Welcome to off the
console, the hottest podcast,
talking about gaming and news, tech news,
and anything nerdy generally.
This week, I'm joined
by my hosts, my co-hosts,
HiTech Low Life and James, AKA
The Brink, AKA Games Revealed.
How's it going, my guys?
It's going good.
It's going great. Yeah,
it's doing pretty good.
I'm out of time right now.
That's why my setup's a little weird
and why I might sound a little different.
Is that the beach I hear?
Are you just vacationing right now?
Yeah, are you on the beach?
I'm actually not.
I went up to help my
brother with something.
He needed me because
I'm the only one reliable
with tech in the family.
I feel that, man.
And it's a good
opportunity to go to a micro center
and hopefully get myself a GPU.
Nice. Nice.
Hell yeah.
He happens to live
near a micro center too,
so that's a win for both of us.
Well, that narrows it down
because there's only like eight of them
in the United States.
Yep.
Yeah, that does.
Are you getting the 9070
or are you attempting to?
The 9070 XT.
Well, yeah.
Who would get the 9070?
Unless that's the one
thing you could, I guess.
They do trade-ins too, don't they?
So you could trade in a GPU.
Do they do trade-ins?
I've never heard of them.
I think they do.
I was talking to someone yesterday
and they're thinking
about trading in their GPU,
their older GPU to get a 9070.
Well, I have an older 2080
Super just floating around.
Maybe they'll take it.
I don't know about that.
My 3090 is too hot for my room
and it overheats the computer.
So I'm thinking about getting a 9070 now
and trading it in.
What if you got a 5090 instead?
I mean, that's a good joke.
Like, could I get one?
And first off, could I get one?
Could I find one?
Second, how would that
resolve my heat issue of the 3090?
Because it's gonna be what?
It's gonna be a lot hotter
than the 3090 in my room.
Like, I don't get how
people run these computers
with the 3090, 5090 and all that
in certain rooms in their houses.
Like, you gotta keep that
thing cold or something.
Like, I had it in a basement that stay,
and I didn't have, and it was,
it's cold here where I live in Utah.
And so I didn't have issues,
but I'm on the second
floor now with my office
and it overheats, so I
don't know what people do.
Yeah, it gets really warm.
I have a 3080 and it
gets really warm in here.
And so like that window over here
kinda keeps the
temperature cool enough if it's open.
Like, if the blinds are open,
but if the blind is
closed and it seals it off
and it's fricking hot.
What if it's summertime though?
Well, he loses people's time.
In the summer, it only
gets up to like 80, 90 degrees
and I have an air conditioner, so.
Yeah, but even, I mean, same here.
Like, we get to about 80, 90
and the AC is just not powerful enough.
I wanna keep my room,
if I keep my door shut,
because I have kids, but
maybe that's my problem.
Yeah, I don't keep my door shut
because I don't have children.
Maybe we should do
what Linus Techtip does.
Techtip does, and just.
in his basement and it's liquid is all
liquid cooled and that liquid cooling
system is hooked up to his like back like
his his outdoor pool yes that costs
that cost money yeah I know that lightest
fun project though cuz he's
don't get me wrong
Even if he had money something tells me
that if he didn't have a YouTube channel,
he wouldn't be doing that.
Aw man, I like doing projects like that.
If I had the money, that's all I'd be
doing. I probably wouldn't do that.
I mean, Lias has made like what? Four or
five videos about that little project
including the part where he like it fails
and has me do the entire thing.
So I'm sure that makes him
quite a bit of money too.
I bet he enjoys doing it.
Yeah, of course.
Anyway, we're...
Besides the GPU talk and the Linus Tech
Tip pool talk, we're also going to be
covering some other fun topics today.
We're talking about the supposed Xbox
handheld that's coming through, coming
down the pipeline here.
The third party one
and the first party one.
We're going to be talking about...
Let's see, the SteamOS 3.7 preview.
