AMD's Ryzen 5000 series CPUs are getting increasingly affordable, with this week bringing rather good prices on the lowest-tier Ryzen 5 5500. This is, to the best of my knowledge, the cheapest Ryzen CPU in the lineup, but still quite a capable chip with power that's roughly equivalent to the old Ryzen 5 3600. This processor normally retails for £110, but today you can pick one up for £88 when you use code BAG20OFF.
Sundays are for crossing off Saturday on your calendar. Before you slash, let's read this week's best writing about games (and game related things).
Internet's exciting this week. Reminds me of being on some video game forum in the early noughties where a moderator absolutely flips their nut and everyone runs around pulling pranks and engaging in tomfoolery, then the bans start flowing. What a weird chaotic energy. Honestly, if there had been any hint of doubt around Elon Musk, he wouldn't have played such a prominent role in my cyberpunk novel about teens saving the world with NFTs. How could I have known, those six long months ago. Wow. Egg on my face. On all our faces.
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is a pretty bleak game, but it’s also really good! It’s set in Depression-era America, a time when many folks were having their assess kicked by the economy and manifest destiny. The game is about these people, specifically travellers and nomads who wander the country in search of answers. Migrant workers, preachers, poets, folk healers, Dustbowl refugees, and even men with wolf’s heads make up this cast, and it’s your job to meet these strangers and collect their stories.
Dave the Diver (character) is a bit out of practice, but he's an easygoing sort and it doesn't take much to convince him to get back in his flippers to look into the local anomaly at the behest of his arms dealer "friend", who would be clearly bad news even if his name wasn't Cobra.
Said anomaly fills with new sea creatures from all over the world every time it's visited, and possibly building-sized terror beasts and ancient merfolk, but Cobra's sure it'll all be fine, so in you go, mate. It's certainly pretty down there if nothing else, and Dave the Diver (game) is, if nothing else, a rare game that makes the usually tedious water level a bit of a treat to wander round in.
Obviously, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe in the pleasurable side of PC hardware. Building a PC (or even just swapping out a component) can be a series of lovely little tactile moments: the peeling-off of plastic wrapping, the K’nex-like click of a graphics card slotting into place, the soft whoosh of the fans on a first successful boot. Great stuff, and of course, that’s all before games start coming out of it. What’s not to like?
Oh, reader, so many things. So many, many things not to like. Gaming PCs are still only computers, after all, and computers break, often and for reasons that may be invisible to the most intensively trained eye. Introduce this volatility to a line of work that involves handling a lot of sometimes heavy, usually expensive equipment, and enjoying those little pleasures will eventually come at a cost. Namely, time spent dealing with arcane troubleshooting practices and the occasional spot of minor personal injury.
Real-time tactics games have had a resurgence over the past five years, and that can be almost entirely credited to Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun. It's a gorgeous Commandos-style stealth-and-stab 'em up set during Edo period Japan. It's also currently free via the Epic Games Store.
It's easy to place Dark Souls 2 in your crosshairs and take aim at its differences. Its map doesn't intertwine like Dark Souls 1 or 3. Lots of bosses do that thing where they summon in some mates and it's quite annoying. The atmosphere lacked that magic glaze. And yet, its quirks and frustrations make it one of my favourites.
I toyed around with this intro a lot, because I didn’t want to start with a super pessimistic bang. But, for lack of a nicer way to put it, I’ll simply say things are looking pretty scary out there, huh? Capitalism is failing, the economy is crumbling, and normal people have nothing left to give. It’s something I've been thinking about a lot lately, but I don’t really talk about it. I keep it all inside, like a microwave holding a ball of tin foil while it spins on full power.
At least, that was the case until I played Citizen Sleeper. It’s a rather simple RPG inspired by tabletop roleplaying games, giving you a limited number of action dice that you can spend each day to receive consequences. Mechanically, it doesn’t stretch much further than those actions and consequences, meaning I can instead focus on connecting with characters. In its simplicity, I found a cathartic way to process my thoughts on lots of scary stuff happening in our actual world. I also realised that Starfield, the big space game looming on the horizon which I was previously pretty excited about, just doesn’t seem appealing anymore.
You know who's cool? You, obviously, for listening to the Electronic Wireless Show podcast. This week we're talking about games that make us feel like proper cool people, just like you - who, I emphasise again, are a very cool person. Matthew is not cool enough to be here this week, but I am joined by Nate, who is the king of cool (and crabs).
There's a Cavern Of Lies to test Nate's coolness, and we check in with Henry "The Vit" Cavill, but first, of course, we must litigate the different kinds of cool we feel, what counts as cool, and which games make us feel the coolest.