NZXT PODCAST - #101 - Trackballs and Biggie Smalls

Episode Date: August 13, 2021

This week on the podcast we talk about the Steam Deck again because we're just that excited! Tune in live every Thursday at 10AM PT on twitch.tv/NZXT and send your questions to: podcast[@]nzxt.com

Welcome everybody to episode 101 to the NXT Clubcast, the official podcast of the NZXT community. This podcast is recorded live every Thursday at 10-day and specific center time of the official NXT Twitch and is available to stream on demand on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. And probably wherever you find your favorite podcast. I haven't really checked this. That's what everybody says, so I assumed it's on there. But if it's not, let me know, and I'll probably fix it. but I'll probably forget somewhere in that process.

My name is Dennis, and I'm the social media specials here at NZXT. And with me, joining me today, as always, is... Is that my cue? Yes, your cue. That's my point at you. I didn't have the... I sent you the outline. I don't have the video up, so sorry.

Oh. I was talking. Could you not hear me? Yeah. With you as always is me, Ivan. What do you do, Ivan? Looking I'm looking forward to the next 100 episodes man like It's it was cool like I

It was like the first 100 episodes definitely were fun. I just hope that the next 100 We still have fun, but hopefully make make the podcast a little bit better Experience for everyone who's listening and For now people who are watching, you know like a big part of of the change that you want to make going forward is adding videos. So hopefully we can do more fun stuff with videos as time goes on. Yeah, I know.

I agree. I hope that it gets funner and funner as it goes on. Just because, you know, it's a, so the show's about right. I think last episode, it being 100 episodes, was already like a really huge milestone. And then having Pete on was like such a joy. Not to kind of, you know, hark on like, an older episode, right? If you haven't heard the last episode with Pete Hines,

you definitely check it out. NZC Clubcasts everywhere. You listen to your podcast, I guess, right? But it was kind of a milestone for me because, like, we've never had someone that high up in the video game industry who's been around for that long on the show. It's like, you know, it's like you go from having

your, like, coworkers, you know, at, I don't know, you're, like, microbrewery, and then you have, like, the president of a Coca-Cola or something on. It's kind of like that, right? It's kind of like that. The first episode was intern Mike. And the 100th episode was Pete Hine.

But it's like, no offense to intern Mike, but the quality of our guests has definitely been going up over time. I would even say quality. Because see, here's the thing, right? We've had people who have been high up, but the quality of their guesting hasn't been good in a sense of like, not everyone is really good at talking in, like, a podcast format or just like a discussion roundtable interview format, right? And then we've had people who are like are super great conversationalists who you would

never think would be like super good at talking during a podcast, right? And you're just like, man, like that was like, you know, a really, really fun show. Because this person like they came in, they were hot, you know, they were picking up and we were putting down. They were funny or they're just like really introspective. Like, for example, it's like off top of my head. Melody Confetti was like, for some reason I guess instantly thought of Feddy. Wop, I don't know why, but

I don't know why, but Melody Confetti was really, really, it was a really good guess. Just like how she, she knew a lot, right? And the way she, like, the way that she articulated it made sense to me. I was like, I understand exactly what you're saying,

you're super smart person. Yeah. Which, which was great. And, like, but it wasn't just that. She was also just, like, really, like, is super outgoing. You can tell she was, like, speaking with people in almost kind of like a conversational,

but it was like a conversational manner, but also meant for like an audience to listen to, which I think was really, really great. She was a super fun guest to have on. And you can kind of tell, right, with people as in general, you know, like the first five minutes, right? Like, all right, this person is going to be fun, right?

Like I know Pete, like the second we had him on the call, he's like, shit. It's like, what? He's having problems with his mic or something. And we're like, this is going to be a fun podcast. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, like I haven't said, right,

no disrespect to the non good talkerers, you know, everyone's story is worth it. There's just some people who you kind of vibe with a little bit more and you have like a different tone and different kind of like cadence with the podcast, right? Yeah. So yeah. And we do have some

some good guests lined up coming up soon, but today's just going to be you and me. Yeah, yeah, it is. Dennis and Ivan talking tech. Yeah, talking tech. Yeah. Food tech time or something like that. So Ivan, do you want to go into our first topic.

Sure. Because you're the big boy today for the topics. What's up? I said just because you're the one who kind of gathered most of them this week. Yeah. Are you going to share it on the screen? I will as soon as you say it. All right.

So, yeah, the first tech news we want to go over here is Linus Tech Tips posted a review, an very early review. I think it's the only one so far, at least that I've seen. for the Steam deck. And it was a very positive review. His exact words were that it's awesome. And I'm very excited for that, you know. Like I'm one of those people that reserved it.

And I am looking forward to getting my Steam deck and playing games on there. Even though I have a Switch, even though I have a PC, I do think the Steam Deck offers a lot that you can't get from a PC and a Switch. Yeah. And for me personally, you know, like, even though I don't play like a variety of games like you do or a lot of people do, like I really only play like one or two games, like it's super exciting, man. Like I love that that, you know, it's finally happening because it's, it's more than just like a portable gaming console. It's also like a portable computer, you know. So it's cool. I'm excited for the future of it.

I'm glad Linus thought it was awesome. And if you guys have it check out the review, go to his YouTube channel, check it out. I'm excited for it. Yeah, the more and more I hear about this team, the kind of more excited, the more excited I get about it. I don't know if I'm going to be picking one up anytime soon. But I think just overall as like a piece of tech hardware, I think it's, I don't I don't know if I'm, I don't want to say it's, like, innovative, because I feel like devices like this already exist, but I think the way that they're handling it, you know, through, like, the proton platform to kind of run these games and, you know, how it's integrated in through Steam and, you know, all the other back and stuff that that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that's team has already, I think just makes this thing, like, even better.

I'm still, I'm so happy that they still edit in the track pads. Like, I think that if they didn't add these track pads in from the Steam Controller, that there would have been missing something really really special. and also the gyro, right? Having the gyro and the touch pads, track pads, whatever we're going to call them. Yeah. I think we're really elevate the same. Having a gyro and the track pads

is actually going to help you play FPS games. Yeah. On the switch, I've tried playing Doom on the switch. It's like impossible. I play for like five minutes and I was just like, this is not happening. Yeah, this is a really cool way that you can use the Steam Controller with the gyro

to like activate it at certain points. So, like, you can set it so that, you know, if you put your finger on a specific button or if you pull, like, one of the triggers in a certain way on the seam controller, it'll then activate the gyro. So it's not always on, because I have this tendency, when I come playing, where I can move a little bit. And if I, if I had the gyro on the entire time, I'd just be, like, wigging around, my, my cursor be, you know, doing this and that.

It's really, it's really smart. I think for shooters in general, I think gyro, in my opinion, it's kind of like the future. I think once, like, they throw it into, like, a call-a-dudor or something, and you have these dudes kind of, like, getting, like, this really kind of small, inchy headshots, I think it's going to be, like, a big, a big game changer. Yeah. Trying to play games like, I don't know, like,

Midriga's Had a Phantom Pain or any third-person shooter is, like, it's made infinitely better by having the inclusion of that gyroscope sensor, including the trackpad. Because this is a really cool way that it can use a trackpad called trackball mode, where you flick your finger, right, say to left to right, and it continuously keeps rolling or moving to the left or the right until you put your finger back on again, just like a track pad. So for those that don't know, back in the day, before it had like legitimate mice, we had these giant, kind of almost like

monstrosities with a big ball on it, and you would use your thumb to roll the ball around, and that ball would act as like the movement for the cursor. So, you know, a really good track pad or a really good track ball. I'm getting mixed up here saying tracking a million times, but a really good track ball allows you to do these really quick flicks and then like immediately stop if it's like a really smooth one. And it's hard to explain how just like natural it feels until you actually use like the Steam Controller or hopefully, you know, the Steam Deck or guess just the deck, right? I guess like in the video line it says that they just call it a deck, which I mean there's

a million decks when I call it Steam Deck but whatever, right? I don't know. I'm not a master of branding, right? Linus can do whatever Linus wants. Yeah. And it's actually really funny because in that video, Linus brought a whole set of tools with them to, like test this thing, right?

Like he was bringing like a like a heat sensor camera and like all these dongles and like all kinds of crazy stuff to see like what would work with it. And like you see these shots of these valve voice. Like literally anything, you can plug in whatever the heck you want and do that thing. Yeah, like if you're watching here on the video, it's great.

We're great for those who are listening on demand by the way. on like a on like a spotify and whatnot but um they're like there's shots of the valve employees they're just going to staring at him like talking super loud with like this giant bag of like tools he has there it's really great um yeah yeah no i mean again you know i think we've spoken about this like at least once a week since it was announced but this thing is really really cool um you know i'm just waiting for the nzxte deck to come out you know so we can uh be the direct competitor i think Well, I think if I read correctly, I forget, I think it might be on the official Steam Deck page where I read this, but they do want to open up the Steam Deck to hardware partners to come up with their own versions of it. So it's not out of the realm of possibility that NZXT could make a Steam Deck, you know.

Little poochies on the track pad, imagine. I shouldn't see. I'm trying to see where Here we go This is from PC Gamer Because I think I did read this too Valve intends to continue making devices In the same handheld category as a steam deck

And I think yeah Like I think part of it was One of the intentions of the Steam deck is This is from Gabe Newell To be establishing a product category There ourselves and other PC manufacturers Are going to be able to participate in So I mean you know

There could be a future right Exactly Dark gaming says it right Where we make the doco portable because bringing back to doco branding no one knows the history of it and then you know it just becomes a thing but I think

you know I think it makes sense right I think that's one of the things that that makes PC gaming itself very very inaccessible is just like having all that hardware and having a space for it you know I mean we like joke a lot about like desktops and desks

and desk bottoms right you know like where's your computer at but like um like up until I think like actually this year when I moved to an apartment and was able to get like a nice like wide desk. My computer was on the floor, you know? Because I didn't have the space.

You know, like as soon as I added a second monitor, I'm like, all, well, this thing's going on the floor because I need the second monitor to, you know, do all kinds of stuff. And, you know, let's let's just work it like that. Luckily then I had hardware floors, but now I got carpeting in here and heck no, I'm going to put this computer on the carpet.

Now you can put your steam deck on the floor. Imagine? What's cool? What I like most about the Steamzac, but I'm looking forward to the most is, you know, like, as someone who has purchased games twice, because I wanted to play them portable. Like, I, you know, like, my favorite game is Super Mega Baseball 3. Yeah. And it's not just this game, but multiple games. But, like, it doesn't run well on the switch.

Like, it works fine. Like, it's playable, but it's not as. smooth as the computer, first of all. And it's also like really tiny. Like I could barely see the baseball. So I was really looking forward to to the new switch. But then when I saw the new switch, I was just like, it's basically the same thing.

Like I don't think I'm going to upgrade my switch because I don't think it's going to actually do anything different or better for me. But the Steam Deck will. So yeah, I'm excited for it, man. I think it's probably my, my, my number one gaming device once I get it. For sure. Yeah, when you get it, like, you know, you have to do a review, I think. And honestly, I think this would be a good, a good feature for like the N60 blog.

