New Expansion Will Hit Stores February 2, New Screens

Your chancellor wants you to press his claim on a neighboring county. Your marshal is a bit of an incompetent. And no one thinks you should execute your uncle, like you had planned to – even though he’s a nasty rebel. Difficult problems with easy solutions? Not quite.

Crusader Kings II: Conclave, the newest expansion for Paradox Development Studio’s celebrated medieval grand-strategy game, will bring out the politician, diplomat or tyrant in you as your royal council demands to be heard – and the loudest voices demand a seat at the table. Paradox is happy to announce that this new expansion will be on February 2, 2016.

Conclave adds greater depth to ruling your realm with a host of new laws and council interactions. Will you placate your vassals by giving them a say in matters of war and peace? Will you raise the status of women in your kingdom by recognizing their right to inherit lands and title? Can you find a place on council for that one duke who has too many armies to ignore, but no talent for anything?

This expansion will also increase the importance of marriage alliances, introduce systems to block rapid overexpansion, and allow you to rent out some of your soldiers as mercenaries – just because you’re not at war doesn’t mean you can’t make a ducat or two off someone else’s aggression.

So mark the date on your calendar – February 2, 2016: the day that Crusader Kings II challenges you to up your king game. Be ready for Conclave. It will be available from major digital retailers and the Paradox store for $14.99, 10.99 GBP or 14.99 Euros.

For more information on Crusader Kings II, click here.

All-time classic Panzer Corps and its expansions covered almost every single battle of the European theater of World War II.

In 2015 there was even the chance to lead a completely fictional invasion of Great Britain with the Axis Forces in Operation Sea Lion.

However, until now, no campaign devoted to the Red Army was available. Fans of Russian history will no longer be frustrated because Soviet Corps – a stand-alone expansion of Panzer Corps – will be released on PC and iPad on February, 18!

Expanding upon the successful Panzer Corps game system, Soviet Corps features 25 challenging scenarios on multiple fronts. From the Winter War in Finland to the last offensives against Japan in Manchuria, players will relive 6 exhausting years of war from the Soviet point of view. More than 60 new regular and special elite units have been added to the huge database for an unforgettable experience at the head of the Red Army!

Get more information on Soviet Corps from its official product page.

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.

• GIGABYTE Introduces First Gaming Mouse from XTREME GAMING Lineup – the XM300
• SilentiumPC Announces the Fortis 3 HE1425 Malik Customs Edition
• Iiyama FreeSync Ready ProLite GB2488HSU-2 Released
• Spire Announces the TRICER 1408 Micro-ATX Tower Case
• Tt eSports Integrates Synaptics IronVeil Fingerprint Sensor into the Black V2 Mouse
• OWC Announces 2TB Mercury Electra SSD
• MSI Announces the Gaming 24 AIO Desktop
• AOC Launches C3583FQ, a 35-inch Curved FreeSync Gaming Monitor
• SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSDs Launches
• Ozone Announces the TriFX In-ear Gaming Headset
• EK Releases New EK-Tube ZMT Soft Tube for Liquid Cooling

By James Cobb @ The Wargamer

A literal English translation of the German adjective weltgeschichtlich is meaningless and clumsy: “world historical”. A better paraphrase is “world changing” In this sense, Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, was a weltgeschichtlich event because the world changed because of it. No wonder so many wargames have been produced around this pivotal conflict. Yet, despite its importance, Matrix/Slitherine Games and VR Designs have made it the third entry into the Decisive Campaigns series. The developers have given the conflict a unique point of view distinguishing it from the usual hex-based war game paradigm.

Read on…

Players can join forces to unlock a special vessel and other in-game rewards

Wargaming today announced “Project R”, the brand-new community campaign for World of Warships, is now live. In “Project R”, players must reach various milestones to earn Pearls, which they use to rebuild the famed Japanese destroyer Kamikaze with unique camouflage, as well as unlock fantastic in-game rewards.

“‘Project R’ is a great opportunity for us to engage with the vibrant World of Warships community and provide great content in a fun way,” said Jacek Pudlik, Associate Publishing Producer, Wargaming Europe. “We’re all looking forward to seeing just what the fans of the game are capable of who the really standout players will be.”

