- US imposes new sanctions aimed at choking off Russia’s access to battlefield supplies and revenue Yahoo News
- Russia-Ukraine war: US imposes new Russian sanctions Al Jazeera English
- New US sanctions target Russian access to battlefield supplies -Treasury Reuters
- Imposing Additional Sanctions on Those Supporting Russia’s War Against Ukraine – United States Department of State Department of State
- Australia Sanctions More Russian Entities, Individuals In Response To Ukraine Invasion Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Battlefield
After US Smart Bombs, Russian Jammers Make HIMARS Miss Targets On Ukraine Battlefield? – CRUX
- After US Smart Bombs, Russian Jammers Make HIMARS Miss Targets On Ukraine Battlefield? CRUX
- Ukrainian troops helpless as Russian jammers render American HIMARS ‘useless’ | Report Hindustan Times
- Russia’s ‘On-Point Jamming’ Has Made Life Miserable For HIMARS, EW Attacks Cause It To Miss Its Target – US Report EurAsian Times
- Russia’s newest weapon is changing the course of Ukraine war The Telegraph
- ‘Russian Air Force Can Destroy Ukraine’: Putin’s aerial superiority worries United States Hindustan Times
- View Full Coverage on Google News
How Ukraine became a laboratory for western weapons and battlefield innovation
CNN
—
Last fall, as Ukraine won back large swaths of territory in a series of counterattacks, it pounded Russian forces with American-made artillery and rockets. Guiding some of that artillery was a homemade targeting system that Ukraine developed on the battlefield.
A piece of Ukrainian-made software has turned readily available tablet computers and smartphones into sophisticated targeting tools that are now used widely across the Ukrainian military.
The result is a mobile app that feeds satellite and other intelligence imagery into a real-time targeting algorithm that helps units near the front direct fire onto specific targets. And because it’s an app, not a piece of hardware, it’s easy to quickly update and upgrade, and available to a wide range of personnel.
US officials familiar with the tool say it has been highly effective at directing Ukrainian artillery fire onto Russian targets.
The targeting app is among dozens of examples of battlefield innovations that Ukraine has come up with over nearly a year of war, often finding cheap fixes to expensive problems.
Small, plastic drones, buzzing quietly overhead, drop grenades and other ordinance on Russian troops. 3D printers now make spare parts so soldiers can repair heavy equipment in the field. Technicians have converted ordinary pickup trucks into mobile missile launchers. Engineers have figured out how to strap sophisticated US missiles onto older Soviet fighter jets such as the MiG-29, helping keep the Ukrainian air force flying after nine months of war.
Ukraine has even developed its own anti-ship weapon, the Neptune, based off Soviet rocket designs that can target the Russian fleet from almost 200 miles away.
This kind of Ukrainian ingenuity has impressed US officials, who have praised Kyiv’s ability to “MacGyver” solutions to its battlefield needs that fill in important tactical gaps left by the larger, more sophisticated Western weaponry.
While US and other Western officials don’t always have perfect insight into exactly how Ukraine’s custom-made systems work – in large part because they are not on the ground – both officials and open-source analysts say Ukraine has become a veritable battle lab for cheap but effective solutions.
“Their innovation is just incredibly impressive,” said Seth Jones, director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has also offered the United States and its allies a rare opportunity to study how their own weapons systems perform under intense use – and what munitions both sides are using to score wins in this hotly fought modern war. US operations officers and other military officials have also tracked how successfully Russia has used cheap, expendable drones that explode on impact, provided by Iran, to decimate the Ukrainian power grid.
Ukraine is “absolutely a weapons lab in every sense because none of this equipment has ever actually been used in a war between two industrially developed nations,” said one source familiar with Western intelligence. “This is real-world battle testing.”
For the US military, the war in Ukraine has been an incredible source of data on the utility of its own systems.
Some high-profile systems given to the Ukrainians – such as the Switchblade 300 drone and a missile designed to target enemy radar systems – have turned out to be less effective on the battlefield than anticipated, according to a US military operations officer with knowledge of the battlefield, as well as a recent British think tank study.
But the lightweight American-made M142 multiple rocket launcher, or HIMARS, has been critical to Ukraine’s success – even as officials have learned valuable lessons about the rate of maintenance repair those systems have required under such heavy use.
How Ukraine has used its limited supply of HIMARS missiles to wreak havoc on Russian command and control, striking command posts, headquarters and supply depots, has been eye-opening, a defense official said, adding that military leaders would be studying this for years.