We're talking about Pokemon Go being
acquired by the Saudi Arabian government,
which should be a fun non-political topic
and a whole lot more.
So yeah, the first thing we like to do on
the show is talk about the games that
we've played or the things
that we've done this week.
And Hi-Tech, what did you do this week?
So I got myself Rise of the Ronin or
rather my Koei Tecmos
on me, a key for it.
And let me tell you...
I haven't tried it out since the patch
that came out yesterday on the Steam
Deck, but when I tried it out when it
first launched on the Steam Deck, let's
just say it didn't run all that well.
It like runs on a 30 FPS, but it like...
Just started so hard sometimes. It makes
it practically unplayable.
And I'm going to try it
out later when I get home.
I brought my ROG Ally with me this time
because I want to try it out there.
And it runs a little better.
I would imagine so
because, you know, ROG Ally X.
On Bassite too, I should mention too.
Nice.
Hell yeah.
Nice.
James?
Yeah.
Doing a bunch of different things that...
Where I avoid gaming, reformatting my PC.
I'm going to be dual booting it.
I think this time because
I'm just getting tired of...
I don't think it's
truly a hardware issue.
I think it's my room overheating the
computer issue or at least hitting it
enough to where it just has issues.
And then Windows is also up, you know,
Windows is a whole issue on its own.
So I'm going to be switching over to dual
booting Linux for as much as I can.
And then Windows for my
game development for Unreal.
But this is like one of our topics is
going to be the Bassite DX.
And that's actually probably the flavor
I'm going to go for if I can.
Because I've been getting into Godot this
week and I've been enjoying it.
I definitely have more faith
as they've been upgrading it.
And so one day I could see myself
releasing a game using Godot Engine.
I do like Unreal, but
it is fairly bloated.
I will admit to that.
But I'm going to be playing with the two.
So it's fun.
It's fun stuff that I'm working on.
Nice.
Hell yeah.
This week I've been
working on Godot as well.
I've got my game, Doodling's Arcade
Sportsball, which is now on sale for the
Steam Summer or the Spring Sale.
Insert trailer here.
I've been getting the code ready to
actually do a new, like, small
update and to open source it.
I'm going to make the game's code freely
available, which I'm
really excited about.
And I've seen some people joining my
Revolt server and helping me get stuff
done over there, which
has been really cool.
Yeah, I joined it too.
I didn't help you get
anything there, but I joined it.
I joined it and did nothing.
Yeah, no, it's...
Summer scrub.
Well, it's cool.
Like, Revolt is basically Discord, but
not closed source and
proprietary, which is nice.
And I've heard rumblings
that they're looking to, like,
federate it with either the Fediverse or
coming up with their own, like,
application-specific federation ability.
So, like, because one cool thing about
Revolt is you can actually
host your own server, right?
So it's not like you create just create a
server, which is like a chat room, but
you can actually set up your own
dedicated instance of Revolt.
But being able to peer them is not
something that's available yet.
So, once they come up with their
federation service, you'll be able to
have one Revolt account on any server and
then log into
different rooms or whatever.
It's confusing because they're called
servers, but you'd have one account and
you could just take it anywhere without
having to create new ones, which I'm
really excited about.
Yeah, it always bugs me a little bit why
Discord called them
servers, but I mean, it's whatever.
They made the program, they get to name
it whatever they want.
Yep.
Even if it's wrong.
Yeah, but I think calling it calling
Revolt an instance, you know, if you have
your own instance, I think
that kind of clears things up.
But yeah, anyway, I'll probably put a
link if you guys are cool with it to my
Revolt server, an invite
link in the description.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Check out the
description down below and yeah, his
Revolt server is going to be there.
Yeah, we've already got like almost 80
people in there, which is pretty neat.
And speaking of the description and the
links below, you can also subscribe to
the channel on YouTube.
If you're watching on YouTube, you can
follow our RSS feed podcast.subscribe2.me
and you can engage with us on the
Fetaverse at off the console show at
podcast.subscribe2.me.
