Electronic Wireless Show

Let's chat magic in games! What are our favourite spells? Should magic be chaotic? Or should it be arranged in an orderly tome? Alice likes the competing forces of technology and magic in Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, while Matthew tells us about a Japanese import of Ni No Kuni on Nintendo DS which came with a real spellbook. But we’ve been playing stuff too. Alice has been shouting a...

Non-player characters! Whether they’re annoying companions, side characters, or disembodied human heads, let’s talk about some of our favourites. John likes nice people, like Nicole Collard from Broken Sword, or Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2. Brendan likes the plucky passport forger in Papers Please who won’t take no for an answer. And Alice wants to carry around Murray the skull from Curse of Monke...

Welcome to Soundbyte, an audio mini-series that explores topics in the games industry. In our first episode, Astrid Johnson talks us through unionisation in the games industry. She speaks to Doug Cockle, aka Geralt of Rivia, about his negative experiences in the recording booth, and ‘Emma’ from Game Workers Unite, who explains the challenges of unionising. On top of that, we hear from two worker-o...

Let's talk about the naughty games we weren’t allowed to play as youngsters (but did anyway). Alice suffered strict rationing of The Sims 2, and Dave was scolded about Silent Hill. Although, Brendan’s parents didn’t seem to care about GTA 2. And we’re still sneaking games today. Alice has been kidnapping policemen in Cultist Simulator, while Dave has been scurrying around in Ghost of a Tale. Also,...

E3 is over, but that won’t stop us. We pick out our favourite games and oddest moments from the LA show. But we’re also introducing two new voices this week: Alice Bell and Noa Smith. Alice is excited for Ashen and enjoyed Andrew WK’s performance at Bethesda’s press event. Noa is looking forward to Beyond Good and Evil 2, but also the smiling veggies of Ooblets. And Brendan tells the story of how...

E3 is coming! So here are some of our predictions, hopes and fears for this year’s dreaded multimedia assault on the nervous system. Alec is dreaming of XCOM sequel news but is more realistically expecting Spelunky 2 or Prey’s moon expansion. And Brendan wants a Elder Scrolls teaser, but might have to settle for Fallout 76. Alec has also been playing Vampyr, the bloodsucking RPG. Links: All our E3...

Let's talk about the shooters we love in particular, following our recent list of the top 50 first-person shooters. Matt loves the backstabbing spy of Team Fortress 2. John adores Dark Forces and immersive sims like Prey. And Brendan has been playing Unreal Gold, which celebrates its 20th birthday this week. Also, we’ve got another patch notes quiz, this time focusing on shooters. Which “Turkey wa...

This week's topic: character creation! Matthew makes his debut on the podcast and tells us he always creates the same persona – a silver-haired man with a pencil moustache called “Mr Basil Pesto”. Terrifying. Meanwhile, Brendan makes poetic orcs or misshapen monsters. We’ve also had time to play things. Matthew is pottering through the first Pillars of Eternity and Brendan is scavenging through th...

We’re going full Dad this week, talking about the games we play with our children. Alec’s daughter is excited by the characters of Rayman Legends (and is strangely fascinated by Battletech). John’s son likes to watch his dad diving in Abzu and Subnautica. Brendan doesn’t have children, only a cat. She can’t stand videogames and thinks they are a waste of time. Thank you to listeners Jon and Andy f...

Let's talk about freezing cold city-builder Frostpunk. Katharine lost a third of her people when she forgot to turn the heat on, while Brendan dug up his society’s dead. Matt is horrified by these tales, but soon proves he’s just as horrible in our Frostpunk “ethical dilemma quiz”. We’ve been playing other games too. Matt has been sneaking around in Murderous Pursuits. And Katharine has been hoppi...

This week we're chatting about our favourite robots. Alec likes the robo-ostrich from World of Warcraft. Brendan is fond of the abandoned bots of Hackmud. And John loves little BUD of Grow Home because of his wobbly walking animations. Speaking of bi-pedal machines, Alec has also been stomping around in strategy mech-clicker Battletech. John has been fighting a witch in The Swords of Ditto. While...

Astrid Johnson takes us through the halls of London game show EGX Rezzed, on a search for oddities like Stereopolis, a game projected onto a disc of frosted glass, or Wobble Garden, which is played entirely by twanging a bunch of springy door stoppers. It's an overview of the show for all those who couldn't make it. We also learn about the plane tinkering of Above, two-player sausage-dog cooperati...

