Electronic Wireless Show (Rock Paper Shotgun)

Greetings, starchildren. This week on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we talk about Starfield, the game on everyone's lips! We got code late due to an unknown random happenstance, but we've now put a bunch of time into playing it so can have a blimmin' great chat about Bethesda's space RPG. I sound like I hate it, but don't. James actually likes it. Nate has not played it but he asks us about it. As you might imagine, the field of stars also makes up the bulk of our What We've Been Playing this week, although Nate is considering whether to start that or Baldur's Gate 3 - we give conflicting answers... Plus, some interesting recommendations, and Garfield! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Much like an early morning bakery or a petrol station forecourt, I can't go past Ready Player One author Ernest Cline doing something without sticking my nose in. This week he announced the start of a new metaverse, called Readyverse, with the reveal of a web3 enabled battleroyale game called Open. Or, technically, Op3n. Ope-thren. I don't know. We discuss this, I make James read a terrible poem, and we also talk about the games we weren't allowed to play as kids. Plus: the games we are allowed to play, right now, cos we're adults, and some juicy recommendations for you all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week saw the first (small) look at the new and upcoming Hobbit-themed cosy life sim Tales Of The Shire, plus the news that Embracer group is splitting into three, including a Middle-earth And Friends subsection. We spend some time talking about The Lord Of The Rings games we'd like to see, plus our favourite Rings games from days gone by (and also Gollum, and also we do impressions of Gollum). Nate has been playing an impressive number of games, including one that did not allow him to invent the stick and therefore hampered his progress. We also talk about AI NPCs again, because one of them tried to get James drunk. Plus: some lovely recommendations to round off your weekly pod (one of them is a long life meat product). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Has it ever taken you 10 years to finish a task? If so, you'll either love or hate this episode of The Electronic Wireless Show podcast, where we discuss the surprising release date of 2029 for In The Valley Of Gods, the surprising advance of the Dead Island 2 launch date, and the entirely unsurprising delay(s) of Skull & Bones. Do you know what the most delayed game ever is? Because the title recently changed hands. This plus what we've been playing, a new hardware update, and a round of "what video game should Shakespeare play?" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast have our finger on the beating pulse of current events, which is why we're going to talk about the accusations that are flying around Palworld, the new and extremely popular Pokémon-meets-Rust. Does it contain AI? Did it directly steal from Pokémon? Can The Pokémon Company sue? Probably not. But why does everyone care so damn much anyway? We give our vibes-based takes on the whole affair, which seems to be escalating every day (and will therefore presumably disappear soon). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What a week its been! Not a great one if you like zany battle royales, as it turns out. This week on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we discuss the recent sunetting of Rumbleverse and Knockout City, and how long is a good run for games anyway? But in happier and more ridiculous news, we also get to talk about how massively popular Dwarf Fortress's steam release has been. Good ol' Dwarf Fortress. Plus: the Dread Wolf is leeeeeaaakiiiiing. Nate's mini-game this week is offering us both dark bargains (I think I did pretty well out of mine), and in a Good Day To Ware Hard James explains why the graphics card market is broken, with a cowboy metaphor. This is a thing now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a move that I already know I'll live to regret making, this week the Electronic Wireless Show podcast takes a look at the discourse that flared up in and around the release of Baldur's Gate 3. Larian's epic RPG had people asking: why aren't all games like this? But in an angry tone of voice that we feel left some things out of the conversation. Also, Nate challenges a Times columnist to single MMA combat, and we talk about the games we've been playing this week (spoilers: none of them are Baldur's Gate 3!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last few weeks we at the RPS Electronic Wireless Show podcast have noticed a slight resurgence in a trend we thought was basically over. That's right: video game tie-ins to films! There used to be loads of them, and now there aren't. Except there are again, culminating in Renfield (of all movies) having a Vampire Survivorslike you can actually buy on actual Steam. What's going on? Is this marking the start of something new? What are some of our favourite game tie ins? Plus we put the boot in on a couple of Tweets about the Mario movie, because why not, frankly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While Rishi Sunak bundles nerds into Bletchley Park, we at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast are investigating the real danger of AI: somewhat rubbish text-to-speech voicelines making The Finals less fun. We discuss the arrival of AI voices in big-name games, the disappointingly businessy thinking behind it, and whether we can think up some uses for AI-generated material that we can actually get behind. All sparked by voice actor Gianni Matragrano’s video compilation of the lines in question, which you should probably watch before listening to this episode, or there’ll be a bit where Nate appears to bellow "THE KING FISH" for no reason. Well, maybe not no reason. It’s still Nate. Plus! We talk about what we’ve been playing this week, which coincidentally for me was The Finals, while Nate’s been digging deeper into the Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor demo. I also recount the teeth-based controversy surrounding Cities: Skyline 2, in turn begging the question: what are they going to do with all those teeth? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New year, same us! The Electronic Wireless Show podcast returns and kicks off the new year with a look forward at what 2024 may bring. We chat about our most anticipated video games that may or may not be arriving this year, including some racing, some spac(marine)ing and some book selling. Also some freezing and some despairing (at BioWare and Bloodlines 2, potentially). Plus: Nate and James have an anecdote off, which makes me lose my mind and become a horrible person for about four solid minutes. I have apologised, and me and James are still friends. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Electronic Wireless Show podcast returns in 2023 with a new friend and a new format! We ran out of themes, so we're going to flip to a magazine format, where we discuss some current events as well as the games we've been playing. This week we talk about games on film, with everyone bloody loving The Last Of Us TV show and reports that Lara Croft will be hitting the small screen too. We also discuss the reasons a developer might have to come out and clarify that their game is, in fact, real. Plus: what is Forspoken, and why so graphics? Fear not, regular listeners: some things have stayed the same. Nate has built a strange tower on top of the Cavern Of Lies, within which we must pass his strange trials, and the episode ends with a check in with Henry Cavill and a new round of recommendations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week League Of Legends teased a PvE Vampire Survivors-like mode, and recently World Of Warcraft revealed a limited time PvEvP battle royale with pirates. What's going on? Is chasing trends a bit of a risky click? Should Age Of Empires II get a battle royale mode? All these questions and no more, just these ones, are discussed in this week's episode of the Electronic Wireless Show podcast. Plus: I am cursed by scaffolding again, and we recommend some lovely things that aren't video games, as is our way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the past while a few gams have had post-launch patches, the exemplars being Starfield and Stardew valley, which have post-launch patches of different kinds and for different reasons. We take some time on the Electronic Wireless Podcast to talk about this patch of patches, and what it was like in the good ol' days, where a broken game came out and stayed broken, gosh darn it! Nate isn't here today, which means I can make fun of him for owning fish, or whatever it is he does, but in his stead James steps up with an RGB lighting-themed game where I have to guess what accessories people stuck lights on to turn into gamer accessories. This is because Razer stuck RGB lights on a pandemic mask and are in trouble over it now. Naughty Razer. Plus, we talk about the games we're playing right now, and dish you up some juicy recommendations at the end of the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A week late but never a dollar short, we're talking about the past present and... well mostly just the present, to be honest, of The Last Of Us Part 1. It's had, and continues to have, a few problems with its PC launch last week, so we discuss that, we talk about the TV show, and we talk about some of the impact the game has had in general. Nate tells us all about Ceramus the Brick Knight, James polls us on Steam Deck alternatives coming out of the woodwork, and there are a lot of cowboy metaphors. Plus: what we've been playing this week, and our recommendations! It's a rootin', tootin' good time alright! Apolgies in advance for the recording goign on the wonk right at the end, though. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I didn't sleep a lot at the weekend and nothing interesting happened during the week (please bear in mind that we recorded this episode of The Electronic Wireless Show podcast before Unity made any announcements) so we decided to look at how Starfield is doing post-launch. Plus, Nate has been playing Baldur's Gate 3 and has thoughts about it, so that's double SEO juice for this episode. There's double beans metaphors this week, and James talks about the latest Steam Decklike, the Lenovo Legion go, which is like if a portable PC made love to a Switch, kind of. Some fun recommendations this week, too, especially if you like cathedrals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As is fast becoming a thing on RPS this week, Alice Bee and James are both away this week, so I'm (Katharine) filling in writing this post and doing my best Alice impression in the process. In this week's episode, The Electronic Wireless Show podcast talks all things mods - specifically, the ones that got real big and broke out from their respective source games. It's a chat that's been prompted by the developers behind Slay The Spire mod Downfall announcing their own brand-new game, Tales & Tactics. There's also a lot of undead fish chat, and Alice's plans for entertaining herself on an upcoming long-haul flight. And in James' hardware corner, the gang chat about Nvidia's comments on AI and crypto, as well as Ubisoft's AI writing software tool thinger. Links We record on a Tuesday so some news might have changed by the time you hear it. Table 9 Studio announced Tales & Tactics, an auto-battling, fantasy roguelike. The Sims 4 finally got bunk beds in 2021, after modders showed EA how it was done. Deep Rock Galactic received official mod support in 2021 as well. Big props to Googly Glyphids maker HandDrawnNerd. Paradox announced their new rival to The Sims, Life By You - and we interviewed head honcho Rod Humble about it at GDC. Nvidia's chief technology officer tells The Guardian that crypto does not "bring anything useful for society". Ubisoft unveil their AI dialogue-writing tool, Ghostwriter. What are we playing this week? James has been enjoying the Resident Evil 4 remake while also playing through Hi-Fi Rush for RPS Game Club. Nate, meanwhile, has been playing RimWorld with mods that make it a 40K / squirrel apocalypse, and Alice Bee has been playing the mildly awful Crime Boss: Rockay City for review. Recommendations this week are John Wick Chapter 4, Sheila Armstrong's short story collection How To Gut A Fish, and YouTube mashup king DJ Cummerbund. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the news that Assassin’s Creed Mirage won’t get any post-launch DLC, we of the Electronic Wireless Show podcast are wondering: what are some good games that only need playing once? Not out of a lack of enjoyment or interest, but because they were so satisfying that they left nothing else to want. Or because it would be too hard to recapture the joy of a first playthrough. Or maybe because they just ended really damn well. Whatever the reasoning, join us as we ponder our favourite games that we’ve never returned to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No James this week, but I am joined by Nate for this week's Electronic Wireless Show podcast to discuss Ubisoft's new NEO NPC prototype - an NPC you can have a stilted, weird conversation with using the power of AI! It's fair to say we are quite partisan about this and do not want it, but we discuss why anyway. In counterpoint, we think World Of Warcraft's new piratey battle royale game mode sounds pretty cool and good, actually? Plus: I ask Nate to explain cool things that I've seen in Warhammer 40K: Darktide, and Nate tries to convince me to take a devil's bargain where I have to play WOW for at least 12 hours a day, but I get a sort of increasing MDMA high while doing so. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Steam unveiled a couple of changes. Your shopping basket from the Steam store is now shared between devices, so if you put something in there on browser you can finish it up on your Steam Deck. But, more importantly, you can now hide single, selected games from your library, so your friends can't see when you're playing them - or even that you own them. Obviously the first thing that comes to mind is that this could usher in a new dawn of secret perverts able to hide their embarrassing 3D sex games, but are there other use cases for it? We discuss. Plus: we've been playing current games! Cheese! And some more booze recommendations from James! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As with all headlines that are phrased as a question, the answer is "probably not", but in any case, Miyazaki has mysteriously hinted at there being at least one secret thing in Elden Ring that players haven't found yet. On this week's Electronic Wireless Show podcast we discuss this, as well as some of our favourite and least favourite deployments of the video game Easter egg. We also talk about what we've been playing this week (Nightingale; PowerWash Sim, natch) and visiting Scotland. Sadly neither of us got to go to the Glasgow Willy Wonka experience. But we both wish we could have. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Electronic Wireless Show podcast returns to one of our recent previous messes to discuss Payday 3. More specifically, we look at the post-launch changes the devs are making in an effort to improve matchmaking and wait times. Specifically, we use this to think about games that have changed their reputations after a rocky start, what with Cyberpunk 2077's recent 2.0 update. What are the circumstances that allow games to do that? Why are they such outliers? How do we think about reviews in the context of something like No Man's Sky? We've also been playing some big recent games, so tune in for discussions of Assassin's Creed Mirage, a call for pirate games, and a hilarious misunderstanding about Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Woah! Last week Gamescom 2023 happened, the biggest consumer event for video games in the woooooooorld! The Electronic Wireless Show podcast gives you our definitive take on what was hot and what was not from Geoffcom's Opening Night Live, and points you towards some of the previews and interviews our crack team has from the show floor. This week there's plenty to talk about re. What We've Been Playing as well, because James has been cramming in a bunch of small games. Fun! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week The Electronic Wireless Show podcast is a bit shorter because I accidentally stopped recording in the middle of it, and then had to sort of restart. Though movie magic you will never know the difference, except I just told you. Oh no! Anyway, with the Steam Next Fest ongoing, I noticed an uptick in games and demos for games that are just about making a nice diorama, and have no goals or real restrictions. Interesting! I ask my co-hosts why they think this is, if that even makes a game a game, is making your own play less fun if you're not breaking someone else's rules, and so on. Plus: we reveal why James was in LA before! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week you could get two horror games for free! Rental and Content Warning both launched for nada (albeit for a couple of days only in the case of the latter). Nate and I have both done work for free in the hope someone would retrospectively pay for it. Is it worth it? Is this how the internet is going to work from now on? Plus, what are some of our favourite free games? There are a bunch. We also talk about the science that suggests people process visual information at wildly different speeds (I know I shouldn't have said that some people just 'see more fasterer' or whatever reductive thing I said, please don't email me), Nate teaches me about some weird cryptids, and we recommend some sweet non-video game stuff, as per usual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Having been absent for the majority of the last few pods, I'm back! At least for a bit, and just in time for Six Ages: Ride Like The Wind (a spiritual successor to King Of Dragon Pass) to to get a depressing-sounding sequel and Myst to get a Humble Bundle featuring its sequels, both official and spiritual. So that got us to thinking: what in the darn heck is a spiritual successor anyway? Are there standard parameters? We have a definitional argument, as is our wont. Plus: we've been playing a clutch of games that are both fun to talk about and current, James instigates a discussion about whether SSDs should be considered the default over mechanical hard drives, and Nate does a mini-game contest that is literally just about fish and has no relation to games whatsoever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was gone but now am here again to join my co-hosts on this week's Electronic Wireless Show