The second part of the Monday news:

Voice actor Peter Renaday, who played Duncan in Dragon Age: Origins, has died age 89
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/voice-actor-peter-renaday-who-played-duncan-in-dragon-age-origins-has-died-age-89/
Peter Renaday, a voice actor who starred in a wide variety of roles in both videogames and TV, has died.
The news was announced by fellow voice actor and friend Townsend Coleman on Twitter earlier this week. Coleman wrote: "Folks, I’m devastated this morning to learn of the passing yesterday of our dear sensei, Peter Renaday. Pete was one of the most genuine, salt of the earth people I have ever known and I will miss him dearly."

EVE players are in revolt over CCP's blockchain plans: 'None of us want this crypto slop'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/eve-players-are-in-revolt-over-ccp-s-blockchain-plans-none-of-us-want-this-crypto-slop/
Yesterday, I wrote about my chat with CCP's top brass about its upcoming survival MMO EVE Frontier—a new game in the EVE universe that uses blockchain tech to (so goes the CCP pitch) take the player-led philosophy of EVE Online and make it weirder, wilder, and woolier, even letting players become effectively co-developers of the game alongside CCP. I went in as sceptical as I am of literally anything with the whiff of Web3 about it, but hearing the devs' pitch left me at least open to the possibility they were doing something interesting with the technology.
Which, ah, sets me apart from the bulk of EVE Online's already-existing community, seems like. EVE players have been suspicious of Frontier—known until yesterday by its codename Project Awakening—for a good long while now, and it doesn't seem like yesterday's unveiling has assuaged them any. If anything, it's driven them to new depths of despair.

Immortals of Aveum developers find a new home at Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser's Absurd Ventures studio
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/immortals-of-aveum-developers-find-a-new-home-at-rockstar-co-founder-dan-housers-absurd-ventures-studio/
Following the flop of the fantasy FPS Immortals of Aveum, a "core team" from developer Ascendant Studios has found a new home at Absurd Ventures, the studio launched in 2021 by Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser.

'There's an alternate universe where Half-Life disappeared after release': Valve's first marketing strategist Monica Harrington says she helped navigate its way out of early disaster
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/theres-an-alternate-universe-where-half-life-disappeared-after-release-valves-first-marketing-strategist-monica-harrington-says-she-helped-navigate-its-way-out-of-early-disaster/
Looking back on Valve's record of repeated hits and the fact that most of us are playing our PC games under Steam's monolithic shadow, it's tempting to think that this was the only way history could've gone. But according to Monica Harrington, Valve's chief marketing strategist in its early years and then wife of studio co-founder Mike Harrington, we only barely avoided a world where Half-Life left Valve in ruins, and we've got her work to thank for it.

PSA: Consider cranking up Space Marine 2's difficulty for co-op
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/psa-consider-cranking-up-space-marine-2s-difficulty-for-co-op/
Hey there, I won't keep you long: If you're playing Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's campaign with some friends, are you finding it too easy? My friend and I reached that point after the first few missions. I was hosting the lobby and had difficulty set to "Normal" like I do in 90% of games.
During the introductory mission that you have to play alone, Normal felt just right, but as soon as another player joined, we noticed the Tyranids couldn't put up a decent fight. At risk of getting bored, we decided to step up to the second-highest campaign difficulty in Space Marine 2, Veteran. Turns out, Veteran isn't so much a step up from Normal as a massive standing leap: Not only were we downgraded from three armor pips to just two (essentially nerfing our survivability by a third), but enemies got way more aggressive.
>> And if you’re confused by the 40K lore, here’s the lead voice actor explaining it to you.

Google results insist a Bugsnax sequel is coming out next month, but there's one small problem: Its devs aren't making one
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/adventure/google-results-insist-a-bugsnax-sequel-is-coming-out-next-month-but-theres-one-small-problem-its-devs-arent-making-one/
Getting your game noticed is a tricky business when you have to punch through the noise of the more than 10,000 new Steam games releasing each year. Young Horses, the developer of Bugsnax and Octodad, have found itself in an even trickier spot: Thanks to Google, people are expecting a Bugsnax sequel that doesn't exist.

Control 2 isn't affected by the collapse of Annapurna Interactive because the deal was signed by the other Annapurna
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/control-2-isnt-affected-by-the-collapse-of-annapurna-interactive-because-the-deal-was-signed-by-the-other-annapurna/
Despite the implosion of Annapurna Interactive—whose entire staff quit earlier this week—the recent deal its parent company, Annapurna Pictures, made with Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment will remain intact, according to the studio's communications director Thomas Puha.

Penny's Big Breakaway studio announces layoffs: 'Evening Star has been swept up in the same turbulence that has affected so many of our peers in the games industry'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/pennys-big-breakaway-studio-announces-layoffs-evening-star-has-been-swept-up-in-the-same-turbulence-that-has-affected-so-many-of-our-peers-in-the-games-industry/
The videogame industry continues to be wracked by instability and chaos: Evening Star, the developer of the 3D platformer Penny's Big Breakaway, has announced that "turbulence" in the business has forced it to lay off six employees.

Overwatch 2 gets a set of World of Warcraft 20th anniversary crossover skins
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/overwatch-2-gets-a-set-of-world-of-warcraft-20th-anniversary-crossover-skins/
Overwatch 2 will get a series of four skins as a collaboration-crossover with developer Blizzard's World of Warcraft 20th Anniversary. The four skins cast Overwatch characters as similar-in-silhouette counterparts from across World of Warcraft's 20 year history.

Pocketpair confirms Palworld isn't turning into a live-service game and won't be free-to-play: 'We are not changing our game's business model'
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/pocketpair-confirms-palworld-isnt-turning-into-a-live-service-game-and-wont-be-free-to-play-we-are-not-changing-our-games-business-model/
In an interview with ASCII Japan, translated into English by Automaton Media, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe was asked about the future of open world creature-collector Palworld, and whether it would make sense to transition to a live-service model. 

And the third, and short, part of today’s news:

Somewhere between Death Stranding and A Short Hike, there's Caravan SandWitch
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/somewhere-between-death-stranding-and-a-short-hike-theres-caravan-sandwitch/
A new narrative-driven indie exploration game has some really neat stuff going on, playing out like a narrative mix of exploration and story somewhere between a modern Zelda game, Death Stranding, and indie darling A Short Hike. It's a nonviolent game focused on traveling, exploring, meeting characters, and using tools to solve puzzles.

Here's a sci-fi action RPG where your inventory is a ship designer and your skills are a tech tree
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/heres-a-sci-fi-action-rpg-where-your-inventory-is-a-ship-designer-and-your-skills-are-a-tech-tree/
An indie action RPG  has a cool twist on the genre, having your character as a starship with parts and a crew to be upgraded rather than the normal single warrior and their inventory of random stuff. Starcom: Unknown Space looks like just that, a more low-key but still very enjoyable action take on the space sandbox genre that also blends in narrative events as you land on and explore new planets.

Deadlock has picked up some vital tools for policing bad player behavior
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/deadlock-has-picked-up-some-vital-tools-for-policing-bad-player-behavior/
Valve's in-development moba Deadlock picked up a couple new non-game features in an update this week, all of which are intended to make the experience of play among a larger population much better. The major first update is a low priority queue, which will place players in a secondary queue that's less likely to match. Players can be placed in low priority by abandoning games or for bad behavior, and will have to complete a certain number of full games in order to return to normal matchmaking.
Players can also now lose access to certain capabilities in-game as punishments, such as matchmaking, voice and text chat, pausing, and even reporting other players for abuse.

Valve developer has to keep reminding players that Deadlock's anti-cheat system is coming and 'very high priority', since it's leaning mostly on player reports right now
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/moba/valve-developer-has-to-keep-reminding-players-that-deadlock-s-anti-cheat-system-is-coming-and-very-high-priority-since-it-s-leaning-mostly-on-player-reports-right-now/
Deadlock is getting anti-cheat software. This is a piece of information you might think is news, based on reactions to a message by beleaguered Valve developer Yoshi on the game's official Discord server. "Yeah we are working on anticheat," Yoshi writes to an inquiring mind, after discussing the game's ability to bind multiple actions to a key (which allows for some very silly stuff).

Customer Gets A Intel Core i9-14900K As An RMA For His Faulty Core i9-13900K, Full Refunds Also Being Given Out

https://wccftech.com/customer-gets-intel-core-i9-14900k-rma-faulty-core-i9-13900k-full-refunds/

Intel developing Cobra Core architecture on x86, potential successor to Royal Core

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-developing-cobra-core-architecture-on-x86-potential-successor-to-royal-core

EU Retailers Selling NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GDDR6 GPUs At Higher Prices Than GDDR6X Models

https://wccftech.com/eu-retailers-nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060-gddr6-gpus-higher-prices-than-gddr6x-models/

NVIDIA Gets The “Green Signal” By US To Sell Cutting-Edge H100 AI GPUs To The UAE Firm G42

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-green-signal-by-us-sell-cutting-edge-h100-ai-gpus-uae-firm-g42/

Former Samsung Executives Arrested In Stealing $3 Billion Worth of DRAM Technology For “Illegal” Semiconductor Firm In China

https://wccftech.com/former-samsung-executives-arrested-stealing-3-billion-dram-technology-illegal-firm-china/

Intel Approaches US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo To Help Sort Out Financial Mess

https://wccftech.com/intel-approaches-us-commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-to-help-sort-out-financial-mess/

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D 3D V-Cache CPU Launches In China, Availability on 20th September

https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-5-7600x3d-3d-v-cache-cpu-china-launch-availability-20th-september/

There isn't much of a difference betwee nthe 13900K and the 14900K, so it makes sense to send one if there are no more 13th gen chips available.

Anyway, here are some news that didn't quite fit the gaming news, but may interest, surprise or get a WTF? from you:

The Watch Dogs movie has finished filming, probably can't do worse than the Borderlands movie did
https://www.pcgamer.com/movies-tv/the-watch-dogs-movie-has-finished-filming-probably-cant-do-worse-than-the-borderlands-movie-did/

>>The Minecraft trailer disagrees with that headline.

Flappy Bird makes an unlikely comeback after its creator apparently let the trademark lapse and the vultures swept right in
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/flappy-bird-makes-an-unlikely-comeback-after-its-creator-apparently-let-the-trademark-lapse-and-the-vultures-swept-right-in/

Flappy Bird creator says he's got nothing to do with the game's zombie comeback—'I did not sell anything'
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/flappy-bird-creator-says-he-s-got-nothing-to-do-with-the-game-s-zombie-comeback-i-did-not-sell-anything/

>> I'm not sure if the game will launch on PC or not, hence why I didn't post it in the news, but I'd avoid it like a plague given what those articles say.

Intel was in the running to make the PlayStation 6 APU but lost out to AMD due to disputes over profit margins, report claims
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/intel-was-in-the-running-to-make-the-playstation-6-apu-but-lost-out-to-amd-due-to-disputes-over-profit-margins-report-claims/
With the launch of the PlayStation 5 Pro, AMD continues to be the console chip maker of choice, and given its history with Sony, we've all expected that it will remain in place for the PS6. However, according to a new report, multiple processor companies competed for the chip contract, including Intel, which ultimately lost to AMD over disputes about profit margins.

The report in question comes from Reuters so it's not some random tech blogger who has said this, though naturally there aren't any named sources for the information. It's being claimed that AMD, Broadcom, Intel, and other chip companies all submitted bids for designing and manufacturing the processor that will power Sony's next-generation PlayStation console.

>> I could see they having gone for Broadcom if they wanted to shift to ARM, but Intel? Well, that would have allowed them to sell, again, PS4/5 games as they would not compatible with the new architecture, which is something Sony would absolutely do.

As announced:

https://store.steampowered.com/category/plane_train_autos

I'm trying to avoid knowledge of Steam sales. I'll crack. 

Oh boy, I can't wait for all these games that surely won't cost you more than £50.

You know that you can sort by prize and that there are dozens of games from less than, for example 5€, right?

You have lots of options (sorry, Darc Requiem).

I saw your picture and just thought:

I was making a joke bit about how these sim games can have a cheap upfront cost, but are also known to contain $100's worth of DLC that racks up to the $1000 mark.