Shoutouts to the blog. You know, we got quite a bit of content coming out soon on that blog. You guys should definitely check it out. I would say subscribe, but I don't know how you would be able to subscribe to a blog. I don't think it's an RSS feed or something we can do, but, But, you know, it looks great. I'm actually excited to see it kind of come out in the wild and maybe one day pick it up, you know, throw it on for some Gitchin Impact. But I think for now I'm going to stick to my phone and Xbox controller.

I also want to address something here in the chat. Death Rage is asking, when are we going back to Discord podcast or is Twitch going to be a permanent thing? So do you want to talk about that a little bit, Ivan, before we continue on? Sure. So the reason why we are on Twitch is because the plan for the podcast was always to incorporate video. If you're watching live, as you can see behind me, this is what was supposed to be the podcast studio. I can actually give you guys a little mini tour. We, you know, painted the walls. We had the soundproofing. We have like a soundboard, all these mics.

that was the plan. You know, we were going to add video to the podcast and we're going to film it in here and it was going to be a whole production thing. And then the pandemic happened and obviously we couldn't come to the office and do that anymore. So we started just doing the podcast remotely.

And, you know, initially, like, Discord was... It worked fine because we didn't have video. You know, it was just like a audio podcast. and we're recording it through Discord and it was fine. But we can't do video through Discord. So that's why we're on Twitch, you know, and I don't know if we're ever going to go back to doing it through Discord. According to Dennis, science has not gone that far where we can do both at the same time.

Yeah. But I guess Dennis figures out how to do both at the same time we can. But ideally, I think we should stay on Twitch and not just for the podcast, but, you know, our Twitch channel is kind of, you know, for lack of a better word, dead. So I think it'd be cool to do more on here, do more on Twitch, you know, like maybe start playing some video games every once in a while or let some of our community members take over and do something here.

I don't know, we'll figure it out. But it would be cool to do more on Twitch as well. Just in building streams, just whatever we can. Yeah, I would say that Discord is, great for podcasting at a small scale when you're just doing it, like, you know, without the intention for, like, growth. And that's kind of a big part of it too, right? It's like, at the end of the day, and this may be, like, very, very candid, right? And because, you know, because I don't really care. And if I get in trouble, who cares? But, like, you know, this podcast just take time out of our

days, right? Like, I get paid. I get paid. Right. We get paid salaries to do everything on social media, including the podcast, right? Which is really, you know, we're actually really lucky that, that, you know, they haven't got like just kicked off doing the podcast. It's like, yeah, what are you guys doing, right? But we, we recognize that Twitch is a overall better platform for a podcast. It's a better platform for analytics, for distribution, right? Things like that. You know, we can also, again, like I was saying, add this, like, really nice visual aspect

to it where you can see our faces, we can show cool content, you know? I mean, literally as we're talking, we have Linus in the background, you know, playing on the Steam deck, right? So it kind of gives you like a little bit extra something to do. do, right? But also, I just wanted to point out the fact that most people who listen to this podcast are not tuning in live, right? Yeah. It's that most people are listening through SoundCloud, through Spotify, through Apple, through Google. Yeah. And now through Twitch, because we're looking at the Vod views, you know, they're getting thousands of views as well. So that's another

thing we can't another advantage twitches over discord is once you record the podcast on discord you know like people can go back on discord and listen to it whereas on twitch you know we have people that can come on here and listen to it after the fact so it's just another way for people to listen after we record as well yeah and i know let's say that overall twitch is easier to get into right because you don't even have to be logged into twitch if you don't want to and just click on the link and just go to it with discord you have discord account you have to log into the server you have to accept the rules to join the stages channel if you know if you even know what that is then you know hopefully your your audio settings are set correct and you can actually hear us right um there's there's there's a huge barrier to answer

for that um and also uh video sharing platforms suck a lot of but to like zoom i don't like i don't like using google hangouts for the most part like i think discord is a much better platform for like doing really quick meetings and like kind of hopping into like a call and the quality is really really good too um that's a big thing as well right we can do a lot of things also like sharing screens and whatnot that doesn't, you know, with sound and things like that. Like right now, the video feed that you're watching is actually through a Discord call that I'm shaving down with a window capture. Movie magic, right?

But, you know, it just makes things a little bit easier. Also have not, like, our calls contained in a web browser, which can be very, very wonky. I mean, can tell you, you know, firsthand how annoying it is to use web browsers for stuff. even though Discord is kind of running in a glorified web browser, but you guys can talk to the Discord engineers about that later. Yeah, I would say not just that, but also like from like a, you know, analytics perspective, you guys want to get super deep into it, you know, Discord has literally zero for analytics and like voice channels, right?

So we have no idea who's listening, how long they're listening for, what they're listening to, if they're going back, if they're joining the channel, leaving the channel, right? Twitch, you know, even though it's not the best and it doesn't offer everything that we want, it still offers a much better idea of what we're doing during the podcast, how long people are listening, if we're getting followers, all kinds of stuff, right? It's really hard to track these things on Discord, right? Because, you know, we will do say like a giveaway, people join in and they leave, right?

What's that retention look like? There's all kinds of numbers that kind of factor into that. And it's not just the podcast. There's the other things going on in the Discord that affect those numbers as well. So we can't really get a really good bead unless you have someone like in real time watching the numbers and watching that stuff. And it's a lot of effort, you know. Yeah.

So a lot of filler apps, but the, go back to listen to the beginning. There's a lot of filler episodes, but the beach cast. Beachcast, was a beach cast. You're talking about here. So I'm just, I'm, we're doing live audience participation, folks. I'm no idea what Twin Dad's talking about.

But yeah, you know, I would say overall Twitch is a, a cooler platform. And, you know, going down the line, you know, we want to get this channel partnered, right, we want to be able to accept, you know, subs for cool emotes and cool, exclusive things for you guys. And like I was telling Ivan, you know, my goal for the Twitch channel is, you know, be our partnered, right? We can maybe get spotlighted one day and, you know, being in front of an audience of all kinds of people. And then, you know, take all that money that we get partnered and then donate it, right?

Because, you know, we already get it to myself. Yep, donate it to the, the Dennis Pucci Milk Fund, right? So I can learn how to milk. poochies for that delicious poochie milk. You know, so yeah, you know, there's the, I think, I think Twitch, you know, can serve as a platform, not just for the podcast, like I was saying, but for a lot of other things as well. You know, we have like Alex Chan, who's our streaming guru here at NZXT and, you know, and is working on all stuff streaming here.

And, you know, I'm sure he would love to have, you know, some time to do streams with folks, you know. Another cool thing, too, is I think when we started the podcast, Twitch didn't even have like a podcast category. Yeah, I don't remember. It's like two years ago, right? Yeah, they didn't. And now they do.

So that's another plus, I think, you know, like Twitch is also trying to, I guess, do more with podcast. So yeah, yeah, might not. Yeah, pretty much, pretty much. Yeah, I mean, if you guys have any other questions, you know, feel free to throw them in as we're talking about stuff. Ivan, what's the next news topic? What are we talking about? Oh, Dennis. The next thing we want to talk about here is a steam deck.

Again. A different story. Yeah, so I read this article here that says Valve is working with AMD to bring Windows 11 support to the Steam deck. And that really stood out to me as something that's very, very interesting and promising because for those that don't know, Windows 11, it's not like a simple upgrade, like, previous Windows versions where you just, you know, click a button and then restart your computer and all of a sudden you have the new Windows update. For this new Windows 11, there's like all sorts of, like, weird things that people are going to have to figure out whether they can do it or if they want to do it and how much is going to cost and things like that. like people are going to have to have like a specific bios, a specific module on their motherboard. Yeah.

Some wonky stuff going on, basically. So it's not going to be an easy upgrade for people. And the fact that the Steam deck is going to have it, you know, it's a huge advantage because it's the Steam deck for those that also don't know. It's not just a portable gaming device. It's also a computer. And you can plug in a keyboard. a monitor and a mouse into it and whatever USB accessories you want. So if you really want Windows 11 and your PC can't, you know, do it for whatever reason,

just get a Steam Deck and plug in your peripherals and you're good to go. It's pretty cool. Sorry, a little bit of audio thing here on the server. On the server. So you're saying Discord on the Twitch. Yeah, it's the whole Windows 11 thing makes zero zero sense to me. I don't know how it works. I downloaded that Windows 11, like, compatibility tool to see if it will work.

And I was like, oh, this will totally work. You know, I have a, you know, 9th gen Intel processor with a butt 10 RAM and a super, you know, a 2070 super on this thing. And there's no way you can't run Windows 11, right? It's just an operating system. And like, no, you're not compatible. I'm like, what? Like, what the hell do I need? And yeah, like, there's all kinds of stuff that goes into it.

While you were talking, I was scrolling down the article that we were talking about from a tech power up. and there's another article LinkedIn that says, thanks to Windows 11, scopers are buying out add-on TPM 2.0 modules. So people are scalping these modules so you can get your Windows 11 compatibility. I don't even know what these modules are for.

If someone in chat who actually knows that they're for, please tell me because I'm not on the hardware side, right? I do social media, right? We're marketing, we're community. This is not stuff that, like, I ever really need to know because I'm pretty sure once that becomes a thing for us here for our customers, like a BLD and with like our motherboards,

we're probably already have it figured out some way somehow, right? So I don't need to know about it. But I have no idea what this thing is for. It's called a TPM compute securely bus header key. Yeah, I don't do what the heck this thing is for. Someone's on what this thing is for, please. I think it has something to do with firmware, not software, but the firmware requires to update a motherboard.

to a specific bios version that could read one as a lot i guess that's like the uh the the dumb ivan explanation of it because like dennis said i'm not you know like a computer expert even though every single person in my family thinks i am because i work at a computer company like every time anyone has a computer problem it's like they they call me and expecting me to like be some tech guru i'm like i really have no idea guys like If you want me to make a meme about a computer. So luckily for us, we have Google. So this is from PCMag.com.

It's probably should talk about this. What is a TPM and what are you born for Windows 11? Microsoft says its upcoming Windows 11 operating system will require the presence of a trusted platform module which has raised a storm of doubt and uncertainty. What exactly is the TPM? PCMag will tell you. So see here, it will require

a little known piece of security feature, TPM, which is, okay, a tiny chip on your computer's motherboard, sometimes separate from the main CPU memory. The chip is akin to the keypad. You used to disable your home security alarm every time we walk into the door. Okay, I don't need that explanation. If all the scalpers are getting this, we're eventually going to see tweets, like how many retweets for a free TPM? We should start that soon.

I think we should start that trend. You guys are here first. You're hearing it. for the first time the birth of a meme, the TPM meme, let's do it. Or we can make our own TPMs and call them NZXTPMs. Ooh.

Actually, I wonder if we could make her on TPMs. We should probably reach out to someone and see if that's a thing we should maybe start looking into, right? If it's going to be a thing. But I'm sure over time, like, they'll just be included in the motherboards, right? Like, especially if, like,

if they really want people to switch over the Windows 11, I don't see any reason why not. Yeah. And I love Windows 10, man. like Windows, the difference between like Windows 8 and Windows 10, it's my opinion, monumental. Like Windows 10, for me, it's like the best and most perfect operating system I've ever used on a computer. And I was looking forward to 11, but I don't know if I have one of these stupid modules here. Well, I guess I can get it on my Steam deck.

