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.

• NVIDIA Announces the GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce GTX 970
• NVIDIA Stops Making GeForce GTX 780 Ti, 780, and 770 Graphics Cards
• MSI Announces the GAMING Series GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980 Cards
• Palit Introduces the New GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980 Cards
• GALAXY Launches the GeForce GTX 900 Series Graphics Cards
• ZOTAC Announces GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970
• ASUS Announces the Strix GTX 980 and Strix GTX 970 Graphics Cards
• Gainward Announces its GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 Graphics Cards
• MSI GeForce GTX 980/970 OC V1 and Gaming 4G Series Debut
• EVGA Announces its GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 with ACX 2.0
• Inno3D Announces the iChill GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970
• GIGABYTE Unveils the GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 G1 Gaming Graphics Cards
• Turtle Beach Releases the Ear Force Z60 PC Gaming Headset
• EK Unveils Revolutionary New NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980 Water Blocks
• Tesoro Updates Shrike Gaming Mouse With Colors, Higher DPI
• Acer Brings 4K2K Displays With NVIDIA G-SYNC to North America
• EK Introduces Sapphire Vapor-X R9 290X Water Block
• Samsung Unveils the S27D590C 27-inch Curved Monitor – VIDEO
• EIZO Announces the DuraVision FDF2305W 23-Inch Monitor
• AOC’s New Anti-Blue Light Technology Helps Protect Eyes While at the PC
• Club 3D Launches World’s First 4K USB 3.0 Docking Station
• COUGAR Launches 700K Feature-Rich, Aluminum Gaming Keyboard – VIDEO
• Logitech Unveils the G910 Orion Spark RGB Mechanical Keyboard
• Thermaltake Displays Full Range of Luna Series LED Case Fan: Luna 12, 14, and 20
• Koolance Confirms LGA2011v3 Compatibility for CPU-380I FC Block
• CRYORIG Provides Free Upgrade for LGA 2011-3
• GIGABYTE Introduces AIRE M93 ICE Wireless Mouse
• Be quiet! Unveils Straight Power 10 PSUs
• Antec Announces Availability of New EDGE Line of Power Supplies
• Sharkoon Unleashes Surprisingly Good-Looking Entry-Level PC Case – VIDEO

German Motor Torpedo Boats in WWII

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

These German torpedo speedboats, also called S-Boats or E-Boats, proved their worth on escort and security missions, sea reconnaissance, mine laying and in particular in combat against enemy submarines and surface craft. They operated primarily off the Dutch and French coasts, along the English coast and in the English Channel, North Sea, Baltic and were also used in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

Read on…

Bohemia Interactive celebrates Arma 3’s first anniversary with special livestream

Celebrating Arma 3’s official release on September 12 last year, Bohemia Interactive announce a special anniversary livestream on Arma 3’s official Twitch channel this Friday. The livestream, which will be led by Associate Producer Matt Lightfoot and Designer Nelson Duarte, will kick off tomorrow (September 12) at 10:30 AM Zulu/GMT/UTC – and is expected to run for about 3 hours.

During the ‘One Year of Arma 3’ livestream, various Arma 3 developers and community members will co-operate in an Arma 3 Zeus multiplayer session. For those who don’t know Arma 3 Zeus, this free DLC for Arma 3 enables players to take on the role of a game master, and influence a multiplayer session from a birds-eye perspective – creating a unique experience for the players on the ground. Since a birthday is not complete without gifts, Bohemia Interactive will also be giving away several copies of the Arma 3 Digital Deluxe Edition, as well as Arma 3 merchandise sets, to those attending the livestream. And… there will be cake!

Arma 3 was officially released on September 12th 2013 after extensive Alpha and Beta testing – pioneering Steam’s Early Access program. Since then, Bohemia Interactive has continued supporting the game with a steady flow of updates, which included the singleplayer campaign, new weapons, vehicles, objects,the Zeus and Karts DLC, plus various platform refinements. Later this year, the studio will release its Helicopters DLC, followed by the Arma 3 Marksmen DLC in the beginning of 2015. A major expansion for Arma 3, featuring a brand new terrain, is also in development.

For more information, please visit the official Arma 3 website.

Source: Blue’s News

This video offers a look at a co-op mission in Assassin’s Creed Unity, accompanied by developer commentary from creative director Alex Amancio to help understand what we’re seeing. Word is:

“In heist missions you’ll have to coordinate your skills and attacks to infiltrate, steal the artifacts, and escape without being detected. The less you’re seen, the higher your reward for finishing the mission will be. Heists are just one type of co-op mission and with constantly changing goal placement as well as a variable number and location of guards you can replay heists again and again for a fresh experience every time.”

Source: Blue’s News

The Battlefield Blog has more details on the upcoming The Final Stand DLC for Battlefield 4. They also announce testing of the add-on is taking place this week, providing instructions on how to try and get into the Community Test Environment to help, which requires a premium account (inspiring us to repeat our joke that paying to beta test is a grand tradition in the Battlefield series). Here’s a Final Stand official reveal trailer and here’s an excerpt:

With Final Stand, we knew from the start that we wanted to evolve the Battlefield experience and offer weapons and vehicles that behave differently than anything else on the battlefield. Taking place on the artic landscape of Russia, where the scientists of today are experimenting with technology that will define the battlefields of tomorrow (Battlefield 2142, anyone?), Final Stand will deliver four maps that are unique and distinct. With its military installations set against a wintry landscape, expect intense, infantry-focused combat.

