First-Person Shooters

Players Can Refer up to Four Friends and Get Rewards

Today, Ubisoft announced a friend referral program for owners of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege on Windows PC. Starting now, all existing Windows PC players can give up to four friends full access to the game this weekend by visiting rainbow6keys.ubi.com. Whether these recruits want to play 5 vs. 5 multiplayer, co-op Terrorist Hunt or one of the solo Situations, the entire game will be available to them for free this weekend without restrictions.

· Existing PC players can visit rainbow6keys.ubi.com right now to receive four referral keys.
· Recruits can start pre-loading the game as of now, through Uplay™.
· Free weekend access begins Friday, December 18, 12:01 am CET and lasts through Sunday, December 20, 06:01 am CET.
· Each recruit who redeems a key will reward referrers with a 24-hour Renown Boost that they will receive shortly after the program ends.
· Recruits who decide to purchase the full game will receive a 25% discount from the Uplay Shop and keep their in-game progression.

For more information about Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, please visit the games official website.

Source: UbiBlog

If you’re playing Rainbow Six: Siege on PC, there’s an extra treat waiting for you today alongside the latest update – and it’s one you’ll definitely want to grab if you’re playing on a higher-end rig. Download the Ultra HD Texture Pack, and you’ll get new weapon and character textures that look amazing at resolutions up to 4K.

You don’t need a 4K monitor or ultra-high-end graphics card to take advantage of the new textures, however. For example, if you’re running a GPU with at least 4 GB of memory, you’ll notice a difference when using the new textures between 1080p and 1440p resolutions. Rainbow Six: Siege looks even better on a GPU with 6 GB or more, which lets players take full advantage of the Ultra HD Texture Pack at 4K resolution.

Finally, those running dual GPUs with 6 GB or more each will be able to breach walls and rescue hostages with the game looking its absolute sharpest, with 4K resolution, Ultra HD textures and the highest settings for lighting and shading.

The Ultra HD Texture Pack is available today as free DLC through Uplay and Steam. It’s separate from the update that’s also available now – which brings an auto-kick feature for intentional team killers, closes an exploit that let defenders leave their building duras well as bug fixes, matchmaking changes and a number of other improvements – so if your hardware is up to the challenge, be sure to grab it and make sure your Operators always look their best. Details on the larger update can be found here , and there’s always more news at the Rainbow Six: Siege blog.

Source: Blue’s News

EA announces Getaway DLC for Battlefield Hardline, saying this will come to the premium version of the cops and robbers shooter next month. Here’s word on the new maps, weapons, vehicles, and more that this will add:

Drop the clutch, lay on the gas, and hold on to your seats, because Battlefield™ Hardline is gearing up for its fastest, most explosive expansion yet! Whether you’re making a dusty, high-speed escape across the Mexican border, or closing in on a hot pursuit along the sun-drenched Pacific coast, you’ll be chasing glory at top speed when you play Battlefield™ Hardline: Getaway*, coming January 2016.

A great getaway is key to a great heist. If you’re a criminal wheelman, your payday is dependent on your ability to evade the cops. If you drive for the law, the fastest way to earn your badge is to take down the thieves before they can escape into a cloud of dust and burnt rubber. Ready to rev your engines? Here’s what owners of Battlefield Hardline: Getaway will get…

• Four massive maps: Pacific Highway, Double Cross, Train Dodge, and Diversion
• New game mode: Capture the Bag
• 4 new vehicles
• 3 new weapons for the Mechanic Class
• One new gadget and a new melee weapon
• 4 new Legendary Camos

In addition, all Battlefield Hardline players will receive a game update that includes new weapons and patches, as well as new features we’ll talk about soon.

Source: Gamer’s Hell

Coming this December to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, Legacy Operations, a new Battlefield 4 DLC, includes Dragon Valley 2015, a classic map reimagined both visually and with new gameplay features. This large map opens up for vehicular mayhem on land, air, and sea. Players can destroy or repair bridges for a tactical advantage. For infantry players, the dockyards offer intense close-quarter combat in Team Death Match.

The Battlefield 4 Holiday Update will be automatically released to your platform on the same day, but the free Legacy Operations DLC will be a separate, manual download available from the Origin My Games tab, the PlayStation PS Store, and Xbox Marketplace.

The Battlefield 4 Legacy Operations DLC Cinematic Video can be viewed here.

Ubisoft has launched a new video for Rainbow Six: Siege, a reboot of the series that puts players in the middle of lethal close-quarters confrontations.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege promises to give players unprecedented control over their ability to fortify their position – by reinforcing walls and floors, using barbed wire, deployable shields and mines, and more – or breach the enemies’ using observation drones, sheet charges, rappelling, and more.

Click here for more game information.

Source: Blue’s News

A recent blog update from Activision reveals plans for The Awakening, the first DLC pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops III. They don’t offer a release date yet, but remind us this will start as a PlayStation 4 exclusive before heading to other platforms. Here’s word:

To help kick off PlayStation Experience in San Francisco, today we are thrilled to share the first details of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3’s first DLC map pack and some exciting news for the upcoming Call of Duty World League season. Revealed during this morning’s keynote address, the first of four planned DLC map packs will be Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Awakening and it will arrive first on PlayStation 4. Awakening features four new multiplayer maps—Skyjacked, Rise, Splash, and Gauntlet—and the next chapter in the Black Ops 3 Zombies saga, Der Eisendrachen.

Rainbow Six’s long-awaited revival leaves us wanting more – a little too much more.

