Darkest Hour: Europe 1944-45

9 June 2009: Tripwire Interactive is happy to announce the release Darkest Hour: Europe 1944-45, the latest total conversion mod for Red Orchestra: Ostfront to be released on Steam. Darkest Hour is free to all those who own Red Orchestra and can be simply downloaded and installed through Steam. Darkest Hour finally brings the Americans to Red Orchestra, focusing on the beaches of Normandy, Operation Market-Garden, the Battle of the Bulge and on into the Reich. Featuring airborne parachute drops and late war German and Allied tanks Darkest Hour brings an all new style of gameplay to Red Orchestra. A trailer is available on Steam ( http://store.steampowered.com/app/900873/) along with screenshots and other information on the Mod’s Steam page ( http://store.steampowered.com/app/1280/). Now you can play as American, British or Canadian troops, with a huge range of additional features:

• More than 20 new infantry weapons, such as the ever-distinctive Garand, M1 Carbine, .30-cal, Bren, FG42, Thomson and the Enfield rifles

• American Bazooka, British PIAT and German Panzerschreck to go tank-hunting with

• New infantry features, including Airborne drops onto the battlefield, bullet suppression and supersonic cracks, plus a new radioman class for calling in artillery strikes

• Over a dozen new crewable vehicles including the King Tiger and JagdPanther for the Germans, countered with multiple types of Sherman in 75mm, 76mm and 17-pounder versions, plus the Cromwell, M10 Wolverine and Achilles

• 11 new maps, including:

o Juno Beach – Canadians storming the beaches in classic D-Day action

o Carentan – the US 101st Airborne assaults the town shortly after D-Day

o Brecourt – 101st Airborne attempt to put a key German artillery battery out of commission behind the beaches

o Ginkel Heath – British paras drop into a hotly-contested LZ at the start of Operation Market-Garden

o Wacht-am-Rhein – sweeping tank combat during the Battle of the Bulge, including the fearsome King Tiger

o Stoumont – American infantry and armor try and hold back the SS PanzerGrenadiers in the streets of the Ardennes town

So whether it is the Normandy campaign, para-jumping onto the dropzones around Arnhem or the bitter fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, new and old players alike will get a chance to see why RO remains a classic. Now with the opportunity to re-play those battles RO-style, courtesy of Darkest Hour: Europe 1944-45! For more information on the mod (and to see the trailer) head for the Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/1280/.

And, just to ensure that everyone gets a chance to see Red Orchestra on the Western Front, we are dropping the price of RO on Steam to $4.99 right through until the end of the weekend (Sunday 14th June).

For the full details and history of the mod, head for their own web page: http://www.darkesthourgame.com