Hello folks, and welcome back for another update of the Forgotten Hope Mod. First of all we are happy to announce the expansion of our homepage to include nine additional languages. We are an international mod with developers and fans across the globe, and we are happy that more of them can enjoy our website in their language of choice. Our thanks go out to Großadmiral Dönitz (Dutch), Arisaka, Winther, Gauntlet (Norwegian), Liquid (Chinese) and MkH^ (Finnish) for help with translations. Great job guys!

Sometimes your pathway leads to a crossroads. Then there is the need to make a decision. A decision based on a mix of knowledge and speculation. The Forgotten Hope developers have known about the biggest crossroads coming up for a while now, as have our fans. The decision to be made was whether to stay with Battlefield 1942 or to move on to the upcoming Battlefield 2.
	As it involved big changes and because many details were unknown, we put off making a final decision. But with every second passing by, the crossroads came closer and time grew shorter. But, as fate would have it, Electronic Arts offered us a chance that we could not pass up. Finally, after months of possibilities and maybes we were able to have a closer look on the latest iteration of the Battlefield series.
Flying in to the United Kingdom, Armin Ace visited an EA development studio together with several members from other mod teams for a two-day trip full of information, presentations and experiences. Right afterwards, many made a stop at Berlin to join the EA Community Event. News posters from the most known German community pages and developers from all sorts of mods reported in, as did our own news poster BUG$.
	Battlefield 2 was no longer an unknown with only rumours and speculation to go on. Battlefield 2 became something tangible as we played the game and used the editor that will be at our disposal once the game is out. Finally we had a chance to see what BF2 is capable of, what it looks like, what it feels like, what tools we can use for modding. Finally we were able to compare BF1942 with BF2 and make an informed decision about porting the mod to the new engine. After this there is no longer a crossroad. The path has turned into a straight highway with only one direction to go: Battlefield 2
Electronic Arts’ new approach to the modding community should be a big help for every mod, and we expect a quick start when modding for BF2 as the development tool should outshine every editor known to us. And additionally, we look forward to features that are already available, like limpet mines, different damage models depending on the current state of vehicles, artillery strikes, teamplay oriented game features in form of the command mode and squads, and, last but not least, beautiful graphics. You can now look forward to intense battles of the World War II with tomorrow's engine in the upcoming Forgotten Hope 2.

Hello folks, and welcome back for another update of the Forgotten Hope Mod. We are sorry for being late this time, but as BUG$ was at home for some private business the news had to wait until now. Anyway, we hope you will enjoy this update like wine - the longer you wait the better it gets.

First object to show is the completely redone British medium tank Cromwell Mk. IV. Malsa created the model and Montoya made the skin for the backbone of the British tank divisions. Mainly built in the last years of the war, the Cromwell was equipped with a 57mm ROQF 6-pounder Mk. III main gun that was later replaced with a 75mm cannon, as more firepower was required to penetrate the armor of heavy German tanks. Although it will still be hard to defeat the enemy tanks, you will at least look better while doing it.

Second thing we want to showcase today is totally new. The Japanese Air Force will be reinforced with the Nakajima B5N2 better known under the name Kate made by Lobo. This warbird is a further stage of the B5N1 as the former version was too vulnerable against fighters. As most Japanese aircraft, the Kate was most successful during the first years of the Great War. On December 7th, 1941, 144 B5N2's torpedo bombers were among the Japanese attackers at Pearl Harbor, and these made short work of the US fleet anchored there. But as we have such a beautiful wreck model, the pilots won’t mind too much about being shot down.

Taking out nasty American tanks will be a breeze with the Type 99 AT "Turtlemine". This magnetic explosive device carried 1.5 pounds of 50-50 RDX-TNT. Although commonly referred to as a "mine", it had a delay action fuse that was manually set. As with the German magnetic and sticky grenades, these were manually operated and deployed to attach themselves to metallic tanks (unfortunately, this feature will not be possible for bf1942, instead they will act in the same fashion as satchel charges). Thank McGibs for creation of this fancy toy that will help the Japanese infantry to hunt down enemy armor.

That's all for today folks. Stay tuned for more information about the mod development progress on the next weekend and give our public forums a visit to discuss this one.

Hello and welcome back folks for another update of the Forgotten Hope Mod. Tonight is a historic night as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of VE-Day (Victory-in-Europe Day). The German Chief-of-Staff, General Jodl, signed Germany's unconditional surrender to the western Allies and Russia yesterday 60 years ago at 2:41am and the operations were to cease at 1 minute after midnight (GMT) on the following day. In deference to the Russians, the surrender ceremony to the western allies at Rheims of the previous day is repeated before Marshall Zhukov and other Soviet generals at Karlshorst, a suburb of Berlin.

But as the ceremony took a little longer than expected, it was already 00:16am, May 9th, local German time, when the second surrender was signed, which was 2:16am on May 9th in Moscow. For that reason VE-Day is celebrated on the 7th of May in the US as the western Allied forces took custody of German forces in the West by that date, on the 8th in Germany as this is when the main fighting finally stopped by local time, and the 9th in Russia, according to the time standard being used by the Red Army.

For our news update we would like to introduce something new for the Russian forces today. The first object to show off today is the PPS-43 (Pistolet-Pulemet Sudaeva, or model 1943 Sudaev SMG) modeled and skinned by McGibs. It was developed as a more compact and mobile weapon than the PPSH-41, which was considered too big and too heavy to be used by tank crews, mobile recon groups and paratroopers. Aleksei Ivanovich Sudaev initially designed a new SMG in 1942 and the final model was designated the PPS-43. Sometimes is referred as the best SMG of World War 2, the PPS 43 was exported to pro-Soviet regimes around the world and widely copied after the war.

Technically, the PPS-43 is a fully automatic weapon fired in full auto only. The sight is an L-shaped flip type and is marked for 100 and 200 meters distance. The SMG uses PPSH-41-type box magazines (35 rounds) and has a rate of fire of 700rpm. All in all it is a remarkable weapon to play around with.

Furthermore we would like to showcase a new map. The first map completely created by Lobo on his own, it features Stuka's Stalingrad building textures and was made in deference to Sergeant Pavlov and his platoon, who defended one house in Stalingrad against heavy attack for an extended period. The house was a four-story building in the city center, built parallel to the embankment of the river Volga and overseeing a large open space, the "9th January Square". That house, known to history as "Pavlov’s house", became a symbol of the great determination of the Soviets to hold the city no matter what the cost.

Completely surrounded by Germans, Pavlov’s soldiers held the constantly attacked building until relief came. They were successful, although only four men survived the combat. Together they went on defending the building on their own. After several days, reinforcements finally arrived, equipping the defenders with machine-guns, anti-tank rifles and mortars. The men, now a garrison of twenty-five, surrounded the building with barbed wire and minefields, and established anti-tank and machine-gun posts at the windows. For better internal communications and supplies they breached the walls in the basement and upper floors, and dug a communications trench to Soviet positions outside. Supplies were brought in via the trench and by boats crossing the river, defying German air raids and shelling. Intensive fighting lasted from 23 September until 25 November 1942!

That's all for today folks. We hope you enjoyed the update and would like to invite you to visit our public forums to discuss this one or just to remember the victims of the fighting during World War II.