By Ryan McCaffery, IGN

Rainbow Six: Siege pulls me in opposite directions at the same time. On the one hand, the moment-to-moment gameplay experience is fantastic. Every second of the short rounds matter, walls and floors won’t protect you, and sound tactics win matches. But, like other 2015 multiplayer-focused shooters such as Evolve and Star Wars Battlefront, there’s not a lot of there there. My time with Siege leaves me feeling like this Rainbow Six revival is a skeleton with not a lot of meat on its bones.

Read on…

Source: Blue’s News

Steam Community Group Announcement from Avalanche Studios talks about technical problems users are encountering with Just Cause 3, saying they are “fully committed to providing you the best possible experience.” To that end a patch is in the works for the just-released action sequel, but they ask for some patience as they work through the process. Here’s word:

We know you’re going to want specific information on when a patch will land and what will be fixed – we would love to give you that information, and we will as soon as we have it. But right now, a little over one day since we launched, we have huge numbers of players in our enormous game world and we’re monitoring all the data coming in.

We need a little bit of time to recreate some of these issues and build fixes. Rest assured though – we are fully committed to making Just Cause 3 as awesome as possible. We already know loads of people are having a blast with the game but we’ll do all we can to make sure everyone is laughing and smiling as they play.

If you do encounter any issues, please contact our Customer Support EU or Customer Support NA.

We’d recommend PC players also visit the Steam forums as there are a number of tips there can could improve or fix some of the issues that have been reported (pinned posts).

End Game 2.0, new stamina system, refined character hitpoint model, Arma 3 Units

Serving as an important stepping stone towards Arma 3 Apex – a major expansion for Arma 3 coming in 2016, Bohemia Interactive today released the Nexus Update (new trailer) for their PC-exclusive tactical military shooter game. Highlights of this major new update include the improved and expanded End Game multiplayer mode, refinements to core game mechanics such as ‘stamina’ and ‘personal protective equipment’, as well as the option for Arma 3 content creators to define ‘mod dependencies’, which enable the automatic installation of mods that require other mods on the Steam Workshop.

First and foremost, the Nexus Update adds two additional instances to End Game (Feres & Zaros), and improves the already available Kavala scenario. Each of the three scenarios has a distinct gameplay focus, ranging from small-scale infantry engagements to more long-distance (vehicle) warfare, with player counts between 8vs8 up to 16vs16. Besides the additional and improved End Game scenarios, the Nexus Update adds a brand new multiplayer system in the form of ‘Spectator Cam‘, which, as the name implies, allows players to join a lobby as a spectator. The Spectator Cam system is designed to be modular. This means that, even though it has been purposefully developed for End Game, it can also be applied to, and modified for, community-created game modes.

What is End Game?
End Game is a relatively new multiplayer mode in Arma 3, which was first introduced in the free platform update that accompanied the Arma 3 Marksmen DLC. In End Game, two sides compete to locate and secure valuable schematics, featuring a combination of PvE/PvP gameplay across three phases. In the first phase, each team has to establish a Forward Operating Base (FOB) by clearing out AI-controlled enemies. Then, in phase two, both teams need to download intelligence by completing small objectives. The team that completes phase two first, triggers the third phase, and receives the location of valuable schematics. To win the game, these End Game schematics need to be delivered to a designated upload site, while the other team fights them for possession.

Besides End Game, a key focus of the Nexus Update is to refine core game mechanics related to movement and shooting. With the implementation of a new stamina system, the game provides a more logical and better communicated way of determining a player’s ability to sprint and, subsequently, their aiming precision. The new system factors in a player’s current loadout and other elements like terrain, meaning that those who plan and move thoughtfully are more likely to remain combat effective. Another important change comes in the form of a refined ‘hitpoint-based’ damage model for characters. This enhances the lethality of shots to unprotected parts of the body, rewarding marksmanship skills and making personal protective gear more meaningful.

Alongside the Nexus Update, Bohemia Interactive today also deployed the Foundation Release of ‘Arma 3 Units’ – a web-based service for connecting Arma 3 players with Arma community groups. In essence, Arma 3 Units could be described as an online catalog of Arma community groups (referred to as ‘units’), and a promotional/recruitment tool for new and existing groups/clans. While the initial launch of the website delivers the core components of the service, namely the browsing of units and registration of new units, Bohemia Interactive intends to add more features later on. The development plans for the service are further explained in a special post on the Arma 3 dev blog.

Last but certainly not least, in support of the Nexus Update, this Saturday Bohemia Interactive will be hosting the final match in the official Arma 3 End Game Tournament. In this tournament, 8 teams – composed of Arma 3 developers, community groups, and other special guests – faced off for the glorious title of Arma 3 End Game Champion. Similar to the Quarter- and Semi-Finals, which were already covered in live streams throughout November, the Final match (Arma 3 Ambassadors vs RG Task Force) will be live streamed to www.twitch.tv/arma3official on Saturday December 5, starting at 18:00 UTC, with commentary by community shoutcasters Mic One and Stardog. More information about the End Game Tournament rules, teams, and streams can be found here.

If you want to learn even more about the Nexus Update, be sure to read this new dev blog by Creative Director Jay Crowe. The complete changelog for the Nexus Update (1.54) is available for further examination here.

Get more game info at the official Arma 3 website.

A wide-open playground primed for explosive action.

By Dan Stapleton, IGN

Awesome explosions: Just Cause 3’s got ‘em! The story would have you believe all of this spectacular demolition is about liberating the picturesque island nation of Medici from a mustache-twirling dictator. But considering it doesn’t even care how many civilians you blow up in the process, we all know what it’s really about: ridiculous over-the-top action, physics-based comedy, and impressive destruction in a vast sandbox world. In those areas, Just Cause 3 is at the top of its game.

Read on…