Legends tell of a great city deep in the jungle. It is rich in all the pleasures of mankind, and is so full of gold that the residents count this metal as nothing. The daring explorer that finds this city will bring glory to his king – and infinite riches to his pocket. Now Paradox Development Studio brings the adventure and politics of the Spanish conquest to life with the El Dorado expansion for Europa Universalis IV.

The centerpiece of El Dorado is the Nation Designer, a tool that let’s you customize your starting nation in a campaign. Choose your starting capital and neighboring provinces, modify your starting culture and leader and then lead this new nation to new and original heights of glory. The infinite replayability of EU4 has just gotten even more infinite, if that’s possible (the company mathematician is still on holiday).

This expansion’s historical focus on the Central American and South American theaters of exploration will challenge you with new decisions worthy of a king or conqueror. As the Aztecs, subject the Mexican plain to your rule but make sure you have enough vassal kings to sacrifice to your angry gods. As the Europeans, push deeper into the jungles of the Amazon, following rumors of lost cities and magical fountains. Defer to the Pope as he intervenes to divide the New World among squabbling empires.

Features include:

• A deep Nation Designer gives you new starting options for your games, including national ideas and custom monarchs
• Experience the new Nahuatl, Inti and Mayan religions with blood sacrifices or Sun Worship
• Send your conquistadors to hunt for the Seven Cities of Gold, or your explorer on exploration missions around the world
• Gold Fleets can traffic New World wealth back to Europe, and be targeted by your privateer fleets
• Use your trade fleets to hunt dangerous pirates
• Maintain good relations with the Pope so you can get a corner of the world to call your own in the Treaty of Tordesillas

Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado will be available on major digital delivery platforms for Windows, Mac and Linux next month.

For more information on Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado please visit the official Europa Universalis IV website.

By Sandy Bruce @ PureOC

Audio has been a major component of gaming dating all the way back to Pong and Centipede. A good soundtrack and audio reproduction adds to the overall experience of any game just as a bad soundtrack or sub par reproduction can take away from that experience. Discrete sound cards, integrated audio chips, gaming headsets and complete speakers systems are some of the more common items discussed for delivery of gaming audio. Often you will find multiple solutions in a serious gamers tool box, A gaming headset for late night gaming sessions and a speaker solution for when free to play as loud as possible. In this review we will be looking at a speaker system from GX Gaming that looks to bring full range sound to your gaming experience. The SW-2.1 2000 gaming speaker system has intriguing style but will it bring the war zone even closer to home?

Read The Review Here

By: Hilbert Hagedoorn @ GURU3D

Need a blistering fast portable USB 3.0 Flash Storage unit? Hey, join us as we review the Samsung T1 Portable SSD. It is a cute and tiny USB 3.0 storage unit weighing in at just 30 grams. Our 500 GB Test sample reached speeds well over 400 MB/sec in read and write performance. If you are on the move, this great looking device might just be what the doctor ordered!

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.

• COUGAR Launches 200K Gaming Keyboard
• Cooltek Announces the X4 Noise Insulated Mid-Tower Chassis
• X2 Presents the Trajan Small Gamer Enclosure
• ID-Cooling Offers Vapor Chamber CPU Cooler for Mini-ITX Systems
• Antec Officially Announces P380 Flagship Chassis
• Tesoro Partners with Infused, Launches Mousepad Line
• EKWB Indigo Xtreme ETI and Supremacy EVO Elite Now for LGA-2011-3
• Super Flower adds 1600W 80Plus Gold – Platinum and Titanium PSUs