podcast, much like the hundreds and hundreds of of hours of interviews, press briefings and old presentations salvaged by Noclip and heaved onto YouTube. We were going to talk about children's games this week, but given the game for children I was going to talk about was once Stadia exclusive Gylt it seemed a time to talk about the precariousness of digital media a bit (and also make James explain Stadia). We've all been playing a few games here and there, and most of them are current, with Nate still very enthusiastic about being a dinosaur. James comes with more beans to the hardware altar, and we all have some slightly weird suggestions for your recommendations. Plus, because Liam is actually away this week, I made a special effort to pay attention to audio levels and reduce background noise because I've seen ye all complaining about when I have to edit the podcast and I'm sick of it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the Electronic Wireless Show podcast remembers the recently deceased E3 games show. Unfortunately, all that we can really recall is the occasional watch party, and maybe Keanu Reeves was there at one point? Was mostly just trailers, let’s be honest. Thus we also consider the events that replace it (with a side-chat on this year’s Game Awards), and how we’d design our own glittering showcase o' games. We also share what we’ve been playing this week, make a single non-PC game recommendation (that also represents the strangest coincidence in EWS history), and take another look at the Lenovo Legion Go. Last time I talk about the Lenovo Legion Go for a while, promise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Electronic Wireless Show is not bound by your mortal rules, which is why even though this is a PC gaming podcast we're going to talk about Zelda, dammit all, because everyone else gets to talk about Tears Of The Kingdom and we're just as cool as them. We (attempt to) talk about our favourite Zelda games of the past, our favourite Zelda-likes on PC, and I explain how Tears Of The Kingdom works to Nate and James. Honestly though, we don't make it very far, because it turns out the lads haven't ever played a Zelda game before. At least, Nate might have. We're not entirely sure. We do also talk about what we've been playing this week as well - which include some old favourites, some new secrets, and Gaben's tiny hands - and give some great new recommendations. Nate also delivers a very involved mini-game involving beans and aliens, and James doesn't talk about the Asus ROG Ally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the Electronic Wireless Show podcast – minus Alice, who’s away – goes faster, higher, and maybe even stronger as we discuss the upcoming Olympic Esport Series 2023. Yes, those Olympics. Battle royale megahit Fortnite recently joined the events list, but are the Olympics folk really making the best use of games if they’re just recreating real-life competitions? And which games would we choose for our own hypothetical esports event, which may or may not involve the unleashing of big cats? Listen in to find out, though you probably already know Nate is going to say Age of Empires. Also, we attempt to crack the case of a mysterious graphics card/lobster smuggling operation, chat about what we’ve been playing this week, and make some zesty recommendations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the grand tradition established by one (1) prior release, Supergiant dropped Hades II over the weekend and we at the Electronic Wireless show podcast have all been playing and enjoying it bunches! So we wanted to talk about the game, why we're enjoying it, some of the new aspects over Hades the first, and just generally go 'Ooh, this game is fun, innit?'. Not a complex podcast this week. James isn't here, so Nate makes up some hardware news that's very exciting and yet disturbing, while he does have a mythology-themed mini game in the tower of jocularity. Plus: the games we've been playing this week, including a cute survival horror and RimWorld, still. Also, Nate asks me to explain what the hap was heckening with Helldivers 2, and if Joel remains safe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please ignore that I erroneously call this episode 34 at the start of the episode. In episode 35 we briefly discuss Just Stop Oil's game-themed protest at EGX this weekend, as well as re-highlighting a guide from the Arma 3 devs so you can tell when someone is trying to share fake war footage (originally created during the early weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but now relevant again with the spread of fake Israeli-Palestinian conflict videos). For our larger theme we discuss games that flip-reverse their theme when you least expect it, which is usually seemingly-cute games becoming horror - much like Harvest Island! Plus: James gives us a rundown of fun games he tried at EGX, which sound very cool! Consider donating to Medical Aid For Palestinians Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum turned out to be a hot mess. Who knew? The Electronic Wireless Show podcast is on hand to do a dramatic reading of the developer apology post, and talk about the reception to the game - plus our favourite Lord Of The Rings Games, and our favourite apologies. In a shocking twist, James turns out to not be a LotR fan. He is useless to me. I will let you know when we discover things he does like. We've also been playing some video games this week, how about that! Including the click-fest game of the moment, the remake game of the moment, and a whole other thing I hadn't heard of. So actually James does have a use after all. Plus: he finally got hold of a ROG Ally! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we talk all things GTAVI augury, what with the community going bananas for secret GTAVI clues, and Rockstar finally announcing that they'll have a trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto arriving in December. Alongside this we talk about the games we're playing right now (largely Darktide, it turns out), and dish up some recommendations. We also spent like a third of our recording time playing a deranged Age Of Empires 2-themed RPG using an abbreviated D20 system of Nate's devising, but don't worry, I edited it down quite a lot. Apologies for my poor mic quality! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's happening! Why, I played Skull & Bones back when it wasn't even a live service game. But now it is, and it's out this weekend. We talk a bit about how long it has been coming out, why it's been in development this long, and why they didn't just release the sucker the two or three previous times they got close to doing so. Honestly, I hope it does okay. We also talk about the games we've been playing this week, and Nate challenges us with a game of Palworld Pal: real or fake? PLUS the giant game dildo and our recommendations this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week it was revealed that after literal years of pushing, American McGee is officially not getting a third Alice game. We at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast take a look at the history of Alice: Asylum, the game that would never be, as well as the game design bible that was, it seems, the last great hope for the project. We also give American McGee friend of the show status, as consolation. In hardware news, James clues us in on the Nvidia RTX 4070, and Cyberpunk 2077's new Overdrive Mode, which requires a GPU that less than 1% of Steam owners currently own. As James puts it: "what if graphics, but too much?". In a surprising twist, our recommendations this week are all alcoholic beverages, and when we talk about what we've been playing it turns out one of us literally hasn't bee playing anything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we like indie games (inasmuch as "indie" can ever really be a helpful term; as the "good" doctor Peterson would no doubt say, what do words even mean? It's bloody complicated!) and thus are using the news that Day Of The Devs is a non-profit (what does non-profit even mean? What does profit mean? It's bloody complicated!) as a flimsy excuse to talk about indie games. Plus: Steam Next Fest kicks off next week, and there were indie game demos a-plenty, so we talk about some favourites of those, too. Plus: we've been playing JRPGs! And I was wrong, it's episode 4. Please ignore every time I say it's episode 5. I told you my notes aren't to be trusted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time travel games are back in vogue, or maybe they never went away? Or maybe they did but returned to this exact moment so we’d think they didn’t. In any case the chronology-wrangling of Oxenfree 2 and Crime O’Clock have got us thinking about our favourite time-jumping moments, with Nate and James immediately pouncing on the opportunity to talk about Titanfall 2’s Effect and Cause level while Alice ponders if any game can be a time travel game if you save scum enough. Elsewhere in the timestream, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is discussed in varying levels of happy lightsaber noises, before James warns of a particularly spicy fault affecting AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs in A Good Day to Ware Hard. Nate also does a bit of his own time travelling for a poetic Tower of Jocularity in Sengoku-era Japan. Sakura leaves fall; Please enjoy this podcast ep; Haiku is tricky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A lot of stuff happened over the past couple of weeks, so we briefly round up some of the Unity nonsense, and some of the more interesting and/or funny bits of the Microsoft leak that happened at the start of the week. But what we really want to talk about is intellectual property rights! Bill Willingham, the man who came up with Fables (the IP that brought you The Wolf Among Us) declared via. blog post that he's making Fables a public domain property. What does that mean? Can we all just make Fables video games now? And what can we do with Sherlock holmes? Plus: James broke the Lenovo Legion Go, I've been playing lots of games that aren't Starfield, and James recommends more music! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Electronic Wireless Show podcast, Nate and I put on some ill-fitting industry analyst hats to consider the current state of the free-to-play games market: a peculiar arena, one that that enriches some almost as often as it dooms others. It’s all proven just too dangerous for Alan Wake 2 devs Remedy Entertainment, who’ve rebooted their upcoming F2P shooter Vanguard as a more traditional paid game. We later return to our core competences, in press release-speak, to talk about the Steam Deck OLED and the games we’ve been playing this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on The Electronic Wireless Show podcast our interest was piqued by new trailers for a Jesus simulator and a politics in hell strategy game. We ask ourselves: why are there so many hell-themed games and so few heavenly ones? Is it blasphemy? What would our pitch for a game set in heaven be? (Spoilers for that last one: there's a lot of admin involved). We also chat about what we've been playing this week, and Nate orchestrates a mini-game pitchathon that goes at least somewhat off the rails. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back once again to prove that I will literally never get tired of an "-er? I hardly know her!" joke, it's episode five of series two of the Electronic Wireless Show Podcast. This week we return to a subject we've touched on before, but in more detail. With EA asking if people would like remakes of Dead Spaces 2 and 3, and The Outer Worlds getting a remastered Spacer's Choice Edition, we're having a big old thinkeroo about remakes and remasters - including which games we'd most like to see remade. We've also got a bit of a Henry Cavill update, and Nate forces James and I to battle in a terrible BeastsxAncient Rome arena. We've also got updates on what we've been playing this week (spoilers: video games). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on The Electronic Wireless Show podcast, we get a little bit removed from the rails, as it were. Things aren't looking great for Starfield - or at least, they're looking mixed, as in the Steam reviews, and verified but nameless devs are responding to negative reviews with comments that are basically like "no, our space game is fun and you're playing it wrong". We laugh about this (but also discuss the role of Steam reviews and devs replying to them). As well as that, the lads have been playing, well, the same sort of stuff this week, James brings us talk of mini PCs, and Nate makes us play Dracula or Russell Crowe. Extremely normal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite the extremely upsetting news about what nate has been having for breakfast this year, we maintain our composure to deliver an episode of The Electronic Wireless Show podcast all about the Steam Next Fest, currently running until next Monday the 16th. You've got a whole weekend of free demos to try, and we've knocked back a few to regurgitate into your open mouths as suggestions for what to try first. Plus, we've been playing a few current games, and have some juicy recommendations of non-game things. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When is a game not a game? When it’s a sim, according to the head developer of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. While we quickly agree on a "fair enough" response to this assertation of non-gameyness, we also can’t help but spend much of this latest Electronic Wireless Show podcast remembering the most fun we’ve in the diverse world of sims, be it some actual flight simulating or merely bullying smaller dinosaurs. Also: we chat about how big a deal it is that the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection might not support mouse and keyboard on PC, and discuss what we’ve been playing this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the most wonderful time of the year i.e. the last working week for us at the RPS Treehouse, and therefore the last week of the Electronic Wireless Show podcast for 2023. We take a look back at the year that was, in very broad terms - was 2023, in fact, a good year for games? - share our favourite games of 2023, and talk about the games we're playing right now. It appears Nate is quite unfamiliar with time travel films. We also think up some some resolutions for next year, and you've also got our regular recommendations to look forwards to at the end of the show. Plus, Nate does a thrilling end of year quiz with a question for each month. It goes about as well as you'd expect. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome once again to The Electronic Wireless Show podcast. We're discussing current things about old things this week, as Bayonetta man Hideki Kamiya reveals he's not super fond of the term 'retro' when applied to games. We discuss his comments, and what retro even means anyway, as well as what kind of games count as retro. Who even knows? Definitions are a jail, man. James brings good tidings regarding the Steamdeck in two different ways, and has a grim beans metaphor to clarify it, while the what we're playing section allows for another opportunity to talk about Baldur's Gate 3, which is the thing everyone is talking about (it's so hot right now). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A month ago Arrowheads CEO revealed the existence of Joel (technically J.O.E.L., in game), a game master running the galactic battle of Helldivers 2. A human being who gets up in the middle of the night to throw more robots at players if they're doing too well. We at the RPS Electronic Wireless Show think this is a good thing, in broad terms, and we discuss why (but also hope Joel is allowed holidays), as well as the response the community of players has had, which is also very interesting. Plus a straw poll indicates that only one of us would enjoy be at the middle of a maelstrom of chaos and being the Helldivers GM as a job. Bet you can absolutely guess which one of us it was. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a twist of serendipity, the Terraria tabletop game was shown at the very same UK Games Expo that Nate himself visited! We couldn't have planned it better (and indeed, did not) which means this week on The Electronic Wireless Show podcast we talk about not just that board game, but other PC versions of board games, and vice verse, and the games we think should have tabletop versions. Plus, this week we have once again been playing current video games, and Nate returns with an extremely silly mini-game. In the hardware section James lets us in on the unlikely second wind for VR headsets, most notably Apple's extremely stupid fake face projection thing. Please, Silicon Valley: stop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we give our live* reactions to the new trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, a game that certainly exists! Basically none of the predictions we made two weeks ago came true, but hey, there might still be a bunch of gorillas in it. And what about the fact that it leaked, huh? Is that bad? Should we feel sad for Rockstar? Will it make a difference, really? And why did James drink so much whiskey this weekend? There's no game this week (as Nate could not record owing to eating cake**) but we talk about the games we've been playing this week which probably couldn't be more different if they tried. Although I suppose there's a Scottish theme to the podcast, accidentally? *not live **cake eating is not confirmed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast, Alice and James use the Frasier-inspired browser RPG as a springboard to talk about The Simpsons a lot. And also fan-made video games, like a weird SpongeBob SquarePants fever dream that James experienced while full of milk and chili, and the Waterworld arcade game (as imagined in The Simpsons). Plus, we talk about games we've been playing recently, which includes Alan Wake 2. Alice does an unhinged rant while unaware she is once again ravaged by Covid. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a thrilling follow up to last week's episode, The Electronic Wireless Show podcast today discusses sequels and serieseseses, in light of some surprise announcements of sequels over the last week (Nate isn't here today, but maybe he'll return in the next entry? You'll have to listen to find out). In games we seem to accept that a series running for decades, over many, many sequels, is just kind of normal. What's the deal with that? Would games be better without sequels? Who knows? Us. We do. We talk about it today. We also talk about the games we've been playing this week, which includes quite a variety given there's only two of us. Plus: some interesting hardware news, and some lovely recommendations at the end of the pod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On account of not loads happening in the last week apart from the Actiblizz acquisition news, which I do not want to talk about under any circumstances, the Electronic Wireless Show podcasts talks this week about DLC, because a couple of good games got some DLCs - good, but different games getting different kinds of DLC expansions. Thus we discuss DLCs in general and what the difference is between a live service game and a game that is supported with DLC for years. As usual, we all talk about what we've been playing - what's up with Redfall, y'all? - and have some recommendations. The mini-game this week is to imagine feeding beans to Quentin Tarantino. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summer Game Fest, Not-E3, Keigh3… whatever you want to call this festival of hype, its annual takeover of the game industry’s collective headspace meant there was only ever one topic for the Electronic Wireless Show podcast this week. Alice even made up for her recording absence by pre-emptively tying Nate to a chair and forcibly making him watch trailers, like that bit in A Clockwork Orange but with “WORLD EXCLUSIVE” flashing up every thirty seconds. Still, we keep it light by focusing on the showings we actually liked, from The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria to Starfield, Nova Roma to Dungeons of Hinterberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, inspired by Doom running on teletext, the Electronic Wireless Show podcast investigates: what over devices, mechanisms, or live animals can join the immortal shooter’s vast port empire? Despite not even being on the show this week, Alice B tasks us with finding the best, worst, or weirdest cases of Can It Run Doom from across the internet. And, sometimes, inside Nate’s mind.  We also discuss what we’ve been playing this week, with a double bill of disappointment in The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and Darkest Dungeon 2, before Nate transforms the Tower of Jocularity into a marketplace of Dark Bargains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Alice takes the opportunity to make everyone talk and think about PowerWash Simulator, which also means Nate gets to talk about Warhammer 40K bloody loads, because that's the next DLC pack for PowerWash Sim. Plus: we've been playing a lot of current games, like Helldivers 2, Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors, and Last Epoch. Also, James reveals a shocking secret. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Games Done Quick is busy raising loads of money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, so we have a little chat about speedrunning, speedrunners, the benefits of breaking the game vs. the quality of a purist speedrun, and also a dog. We don't have a Nate this week, but James has been playing Apelegs again and offers a surprising self-assessment of how he feels like he's past his Apex Legends prime, and how confidence is a really necessary skill in competitive shooters. Worth tuning in for a listen to that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guess what? James and I, and a lot of other folk at RPS, are all learning the importance of rolling for initiative this week, because we're playing Baldur's Gate 3! Larian's take on what is essentially the official cRPG version of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition is out of early access today and boy, is it a doozy. So we answer your questions and Nates, and talk about animal forms and rolling for initiative and why the DM is a git. Plus, James has been struggling to get the game working on Steam Deck. Sometimes it does! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we bite off more than we can chew by trying to make sense of the timeline of the Studio ZA/UM firings, lawsuits, and alleged fraud/toxicity, an ongoing and complicate mess that, as of this week, shows no signs of ungoing. We kind of end up on an "who tf knows?" but do manage to boil it down into a cowboy metaphor that helps us get a grip on things. We talk about all that stuff for so long that we end up overrunning and don't have time for A Good Day To Ware Hard, or Nate's Tower Of Jocularity - although he promises a titanic one next week. We do get in our what games we've been playing this week, and it's a varied selection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast look at two contrasting tales of games being always online: Payday 3's overloaded launch servers, and Sea Of Thieves' triumphant reveal of season 10 additions. Is always online good? Is it bad? Or, much like the radiator in your living room, is it basically invisible as long as nothing breaks? Plus we dive into the games we've been playing recently (Nate is still plugging away at Baldur's Gate 3), recommend a bunch of unrelated short videos, and answer a question that has plagued humanity for years: would you punch a gorilla for a cheeseburger? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We had a couple of juicy news bits this week about disappoint - nay, heartbreaking - launch woes, so we thought we'd engage in every dev's nightmare by talking about bad launches on The Electronic Wireless Show podcast. What are some of the bad launches we remember? What part do we play in this ecosystem? Are we just doomed to get bad PC ports for the next few years, or is this going to happen forever now. Plus, a terrifying Tower Of Jocularity that challenges us to know when games came out (we do quite well, I think), the games we've been playing right now, and a trio of movie recommendations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we're nothing if not ready to jump on a bandwagon, and the hottest wagon in town right now is the Fallout TV show. We've watched varying amounts of Amazon's new adaptation of Bethesda's favourite post-apocalyptic RPG baby, so there are some mild (but not total) spoilers within, as we talk about the show, the show biffing the leaving-the-vault-moment, the best things about the games, the Righteous Gemstones, and how good Walton Goggins is just, like, in general. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you build it, they will come, as the old saying goes. In this week's episode of The Electronic Wireless Show podcast, we discuss some of our favourite buildings in games. At least, that is the stated intent. In reality, this becomes one of those episodes where at some point Alice drops the reigns and doesn't really manage to pick them up again. There is game chat, yes, but also a lot of talk about pizzas, Matthew's concerns about eating pork, and the British Museum. Strangely, we are low on fish chat this week. I think over time we are gradually transitioning to being a podcast about the specific food anxieties of one man. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www/rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-132-the-best-buildings-in-games-special 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cats went chasing after dogs on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast this week. Birds flew upside down, water fell upwards, and men became beasts, as Nate and Matthew plunged headlong into the chaos of a world where Alice is on holiday for a week. Needless to say, the conversation on this wild new frontier turned immediately to the subject of the best eggs depicted in PC gaming. Immediately, that is, after an intense discussion of goldfish husbandry, cats that can open doors, and eggs in general. But eggs were indeed discussed, Dizzy was needlessly disrespected, and there was a deeply experimental Cavern of Lies, in which Matthew and Nate had their bodies swapped by friend of the show Sir Anthony Hopkins. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-133-the-best-eggs-in-games-special 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After being on holiday last week, Alice makes a stunning return to The Electronic Wireless Show podcast, just in time to wrangle Matthew and Nate away from excessive egg chat (Nate genuinely mooted today's episode be eggs: part two). Today's episode is actually all about our favourite journeys in games. At first, we interpreted this literally, talking about favourite progressions from place A to place B. Eventually we do start discussing whether we can also count metaphorical journeys: character arcs, or stories that take us as a player on a journey. Digressions this week include whether the sand in Journey is better than the mud in Red Dead Redemption 2, the time Nate offended a very famous chef, and Matthew just being generally sinister and saying words like "flesh". 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-134-the-best-journeys-in-games-special 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After what's becoming a chillingly regular meditation on the concept of Matthew extinguishing the lives of astronauts, this week's podcast waded into some staunch reminiscence about classic co-op games on PC. Indeed, with Alice away this week, the boys were really method-acting the theme: two extraordinarily buff soldiers, grimacing with war-weary determination against a horde of meandering, half-on-topic anecdotes. Nate got way too excited about his idea for a Dance Dance Revolution mod based on Pacific Rim, Matthew got to show some love for the adorably brutish Gears Of War series, and stern warnings were given on the damage that Overcooked can do to relationships. The Cavern of Lies featured a short and utterly brutal RPG adaptation of the first level of Halo 2. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-135-the-best-co-op-games-special 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up? The thermostat, that's what! After a very brief hiatus last week (when Nate and I were both away and Matthew didn't want to rant into thin air by himself) we return in time to greet the sun. The approach of Summer in the UK has been heralded by the big hot ball in the sky, but also sometimes snow in the same day, because this is Normal Island in many ways. The changeable weather made me suggest this as our topic for the Electronic Wireless Show podcast this week should be the best weather in games. So it is... We open, as you can predict, with a discussion on Matthew's opinions on barbecues. After this, and a lengthly chat about police procedurals, we do talk about some of our favourite game weather (not including mud, which is not weather). There is also a lengthy argument about whether "the moon" counts as weather, which it clearly does not. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-136-the-best-weather-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, after a post by Graham inspired a big discussion in the RPS Discord, the Electronic Wireless Show Podcast is having a best combat in games special. In a surprising move we manage to not have a huge discussion about what constitutes 'combat', but we do discuss what Batman would do if he went to the London Aquarium with Matthew. Aside from that, there are surprisingly few digressions this week. Us, staying on topic? Armageddon must be upon us. But there is a moment where Matthew reveals that he basically thinks he should never be punished for anything, and Nate provides a bumper Mortal Kombat-themed Cavern Of Lies. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electron…ames-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back once again with a topic that I suspect we may have done before, it's the Electronic Wireless Show podcast. This week we're talking about the best water in games, but we also take the time to discuss what we think counts as a sandwich (we are surprisingly on the same page with it). Digressions, apart from the sandwich thing, are surprisingly few, although we make time to talk about what Andrew Ryan would be like if he took a trip to the London Aquarium with Matthew, and there's a pretty off-topic Cavern of Lies in there too. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-138-the-best-water-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The EWS podcast was on hiatus last week, because I was in a cottage where milk gets delivered in old-school glass bottles and then isn't drunk but left in the fridge unopened so it curdles but still looks new and then my cup of tea is ruined. But now I've returned to the land of wired internet, so too the Electronic Wireless Show returns with the best giants in games special. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-139-the-best-giants-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It seems, after weeks of investigation, we have uncovered the truth: it was you, podcast listener, who was the culprit all along. Well, well, well. Don't bother trying to defend yourself. We can't hear you. It's all recorded ahead of time. Yes, this week the Electronic Wireless Show delves into our favourite mysteries. There's only a brief intermission to discuss what counts as a mystery (mysteries being a topic we designate "Matthew Kibble", similar to "Nate Bait"), but watch out for the extended break where Alice chokes with laughter because Matthew has to take a Rennie, live on air. We also introduce a lot of Adrian Chiles chat. Only time can tell if Chiles will become a regular podcast character. Also: yes Alice did get the episode number wrong in the recording. IS THAT A CRIME?? 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-140-the-best-mysteries-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was going to write this as a whole bit where it was like a narrator describing you reading this post and then listening to the podcast, but I respect you too much to lie to you: it is after lunch on a Thursday and I had a very big sandwich. There is simply no way I could be expected to write that bit. But anyway, this week's episode of the Electronic Wireless Show podcast is all about our favourite narrators! We talked about so many games that I'm just making the show notes a big list, and I will probably accidentally leave some off - we just talked about that many games! Regular listeners will know that this is unusual for us. But we do also have a big bit about how city management games would be way more fun if the advisors giving you tooltips on your sewage system were e.g. talking turds. So there's that. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-141-the-best-narrators-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My own tragic backstory is that I grew up without any real tragedy, thus meaning my life will never be serialised on Netflix. I have lobbied producers many times, but they just say things like "Half of everyone's parents are divorced, Alice, you're not special!". Luckily, games provide richer narrative ground to tread, so this week's Electronic Wireless Show podcast is all about our favourite backstories in games! It is, however, a highly derailed podcast even for us. First of all, we need to clear up what exactly a casserole is, and then we get into this whole thing about what a gritty reboot of Matthew would be like, and also I describe the time I and my brothers were so hungover one Christmas Day a decade ago that we couldn't stand up. There's a bunch of games stuff in there, though. Also: The Sopranos. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-142-the-best-backstories-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we have a special E3-themed episode of The Electronic Wireless Show podcast, which will be of no use to you if you want actual information about E3 2021. Rather, we imagine what we would do if E3 was condensed into one show, and we were put in charge of its content. As you can imagine, this goes off-piste almost from the get-go. We start with cloning and escalate from there. Nate pitches a mobile game about Gimli that doesn't exist. Matthew suggests that platforms for games should be decided by a Wheel Of Fortune spin. But we do get around to making some sensible points about creativity, and the role of E3 in general, although we apologise for doing so. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/games/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-143-the-ideal-e3-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After last week's fun on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast, we then actually had to live through E3, and I, especially, am very tired. This week the show is all about our favourite box art or key art images from the history of games. The episode starts off with a sort of funereal air and ends, as Nate described it, like the final scenes of Fury Road, where we are desperately trying to keep going to the end even as bits of the engine fall off. There is an improvised Cavern Of Lies, Matthew has some new sweets, and Nate has a poorly crayfish. But we also do an extremely in-depth analysis of the original Doom cover art, with reference to classical art. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-144-the-best-box-art-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week the Electronic Wireless Show podcast is all about DLCs and expansions. We even briefly flirt with actual journalism by discussing some of the controversy associated with expansions and DLC and the Oblivion Horse Armour incident. There is, however, an extended break in the middle of discussing DLC where we talk about Toby Carveries. Oh, don't worry if you don't know what that is: we explain. We also talk about gravy and Toby Jugs, although sadly Matthew does not have any new treats to discuss this week. But there is an excellent Cavern Of Lies hosted by friend of the show Sr Anthony Hopkins. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electron…ames-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: teespring.com/en-GB/stores/rockpapershotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week the Electronic Wireless Show podcast is looking at our favourite hub areas in games, which necessitates a brief discussion as Nate had entirely misunderstood what that meant. That doesn't matter, however, because we still manage to mention at least four video games, and tick off a few boxes on your EWS bingo card. If we're honest, though, this episode ends up being, bizarrely, mostly about philanthropic YouTuber Mr. Beast. I'm not sure how this happened, but it did. There's a Cavern Of Lies about cereal, where my lie is so transparent you could make windows out of it - yet it still fools one of the lads. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-146-the-best-hub-areas-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: https://store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the Electronic Wireless Show podcast finds itself briefly rudderless once more, as skipper Alice heads off to the Realm of Spiders to settle an old score. In her absence, Nate decides it would be fun for Matthew and he to play a game called "Sweeten The Deal", which he invented once during a 24-hour layover in an airport. It almost works! 