That's a hard one to say.
Cool.
All right.
First episode, first topic today, the
supposed Xbox handheld.
Hi, Tech.
You want to tell us about this?
So Microsoft is supposedly teaming up
with some sort of PC manufacturer to make
a handheld of some sort.
They're saying it's
unmistakably Xbox in that.
I don't know.
It runs Windows, I guess.
I don't exactly know what makes it so.
It'll be branded Xbox.
It's almost guaranteed.
I can just.
Yeah, I'll be branded Xbox.
It's going to be a green Asus ROG ally.
I can almost guarantee it's going to be
probably fill that route.
It's almost definitely Xbox in an era
where everything is an Xbox.
So I talked about this on my news video
this week, which was yesterday.
And a bunch of people said that another
news site had confirmed that it was Asus
who is actually going to be the third
party manufacturer here.
So Asus will be the OEM for this.
Oh.
Which I think is fascinating.
But I also think that Microsoft is going
to be like using this as a test, a test
bed for their eventual
like Xbox for handheld.
They're not going to call it that, but
that's what it will be.
Yeah.
And and interestingly, Fortnite and Epic
anti-cheat services are
coming to Windows on Snapdragon.
And I believe that this is because these
handhelds from Microsoft are going to be
ARM based with like a with a AMD GPU.
That's just my speculation.
That's why I bumped that next story up.
I mean, it definitely could happen as AMD
is working on ARM APUs.
And so that will be interesting.
What is also interesting is that Epic is
once again snubbing Linux.
Yeah.
And there's a chance that even if that
were to make the ARM deck, it's going to
be snubbed there, too.
Yeah.
I think there'll be a point where they
might like they'll either double down and
try to never support it or there'll be a
point where, OK, there's millions of
Steam decks out there.
When are you going to
start supporting it?
There's there's going to
be like this threshold.
Well, I'm hoping.
Well, the thing, though, is that Timothy
does things just despite Valve Timothy
like like the valve, like remember how
Valve banned NFT games?
Yeah.
Guess what?
Epic did right after they allowed them
despite also banning
them in the past, too.
Yeah.
I mean, I wouldn't go like.
That's an interesting one.
I don't know if I'd go as
far as spiteful for that.
I'd say changing their pricing, though,
is very is probably a little bit more
competitive slash spiteful because
they've they've changed their pricing
specifically because of Valve and Steam.
When you say pricing, you
mean like the amount they take?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, that's I mean, that was
probably their best move that they've
done in regards to the Epic Game Store.
I agree.
But yeah, the stuff they were saying
would definitely did sound
like a little bit of spy.
Yeah.
I think that Tim Tim
Sweeney, Timote Sweeney is.
I think he's as he
Edward Scissorhands now.
I don't know.
He's like, oh, let me
close the door real quick.
Yeah.
Tim Sweeney is like the ex-Amazon guy,
right, who is like we never validated our
core assumptions before we like spend a
bunch of money to fight Valve.
And and that's what Epic is like.
Epic doesn't really epic has like this
idea of what they want the
game industry to look like.
And what that is is is is like a
nepotistic thing that all things benefit
them, you know, and I just
and the gamers don't want that.
And so that's why they're still
struggling to this day to like get people
on board with the epic
way of the games industry.
And I just think it's
a load of horseshit.
And outside of that, too, Epic also
bought a bunch of
resources that people really like.
They they bought Bandcamp.
You guys know what that is?
Yeah. And then they sold it, didn't they?
Yeah, because they apparently didn't make
enough money or some shit.
Yeah.
They also bought
Artstation to if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah.
And they've also started leaving that
because the I don't know because people
started training on their data or
something like that.
Yeah.
I'm entirely sure
what the story is there.
They also have bought like a bunch of
indie studios like Psyonix and harmonics.
Harmonics. Yeah.
Harmonics. That was a big one
that I was really teoed about.
I believe Quixel some other like really
big game developer
companies they've bought to.
Yeah.
And they were on a good.
They were on a good track
and then they screwed up there.
So the Epic Game Launcher you could
download and buy and they they gave away
assets and stuff for game developers.
And then they went to their own website
and just they completely
fucked up the whole process.
I don't think it was their intention.
I think they want to make a better
product and they ended up making a
drastically worse product.
So I'm going to give them leeway on this.
Like they've been pretty I think kind to
developers but they just made the
experience so much worse.
And I just it's so frustrating.
That's such an epic move.
That's an epic game.
Yeah.
The thing that I find really suspect
about the decision makers at
Epic is they bought Psyonix.
I mean harmonics.
Right.
They bought harmonics.
Harmonics.
I'm not knocking on Rock Band.
Rock Band was awesome. Dance Central was really fun and they had
like amplitude and frequency on the PS2.
Those are those games are awesome.
They were also the
original purpose of Guitar Heroes.
They were.
Yes.
But Psyonix.
Oh my God.
Harmonics.
Rock Band 3 or was it Rock Band 4 putting
Mad Cats out of business.
Like they almost put a
red octane out of business.
Right.
Because harmonics they make decisions
based on their their.
The fun about their games
not about like making money.
And so it's like there.
I don't think there could be a greater
like corporate culture clash than
harmonics and epic games.
I just don't see why they did that.
I don't know man.
The only thing I like to look at.
I'm sorry go ahead.
No it's okay.
I'll have to look into Epic more because
I didn't realize that
it was so nepotistic.
And because I definitely and that is a
little political these
days nepotism but it's man.
That's frustrating.
I'm glad that Godot is
getting better though.
Like I'm all here on Godot.
I did.
They just for 3D stuff and for stuff I
like to do which is more like half life
like the modding like period of like 20
years ago when it started with half life.
I love that period.
And so once Godot can
do that I'm off on real.
I've been trying.
I've been trying to figure out how to set
up like a wad type situation like how
Doom has wads in Godot.
And I don't think that
it's possible right now.
Which kind of bugs me bums me out because
like what I'd really like to do is have
my games code be open source and have
like a demo available with a wad that you
could just copy and paste into the into
the open source code base.
And there you go.
There's your there's the there's the game
doesn't seem like that's
entirely possible right now.
So I'm kind of working around that.
But that's an idea.
That's an idea from
Doom's open source code.
I mean, huh, I'm sure we
could learn from how Doom did it.
I mean, oh yeah, it's sources.
He could write it like Gardner could
write a thing but that takes that takes
time and effort to write
a plug in or an extension.
And the way the way Godot does it right
now is they package like you're
executable and all of
the assets as one bundle.
It's like an archive basically self
executing archive and and be and that's
done for a lot of reasons.
One of them is because it's faster to
have all of that stuff.
They can also as far as I understand it
Godot can only read and write from the
executable archive or from the user colon
slash slash like schema.
Right. So they're they've basically
they're they're isolating it as much as
possible so that your code can't like
your Godot code can't go out and like
exfiltrate a bunch of information from
your from your from server from.
Oh my God from the computers from the
host that's running the machine.
So like it's kind of a security thing but
it would be really cool if they if you
could specify like this is a file that I
want as a resource and I want to be and
it has to live within like the Godot file
structure and then you
could access it from there.
I think that that would be really neat.
They've got to be they've got to have
some type of ability at least in the
future because like Ron are saying unity
and unreal can do it.
They can access external resources for in
fact how do they do
settings and stuff like that.
So they have so the way that so there
might be the system
that's already in place.
I just don't know.
I'm not super like I'm not super well
versed in Godot but you can you can in
the project settings you can specify like
the what like where the games like read
write settings live.
So and that and then you access that
through an abstraction like schema.
So it's like user colon slash slash and
then whatever the path name is.
So you can load and do that stuff but
then I have to do that like file parsing
archival stuff loading it into get to
Godot and that means that everything has
to be done dynamically in the code rather
than specifying it in the editor which
makes it much more resilient when you go
to move things around and whatever.
