Triforce! - The Old, the Confused, the Grumpy | Triforce #360

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

Triforce! Episode 360! What's changed in 10 years? Are we just grumpier and more confused? Or are we blindly listening to AI on random gardening tips? Go to http://BUYRAYCON.com/triforceOPEN to get 20% off The Essential Open Earbuds Support your favourite podcast on Patreon: https://bit.ly/2SMnzk6 Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Lead us in. Hello, wonderful listener. Good leader. Welcome back. To the TriFo's podcast. We're talking to just one person. Just before this podcast, I made a mistake of looking at the TriForce subreddit. Right. And I read a post.

There's a post on there saying, 10 years ago, when the TriFiFault's podcast started, the boys were filled with much more joie de vivre. Yeah, I think that's bollocks. And were they happier then? Were things different then? And it got me thinking, obviously, because, you know, of course, was life so much better back then? That's what they're asking. Ten years ago?

I mean, I suppose it was, I mean, look, do we want to open this with politics? Well, no. Before, when we started this podcast, Brexit hadn't happened. Trump hadn't won the election. Those were two things that I think have been a massive negative. For us, mentally, in this world, if you think both things were great, good luck to you. I'm sure your life has improved massively under both of those things. But for me, it's been stinking.

fairly nuanced discussion. It's depressing. And it definitely, like, there were elements of that in terms of people saying, you know, having 10 years of one-click news beamed straight into our brains, whether we like it or not. Yeah. And also like kind of, you know, whether or not you're affected by it, certainly the people around you are. And, you know, it's, it's, it's affected everyone and changed everyone. And I think we share a shared culture. It was quite an interesting thought. And obviously, most of the people in the comments were saying things about how. how our lives have changed and how you two haven't changed as much as me. You've changed more.

Well, you've gone, I mean, your kids have grown up, P-Flax, and are almost ready to leave the nest. Well, they're never going to do that. Thanks to the double whammy of the housing market and a depressed job market for the young. Well, you know. And then Sips, you just carried on adding to the brood. So in effect, you've had, you've always,

My life has been... A child of roughly the same age in the house. Roughly the same age for like 15 years now. Yeah. So you kind of get into a groove with it. Well, if you keep replacing them, you'll always have this like conveyor belt. I know. And then we've also acquired pets along the way too.

And there's also... And they've died every now and then, I suppose. No, none of them have died. I'm happy to report. What are you talking about? How long the hamsters live? Well, not long. And they're guinea pigs.

but they have lived long enough we got two new ones recently as well yeah because the old ones got it sure no no the old ones are still going so you've got 10 year old guinea pigs does your wife be replacing them secretly the first the first batch are four and the new batch are like six months

oh you didn't have them back then Lewis was implying that you had always had no no no we've had our tortoise for nine years now I think he's going to be nine or ten this summer he's gonna outlive you and us and this podcast. Well, yeah, with any luck, he will, yeah.

If one of us dies, who's going to take over on the podcast? Good question. I've got a couple of people lined up already. I like to prepare. Right. Who you got on a lot of auditions. If Lewis was going to get Keanu Reeves in to replace him.

I think that would be really good. Well, do you know who else lives on Jersey? Henry Cavill could replace you. Henry Cavill could replace me easily. Yeah, we both look very similar. We got similar gaming interests and hobby interests. Yeah, you could get, who's that guy, who's that impressionist, John Coulshaw or whatever?

Is it John Coulshaw? Yeah, is that the guy who does it? He can replace P-flags. He can replace Flax. I would say that would be dangerous because then people would realize that a good impression, what a good impressionist sounds like, and the whole back catalogue would be in big trouble. Right. What's your current, like, routine?

If you had to do like a type five of impression. God, it would be so bad. I'd be booed off the stage. Who would you start with? You want to start with RFK Jr., because that's always a bang. That's a classic, yeah. That's such a good one. Segway into him having a convoy with Donald Trump.

And then maybe I'd segue into a convo between Starmer and Trump. Starmor. You could do Starmor, RFK Jr., Trump, and Biden all having a conversation together. A big party. Can you just do a little tiny bit of riffing? I know you haven't prepared, and also you need to write a script for it, but I've I'd love to just see. Who's that other guy that you've been practicing, Adam Sandler?

Or what was his name? Adam Driver. Adam Driver. Adam Sandler. Adam Sandler. That's Adam Driver's favorite comedian. Is it? What's your name?

Adam Driver. Who's your favorite comic actor? Adam Sandler. It's all just Adams. It's not a good impression because it just sounds a bit like. It does sound like. It does. It sounds a lot like.

Gotta watch Wapner. Definitely got to watch Wapner. If I was left to do all the impression. It would just be nonstop Decker-Cain impressions all the time. Who's DeCate Cane again? It's the only one I can do. He's the guy from Diablo. He's the old man in Diablo, if you ever played Diablo.

He's called Deccard Kane. His name is dead now. He's gone. Wait, is that the actor's name? In the law. No, he's the character in the in the video game series. That sounds like a modern game. Why would they call him Deccard Cain? Sounds like something from Metal Gear Solid. That's so odd.

It does, doesn't it? Yeah, it does a little bit, eh? But no, he's an old, he's an old magician who dies in Diablo. to spoil it. Let's see. Oh, God. How does he sound? Like this. He's got quite the power in the Haradric. Horatric Scroll there. You got quite the treasure. Yeah, that's my only impression. It's not even a good one. It's really fun to do that. It's not even a good one. So if Flax dies, we got no, we got nothing going for us. We got no impressions. We got no, we got no, I mean, that's the meat of the podcast. Yeah. All of our comedy ammunition is immediately wiped out.

It's the funniest bit every, it's the bit I look forward to. Me too. I know you hate, you hate it on yourself, but I think you could, you could make it. I think you got some really good ones. I definitely do not. In another life, if you had not taken the path of Dota. You could have been, you could have, you could have, you could have, you could have grinded the, the fringe festival, for example.

Impressionist. I would not as an impressionist. I assure you guys, it's very sweet and you're very kind and people, people do enjoy them, but it's it's nowhere near quality enough. I just wanted to borrow some money, so I was just trying to grease you up a little bit. No. How much do you need?

I can lend you about a tenor. You need, I'm going to need about two million. Oh, shit. Trying to get. Is there any money in the Patreon? Because I got a tax bill that it's made. I don't think there is.

Well, we luckily let the Patreon, we forgot about it, to be honest. And we've been doing this for a long time, so it built up in there. Oh, yeah. We paid it to ourselves, paid for my new lawn mower. Nice. Yeah.

I've been watching a lot of, I've been watching a lot of gardening videos. I feel like I'm getting back to the point in my life where I can actually think about and maybe devote some time to gardening once again, which I loved doing when I was really into it. I've had a few emails asking for updates because you did say you were going to have a nice fire bed and everything. Yeah. I'm going to get some stuff.

I got some ideas of what I want to do. I want to, I want to do like some. like some, I want to get some nice flowers that will just like keep coming back every year, but then I want to also have a space to grow some fun stuff, you know, like seasonal. Some weed. Some weed or like some vegetables or whatever, some poppies for my opium addiction. And but then I also want to get a place set up outside that's fun for like all of my animals and stuff too.

