The Electronic Wireless Show podcast S2 Episode 17: a brief history of everything that ever ran Doom

This week, inspired by Doom running on teletext, the Electronic Wireless Show podcast investigates: what other devices, mechanisms, or live animals can join the immortal shooter’s vast empire of unlikely ports? Despite not even being on the show this week, Alice Bee 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. Capitalised for terrible, terrible emphasis.

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Gris devs reveal beautiful puzzle-platformer Neva, out 2024

I’m a sucker for any game with a gorgeous art style, so guess which announcement caught my eye at last night’s PlayStation Showcase. Neva is a new puzzle platformer from the creators of Gris that tells the story of a red-capped swordswoman named Alba and her faithful wolf pup as they “embark on a perilous journey through a once beautiful world as it slowly decays around them.” That’s not much to go on, but feast your eyes on the stunning animated trailer below. It’s a looker.

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Towers Of Aghasba has all the settlement-building and flying whales you could hope for

My happiness comes at a small price: give me a paraglider that I can whip out at any second and a strangely beautiful open world, and there you go, I’m a happy bunny. It’s the Zelda formula. Or the Tchia formula. Or the Just Cause formula. Either way, it’s good fun. That’s why Towers Of Aghasba caught my eye when it debuted a stunning trailer at last night’s PlayStation Showcase, offering a glimpse at an alien open world and some settlement-building.

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Sword Of The Sea is a gorgeous new desert-surfing adventure from the devs behind Abzu and Journey

If you loved Journey‘s shimmering deserts and fluid sand-surfing, then let me draw your attention to the newly announced Sword Of The Sea. Revealed during Sony’s PlayStation Showcase, Sword Of The Sea comes from Giant Squid Studio, the folks behind 2016’s Abzû and 2020’s The Pathless, and sees you play as The Wraith, a lone explorer on a quest to restore submerged cities that have been buried beneath a sea of golden dunes. You’re able to slickly travel across the sandy terrain thanks to a rad-as-heck hoversword, a traversal tool that’s described on the PlayStation blog as a “snowboard, skateboard, and hoverboard all in one.” You can witness some major sand-shredding and see what else Sword Of The Sea has in store by watching the lavish announcement trailer below.

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Phantom Blade Zero is a kung-fu punk Soulslike with surprising mobile origins

I see a game that looks anything remotely Soulslikey and I perk up, it’s like a fight or flight response only I’m not fighting or flying, I’m just staring at a video game trailer in some sweatpants with my fingers curled into a Cadbury’s Milk Tray. Hence why Phantom Blade Zero has perked me up to no end, as it’s an action RPG announced at last night’s PlayStation Showcase which marries Chinese martial arts with a steampunk aesthetic. I’m on board, if cautious! The action seems rad, but it’s so fast, it’s hard to tell how it actually plays.

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Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time remake is now in the “early stage” of development

Ubisoft’s Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time remake seems to be rewinding the clock on production since the game is still in the “conception” stage of development. The remake was originally supposed to come out four months after its reveal in 2021, tripped into 2022, and was then delayed indefinitely after switching developers. Essentially, this sounds like a Benjamin Button situation.

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DLSS 3 is The Lord of the Rings: Gollum’s biggest and perhaps only success

I didn’t get as deep into The Lord of the Rings: Gollum as our reviewist Rachel, but I do share her view that it is not A Good Game. In fact, I’ve had about as much fun with it as I would on a spa day in the Barad-dûr sulfur pits. Between the soulless platforming, undercooked stealth, tedious storytelling, and framerate stuttering so bad it’s got me killed twice, Gollum is perilously short on likeable qualities. Especially if you’re not into LOTR lore, or fine hattery.

In my unclad head, then, Gollum’s highlight so far has been DLSS 3. It’s one of just a few dozen games to support the newest, most artificially intelligent version of Nvidia’s deep learning-powered upscaler, and frankly makes a very compelling argument for switching it on. Graphics card allowing, obviously.

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The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum review: I hates it

I don’t like being mean about games, but I do like being honest about games, and, yeesh, is The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum putting me between a rock and a hard place. The bottom line here, folks, is that Gollum is not good. Just as the ring corrupted Sméagol, playing Gollum has made me a husk of a human being, a twisted and bitter shadow of what I used to be. Playing it for more than 30-minutes at a time would make me feel unsettled, prompting some kind of feral need to scoop my brain out of my skull.

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Cyber-ninja slasher Ghostrunner 2 debuts first trailer and a speedy new motorbike

Ghostrunner’s mix of wall-running and ninja-slashing made enough of a splash to warrant a sequel. Ghostrunner 2 was first teased two years ago, but tonight’s PlayStation Showcase gave us our first proper look at the follow-up. It has all the slicing, dodging, and parkour that you would expect from a sequel about a cyberpunk ninja, but this time some speedy vehicles join the party too.

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