Another crucial piece of insight has been about the M777 howitzer, the powerful artillery that has been a critical part of Ukraine’s battlefield power. But the barrels of the howitzers lose their rifling if too many shells are fired in a short time frame, another defense official said, making the artillery less accurate and less effective.
The Ukrainians have also made tactical innovations that have impressed Western officials. During the early weeks of the war, Ukrainian commanders adapted their operations to employ small teams of dismounted infantry during the Russian advance on Kyiv. Armed with shoulder-mounted Stinger and Javelin rockets, Ukrainian troops were able to sneak up on Russian tanks without infantry on their flanks.
The US has also closely studied the conflict for larger lessons on how a war between two modern nations might be waged in the 21st century.
The operations officer said that one lesson the US may take from this conflict is that towed artillery – like the M777 howitzer system – may be a thing of the past. Those systems are harder to move quickly to avoid return fire – and in a world of ubiquitous drones and overhead surveillance, “it’s very hard to hide nowadays,” this person said.
When it comes to lessons learned, “there’s a book to be written about this,” said Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
US defense contractors have also taken note of the novel opportunity to study – and market – their systems.
BAE Systems has already announced that the Russian success with their kamikaze drones has influenced how it is designing a new armored fighting vehicle for the Army, adding more armor to protect soldiers from attacks from above.
And different parts of the US government and industry have sought to test novel systems and solutions in a fight for which Ukraine needed all the help it could get.
In the early days of the conflict, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency sent five lightweight, high-resolution surveillance drones to US Special Operations Command in Europe – just in case they might come in handy in Ukraine. The drones, made by a company called Hexagon, weren’t part of a so-called program of record at the Defense Department, hinting at the experimental nature of the conflict.
Navy Vice Adm. Robert Sharp, the head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency at the time, even boasted publicly that the US had trained a “military partner” in Europe on the system.
“What this allows you to do is to go out underneath cloud cover and collect your own [geointelligence] data,” Sharp told CNN on the sidelines of a satellite conference in Denver last spring.
Despite intense effort by a small group of US officials and outside industry, it remains unclear whether these drones ever made it into the fight.
Meanwhile, multiple intelligence and military officials told CNN they hoped that creating what the US military terms “attritable” drones – cheap, single-use weapons – has become a top priority for defense contractors.
“I wish we could make a $10,000 one-way attack drone,” one of these officials said, wistfully.
Fierce fighting in Ukraine’s Soledar leaves battlefield strewn with corpses – Zelenskiy
KYIV/SIVERSK, Ukraine, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Russia has stepped up a powerful assault on Soledar in eastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, forcing Ukrainian troops to repel waves of attacks led by the Wagner contract militia around the salt mining town and nearby fronts.
Soledar, in the industrial Donbas region, lies a few miles from Bakhmut, where troops from both sides have been taking heavy losses in some of the most intense trench warfare since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 11 months ago.
Ukrainian forces repelled an earlier attempt to take the town but a large number of Wagner Group units quickly returned, deploying new tactics and more soldiers under heavy artillery cover, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said on Monday on the Telegram messaging app.
“The enemy literally step over the corpses of their own soldiers, using massed artillery, MLRS systems and mortars,” Malyar said.
Russia’s defence ministry did not mention either Soledar or Bakhmut in a regular media briefing on Monday, a day after facing criticism for an apparently false claim of a missile strike on a temporary Ukrainian barracks.
Wagner was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Drawing some recruits from Russia’s prisons and known for uncompromising violence, it is active in conflicts in Africa and has taken a prominent role in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Prigozhin has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months at the cost of many lives on both sides. He said on Saturday its significance lay in a network of cavernous mining tunnels below the ground, which can hold big groups of people as well as tanks and other war machines.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting in Bahkmut and Soledar is “the most intense on the entire frontline”, with little advancement by either side in the freezing conditions.
“So many (pro-Russian fighters) remain on the battlefield … either dead or wounded,” he said on YouTube.
“They attack our positions in waves, but the wounded as a rule die where they lie, either from exposure as it is very cold or from blood loss. No one is coming to help them or to collect the dead from the battlefield.”
Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports.
NO BUILDINGS INTACT
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in nightly video remarks on Monday that Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite widespread destruction.
He cited new and fiercer attacks in Soledar, where he said no walls have been left standing and the land is covered with Russian corpses.
“Thanks to the resilience of our soldiers in Soledar, we have won for Ukraine additional time and additional strength,” Zelenskiy said. He did not spell out what he meant by gaining time or strength.