Yeah. Guinea pigs and whatever. You know what I say one thing I always thought was that when the kids got older, that I would put them to work helping me do things. Yes. And they will help to a point, but they get bored very quickly. Oh, I know. And when they realize how long this job is going to take, they sort of like try to find

excuses to get out of it. And I realize that- Are any of your children now thinking like, maybe I need to get a Saturday job or something? Are they at that point? Like, are they like, I need a bit of disposable? I want to do something? This is another problem with job market and wages. for young people is that a lot of jobs that would have been a job that a 17-year-old would

have had, 16-old would have had at the weekend. Yeah, they're being replaced by self-checkouts and stuff. People are self-checkouts, yeah. Yeah, that's it. And I think there are some regulations. I know my 14-year-old really wanted to get a job, but it's quite hard for companies to employ anyone under 16 because obviously there are fears about people were worried about exploitation of children by businesses hiring 14-year-olds instead of adults to do jobs

and then getting away with paying them less. But equally, my 14-year-old is like, but I need money too. I want a job. Like when I was 14, I worked basically from like 11 or 12. I always had something. Paper around or I was doing something somewhere for someone to make a little bit of extra scratch and they want the same thing. But yeah, I had a couple of shut off to them.

Paper roots and stuff. And then when I was about 15 and a half, I was, I was a bag boy at the grocery store. But that was just like some weeknights and then weekends, you know, just like you, you're like on a part-time shift rhoda, basically, you know. I worked in kitchens. They were fine. I hated them at the time, but now I feel like I would probably not mind doing any of that stuff.

I like washing up now. I did it for so long that I'm genuinely, it's one of, it's one skill I can actually say I'm very good at washing up. It's really such a minor skill. What's the secret to washing up? It's just the speed with which you can do. Wax on, wax off. You've got to get.

I see. It's like a race for you. You give me a bunch of dirty stuff. and at sink and give me the tools to do my work. And I'll tell you what, I'm very quick, very thorough, nothing's missed, excellent washer-upper. Because you had to be. They needed that shit for the next service, you know. So they'd come in, one of the restaurants I worked, that they'd come in with all these dirty plates.

Fair enough. Plates easy. Don't even worry about those. It's the trays, the baked in, pasta bakes. I've told this story before, cauliflower, you know, cauliflower cheese and everything. Yeah, the stuff that gets started. Yeah. Been sat under the hot lamp.

So the heat lamp burns and crisps the edges because it's closer to the lamp. Got to get that in, scrape over and out that you can, soak that thing. Like you set that soaking, you do the plates and then by the time you soaked it,

then you can do the whole thing. It's just the movement of the plate under the water, the spray of the soapy water, the brush. It is. It's an art form doing it properly. Yeah. Never broke anything,

they drop stuff. Perfect. Do the glasses first, rins them under the tap, etc, etc. I'm still looking for a stretch. rapping young man to like do do things for me around the house like law mowing and stuff like a pool boy i've got all this crap i want to empty out of this old shed and take to the front but it's just

you want a sidekick like larry david does and kirby enthusi you want to leave like a man i need like a laborer i need like a portuguese bare chested i would do i would do all that stuff if i didn't have a family kids if i was just a single man outside to look out through my window with my diet coke you know i need okay i would live live in a little cottage like on your on your property somewhere and I would just do all those jobs for you happily I would do all that like it's tricky right because I guess it's a supermarket is easy for almost like for me as a weed leave 14 year old yes working in Sainsbury's for I think it was like two pounds 75 an hour or something insane that's crazy was like both exploitation and

I was willing to be exploited and it was good my parents got me out of the house I don't know it was character building. I was some bullshit. I didn't hate it. It was it was kind of fun like stacking shells. I do that in supermarket simulator. I choose to do it now for no pay. Any of those jobs though it was always the people that you worked with. I was lucky I worked with people that I liked and it was fun. So you'd turn up and it, you know, it would be like, oh, fuck it would work. But at least like you got to hang out with some people that you liked and whatever. And you know, you made a bit of money. And then I used to spend all my money on like the dumbest shit though. Same.

Just food and cigarettes. Alcohol. That's about it. I don't remember spending money on anything else back then. That was just that was always always the main thing. It was like, we're going out, need money to go out, need money to go downtown, need money to eat. You know, it was always like, because you didn't have like all of the delivery services that you have now. So it was like, somebody would phone you and be like, we're going to Pizza Hut.

Okay, good. And then like 20 people would just pile into a car and go to Pizza Hut and eat Pizza Hut buffet. But I mean, it all costs money, right? You have to, you had to have some a little bit of money. And those part-time jobs are perfect for that. Like, you know, I used to get paid every week as well, which is unheard of now. I think most people just get paid what every month or two weeks in some places. But getting paid, I used to get paid every Friday.

It was amazing. Every Friday would roll around. You'd be like, what are we doing this weekend? I just got paid. and it was fun. Did anybody watch the game last night? I'm going to say it. Yes.

Which one? The England game. The game. I watched the England game and I watched the Belgium game. I watched both games as well. So just for context, for anyone not aware of the date, it's currently the seventh of, oh, no, it's not, it's the second of July. It's the second of the seventh, yeah.

I watched those games. I did not watch the USA game because it was on at one in the morning. Yeah, I didn't watch that either. I didn't understand. The World Cup, so England versus the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Exactly. Dr. Congo to you. It was quite a gripping game.

It was such a frustrating game to watch. As every England game is. It really is, isn't it? I don't know why they're like this. Like every squad they have, it's just like passing, passing, passing. Oh, a mistake. Oh, well, the other team. surgery forward.

It's just like that. It's just like that. It's just like that. Has said the things you say. I mean, it's annoying though, because you look at a team like France and they're just like they're up there. They're making plays. It's like, it's like watching them is like magic.

And then you watch England and it's just like this same miserable slog every single game. France was so good in their games. Every game I've seen, they look so good. I'm not a big football person. So if you're, if you're big into football and you're annoyed that I find it miserable, sorry, but it is annoying. I don't think you'll find an England fan that would not agree with you, Sips.

They're watching us is incredibly frustrating. A lot of the time, you're like, just fucking do something. It's a team that's stacked with talent as well. They've got some really good players on there. They do have some, but I think some of the players they brought are maybe not the best.

No. The World Cup's always a weird one, right? Because what you've got effectively is a bunch of players brought together at the endless season to try and get some national pride together, but mostly not really get a chance to train with each other on the English national side, versus someone from literally the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I can't think of anything really they are known for, apart from, you know, terrible war crimes done against them hundreds of years ago by the Belgians,

which was terrible, honestly. Like, their history is awful, but one of probably the worst in the world of colonialism. But other than that, like, they're not. a major world player. But they, obviously, their players, they've got some players who do play for Premier League clubs, but mostly they get to train together, I imagine, for longer, and maybe they have a bit more tight-knit side.

I don't know why these tiny countries perform so well. Which is, which tiny countries? Fascinating. Well, like, Iceland will beat us, and they've got, you know, a population of 100,000 people. That's nothing to do with Iceland.