So I do have a question though makes it
it makes it seem like Godot games just
aren't moddable by default.
Is that what you're getting at?
No, they're definitely moddable because
like what you can like there's a there's
a tool that you can use to extract Godot
assets from an archive game assuming that
they're not like like encrypted or
something but you can like on archive
like actual builds of Godot games and
then you can modify the files and
re-archive them and it.
But no like simple way to like load mods
without having to modify like the
internal files right.
As far as I've seen it I haven't I
haven't seen that so I would imagine that
there must be some way to do that.
But I don't know for sure. Yeah. I mean
from what I've heard Slay the Spire 2 is
on Godot this time and it's supposed to
be even more moddable than Slay the Spire
1 as per the developers.
So it might be worth might worth hitting
them up to see what their secret is.
It's open source too. So here's the thing
like Godot in relative timeframe to like
Unity on unreal is a
baby like legit a baby.
Oh, yeah, even though
it's been out for a while.
Unreal is what 30 years old technically
like there's been a lot of time to
marinate but that also with that comes a
lot of baggage with the Unreal Engine.
But to bring this all back into the Xbox
system because I really
am excited about this.
I really am curious what Microsoft is
going to do for this Asus version and
what Windows is going to be like because
I'm I've assumed that it was I've been
hoping that Microsoft is going to make a
game version like a game mode kind of
like how SteamOS has a desktop and a game mode.
I'm really hoping that Windows goes this
route and really limits any external
resources accessing it and that will be a
big game changer and I don't really think
it's going to be that
hard for them to do.
It was them just not having foresight,
you know, surprise surprise them not
having foresight and they're even they
even have executives that say that there
is going to be an AI burst and so I could
see them really doubling
down into this really late.
So I it would be
interesting. Do you think?
Snap. So do you think the official
handheld by Microsoft will be Snapdragon
and then this Asus one because what
they'll probably just do is rebrand the
next version of a sous ally as Xbox.
I guarantee that aces has been working on
something that they were going to release
like an ally to probably this year. Do
you think maybe Xbox will
grab that and rebrand it?
Well, I think I think so. And I think
there will be some advantages because I
mean, technically, technically speaking,
the ally X the ally and Alex don't have,
quote unquote, Xbox buttons.
What they have instead are buttons for
like armory crate and all that stuff,
which cannot be used for things like the
steam overlay or even
Microsoft's own Xbox game bar.
Well, with a with a they can map it. I
know it isn't a bios specific, but they
could they could release a bios update or
they could just like it and like from
what I understand, not even not hard for them to.
From what I
understand that not even like.
I a Neo has an a quote unquote, real
Xbox, but it's just the Windows G. It's
just mapped to a Windows G in the bios.
Yeah, but that's so then they just have
to swap out those buttons and then just
map it. It's it's it'd be very easy for
them to map those phrases.
Yeah, also one more one more weird quick
two is that the allies
buttons, the menu buttons, the.
Army crate button and the other army
crate button, you can't hold those down
for functions at all.
Like, you know how steam has like you
hold down steam and press X to build the
keyboard on Bazzo. You can't do that
because it just switches the map. It just
switches the analog stick to Massman. It
seems like it's a hardware thing.
If I'm not mistaken.
It very much could be. It could also just
be as I doesn't support it. There's a lot
of different layers with that.
Yeah, it's.
That's not it's a hardware. I don't even.
Yeah, it's definitely
not a perfect solution.
But at least it runs games really well.
It does. Yeah. But you're going to have
to be hooked up to an outlet.
Yeah, I mean, I think that like I think
Microsoft will probably have an arm based
solution for this in the way, at least
when they released their their.
Xbox for handheld or whatever it is.
Wouldn't it? Would that be Xbox four or
would that be Xbox? I was counting
earlier. It's Xbox five and they should
call it that. Honestly, if they really want to do that, they should call it that.
Honestly, if they really want to do right
by everything or they can even release
this and call this an Xbox four and then
match the PS five or six when it comes
out and do Xbox six
and just clean the slate.
Just make it easy for
everyone. No way. That's crazy.
What? No, it'd be the X X X X X X box. X
X X X X X X. No. Switch two is crazy.
That is the first time that they've
really done anything like that.
So Xbox could also get in line and just
be like hopefully it's
not Xbox series X two like.
Oh, my God. That would be perfect. Xbox
series Z. No, it would be the Xbox series one, guys.
Xbox series 360 one
Xbox series one again.
Xbox series 180.
What did they just call it? What did they
just reboot and just call it the Xbox?
Oh, yeah, that would be something. I
would not be okay with that. I would be
okay with it because I'm getting tired of
saying Xbox series X or Xbox one. I'm
getting tired of the stupid names.
You know, you know, the Xbox one, you can
shorten it to X bone.
You can do X bone. That's right. Yeah.
But like, yeah, it'll be Xbox parentheses
2027. If you look at the Wikipedia
article, if they do that. Yeah.
That's like my one pet peeve with like
rebooted movies when I have to type it
when I have to specify. Oh, I want to I
want to watch the plan of the eight. I want to talk about the plan of the eight.
But like not the one with Mark Wahlberg
in it, but like the original one from
like 1971 or some shit like that. Yeah.
Yeah. Doom's like that to Doom 2016.
Yeah. But Doom is like, man, do you
remember when Doom 2016 came out and like
just before and everyone was all
skeptical about how it was going to suck.
And then it like came out and it was
awesome. Well, to be fair, the
multiplayer beta didn't
inspire the confidence.
No, but I've never played the multiplayer
and the new. Yeah. I don't like doing for
multiple. That's the that's the only
thing people got. That's the only thing
they released before that.
Yeah. People are very skeptical,
especially gamers are very negative.
Well, I mean, it protects them from
making a seventy dollar mistake.
In today's world, if you buy something
that's bad that's on you with all the
reviews and gameplay out like you don't
have to buy day one.
If you're reserving it day one and it
sucks, that's kind of on you at this
point. Yeah, that's just my opinion. I
mean, that's I don't I
unless I want to support a studio.
I don't do I don't reserve a game before
it comes out. But with the Xbox handheld.
I if they come out with one this year,
there's a good chance I will try to pick
that up over anything else.
The Steam OS one is interesting, but like
the Legion goes non-steem-os version
doesn't give me a lot of hope that the
Steam OS version is going to be much
better than the Steam Deck.
And why would I do that? Like it doesn't
make sense. It doesn't make sense,
honestly. No. But the good news is Steam
OS is coming out for every handheld
supposedly. So we'll hear. Let's hear
more about that later, probably.
Yeah, before that, though, we've got the
Steam year in review 2024 were three
months into 2025 and Valve in their
infinite valve time have
given us their year in review.
What's this about, Hitec?
Well, I mean, if you get as much data as
Valve does, then I'm sure it'll take a
while to compile and make some
conclusions about it. So let's talk about
this. So 24 24 was a remarkable year for
the steam platform. We brought steam to a
new continent. I believe
the continent was Australia.
Yes. And they shipped out a game
recording. You see some new features.
Discovery and shopping. I'm gonna tell
you right now, I don't think Steam's
discovery features are very good. I've
made a couple of videos on why their
discovery algorithms suck.
They'll give you games based on
arbitrary, very arbitrary
categorizations, like is a game single
player or the game multi, a multiplayer
game, yada, yada, yada. So they even out.
They brought a couple of new features in
regards to they also gave us the advanced
access label, which is
different from early access.
Because remember how like people would
release, they would release games. And if
you bought like the more expensive
version of the game, you'd get like a
week ahead. Yeah. So advanced valve did
something good. They called advanced
access instead of early access because
valve already has an early access system.
