COMBATSIM.COM | The Ultimate Combat Simulation and Strategy Gamers' Resource.

Just Announced Hardware for 22 July 2015

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.

Hardware | Donster | July 22, 2015 |

Historical Article: Beware the Mosquito’s Sting

The de Havilland Mosquito Fighter Bomber

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

The 19 twin engine British Mosquito Mk VI light bombers flying at well over three hundred miles per hour roared in fast and low at church steeple altitude through the slate grey, late morning winter skies of 18 February 1944. Their bombing target was the German Gestapo prison in the French town of Amiens. Inside its high masonry concrete prison walls were held 717 French resistance fighters and other political enemies of the German Third Reich. In less than ten minutes the Mosquito’s bombs breached the prison walls, completely destroying the Gestapo barracks and killing most of its soldiers within who were then eating their lunch. As nearly 300 French prisoners escaped through the newly opened, still smoking walls, the Mosquito bombers quickly departed, leaving behind the shell shocked, incredulous Germans to wonder what had just hit them.

Read on…

Military History | Donster | July 17, 2015 |

Gearbox Working on ‘Authentic’ New Brothers in Arms Title

By Luke Karmali, IGN

Gearbox Software is working on a new “authentic” Brothers in Arms title, according to Randy Pitchford.

Speaking to IGN at Develop: Brighton, Pitchford explained the project was still in its early stages and extra help was being sought, but once this was locked down he expected things to happen quickly.

“I think the next Brothers in Arms game has to be authentic and we have been working on that,” he says. “I feel we have unfinished business there with both the fiction and the history and I’d like to get into that. I spend a lot of time thinking about it.”

Read on…

Just Cause 3 E3 2015 Trailers

Following an incredibly successful E3 for Just Cause 3 – with 10 award wins and over 20 nominations – Square Enix and Avalanche Studios are proud to share the new ‘Official E3 Playthrough’ trailer.

The island republic of Medici is the ultimate sandbox. With Rico’s new abilities and countless weapons and vehicles, there’s an infinite amount of possibilities around every corner. Each obstacle presents countless options for an explosive outcome – how creative can you be with Rico’s vast arsenal of equipment?

In addition to this, we’re also sharing the multi-path, ‘Choose Your Own Chaos’ trailer from the E3 show floor – an expanded version of the ‘Official E3 Playthrough’ allowing you to choose how the action unfolds at key moments.

More game information available at the Just Cause 3 website.

First-Person Shooters Just Cause 3 | Donster | July 17, 2015 |

Just Announced Hardware for 17 July 2015

Hardware | Donster | July 17, 2015 |

Call of Duty: Black Ops III The Giant Zombies Bonus Map Trailer

Zombies return in all of its undead glory with “The Giant,” a research facility featuring the weapon upgrading Pack-A-Punch Machine. Re-live the chaos of Treyarch’s classic “Der Riese” Zombies map, picking up the Zombies story with Dempsey, Nikolai, Richtofen, and Takeo where Origins left off.

“The Giant” is a bonus map included with the Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Collector’s Editions. Pre-order from the Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 website and secure your copy now.

Watch The Video Here

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 First-Person Shooters | Donster | July 14, 2015 |

Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations Patch 1.08 Available

Matrix Games and WarfareSims have updated Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations to version 1.08. This is a very huge update (over 20 pages!) with new features, fixes, additions and the databse completely incremented!

Some of the highlights of the new free update:

New toys to try out: Anti-torpedo torpedoes and related torpedo-warning systems, new warhead types such as “superfrags”, new weapon types such as “Contact explosive” (for the discerning saboteur or suicide terrorist), a brand-new ship type (Mobile Offshore Base (aka “Battle Island”)), and more.
User interface enhancements: Players can now observe the engagement arcs of a unit mount, permission-dependent color of targeting vectors, coastline/border fade-out on zoom (as in GE), the manual weapon allocation window can present to the player the “soft” restrictions (WRA/WCS/other doctrine settings), various tweaks to mission editor UI. etc.
Simulation improvements: Major speed boost on large scenarios, more accurate uncertainty areas for long-range passive detections (SOSUS, ESM etc.), reliable sub battery recharge, improved sub-captain AI on chasing after unreachable targets, snap-up/down limits for AAW guided weapons, side-firing gunships (e.g. AC-130) now manouvering properly, more realistic UNREP transfer rates, speed-dependent aircraft IR signatures (that supercruise may now really cost you if the enemy has decent IRSTs), tweaks to damage modelling related to light-caliber automatic weapons, realistic “no scan while painting” limitation on older mechanical radars, and more.
Scenario Editor improvements: “Can Auto-track civilians” side-level ability, Lua speed enhancements and more.
Updated & rebuilt versions of all official scenarios, plus a new scenario addition to the official-bundled scenarios (Pyrpolitis 1-14, from the community scenario pack).
A brand-new series of tutorial videos by Baloogan.

