Get a Piece of the Action in an All-New Cops vs. Criminals Battlefield Multiplayer Experience Built on Speed and Strategy

Visceral Games, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio, today announced that Battlefield Hardline, the next installment in the critically-acclaimed Battlefield series, will host an open multiplayer beta from February 3 to February 8. The beta will be available to all players around the world on Origin for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system. Visceral Games also today released a new trailer that gives gamers an in-depth look at how new innovations with story, speed and strategy in single player and multiplayer are helping to make Battlefield Hardline a complete first person shooter experience. To see “What’s New in Battlefield Hardline”, click here.

“There’s nothing more valuable to our team than the relationship we have with our community. Their passion feeds our passion and their feedback has definitely helped make Hardline a better game,” said Steve Papoutsis, General Manager of Visceral Games and Executive Producer of Battlefield Hardline. “We want them to play the hell out of the beta next week and trust that they’ll keep that feedback coming so we can continue to fine tune the game.”

Battlefield Hardline builds on the foundation of the franchise’s signature multiplayer experience focused on team play and strategy and adds a new dimension of speed, making it the fastest Battlefield game ever. The open beta will feature three different maps and modes highlighting this cops and criminals fantasy world. The all-new Hotwire mode brings high-speed chases to the battlefield, as the criminals attempt to steal a list of marked cars while the cops try to repossess them. Available on two maps in the beta, Downtown and Dust Bowl, success in Hotwire will be predicated on teamwork and precision driving. Players can also experience the Battlefield franchise’s signature mode Conquest in Dust Bowl, with epic battles for up to 64 players**. And finally, the beta will also feature Heist, another new mode being introduced in Battlefield Hardline. Playable on the map Bank Job, the mode will pit criminals trying to pull off that big score and break into a bank vault, securing their take at drop off points in the map while a squad of cops work together to stop them.

The Battlefield Hardline beta will also provide access to the full breadth of multiplayer progression in the game, which features fresh new weapons, vehicles, gadgets and gear. Players will have to create new strategies on the battlefield with faster getaway methods like the zipline and muscle cars, or new entry tactics with the grappling hook and non-lethal takedown options like arrests, interrogations and stun guns. On top of all this, the beta will give the first look at another game mode called Hacker. This takes surveillance to the next level as one player on each side can hack the battlefield in different ways including hacking into security cameras, spotting enemies and specifying areas for their team to attack or defend. Hacker mode will be playable on all modes in the beta.

More information is available by visiting the official Battlefield Hardline website.

By Thomas Soderstrom @ Tom’s Hardware

With Kingston’s almost-value-priced DDR4-3000 barely able to overclock past its rating, I began to wonder if a lower-rated part from an overclocking-focused brand might be a little more flexible. Corsair’s Vengeance LPX looks the part, particularly in its CMK16GX4M4A2666C15R (that last R is for Red) limited edition. It’s cheaper than Kingston’s parts, and if it can match them in an overclock, we just might find a top enthusiast value.

Read The Review Here

Author: Max Page @ FrostyTech

On the test bench today we have Be Quiet‘s Pure Rock heatsink – a 155mm tall tower cooler built around four 6mm diameter copper heatpipes and paired with one of Be Quiet‘s ‘Pure Wings 2′ low noise 120mm fans. The Pure Rock heatsink has a relatively narrow footprint of 121x89mm so it should fit most motherboards where the memory slots are tight against the CPU socket. The heatsink ships with a single 120x25mm fan that spins at 1500RPM, moving up to 51CFM at 1.25 mm/H2O according to manufacturer specs.

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.

• Tt eSPORTS Reveals the New COMMANDER Gaming Keyboard and Gaming Mouse Combo
• AeroCool Rolls Out DS200 Black Window Edition Case
• MSI Celebrates 100 Million NVIDIA Graphics Cards Sold with Limited Edition GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 960
• Perfectly Functional GTX 970 Cards Being Returned Over Memory Controversy
• AMD Takes a Chip Shot at NVIDIA’s GTX 970 Controversy, Cuts Radeon R9 290X Pricing
• AMD Taunts NVIDIA in New “The Fixer 3″ Video
• Kingston HyperX Sets DDR4 Overclocking World Record at 4351MHz
• MSI to Refresh X99S Motherboard Series as USB 3.1-equipped X99A Series
• MSI Nightblade Now with Latest GTX 900 Series Graphics

“So long as the opposing forces are at the outset approximately equal in numbers and moral and there are no flanks to turn, a long struggle for supremacy is inevitable” (General Sir Douglas Haig – British commander)

Praised for its historical accuracy and its capacity to properly cover a huge conflict that involved thousands of men and units, Ageod’s WW1 wargame, To End All Wars, amazed history buffs last summer. However, the huge scale of the Grand Campaign was demanding a lot of time and a deep involvement from the players. So the developers went back to the WW1 battlefields and selected a list of smaller scenarios able to not only offer an original approach of the war, but also to provide true tactical operational challenges to their fans!