[1/8] General view of railway lines, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Siversk, Ukraine, January 9, 2023. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
But Ukrainian officials, led by the commander in chief General Valery Zaluzhniy, have warned that Russia is preparing fresh troops for a new, major offensive on Ukraine, possibly on the capital Kyiv.
Zelenskiy also appears to be banking on securing more, sophisticated weapons from Ukraine’s Western partners to beat off attacks and eventually expel Russian troops.
On Monday, he pressed on with diplomatic efforts, speaking to Petr Fiala, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, current chair of the 27-member European Union.
“I am certain that our soldiers at the front will get these weapons and equipment. Very soon,” he said.
France, Germany and the United States all pledged last week to send armoured fighting vehicles, fulfilling a long-standing Ukrainian request. Britain is considering supplying Ukraine with tanks for the first time, Sky News reported, citing a Western source. Britain’s Defence Ministry did not comment.
Iran could be contributing to war crimes in Ukraine by providing drones to Russia, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.
The United States has imposed sanctions on companies and people it accused of producing or transferring Iranian drones used by Russia. The White House said last week it is considering ways to target Iran’s production of the unmanned weaponised aircraft through sanctions and export controls.
WAVES OF ATTACK
Military analysts say the strategic military benefit for Russia of capturing Bakhmut and Soledar would be limited.
Taras Berezovets, a Ukrainian journalist, political commentator and officer in the Ukrainian army, said capturing Soledar made little sense, except as a personal victory for Prigozhin, however it would be easier to take than Bakhmut.
“It’s his personal war,” Berezovets said on YouTube.
A U.S. official has said Prigozhin is eyeing the salt and gypsum from the mines, believed to extend over 100 miles underground and contain auditorium-scale caverns.
Berezovets said Ukrainian troops fighting in Bakhmut and Soledar say attacks come in waves of small groups, no more than 15, with the first wave usually wiped out. The pro-Russian forces retrench and leave white ribbons for the next wave to follow.
“The complexity of fighting in cities like Bakhmut and Soledar is that it is hard to determine who is with you and who is the enemy,” he said.
In an evacuee centre in nearby Kramatorsk, Olha, 60, said she had fled Soledar after moving from apartment to apartment as each was destroyed in tank battles.
“There isn’t one house left intact. Apartments were burning, breaking in half,” said Olha, who gave only her first name.
Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel, Doina Chiacu and Michael Perry; Editing by Grant McCool, Lincoln Feast and Himani Sarkar
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Battlefield 2042 Joining Xbox Game Pass, Getting More Updates
Hi, this is Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett, one of the 17 people on the planet regularly enjoying the game, reporting live from Battlefield 2042.
03:51
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If you haven’t played the game during its first 12 months—and really, it has had problems, who can blame you!—EA has decided that now is the time to try and convince you by offering Battlefield 2042 for free (during the first few days of December, across all platforms) or at least as part of the subscription fee you’re already paying for Game Pass.
They’re doing this for two reasons, of course. The first one is that nowhere near enough people bought this game in the first place, so the playerbase has been at times tragically low (here in Australia, for example, only a single multiplayer mode is ever populated enough to get regular games). The second, and this is related, is that Battlefield 2042 has cosmetic microtransactions, so the more people EA can get playing the game, the more they’re hoping to make off weapon, vehicle and player skins.
I’m now going to tell you that you don’t need to buy those skins, the ones you unlock are fine, and I am also going to tell you that you should play this game! Battlefield 2042 launched with a lot of problems and a lot of changes, both of which upset many long-time players, but like I said at the time there was still good (or at least potential) in what it was trying to do.
Now, 12 months later, after a ton of work and (remaining) fan feedback, developers DICE have the game…at the point it should have been at launch. Which is a low bar to clear, I know, but this game was developed right through a pandemic, it’s going to free (or basically free on Game Pass), and clearing low bars is exactly what those kind of services and weekends are for.
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It’s also gotten pretty good! The original maps are being reworked, the new maps are great and a lot of the stuff older fans were missing at launch—from scoreboards to the class system—have either been reintroduced or are about to be.
In announcing the free/Game Pass availability, DICE also dropped a video and blog today outlining new weapons, map changes and specialist tweaks coming as part of Season 3, along with a very brief hint at something else coming beyond that, which they’re pitching as something more substantial. That something else is discussed over a cinematic of soldiers looking at ominous weather, so given the game is set in a near-future climate apocalypse (and already features in-game storms that can wreck your shit), it’ll be interesting to see if this something else makes dramatic changes to the way weather shapes and affects the maps.
Battlefield 2042 will be hitting Game Pass when Season 3 launches soon, while the free weekend/week will run from December 1-4 on Xbox, Dec 1-5 on Steam and Dec 16-23 on PlayStation.