We're talking about how being a critic changes the way you play. Don’t blame us, blame listener Aleksei, who sent in the theme as a suggestion. But please also forgive Adam, because it’s his last week on the podcast. Adam says he’s been forced to play things he otherwise wouldn’t, and ended up loving Euro Truck Simulator 2 as a result. Matt says he sometimes now worries if he should be playing For...

Last week we talked about good games with rubbish tales. This week, it's the reverse - great stories with bad games attached to them. John thinks Dreamfall had an moving story about faith, alongside an awful 3D adventure interface. Katharine hates looking at the wall in Soma because the underwater robo-facility is so intriguing. And Brendan is sad that Pyre had a fiddly netball game attached to it...

It's a common problem. A good videogame let down by a terrible story - whther that's cheesy dialogue, dull characters, nonsensical plot. Try harder or let us go back to shooting the things. Alec is semi-suffering through Far Cry 5, adoring the woodland shootouts between the trite storytelling. Brendan has been riding chocobos in Final Fantasy XV while navigating plot holes the size of a fancy car....

The crew were in San Francisco last week for the Game Developer's Conference, where they spoke to developers and gambled on the results of the annual awards show. Now they’re back to tell you all about their Stateside adventures. Between sessions of Far Cry 5, of course. Adam chatted to Civ IV creator Soren Johnson about his upcoming 4X game. John spoke to Paul Neurath, the creator of Ultima Under...

With the release of Warhammer: Vermintide 2, we decided to celebrate the lovable dirtbag of videogames. The lowly, filthy, wonderful rat. Adam respects the helpful rats of Dishonored, who take the blame for all unusual noises. Matt likes the swag-carrying Loot Rat of Vermintide 2, who scurries away as you pursue it. And Brendan vents his disappointment at the Rat King of Dark Souls 2, who’s just a...

Best pals John and Brendan discuss friendship in videogames. What characters feel like close buddies to them? John felt a kinship with Alistair from Dragon Age: Origins and a lesser attachment to Lydia from Skyrim. Whereas Brendan was habitually close to an undead woman in Dark Souls who sold him poisonous arrows. John also enthuses about animated adventure Chuchel and recommends Ion Maiden, a new...

This week the team is snowed in. So let’s talk about the weather. Blizzards, thunderclouds, sandstorms and, er, night-time? All of it classifies as weather to us if it appears in a game. Adam likes being warm while looking out at the frosty cold in survival game The Long Dark. And Brendan likes the blizzards of Viking strategy game Northgard and the foggy, windless days of sailing sim Sailaway. Jo...

This week the gang are talking JRPGs, or Japanese role-playing games to use words. Does a game have to be made in Japan to be a JRPG? Or does it just need bright colours and turn-based battles? We seek to understand the true meaning of the genre by stumbling over dozens of games and deciding whether or not they’re allowed into the JRPG treehouse. Katharine reckons if it isn’t made in Japan, it can...

We're talking morality. Paragons, renegades, sith, jedi, and everything in between. Matt thinks the decision to reprogram the Geth in Mass Effect 2 is full of complexity. Brendan prefers the moral drudgery of being an Arstotzkan border guard in Papers, Please. Whereas John enjoys being bad in Knights of the Old Republic. We also play a game in which John and Matt are put through the confessionals...

They lurk, they creep, they skulk and weep. This week the team is talking about their favourite monsters in games. Alice reckons you can’t beat a good Dark Souls skeleton. And Katharine tells us about a demon in Okami. Meanwhile, Adam ponders the gameiness of movie monsters like the sex curse of It Follows. But we’ve also been playing monstrous things. Slay the Spire gets more praise from Alice th...

We're talking about remakes, remasters and recurrent nightmares. What would we like to see remade? Katharine wouldn’t mind a spruced up Deus Ex. Brendan thinks a rejigged Assassin’s Creed could work (how perverse). While Adam doesn’t want any of his loves remade, lest they pollute his fond memories (OK, maybe Pathologic 2). However, the real question is what games from today will be remade in the...

The answer is no, by the way. But there are so many examples of bad survival games that it’s important to remember the good ones. Adam wraps himself up in the Long Dark, while Matt gets sea sickness from Subnautica. But it’s not all barbequed pork chop and pointy sticks. Brendan is enjoying card game roguelike Slay the Spire. Adam is climbing a mountain in tough platformer Celeste, and Matt is sec...

We speak to Charlie Cleveland, director on underwater survival game Subnautica about why there are no guns in their game and why "terror" is a better way to describe the depths than "horror". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices