Electronic Wireless Show

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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, 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