I'm pretty sure you don't. So let's see here. So going further in the article, turning on your computer is analogous to opening the front door of your home or entering your username and password to the login page. If you don't key in the code within short. Okay, so it's basically like, it's basically a security chip, essentially. If everything is normal, the drive encryption is unlocked and your computer starts up, but there's a problem with the key, perhaps a hacker store your laptop, and then turn it. tried to tamper with the encrypted data and drive, decrypted drive inside, your PC won't put out.

So it's basically just like an authentication platform for your computer slash motherboard for you to go ahead and get into it. I'm assuming this is probably in response to like all the, all the, you know, hey, I stole your hardware, you know, data drive stuff. If you don't give me five Bitcoin, which is like, you know, $50 million at this point,

then, you know, I'm gonna release it, right? So I guess this is this acts as like a way to kind of prevent that. Yeah, that's interesting. I guess the other interesting part about this whole AMD valve thing is that what some people might not also know is that the Steam Deck is running. So the Steam Deck doesn't have a graphics card. It's running the graphics through this AMD APU, correct? Yeah, and it's actually funny because APU has been around for a

while. I remember when I worked for HP, we would sell HP NV laptops or whatever they were called with with AMD AP. It was like, yeah, it seems really great. You know, it does both graphics and blah, blah, and they weren't that great. But, you know, that's my job was to sell these things. So I got to talk them up a little bit. That's the thing is now, now, you know, it could potentially be a great way to play video games. If AMD actually figured out how to make video games run smoothly on an APU, then that's like a whole new opportunity for PC gamers because you might be able to, you know, play a, build a computer without a graphics card and play video games.

And obviously, it's always going to be better to have like a, you know, 3080 TI super mega ultra whatever GPU than an APU. but that's not a possibility for a lot of people, especially right now the way the hardware market is. So it's cool. I think it's a promising thing for PC gaming. So funny you actually mentioned that because I've been seeing a lot of articles and like Reddit posts just in general about people building computers with APUs.

And they're starting to kind of like ramp up the purchasing, just like general PC building public to buy computers that have APUs, so they have something to run while they're winning for like an actual, you know, like real like, you know, EBGA or MSI or whatever, which is just, which is crazy. What's an APU? An APU is a, oh, God, what is it, what does it stand for? Oh my God, Evan, do you remember APU?

Up top. It's, um, hold up. Auxiliary, no, that's not it. I almost had it wrong. Accelerated processing unit. So basically, um, what it basically is, is you know how you have your like Intel processors that have the Intel Iris chips or the Intel Iris processing units in them, right? That basically allow you to do graphics really basically

off of your, off of your CPU, right? So on a certain, certain motherboards, you know, they'll have like an HTML and certain Intel chips that will allow you to run graphics at a very basic level, you know, so you can use your windows and stuff without having a graphics card. So what an APU is, is a, is a, uh, amd thing as far as I know, right? I think they're the ones who really making APUs, where they pretty much kind of take that concept and blow it up to be a more powerful processing unit that also does really good stuff with graphics. Not like, again, you know, not like a, you know,

GTX, 2070, 2060, 3060, whatever style of graphics or like power graphics, but enough that you can run games at a pretty meaningful level. Um, as, you know, it was demonstrated by the, the, uh, the, the, uh, the, the, uh, video we talked about, um, where Linus did the review for the Steam deck, right? The Steam deck is using an APU, and that APU is able to power, you know, games like Doom, so on and so forth. And I believe Intel calls them Iris Graphics, right? Yeah, yeah, it's Iris graphics. I have an HPNV laptop. I've never played video games on it, and I installed Steam the other day and downloaded Super Mega Baseball 3.

And it runs, but it's even worse than my Switch. Yeah, I'm not going to play on this thing. Yeah, no. Yeah, I think I don't know, I don't know what place APs will have in the future of gaming. I think that once we kind of get, you know, cards back in stock, which from when I'm reading, like, might not even be into like, you know, 2020, like, 2020, like, 2020 or something like that, right? It's crazy. Yeah, it's still ridiculous that we're still going through this thing. mask up folks

but I think that you know for devices like the Steam Deck and you know maybe even in the future right like a Switch 2 or like a Switch upgrade right I think I think the APU is going to be really really important for these type of devices you know maybe even on your phone right

a cup of juice says that this sounds like it would be good for students and I was thinking the same thing like if I was a college student you know like I was 20 years ago when I wasn't college like laptops were like that's like when laptops were actually first becoming I think mainstream and affordable that's like when like a MacBook came out and all that power books they were called back then but anyway like you had a choice between a $3,000 laptop without a graphics

card that probably can't play games that you can only you know basically just do you know docs and spreadsheets and Zoom calls and things like that versus a Steam deck which you can get for like 500 books that can also do the docs the spreadsheets and all that stuff plus it lets you play video games plus it lets you install whatever operating system you want plus it lets you know watch movies like it does everything a laptop does or computer does as well but with the benefit of actually being like a gaming device first. So I could actually see a world where, you know, there's students buying Steam decks going to their class,

you know, plugging in this little like portable keyboard and mouse and just typing on it. Like why not, right? Like, why not do that instead of a MacBook if it costs like, you know, one fourth the price of that? Yeah, and like when I used to work in like retail, in computer retail, we always joked that like, that these folks are buying Macs for like $17, $1,800,

and they're literally buying like an $18,000 Facebook machine. Because like most students aren't really doing like really heavy workloads on their laptops, right? They're doing, you know, docs, they're doing, you know, like, web tools and stuff like that, you know, unless you're like an engineering student using, you know, things like AutoCad and so and so forth, they're doing like art or music or stuff like that, right? For the majority of people who are doing like schoolwork or just any work on a laptop, you're really kind of in a browser most of the time, right?

So, you know, you don't really need this really, really high-powered machine to kind of get through that, you know. And that's why Chromebooks were, like, so popular for, you know, and I think they still are, especially for students, because, you know, Google provides all these services already. Twin Dead in the chat was saying that he had to buy a wireless card for his first laptop. And I'm curious, and this is what he's talking about.

So when we first got Wi-Fi at my house, my dad had a laptop, He works in real estate. He does taxes. He does a bunch of other stuff, right? He's a man of the world, right? And I feel like everybody had this lynxist, like, instant wireless card. And there was this literal giant, like, super wide, I think almost like two-inch port where you would, like, slip in this, like, giant card just for Wi-Fi on your laptop

because they didn't have Wi-Fi antennas or, like, anything built into the laptops. Yeah. Yeah, the things are nuts. I don't even know how much you paid for it. But yeah, you know, I think especially now we're like at the point where, you know, where we could start sticking these things inside laptops. And I'm sure they already do, right? But, you know, also give you, like a little bit of extra power for games.

I really want to see somebody make a YouTube video. It's like, you know, I took my Steam deck to college and this is what happened right and you see him doing all this cool stuff on it. I think that's going to be the most interesting thing from this. because gaming is one thing, but really creating a device that could do, you know, they can like, quote unquote, do it all,

I think is really, really, for me, like, the most compelling part about this whole thing. Yeah, I agree. It's like, especially now, you know, because before the pandemic, I don't think people really looked at their gaming PCs as like this machine that can do more than just play video games.

Like, even though, yeah, like some people did. Like, some people do use, or have used their gaming PCs for other things besides video games like school and work. But not like it happened a year ago where, you know, you had to stay home and you had to use a computer. And, you know, all these people that had gaming PCs that never wanted to use their gaming PC for work or school, they realized, well, you know, I can actually do that. And the Steam deck, you know, it not only do that, it's very affordable. as well, like compared to a computer or a full-size computer. So, yeah, I agree.

It's going to be exciting to see how people use it and what direction this thing goes in the future. Hey, how many deep see how many D. See, how many D.C. Homer? We had him on the podcast a little bit ago. Oh, Mike. Like, I don't know. I forget how many, how many episodes ago. Mike Ntiel.

Yep, definitely throw him a follow. He is an official Simpsons animator. I hope he still is. I don't know what happened last few months we talked to him, right? Maybe he, like, went instead of working for Rick and Mortar or something like that, who knows, right? But, yeah, I hope you're doing well, man. Hope you're doing, doing great. We're on Twitch now.

We're live. Yeah, and his Instagram is great. Not all of this safe for work, just be careful. You might see some stuff you might not want your boss to see. All right. So next topic. here is Nintendo crosses the 800 million

console sold mark number one console maker in the world. So it says total video game console sold by console manufacturer as of June 2021. This is in millions of units and only standalone console with interchangeable software accounts. So Nintendo's at 800 million,

Sony's at I think $165 million. Microsoft is a 170, Sega 75 and it's hard. So I guess this is like cumulative all-time sold consoles. And I guess that would also count if they're saying standalone consoles with interchangeable software

that probably counts like the DS, the Switch, right? The Game Boys, right? This is not surprising to me. And the reason why is because no matter what type of console you have, whether you have a PC, whether you have a PlayStation 5,

whether you have a Xbox 1S or whatever, even like an Atari 2,600, Nintendo will always have games that you can only play on Nintendo. And these games are really good. That's literally the reason why I bought a switch is because I love Mario Brothers. I wanted to play Mario.

that's what I like if I'm not playing Mario on my switch I'm playing you know either super mega baseball or Tetris 99 or something. So that's like the huge advantage that Nintendo has over a Sony or a Microsoft or a Sega or an Atari or a PC is that they make really good games as well as as the comp apart from the console. I think they're a gaming company first too which probably is another huge advantage for them because I don't think Sony, Microsoft, Sega, and Atari, even though they make games, are as focused on these, like, franchises, like, Nintendo. Like, Nintendo's really invested in, like, Zelda and, you know, Mario and all these other

games that are just Nintendo's. And, you know, so that's why it's not surprising to me. And it's a huge advantage because even, like, if you have a PC, right, you buy a Switch, and it's a totally different gaming experience, totally different games. If you have a PC and you buy a PlayStation or an Xbox, basically the same thing,

except that you can now, you know, probably easier, plug it into your TV easier. That's basically it. But, you know, if you have a PC, you can just plug in your Xbox or your PlayStation controller into it

and you basically have an Xbox and PlayStation. It's not the same with Nintendo. So it's not surprised. It's a huge number, man. But I'm not surprised Yeah, I really want to know, though, like what these numbers are without handhelds included, because, like, we know that, like, the DS, you know, Game Boy, right, Game Boy Advance, like these handheld consoles, like, sold a butt ton, right?

But they're also not in the same product category, in my opinion, as, like, a PS1 versus a, like, NES or SNES, smack on my mic here, or, like, an Xbox or, you know, like a Sega Genesis or something, right? I think, like, I mean, then we're wrong, right? There's still consoles, right, in a sense, but like, something that sits like on your, on like, on your TV stand or something. I'm really curious what that number, what that number is because I'm assuming it'll be a lot less because, like, I mean, didn't like the PS2, PS1 sell like a ridiculous amount of consoles, right? Like, there was like some of the high selling consoles for years and years and years and years. So I really want to know what that looks like.

and I think I would include the switch because it does give you the option to use it exclusively as a console and like for myself, I think the amount of times I use my switch handheld versus the amount of time I've used, you know, my switch like docked in is like one to two or something with like, you know,

well, I guess I said the other way around. Doc versus undocked is like three to one ratio or something at least. Like it's got to be way more than that, I think. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot of consoles though. It is. Let's have to sell it.