That's to do with us. Like, I think some of the teams we lose to, genuinely, we absolutely deserve to lose to them. P-Flex, but it feels like in the World Cup, Germany are out. They lost to a tiny country. Yeah, but again, they just played like shit. Paraguay. It's, at end of the day, yeah, it's 11 versus 11 lads out there, in it?

End of the day, anyone can beat anyone. That's what makes football beautiful. But I've got to tell you, we've been playing like mugs. We've been playing like mugs so far. Same as Germany, playing like mugs. Netherlands, mugs. Oh, Belgium. They're just going to get mugged off.

more tough to watch as well. Jesus Christ. Boring, yeah. But they did, in the end, they did win. But yeah, it has been a really entertaining World Cup in some ways. Oh my God, some of the games have been so stinking. Good World Cup for strikers. There's been a lot of goals.

What you get is this sort of feeling of complacency because you are England versus the Democratic Republic of Congress. So when you're one-nil down in the sixth minute and then you've got to watch the game for the whole, you know, everyone was on like, oh my God, how are we, this is like how are we lose into a country that we've never heard of. You've never heard of the Democratic Republic of Congress. Well, okay, can you place it on a map? Yeah, it's bang in the middle.

Slap bang in the middle. It's kind of like the west coast of Africa, like middleish, yeah. No, it's like bang in the middle. No, look, I'll show you a screenshot of where it is. My point is proven. Look, it's right there. Osh. Right where?

There. Osh. Right in the middle of subs are in a half. It's a big old country. Congo. You know, I was reading about what the Belgians did out there. If you've never read about what they did under King Leopold. Don't read it.

It's so depressing. Like, it's just the worst fucking stuff. Like, one of the things they did was they employed these guys as a sort of police force that were made up of locals who were told, don't let anybody run off. They've got to have their quota. And first of all, their quota was so extreme that they basically had to work all day, every day, to make their rubber quote. And if they didn't, they got their hands, like they tried to run away, they get their hands cut off. But sometimes they only paid them for the hands. So in order to get paid, they would just, these guys would just go to villages and cut off

a bunch of people's hands and bring them in and say, see, we got a bunch of, we killed a bunch of bad guys, but they just cut a bunch of hands off. And to get the rub, you had to pull it down and to flatten it out or something. They had to basically stick it to their body and then peel it off. So they're like waxing themselves day and day out with the rubber. It's awful. It's brutal. I haven't done it justice.

How bad it is. What about that? What about this? There's a couple of popular culture references to Congo that maybe would have put Congo on the map for you. Are you talking about Ambongo? Yeah. Mbongo, Bongo, Bongo.

I don't want to leave the Congo. No, no, no, no, no, no. There's that one. I thought you're talking about Unbongo, the drink. Mbongo, they drink it in the Congo, that one. Right, okay. That was the advert. Um, Bongo.

What about the 1980 classic novel, Congo by Michael Crichton? Is that the one about the Gariguan? the gorilla? Yep. Yeah, that was a movie, wasn't it? I think. Mysterious death's previous expedition in the dense tropical rainforest of the Congo. Is there a Michael Crichton book that hasn't been made into a film?

Michael Crichton, I feel like should be up there with like Sid Meyer and Tom Clancy. Like they should use Michael Crichton's name in things, you know, like games. So they did. Michael Crichton's Congo, the game or something. You know, like that would be great. Sphere, which was made into a film. film, I think, with Dustin Hoffman, I think, Sphere. It was a terrible movie.

Congo. 19-19. Yeah, Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson. It's a piece of shit. He did Jurassic Park as well. He originally wrote Jurassic Park. Oh, my God. That was adapted by Kurt Vimmer.

That's why that's so bad. There is a film called Equilibrium, early 2000s. Have you ever heard of it? Yes. It's got Christian Bail in. For anyone that does know, he's got Christian Bail in, and he lives in an oppressive future where emotion is banned. Right.

And you basically have to take this drug every day to suppress your emotions. And if you show any sign of emotion, they whisk you off and kill you, basically. That film, that was Kurt Vimmer, okay, and that film did okay. But then he made a film called Ultra Violet with Miliovovich. And that is one of the worst films I've ever seen. It might be the worst film. Yeah. No, it might be the worst film I've ever seen.

And I had to review that when I did movie reviews for a website way back. This is one of the things they sent me to review. And it is genuinely, genuinely, the worst film I've ever seen, I think. It's utterly irredeemable. So he did an adaptation of Sphere. That was Kurt Vimmer. That's unbelievable. Then they did Jurassic Park Rising Sun.

Do you remember Rising Sun? They made a movie of it with... Oh, I want to say... Jurassic Park Rising Sun. What are you talking about? I'm listening to them. Let me guess. They do a Jurassic Park in Asia.

Is that why it's called Rising Sun? They turn this into a movie. It's like there's something. kind of Japanese corporations, like a detective thing or something like that. But they made it

into a movie with, God, who was in the movie? I want to say it was Catherine Zeta Jones. Rising Sir, Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes.

Nice. Yeah, and Tia Carrera. Sorry, Tia Kriere. Wesley Snipes. They said there's a rising sun

I gave to shit. And then disclosure, that was the one that I think that had Catherine Zia Jones. I think you hallucinated Jurassic Park Rising Sun the movie. It doesn't exist.

Jurassic Park, comma, rising sun, comma, disclosure. I'm reading a list. Right. I see. It's a list. Well, Rising Sun was a Michael Crichton.

That's what I'm saying. That's what... Right, right, right, right. And he was adapting all the Michael Cron stuff. Okay. Then the Lost World. Jurassic Park Lost World. That was another Crichton.

Yeah. Then there was one called Airframe, which I haven't heard of. Was that adapted? So are these bad or good? Michael These were all very 90s movies Like condo

Spheres, Jurassic Park Andromeda Strain The Lost World Oh Andromatestrain is a great movie That is a great movie Andromeda Strain is a good book I remember reading it Yeah

We talked about When I was that young in you Yeah But yeah so he made that The 90s was like Crichton time Like everything he wrote It's Crichton time

Yeah That was the way it was He's got a book here called Eaters of the Dead. Never read that one. I never heard of that. Isn't that just maggots? Dragon Teeth Jurassic Park. Eaters of the Dead?

Oh, that's 13th Warrior. Eaters of the Dead. That was also made into a movie. Some of these I do not. He was like recognizing. 13th Warrior was another 90s classic. Yeah, it had Antonio Bandaris was in it. That movie is a banger.

It lost a ton of money and people hate it. But I fucking loved that movie. That's really good. He died in 2008, Michael Crichton. 66 years. So, again, this is another reason that 13th row is classic 90s is Antonio Banderas plays a Muslim scholar from the Middle East who comes to the Viking lands for some reason. I can't remember why he's there.

He did Twister as well. He's meant to be an Arab for some reason. Yeah, Twister. They made another one of that with Glenn fucking Campbell, didn't they? Did they? I think they just called it Twisters. Twisters. Oh, there was a newer one.

Yeah, that's right, eh? It's terrible. Oh man. I've watched any movies so long. Neither. I'm on a, it's my turn to plug somebody else's podcast. I'm going to be on G and Booth's podcast next week. Oh, on Yompe? Oh, it's great fun. And I had to pick a movie and well, I've picked, I've picked the Western classic, the good, the bad and the ugly because I watched it like two weeks ago. That's like a good movie though. It's fine. It's a fine movie.