The US Strategic Bombing Campaign of Japan June 1944 – August 1945, Part 1

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

Looming out of the warm spring darkness, a bomber stream formation of 68 US Army Air Force four engine Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers made landfall well over the Japanese home island of Kyushu around midnight on 15 June 1944. The formation’s lead plane was piloted by Brigadier General Laverne G. Saunders. Japanese searchlights with their multi-million candlelight arcs snapped on ahead of them in the distance, sending up numerous probing shafts of ultra brilliant light skyward searching for the oncoming bombers. The plane’s navigator spoke. “General, we’re approaching the target and are on the bomb run.” In response. Saunders said. “Bombardier, the plane is now under your control.” “Roger!” the bombardier replied. The man sitting in the “greenhouse” glass nose of the plane and gave the “OK signal” with his hand held over his head. He then leaned over his Norden bombsight and began making minute adjustments to the plane’s course and speed; all the while fighting the only recently discovered high altitude jet stream winds that buffeted the bomber and all others in the formation. Tail winds with this speed and velocity could propel a high flying aircraft to over 500 mph while a head wind could slow their progress down to a crawl. Either eventuality could easily spoil the bombardier’s aim. The bomber’s target was the Imperial Japanese Iron and Steel Works at Yawata. Heavy but inaccurate flak artillery fire exploded brightly around the bomber stream but caused little to no damage. In addition, there were no Japanese night fighter planes anywhere in sight. The bombardier soon called out “Bombs away!” as the first of 107 tons of bombs cascaded downward towards the steel works. The bomber formation effected a long, lazy turn away from the target to return to their newly built air bases in Nationalist China. The bombing mission appeared to have been a success. However, subsequent photo reconnaissance flights sadly revealed poor results from the raid with only one bomb striking within the industrial complex due to both the high speed jet stream winds and poor visibility over the target. However, this fact was mitigated by the knowledge that the raid on Yawata was the first aerial bombing raid on mainland Japanese since the pin-prick Doolittle aircraft carrier launched air raid over two years before. The US news media was absolutely elated by the news of the Yawata bombing raid, proclaiming that this was but the first of many more air raids that would soon knock Japan completely out of the war. For once they were completely correct.

Read on…

By Eddie Makuch @ GameSpot

Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 10 operating system could be the “best operating system we’ve ever created for gamers on PC,” according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer. On the Xbox Wire, Spencer hyped the January 21 Windows 10 event by saying he’s really excited to finally get to showcase “the great work that we’re doing” in the Windows 10 space as it relates to gaming.

Read more…

Personalized campaign setup and unique in-game rewards available to all players

Wargaming today announced the all new personal mission system for the free-to-play online action game World of Tanks is now live worldwide. The intricate system gives tankers the opportunity to personalize their mission experience by selecting specific missions from a variety of different campaigns and offers unique rewards upon completion.

Each campaign in the new setup is composed of a collection of missions for players to choose from. Players are not restricted to one single campaign, and they may opt to complete missions from different campaigns without playing them in succession.

After completing a chain of missions in a campaign, tankers will be awarded unique prizes specific to each mission. These new rewards include credits, Free Experience points, and high tier vehicles, the StuG IV (Tier 5), T28 heavy tank concept (Tier 7), Т-55 NVA DDR (Tier 9), and Object 260 (Tier 10), all with 100% tank crew, as well as the Sisterhood of Steel perk and female crew members.

Click Here for more information about World of Tanks.

As long, bitter winters set in across Europe and crops wither in the field, the Gothic people find themselves at a turning point. Furthermore, their homelands to the west of the Black Sea lie directly in the path of Attila The Hun’s terrifying ambition. To survive, they must learn to live as wayfarers, ranging far afield in order to find a secure, more fertile home.

Highlighting the themes of climate change, famine, and the threat of Hunnic conquest which drive mass migrations in Total War: Attila, this latest cinematic trailer presents a bleak vision of life at the dawn of the Dark Ages. As they approach the borders of Rome, the Goths realise their future hangs in the balance: the rider of the black horse has the power to decide their fate.

To survive in this world of turmoil and strife, certain factions have adopted a migratory lifestyle, characterised in Total War: Attila’s new horde mechanics. Unlike traditional Total War factions, whose development relies on static towns and cities, these migrating hordes are free to rove the map and pitch their tents where they will. Hordes represent the military might of an army combined with the economic, production and recruitment potential of a settlement, and offer players the first truly nomadic experience in Total War history.

For more detail on hordes and the mechanics of migration in Total War: Attila, a new spotlight video is also available here.

Author: AkG @ Hardware Canucks

2014 marked a maturing G-SYNC’s technology backbone and a relatively quick rollout into high end gaming monitors. BenQ’s latest offering (notwithstanding the announcements made at CES) is the XL2420G, a 1080P, 144HZ TN-based monitor that has recently become more affordable and offers several features that are sure to appeal to gamers looking for a fluid experience, without many tertiary sacrifices. BenQ’s has also added an integrated IR senor, making the XL2420G natively compatible with NVIDIA’s 3D Vision.

Read The Review Here

By crazyeyesreaper @ TechPowerUp!

Today’s review will cover the SilentiumPC Grandis XE1236 CPU cooler. It uses a traditional dual-tower design that makes use of six 6 mm heatpipes and, instead of dual 140mm fans, dual 120mm fans. Taking design cues from the competition’s heavy-weight dual-tower coolers, SilentiumPC keeps their offering under control in terms of height and cost. It will be interesting to see how it stacks up against the competition.

Read The Review Here