This is where the actual real time fighting will occur. Here below the Strategic [Strat] layer, on the Battle layer is where your Battle Groups will engage in real time combat. With a far better AI than any tactical wargame until now, with AA class modelling and graphics, pathing, physics etc, you will be able to fight ultra-realistic battles with features that have never been seen before in any game.

About The Art of Combat

What we as developers are aiming to do, is to create a new type of wargame, with brand new features. All it will have in common with past RTS type games is that it will be Real Time. It is essentially an RTTS [Real Time Tactical Simulation]. The aim is to build a game that will eventually cover many time periods, not just WW2. The game will have a host of features, such as civilians who can become insurgents/partisans, booby traps, the ability to realistically model many differing types of tactical warfare from WW2 to Asymmetric, insurgent based warfare.

Find out more, view some screenshots, and join the game forum at the official Art of Combat website.

Legendary Naval Fleet Ships And Galleons Deliver The Broadside

Gaijin Entertainment today announced that its award-winning MMO WWII online game, War Thunder, will be introducing legendary sailing ships in its latest update for War Thunder’s ten million players to enjoy.

Available for all players, these historic battleships will take the fight to distant lands and contested waters. The first test-session starts today and will last until the end of the weekend.

Long before the history books documented the modern toil of land and air warfare in tanks and planes, the oceans were ruled by huge battleships decked with cannon and shot.

War Thunder ‘s latest update will introduce British fighting ships from the beginning of the Eighteenth Century with other nations to be added later.

“It’s been a very interesting and challenging task to recreate historic battles of the most powerful sailing nations. We started working on it last year, adding interactive water, and then a few days ago we added interactive weather conditions, which are very important for realistic sailing conditions,” said Gaijin Entertainment CEO Anton Yudintsev. “The weather can change from complete calm to raging storm.”

Like their tank and plane counterparts, War Thunder’s sailing ships will also have their own interactive damage model (no health points). Gaijin Entertainment has taken care in crafting these sailing behemoths to be armored the way they were during their dominance of the oceans of long ago.

Naval battles will be available in the War Thunder Events menu in the game and will be available in Arcade mode. Players will be able to take the rank 1 British ship, the legendary “Golden Hind” galleon and join a battle on the shores of the lost islands. More ships of the Royal Navy and other nations will become available soon.

Information videos:

• Planned Royal Navy line-up
• Interactive weather conditions in War Thunder
• Interactive water effects in War Thunder

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

New Video and Special Edition Tanks Now Available

Developer Obsidian Entertainment and global publisher My.com present the special edition Wolf Pack vehicles, featuring four of the most renowned steel machines of destruction. These unique vehicles will tear enemies to shreds and are available in celebration of Armored Warfare’s latest update 0.14.

Armored Warfare’s Wolf Pack vehicles feature a unique look (bloodthirsty red stripes on deep black with Wolf’s emblem), created especially for this limited time offer. On top of the awe inspiring graphics, these vehicles come fully upgraded with maximum level crews and premium status. The pack containing the Centauro 120, Challenger 1, BMD-2, and Wiesel 1 will go on sale as part of the coming update and will be available for purchase individually.

Get more details on the new Wolf Pack for Armored Warfare and watch the Wolf Pack video here.