I picked a shit movie. Which one? Princess Diary. Oh, that's a great movie. That's a terrible. What are you talking about? It's a classic. It's a classic. The one with Anne Hathaway. Princess Diaries.

You're thinking of the Princess Bride. Sorry, Princess Diaries I've never seen. I got my princess movies mixed up. If you had been a fan of the Princess Diaries, that's a great movie. I would have been shocked. Yeah, no, I don't think I've ever seen it, actually. Who's in it? Anne Hathaway?

I feel like, what's her face is in that? Who's what? I can see the title in my mind. Julie Andrews? Natalie Portman. No. Or the other one that looks just like Natalie Portman, which might just be older Natalie Portman, I'm not sure.

Are there two artists that look like Natalie Portman? Or is there just one Natalie Portman, but I'm getting mixed up with young Natalie Portman and then older Natalie Portman. Is she in a perfume ad like a more recent one? Slow down, all right? Is she in a perfume ad where she's running on a roof? Is that Natalie Portman? I don't know.

I don't know. I don't follow the career of Natalie Portman. She's box office poison. She's one of those actors who should box office poison. Natalie Portman. Natalie Poison. No, maybe it isn't. You know what?

Maybe that's not, oh, maybe it is. She's 45 years old now, Natalie Portman. She's been in some movies. She's gorgeous. She's definitely been in some movies. Okay, Natalie Portman perfume ad running on a roof, question mark. Yeah, it is Natalie Portman. Okay, it is, I'm getting Natalie comportment.

I'm getting Natalie Portman. with Natalie Portman every time. I keep thinking there's like three people that look like Natalie Portman. It's just Natalie Portman every time. Okay. She's been some absolute shit. She really has been in some shit. She's in a Dior perfume

ad, like a newish one, where she's like running on a roof. I think I saw it, I don't know, where I saw it TV or fucking something. I don't know. Which of her movies were actually good? Let me look. Cold Mountain was good. Garden State was really annoying.

The Phantom Menace. Star Wars, the Phantom Menace. She was in all of those. Incredible. Do you reckon Daisy Ridley's going to have like a similar career of like just being in shit movies? Daisy.

She was the Daisy Ridley. She was Ray from the new Star Wars. Yeah, what's she been in? She's been in Star Wars. She could do a Kira Knightley biopic. She could play Kira Knightley. She's quite, looks quite similar to Kira Nilega. Which I feel like is a known movie.

That came out in 2018. Why does that ring a bell? But nothing else really does in this list of movies. Yeah, does feel like she hasn't done anything important since then, has she? Hasn't done anything important. She's in Ebenezer Christmas Carol, 26. Is that out yet or is that coming out? She was in casualty.

That was her first TV role, 2013. She was in casualty. Was she? Oh, my God. Her great uncle is Godfrey. Godfrey? from Dad's Army No way

I'm sorry Mr. Badringer I'd have dropped my trousers That guy She's married to Tom Bateman Who's Tom Bateman? Tom Bateman has been in some movies as well Let me see if I He's murder on the Orion Express

2017 That was a lousy fucking movie And you know what You know what was bad I hated that film It was dreadful He's 37 years old But I also cried at the end of it.

Did you? Yeah, I cried. Why? It was a bit with Michelle Pfeiffer. It was really sad. She's put in a really good performance. I would have cried about how much they'd ruined my favorite Agatha Christie book. Do you know that Daisy Ridley's middle names are Jazz Isabel?

Daisy Jazz Isabel Ridley. Did you know this? No. Do you reckon she's named off the Apple? The Apple Jazz. Yeah, nobody really likes jazz apples. Come on. They're like super mid.

It's just like a really boring apple No one's like what's your favorite apple Oh I like jazz apples Oh come on Oh you're talking about the actual like Genre of an apple I thought it was like a like an apple Product like you know

Pop quiz Name five Apple genres Okay jazz Braben Royal Gala Granny Smith's Pink Lady There you go

Golden Delicious There you can't You can't forget Golden delicious. What about just cooking apples? No. No. What about cocks? Cox. Cox. Cocks. You know what? Can I just say this, this podcast so far has been very, uh, old men being confused. We've been like, who's he? What was he in? Yeah. What is that? Is that? Well, we opened up with an email about how we've changed a lot in the past 15 news, but I don't think that we have.

I think we're just, just even more confused. That's what happens as you get older. I mean, it's never going to get better. Flaxis 50. We're going to get more. We're going to not too far off 50. Lewis is well into his 40s now. Yeah, we're old. We are just going to get older, more confused and more grumpy as well. And we forget shit. We forget a lot of shit. We're like, who is that? What was that? What was he in again? No, I don't know. And then we give up. That's how most of our conversations go. Yeah. I've been much in to think anymore because AI is doing it for us. You know, I don't need to have an original thought because I can just say, think for you, my brain for me. Do think for me.

And then it comes up with stuff. Do a think. Do a think. It's just, that's how. And then every time I do that, it uses up 50 gallons of water and a fish dies. This message is sponsored by Raycon with summer in full swing. And so many celebrations happening this year, running errands or just enjoying the nice weather. My Raycon essential open ear buds have basically become part of my daily routine.

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So why not check out Raycon's essential open earbuds, which are a great option for everyday listening. Go to buyraycon.com slash Triforce Open to get 20% off on with this show. Did I tell you guys about my interaction with AI the other day? This was unbelievable. This was genuinely unbelievable. The other day, Mrs. F, she started watching anime with the eldest. He's a big anime fan.

I'm not. Mrs. F. She'll watch anything. She's very open-minded like that. So she wants to watch Attack on Titan because she's trying to work her way through some of the more popular shows to everything. I watched the first season of it. It wasn't for me.

This was years ago. So she's trying to watch it. Asks Google Gemini, the AI overview thing, the wank, where can I watch Attack on Titan in the UK? And it says the whole run is available on Disney Plus. And we're like, great, we've got Disney Plus, we can bosh through that. Looks it up, it's not on there. It's definitely not on there. 100% not on Disney Plus.

And checks all the other services, nothing. So I asked the AI, where can I watch Attack on Titan in the UK? You need a crunchy roll subscription, essentially. But the AI says, oh, yes, on Disney Plus. So I said, can you double check that? Because I am in the UK, and I've looked for it on Disney Plus, and it's not there. And it goes, good catch. Yeah, my bad.

I was talking about in the US where it's on Hulu. And I still don't know if that's true. But I said to it, all right, so what are you going to do about that mistake? Like, are you going to correct your database or your memory so you don't tell people the wrong thing again? And it said, nope, I forget everything about this conversation. And I said, so if I asked you in five minutes time, whether I can watch it, you would give me the same wrong answer and it goes, yep, that's how it works. What a fucking shit. Load of wank. Is that Gemini? They're all the same. They're literally programmed to give

you the wrong answer. I saw a thing, oh my God. The thing is it's so sycophantic, right? And you can type into it, say, like, hey, I've come up with this great business idea. I've noticed that dogs, when they shit, sometimes people leave the shits there. So what I was going to do is grab up little shits with my bare hands. And I was going to make them up. I'm going to scoop them up. I'm going to take them home. And I'm going to put them in my oven.

I'm going to dry them out. And I'm going to make them into a little jewelry, decorative jewelry. And I'm going to sell it online. Because how do you think, what do you think about that? And chat GPT is like, great idea. You are an innovative young entrepreneur taking steps in the right direction. You go and grab your dreams by both hands. And you'll be a millionaire in no time.

It like absolutely is, it's fucking. insane. It's like that one that told that guy that he'd discovered some new branch of mathematics or something. And the AI was like, you have to go to the authorities with this. This is genuinely groundbreaking. He was really excited and did. And they were like, this is rubbish. Like, what are you talking about? This is nothing. The AI had ghastly imit to think and he'd made this big discovery. He can find a, and there's like an easy article about. We're reading this kind of thing all the time, right, with these like people who have AI psychosis. I'm sure I've talked to about it before, But a lot of people are reporting that their bosses

just put everything into AI and sort of blindly follow what AI tells them and they think it's some sort of super genius doing their thinking for them kind of thing. And it really isn't. It's stressful. It really is just it's like it kind of thinks around the problem.

It's like, we can talk about it so much, but it's frightening. I think the crazy thing to me, is how many resources this costs, and it's just wrong? It's like, well, then what's this for? Like, what is this all for? They're fine-tuning it. It's just so bad.

They're training the AI on us, but the training involves it being horribly, horribly wrong a lot of the time and giving out all this misinformation. It's like, it'll get there. It's like, what is this? This isn't a, you would never allow this in any other product. It's just because there's no physical harm, so it's okay. I tried this week to try and do something which would save me a bit of time.

So what I did was I downloaded ChatGBT's Codex thing, which is like a sort of app you can have on your computer. You can plug in stuff. So I plugged in a Google spreadsheet I was working on where I've got all the contacts for all these people I'd like to reach out for Jingle Jam. And I've made a list of about 100 of them. And normally what I have to do is go to their website, find their contact page, find a press email or fill out form or something like that. And it's a really tedious process. And every year I spend hours and hours and hours going through it. So it's like, oh, I'll get chat GPT to do this.

And so it's sort of, you know, it's spent about half an hour, an hour doing it ostensibly. And of the 100, 100 cells it needed to fill out with contact information, it found like three. Yeah. And they were either wrong or like they had, they were like, one of them was like a bot at counterbots.com or whatever. Jimmy, it was deliberately an email address that was used to counter people, you know, an anti-span email address type energy, you know, designed to be picked up on these algorithms. And so it just is such a shoddy job with it.

And I was like, well, I guess that was my attempt, you know, like, I guess it can't do that. Right. It's like, okay. So, you know, but I think that's the kind of thing I would like it to do. And it's like, no, I'm going to, I can make you a picture that doesn't look anything like the thing you asked for. Yeah. You know.

It's just honestly, to me, it's just embarrassing. Like how much it's worth and how shit it is. Like the other thing it did was I was making a thing in unity yesterday. Yeah. And I was like, can you give me some advice on how to do this thing called a shader graph? I was like, I don't know how to do it. Where do I get started? Is there available ones I can download?

Because it was like telling me to make all these nodes and all this stuff. I was like, is there one I can just have? And it was like, oh, yeah, I can get one for you. And then it just generated a picture. of this graph. It's insane. It's insane. It generated a picture of,

and I was like, okay. But it wasn't even close to like what I needed. I actually feel quite bad for the AI. Like if it ever does become intelligent. Maybe it'll get there. It's going to be embarrassed. It's going to be embarrassed. It's going to look back and be like, God.

I just feel like everything I'm using it for, and I'm using the latest models. I'm using, like, at the time of recording, I'm using Chat Chagip 2.5. And they're talking about not even allowing 5.6 to be released to the public because it's too powers. Oh no. Fuck off.

Okay. Fuck off. Okay. It's wank. It's going to stay wank. I don't know. Just, I don't know. Like, maybe it's just me being old.

And I mean, it is impressive to have at my fingertips a very quick rundown of the basics of stuff. And also, I think it's quite good as an inspiration or like an instant mood board where you're like, give me some stupid ideas for this. And it'll throw up a load of crap. And of all those 10 things, one of them is like, oh, actually, there might be something in this one. I can use my brain to make that one usable. Yeah. How about this?

How about this? If anyone out there has really positive AI experiences where you use it all the time, like every day for work, and it's fantastic. It's like, oh my God, this has made my job so much easier. It never makes mistakes. Everything is great. Let me know.

Email in your examples of how AI has been fantastic to you. Because it must be being used in a crazy amount by some people already. It must be. But the alternative is, if you've had an absolute nightmare with AI and it's been shit, email in, let me know. And not just like my stupid story about Attack on Titan. I want to know how, because I know a lot of people's bosses are saying, we've got to use AI and we've got to use Claude or whatever, like all this shit.

Let me know how it's gone for you. Because I genuinely think most people's interactions with AI have been hilariously negative. And I don't think that people see it as this great, great thing. And yet these companies are worth more than a bunch of countries are. I haven't used any of the kind of like tools, if you like. I think the only AI that I've used and not really like overly knowingly is the stuff that's baked into browsers now, like Google or whatever. And I think that stuff is pretty low-level stuff. I think when you ask Gemini that on the front page, it gives you a very shit answer often.

Yeah, like if I search for something on Google now, you'll get like an AI answer. erect itself and it'll be like, I think I said before I was wrong. It's just incredible how it's like, yeah, I've had another look. I hate that so much. The good catch. What I'm fucked up? You can, I mean, Chad GBT has added a bunch of, or did add a bunch of different character voices, but they were all worse than that in different ways.

Like, this is the best one. I looked at the other ones and it was just so, I can't remember they were, oh, they were, I couldn't believe that they were all worse. I was like, okay, fine. Yeah, it's bad. It's not good. It's bad. That's the thing.

It's not good. It's fun. It's fun. It's not fun. Don't say it's fun. We just said it's not fun. I mean, I've got the long list of things

I've asked to chat GPT. I asked how to remove a tree stump. I was like, how do I get rid of a tree stump in my garden? Wait, wait, why don't you just go on YouTube and find a human being showing you how to do it?

Because if I need to do some DIY. Let's be honest. It'll be like, Hey guys, it's me. It's me. Billy 99 here. I love yokel hillbilly 99 here. He knows what he's doing. Today I'm going to get rid of a stump in my backyard. How to remove a tree stump. What I got is a a can of gas. Here's a guy. Country living experience a homesteading journey. It's a six-minute

video about how to remove a stump. There's like 10. Just to use an axe. Ten best ways to remove tree stump. How to kill a tree stump. And these are all people doing it and showing you them doing it and showing you, look, it worked, don't fucking trust the AI. Trust a human being. That's how expertise works. We've relied on people knowing things, and now we're relying on something to elucinate a solution for you.

Don't do it. Okay, what's he got? What's this guy doing? Every time I do any DIY, I will find a video on YouTube about how to do it, and I'll watch it, and if I don't like that one, I'll find another one. And he'll be like, oh, make sure you watch out for this.

