Following our Halloween special last week, The Electronic Wireless Show podcast today moves away from the monstrous to the relatable (which in our case does not preclude monstrosity). We talk about the characters that we relate to most, and also I find a way to mention Saturnalia again. Tune in next week to see if I can keep up my streak!

Matthew being away this week means that Nate takes on the role of the anti-Matthew, and we speculate about which games we think Matthew would probably find relatable. For myself and Nate the themes include sadness and drudgery. But there's good news, because Nate has remembered to make me a Cavern Of Lies this week! Hooray!

Read more

Gaming mice love a Black Friday sale, they do. Every November there’s a glut of discounted peripherals, and not just the sad plastic lumps that retailers won’t be able to sell otherwise – we’re talking real quality desk rats. This guide to the best early Black Friday gaming mouse deals confirms as much, as even with the big day itself not until the 25th, loads of new and old favourites are available with substantial savings.

Read more

I've been playing an awful lot of Overwatch 2 recently. As you'll know if you've played either of Blizzard's near-identical hero shooters, Overwatch 2 lets you queue up for a match as a particular hero role, which ensures balanced team compositions but also can mean a wait of several minutes before you get into a match. Cue me scouring my Steam Library a few days ago for a quick little time-waster to fill those gaps. And after a few failed attempts, I discovered it. Or, more accurately, rediscovered it.

Read more

When it comes to DDR4 RAM, the market has decided that 3200MT/s CL16 is the perfect spec: noticeably faster than early DDR4-2133, 2400 and 2666, while being significantly cheaper than higher-end 3400, 3600 and 4000 kits. Normally you'd expect to pay around £60 for a 16GB dual-channel kit of DDR4 RAM hitting this spec, but today you can get a Kingston Fury Beast 16GB kit for just £48.64 at CCL in the UK.

Read more

The Radeon RX 6900 XT has continued to go down in price, and now we've reached a new low-water mark: £700. That's £50 below the last time we wrote up an RX 6900 XT, and some £300 below its UK price in Great British Pounds.

Read more

Last time, you decided that parrying projectiles is better than a customisable horn honk, and I wholly agree. I adore my collections of GTA clown cars but it's no match. This week, we must choose between two slightly wistful things, one that's come and gone and one that's confined to a single game. And, ah, I cannot deny having been influenced by last week's vote for one of these options. What's better: feelies, or RULES OF NATURE? Vote now!

Read more

Because I have. Maybe too much. 2816.6 hours of Dota 2, according to Steam, and that doesn’t count the days I’ve spent flying out to watch more talented people play it in arenas. It’s easy to get lost in, is Dota, and not just in the bad ways – even after a series of crap matches, it’s so easy to sink further into its incredible depth, its neverending wizard fight nuances, that it could be hour number 2820 before coming back up for air.

Read more

Without a doubt, Elden Ring has spent hours of this year floating around my mind, like a parasitic gargoyle making a nest out of my stringy brain matter. Many of my thoughts on Elden Ring have been positive, as I'm still awestruck by the quality and scope of its open world (among many other things). But I admitted I'd reached my exhaustion point, which abated briefly, then came back with full force by the end.

Honestly, as much as I admire the game and its brilliance, I reckon it might be a bit too much for me. And as FromSoftware set the Soulslike standard, I find myself hoping that future Soulslikes don't get too caught up in trying to mimick Elden Ring.

Read more

I’ll confess to mostly being a dyed-in-the-wool desktop kind of guy, but there have been times when I’ve needed something more portable – and with more traditionally PC-esque inputs than the Steam Deck. If you’re thinking of picking up a notebook yourself, good timing: the best early Black Friday gaming laptop deals cover a nicely varied range of price points and specs combinations.

Read more

Look, everyone needs a flash drive. These things used to be the new hotness, back before email and cloud storage made them a bit irrelevant, but it's still jolly useful to have one on hand to install (or recover) an OS, play (legally) downloaded videos on your TV or just bring your presentation in without worrying about something going wrong.

So: the SanDisk 32GB Ultra Flair flash drive is down to £5 on Amazon after a ~40% discount. If you've not got a good, fast USB drive, then why not pick this one up while it's on sale?

Read more