Tactics Ogre: Reborn details skills, battlefield, Wheel of Fortune, Chariot Tarot, World Tarot, more classes and characters
Square Enix [5,007 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/square-enix”>Square Enix has released new information and screenshots for Strategy RPG [121 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/rpg/strategy-rpg”>strategy RPG remaster Tactics Ogre: Reborn [5 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/tactics-ogre-reborn”>Tactics Ogre: Reborn, which introduces the game’s skills, battlefield, Wheel of Fortune, Chariot Tarot, World Tarot, and even more classes and characters.
Get the details below.
■ Skills
As a unit’s level increases, a greater variety of skills become available for each class. You can assign a unit up to four skills, giving them unique abilities depending on the skills assigned.
Skills are categorized into four types: Action [675 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/action”>Action, Support, Auto, and Special.
Action
These skills can be executed at any time, similar to a weapon attack or magic. Assigned skills appear as an action under the “Skills” menu. Action skills require MP to use. Some give weapons a 100% hit rate and guarantee critical hits, while others enable you to recruit enemy units to join your party.
Support
Simply assigning these skills provides a passive benefit to the unit. Some support skills increase max HP or MP, while others will automatically trigger counter attacks when attacked.
Auto
The effects of these skills have a chance to trigger automatically when a unit becomes active. No MP is consumed when they trigger. There are auto skills that increase MP recovery, and others that increase the distance of ranged attacks. The trigger rate of auto skills can be increased by acquiring skill trigger rate buff cards or by reaching a certain unit level.
Special
These are unique skills that only certain races can use. Assigned skills appear as an action in the “Act” menu. Special skills require MP to perform. These are skills such as breath attacks by dragon units and other damage-dealing attacks that apply debuffs.
The skills that can be acquired differ depending on the unit’s class and race. Here are some of the skills that highlight the flavor they add to each class.
Wizard
Wizards are adept at using offensive and debuff magic, so they learn skills that focus on using magic more effectively. This includes skills that restore MP or extend the range of spells, allowing units to further specialize in offensive and support magic.
Rune Fencer / Valkyrie
Rune fencers and valkyries have a variety of weapons and magic at their disposal and learn skills to support themselves during battle. This class has a good balance of offensive and defensive skills, ranging from those that support magic to those that increase resistance to debuffs.
Knight
Knights act as a shield that can hold off enemy attacks. They excel at defense and can acquire skills that reduce damage dealt to friendly units. Knights learn skills that can be relied upon for leading the way and closing in on the enemy, such as those that can stop an enemy that approaches within a certain range, or reduce damage to their allies until the next turn
Ninja / Kunoichi
Ninja and kunoichi are extremely nimble, with a long range of movement and the ability to traverse large elevation differences with ease. They acquire skills that reduce the enemy’s strength with their quick movements, such as the “Double Attack” skill that can be used when two one-handed melee weapons are equipped, and a skill that increases the hit rate of the next ninjutsu move to 100%.
■ The Battlefield
The battlefield contains various elements that affect combat, such as weather and terrain. If you can make good use of these elements, it’s possible to gain an advantage in battle.
Terrain
Aside from the interiors and exteriors of buildings, such as forts, castles, and aqueducts, there is special terrain, such as plains, snowfields, and volcanoes. There can be various types of terrain within the same battlefield that have different effects on units. A typical effect pertains to hit rate, where the terrain of the tile the unit is standing on affects the hit rate of melee and ranged attacks.
Weather
It may rain or snow on outdoor battlefields. The weather will change from time to time during battle, with rain falling heavily at times or snow ceasing. The worse the weather, the worse the visibility and the lower the accuracy of your attacks. Weather also affects the cost of movement on some terrains, affecting the maneuvering and tactics of both your army and the enemy.
Buried Treasure [12 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/treasure”>Treasures
When units end their turn on certain tiles, they may find items. Items are buried in various locations, some of which can be found by destroying obstacles or by burning grass or snowfields to expose the ground.
What Happens on the Battlefield
Various events occur in battle depending on the situation, such as the appearance of units under attack and surrounded by enemies, or special conversations between certain characters. The story can change dramatically depending on your actions and choices in such situations.
—Appearance of Units in Need of Rescue
Occasionally, units under enemy attack may appear on the battlefield. If you are able to keep the unit under attack on their feet and finish the battle with the target unit alive, you may see a change in the story that follows.
—Occurrence of Special Conversations
During battles, special conversation events may occur when certain characters are present. For example, if you’re preparing for a battle with a certain character who has history with others in your party, you may want to select those characters to send into battle on the Battle Party [18 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/party”>Party Screen.
Recurring Units
One way to gather new units for your party is to hire them from the shop, but you can also persuade many hostile units you meet in battle to join you and put these formerly hostile units—and their powerful skills and special moves—to use within your own army. In order to successfully recruit an enemy unit, you need a recruiting skill (an action skill) that corresponds to the unit you are recruiting, with recruiting skills of different classes needed depending on the race of the unit you’re trying to recruit.
It’s not just humans who can join your party; monsters you face in battle can be recruited and trained as well. You can change the name of a unit when you hire them in a shop, or persuade them to join you in battle.
Items Found During Battle
Battle Cards or Bags of Loot will appear in battle. You can pick up Battle Cards and Bags of Loot by moving to the tile where they appear and selecting “End Turn.”
Battle Cards: These cards have mystical powers. When acquired, the card’s effect is applied to the unit. There are three types
of card effects, as follows.
—Buff Card
These cards temporarily enhance the unit that acquires them, appearing at random after a certain amount of time passes, an obstacle is broken, or grassy or snowy fields are cleared with fire magic or the like. Acquire [276 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/gungho-online-entertainment/acquire”>Acquired buff cards stack, and one unit can gain the effects of up to four cards. A unit can also hold multiple cards with the same effect. In this case, the effect increases each time. If you obtain a new buff card with four cards already stacked, the oldest card is discarded and the effect of the discarded card is lost.
—Reset Card
These cards reset the effects of any buff cards that the unit has previously acquired, appearing at random after a certain amount of time passes, an obstacle is broken, or grassy or snowy fields are cleared with fire magic or the like. The reset triggers as soon as the card is obtained and does not stack. You can use this to your advantage by knocking back enemy units to a tile with a reset card to remove their card buffs.
—Stat Card
When you defeat an enemy unit, either a stat card or a bag of loot will appear. If a stat card drops, it will permanently increase the stats of the unit that picks it up by a small amount. The effect triggers as soon as it is obtained and does not count toward the 4 buff cards a unit can hold.
Bags of Loot: Bags of loot contains the equipment and consumables used by defeated enemy units. When you acquire them, they will be added to your party’s inventory.
■ Wheel of Fortune
In Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, the first game in the Ogre Battle Saga, the 22 major arcana tarot cards were a hallmark of the game’s tactics, visuals, and lore. Those tarot cards inspired the “Wheel of Fortune” system introduced in Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, a feature also found in this latest entry.
Using the Wheel of Fortune, you can save characters you couldn’t save before or recruit characters who didn’t join your party because of choices you made, allowing you to experience parts of the story you might not otherwise have seen.
■ The Chariot Tarot
In tactical RPG [14,497 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/rpg”>RPGs, there are many situations that require a high level of concentration and patience, as the actions you choose could have irreversible negative effects on your subsequent moves. If you make a mistake, you might have to start all over again from the beginning.
In Tactics Ogre: Reborn, the Chariot Tarot allows you to go back through your previous actions and re-play from any turn of your choice. The number of moves you can rewind within a battle using the Chariot Tarot is fixed at 10 turns at the start of the game, but this will increase as the game progresses. If you want to change the outcome, rewind and try a different course of action.
■ The World Tarot
This game contains a branching story where you will often need to make key decisions that have a huge impact on how the game unfolds. However, due to the nature of the tactical RPG genre, your total playtime can become rather extensive should you try to experience the entire story. The World Tarot, which can be used after meeting certain conditions, allows you to go back in time to a specific point in the story and choose a different route than the one you have taken thus far.
■ Class Introductions
Beast Tamer
The beast tamer is able to train beasts and dragons and unleash their hidden potential.
Dragoon
A warrior with a special talent for slaying beasts and dragons.
Swordmaster
A melee attacker and master of the two-handed katana. Able to dance powerful war dances.
Warlock / Witch
Part mage, part scholar, the warlock or witch learns much of their trade from ancient writings. They are able to control golems and unleash their true potential.
Fusilier
The fusilier can wield all of the powerful ranged weapons that give them their name.
■ Character Introductions
Leonar Reci Rimon (voiced by Daniel Bonjour in English, Masashi Tamaki in Japanese)
“If a man wants power, he must claim it for himself. No noble will do that for him.”
A Walister who captains the Knights of Almorica. 27 years old. He serves as the right hand of Duke Ronwey, and is a vital member of the Resistance. At first glance, he appears no more than a stern soldier, recalcitrant in his ways, but he is in fact one of the duke’s most trusted councilors and strategists. His mother was killed by the Galgastani in the preceding turmoil.