But I still think the whole advanced
access concept sucks. Yes, I'm not a fan
of it. And so it's not that bad.
It's probably because unless it's half
life three that we're talking about, I
don't give a shit. It's more like ransom
access. Yeah, like it's one thing if a
reviewer gets a key early because I mean,
they're trying to play the
game and review it on. Yeah.
It's another thing when you're basically
when you're releasing game like a week
early, but for only only for those of us
that like pay more money, like, yeah,
they could just make the release date.
Because if you really think about it,
they're not giving you early access.
They're just making everyone else wait a
week. Yeah. Yeah. The game is ready for
public release, obviously, because you're
giving it to some of the public. So what
are you doing? Yeah.
I will say, though, like, I like the fact
that valve is being more responsive to
what's going on in the industry. And I
will say also say that I like how and I
they might touch on this, but like
they've done a bunch of big moves to help
curtail some of the more shitty aspects
of the game industry and its impulses. So
yeah, I do like that.
And they set rules that valve is using
their position to set like rules and set
the tone of what the industry should be.
And if there's one company I trust to do
that, it's valve. They're the closest
thing to a good guy. I think the entry
has. I know. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I
think and like I've mentioned the past,
like, because all these companies are
coming back, they keep leaving and coming
back to steam and they're doing it for a
reason because they're losing cells and
they're, they're
screwing themselves over.
Valve, there's been no other time, I
think, than now that valve has so much
leeway, like, just influence over the
industry as of now. And they really
should be labeling more and being a
little bit petty about it, in my opinion.
Obviously not to like be detrimental, but
like, I honestly wish they went a little
bit further and, and called this
something like a little bit more
predatory. Yeah, I mean, this is at least
good. Yeah, so I mean, I know valve is
trying. I know there isn't much valve
candy, but at the very least they are
trying to like help out consumers. So
let's see another thing. They could do a
ton if they wanted, they just might lose
business. Yeah, that's the unfortunate reality.
Let's see, playing and sharing. So they
made it so that when games enter their
preload states, it shows up more
prominently. See what else? Let's see
game update exceptions. You can choose when a game updates itself.
Like, for example, they have deeper
collected survivor, they have that sense
of wait till I launch the game. That way
it doesn't download to the background. I
mean, this is only this is pretty useful
for those that have metered internet
connections. I know sometimes I mean, I
don't have I don't I have a I don't I
mean, maybe I have I don't know if I have
a defined limit, but I don't have like a straight limit, so to speak. Right? Do you guys have limits in your internet?
When I had Comcast, because it was the
only option where I was at, it was
limited to, I think I could terabyte
updated, which content creator or
anything else. That's not a lot. And I
would without a doubt, I just paid $80 a month, maybe around $80 a month with with always would happen. I'd go over the limit up to and they have a max where you can go over. So you can get a lot of data.
I always paying that up charge. So I was
paying almost $200 for internet. I was I
there's nothing I could do because it was as as and this is another shitty thing. We paid for the infrastructure for Comcast, put it in and then we get zero.
Back and it's it's a little bit political
on that, but dude, Comcast sucks. Yeah,
it does suck. It really does suck. I really hate it. I wish there was more options, but there are now like my my town has where I live is Lehi. They put in a lot of money.
Yeah, municipal internet. Yeah. Oh, kind
of. Not really like I have to like it's not rolled into my it's not rolled into my internet. I mean, I have to go through the internet. I have to go through the internet, I have to go through the internet.
I alreadyāve I don't
haveSNT in state and knew
But then we're getting double tax once
again, every time that it's shit.
So it's like, it's, and this is just to
help people understand
what's going on with your
guys's internet.
People sometimes don't understand this.
It is you're being taxed for your, for a
lot of people's infrastructure.
You're getting that tax money goes into
that, but then Comcast
can then say what they, they
charge.
You don't get a say.
You don't have any other
people that help leverage for you.
And so you're not getting any benefit.
It's a crappy system that people need to
be aware of, I think.