884 million. Yeah. 800,000. You know, the interesting thing, too, is since the Steam deck lets you install whatever the heck you want on it, in theory, you can install a Nintendo emulator and play all those Nintendo Switch games on your Steam deck, right? Only if you own them already, though. Otherwise, it's illegal.

Right, yeah. Yeah, I might do that, actually. Like, I have an emulator on my PC, and I play Mario and Tetris every once in a while. So maybe I'll do that on my Steam deck. Speaking of emulators, did you hear about, there was this story I heard somewhere.

I don't know where it is, where some dude who ran like an emulator site, what is it, He got sued by Nintendo and what was it? I forget where it was. Maybe it's this one here. Romsite. Oh yeah, I think I don't even talking about.

Yeah, the ROM site owner made $30,000 a year. Now owes Nintendo $2.1 million. So that's the whole legality thing of ROMs and emulators. Like, I'm going to preface this by saying, I am not a lawyer. It's kind of weird to me because Nintendo does go after these ROM sites often. And part of me is like, why do they care if people are, you know, downloading Super Mario Brothers 3 and playing it on their computer? Like that game's like 35 years old or whatever.

And, you know, if anything, it's just like making people love Nintendo more, if they can play the game more. But then the other part of me is like, yeah, you know what? I kind of understand that because if I made a video game and 35 years for now, people have a choice to either pay for the game or download it for free and play it for free. I'm probably going to want them to pay for it. So I understand Nintendo, but it just sucks that, like, you know, that some people like just want to play video games and, you know, they're getting sued, I guess.

The way that I see it is I think that Nintendo's a company rate has 100% every right to go after anybody they want for distributing their software in a way that is not approved by them, right? That being said, Nintendo has a terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible track record of allowing you to play their older games on the platform that you want. So far as like what they released that like Super Mario like anniversary thing where they had was like 64 Sunshine and something else. or something, right, in its collection. And then they, like, pulled it from the store, pulled it from shelves. Like, 30 days later, it's like, hey, you can only buy it for, like, 30 days. Like, they do stuff like that. It makes me not want to buy things from you because you're just kind of, like, almost, like,

praying on people's, like, want to own your game on these consoles. And, like, I was reading somewhere that, like, if you wanted to play, like, every Metroid game ever made, you'd have to go through a super convoluted process to be able to get those games because they don't have these games digitally on, like, every. platform either. Like the whole idea, I think, originally behind like Nintendo Switch Online or whatever it is through that, the classic emulated thing was that you would just have all the games on there. But they still don't even do that, right?

And I think that Nintendo does make it really hard for you to play older games. Because they have these really huge libraries of like really classic games. And then they're like, hey, you got to buy it again on another console like five times over. And we're not going to fix it. and not going to make it run better. It's just, it's just there. And it's like, oh, okay, cool. I guess for me, like, the reason why I don't feel bad

emulating games is because I honestly only emulate the games that I have bought and have bought multiple times. Like, I probably bought Super Mario Brothers games, like, you know, at least a dozen times. Right. So, yeah, I don't really feel bad doing it, but I do understand why Nintendo would want to crack down on it too. So, yeah.

Yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it's, yeah, there's a lot of weird legal, legal stuff to it. Like, it's like you're saying, like, I think like, technically, and this might have changed, like, if you own the game and then you download the ROM, that's legal because you're using it as like a backup or something, right? Yes, it's really weird. I think, I think the problem with this guy and his site was that he would, he would, he would, not charge for the games on the on the on the rom site but he would he was offering like a service where you like you pay 30 bucks or something and then you get faster downloads or something like that and I think that's what they were kind of hitting him on um I'm not I'm not going to lie I recently was trying to look for a PS5 emulator PS5 emulator. Why I'm stooped down to that level man because I can't get one and I want to get one just to play one stinking game.

and MLB the show. Get on Xbox. There's plenty of Xbox. Well, you can play it on Xbox Game Pass, but not on PC, which is kind of dumb. Yeah, I don't like how they separate that, actually. I was just thinking about that how, like, I played the Back for Blood Beta, so I just kind of moved to a little bit of a different topic. I played the Back for Blood Beta.

Didn't think it was worth $60. I'm like, you know, if I could play this on, like, game pass, I would play this game all the time, but I don't pay 60 bucks for it. Also, I just Googled a PlayStation 5 emulator. Literally came up with PS EmuX, PS5 emulator open source project. They're all fake. Oh, yeah? Yeah. I was going to say like this website's a little bit too nice to be like a legit emulator website. Like every single emulator website I've been to has been like the most ugliest design thing in the world because these fools, they're not working on making the website look good. They're working on making sure that these emulators don't

break. Apparently it runs an iOS and Android too. Yeah, this has got to be, it's not a way this is real. Yeah, that's fake. Maybe it is. Speaking of fake, have you been getting like a bunch of scam DMs on Discord recently? No, because I don't accept DMs from random people. So in the last week, I've probably received,

without exaggerating, at least 12 DMs from different people all telling me the same thing. and that is that they'll start by saying like, hey, is this your Steam account? And they'll link me my Steam account. Say yes. And then they'll say, I have a problem. Some guy messaged me and told me this was your alt, and I gave them my credit card info,

and he sold $100 for me. And now I told all my friends to report your account, and they're going to ban your account. And the Steam admin wants to chat with you about this. Please add them on Steam and Discord, and here's all your info. At first, I just, like, ignored him or ignored these DMs. And then the last six times I have, I've just been messing with people and, like, egging them on. Like, I'll chat with them for, like, half an hour. And then at the end, I'll send him, like, a clown sticker or something.

That's kind of what Kit Boga does, right? Like, he'll, he'll, like, call up these scammers and they'll just kind of mess with them. And, like, I think, like, he has, like, records for, like, how long he, like, keeps these dudes on the phone, just wasting their time. and there's one video I saw where he was running like a virtual box so like these guys can't do anything like harmful but he logged into like a fake Google Play website to redeem like the gift cards that he was supposed to buy

for these dudes and like he like entered the code and it's like oh you know congratulations you know you just submitted a $500 in Google Play credit and these dudes start going ballistic they go nuts screaming saying all kinds of stuff was so so funny I love watching them I just like I don't like catching him in the middle because I feel like I want to be there from the beginning to the end of like these conversations with these peeps that he has.

It's really, really good. No product placement. We need drink the water at LTT store.com. No, we don't. We don't have the LTT store code. I mean, if you guys want to, you know, at Linus on like Twitter and say, hey, N6T wants a official, you know, referral code for their Twitch, like, we'll definitely take you, throw up a banner. I think it'd be funny. Can you imagine if we just treated this, like, channel as like a separate entity?

just to start getting sponsorships. It's like imagine we go like an email from like Elgado. Hey, do you guys want to like, you know, get sponsored by Elgado? We'll give you a free cursor or computer. He's like, no idea what's going on. That'd be funny. Or not, you know? I guess like I'm going to be a little one laughing on.

So really cool too. Ivan, are you even playing anything new besides Super Mega Baseball? I think I've muted himself. I'll say, of course not, Dennis. There you. I have been. I have been playing with my with my toddler. Oh yeah, how's that going?

Tiring, man. Like last, like last night, my, my wife got together were her old co-workers because they invited her out to dinner to celebrate like a birthday party. You know, I was watching my daughter all afternoon and all night. And then my wife told me, do me a favor. Just stay up for me. I don't want to come home and you're asleep because it's,

you know, I'm a little scared and all this. I'm like, sure, no problem, babe. I got it, yeah. You know, because we have like this, like gate, you know, like a gate so she has to, like, open the gate and get out of the car. It's like a big thing. So anyway, I was like, yeah, I'll stay up, no problem. But I was so tired from just playing with my kid and, like, you know,

making dinner for her and giving her a bath and story time and making sure she goes potty and all this stuff. Like, dude, I was like knocked out by 9 o'clock. And then my wife gets there at 11. And I'm like, oh, hey, what's up? Like, I'm awake. I was, like, trying to play it off. So, yeah, I haven't really been playing much super mega baseball.

I try to play at least one game with super mega baseball every day at lunch when I can. But I'm mostly just playing with my kid, man, teaching her how to play baseball right now. She's almost four. So when she turns four, I'm going to put her in T-ball, and I am going to be the T-ball coach. Nice. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah.

How about you? What are you playing? So I'm still playing a lot of natural selection too because I just find it to be a very, very fun game. And the fact that the games are server-based, I think I want to mention this last time, but the fact that the games are server-based and there's not like real matchmaking put into the game, it's fun for me because you get into a small community, right, and you have people who are, like, just talking massive amounts of shit all the time. Like every, I think once.

every other day, I'll log into one of the servers and there's like dudes arguing in the, so the way the game works is before you start, you're all in like a ready room and then you choose your team by physically walk into like one or two like doors, right, to join your team. And then there's like all chat for the entire server of like 25 people on there, right? Just, just chatting it up for a little bit. And I think like once every other day, I'll log into into a server, it's always like right after 7 p.m., dudes start talking about like politics or vaccines or all kinds of dumb stuff like stuff that I don't want to hear about when I'm playing a video game. But what I do is I see what teams they go on and then I'll try to get on the opposite team and we always win.

Because what happens is that these guys clog up the voice chat talking about vaccines this and MRNA that and like, well, I don't want to take this and I want to take that. And like the first thing I do with any video game is disabled voice chat. Like I seriously, no matter what game, even the game I like, like Super Mega Baseball, I disable voice chat. I don't want to hear like nonsense. It's the most, every game is a. same dude it's like just toxic toxic toxic toxic toxic and that's the last thing you want to listen to before you want to play a game especially if you know you're quote-unquote a serious gamer that wants to actually like win and

like in order to do that you have to be focused you got to have like the right mentality you know like in CS go when I used to play a lot of CS go like I would literally get riled up before the match even started just from hearing stupid people like screaming at me and like cursing at me and telling me things about my mother and like and like and I would start to match and I'd be like already like shooting all over the place because I'm mad. You know, it's like I feel like every game is the same man. You just got to turn that off and just it's not worth it.

Well, it's funny for me because I mean, you know me, right? I'm an instigator. So these dudes will start talking about stuff right. And I'd be like, I don't get the vaccine because it makes you like into a magnet or like really dumb stuff like that. And these dudes start going in like. I just pull one little thread and it just unravels the whole conversation. Then like I said, I just swapped to the opposite team, right?