Players will also discover secret prototype weapons and vehicles that further tie into the fiction around Final Stand, and to some extent the Battlefield series. This includes a Battle pick-up rail gun that fires a single round of powerful kinetic energy, and the hover tank prototype, which uses eight experimental jet propulsion engines to nimbly move around the battlefield. We have a few more surprises up our sleeves that we’ll share with you in the weeks ahead.

We definitely had a lot of fun designing these maps and the future-tech weapons and vehicles of Final Stand and hope you guys have as much fun with them as we do. That’s why we want you to start playing them now. Starting today we are going to be testing pre-release versions of the Final Stand maps on the CTE (Community Test Environment).

Ubisoft has announced the release of Assassin’s Creed® Birth of a New World – The American Saga available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC versions of the game, from October 3rd, 2014.

Assassin’s Creed Birth of a New World – The American Saga is an exclusive compilation of the three Assassin’s Creed games that witnessed the birth of modern America, and includes:

• Assassin’s Creed® III: Challenge the Templar’s supremacy as Connor throughout the American Revolution.
• Assassin’s Creed® Liberation HD: Combat the Spanish forces in Louisiana as deadly Assassin Aveline de Grandpré.
• Assassin’s Creed® IV Black Flag: Explore the Caribbean seas and join the fight against the Templars as Edward Kenway, during the Golden Age of Piracy.

For more information about Assassin’s Creed please visit the Assassin’s Creed UbiBlog.

New gameplay footage, details on The Wolf’s combat style and recommended strategies against the series antagonist

Stronghold Crusader 2 has gone gold and to celebrate Firefly Studios has released new gameplay footage of the series’ most notorious AI opponent.

“Stronghold is known for its tendency to test players’ mental dexterity and with the resurgence of these kinds of games it makes perfect sense to include The Wolf” the developer said in a new blog post. “We want this addition to the cast of AI characters to reinforce our message that Crusader 2 retains the series’ sense of challenge. When you are victorious against The Wolf, or any character for that matter, it should feel like an absolute triumph.”

An opponent who taunts the player with lines such as “I would rather tear down your castle with a spoon than offer you assistance”, The Wolf does not mince words. As an AI Lord he is not the greatest ally, his aggressive attitude and unpredictable mood making military assistance or trade unlikely. As an AI opponent however The Wolf provides skilled Stronghold players with the worthy challenge they seek.

Skirmish matches against The Wolf are characterised by his ability to build strong defences early on, turtling until he can amass an army of the game’s most heavily armoured units. Rushing The Wolf is difficult, but the longer players leave him alone the more dangerous he becomes! In order to stand a chance, players must match his numbers and employ effective counter troops. Crossbowmen are required to pierce his troops’ thick armour and Pitch Ditch needed to set his Swordsmen ablaze. Units who are weak against armoured troops, such as the Whirling Dervish, should be avoided.

Stronghold Crusader 2 can be pre-ordered on Steam with 10% off, exclusive mini-campaigns and more.

By: Chad Sebring @ TweakTown

Since the NDA has been lifted, we can now tell you that we are here today to look at the latest and greatest from Corsair’s Graphite Series of cases, the 780T. With its heritage in mind, and its sights set on the stars, Corsair has sent along the 780T full-tower chassis for us to review. This chassis definitely has its roots with its older brothers, but with a more elegant approach, and a feature set that outshines any other Graphite chassis. With high hopes ourselves, we hope you are just as excited as we are to see what all the hype surrounding this chassis has been about. So, without further ado, let’s dive deep into Corsair’s new Graphite Series 780T full-tower chassis.

Read The Review Here

By Stuart Davidson @ Hardware Heaven

Cougar are probably best known for their cases and power supplies but recently they have been getting stuck into the peripherals market. Today in our Cougar 700M Review we take a look at this gamer mouse, along with the surface designed to match it.

Read The Review Here

Author: Lee Garbutt @ PC Perspective

EVGA continues to raise the bar with the introduction of two new power supplies in their popular SuperNOVA line, the 1000 P2 and 1200 P2. Both new power supplies are 80Plus Platinum certified and feature all modular cables, high-quality Japanese brand capacitors, a single high-power +12V rail, and a 140mm dual ball bearing cooling fan (with the ability to operate in silent, fan-less mode at low power levels). The 1000 P2 and 1200 P2 are also backed by a 10-year warranty (with registration). And last but not least, many PC PSU enthusiasts will be happy to know the new 1000 P2 and 1200 P2 are being supplied by Super Flower; the same OEM that EVGA has been using for many of their higher output, premium PSUs! In this review we will be taking a detailed look at the EVGA SuperNOVA 1200 P2 power supply.

Read The Review Here