The biggest PC gaming stories of the week

There's a lot going on, so here's the short version of what happened in PC gaming this week:

• Republican politicians say videogames partly to blame for mass shootings

Politicians have predictably turned their attention toward games following two mass shootings. US President Donald Trump also called for an end to "gruesome and grisly videogames."

• Valve has put a stop to the Steam release date exploit

To appear in the popular upcoming games list on Steam, some developers allegedly set release dates on the backend that differed from their game's listed release date. Valve now requires devs to get in touch before changing a release date.

• Ooblets devs reveal threats of violence and racist abuse following Epic Store announcement

After the two-person Ooblets team announced they'd be releasing exclusively on the Epic Store, they received a flood of racist, threatening, and violent messages. Co-creator Ben Wasser responded this week, as did Epic, which issued a statement on 'misinformation and abuse.'

• 2K confirms sending private investigators to Borderlands streamer's house

The company says its actions are the result of a "10-month investigation" into YouTuber SupMatto, who denies any wrongdoing.

• Death Stranding is no longer listed as a PlayStation 4 exclusive

The removal has sparked a bit of hope that the PC release, which was briefly mentioned in 2015 and then never spoken of again, is still on. My guess is that Death Stranding will never release on any platform, and we're actually playing it right now.

• No Man's Sky Beyond will add 32 player support, powered bases, cooking, and alien milking

Remember the big controversy when No Man's Sky released without alien milking? It's finally being addressed.

• Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and others agree to start sharing loot box odds

It looks like sharing drop rates is going to become an industry standard. Epic Games also signed on, and we learned this week that Rocket League will do away with paid loot boxes altogether.

• Ark's next expansion, Genesis, brings giant sea turtle forts and a voiced AI companion

The expansion will come in two parts, and will include a new map, Ark's first speaking character, and a very big turtle.

More news

• E3 organizer leaks personal info of over 2,000 media and content creators
• Elizabeth Warren wants to give rural America better internet
• Discord is adding built-in gameplay streaming to its voice channels
• Infinity Ward says Modern Warfare isn't political
• More rejected Borderlands 3 cover art
• Twitch has launched its own broadcasting software
• Apex Legends tournament won't air on TV due to recent shootings
• Blizzard is helping people find old World of Warcraft friends

Tweet of the week

This miracle save originally happened a while back, but it deserved to be seen again. I'm one of the players who was left to defend two-on-three while Julez went to get his pizza.

Around the office

Andy Kelly is hard at work making a text-based survival game, which he says is "extremely immersive, with many deep, nuanced systems." You can follow his progress in the thread below, but be warned, it's not for the faint of heart—there's a terrible slip and fall, and a gruesome bear attack involved.

Speaking of injuries, I stubbed my toe so hard the whole thing turned purple, but I couldn't miss a Borderlands 3 preview event earlier this week so I taped it up and limped on over anyway. Look for my impressions next week, which will only be slightly colored by distracting toe pain.

Meanwhile, Chris spent one of his evenings uncovering the year's biggest scandal: The NPCs in GTA Online win way more at the slots than he does. Unacceptable!

Lauren investigated the difficulties of making penises in games (the short of it is that it's hard), James checked out some potent nostalgia art, and Joanna refused to let her Sims do laundry. It was a pretty normal week for us. 

Have a great weekend. Be kind to yourself, be kind to others, and update your graphics drivers if you haven't recently.

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