And me and that team, we're talking about the game and playing the game. And then we end up winning because, you know, we're actually coordinated and we don't have people who are like, you clogging up the chat with you freaking talking about, you know, well, you know, I work is a nurse and, you know, I don't really feel like I need it. You know, it's all comes to dumb stuff that you say. Yeah, but beyond that. At this point, yeah, like, at this point, if you're not, like vaccinated, not maxing up, not socially distancing yourself, not, you know, taking care of yourself and others. You know, I'm not going to really feel sorry for you

if you get COVID, to be honest. And it's a messed up thing to say. No, but it's like, man, like, you have to do your part. And if you're not doing your part, chances are, you probably are going to catch this thing. And it's a real thing. And it's a real thing. thing that can kill you and not everyone is taking it as serious as others, you know, and, you know, it's, and not just that, but also not everybody is as privileged as we are here in the US to have vaccines available. Like, I, I hear, I was reading that they're, like, we're, like, tossing vaccines now, like in the trash because they don't, they, they don't have a very long shelf life, right? Yeah. And, like, there's, I'm mostly referring to the people that choose

not to do those things. You know, there's people like that nurse example you gave, you know, like, There's people that say things like, well, I'm not going to get vaccinated. I'm not going to wear a mask. I'm not going to socially distance. I'm not going to do any of these safety precautions that are not just for me, but for literally the entire human race. And I'm just going to do whatever the heck I want. You know, like those people that are, there's people, a lot of people like that,

that are getting COVID and they're dying, you know. And it really sucks. But at the same time, you know, it's hard to feel sorry for people. when they're not basically doing their part, right? They're not listening. Yeah, yeah. We have to. That's the only way we're going to get out of this, man,

is we all actually step up and do it. And trust me, the last thing I want to do is get needles in my arm, wear a mask when I'm indoors, or even outdoors for that matter. This is the guy who won't get swabbed, though, Ivan. Yeah, that's another thing. I'm not going to do that. What's a whole different discussion, though? I don't want to stick in my nose either.

Right. Yeah, you know, it's a, yeah, it's, so that's what happens in that game. Yeah. People just talk about rhythm stuff or they'll talk about politics and it's always like some really hilarious takes. And you have the people who are like serious on one end and they have people who are like annoyed that these people are being serious and then they start trolling them and it just, it just devolves into this giant like kind of almost argument.

And I can be upset and be annoyed by it, but also I just laugh because just funny like just like like like you guys this is a game about aliens and Marines like what we talk about this stuff for yeah yeah but beyond that um I've also been playing I started playing Genshin impact again at the behest of people within nzxti where we were talking about it in the gaming news channel and I was like eh let me hop back on Genshin and I'm digging it you know it's fun you know it's it's you can you can play a lot of that game without having to worry about any money It's almost like, you know, it's, it's, it's, it was like a cool, uh, RPG with actually like a pretty decent story.

Um, I've been, I've actually been paying attention to the story a little bit more. And, you know, it's not great, but it's like, you know, it kind of gives you a reason for, you know, for, for, for the stuff that you're doing in that game. And, uh, you know, the wifis are cute, you know, it's nice to roll for wifus with the free currency that I get over time and, you know, just building up a good team and making them stronger and, you know, kill them bigger and batter monsters and seeing a stupid chess and trying to figure out how they had to get there and 30 minutes later, hey, I got the chest. We should stream on Twitch, us playing Vita games.

I want to show the world how much better I am at Super Mega Baseball. Nope, not doing it. No, no. I cannot do it. I'm not doing that. It's game stick forever, dude. I love that good. Like at a certain point, I was like, is it like a concede button?

Can you just surrender? Can just quit the game? You can actually. You can. Okay, maybe it will next time. because, yeah, I think we played, we played, and I think within the first inning, I got one run.

And I'm like, holy crap, like, I actually did it, you know? And then you proceeded to literally roll right over me. What's funny is that when that game started, I was literally like this, watch. I was playing like this. I was leaning back in my chair. In the office, right? Literally in the office, right?

I was just, like, going like this. Just vibe in, chill in. And then Dennis hit, you know, Dennis got a run. and I immediately went like this and I was like crack my knuckles Gamer time right

I'm like let's get serious and I proceeded to score like 20 unanswered runs pretty much yeah and a bunch of bases stolen too because I didn't know how the mechanics worked yeah but it's probably the only game I can do that to you in

you're probably going to beat me in every other video game known to Matt maybe maybe I used to practice pretty much especially fighting games man I love fighting games but I really like them. I feel like a fighting game, more than any other game, like, more than like a competitive FPS, more than like even like a competitive puzzler, you know, like Tetris. Puzzler, oh.

Yeah, like, fighting games, like, it's all about muscle memory. And if you don't play that, like, constantly day in, day out. You know, you might be good, but you're going to get worked by someone who has better muscle memory, basically. Like people that can just execute combos and the supers, just a split second faster than you, that can block you, like, that can actually, like, count the frames and know exactly, like, when to put up a block and all that and when to jump. That's all muscle memory, and those people are going to, like, spank you, like, every single time. And I think for fighting games,

you just have to basically grind day in and day out, otherwise you're not going to be like that. So actually, I'm going to debate on this. I actually disagree. Okay. As someone who's played a lot of fighting games, someone who knows people who play a lot of fighting games, both casually and also like in a serious competitive manner,

a lot of it really is just conditioning your, conditioning your, you can't talk, conditioning your opponent. I don't know why that was so hard for me to say. So in fighting games, people talk about, particular like the fundamentals and footsies right and what i mean by that is fundamentals is uh just like your your your basic attacks right so you have like you know your punch your kicks

whatever then you have you know your your like special attacks which are you know you're like fireballs and your dragon punches stuff like that right those are really easy to get down right once you maybe 10 15 minutes of like a little bit of practice you know just playing and you can kind of know how to do those moves pretty reliably and to be honest that's kind of really all you need because someone can do a whole bunch of combos, but if you just know to just hold back and block, you're pretty much good 90% of the time. I think most games that I've won

haven't been me going super in and doing crazy combos. You do combos because you're trying to flex and style on someone. You can literally beat somebody just by holding block and waiting for them to do something dumb, and then you capitalize on that. So here's my rebuttal. Okay. My rebuttal to that statement.

And I guess proof that it's not true because I'm going to debunk it right now. Okay. So the reason why I think it's muscle memory is because I actually played

Street Fighter 5 versus a professional street fighter player smug while he was blindfolded and he beat me. So he was not playing mind games with me or anything like that or like trying to trap me or anything. He was literally just

combos, combos, combos, combos, like over. And I just couldn't like move, basically. Like, he was just... I'm going to tell you why you lost. Well, because I suck, first of all. Because you weren't blocking. You literally weren't blocking. Like, seriously, like, if you just blocked 90% of the time

he was doing crazy combos and he couldn't see, you would have won. Actually, you know what? I almost beat him. Yeah. I almost beat him, but then he was just like... And this would I mean, like that muscle memory He's like just like one split hair faster, one split hair better.

Like he he got me. Even though I almost beat him blindfolded, he still beat me. Yeah, it's one of the things where like there's definitely some muscle memory, but I wouldn't say like that's the barrier to you being like a really good player, right? You know, it really just come from, it really, again, just comes from fundamentals, right? And just holding back and blocking and just knowing what buttons to press and when and like when something is safe. and that really isn't super, super hard to learn.

It's the hard part is when you encounter another player who knows those exact same things, right? And now you're playing on this kind of almost level playing field and trying to like kind of play each other in a sense, right? Because at a certain point, you're not really playing against a character. You're not playing against the game. You're playing against the other player. And that's a lot of the time, I mean, you know, in like a lot of games, right, baseball, whatever, right? at a certain point, you get to a certain level of competency

where you're not really playing against the game. You're playing against the player and just, okay, what are they doing? What am I going to do? What are they going to do? What am I going to do? And you go back and forth like that, right? But the majority of people are, you know,

just say in the world, they're not going to get to games. You literally just block and you're probably going to win like 90% of the time. Just block. It's almost like a meme in the final game community, right? Just block, dude. Just block it. I think that's like, whenever, Whenever I play you, that's what you always say.

You always like, just block, man. Like, you should be blocking, blocking. But it's like, yeah, it's, I'm not a, I'm not, I'm not very good. You literally block the entire time until they try to do a throw. And then that's when you hit a button, right? But like, it takes time for you to get to that point, right, where you kind of know when you do it. Right. So, I mean, you know, I'm not saying like it's easy to play fighting games, right?

But I think that people make it to, they make it out to be harder than it really is. right like if you could do like bunny hops and all kinds of crazy stuff and like drop shots and like holiday or you know if you know like where to throw a flashbang and c s go to make sure you know that you can like get like a really good entry to like you know to to you know to a site or b site or something or you know you know the timing for like opping so that you know you know if you stand this position someone's probably going to pass by or whatever you can play a fighting game um i think the scary yeah i do know how to do those things but the problem is that i do them with macros I used to have a bunny hot macro on my mouth.

I don't remember that. I think back in the day on a Half Life One, we used to bunny hunt macro on the scroll wheel, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. That's what I would do. I would just be, like, basically just jumping all over the place and people were like, how do you do that?

Yeah. It takes practice, man. It's really I'm just like, just literally pushing a bite on my mouth. Yeah. Yeah, but other than Genshin Impact, I've been playing back for blood a little bit in the beta. And I was going to say it, 102 minutes in.

I don't think it's not good. I don't think it's good of game. So I, so this is personal opinion hat, right? Because, you know, maybe they'll hit us up for a case or something, right? But this is personal gamer opinion hat on, okay, separate from everything else, right?

As someone who's been paying attention to gaming and gaming development and just gaming news in general, right? I don't just like to play games. I kind of like, like, like to learn about games as, like an industry because I find it very interesting and I'm very like you deeply, you know, I have a lot affinity for gaming in general, right?

So these, these, the developers of Backford Blood, right? Turtle Rock Studios are calling upon the name of them being the ex-left-for-dead, you know, developers, which first thing is, I don't know who's on that team, right? I don't know how long they've been on that team. They can probably guarantee you that a lot of the people who worked on Left for Dead are probably still not there anymore. right they're probably left for the studio uh someone staying at a studio for an extended super long

period of time is pretty much unheard of in in the in the game development industry right like folks will go from job the job from gig to gig because sometimes it's contract work right sometimes you know your studio isn't doing anything the last game that total rock put out as far as i remember like any real game um was a like big marquey game was like evolve right um and i i i i I don't have a lot of trust in how they're going to monetize this game and support it long term based on the fact that they were the developers of Evolve. Evolve's launch was kind of messy. That game went like free to play like three times over or something and they tried

to relaunch like two or four more times, right? And I think that the game itself, right, is kind of missing something that left for dead hat. It's hard to put like a button on it or put like my finger on what it is, but it's missing. missing some of that like left for dead magic there's something that when you played left for dead it felt a certain way that this game does not have and I believe it suits detriment I feel like I play left for dead I've also played a World War Z and World War Z like that games that kind of claim to fame is that

there's a bunch of freaking zombies like on the field day at one time there's like a massive amount like literal horts like you've seen the movies or the movie it's kind of like that ripped to the book the got completely destroyed by that movie by the way. It's nothing like it at all. But yeah, I just, it doesn't feel like things are there for a purpose. So that makes sense. Like they have the card system, right? Which is like, you know, you like load up these like modifiers, like a deck of cards to your game, to your character, every run. And it just, I feel like they weren't impactful enough, at the level that I was getting at. There's a bunch of attachments

for your weapons. I feel like 90% of them other than the scopes didn't really feel like they were really making a difference. Like it's like five different like magazines for like a rifle. I'm like, okay, what are these all dudes? Supposedly they have differences, but I really didn't feel them other than like one of them gave me like point two extra hits of damage and like the range, right? Yeah. I haven't played back for blood, but I had played Left for Dead. And. Left for me. For me, for me, what? For me? For what made Left for Dead good, honestly, was not necessarily the gameplay, but it was like, it felt like a zombie movie in a lot of ways. Yeah, exactly. And so maybe that's what's missing

from Back for Blood is just that part. Like, maybe it's not as like immersive, I guess, you can say, as, uh, yeah. There's a, yeah, there's a, there's a certain like, you know, feeling you get when you play one game or another, right? It's like, you play Monster Hunter and one of the things I love about Monster Hunter is that, you know, when you're fighting monsters, it's kind of a serious game, but at the same time, they have this amazing way of, like, of, like, adding this, like, sort of, like, humor and, like, like, um, like a levity to the game that, like, really kind of helps it, like, kind of bring you back to that seriousness, right? Because if you're playing this, like, super serious hunting monsters and there's blood gushing

everywhere and there's guts coming out, it'll be a completely different game, right? but like Monster Hunter has a lot of fun, goofy stuff to it that helps add to like, I don't know, the like enjoyment of the game, right? It's just like the mood, the feeling, the, the noises that the characters make, like, all the icons, like, it's just a joy. Like, you play the game and you have a smile on your face because it's just, it's fun. It makes you happy, right? This game doesn't make me happy.