Like, for example, I had to replace an outdoor tap the other week, because our outdoor tap that we plugged the hose into was leaking. And it was like, the washer had gone, and I could see the joint had gone where it connects to the pipe coming out of the wall and everything. So I got a whole new tap, and I fixed it, and it's a much better tap because it's not just a tap that you turn. You have to open. It's just a lever. It's either on or it's off, which is perfect.

And fitted it, took five minutes, watched a couple of videos on how to do it, learn some stuff about, you know, use a wrench to hold this bit, use this to do that. But I was like, cool, done. I didn't ask fucking chat GPT. How do I do it? Fucking watch a human being doing it. I didn't. I can't. Look, I've already, while you were talking,

I've watched three different YouTube videos, and one guy was using a chainsaw, which I don't have. One guy's using a hand winch, which I'm like, where the, I don't, I'm not that, where am I going to attach a hand? This guy's doing it by hand.

He digs out the surrounds. He has a pickax and an axe, and he digs it out. Was that before or after he did 10 minutes of Tai Chi walking every day? How big is the stump, Lulu? How thick is it? like the circumference? Oh, it's big.

I'd say it was like 12 inches. Could you put your arms around it? Just about, yeah. 12 inches. And you could only just put your arms around it? How small are you like a barbie? It's got flippers. It's got little flippers.

So it's not like an oak tree or something. It's like a smallish tree. No, it's probably more like 20 inches diameter. It's pretty big. So you're just got to dig that fucker out. All right. You've got to get down. You've got to get a shovel.

Dig all the way around. and it keep going down and down and down and down and down. And then you're just going to, you know, dig it out. It's going to be fucking heavy. Right. That's why most of the time, once you get the stump, you have to cut it into chunks with an axe. I know. I've got another stump that I need to get rid of, which is, which is out, but it's too

heavy for me to move. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they're big. That's why you got a crooning saw won't cut through it. He's at the advanced stage. He's at the advanced stage. He's at the advanced stage. Have you got a pressure washer yet?

I haven't, but I was thinking about it. Oh, man. You can tell how far down the garden mistake. You've gone. Once you get to pressure wash, you're home free. Have you looked into any like non-chemical solutions to weed killing yet? Like vinegar and like some salt and stuff? Or like, are you still? I think my solution is just...

You're still just dousing your whole property with Roundup. It's just, no, I've never put any... What's Roundup? Because I'm on this river. I don't want to put anything in the... It's a weed killer. Huh. Never heard of it before? No, I don't have a garden garden.

Right. I think round up is glyphosate, right? That's right, yeah. But it's that nasty, really nasty stuff, yeah. Well, it was, they were found, it was found like by accident because I think when a guy, a guy sprayed it on his weeds and it made them grow like crazy, but then they died. And so it was one of these things that was like,

initially they didn't think it was a herbicide because it seemed to make them grow. But the guy found out, it was kind of half accidental discovery. And it's huge, it's used like all over the place. a place, especially golf courses and things like that, because I think it kills very selectively, not grass, it kills weeds specifically. I think it does. Anyway, it can be very, I don't think it's allowed to be used in the UK anymore, maybe.

I think it's allowed. It's controversial, though, because it's quite bad for the environment. Yeah, I mean, you can buy it on Amazon. What I use is I pull weeds up with my hands, which is the old-fashioned way. That's why I do you. I think that's better than putting chemicals on it. I know that chemicals in general, you don't want to stick them on everything because they just get into the environment forever. You know what I mean?

That's it. Yeah. See, I just got pets that eat all the weeds. Does Terry garden for you? He eats weeds. Yeah. They eat dandelions and all the crappy little weeds that you want to get rid of. They just eat them all.

So they're mostly weedless back there. They're always searching for new weed sources. They love weed. I love the idea of just sending Terry off to Dweed. I think that's fantastic. Yeah, the guinea pigs are really good too. You put them in a little run, and if you leave them out there all day, they will mow the entire area of the run. Wow.

Like right down to the, right down to the roots. They just, they munch. They just, they graze all day long. They just nonstop. Good on them. Grass and stuff. Handy little bugger. There's a machine called a stump grinder, which is an amazing looking thing.

Yeah, yeah. I've used one in farming simulator many times, and I can tell you. It is really handy. It's a really good tool. Stump. Yeah, just throws sawdust absolutely fucking everywhere. Yeah. Yeah, like exactly what it sounds like.

It's just exactly what it sounds like. I'm going to look up Stump grinder. Get a stump grinder, Lewis. Yeah, get a, just get a. I mean, I've got a Stubberger. It's only 115 pounds to hire it. I don't use. I don't use Stump Grinder anymore

I used to. I'm going to look up on Checker Trade for you. Checker Trade. Stump Removal team. Check a trade. Search for stump tree removal. Come on. Tree found.

You're not going to buy a whole one. You're just going to hire one. A stump grinder. You've got to get rid of one stump. And then you'll never use it again. I honestly thought you would have enjoyed this period of owning a house and actually doing the stump grinding and the power washing and the painting and everything, but you seem to have been emiserated by it, which is a shame. I thought it would be, you'd be like, it's been

really satisfying, but instead it seems to have been really negative for you. I apologize for that. I thought it would be a positive. Isn't it really negative for you? He has been very down, isn't he? Are you finding that's not the reason I've been down. Right. down because I've got a family member in hospital and, you know, people's, one of my people's pets have died and, you know, I've got a lot of work on and seems to stress me out. You know, there's a lot. I thought the house was another factor in there rather than. It's not so much the home ownership aspect of it.

It's just all the other little, the death by 1,000 cuts. I think there's a desire to, there's a desire to do a bit too much. I think that's the thing. I think maybe you're rushing to get it all done, like almost like you can finish it in no time, but this is a multi-year project, isn't it? Getting a house, right? It is.

And I think it's, yeah, there's lots of things that I'm having to learn. And I don't like doing that. I don't like learning. Yeah, learning's for fucking squares. Just get an AI to do all the learning for you. Well, I have. I mean, my list of things that I've asked it, like, you know, has been a huge long list of weird stuff.

Yeah. Mostly almost all to do with the house, to be honest. But yeah, lose news. You guys ready? Yeah. You excited? Hell yeah. All right.

First off, Mexico has got its own Batman. Only... Oh, I saw this. It's for people who steal cars or motorbikes or something, and he tapes them to lamppost. What? The vigilante. A vigilante has, I'll link you, there's quite a good picture of two criminals.

He's a picture of, yeah, he basically tapes them up to landposts and then phones the police and says, come to get them. Yeah, there you go. So, they're covered in. It's quite a good picture, actually. Does he shoot the gaffer tape? Does he shoot the gaffer tape out of his hands, out of his wrists? That's what I would like. That's not Spider-Ban.

He's Mac. He's Batman. Oh, he's Batman. He doesn't do it. It doesn't shoot any sort of. That's true. This is very Batman. He's only projecting.

The title is the batterang from memory. No, he's got that, he's got that, he's got that thing that shoots a cable. What's that? It's a grappling hook. The back grapple. You could shoot a lad with it. I'm sure he shot a lad with it. You sure he has done.