Ravness Loxaerion (voiced by Helen Kennedy Turner in English, Rika Fukami in Japanese)
“Make no mistake, I have high hopes for you.”
A Walister who serves with the Knights of Almorica. 23 years old. She is next in command to Sir Leonar. She has been a close supporter of Duke Ronwey, and is among his most trusted advisors. Though known for her calm demeanor, she stubbornly opposes the use of underhanded tactics.
Arycelle Dania (voiced by Stephanie Sheh in English, Chie Nakamura in Japanese)
“Oh, I’ll have your head, but I am no headhunter. You’ll pay in blood for what you did in Balmamusa!”
A Walister hailing from Krysaro who serves the Walister Resistance. 19 years old. She and her brother took up arms with the Resistance after their parents died in the first engagement between Galgastani and Walister forces. Both were accomplished archers, among the best the Resistance had in the field, and they were never stationed far from the front lines.
Hobyrim Vandam (voiced by Gideon Emery in English, Hiroki Touchi in Japanese)
“I might not be able to see, but my sword is truer than most.”
A blind swordsman from a foreign land. 31 years old. It seems he is connected to the Dark Knights somehow, but he will not speak on the matter.
The Phoraena Sisters
—Cerya Phoraena (voiced by Julie Nathanson in English, Mayumi Sako in Japanese)
“Without feet firmly upon the ground, you will drift.”
A Bakram who leads the Liberation Front. 26 years old. She once spread the teachings of the Order of Philaha, worshippers of the Great Father, but left after losing faith in religion. She went on to form the Liberation Front, aiming to end the war by revolutionary means.
—Cistina Phoraena (voiced by Courtenay Taylor in English, Ayano Hamaguchi in Japanese)
“Then we share common cause. Let us fight together.”
A Bakram formerly with the Liberation Front. 20 years old. She is the third-eldest of four daughters born to Mreuva Phoraena, a former archiereus in the Order of Philaha. After Abuna Brantyn ousted her father from power and her mother died, she parted ways with the Order and joined her sister Cerya in forming the Liberation Front.
—Olivya Phoraena (voiced by Madeline Curry in English, Sumi Shimamoto in Japanese)
“What you are, who you are, has no bearing on who you will become!”
A Bakram who was once a sibyl of the Order of Philaha. 18 years old. She is the youngest of four daughters born to Mreuva Phoraena, a former archiereus in the Order of Philaha. After escaping political strife in Heim, she continued to pass on the teachings of the Order with her father. She joined the upper echelons of the Order upon her father’s disappearance.
—Sherri Phoraena (voiced by Abby Trott in English, Maria Kawamura in Japanese)
“Mother’s blood is on our father’s hands!”
A Bakram who was once a follower of the Order of Philaha. 24 years old. She is the second-eldest of four daughters born to Mreuva Phoraena, a former archiereus in the Order. Once a missionary, she chose a different calling upon the death of her mother, which left her disillusioned with her faith.
Diego Galet Azelstan (voiced by Frank Todaro in English, Kenji Fukuda in Japanese)
“Diego may be a man of the sea, but he can hold his own on shifting deck or solid ground.”
A legendary Galgastani pirate. In his younger days he was known to all who sailed the seas of the Valerian Isles. He was greatly feared for the abandon with which he snatched away both cargo and lives. Then one day he took to the shore and disappeared.
Xaebos Ronsenbach (voiced by Darin De Paul in English, Naoya Uchida in Japanese)
“To make it so, we need only win. It is the victor who pens the tale!”
A Galgastani who once led the Knights of Galgastan. 30 years old. He served directly under Balbatos, hunting down the Hierophant’s enemies at home and suppressing the Walister. Though an arrogant man, his bravery in battle cannot be doubted. His manner is rough, and his words direct, but his concern for his men and countrymen is second to none. A fearsome commander, he is nonetheless admired as a staunch and steadfast ally.
Hektor Didarro (voiced by Jason Spisak in English, Tokuyoshi Kawashima in Japanese)
“We do not sell friends, not even for the unkindest price. Would you do any different?”
A Galgastani who serves his clan in battle. He is a knight of House Didarro, a family of note in Coritanae. They have served the Lord of Coritanae for many generations, and are fiercely loyal to the Kingdom of Galgastan. Hektor was garrisoned at Brigantys Castle under High Commander Xaebos.
Dukas Windelband Gatialo (voiced by Ben Diskin in English, Yasuhiro Mamiya in Japanese)
“We are strong! We bloody our hands with the toils of victory! There is no shame in triumph!”
A Galgastani who serves his clan in battle. He is a close associate of Hierophant Balbatos, and one of his most trusted commanders. He also played a large role in carrying out the blood war. He openly states his opinion that the Galgastani are superior to other peoples, and is particularly savage towards non-Galgastani on the field of battle.
Nybeth Obdilord (voiced by Keith Silverstein in English, Mitsuru Miyamotoin Japanese)
A Galgastani who serves the Kingdom of Galgastan. 50 years old. He was consul to Almorica while it was under Galgastani control; however, it appears he left his duties to another in his service, and was rarely seen in public.
Cressida Lauya Zurbaran (voiced by Nicole Tompkins in English, Yuka Adachi in Japanese)
“You mean to say that I defile the bodies and souls of the departed.”
A Galgastani who once served her clan in battle. 27 years old. Together with her mother, Cassandra, and sister, Moldova, she practices necromancy under the Necromancer Nybeth, believing that reviving the flesh of the dead by calling their souls back to the transient world serves to dispel their feelings of regret.
Battlefield Publisher EA Eyes Opportunity if Call of Duty Leaves PS5, PS4
Even if Microsoft’s unprecedented $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard goes through, Call of Duty is unlikely to leave PlayStation platforms any time soon. We know that Sony has an ongoing contract with the publisher that will be honoured, and Xbox has at the very least committed to three additional years of multiformat support in an attempt to appease regulators.
EA bigwig Andrew Wilson is not losing too much sleep over the series’ future on PS5 and PS4, however – in fact, he sees a huge opportunity for his company’s own first-person shooter franchise, Battlefield. While the previous instalment Battlefield 2042 has a terrible reputation and has failed to retain players, the Australian executive was eager to reiterate that the series’ future will remain on PlayStation.
“In a world where there may be questions over the future of Call of Duty and what platforms that might be on or might not be on, being platform agnostic and completely cross-platform with Battlefield, I think is a tremendous opportunity,” he said during a recent Goldman Sachs event, as reported by Seeking Alpha.
Obviously if Call of Duty ceases to release on PlayStation platforms, it’ll leave a gigantic audience looking for something else to play. While it’s true that some players will simply leave Sony’s ecosystem and game elsewhere, others will seek an alternative – and that’s where Wilson believes his company may be able to capitalise.
Of course, before it can even begin to think about encroaching on Call of Duty’s territory, Battlefield needs to get back on track. Speaking candidly, Wilson admitted that the previous two entries in the property have failed to meet expectations. “I don’t think we delivered in the last two iterations of [Battlefield] in the way that we should have,” he said of Battlefield 2042 and Battlefield V. He added that his company has a “lot of work” to do to get the series back on track, but that the right teams are now in place to realise the series’ “unbelievable ambitions” moving forwards.
To be honest, it’ll take a really good Battlefield game to unseat Call of Duty, but it’s true that if the latter departs PlayStation there will be opportunities for other publishers. There’s no question that abandoning an audience as large as Sony’s will leave space for others to occupy – but in its current state, Battlefield’s got a long way to go before it emerges as the likeliest candidate.
Battlefield 2042 Bringing Classes Back To The Game In Update
In case you weren’t already aware, Battlefield 2042 is a game that was released in the middle of a pandemic without anywhere near enough design work or testing being done for such a flagship release. Our latest reminder of this comes in the form of an update which will kinda undo one of its major selling points at launch.
2042 made a huge deal pre-release about its new “Specialists”, hero-type characters with flexible loadouts who would replace the series tried-and-tested “Class” system (multiplayer FPS archetypes like ‘Recon’ and ‘Assault’). Those Specialists were wildly unpopular with long-time fans, both for their gameplay implications as well as their design, and while the latter is already being addressed it looks like developers DICE have been convinced to also rework the former.
In a big update posted by the development team, it’s revealed that they have “started work on a massive overhaul on the way that you’ll play with Specialists”, which essentially is going to split the difference between the traditional system and 2042’s use of Specialists. The hero characters are going to remain, but they’ll be assigned into class tiers (see above), with some gadget use restricted between classes to “ensure that Class Identity is more pronounced”. So only recon players will be able to use a SOFLAM, for example, while medical crates will only be available to support players. As someone who mains Mackay (in the ‘Assault’ class) but uses the SOFLAM a lot that sucks, but I guess we’ll see how it all shakes out once the changes go live (which won’t be for a while, since DICE say it won’t be until Season 3).
