British Midnight Raid on Taranto Italy, 11-12 November, 1940

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

The night-time skies over Taranto Italy were criss-crossed with dozens of blindingly brilliant shafts of probing, search light beams interspersed with cracking flak bursts and the staccato sound and sights of thousands of machine gun tracers arching upwards across the black sky like so many thousands of fireflies in search of a still unseen enemy. Air dropped flares suddenly lit up the Italian battleships and cruisers of their Battle Fleet anchored seemingly safe within its well protected harbor. Out of the darkness came a sight more appropriate from the past “Great War” of 1914-18 rather than this current Second World War. Nearly two dozen British Swordfish bi-plane torpedo aircraft approached flying low and slow for their final attack runs upon the capital ships of the Italian Battle Fleet. Within minutes three of the anchored battleships of the Regia Marina were staggered by numerous torpedo hits that sank one battleship and badly damaged two others, while badly damaging a heavy cruiser and two destroyers. Historically speaking the Taranto Raid was the very first successfully carrier launched air attack ever made against an enemy fleet. Following the British torpedo bombing raid only two of the three damaged Italian battleships were ever returned to active service. In one night, the Royal Navy succeeded in cutting down the size of the Italian battleship fleet by half, while tipping the balance of power in the Mediterranean once again back into her favor. For the remaining three years of Italian participation in World War II as a member of the Axis Powers, the Italian Battle Fleet avoided any further fully fledged fleet engagements against the Royal Navy, and no longer seriously sought to prevent British reinforcement from reaching North Africa or its Mediterranean colonies through the massed use of capital ships in a concerted fleet action.

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Independent developer Rebellion today announced the launch of two new pieces of DLC for Sniper Elite 3 on Steam for PC, with the content due to come to Playstation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in the near future.

FREE Lost Valley Multiplayer Map

The second of four multiplayer maps which are FREE for all Sniper Elite 3 players, Lost Valley is one of the most diverse maps ever made for the series, from perilous vertical terrain and excavated ruins, to a sinkhole, open jungle and sea shallows. Packed with secret routes, vantage points and plenty of lush foliage for cover, snipers must decide whether to navigate the dangerously exposed mountain terrain for a commanding view of the battlefield, or opt to ambush enemy combatants from the waterfront shallows, temporary airfield and tented camps below.

Sniper Rifles Pack

Some of history’s most revered rifles make a welcome return to Sniper Elite 3 in the Sniper Rifles weapons pack now live on Steam and coming to consoles soon. Available for use across all modes, the Sniper Rifles weapons pack includes the Kar 98k , M1917 Enfield, and a specially tuned version of the fan-favourite Springfield rifle.

Summer of Sniper

Having already kicked off the first in a three-part Save Churchill DLC campaign, Rebellion have promised more content to come over the summer months including another two FREE multiplayer maps, more weapons packs and the concluding two missions in the Save Churchill campaign.

Source: Blue’s News

Here’s a new trailer showing off the upcoming Nemesis DLC for Call of Duty: Ghosts, the latest installment in this military shooter series. This is coming to Xbox next week and other platforms after that, fulfilling the game’s Season Pass. PC gamers disappointed at not being able to grab this now can scratch that itch by heading over to Steam where they have a whole bunch of personalization and weapon packs to sell you. Here’s word on the Nemesis pack’s contents:
The four new small-to-medium multiplayer maps in Nemesis are designed specifically for Call of Duty’s distinctive fast-paced, gun-on-gun gameplay.