As a result, we are pleased to announce today a first expansion called Breaking the Deadlock, introducing some key confrontations of the Great War!

The game features five historical scenarios:

• Serbia (1915) covers the decisive Central Powers offensive in Serbia dedicated to secure the area and build a safe and effective supply chain between Germany and the Ottoman Empire.
• Rumania (1916) narrates the entry of Rumania into the war on the Allied side after having been neutral for 2 years, and the Central Powers rapid counterattack in the Balkan theatre.
• Caporetto (1917) begins with the Germans sending support to the Austrian army on the Italian Front, resulting with some unconventional warfare tactics based on gas attacks and use of assault troops.
• Palestine(1917-1918) the British and Ottoman Empires confront each other in the Middle Eastern theatre. Players will have to deal with logistic challenges and unusual terrain types to be victorious on this exotic battlefield.
• 1916 Campaign (1916-1918) is a fresh new starting point of the Grand Campaign. Victory has not picked her side yet!

The game is currently in a late beta stage and will be available on February the 24th.

Get more information on To End All Wars – Breaking the Deadlock from its official product page.

The 12 biggest names in World of Tanks set to compete in totally revamped eSports tournament format

Wargaming is excited to announce that the Wargaming.net League 2015 Grand Finals will be taking place on April 25–26 at EXPO XXI in Warsaw, Poland. Organized with support from the city of Warsaw, the event will see the 12 finest World of Tanks teams clash in a series of high-octane battles to determine who deserves the title of the world champion.

“The biggest WGL eSports event is about to start its engine,” said Mohamed Fadl, eSports Director of Europe and North America at Wargaming. “The recent revamp of tournament rules changed the surface of WGL eSports. Soon, we’ll see the best of the best meet in the final face-off in what’s set to be a breathtaking and action-packed Grand Finals.”

“I’m delighted that Warsaw, for a second time in a row, will be hosting the best World of Tanks pro players,” said Michał Olszewski, Deputy Mayor of Warsaw. “It’s thanks to the excellent cooperation and the great atmosphere of last year’s event that organizers decided to choose the Polish capital once again for the Grand Finals. The previous tournament gathered masses of spectators and I hope that this year will be another resounding success.”

Ahead of last season’s regional qualifiers, the Wargaming.net League introduced a revamped tournament format, coming up with Attack/Defense mode. The new setup and rules were developed in cooperation with pro gamers to strengthen gameplay and streamline objectives in eSports matches for World of Tanks.

Whether playing in attack or in defense, teams now have to take a proactive role in order to win, enhancing the tournament’s entertainment value. Having no chance of a draw, players must seize the initiative in battle to ensure victory. The teams had one season to refine their tactics and master the new setup.

During its first year, the Wargaming.net League has attracted over 200,000 pro gamers and hosted over 1000 tournaments. Drawing on the enthusiasm of Wargaming, its players and fans, the upcoming Grand Finals are set to be an even larger spectacle than last year’s event.

The 2015 Grand Finals will be free to the public, with a variety of prizes and exclusive giveaways for the most passionate spectators.

Click here for more information on the Wargaming.net League 2015 Grand Finals.

Razer, a world leader in connected devices and software for gamers, in partnership with Las Vegas-based Gaming-Grids, today announced the first phase launch of Razer Arena, a new competitive gaming ecosystem for everyone. The service will be powered by the voice chat gaming messenger, Razer Comms.

Razer Arena is a web-based platform that brings together competitive gaming tools typically reserved for professional-level gamers. With automatic match creation and reporting, tournament and match lobbies, match notifications, and more, Razer Arena provides a seamless experience without the hassle of uploading screenshots or replays. Razer Arena also allows match teammates and opponents to easily communicate.

In the first phase, users will be able to participate in daily challenge cups to get familiar with the tournament platform, as well as participate in tournaments produced by selected partners.

In the second phase, slated for March 2015, users will be able to host their own private tournaments. Successful Razer Arena tournaments may be featured alongside professionally organized events.