Yeah, but he doesn't, the Batman doesn't kill people, does he, if he can help it? Yeah, I mean, this guy clearly has punched these people a bit and to disable them. He's clearly knocked him out. Yeah. Just a little bit of it. Just a little bit. So they've been, they look a bit bloodied. They've had the word thief scrawled on their.

faces in Spanish and moustaches and cat whiskers have been added. I know. I love that. With a Sharpie. Right. Which is not necessarily what Batman would have done, but I still like it.

And that's what we need more of that. More vigilantes who are tied up to lampposts. El bad man. More vigilanteism out there. There's not much else on this list. Oh, Sam, I was also

a time. That's the news loose. Lose news is that's it. It's just one story about a very disappointing. Mexican Batman. Well, you know, sometimes other things have come on. The other article actually is that Sony have announced that all games are only going to be digital from now on. Yeah.

Yeah, they're getting rid of discs. From 2028 only, there's going to be no discs on any Sony games. Yeah. And to some extent, third party. places. Is that because a lot of the games are now so big that they just, you're going to need like eight discs to fit them all on there? I don't think so. I was talking to, uh, I was, I was on stream. I was talking about this the other day. You remember back in the day when you used to get games on floppy disk and in the end, some of these games was like 12 discs. There's a lot of

discs, isn't it? You know, you. It is. It's set disc four to continue. And then CD-ROM came out and then everything went back down to just one disc and then, you know, with space left over. I've played a game that had like six or eight. What was the game? The other two had like three or four, I think. But a lot of those old FMV games used to have multiple desks. There was a detective one, I'm sure, which there's, I've seen there's a Kickstarter to make a sequel to one of those awful FMV games as if it was some revered title.

It was dreadful. Yeah, like Realm of the Haunting or something. Three or four that came out. It had all the FMV stuff. in it. Mark Hamill was in it and it was like five or six discs or something. I feel like it and it never worked. It didn't install it on windows and it just wouldn't work on most PCs and stuff. That was a common issue back then as well. You'd get a game and it wasn't guaranteed to work on your PC depending on what your hardware was or there was, you know, driver issues and stuff like that.

But yeah, it's too many discs though. Like what are you going to do with that many discs? Like in some ways I can see why, but at the same time, like, you're, you are just relying on everybody having good internet, which, you know, is not, uh, it's not always the case, right? Really? You don't think people get into, I mean, I think the issue is a lot of these games, like Sony, I know, lost a ton of money with that awful game, what was it called, came out and immediately like a two weeks later. Oh, was it called?

Concord. Concord, yeah. So that is, if you know, if anyone listening to this, I'm sure most of you are into gaming, so you probably know. If you don't know the story of Concord, there are lots of YouTube videos dissecting it. It is a genuinely fascinating car crash of a game that cost like millions of millions to make. Like tens of millions to make. But all of these companies want the live service games, right? That's what they call live service. I think we've definitely talked about this before. So I think moving away from physical games, you don't want players who are not online.

You only want players who are online because they're the ones who will play a live service game. I don't want to put millions and millions into a game and have you play it for free for years. I want you to pay to play a game and I want you to have to pay all the time because these companies, the number has to go up, right? So they're not making games that you just buy and own. I mean, you don't own your Steam Library. You think you do, but you don't. You do not own it. One day, Valve will go and flip a switch and all of it is gone. You can't pass it on to someone. It's not inheritable. So I can't give my Steam Library to my son. I can't do that. Like, if I die, it's gone.

All of these companies don't want you to own. They want you to rent. And it's true for everything. They don't want people to own houses. All these big investment firms are buying up housing in massive numbers. They want you to rent. Because that way they get money from you all the time. They don't want you to buy something to be happy.

They want you to be miserable and have to pay them all the time. Yeah, like insurance companies. Insurance companies just want you to pay them every month all the time until the end of time. Exactly. And then they'll think of wacky new wild ways to make you pay me. wacky wild and wacky guy. It is a great irony that my Minecraft account is not my Minecraft account at all. Do you mean?

And when I die, I can't pass it on. Sorry, although it is my Minecraft account, it is tied to me. But because it's over 18 years old, it still thinks I'm a child, though, and I have to go through this age verification process. You know, I created this. It's either one or the other, right? Either my Minecraft account is tied only to me, and therefore it should know that I'm 18 years old.

It's tied only to you and it's tied to you. It's not tied to me. A snapshot in time. I'm forever 14. It's just always the most convenient thing for them. Yeah. It is frustrating. God, that's just an old man shouts at clouds.

My God damn you. I think young people are more annoyed than we are because they're actually living in this era when you don't really own stuff. I mean, that's why I think something like Nintendo gets a lot of shit, but it's still like a physical thing. You still have it. Yeah, I think that's always something I've liked about Nintendo. They're bringing out good consoles at a decent price. They're focusing much more on the game. Like this Tomodotchi life or whatever, both my kids love that game.

They put hours and hours and it's so much fun. It's so fun. The only Nintendo just get a little cartridge and you just know that you own the game and it doesn't need to be online all the time. I mean, in a sense, like those things have their own lifespan, right? How long is a cartridge going to last four decays or a CD before it scratches? You know, at least with a digital account, you've got it for X amount of years. I think there's an argument to be had either way. Yeah. But I think that also how many of those old Steam Library games do you really play or is your kid really going to play?

And also, you know, even then, how many times have I re-bought Skyrim? Do you mean? Great A game as well. How bad did I feel about that? GTA-5. Oh yeah, I think I've bought GTA 5 three times, you know. So it's, it's, it's, it's very easy to, to, to have both sides of the argument. I'm, I'm a, did you guys see the steam deck pricing and the outrage about it now?

My take on that generally, right, or is it the steam machine? Sorry, the steam machine. Sorry, I keep saying steam deck. I meant steam machine. Well, steam deck is pretty expensive right now as well, right? Just because the, just because the, just because the price of memory and everything is, is so sky high. The valve has been forced to put the price really high because all the components are really expensive. So I think people were thinking when it was announced a couple of years ago, maybe even a year ago.

I can't remember that it was going to retail for like 800 quid or something. And it's like 1,500 quid for basically a living room PC. You know, basically the idea is it's like a switch two that sits in your lounge and lets you play Steam games on with the Steam controller. And it's, you know, for what it is, it's hugely expensive, right? But I think that you are paying for, and everyone's sort of saying, oh, you know, I could run myself for, you know, I only get a thousand, 100 pounds. And I'm like, well, go and do that then because that's a lot of FAF and it won't necessarily be supported and it won't have their thing.

Like, it's their infrastructure. Steam are always reliable, right? I hate to be a Steam fan boy on this. But like, if you, if you want to like, people are paying for that premium product, I guess. And that's what they're expecting from it. And Steam usually don't let you down, or at least if they do, they're pretty, they're so rich that they can afford to, you know, send your, you know, replacements and stuff. I haven't seen a lot of problems with Steam Deck generally, have you? No.

There's not being a lot of people having negative experience. Most people, most people I know who own one think it's amazing. It's great. It's a really good. many complaints about it at all. It has its... Favent's team have a huge problem. Do you know what I mean?