🌐 Read the show notes: http://rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-147-matthew-and-nates-half-arsed-gameshow-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we are struggling with the heat. Yes, I understand that other places in the world are hot, but right now it is hot where I am and we're not used to it, so we're going to complain about it and you can just live with that. Okay? Because temperature is consuming all our thoughts today is just the best heat in games. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-148-the-best-heat-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the Electronic Wireless Show podcast is all about the best robots in games, which is another one of those topics we might have done before. But we're doing it again because darn it, robots are cool. Obviously, this means we have a short discussion on whether cyborgs count as robots (yes, probably, but not in all circumstances). As well as what I feel is actually a very productive chat about robots this week, we also talk about Miles Jupp and his thousands of children, Thomas The Tank Engine, and Matthew does a truly stunning Cavern Of Lies themed around Ace Attorney. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-149-the-best-robots-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we discuss our favourite weapons, which I was reasonably sure we hadn't done before but as we started recording I lost that confidence... Today is a healthy mix of nonsense and actual sense, as we do chat seriously about weapons and what, for example, having a very silly gun brings to a game brand. On the nonsense side, we discuss what our weapons would be in Boyfriend Dungeon (please sent fanart of Nate the Ashtray), learn more about Matthew's tragic childhood, and have a Cavern Of Lies hosted by friend of the show Anthony Hopkins, featuring enemy of the show Ed Harris 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-150-the-best-weapons-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Electronic Wireless Show podcast you see us trudging back and forth over a field, grimly trying to locate the little bit of rock or feather that our map tells us is right here, dammit. Yes, we're all about the best collectibles in games this week - which, it turns out, is a pretty short list, so we have some meaty discussion of whether they actually are good, and if so, how? Digressions get off to a good start with Matthew's adoption of the Lego Stud as a name, which makes him sound like a hot LEGO minifig, leading us to wonder what it would be like if we were all just shadows conjured by Nate's subconscious. Truly beastly. Plus: a Cavern Of Lies giftshop disrupted by the Eds, dastardly foes of the show. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-151-the-best-collectibles-in-games 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Matthew is away doing other things - how dare he! But Alice and Nate are here with another episode of Sweeten The Deal, featuring travelling around the world on a raft with Geoff Keighley, and every live games event being a Psychonauts-style level about your subconscious. How sweet would those deals need to be for you to say yes? 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-152-another-nightmarish-gameshow-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Electronic Wireless Show podcast is playing with a full hand today, as Matthew rejoins us! Inspired by the reveal of new games like theme park sim Park Beyond, which uses a resource currently earmarked as Amazement, and Strange Horticulture's Will To Explore, episode 153 is all about weird currencies and resources in games. We do have a decent discussion about games, and what constitutes a resource (answer: possibly everything). But because Matthew is back, we grill him about how much ice cream he at at a wedding, and also discuss what mineral we would most like to keep in a vault in our home in place of gold. Unfortunately, a lot of time is taken up by making fun of Matthew for not using salt, like, at all, but there is a decent Cavern of Lies that's all about the most expensive digital things people have bought with real money. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-153-the-best-weird-currencies-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With an unseasonal theme this week, the Electronic Wireless Show podcast is about our favourite seasonal updates in games. You know, where they make it all snowy or put pumpkins everywhere. That kind of thing. The podcast is substantially derailed, however, when we start cyberbullying Matthew about food yet again, and also discuss what the seasonal spirit of The Summer Of Games would look like if personified (like how Easter gets the Easter Bunny). In the mix this week we also learn about how Matthew wasn't allowed to watch any Australian Television as a child in case he started talking like an Aussie, and there is a special Matthew-centric Cavern Of Lies for everyone to enjoy. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-154-the-best-seasonal-updates-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We here at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast have done an episode about puzzles before, but Matthew and I just love puzzles a whole lot. We're talking about our favourite puzzle, as well, not puzzle game. This means that nate can bring up games about orcs, or whatever, that also happen to have a puzzle in them somewhere. Also yes, I got the number of the podcast wrong again, I know I keep doing this, let's just all move on together. What is a surprise is that we don't really need to spend ages arguing over what the definition of a puzzle is, which I think shows personal growth. Well done us! Asides this week include what role Matthew you fill on the team in a heist movie, Nate vs. Rufus Hound, and what the hell is the Riddler's whole deal about, anyway? Also: please give us creative control of all major IPs in cinema and games, so we can remake them to be about the drink Rio Tropical. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-155-the-best-puzzles-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The recording of this episode of The Electronic Wireless Show podcast turned out to be unfortunately cursed with technical issues, which means I am (probably noticeably) tired and grumpy, and don't let Matthew and Nate reproduce their witty banter from the first time we tried to record. No cold open! Still, nothing to cheer me up like some good bedside manner from a doctor. Oh no, it turns out all game doctors are awful! We discuss our favourite game medical types, and also discuss why doctors in games are so often evil baddies. The saga of Matthew and his teeth continues, as well as envisioning Matthew as a clown who just turns up to your kids birthday party smeared in his wife's lipstick, drinks all your Fanta, and leaves again. Now that's malpractice. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-156-the-best-doctors-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on The Electronic Wireless Show podcast I was inspired by the extremely cute little monsters the Rot, who are you besties in Kena: Bridge Of Spirits, to ask Matthew and Nate about their favourite animal companions in video games. You will probably be able to predict some of their answers. Others, not so much. A big digression about trains and commuter rage this week, as well as a shocking update from Matthew re. the farewell fizzy drink tour. But most exciting is that the Cavern Of Lies is replaced this week by a Cavern Of Announcements! Yes, we have very special news indeed, and you have to listen to at least two thirds of the podcast to find out what it is. But it is genuinely incredible. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-episode-157-the-best-animal-companions-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In honour of the new DLC for Outer Wilds, this week on The Electronic Wireless Show Podcast we're discussing our favourite spaceships in games. In the process, while we do discuss some games, there is quite a lot of chat about the origin of the spaceship as 'space-house' - the hub area where all your pals hang out - both in games and in wider space media. Also, Nate has a great Cavern Of Lies that is Star Wars-themed, and does indeed give us a terrible fright. Digressions this week are a big discussion on Matthew's tooth situation, and a semi-argument about what planetary circumstances would be enough for me to agree to go into space (e.g. planet covered in really nice soup). Also: is Elon Musk's divorce the origin story for Warhammer 40k? 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-158-the-best-spaceships-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew once again has the temerity to be away, so this week Nate and I play another round of Sweeten The Deal (per a vote in the podcast Discord), in which, as Nate says, we both lose. On the upside, since this is the third game of Sweeten The Deal that we've played, we are both developing very distinct, high-level playstyles and also a theme song for it. It does mean there isn't a whole lot of game chat this week, although we do discuss the very important developments in the case of The Zodiac Killer, as well as a very special Cavern Of Announcements. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-episode-159-deal-sweeten-with-a-vengeance 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week the Electronic Wireless Show podcast is going the place you can always go when you're alone and life is making you lonely. That's right: down town! We're talking about our favourite cities in games, although we spend a lot of time talking about city builders even though we decide they probably don't meet the brief. Surprisingly, though, we talk about games so much this week that we run out of time to do a Cavern Of Lies! Even though I had actually prepared one! Unprecedented scenes. Don't worry, though, because there are plenty of diversions this week too, including Nate's unwise excursion into green milk, and Matthew eating something he shouldn't ought to have ate. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-episode-160-the-best-cities-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It occurs to me now that "best songs" is probably not a great topic for the podcast, given that we do not perform any of the songs, or put them in the show. But on this week's episode of The Electronic Wireless show, we talk about our favourite songs from games real good. Plus, we are joined by Randy Newman, who sounds a surprising amount like Matthew Castle. Matthew himself has a new awkward food related story to share, Nate has been watching Squid Game, and a listener has sent in a very special musical theme for Sweeten The Deal! 🌐 Read the show notes: wwww.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-161-the-best-songs-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey podcast fans. Mum’s away this week, which means the inmates have taken over the asylum once again. The temptation was to play another round of Sweeten The Deal, but instead Nate and I were good little podcast boys and delivered a surprisingly on point discussion of our favourite videogame adaptations of literary works. Well, I say ‘on point’; there’s a fair amount of discussion of new Dune, too, which is what got us thinking about successful book to screen journeys. Sadly, the House Atreides bagpipe band were not available for a rousing rendition of the podcast theme. There’s also a micro Cavern of Lies in which things get biblical. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-162-the-best-literary-adaptations-in-games-special-1 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: http://store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: http://discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm once again back, and I'm badder than ever! To mark my triumphant return to the Electronic Wireless Show podcast, I (Alice) suggested we talk about our favourite non-game celebrity appearances in games. Not because I'm very famous and important, although I am, but because I wanted to spend some time making fun of Chris Pratt. In the end, though, we don't talk much about Chris Pratt, partly because we are so very excited to be joined on the pod by 'Bath's Nic Cage', and discuss the time he turned on Bath's Christmas lights, and partly because we do talk about a lot of games this week. I hope you're all proud of us. We're showing personal growth. Digressions this week include Harrods, a lot about Garfield, and Nate doing fat rips on his vape. 🌐 Read the show notes: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-163-the-best-celebrities-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: http://store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: http://discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I can't remember why I picked this theme, but for this episode of The Electronic Wireless Show podcast I wanted to talk about AI characters - as in, characters that are, in game, an artificial intelligence of some kind. This definition does cause some trouble. After all, is not every character in a game that isn't player controlled an AI character, fn fn fn? No, because you all know what I mean and so does Nate. Matthew doesn't, know, and had prepared a list of just, companion characters. Don't worry, he actually pulls out some really good examples. We talk about a lot of games this week, not least because I didn't prepare a Cavern Of Lies again. Sorry. There is also a lot of talk about clones, and what Matthew would do with clones of himself (e.g. shove them out of an airlock). 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-episode-164-the-best-ai-characters-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, based almost entirely on the fact that we have been enjoying Rio Tropicale (other fizzy drinks are available) the Electronic Wireless Show podcast is doing an episode all about our favourite drinks in games! We didn't think we'd manage to get a whole show out of it, but boy did we. Also tune in to learn about Matthew's new (and extremely one-sided) rivalry with an Olympic swimmer, a cavern of lies featuring bar tender Ed Harris, and a digression so self-indulgent we talk about how self-indulgent we are, and decide that it is a good thing. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-165-the-best-drinks-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let me start out by immediately apologising to our podcast editor Alix for the fact that this best cars in games episode of The Electronic Wireless Show Podcast does not mention the Regalia from Final Fantasy XV. Mea culpa. But that glaring mistake aside, we do have a bit of a chat about Forza Horizon 5, and other good cars in games and car games in general. We also have a very good Cyberpunk-themed Cavern Of Lies courtesy of Matthew, who has no updates on his Olympic feud this week, but does reveal (during a long digression about whether or not we, personally, can drive) that it took him nine goes to pass his driving test. Nine honestly seems a bit excessive. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-166-the-best-cars-in-games 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm not normally a fan of children in games because, as noted in this episode of the Electronic Wireless Show podcast, they get into the uncanny valley pretty quickly. But it's the season to be jolly, so we're talking about the times we thing kids in games are actually really good. We do end up going on quite a lot of tangents, notably one on which Warhammer faction Matthew would play, and of course we ask Matthew for his thoughts on Mr. Beast's Squid Game. This week's Cavern Of Lies is in Nate's control, which means he takes us to Dwarf Fortress, with predictable results. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-167-the-best-children-in-games-special 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

God rest ye merry listener, let nothing you dismay - for today, for one night only, the EWS Podcast wrestling promotion rolls into your town for a show stopping tag team match. Each of your pod hosts fields a three-game tag team of our favourite games of the year, and fields them in a spectacular(ly described) ladder match. The victor will claim the GOTY In The Bank briefcase and win the chance to compete next year as well. Before we get to that, though, we must first discuss (at length) whether 200 t-shirts is a lot of t-shirts, what Nate is having for his Christmas dinner, what kind of cop duo would be named Halloumi & Date, and also what our favourite Christmas songs are. Nate also does a really good Mankind pun. 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-electronic-wireless-show-podcast-episode-168-bah-gawd-thats-the-christmas-special-2021s-music 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy 2022! New year, same old us. The Electronic Wireless Show Podcast will make no effort to change or better ourselves; this is our promise to you, listener. For our first episode of the new year we're doing the traditional "what games are we most looking forwards to" episode. Yes, our most anticipated games. There is very little crossover, and lots of orc chat. Before that, though, we're lucky enough to have scored an interview with the "It's me, Blorko" guy. Yes, we have the man who came up with this winter's most fashionable Marvel-based viral tweet, live and on the podcast (I mean, technically he is on the podcast every week but this week we ask him about the Blorko thing for like 20 minutes). 🌐 Read the show notes: www.rockpapershotgun.com/ews-podcast-episode-169-our-most-anticipated-games-of-2022 🛒 Buy some RPS merch: store.reedpop.com/collections/rock-paper-shotgun 💬 Join the RPS Discord: discord.gg/rockpapershotgun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There was a small recording blip at the start of this week's podcast, but apart from the opening banter we've got a great episode this week. We open an estate agent to appraise the houses in games that would actually be good to live in. It turns out there aren't that many. Not a lot of them would be convenient. There's an excellent Cavern Of Lies this week, in which Nate hosts a game-themed episode of Through The Keyhole in character as Lloyd Grossman/a robot version of Matt Berry. We also have some great diversions, and some opening chat about the time my friend was a real life suspect in a murder for a few days. Plus: Matthew had an unpleasant experience watching House Of Gucci. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices