Refreshing the Upper Mid-Range
By Joe Shields @ Tom’s Hardware
In our first of four upper-midrange Z490 motherboard review, we take a close look at the Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Master to see what sets it apart from the competition around this price point. The $389.99 Gigabyte board is pointed squarely at the enthusiast and gaming markets, and is priced about $130 higher than the ASRock Z490 PG Velocita, the first Z490 board we reviewed.
RGB-less, all-black and very impressive
By Hilbert Hagedoorn @ Guru3D
Meet the MSI Z490 UNIFY, a new series targeted to be a high-end solution. Interesting to see that this is an RGB-less all-black design. Priced at 299 USD, it comes with AX WIFI and has a 2.5 Gbps ethernet jack and a 16-phase power design. And that makes it one of the cheapest enthusiast-class boards with 16 CPU phases backed by 90A power stages.
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.
Close Combat: The Longest Day is out now on Steam. Revive the first and most crucial days of Operation Overlord, from the first steps on the beaches of Normandy to Carentan and Carpiquet (and more).
This version benefits of many improvements and changes made specifically for this release, including new setting available for HD resolutions and it doesn’t require to run in windowed mode in Win 8/10 anymore!
To celebrate this important event, we have created a Close Combat Collection Bundle (The Bloody First, Gateway to Caen, Panthers in the Fog, Last Stand Arnhem, Wacht am Rhen, Close Combat: The Longest Day) at 30% off! Check it out!
Important note for Matrix users. Close Combat: The Longest Day Matrix version will need to be uninstalled and installed again to get the improvements working.
Source: Blue’s News
SEGA and Creative Assembly announce A Total War Saga: TROY will launch exclusively on the Epic Games Store on August 13th. They also reveal the historical strategy game will be free to keep for all who claim their copy within the first 24 hours of release. There are details on the game in the this FAQ, which says the game will come to Steam in summer 2021. In response to concerns expressed about the exclusivity, they tweet that they have no plans for future Epic exclusives: “We currently have no plans for any future games to be Epic exclusives. We do want to be more platform agnostic moving forward, and we would like future games to be available on the Epic Games Store, but that’s in addition to being available on other platforms such as Steam.” Here’s a new trailer and here’s the news:
Sega Europe Ltd. and The Creative Assembly Ltd today announced that A Total War Saga: TROY™ will launch exclusively via the Epic Games Store on August 13, 2020, free to keep for players who download within the first 24 hours.
Using Total War’s BAFTA award-winning marriage of grand turn-based strategy and spectacular real-time battles, A Total War Saga: TROY™ plunges players into the legendary Bronze-Age conflict of the Trojan War, where they assume the roles of Achilles, Hector, and many other legendary heroes as they fight to defend the great city of Troy… or raze it to the ground.
“Thanks to Epic, we’re able to offer a Total War title for free on its launch day. It’s a hugely exciting thing for us to be able to do for our players,” says Tim Heaton, Chief Studios Officer at Sega Europe Ltd. “Not only does this mean that we can bring the tales and legends of TROY to a wide audience through Epic’s massive platform, but it also means new players will get to try Total War for the first time, experiencing the unique gameplay that the series is famous for.”
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.
Source: Blue’s News
The resurrected MicroProse announces plans to resurrect one of their franchises, saying a new version of the Mighty Eighth is in the works. This World War II bomber game will support virtual reality as well as non-VR gameplay. This will allow you to serve as part of the 10-player crew of a B-17 or B-24 along with live or AI crewmates. They offer screenshots of the interior of plane models and concept art, but no projected release date. You can sign up to stay updated on the project through. Here are the details they do provide:
We are honored to announce to you, our fans, that MicroProse is working on a brand new The Mighty Eight title for Virtual Reality.
The Mighty Eighth will be a VR-first project (but also playable with no VR enabled) in which you will be able to play with 9 other friends (or AI crew) as you work together to survive the war and accomplish your missions.
Drop those bombs on the right spot, guide your crew through long drawn out day, or the dark, moonless nights, keep your airplane in touch with the rest of the squadron and HQ as you monitor radios and communications. Defend your Flying Fortress by keeping those enemy fighters away from you and your squadron mates. Pilot or co-pilot this beast under a massive amount of stress – and enemy fire, but don’t drop out of formation or you’re a sitting duck.
The new Mighty Eighth is not just a game. It’s an experience from a different time where young men grew faster than they should and saw things no man should see. And YOU will be put right in the middle of the action.
Source: TechPowerUp!
AMD on Tuesday re-released its Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.4.2 graphics drivers as a WHQL-signed driver. The company hasn’t released a driver update since April 21 (the same 20.4.2 as a beta). With no new AAA game releases, there probably wasn’t much AMD could do. Then again, 20.4.2 beta came with a long list of “known issues” (new issues identified by AMD that needed to be solved), which could have been fixed in the last 35 days or so. The WHQL is identical to the beta. It comes with optimization for Gears Tactics and Predator: Hunting Grounds, and fixes a handful of issues.
The Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.4.2 WHQL drivers are available online at the AMD driver download page.
Source: TechPowerUp!
NVIDIA has today launched the latest version of its “Game Ready” graphics driver lineup with the 446.14 WHQL drivers. This release brings mostly performance optimizations and bug fixes for the video game Valorant. In addition to these performance optimizations and fixes, optimal support for Minecraft Dungeons, Disintegration, and Crucible is included. An important new feature update is the inclusion of Variable Rate Supersampling (VRSS) support for Onward. NVIDIA has also fixed driver installation issues on Colorful GeForce GTX 1650 that may have bugged some users of the cards.
You can download the GeForce Software 446.14 WHQL drivers via GeForce.com.
The Italian navy tech tree and dozens of other military vehicles join the battle
Gaijin Entertainment announces the release of the “Starfighters” Content Update (Watch Video) for the military online action game War Thunder. The Italian Navy tech tree with 20+ torpedo boats, destroyers and cruisers is only the tip of the iceberg here, as the game is also getting dozens of other war machines, including the legendary F-104 Starfighter and the Mirage IIIC fighter jets. The cross-platform multiplayer feature has also been drastically improved by adding cross-console matchmaking. Finally all PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players will be able to play together with friends in all War Thunder modes no matter which platform each one of them is using.
The F-104 development started during the Korean war, the jet saw action in Vietnam as part of the US Air Force and was bought by the militaries of thirteen other countries. Two American and several international versions of this fighter are available in War Thunder right now. For example, the F-104A, the first production version of the Starfighter, is equipped with a six-barrel M61 Vulcan rotary cannon and can use two Sidewinder missiles. Later versions have a better engine and more weapon loadout options. These highly improved machines remained part of the Italian Air Force until 2004.
The French Mirage IIIC is another signature fighter jet of the same era and also the first European aircraft that managed to exceed speeds of Mach 2 in level flight. Furthermore, the Mirage IIIC in interceptor loadout has an extra SEPR 844 rocket engine generating additional thrust. The aircraft can carry a vast array of weapons, most notably a variety of AAM’s, as well as unguided rockets and bombs. Apart from French service, the Mirage IIIC also saw extensive use with the Israeli Air Force during the Six Day War as well as the Yom Kippur War of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Some of the Israeli Mirages were later on sold to Argentina, which in turn used its Mirages in the Falklands War of the 1980’s.
The update also features the first ground vehicle in War Thunder with a sophisticated radar detecting ground targets, which is 9P157 Khrizantema – the Soviet tank destroyer on a BMP-3 chassis. Having both radar and thermal sights allows Khrizantema to easily spot enemies and launch two anti-tank missiles at two different targets at the same time. Other interesting new vehicles are the modern Japanese Type 93 light SAM system mounted on an SUV-style chassis and a Bangladeshi Type 69-IIG main battle tank – basically a Chinese Type 69 modification with extra reactive armor and longer gun barrel.
With the new vehicles brought by the “Starfighters” Update, the total number of military vehicles in War Thunder now exceeds 1,700. The full list of changes in the Update is available on the official website.
