Outlast 2 demo is now on Steam, but only until November 1

The first-person creepfest Outlast 2 was recently delayed, from a planned launch in the fall of this year to sometime in the first quarter of 2017. Sad news indeed for fans of gratuitous crotch-stabbery, but the blow has been softened somewhat by today's announcement of an Outlast 2 demo, available for all—for a limited time—on Steam.

Outlast 2 is played from the perspective of Blake Langermann, a cameraman who works as an investigative journalist with his wife, Lynn, on "the stories no one else will dare touch." Your hard-driving, risk-taking ways lead you from the murder of a pregnant Jane Doe to the pitch-black night of the Arizona desert, "and a corruption so profound that going mad may be the only sane thing to do."

Nice work there, Langermann.

The demo is free, naturally, but it's only available until November 1—through Halloween, in other words. It will remain in your library permanently as long as you grab it before the expiry, though, so you can put off playing until your loins are sufficiently girded, however long that may take.

We've also got a few new screens below, and in case you haven't seen them, the first two of five planned issues of the Outlast digital comic book, The Murkoff Account, are up for your reading pleasure at redbarrelsgames.com. It begins with a man with an eyeball hanging out of his face (he can still see out if it!) and then moves to some heads stuffed inside a cooler. I haven't read the second one yet.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.