Other changes coming in and around Season 2 will be three new weapons (two mains and a sidearm), as well as refreshes to two of the game’s launch maps, Renewal and Orbital, which are coming alongside another brand new map. DICE will also start adding some “vault” weapons to the main game, which are guns from the time-travelling Portal game mode, as well as continuing the visual refresh of all the Specialists, specifically ‘Voices, Body Posture, and Facial Expression changes”.
You can check out the full list of changes and additions coming before and as part of future updates here, or in the video below.
Battlefield 2042 Update Finally Begins to Address ‘Walking Sim’ Map Complaints
EA’s DICE has finally addressed criticisms of one of Battlefield 2042’s maps, which was dubbed a “walking simulator” by fans. The new update 1.2 reworks Kaleidoscope to include an “improved gameplay flow”.
The developer released patch notes for the update which arrives today, August 2, detailing its midseason update – which also includes a handful of other changes. The Kaleidoscope rework headlines these improvements, however, marking the first map update since DICE said it understands why fans “use terms such as ‘walking simulator’ to describe” Battlefield 2042 back in March.
“We identified several focus areas for our launch maps where our quality standards could be improved through cover, intensity, line of sight, pathing and traversal changes,” DICE said. “Reworking maps takes time, and Kaleidoscope is the first map for which we have completed this rework.”
Changes include the addition of more cover through new assets and raised terrain in some areas, creating new flag positions, and adding brand new areas including a forward operating base in the park and a second command post close to the tower.
DICE will release an update to Renewal next as it works its way through improving Battlefield 2042’s seven launch maps. This will arrive sometime during Season 2, the developer said, meaning sometime between September and November.
Today’s update also brings updated character models, changes to guns including the RAH-68 Huron and YG-99 Hannibal 30mm Cannon, a player profile page, and improved aim assist on console.
Battlefield 2042 has had a fairly turbulent post-launch period, only launching its Season 1 seven months after launch in June after it was delayed to focus on more pressing issues such as including a scoreboard – but this update was also delayed.
Publisher EA admitted around the same time that Battlefield 2042 did not meet expectations, and soon after a petition asking for refunds started online that more than 230,000 players have now signed. Battlefield 2042’s number had diminished in the meantime, as in early March it had fewer players on Steam than Battlefield 1, 4, and 5.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Next Battlefield 2042 Update Is Going To Give Everyone Beards
Beleaguered multiplayer shooter Battlefield 2042, which has not exactly been the success EA would have been hoping for, will take another step towards being an actual video game this week with the release of its next update.
While the game has been justifiably lambasted by fans (and non-fans) alike, I’ve always had a soft spot for it, partly because the stuff I like in a Battlefield game has been there since launch, but also because this game—developed partly during the worst months of the pandemic—was clearly nowhere near being done when publishers EA rushed it out the door.
Developers DICE have thus basically had to spend the months since launch…finishing the game, adding things like scoreboards and extra UI that under less hellish circumstances would just have made up part of the regular development process and been with Battlefield 2042 at launch.
The game’s Season One update made a lot of players happy because it simply dragged the game so much closer to what they would have expected in October 2021, and the 1.2 update—out tomorrow, August 2—inches even closer.
It introduces some fixes for the game’s weakest map (Kaleidoscope), finally gives players a lifetime statistics page (letting you track stuff like your K:D ratio, games played, etc) and perhaps most noitceable, makes the first of a number of planned “Style and Tone” changes for the game’s Specialists.
Battlefield 2042’s Specialists, characters similar to those you’d pick in other shooters like, say, Apex Legends, are a first for the series, and have been pretty poorly received, not only for the changes they’ve made to the game’s structure (replacing traditional classes like Medic), but for the way their cocky swagger and corny one-liners were at odds with the game’s grim, climate apocalypse setting.
Dice’s first move to fix this was to simply shut them up, so that the characters no longer shouted catchphrases during the end-of-game roundups, but the next step here will be to make them all look a bit more appropriate for the setting. This means making them all just generally look more tired, dirty and haggard, and in the case of the male Specialists, giving them beards. And if they already had a beard, giving them more beard, and some extra wrinkles to boot. Here’s a look at the changes:
I like it, everyone does indeed look a bit more appropriate for the setting. I will say though, as someone who mains Mackay—for gameplay reasons, not aesthetic—I was hoping for a bit more of an improvement considering his original look (Guy Who Stans Elon Musk Under Tesla Car Reviews On YouTube) has now been turned into Guy Who Thinks Wrestling Is Too Woke Now.
The update will also introduce some other smaller nerfs and changes to gameplay, and you can read all about it here.