Highly Anticipated Fan-Funded RPG Released Today to Fans, Backers, and Gamers Everywhere

Obsidian Entertainment and Paradox Interactive today released Pillars of Eternity, the role-playing game (RPG) that was funded by over 70 thousand backers more than two years ago. Pillars of Eternity, created in the spirit of the classic Infinity Engine titles like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, and crafted by Obsidian with careful attention to fan and backer feedback, is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux PC. Fans who backed Pillars of Eternity will receive it today, while new players everywhere can purchase and play it at pillarsofeternity.com.

To celebrate the launch, Obsidian and Paradox have also released a new trailer, welcoming the world to the realm of Eora.

By Jake @ PureOC

Today we’re looking at the Cougar 200K gaming keyboard, an affordable board that sports rather smart styling and a couple of interesting features, such as lighting effects and anti-ghosting technology. We often see such features on expensive keyboards, but Cougar looks to be targeting gamers who are on a tight budget yet still want something capable.

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By Kristian Vättö @ AnandTech

OCZ has been teasing the Vector 180 for quite some time now. The first hint of the drive was unveiled over nine months ago at Computex 2014 where OCZ displayed a Vector SSD with power loss protection, but the concept of ‘full power loss protection for the enterprise segment’ as it existed back then never made it to the market. Instead, OCZ decided to partially use the concept and apply it to its new flagship client drive that is also known as the Vector 180.

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.

• EVGA SuperNOVA 650/550 GS Power Supplies Announced
• EVGA Announces the GeForce GTX 980 HYBRID
• SPEEDLINK Now Available in North America
• MSI Announces First AMD Motherboard with USB 3.1, the 970A SLI Krait Edition
• MSI Launches New Gaming All-in-One PCs Featuring IPS Technology, 3K and 4K Displays
• ASRock Unveils Fatal1ty 970 Performance Socket AM3+ Motherboard
• ASRock Announces World’s First and Only 970M Pro3 Micro-ATX Socket AM3+ Motherboard
• OCZ Releases Vector 180 SSD And New SSD Guru Management Tool
• Enermax Launches Quieter Long Running MAXPRO Power Supplies
• be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 PSU, Silent Base 800 Window Case, and more Available Soon

By Richard Talbot @ The Wargamer

As a wise man once said, “And now for something completely different!”. Well perhaps not completely different, but Vietnam ’65 is not just another wargame, this is an attempt to create a game about counter-insurgency warfare (COIN) rather than conventional warfare so it isn’t about lining up your troops to face off against the enemy, it’s more difficult than that – you have to find the buggers first, and then they run away to hit you from a different direction. You’ll find yourself shouting “will you just stand still and die” at the computer on more than one occasion when playing Vietnam ’65 if my experience is anything to go on.

Read on…

“The enemy must be annihilated before he reaches our main battlefield. We must stop him in the water, destroying all his equipment while it is still afloat!” (1944 – Erwin Rommel)

The definitive wargame of the Western Front is updated to version 1.00.21! New contents and features are now fully integrated to give the game a more detailed perspective. For instance Italian reinforcements are now allowed prior to July 43 (in the past they were not allowed until after Italy had surrendered) and with this version it’s more difficult to reach very high interdiction values.

The list is very long, so be sure to check the full changelog here.

The patch can be downloaded here.

But this time the good news is not finished, because alongside the update we are very happy to announce that an expansion of the base game focused on the attempts of the Allies to open a second front in Europe prior to Overlord is now ready to enter the beta phase! And we ask players to help us test it by enlisting for the beta here.

Operation Torch includes 10 diverse scenarios for an extensive coverage of the African and Western European theaters between late 1942 and 1945 including both historical and what-if operations.

Operation Torch includes 10 diverse scenarios for an extensive coverage of the African and Western European theaters between late 1942 and 1945 including both historical and what-if operations.

A lot of astounding news! What are you waiting for?

Get more information about the game from its official product page.

To provide a more in-depth perspective on development, Bohemia Interactive today released the first of a two-part series of developer diaries about the upcoming Arma 3 Marksmen DLC.

Exploring the new weapons and supporting platform features, in the video. Arma 3′s Creative Director Jay Crowe, Project Lead Joris-Jan van ’t Land, and Encoding Lead Petr Kolar discuss the vision behind the Marksmen DLC, its development process, and the contribution it makes to the Arma 3 sandbox.

In the next developer diary, members of the Arma 3 development team will discuss the new End Game multiplayer mode, showcase scenarios, firing drills, training courses, as well as the Virtual Garage feature, which will all be shipped alongside the Marksmen DLC.

The Arma 3 Marksmen DLC consists of seven new weapons, two scopes, remote designators, ghillie suits, firing drills, and the Marksmen showcase scenario. The DLC will be accompanied by a major platform update, which will be free for all people who own Arma 3. The supporting update will introduce weapon resting and deployment, improved recoil simulation, improved AI suppression, various sound enhancements, a new multiplayer mode and showcase scenario, suppressor and bipod weapon attachments, heavy and grenadier vests, nine additional face paints, and Virtual Garage. The Marksmen DLC, and the supporting platform update, will be released on April 8th 2015.

More information on the Marksmen DLC, and supporting platform update, can be found here. A more in-depth explanation of Bohemia Interactive’s approach to DLC for Arma 3, and how it prevents a split in the game’s multiplayer community between those who own DLC and those who do not, is available in a previously released dev blog.

Obsidian Entertainment and Paradox Interactive today released the second part of “Road to Eternity,” a behind-the-scenes documentary that follows the creation of Pillars of Eternity, the fan-funded role-playing game (RPG) for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs. Pillars of Eternity, which releases worldwide this Thursday, March 26, 2015, was funded over two years ago by more than 70 thousand backers, a process that is shown in this new chapter of the documentary.

Watch Part 1 of “Road to Eternity” HERE.

Watch Part 2 of “Road to Eternity” HERE.

Pillars of Eternity is an RPG inspired by classic titles such as Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment, which features an original world and game system that evokes and improves upon the traditional computer RPG experience. Funded via Kickstarter in late 2012, raising $4.5 million through both backer pledges on Kickstarter and Obsidian’s own website, Pillars of Eternity has been a project of passion both for the development team and for the loyal fans who have made it possible.

For more information on Pillars of Eternity, visit the games official website.

By: Hilbert Hagedoorn @ GURU3D

In this article we will test out AMDs all new hip feature, FreeSync and we do so with the new Acer FreeSync (27” 1440p 144Hz) screen. This puppy is WHQD and will not break an arm and a leg as it’s available for just just 499 EURO. For that money you receive a FreeSync compatible screen that has 1ms GTG speeds up-to 144 Hz. So yeah, following NVIDIAs GSYNC AMD took matters in their own hands and took a different approach, no more screen tearing and sync stuttering during game-play, if you create a gaming setup with the right circumstances. We will walk you through some available models, driver support and supported GPU’s after which we’ll put the aforementioned ACER screen to the test.

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Author: Steve Lynch @ HARDOCP

NZXT‘s very sexily named S340 mid-tower computer case is all about clean engineering, clean design, and clean function. There are no flashy panels; just a distinct presence with unblemished surfaces, tidy panel fitment, and crisp edges. For those of you that are fans of function over form, this could be your next chassis.

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