• “Goldrush” is set in an abandoned gold mine in the Southwest United States, where an intricate network of cavernous tunnels and perilous shafts create the ideal setting for medium to long range combat; while two mine carts race along the abandoned tracks offering players a fast way to traverse the map. Players who complete the unique field order on Goldrush will unleash a howling pack of wolves that will descend upon their enemies.
• “Subzero” drops players into a frigid Canadian submarine base that has been hastily evacuated, with control room, submarine pen and research facilities all left eerily empty. Built around the traditional three-lane design, this medium-sized map harbors a mysterious terror that will decimate your enemies upon completion of the map’s unique field order.
• In “Dynasty,” players are transported to a lakeside Chinese village surrounded by picturesque mountains, vivid gardens, and spectacular architecture – a serene environment that is anything but Zen-like. Multiple pathways crisscross the village in this medium map with a variety of elevation and numerous back alleys that create flanking routes. The unique field order on “Dynasty” allows players to call in an air strike of vertical takeoff fighter jets, while one lingers behind to give you unmatched air superiority.
• Nemesis cranks the frenetic multiplayer action to unprecedented levels with the fourth multiplayer map, “Showtime,” a sadistic reimagining of the smallest map in Call of Duty® history, the fan favorite map from Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare® “Shipment.” In the futuristic arena of “Showtime,” blind corners and narrow pathways provide momentary reprieve from the outright mayhem within the central square comprised of several shipping containers. Tight confines call for shotguns and SMGs. Survive long enough to be rewarded with one of three killstreaks: lethal automated gun turrets at key locations on the map, an air drop with multiple care packages or a deadly gas attack that forces the action back into the center of the arena.

Closing out the final DLC Pack for Call of Duty: Ghosts is the dramatic conclusion in the Extinction narrative, “Episode 4: Exodus.” Following the CIF Unit’s harrowing escape from the alien underworld and the successful recovery of Dr. Cross and the cortex, the team has flown in to fight off the Cryptid army’s siege of the last bastion of human resistance. Your mission is to get key personnel to safety by restoring power to the shuttle and launching the shuttle to a low earth orbit space station.

1С Game Studios and the Russian Military Historical Society are excited to announce that the Early Access program for Ilya Muromets, a new flight sim from the creators of IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad, starts today.

The official Ilya Muromets web site has been launched and is available at www.ilyamuromets.net. It contains all the latest assets including screenshots and game trailer.

The Ilya Muromets early access version will be available for purchase and download at the official web site for the price of $19.99 USD starting from August 1st, the day when Germany declared war on Russia and the Russian Empire entered World War I.

Ilya Muromets covers the events of the air war on the Eastern Front during World War I and features the gigantic and legendary four-engine bomber of the Imperial Russian Air Force. This plane became the first large bomber in the history of aerial warfare and is the forefather of the multi-engine long-range strategic aviation of later conflicts.

Ilya Muromets will feature several additional fighter planes and attack planes from Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary. A map covering a portion of the Eastern Front (territory of modern day Ukraine) will be included in the game. This was an active theatre for the Ilya Muromets during the war where several famous missions took place. The game will include a set of challenging single-player mission scenarios along with a quick mission builder and multiplayer capability.

The game is scheduled to be released in October 2014.

Author: Marc Adams @ HardOCP

Enermax comes to us today with its Liqtech 240 AIO liquid cooling system for CPUs sporting healthy list of features including; copper cold plate with patented Shunt-Channel-Technology (SCT), seamless contact radiator fins, non-permeable flexible tubing, and a fan control system offering three cooling modes.

Read The Review Here

Author: SKYMTL @ Hardware Canucks

AMD’s new A10-7800 is a more affordable alternative for those who don’t need the multiplier unlocked A10-7850K by offering good x86 processing performance alongside excellent graphics capabilities for about $150.

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.

• ASRock X99 Extreme4 is World’s First Windows 8.1-Certified X99-Based Motherboard
• Lian Li Announces the PC-V2130 Brushed Aluminum Full Tower
• EIZO Unveils the FlexScan EV3237 31.5-Inch UHD Monitor
• Creative Releases the T3250 2.1 Wireless Speaker System
• AMD Introduces New APUs for System Builder and DIY Market
• AMD Announces the Athlon 860K and FX-8300 CPUs
• Cooler Master Announces V Semi-Modular 750W PSU
• Cooler Master PSUs Follow New EU Regulations
• Inter-Tech Releases the SY-113 Midi Tower PC Case
• Microsoft Unveils Halo-Themed Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500
• NVIDIA to Launch GeForce GTX 880 in September
• SteelSeries Introduces the Siberia Elite World of Warcraft Edition Headset
• Researchers Uncover Fundamental USB Security Flaw, No Fix in Sight