To earn Pearls, captains must challenge special “Project R” in-game missions. By completing these missions and achieving various milestones, they can also earn credits, Premium Account, camouflage and other boosts which are based on an individual’s contribution. What’s more exciting: if the community reaches the milestone of 10 million, Kamikaze will be completed and 2,000 Japanese destroyers will be randomly given to participants who collected 150 Pearls or more.

“Project R” lasts for six weeks, giving the whole community a boatload of time to band together and scourge the oceans in search of awesome rewards. Action Stations!

To register to take part in “Project R” and for more information, please visit the official World of Warships 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.

• Corsair Unveils its Fastest Ever 128GB, 64GB and 32GB DDR4 Kits
• KFA2 Announces the GeForce GTX 970 EXOC Sniper Edition Graphics Card
• G.SKILL Expands Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Family with KM780R Models
• In Win Surprises With New Brushed Aluminum Hardware
• EVGA Announces the Z170 Classified-K Motherboard
• ASUS Announces Cerberus Gaming Keyboard, Mouse, and Mouse Pad
• EpicGear Announces the SonorouZ X Gaming Headset
• Microsoft Will Not Support Upcoming Processors Except On Windows 10
• Fractal Design Launches the Define Nano S Chassis

Alex takes a look at the alpha version of tactical helicopter shoot ‘em up, Heliborne

By Alex Connolly @ The Wargamer

Indie outfit JetCat Games are certainly playing my kind of Wagner in Heliborne. Based in Vilnius, Lithuania, they’re a six-strong studio comprised of Belorussian, Russian, Ukrainian and American developers, and bring with them an earnest love for the flexible nuances of the whirlybird. Heliborne is aiming squarely at the team-based military multiplayer market, currently dominated by World of Tanks, Armored Warfare, and War Thunder. I recently had the chance to throw the JetCat cofounders, Raman Ulasau and Diana Leer, and community manager Anthony Keeton some questions surrounding their debut project. The first question was, simply, why helicopters?

Read on…

By Jon Ryan, IGN

After almost three years of various trailers and demos, I wasn’t sure I understood exactly what type of experience The Division wanted to focus on. Was it strictly an open-world adventure? A traditional MMORPG? Or was it staying close to the classic Tom Clancy framework and focusing on being a tactical co-op/PVP shooter? After spending a few hands-on hours with it, I realized that it manages to be all of these things simultaneously – and it seems like it’s just the game I’ve been looking for.

Read on…

You will have the chance to be immersed in the 1937 Sino-Japanese War very soon as Morning Sun – the second expansion of the extraordinary wargame Order of Battle: Pacific – will be released on January 28th!

In Morning Sun you will revive this undervalued conflict, taking control over the Japanese forces fighting for territorial expansion and rich Chinese resources.

Expect all of the fantastic features that made Order of Battle: Pacific one of the most innovative wargames recently made, plus a new array of possibilities, like the chance to employ cavalry units and invaluable Construction Group units!

Stay tuned for further information and if you want to know more, please check out the product page here!

Order of Battle: Pacific – Morning Sun will be available also on Steam.

Source: Eurogamer

The family of Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi have filed a €1m lawsuit against Activision over his portrayal in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Three of Savimbi’s children claim Activision depicted their father as a “barbarian” during his appearance in the 2012 shooter, The Guardian reports.

“[He's portrayed as] a big halfwit who wants to kill everybody,” prosecution lawyer Carole Enfert explained. In reality, she continued, Savimbi had actually been a “political leader and strategist”.

Jonas Savimbi was the leader of an opposition movement against Angola’s communist-backed government (and thus had the support of the US) throughout the country’s bloody civil war that left 500,000 people dead.

He appears in Black Ops 2 during the level Pyrrhic Victory, where he encourages his troops to kill as many opponents as possible, while waving a grenade launcher.

Activision has, unsurprisingly, disagreed with the claims, and said its portrayal of Savimbi showed him to be a “good guy”.

It isn’t the first time Activision has been sued over someone’s appearance in Black Ops 2. In 2014, actual ex-Panama dictator Manuel Noriega complained he had been depicted as “the culprit of numerous fictional heinous crimes”, for which he wanted damages.

In that case, Activision sought to get the “absurd” lawsuit dismissed, and went to the lengths of hiring US Attorney and ex-New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani to help. A judge agreed with Activision, and the case was thrown out of court.