Extreme Gaming Podcast

What turns competitive gaming into an arena-filling spectacle? Gray, Trev and Hans welcome James Woollard, BLAST’s VP of Destinations and Market Development, for a look behind the scenes of global esports. From Counter-Strike and Fortnite to Rocket League, James explains the fans, production, prize money and business behind the tournaments. The crew also asks about older competitors, standardized hardware, competitive integrity and AI’s role in live events.

Trev shares his first impressions of Gears of War: E-Day and the Disbond zombie-shooter playtest, with strong opinions on movement, storytelling and multiplayer design.

Then it’s back to the hardware headache: soaring GPU prices, conflicting RTX 5080 rumors and whether AI demand is pushing gaming upgrades out of reach. Xbox’s strategy, Game Pass value, industry job cuts and multiplayer possibilities for Cyberpunk’s sequel keep the discussion rolling.

A reported French download-tax proposal and Sam Altman’s reported comments about PC memory spark lively debates. There’s also GTA 6’s South Park appearance, Destiny’s vaulted content, retro computing and the free Star Wars fan project Fate of the Galaxy.

Finally, “The Games That Never Were” trivia revisits three canceled projects—with questionable guesses and the usual EGP banter.

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Gray, Trev and Hans reflect on BioWare’s legacy following news of its closure, revisiting classics including Baldur’s Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age and Mass Effect. The leaked Mass Effect Universe trailer adds another question: could someone rescue the franchise?

Cyberpunk 2077’s latest update gives the crew reasons to revisit Night City, while AI in game development sparks a debate about transparency, Steam and Epic. Next-generation console pricing rumors raise eyebrows, and Black Flag Resynced’s New Game Plus announcement leads to some hard-earned advice about protecting your saves.

Could Trev sell his RTX 5090 and replace his desktop with a gaming laptop? Hans shares his experience as they weigh performance, portability, cooling and ultrawide monitors.

Elsewhere, the crew discusses Blu-ray’s future, AI film restoration, Switch 2 jailbreak reports, fresh Half-Life speculation and experimental Steam gaming on PS5. RTX Remix, Golden Joystick nominees and EGP Hot Shots round out the news before three BioWare trivia questions—with the usual tangents along the way.

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Gray, Trev and Hans tackle GTA 6 PC release rumors, the growing influence of AI-assisted modding, and what rising hardware costs could mean for PlayStation 6 and the next Xbox. Steam’s new Achievement Sets also spark a debate: are achievements worth chasing if there’s nothing useful to earn?

Could Trev cash in on his RTX 5090 and still enjoy his enormous gaming setup with a cheaper card? The crew weighs performance, inflated resale prices and the risks of taking AI hardware advice at face value.

Gray explores leaked Assassin’s Creed Destiny footage and the surprisingly large audience of older gamers. Hans then shares his impressions of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse—covering its demanding platforming, customizable difficulty and how it compares with the classics.

There’s also a Fanatical bundle, Epic’s reported AI-assisted launcher overhaul, collector’s boxes without games, and Xbox upscaling news. Hot Shots brings more NVIDIA and gaming updates before a Witcher 3 graphics mod and three Valve/Steam trivia questions round out the show—with the usual tangents along the way.

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Gray, Trev and Hans return with classic Doom getting a DLSS 5 makeover—and another debate over whether to embrace graphics mods or wait for official support. There’s also a reported GTA V browser experiment, Xbox Elite Series 3 controller rumors, and some strong opinions about batteries and vibrating headsets.

Rising PS5 Pro prices and falling console sales spark a discussion about GTA 6, hardware shortages and the cost of gaming. Denuvo’s efforts to identify cracker Voices38 bring DRM, performance and privacy into the conversation.

Hot Shots covers Squadron 42, seamless Starfield landings, Steam’s shift toward 32GB RAM and an Atari comeback. Elsewhere, the crew discusses Cyberpunk’s movie plans, AI game creation, AMD’s next GPU rumors and Nintendo’s commitment to physical games.

RTX 5090 production rumors lead into expensive PC setups, local AI and whether we really need the hardware we buy. Pimax’s proposed SteamOS-ready PC rounds out the news before four true/false questions on AI and modding put Trev’s trivia reputation under pressure again.

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Gray, Trev and Hans return with arcade nostalgia, graphics experiments and another lively debate about PlayStation. House of the Dead’s new arcade plans lead into PS5 upscaling, jailbreaks and emulation—and speculation about what that could mean for GTA 6 on PC.

Gray finally tries DLSS 5 Swapper in Assassin’s Creed Shadows and discovers why Hans keeps talking about it. The crew also explores Borderless Gaming’s neural-rendering experiment, a modder’s attempt to tackle overheating GPU connectors, and whether a great OLED screen matters more than resolution.

Elsewhere, it’s Disney and Epic acquisition rumours, a possible Uncharted return, Sony’s lengthy development cycles, and reports of RTX 5090 purchase paperwork. Resident Evil remake rumours spark a discussion about Capcom using AI to speed up development while expanding its workforce.