More information is available at the official Razer Arena Website.

By Chris Heinonen & Jarred Walton @ AnandTech

When it comes to gaming, 4K displays present a conundrum (beyond 4K being used incorrectly, but I’ll still use it). On the one hand, all the extra pixels allow for far more detail. On the other, that is a lot of pixels to push for a GPU. Even with the best GPUs out there, you might – okay, will – have to disable certain features and start to introduce aliasing and other artifacts. A solution to this might be G-SYNC to enable gaming that looks smooth even when running below 60 FPS, and that’s what we’re looking at today.

G-SYNC, only available on video cards from NVIDIA, allows frame rates below the normal optimal speed of 60FPS to still look very smooth. The Acer XB280HK is the first G-SYNC display to also feature a 3840×2160 resolution. Unlike some other G-SYNC displays the Acer only runs at 60Hz and below, though I don’t believe running faster than 60Hz at 4K resolutions will be much of an issue right now. Anand previously reviewed G-SYNC and described the details of how it works.

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.

• BIOSTAR Launches GeForce GTX 750 Ti Gaming OC Graphics Card
• Func Announces an Update to the F-Series 10 Mousepad Series
• Introducing SilentiumPC Supremo M1 Gold 550W PSU
• Crucial Ballistix Elite DDR4 Memory Now Available
• Introducing the EVGA TORQ X5 & X3 Gaming Mice
• Cooler Master Announces the Silencio FP Series Fans
• Colorful Announces its GeForce GTX 960 Lineup
• Sapphire Announces Radeon R9 290X 8GB Tri-X with Higher Clocks
• BIOSTAR’s New TA70U3-LSP Offers LAN Surge Protection Baked Right In
• MSI First to Support NVM Express Storage on all X99/Z97/H97 Motherboards
• GeForce GTX 970 Design Flaw Caps Video Memory Usage to 3.3 GB: Report
• NVIDIA Responds to GTX 970 Memory Allocation ‘Bug’ Controversy
• GTX 970 Memory Drama: Plot Thickens, NVIDIA has to Revise Specs

The US Strategic Bombing Campaign of Japan – Part 2

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

US Navy battleship and cruiser shells fell thick and heavy upon the Marianas island of Saipan’s landing beaches on the early morning of 15 June 1944. Well offshore, more than 300 LVT amphtrac landing craft carrying over 4,000 Marines cruised in circular formations, chasing each other’s rooster tails of spray emerging from the rear of their tracked amphibious landing vehicles. They were awaiting the “Go Order” to proceed ashore. At 0830 hours Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner gave that order and the LVT’s fanned out towards the Saipan shore. Somewhere off BLUE BEACH 2 a grizzled, flinty old pre-war Marine gunnery sergeant gave his neophyte troops his final orders. He shouted and pointed to a nearby track then running alongside. “Listen up you people! We’re crossing the final line of departure. That’s Lt. Smith’s amphtrack over there. When we get ashore, un-ass this vehicle as soon as we stop, get ashore and tie in with his herd! One other thing. Don’t get killed! That would make me most unhappy because you know how much I hate doing paperwork. Now lock and load and keep your damned heads down!” As the Marines loaded their M-1 Garand rifles, the old “gunny” put a five round clip into his much older Springfield 1903 bolt action rifle. He winked and grinned at the other Marines in the landing craft. All too soon and with a terrifying crashing suddenness, Japanese artillery and mortar shells began falling thickly and heavily around the Marine amphtracks as if someone had unzipped the very heavens above. Japanese anti-boat guns located in the still hidden pillboxes and caves ashore began taking an ever increasing toll of American landing craft. Meanwhile, Japanese artillery gun batteries located well behind the landing beaches began firing upon the incoming amphibious landing force. The sergeant’s LVT lurched to a halt at the water’s edge and the Marines aboard launched themselves over the vehicle’s gunwales onto the sandy beach, but there was no Lt. Smith or any of his men to be seen. His LVT lay still burning on the coral reef offshore like a number of so many other burning, broken toys out there, all of them victims of an anti-boat gun’s direct hit. A mortar shell concussion knocked down the gunnery sergeant, but aside from a few minor metal splinter cuts he was unhurt. As he brushed the black coral sand from his face, eyes and forehead, he looked up at the smoking, mountainous and craggy heights that lay far above and well behind the landing beaches. He shook his head and said incredulously. “How in hell are those doggy pricks going to build a B-29 bomber airfield way up there?”

Read on…