The biggest PC gaming stories of the week

I spent my free time this week reading 2006 science fiction novel Blindsight—a story about the nature of consciousness that involves a spaceship commanded by a vampire—playing Slay the Spire's daily challenges, and watching Hannibal, the 2013 show in which everyone refuses to point the finger at the creepy guy whose name rhymes with the crime being committed. This has proven to be an intoxicating psychic combination, so to take my mind off of spires, aliens, and Mads Mikkelsen sniffing people, here's some PC gaming news:

Dr Disrespect's Twitch ban remains mysterious, but he isn't going back

After a few weeks of silence, Guy "Dr Disrespect" Beahm has finally spoken about his unexpected ban from Twitch—although he claims he still doesn't know the reason for it. He did say that he won't return to the platform, and is planning a comeback elsewhere. Hit the link above for the full interview.

Henry Cavill built a PC and a lot of people wanted to watch him do that

"This kind of material isn't for everyone....viewer discretion is advised," said Cavill. "You may see a lot of parts that you haven't seen before."

Assassin's Creed Valhalla gameplay video and impressions

Last weekend was Ubisoft's big not-E3 show, where it revealed Assassin's Creed Valhalla and showed us more Watch Dogs Legion gameplay. It opted not to mention its workplace misconduct issues and the executive resignations that have resulted, though.

The Red Door, reportedly Call of Duty 2020, is on the Microsoft Store

How mysterious, although it is also strange that we're halfway through the year without a new Call of Duty game announced, so it feels possible that this is it.

Death Stranding review

Kojima's latest and strangest is now on PC, and the hiking sim runs well on our preferred platform. If you're not sure it's for you, your reaction to Chris Livingston's explanation of its character names may be a good gauge: 

*Sam Strand is a porter who works for a company called Bridges and his other name is Sam Porter Bridges and his biological mother's surname is Bridges and his adoptive mother's first name is Bridget** pic.twitter.com/Oz0brkSUQOJuly 16, 2020

More things we wrote this week

• The Mario 64 PC port looks like a full-blown remaster with new 4K texture pack
• Intel's next, next-gen CPUs are already getting benchmarked
• Linux founder tells Intel to stop inventing 'magic instructions' and 'start fixing real problems'
• EA is scrubbing Washington's team name from Madden NFL 21
• Former Mac boss predicts PC makers will have to dump AMD and Intel to ‘go ARM’
• This 17-year mod project makes the Pirates of the Caribbean tie-in game one of the best pirate sims around
• Chinese RPG Gujian 3 has sold 1.3 million copies
• Halo 3 is the best PC port in the Master Chief Collection so far
• I assassinated 2 guys in my 3-hour Assassin's Creed Valhalla demo