China’s elaborate gaming cafés offer food, private rooms and plenty of opportunities for the conversation to go off the rails. An expensive porcelain Sonic statue then sets the stage for three Sonic trivia questions—and some bruised gaming credentials.

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Gray, Trev, and Hans tackle next-generation console rumours, Xbox’s studio shake-ups, and GTA 6’s expanding world—including a pricey merchandise collection that somehow forgets the game.

The Witcher 3 remaster takes centre stage, with discussion of path tracing, accessibility improvements, and whether unofficial DLSS 5 mods make an already beautiful game worth replaying. Hans has now tested DLSS 5 across roughly 70 games, while another modder has squeezed neural rendering into a web browser.

The crew also debates PS5 jailbreaks, emulation, physical media, and Meta’s ambitious VR glasses. Elsewhere, it’s Starfield’s uncertain sequel prospects, Microsoft’s in-game advertising patent, Fallout 76’s roadmap, AI-assisted graphics development, and The Division 2’s proposed crossplay rollout and new expansion.

God of War’s Faye adventure rounds out the news before Witcher trivia produces questionable pronunciation and a disputed answer. Naturally. It’s another packed episode of gaming news, hardware frustration, enthusiastic PC tinkering and a healthy dose of fun.

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Episode 350 brings the full EGP crew together for a packed milestone show. Bungie promises to restore vaulted Destiny 2 content, prompting discussion about rebuilding trust, Destiny 3 and whether Marathon should survive. The team also examines War Dogs’ unexpected success, rising PC hardware costs, Xbox restructuring, Game Pass cloud limits and the eye-watering price of Valve’s Steam Frame.

The Hot Shots include unofficial DLSS 5 experiments, RTX 60-series delays and PlayStation 6 rumours. Matt samples Road Diner Simulator before exploring The Commission, an ambitious GTA V roleplay project that drags Los Santos back to 1975. Hans somehow finds a Switch 2 for €150, while GTA 6 multiplayer and its enormous soundtrack enter the rumour mill.

Finally, it’s Gears of War: E-Day PC specs, a strangely scented RTX 5070 and three increasingly difficult Gears trivia questions. Just another perfectly normal episode, lol.

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DLSS 5 takes center stage as Gray, Trev, and Hans examine the rapidly expanding world of unofficial neural-rendering mods. They compare DLSS 5 Autopilot, Swapper, Neural Upstream, frame generation, performance costs, slider controls, and Hans’ experiences testing the technology across dozens of games.

The crew also discusses Sony’s argument that digital purchases are licenses rather than ownership, GTA 6 boosting console sales, Nintendo finally adding docked VRR to Switch 2, and the approach of Valheim 1.0. Plus: The Witcher 3’s free path-tracing upgrade, EA’s leaked Iron Man footage, outrageous RTX 5090 prices, the Ocarina of Time remake, Xbox rescuing Kojima’s PHYSINT, NVIDIA Pair turning home PCs into a local AI cluster, and Blizzard announcing a StarCraft shooter and Diablo V years in advance.

It’s another packed episode of gaming news, hardware frustration, questionable business decisions, enthusiastic PC tinkering and a healthy dose of fun.

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EGP 348 brings Gray, Hans and Matt together for PlayStation disappointment, DLSS 5 experimentation, indie game reviews and a deep dive into gaming laptops.

The crew reacts to Sony’s latest State of Play, debates PlayStation exclusives, digital ownership and whether clicking “Buy” should actually mean you own your game. Then DLSS 5 takes center stage as Hans shares his own testing, while the guys discuss huge performance penalties, VRAM usage, user-controlled neural-rendering sliders, DLSS 5 Swapper, OptiScaler improvements and modders repeatedly unlocking features Nvidia would rather keep restricted.

Matt gives first impressions of the military sandbox War Dogs before reviewing the wonderfully strange zombie-and-alien survival game Beat Survival. Hans finally delivers his long-awaited desktop-vs-gaming-laptop comparison, including performance, noise, cooling and whether high-end laptops have become legitimate desktop replacements.

The show closes with three Nvidia-themed “truth, the whole truth” trivia questions.

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EGP 347 this week is a two-man show with Gray and Hans, and Hans has just returned from Gamescom 2026 with plenty to report. He shares firsthand impressions of the massive crowds, huge booths, cosplay scene, indie areas and his long-awaited hands-on time with the new Castlevania, while Gray digs into the surprise reveal of The Witcher 3 Remastered and everything CD Projekt Red is changing.

The guys also cover Crazy Taxi, Gears of War: E-Day, Star Wars: Zero Company, Age of Empires, retro gaming’s continued resurgence, laptop-heavy hardware booths and the realities of modern PC pricing.

Later, the discussion turns to the massive Valve/Steam archive leak, RTX 5090 performance rumors, repasting an aging RTX 2080 Ti, and the leaked DLSS 5 developer build. Gray and Hans debate whether AI-driven graphics are genuinely transformative, overhyped, or simply inevitable—and why sliders may be the key to making DLSS 5 work.

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