Source: Battlefield Blog

Get ready to fight in dense Asian Pacific cities as Battlefield 4 Dragon’s Teeth is rolling out for all Battlefield 4 players. Take part in epic urban battles across four new maps including:

• Pearl Market: Wage war within the bustling alleyways and upon the rooftops of the marketplace
• Propaganda: Fight amongst massive despotic monuments in the grey concrete battleground
• Lumphini Garden: Cruise with fast-moving PWC’s on the canals in the pristine park to get the upper hand
• Sunken Dragon: Battle between modern high rises as you wreak havoc in a floating restaurant or drain the lake opening up for a frontal vehicle assault

In addition to four new maps, player’s will get five new weapons including the Ballistic Shield. Dragon’s Teeth also introduces a Battle Pickup, the R.A.W.R, a heavily armed remotely operated ground vehicle armed with a machine gun and grenade launcher, as well as a new game mode called Chain Link. Bringing another layer of depth and strategy, Chain Link is a twist on Conquest where teams need to act fast and link together capture points to ensure victory.

For more information, visit the Battlefield 4 Dragon’s Teeth site.

Source: Blue’s News

Publisher Deep Silver announces the acquisition of the Homefront intellectual property and all related assets from financially troubled publisher/developer Crytek, offering no hint about what they paid for the shooter series. Word is development of Homefront: The Revolution will continue in Nottingham, England at a newly formed studio called Deep Silver Dambuster Studios. Here’s the announcement:
Today, Koch Media together with its publishing label Deep Silver announces that it has acquired the Homefront brand and all coherent assets from Crytek. This includes Homefront: The Revolution which has been announced on 2nd June 2014. The development will be continued in newly founded, Nottingham-based Deep Silver Dambuster Studios.

“We are thrilled to see another great IP joining the Deep Silver universe,” says Dr. Klemens Kundratitz. “We strongly believe in the potential of Homefront: The Revolution and trust in the new team to continue the path we have been walking in the last years.”

Deep Silver Dambuster Studios is the third development studio within the Koch Media Group, joining Deep Silver Volition and Deep Silver Fishlabs.

More game information is available at the official Homefront: The Revolution webpage.

Ubisoft has released a new CGI trailer for Assassin’s Creed: Unity that shows Arno racing against time and through a dense and chaotic central Paris in order to prevent the beheading of Elise, a character central to Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s story. As an independent young noblewoman, Elise is determined to secure her place in the Templar dynasty amidst the chaos of the French Revolution. Her quest leads her to cross paths with Arno and establish an unlikely bond with him.

In addition to the new trailer, Ubisoft is offering fans the chance to discover a novel by Oliver Bowden based on Assassin’s Creed: Unity. This new paperback from Penguin Random House builds on Bowden’s past Assassin’s novels – with 3 million copies sold to date – and examines an era when the divide between the rich and poor is at its most extreme, and a nation is tearing itself apart. Told from Elise’s perspective, the book follows her and Arno as they are drawn into the centuries-old battle between the Assassins and the Templars – a world with dangers more deadly than they could ever have imagined – and fight to avenge all they have lost.

Finally, fans can now also order “Elise: The Fiery Templar,” a high quality figurine designed by Ubicollectibles that features Elise as she sets her sights on her target with her gun poised and sword sheathed at the ready on her back. This collectible can be assembled into a diorama with the “Arno: The Fearless Assassin” figurine. Additional digital content for Assassin’s Creed: Unity also is included with the purchase of this collectible.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity will be released worldwide on October 28. The novel Assassin’s: Creed Unity will be available in November. “Elise: The Fiery Templar” figurine will be released on October 14.

Watch the new Arno Master Assassin trailer HERE.

For more information on Assassin’s Creed, please visit: assassinscreed.com