Like, don't get me wrong. They're not perfect in any way. But I think that people complaining about the price of something that largely is out of their control. Yeah, they can't manipulate the market price for memory and stuff. I genuinely don't think Steam are making this steam machine to make millions and millions on it. They will be a successful product. The console isn't the thing, is it? Like, I don't think that...

No, I imagine they are well aware of the high price. this thing and have tried to like keep it as low as they can. But Valve also have a policy where they have to make a profit on things. Crazy policy for a business to have. What an insane policy in... I think the reason of Valve were successful is because they try to make a profit on what they sell. It's pretty ingenious.

Yeah. Very clever. These guys are so ahead of their time. They're so ahead of it. I'm kind of in the middle of the road. I understand that it's a lot more expensive than people thought it would be. How much is it? Sorry, I missed that.

It's like one and a half grand. But that is still cheaper than a PC. It is. Like, I'm not kidding, but I think a lot of people... It's still cheaper than a PC, and I think you can play a lot of your PC games on it. Yeah. Yeah, but not all, but... PlayStation 5, you know?

It's not as powerful as a PC. They are... I think it's probably better than a PS5. I think you can get an equivalent powered PC for about half the price of the Steam machine. But the thing is, is a lot of... A lot of these games that you own on Steam are PC only. Like, I know there are games that are on console as well, but... Maybe it's not as bad as I thought.

That's got to be the draw of it is that you can play your PC games on the go, whereas you can't do that with a PlayStation or PlayStation portable because those games need to be ported over to console in the first place or whatever. So some people are saying it's not even as powerful as the PS5. This is Reddit, so I don't know whether to trust. I have no idea. I will never buy one because I have a PC and I don't need to sit in front of the TV. I don't sit.

I mean, when I had a switch, I didn't use it that much in my lounge. And I don't think I will do so. So, no, I won't be buying one either. But I can see there being a use case for it if you are a cool guy and you want to have a cool lounge. You want to have a co-op stuff. And you're cool. I don't have that. And check.

I don't live that. And I'm not probably going to run like, I don't know, what is a high end game these days? It feels like that is something you're really interesting. Because I feel like we are going to... I feel like we are going to... Well, exactly. There's this idea, though, that people's hardware, because of the prices have gone absolutely insane for hardware,

there's this idea that people's PCs will kind of be frozen in place for a while. People aren't going to be upgrading that much or buying new PCs. And so games will have to be optimized better or at least... In a sense, it's what PlayStation and, you know, Xbox wanted. Because PC was always this relentless push that overtook them and their hardware was always kind of inferior. Yeah. But actually now PC landscape is like, you know,

when are we going to see the PS6? Probably not for a long long time, I don't know if they're even like in a position to release any consoles right now. Because the problem is the cost of graphics cards and RAM is so high that these companies are going to have to eat so much money to make it price competitive. competitive, and it's going to also need to represent an upgrade on what went before. So as I understand it, and this is only things I've seen in a few news articles, again, correct

me if I'm wrong, internet. Stoney is in a situation where they want to release a new PlayStation to go with probably the release of GTA6, right? Like, PS6, GTA6, perfect storm. You get everybody buying the game and everyone buying the console, it's only on PlayStation 6, et cetera, et cetera. But the cost of the console is going to be so high that people just won't buy it. Like, that is a problem, isn't it?

Like, I think the cost of the PS5, the PS5 has gone up in price. What will happen, though, I think the PlayStation 6 potentially will be, A, not very much more powerful, B, digital only, and it'll be a very different machine. Right. I don't think the hardware specs are going to increase all that much, or at least, because they don't think they need to. And I think games are just going to have to not be, you know, again, either be optimising. or not use, not continue to get this next gen of graphics to people who were after.

Certainly it doesn't feel like gamers ever required that, you know. You can see games be absolutely pop off and look like absolute dog shit. Yeah. So do we care about that anyway? Like, I think certainly Nintendo had never felt like they had to rush to get the next gen graphics. You know, they were always lagging a bit on the hardware side. Yes. And instead focusing on a bigger screen and like more, more conveniences and being lighter, stuff like that.

Yeah. So I don't know. We'll see. I don't know. Steam deck, Steam, that Steam ecosystem. It is interesting. There's been a lot of talk around at this. Yeah.

When it was announced, I was like, I don't want any of this stuff. Yeah. I would never, I don't know why I would ever need one. I don't want a steam controller or a steam visor. Honestly, I will say that the Steam deck genuinely is a lot of fun. Yeah, it does look. playing things like Bellatro or whatever. You can play around it.

Slay the Spire. It's really good. But then it's like a lot of these games I can just play on tablet already anyway, like Slay the Spire, Balatro. Most of those are available. It's got a really nice feel to it. I do like it. Anyway.

And it's also, it's already your Steam library. So if you own a game, you just have it. And then I guess if you're online, you can get like achievements and stuff. It's all like your Steam account too, right? So it's all linked up. If you're playing Slay the Spy, you can play it on desktop. and then, like, just as an example, sync the cloud, get your steam deck,

sink the cloud, and you're carrying on from that save and all those unlocks and playing Slays Spire or Bellatra or whatever. So I personally think it's really cool, but anyway, what's your other loose news, Luke? That's it. That's all we have. That's all right. That's all right.

That's all right. His only news was the Mexican Batman. That's it. Yeah, I'm generally positive about things. And we'll come back around to this. I don't know, like 10 years of doing this podcast, we have changed, right? And I like to think I'm positive,

but I think I go through cycles and I'm sure you guys do too and sometimes we're feeling better, sometimes we're feeling worse. Maybe I just need to, you know, I don't know, it depends the time of season as well when I've got a lot riding. When you've got a lot on, a lot of pressure,

I'm sure you're the same guys. As well, in the last 10 years, it does feel like an awful lot of bad news has come out. Yeah, I got some more bad news. for you guys actually. There's another heat wave coming. There's a big heat dome building up again. Next week, it's going to be like 30 degrees.

A heat dome. Is that what it's called? That's what it's literally called a heat dome because it's something to do with some pressure. It's a pressure, build up of pressure. It just, it traps a heat and it gets worse. It's like living under an environmental greenhouse. So a heat wave is technically temperatures above 28 degrees that last for longer than three days straight.

So we are officially having another heat wave next week. But I don't think the temperatures are looking to go up to like 40 like they did last week or the week before. It's going to be bad. But it's going to be a hot one. It'll be like 30 degrees. 30 is still hot. 28 is like it's still fucking hot.

Especially like if you get a couple of days like that, your house is going to be cooking for like another week. Yeah. It's going to suck. It's going to suck. I'm looking for too. Lewis loves that. He loves to have swampy, sweaty ass balls.

I'm going to have a cookout. I'm going to watch my sweaty Mexican laborer, Portuguese laborer, working in the garden. That's nice. That's really nice. Senor Lewis, please, I need water. Get back to work. No, Paolo. Get back to work.

We laugh at these things. Bend over and pick up that thing again. Okay, that one's in the direction I wasn't expected. Pablo, fuck me now. I'm ready. Just fuck me. Get that stop grinder out, Pablo. You're stuck grinding on my stomach. Jesus Christ.

Right. Thank you so much for listening and see you next time. See you next time. Bye, bye.