This game makes me sad. I'm a sad boy while playing it because I feel like it's almost like trying to be like too grim dark and like, I don't know, it's just like everything's exploding and, And like, I don't know, it just doesn't, it doesn't feel right. I think the gameplay itself is like fine, right? It's good gameplay. The guns feel really good. But there's like a couple things.

It just, I don't know, it just doesn't feel, it doesn't feel right. And also that's it for 60 bucks for this game. I'm not paying 60 bucks for this game. There's no I'm paying $60 for this game. I think Left for Dead was like 30, 40 bucks and it came out, right? Like it wasn't even like a full 60. Well, I mean, that was like in 1999 or whatever.

It was like a long time ago. Yeah, but still, there's still a lot of games. that are releasing there aren't 60 bucks. I think World War Z launched at like 30 or 40 bucks. And that game came out a few years ago, right? A lot of games now... Well, I guess, I mean, it all depends

how much you're going to play the game, too, right? Right. $60 might be a lot if, you know, the game is quick and you're going to get through it in like 20 hours and never play it again. But, like, you know, it's $60 a lot for a game like GTA-5 that you're going to put in like a thousand hours.

and play online forever, probably not. Right. But that's the thing about these like multiplayer focus games, right? Is that you don't know how long they're going to be around for. There's a lot of monetization, right? So the base copy of the game is $60. You can pre-purchase the deluxe version for $89 or the ultimate version for $99. For what?

For what reason, right? Apparently in the ultimate edition you get like the annual pass, So it has content drops, a story and characters, and special enemies and skins and digital in-game stuff. And I'm like, I don't like, do $99? Like, like, are you serious? Like, that's, like, if you're, if you're already going to have stuff in the game for me to purchase from like a monetary standpoint, then just lower the price of the game, right? Like, like, like, there's, there's no reason to have games at these, like, price points other than greed. if you're already going to be selling stuff, you know, after the game's out.

Like, it doesn't make any sense. Like, you buy, like, I don't want to try to think. Like, you buy, like, a skin in, like, apex, right? And skins are, like, I think, can be up to, like, $20 for a skin, right? You buy three skins for, you know, for a character over the course of however long, and you pretty much already paid for a full-price game, right? Plus, you know, your, you're, like, battle passes and, you know, other stuff that you're going to pick up in the game. So, I don't know.

I'm very, I'm very conscious of like how companies try to monetize. And I feel like if you're really asking me for $99 out of the box, right, that's kind of ridiculous. Case and point, right, destiny expansions are like 40 bucks. Every time, you know, every two years or whatever, the destiny has a brand new expansion with a whole new area and a bunch of new gear and a whole new raid, it's 40 bucks, right? And then it's like 50 bucks for the annual pass on top of that, right? If you want to get all the, all the content.

And that's it. That's only money that you really asked from you. They do have, like, you know, other things you can buy, like, skins and, like, other goofy stuff. But it doesn't, there's nothing to do with the game, like, from a gameplay perspective. So it's like, if a studio like Bungy, right, which is a independent studio now, right, they don't have a big publisher behind them anymore, right? It's only asking for 40 bucks every, you know, or I guess 50 bucks, right, every year. Why is Back for Blood, backed by Warner Brothers Studios, asked me for $99 out of the gate for the ultimate edition of their game. it's weird. And I feel like they have

and learned their lessons from from Evolve, right? Again, this is me speaking from like a analytical gaming almost like a journalistic kind of standpoint, right? Because I do pay a lot of attention to the industry. Evolve had like four or five different versions that game.

Like there's like these memes like, let me see like Assassins Creed, they did this a lot to versions where like I think like the most like weird version of it was a was a

black flag or unity or like one of the older games like years and years ago where there was like five different versions of the games and there's like a GameStop version and a Best Buy version and like a Target version and like a Walmart version

and like a digital version then like an ultimate version and like and like from what I remember there's no way to get all the pre-order bonuses at once like it was impossible because the way that they set it up

is that you can never you have to choose one retailer to go with, and that's pretty much what you got. And I think they might have eventually released that content later on, but on launch, you didn't get it. Let me see. I'm trying to find

what that article was. It was an article, like a graphic or something. Yeah, so they get, so example for like Bahala, right? Standard gold, Gold Edition Steelbook, and then Ultimate Edition, right? But they've gotten a lot better with it, where, like, used to be really confusing. We're, like, there was, like, three different versions, and, like, even the middle version didn't give you stuff like the first version they had is really, really wonky. But I think, like, they kind of learned a lesson from that and kind of got a little bit more,

a little bit more simple. Because it's like, if you wanted to buy this game, it's like, where do I, like, where do I get it from if I want this or that thing? I think it might have been like, Assassin's Crew 2 or 3 or something that were like, they had like a really like ridiculous amount of versions. But that was like early, that was like early 2010s, right?

Like a lot of developers were like messing, not developers, a lot of publishers were like toying with the idea of like retailer exclusive stuff, right? Like, oh, go to Best Buy, get the Best Buy outfit or something like that. You're just up your, you're just super mega baseball guy and like a Best Buy.

Well, that's actually like, So that is my whole theory on this is that when video games are cheap and free, most of the time it's because the video games are a commercial for something else. So for example, Fortnite, right? Free game. You can play it on anywhere you want for free on your phone, on your switch, on your PC, whatever. It's free, free, free, free. And it's a good game. millions of people play fortnight you know i don't but it's a it's a good enough game that millions of people

play it so like what do you see at uh when you go into like a target or a best buy you see a bunch of fortnight merchandise right what do you see kids dressed up as Halloween it's like fortnight characters or kids fortnight dancing at parties and yeah i wouldn't be surprised that there's like a fortnight movie one day you know and i feel like it's like uh it's more like the video game is just a commercial for like the real agenda which is obviously making money but not necessarily making money because of the you know through the game but making money like on all this other stuff and that's the reason why that's my theory is because that's actually what happened with uh marvel so when marvel was at the point of bankruptcy in the late 90s you know stanley sold all the rights to

every single Marvel character he ever thought of to Sony so they can make movies, aka commercials, like two hour long commercials for Marvel for Marvel. So what ended up happening is well now because all these two hour commercials that people were going crazy over like now these things people were buying, you know, Spider-Man lunchboxes and Iron Man T-shirts and, you know, Batman toys or Batman's not Marvel, but you get the point. It just became like a commercial for the other, not the hidden agenda, but the way they make money with this stuff. And Stan Lee never made money, I guess, from the box office. He sold the rights, but he was making a lot of money from the people who were watching those movies.

And then, you know, going to Disneyland and, you know, buying their kid those little Hulk cans or whatever, you know. Yeah, I think like, there's like a line though, right? Like, I think like if your game gets big enough, example, like Minecraft, right? Like, Minecraft, I don't think is really asked for money for me since I bought the initial game, right? And I bought that game like in beta, like way back the day. I've never had to re-buyer, right?

I think like, I'm not saying franchising, but like licensing your game to stuff is a little bit different than like, you know, hey you want to buy this game cool but what if you bought it for double the price and you get a nice shiny box in the game right like to me that's a difference like i i i think it's fine if you know kids want to wear Minecraft ninja hats and do default dances at recess and stuff right but yeah i mean that's i mean it's it's not untriller right the kind of games have become almost like a platform and like they're on many marketplaces right because like it's it's turned into and this kind of

problem that i have right now with like destiny right I haven't played in like months now because it got to the point where like they were putting out content to keep you playing, but it wasn't very compelling. It was like, here's another thing to do over and over it again. And just when you're just about bored a bit, we're going to add one more thing for you to do. And just when you're about to get really, really bored of this one, it's fun. Another thing for you to do, right? And like the thing I like to do in Destiny the most is rating, right? Like I like to do the raids.

But the problem of like Destiny is in general is like they don't. really, you don't really need to go back to the raids as far as like I'm concerned, right? Like there's no other, like there's one raid I think like per expansion usually and like once you beat it, you beat it. You can go back and grab some other stuff and do achievements and whatnot, but you don't really, you don't really need to. You know, it's not going to really, you know, it's not really going to do much for you. And I feel like they, like, what games in general need to focus on is like, you know, if you're going to, if you want to keep people playing, you know, you have to release compelling content over time

and not just, you know, like small, little dinky things, right? Like, the dailies in wow are boring as shit, right? Like, the dailies in destiny are super boring. Like, you've done the same strikes in destiny since it pretty much launched. Like, I only did, I think maybe added, like, one more. That's really pretty much shit, right? But anyway, that's not for me complaining about video games.

Back for Blood. Beta is, I think, starting today, too, like a 12 Pacific. Well, today, Thursday. day. Like I said, I don't think it's a bad game. I don't know if it's worth 60 bucks. I think it's cool. You know, maybe, you know, maybe once it launches and, you know, there's more content than we kind of see, like, you know, what actually is in the whole game. Maybe we'll make a decision, but, uh, it's, you know, I'm kind of hard-pressed to pay 60 bucks for, like, any game, you know, I think the only game I'm really going to be buying for 60 bucks. Anytime coming soon,

it would be like, uh, battlefield six. And then I'm still waiting for Dark Tide, right, for that, for that, uh, for that, uh, for that, uh, for that, uh, for that, uh, for that, uh, they pushed it back to back to 2022, but I think Verminthai launched like 40 bucks as well. It's like 3999. I play the button in that game. I have a, okay, well, I don't have that much time in that game, but I swear I played it a lot more. It says I have six to eight hours, but six eight hours is still a lot in a game. I have 279 in natural selection, and I'm trying to see what else here I have. I'm just curious what I've been playing recently. I have five hours in a house flipper. Flipping house is online.

Diablo 2, 6,000 RCS go. Yikes. Yeah, I think the game I have the most amount of hours on on Steam. Let's see. It's real quick. I actually want to see this now. I'm curious. You can do it too if you want, Ivan.

Let's say the game that I have the most amount of playtime in. So this doesn't count. It's Black Desert, but I used to have the game. So Black Desert cheats because you can literally have the game running in the background with a special, like, low power mode because you have to, like, do, like, crafting. and it takes a million years. So that doesn't count. But the second highest game I have hours

and is Planet Side 2, 669. Never playing into the hour because I've got to keep that 69 on there. Destiny 2 for 5002, 504, 49 hours in PubG, 446 and Street Fighter 5, 306 in Hunt Showdown. Hunt Showdown, so it's an amazing game. Hunt Showdown is also a game that's very, very simple.