But the changelog is very long so be sure to check it here.

You can download the patch from here.

Get more information on Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations from its official product page.

Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations Strategy and Wargaming | Donster | July 14, 2015 |

Ride On To Glory In Horse Lords: New Crusader Kings II Expansion Available Now

The kurultai has concluded and good news, my lord! You have been chosen the Great Khan! Paradox Development Studio arms you with new territories, new armies and new ways of ruling the restless hordes at your disposal in Horse Lords, the newest expansion to Crusader Kings II, our best-selling medieval strategy simulation.

Lead grand armies to victories on the steppes of Asia as you cut new paths towards the wealth of the Silk Road, India and Europe. Force mighty foreign potentates to become your tributaries and manage the cutthroat rivalries and feuds of nomadic society as only a Great Khan can.

Horse Lords introduces a wide range of new tools and mechanics to add even greater variety to what is already one of the most diverse titles in strategy gaming history.

Larger Map: The steppes of Central Asia are now open for you to conquer or develop.
New rules for nomads: Now distinct from other pagan tribes, the Mongol and Turkic nomads draw strength from open pastures and large populations.
Clan management: Struggle alongside rival clans within your nomadic nation, even launching civil wars to keep your khan on top.
Tributaries: Vassals are often a lot of trouble, so why not simply force a conquered enemy to send u a load of gold every now and then?
The Silk Road: This great historical trading route linked the Mediterranean and the Far East. Exploit its wealth or pillage its trade posts.
Forts: New temporary structures you can build to hold enemy territory while your army marches onward.

And more! Crusader Kings II: Horse Lords is available now from major digital retailers.

For more information on Crusader Kings II, click here.

Crusader Kings II Strategy and Wargaming | Donster | July 14, 2015 |

New Real-Time PvP Mode for Blitzkrieg 3 – Active Defense Now Available

Nival, an independent game developer renowned for their strategy games, have announced the largest update so far for Blitzkrieg 3 in the form of the new and much requested PvP mode: Active Defense.

Blitzkrieg 3′s multiplayer is a simulated front line, in which one player attacks the key points of an opponent’s fortified garrison while the other player defends them. Up until now, the multiplayer mode in Blitzkrieg 3 was always “asynchronous” where the defending side was chosen from players currently offline. After feedback from its community, Nival has now introduced real time PvP to Blitzkrieg 3, where both players – attacking and defending – are directly controlling their units in real time.

“We were looking for some really fresh ideas for the continuation of the Blitzkrieg 3 series, and the “attack-defense” tactical scheme as the basis for online battles seemed to be an interesting solution”, commented Sergey Orlovskiy, founder and CEO of Nival. Orlovskiy continued, “While in a real war sides are never put in symmetrical conditions, the PvP modes in games invariably present abstract duels in which opponents fight in equal conditions. The only wide-known exception to this so far has been CounterStrike and we thought that implementing this tactical scheme as the basis for online battles not in a shooter but in a strategy genre might be that fresh idea that will breath new life in to the RTS genre.”

In this sizeable update the in-game matchmaker will look for players online initially. If players are not able to directly control the defense of their garrison the AI will do it for you, exactly as it was before.

Blitzkrieg 3 is currently in Steam Early Access and the playing community continues to provide valuable input and feedback in to the development of the game.

The Early Access launch trailer can be viewed here.

For more information on Blitzkrieg 3 head to the games official website.

Blitzkrieg 3 Strategy and Wargaming | Donster | July 14, 2015 |

ASUS STRIX R9 Fury DC3 Video Card Review

Author: Brent Justice @ HardOCP

AMD’s Radeon Fury X is here, the AMD Radeon R9 Fury presents itself and we evaluate a full retail custom ASUS STRIX R9 Fury using ASUS’ new DirectCU III technology. We will compare this to a GeForce GTX 980 using the new drivers AMD just released and find out what kind of gameplay experience the R9 Fury has to offer.

Read The Review Here

Hardware Video Cards | Donster | July 14, 2015 |