I'm already a hermit, so the shelter-in-place order I'm under hasn't had much of a practical effect on me, but now that I'm not allowed to go places for non-essential reasons, all I want to do is go places for non-essential reasons. Let's distract ourselves (or just me) from the effects of reverse psychology by taking a look at what happened in PC gaming this week:
Gabe Newell: 'We're way closer to The Matrix than people realize'
And it seems like he thinks that's a good thing. The Valve boss also said that "competition in game stores is awesome for everybody" in an interview with Edge.
Twitch streamer Kaceytron has been suspended indefinitely over coronavirus comments
"I realize that it was an insensitive joke and that's not an excuse for it, I accept my punishment," she later tweeted. "I just hope that you all can realize I am human, I'm not infallible, I make mistakes." Her channel is still offline.
The Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition is live, with free demos for more than 40 games
The demos will go away after the weekend, so check them out while they're around. I enjoyed hugging spirits, and a cat, in Spiritfarer:
The victim of EVE Online's $5,000 gank says he's struggling with the aftermath
After taking an ill-advised trip with a ship full of valuable cargo and losing it all, one veteran EVE player isn't sure he wants to return—but not because he lost his stuff.
The Xbox Series X is basically a monster gaming PC
It looks like Microsoft's next box for games is no slouch. Meanwhile, the PlayStation 5 will have somewhat less impressive specs, but some fancy SSD tech (which we heard about for way too long).
White House warns younger people of coronavirus dangers, praises their videogame skills
If this wasn't the weirdest thing said on TV this week, it's got to be up there.
More things we wrote
- Gabe Newell says 'everybody benefits' from competition with Epic
- 10 tips for getting started in Doom Eternal
- This horror game perfectly captures the nightmare of working retail
- Say what you want about Destiny 2 right now, its bunker slide is the best
- Rewire a crippled spaceship in fiendish puzzler, Filament
- Bernie Sanders will learn to play Minecraft if a TikTok video gets 6 million views
- An American surprises Chinese PUBG players by speaking Mandarin, wholesomeness ensues
- Footballers played their cancelled match in FIFA 20 for more than 60,000 fans
- Steam has a record-breaking 20 million concurrent users as coronavirus keeps people home
Around the office
Doom Eternal released this week, and James liked the hell trip enough to award it a 94%—phew. You can read his review here, or check out the video version below.
Meanwhile, Luke Winkie took a look inside Decentraland, which he describes as "Second Life meets libertarianism," Steven played a horror game about the things retail employees go through every day, and Rachel relaxed with some Stardew Valley ASMR.
All of those things are fun to read about, but I think I'll go back to playing A Short Hike when I want to relax this weekend. Take care of yourselves, and look out for our review of Half-Life: Alyx next week. I have a feeling there'll be a lot to talk about, even for those who aren't into VR.
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