It doesn't have a whole lot of content in it, but the content that they do have is very compelling and it's designed for you to play and have a different experience every time and it's only 40 bucks. But it also purchase a lot of D.LC in it. How do I see all my hours for different games? Let's see.

Steam, Ivan ZXC. I could probably find it free, actually. I'll just cover your account. All games. You have 1,100, almost, 1,200 hours in Kind of Strike. Go on that account. to one hour of Street Fighter 5. I'm actually surprised he played that much Street Fighter.

Yeah. And, um, 113 and Gt and Gt 5. CSGO, my highest ranking in CSGO was, was Master Guardian Elite. I don't know what level that is, though. Like, I don't know where that was. And then I retired. Let me see. I have 87 hours on Super Mega Baseball 3

on my PC and probably like half that on my Switch. Yeah. You've got, 33 hours of Star Du Valley. I'm surprised, actually. You played that game not much. Yeah, that game was pretty fun. 21 in Wolfenstein. Mother Russia Bleeds.

I actually never seen the games you have on your account here. Other Russia bleeds is awesome. Ikaruga, that's a dope game. Ikaruga is awesome, too. You got a flipper monitor for that one, though. Yeah, I remember when I had it on my, I think, a dream cast back in the day, I used to flip my TV. Seriously.

Is it a CRT or something or what? Yeah, I didn't bring some flip RTV because you, you know, actually, I don't think it could flip CRT, right? Because CRT's a roll four by three, they're all square. No, it was already like widescreen. Oh, okay, okay, okay, that makes sense, yeah. I remember the first time I played it, Carrigo, was actually my Xbox 360 when they released it on the arcade there.

That original Xbox 360 arcade was legendary, by the way. I don't think people give it enough credit for how amazing that console. was and what it did. And also the dreamcast. I mean, the dream cast was way ahead of its time. Completely bungled that launch. Okay, cool. It's on Switch 2.

Okay, any other questions, folks? Before we bounce and leave, hope you guys enjoyed this chat. We had some really wonky topics there at the end. I don't know what happened, but any thoughts for Hades? Cool game. Never finished it, but it's a good game. Hard.

If you should take anything from this episode, take that you should play more video games. You should flip your monitor vertically if you're going to be playing at Garuga on your PC or your consoles. Nintendo makes a but a ton of money. We already know that, right? Mask up, Vax up. If you are able to, please do. If don't, then, you know, I don't want to put back for you, son.

What else? APUs are the future of video games. Hydrate area. Hydrate. Make sure you hydrate. take a little nibble of your thermal paste, you know, for your health. Oh, I forgot to talk about this, dude. Okay, real quick, real quick, okay, go quick, okay.

Donda and Certified Leverboy, I mean, we're talking about this yesterday. Donda's still not out. I'm waiting for this Kanye album. I'm not a Kanye stand in a sense where I don't think he can do no wrong, but I think that Kanye is just Kanye, and Kanye puts out what he likes and what he puts out. And none of his, no two of his albums have ever been the same. and I think he's a better artist for it, right? And if you don't like it, then that's fine.

You know, not every album is meant for you. You know. I think I told you this yesterday, but in my opinion, Kanye West is the greatest rapper of all time. I don't think he's the greatest rapper of all time. Well, for, well, I'll give you three reasons, right? Three reasons, that is. Number one for that, what you just said a little while ago,

he said every single one of his albums is different, right? So that's number one. It's just like every album is different and every album is good. And then reason number two is I believe every single one of his albums has won a Grammy. You might want to fact check that. I don't think the last... But I guess if he hasn't won a Grammy for his albums, I think they've at least been nominated for Grammys. And then

So he has 70 nominations and 22 wins Let me just goes real quick So he has He has wins for Jesus is King Best Contemporary Christian Music album Which is hilarious He has one He's nomination for producer

Okay I'll see wins Nominations nominations Okay wins For best right performance Homies in Paris No church in Wild, right? He got wins for that. Best rap song. Humbies in Paris. Wins for Otis, all the lights. This is the songs in general. Best Rap album. My Beautiful Dark Tuesday Fantasy,

which I agree. That was an amazing album. Run this town. Best Rap slash song collaboration. American Boy. I don't know why that got a Grammy. That song's not that great, but whatever. Apparently that song of the year too that Jesus Christ, the Grammys are so bad. What year? Okay, no, you cannot tell me the put on. Okay, whatever. Anyway. The third reason is because I also think he's a brilliant marketer, man, because everyone's talking to everyone's like waiting for this Donda album to drop because he's, you know, he's teasing us, man. He's making everyone wait. He's like posting all these like weird things on social media and like people are talking about it. People are just like, you know, hyped up for every Kanye album.

So those are my top three reasons why I think. he's the goat but apart from that you know you factor in all those different tracks he did before he even started rapping where he was just like you know making beats for like naz and biggie and jZ Eminem and comment like all these like other you know yeah great rappers and yeah I feel like just for that alone you know he's definitely my opinion the goat and the thing about Drake too since you mentioned his album which is also expected to drop the thing about Drake in my opinion that makes him so so great is it's not necessarily like his own albums but anytime Drake is on the song it's a slapper you know like

yeah anytime anytime the song says featuring Drake you know it's going to be good and I'll use Sycomode is the example. So when I think of the greatest rapper of all time, I'm thinking literal rapidy raps, right? Like, who is rapping better? I don't think Kanye is the best rapper of all time. I think he might be one of the, maybe one of the greatest and, like, maybe most prolific, possibly. I don't know if I'm using that word correctly, hip-hop artists of all time. but I think in terms of like ability to rap,

I don't think he's that, like lyrics, like lyrics and flow. Yeah, exactly, yeah. I mean, he's good. Yeah,

I can see that. Yeah. He's not. I think you're right. Yeah. I think maybe I'm considering, I'm looking more of him as like as a complete artist. Just like someone who spits bars,

you know. Like if I'm just looking at someone who's like a bar spitter, then yeah, then, you know, I'm going to probably say something like, uh, probably honestly,

if I had to say like just someone that can like rhyme words together in a way that that is good I'm gonna probably go in Nause Have you heard his new album by the way? No I haven't dropped it like last week

it's really good there's actually it's funny because people are mentioning Eminem in the comments so by the way guys if you don't know Ivan and I so for those who are listening for the first time or catching us first time here on Twitch and haven't you know listened to us on the Discord or on our previous episodes. We like music a lot, actually. We talk about music a lot. I just forgot we were going to

talk music. We were talking about freaking yelling at video game developers and publishers, but the longest time. But there's actually a M&M feature on Nas' new album is really, really, really good. He kills it. Yeah. The M&M is also like, if you're just talking about people that can, you know, lay down words. Yeah. He's definitely one of the best people to ever do that for sure. Yeah. I think, I would say for me one of the best lyricists and like master of the craft of like rapping itself I would probably give it to like you know it's gonna be a little cliche but like Kendrick or like Andre I think Andre especially his like older work like just the way he was able to kind of like work in so many syllables and just like kind of weave in

these thoughts until like one bar is like ridiculous and I don't think very many people have that skill. I think him and like maybe like, God, what's his name off top of MF Doom, right? We're really, really good at like bending language

to fit the bar or the other way around, right? Like they're super, super good at that. And I think that's what makes them, my opinion, way better rappers.

The thing with MF Doom, though, I love MF Doom, but when I listen to MF Doom, I have to like be energized and focused because I have to pay attention to the, words because it's like I know he's going to say something that I don't want to miss.

It's not it's not music you can just sit and listen to you like in the background. Like you have to active listen to it because that's like 90% of like what's so good about it is like the way that the words are working in like the things he's saying how he plays with language. And like that's that's not a casual listening experience. Which I think also kind of puts him in a really weird category of like, you know, a lot of people probably would never really listen to him because they don't like take the time to to listen to him. And I'm not trying to be like, you know, like gatekeeping.

about it. He literally is like that good where like if you don't pay attention you're missing 90% of the show with him. Like you like you have to listen to that. You have to listen to him with intent if that makes sense.

Rest in peace, MF Doom. I know right. Too soon, dude, too soon. I think he'd go so young. By the way, just today I think Tom York from Radiohead he dropped a MF Doom remix. I haven't checked it out yet

but I know it came out today. know I've never really ever given a listener radio head like ever and I don't know why they I just I think I think I just like missed I just missed them for some reason they're definitely the probably the best alternative rock band of the 1990s maybe even the 2000s early 2000s they're really good man it's also kind of like MF Doom where you kind of have to be Yeah, you kind of pay attention to the music and the words. They're kind of deep at times, yeah. Here's a question, if they're so good, right,

then what is Tom York when you have 1.0 million followers on Twitter, huh? What's up with that? Maybe, I don't know, maybe he doesn't tweet. They're also been around for like 30 years of something like a, they're not like the hottest band of the moment or anything like that. Let me see, I'm actually curious. So Eminem's not on Twitter, but Drake is on Twitter with 3.9 million followers. You want to talk about Twitter Cloud?

Look how many followers Travis Scott has? Kanye has $305 million. Travis Scott has 11 million. God damn. Kanye has 305 million? Yeah. Kanye has 30.5 million. Drake is 39.

point million. Most followers on Twitter. I'm just curious who has the most followers now. I don't know why we're doing this live on the show, but... Justin Bieber? The entire popular... Barack Obama, actually, apparently. 1.29 million.

That might have changed, though. Let me see. Talking about musicians, though. Yeah, yeah. Okay, let me just go all the way to the bottom of this list here, and just go to the top. So number one is Obama, Bieber. 100... Jesus Christ, 111.

Yeah, 111. For some reason, Katie Perry is up there, 108 million. I don't know why. Apparently, she's the second most influential woman on Twitter. Why don't I ever see her then? Rana is 102 million. Rinaldo has 93 million. Taylor Swift is 88.6. Arana Grande is 83. That's crazy.

Lady Gaga is 83 million. The YouTube account has 7.3 million followers. He's really following the Twitter, the freaking YouTube accountee. That's ridiculous. Yeah, that's crazy, though. That's actually nice. I didn't realize that they would have that much more over, you know, I guess it just goes to show you like how far-reaching pop is, right?

And like how it just really just hold to the pop name, you know, being popular. By the way, for those who don't know, right, pop's short for popular. I'm zoning for, I'm zoning for Barack to drop his album, dude. You know he's going to be fired, too. He's going to be lit. I know. Yeah, I think, um, I think Drake's going to sell more albums, though, or he's going to have more listens than Kanye.

I think that to start, Kanye will have more because we've been waiting for a new album for him forever and he's been teasing it like a mother for the longest time. But I think Drake will eventually have more listens on these albums, just because Drake is just like a freaking powerhouse. And I mean, if you want to talk about marketing, this dude is always in the right place at the right time, but the right artist, right? Like he's never not where he's not supposed to be. It's actually pretty crazy.

Like, you know, he was there right, like, you know, when Trapp was going to be a thing with, like, Migos and them. And then he hopped on that whole, like, you know, dance hall thing. There was like a, you know, a trend for like a minute. And he's, you know, then he, you know, he hopped onto, was it, a New Orleans Bounds for like a couple of songs here and there. Like, it's really crazy how he's always hopping on the stuff. And it's actually really funny when you were,

because you mentioned Travis Scott. and I think I told this to you last time like any song that Travis Scott hops onto turns it into a Travis Scott song and not just by like It's lit. Yeah and like not just like the way he wraps there's just like the sound that comes out

You know it's like the way the beat sounds The actual production. It's really really weird where like I feel like other artists You know This is your song? Cool. I'm gonna you know I'm gonna do a thing on your song not This is my song now

I'm taking it It sounds nothing like the rest of your songs because I am on this song. Anyway, yeah, music. Music is great. So waiting for Danda. Who knows it will come out? Supposedly. Is this week now, right? I don't know. It's like, uh, Danda, Donda released.

Donda. Yeah, Dande. I, uh, Kanye West Bricks, Apple Music Records again, still no Donda release. You know what? Is he doing, do you see that picture where Connie's freaking floating dude? Please tell me you saw that. Hold on it.

It's going to be on my screen. That's changing the news here. Wrong one. Hold up. That's Mario. I was looking at Mario's stuff. Here, this is right here. Where's the picture at?

These websites are just so trashed. But it's literally, I'll take a screen cap for you. It's literally Connie, dude, floating around Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Weird. It's freaking ridiculous, dude. Twin Dead says PS5 is in stock on. Actually, you should hit up someone at NXT, dude. I'm pretty sure somebody offered, like,

hey, like, if you need a PlayStation, like, I know people who can get you a PlayStation at retail. Well, maybe for free. Maybe you should ask for a free. Everyone that sends me links is already sold out by the time I click it. You should, you should do this. Like, hey, guys, I'm in need of a PlayStation 5. At this point, I'm just going to hold off from free.

point I'm just gonna hold out for my steam deck yeah and then place play play what on it again super mega baseball three super movies okay no right you're saying you're gonna playstation for for the show though right i want a PlayStation for the show but um the baseball season is almost over so you don't care anymore not that i don't care it's just uh i wanted it to like kind of play like during the baseball season you know i get it because it follows like you can import rosters like up-to-date and like it tracks injuries and things like that. So it's just kind of like another way to enhance the Major League Baseball experience. I get that.

I get that. Yeah. I mean, we didn't tell people like the biggest update of the week deal that you and I went to baseball game. Well, with the rest of the team, but yeah, that's cool.

Actually, it's funny, it's the first time I've seen you in like a year. And if you realize that, it's like, oh, hey, there's Ivan. How did I look to you?

You looked like a man who was very excited to be at a baseball game where the Angels were going to get rocked. That was a sad game. to watch, dude. I thought for a minute when they busted out with Tony, I'm like, hey, things going to happen now. Nope. It was good to see Albert Pujol's hit a home run against his old team. Yeah, I still, I mean, I'm sure it makes sense

from some kind of perspective of like why they dropped them, but like in my mind as like a casual non-baseball person, you know, you have someone who's really good and then, you know, you drop him and he goes to another team and then he does really, really low on that team. You got to, you kind of have to be kicking yourself, right? There's no way. it's no way that you don't feel like a dumb ass for that. Yeah, especially the way they dropped Pujolz was they basically said,

you know, you're too old to be on the Angels, you're too old to play every day, you're too old for baseball, basically, so we don't want you on our team because, you know, our future is with guys like Shohei Otani or whatever, and which is true, you know, like, you know, Pujolz is getting old. But all he's done since he's been on the Dodgers

is freaking hit RBI's and fingers. It's like all he's been doing is just getting hits. Yeah. So, yeah, it's been cool as a Dodger fan, seeing that. No, as an angel fan, I am the same as I ever been. Very disappointed in my team, but not surprised. All right. Fun fact, the Angels, the Angels have been in last place ever since Dennis moved across the street from Angel Stadium.

This is true. It's true. It's literally all my fault. It's probably because I haven't been to the stadium yet. I was going to go, I was looking at tickets today because they have a, today's Pride Day, actually, at Angel Stadium. Oh, cool. Yeah, angels.com slash pride. And to be honest, I only really want to go because of the hat.

They're playing a good team today. They're playing the Blue Jays. Yeah, one of my neighbors is from Canada. He's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, I'm sure. I'm not going to do this during the show, but I kind of want to you as well to see, like, how much tickets are. The filtering of these, of these tickets. This is what we'll be doing the podcast, folks.

This is the exclusive experience that you'll never get anywhere else. I don't know why do you want any other kind of experience, you know. I don't know, $16 tickets. Yeah, but they're way up top, though, dude. Like, I don't want to sit like at the very, here. I'll show it. Do you have I see you here? I'm just going to show it to the stream because why not?

This is the fun part of the show, right? We're a little kind of winding down here. So the tickets that they're giving me are like way up here in the very, very back of the stadium. I don't even need to like share like a screen with Ivan. I can easily show him a picture and he'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I didn't show you the picture of Connie, my bad. Whoops. Yep. I sent it to a homie and said. So there's Angel Stadium and then also there's a picture Connie floating in the air. Anyway, so $16 tickets, right? View MVP, very, very, very top. Like, you mean, you're a high at home plate, but you're also like literally 50 feet in the air, which I would never want to sit. And then

other seats like down like by the field are like 58 bucks i don't know if a hat's worth 58 to be honest that's not something that i would have wanted to pay for i'm not i'm going to have a cheap person when it comes to like baseball games because not the biggest baseball fan in the world either so you know but i know there's some games where you can get pretty cheap seats but looks like uh looks like not not today right looks like not in the cards you can always uh just get the cheapest seat and and try to like sneak down to an empty seat yeah

I mean people do that all the time yeah but I feel dirty when I do that because I remember and maybe maybe this is just indicative of like the game that I went to I went to a Mexico

I figured who they were playing it was it was a soccer it was like Mexico versus somebody game at the Coliseum which by the way it's a terrible stadium the Coliseum like the surrounding area is super bad.

Los Angeles is just an ugly city in general. And like, the way, like, they, they, they, they put these stadiums in,

like, the most inconvenient places in the absolute world. You know, it just makes zero sense. But I remember when I got there, this dude was sitting on my seat. He was a dude who had, like,

a mesh shirt on, first and foremost. This fool was, like, full, like, full man boobs out, right? It's wearing mesh.

And I'm like, hey, dude, this is my seat. You sure? And I'm like, like why would I just come to you and say this is my seat and take it from you if it was in my seat like if I'm trying to steal the seat from you why would I like doesn't make it made zero sense right like if I'm if I do this thing at angel stadium right like I go to the stadium and I take someone and

and I find an empty seat and I sit in it and someone goes hey man you're my seat and I go oh yeah sure sorry about that bro you're right I'm going to get up I'm not going to go oh yeah prove it to me like is that is that a thing do people just like steal seats or something like yeah it's a thing did they really walk up to you go hey that's my seat like no here's my ticket oh okay you're right and then they walk away like usually people get the assistance of an usher so they don't have to deal with it that's what i did it's a thing that's what i did i was i was annoyed because i was like bro like this is my seat like you could do too is just get the cheapest ticket and then you can watch the game from like standing up like in the outfield like drinking a beer even a hot dog like you don't have to sit down in your seat to watch it you can just

vibe vibe in one of those chill spots yeah that's true that's true it seems kind of weird to do that though right like if you're not like actually utilizing your seat I guess or maybe it's go there or maybe I just go there just for the hat and I leave I mean if you want you want as a hat I'm sure you can probably just buy it online somewhere yeah because like to be honest like sitting or like sending in like that mezzanine is kind of weird too because like you're surrounding with like a bunch of other people also and like I you know like I said I literally live across the street from the city I could walk there I can walk there now and be back in like 15 minutes probably if I walk a little quick like I don't know that would make for great radio no but that actually would make for great radio just so I'm a day time you I should go live on my phone um oh no no mind never mind it's discounted pricing on the red hat.

Man, y'all can even give it out for free? Photo free? That's ridiculous. Anyway, that's in this show, Ivan. Any putting words, any last minute announcements, anything cool coming up that we've got going on? The only big announcement I want to make is that there will not be a podcast next week.

Is that happening next week? Well, you're going out of town, right? I am going out of town. I'm heading up to the Great North San Francisco. Yeah. And I'm too dumb to run a podcast by myself. So we're not going to do it next week. But the good news is that we're going to do two the following week.

And supposedly we don't know yet if you're doing two in the following week, right? If everything goes according to the following week, and they're going to be with two very special guests that I think everyone would like listening to. So it's probably going to be worth the wait then not to listen next week. So you get a two-for-one special the following week after that. Yeah, in a classic NXT fashion, we don't know what's going to happen in two weeks because things are always changing around here.

If you all, if you guys only knew the frustrations that Ivan and I go through on a daily, weekly, monthly basis of things changing around, your head would explode. That's why we haven't released PC2 yet. You know, just keeps getting delayed. Anyway, I think that's it, right? And nothing else.

I shouldn't think... I guess since we're not going to be here next week, I should probably mention that next week is also QuakeCon. And we are going to be doing some QuakeCon giveaways on social. So follow us on social at NZXT, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. So you guys can win a free PC. We're going to give a giveaway a custom-wrapped Quake-C-C-C-C. Yes.

Can they say that some NICS come out, they have come along? way in a good way and I'm totally here for it has come out you mean like NXT thank you nut friend can't by to say that since NXT has come out they have come a long way in a good way and I'm totally here for it come out like since N60 started like as a company because thank you and I would hope so right up that after like 16 something like that years that we would be involving in getting better as a company that'd be really really sad if you didn't okay awesome cool yeah for sure no I mean I've been a fan of NXC since

forever, you know? Like, my first case was in H440, you know, and I love that thing. It was great. I kind of want it back, to be honest. I shouldn't have sold it. But it was also, like, I was missing stuff. It was missing, like, the hard drive cage, you know, it was missing, like, a bunch of screws. You know, like, you have a computer case or, like, computer parts for long enough time

you end up losing a bunch of stuff. He becomes like a Frankenstein, BC. Ah, like, this screw can go here. It fits. It's just properly threaded, you know. It doesn't go all the way, but it holds the motherboard in place, so it won't fly out. Yeah. All right.

So with that, folks, maybe a little bit too lot for everybody. It's not even playing, is it? It's not. Okay, so that was just me that heard that. That's awesome. Okay, I know why. Derb.

Okay, so... Thank you for joining us, everybody. Thank you to everybody who tuned in. Remember to tune in next week at 10 a.m. Pacific Center time to the official NZXT, Twitch, and follow NZXT on all relevant and irrelevant social media. And if you want to ask this question off the air, send an email to Clubcast at nvc.com. That email again is Clubcast at nvc.com.

Don't do it, please. And don't forget to listen to previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud or Twitch Vodz. Because apparently people watch the Vodz after we're done. Imagine that. And yeah, you know, like, subscribe, follow, do all that stuff. Share the show with the friend. Share the show with your poppy. If you have one, you know, everyone should have a poppy ready to go to take them the baseball games.

and to share their nuts with them. Thank you for your nuts, I've and appreciate it. You're welcome. And with that, thanks a lot, folks, and we see you next time. Bye.