Yeah.
Dude, all major ISP suck.
I'm advertising Fios.
They don't have, they don't have data
caps to my knowledge,
but they suck because I'm
paying for gigabit internet, but it's
very rare that I get that.
Maybe it ends up being
like effectively half of that.
And I'm, I'm hardwired into my life.
I'm hardwired in on my
mate, like my desktop.
Is that fiber?
Yeah.
And Fios is a fiber optic fire.
Fios is fiber.
Yeah.
I wonder if I have really
overburdened the note on that.
Cause even with, with
fiber, there's nodes.
And so they oversell.
That's another crappy thing
that these companies do that.
They don't put enough nodes in.
And so they oversell and saturated.
That's why you don't
get enough bandwidth.
I have a local ISP that just had just,
they have, they own the
infrastructure and they
ran fiber optic to my house.
And now I have fiber.
So actually I moved to
this town because of the ISP.
I didn't want to live anywhere else
because this was like
the best ISP in the country
as far as I understood.
I mean, with what you, I mean, with you,
what you do, you
effectively run your own company
from your house.
So like, yeah, that's probably the best
move you could have made.
Yeah.
And I also get like, I pay for 300
megabit and I get 300 megabit.
How much do you pay for it?
You don't want me.
It's like 80 bucks a month.
It's pretty expensive,
but it's symmetrical.
Actually no, no, it's 50.
They just lowered the price actually.
It's like $55 a month.
Oh, that's not bad.
And that's including, that's actually
including a static IP as well.
So that's, that's actually fairly decent.
Could you go, I think
that's a really good deal.
Could you get a higher, could you get
more, could you get a
higher tier version that's
faster?
Yep.
I can go up to 1.5 gigabits.
How much would that cost you?
It's a lot more and I would have to be
like a dedicated business
line at that point, which
I just have residential right now.
Oh, I thought you had
a dedicated business.
Okay.
$80 for my FiOS bill for a gigabit.
Oh, here's another fire truck.
Until it's a hundred
dollars, over a hundred dollars.
I don't think it's that expensive.
Yeah.
You've been, you've been
like screwed by Comcast.
I can't, I've been screwed.
And so anything below like a hundred is
an amazing deal for me,
but yeah, I understand
man.
I, I really did.
Comcast sucks.
All right.
And they're so blatantly like asinine
about it because they'll
say, well, based on averages,
even when I've called them, they're like,
well, based on averages, people don't use
over a terabyte.
I'm like, well, I'm not you because I'm
not like the average person.
If people don't, then
what's wrong with me?
Dude, you're not, dude,
you're not a statistic.
You're a person.
I know.
I hate them so much.
Yeah.
They're, they're like mustache, mustache
twirling villains, dude.
Like they're so evil.
I keep getting call.
I keep getting telemarket calls from
Xfinity that I believe Comcast owns them.
Yeah.
No, they rebranded.
They rebranded.
That's how bad that's why I still call
them Comcast because it is
Xfinity, but they rebranded
dude.
So that was Xfinity and company.
Yeah.
Though they rebranded
because they were so bad.
All right.
We had, sorry.
I, I, one more thing there.
Emily when she moved in with me, she had
spectrum, which was it's,
it's a time Warner cable or
whatever.
Yeah.
And then she had Comcast and when she
moved in, not Comcast
spectrum and she, I had already
been living here for
like a year and a half.
And when she moved in here, dude, they
call, they would not
cancel her, her contract with
her.
And so I called them up
and I like, bitch them out.
And I was like, you need to take her off,
you know, close her account, whatever.
And she's not paying a closing fee.
And eventually I had to go into the
spectrum store with her
modem and give it to them and
be like, you guys
need to leave her alone.
They didn't stop calling her for three
months and two
representatives from spectrum showed
up at my front door, dude.
And I was like, you guys need to go away.
I'm never going to use your service.
You're evil anyway.
That is horrible.
Oh my God.
That's like some money and stuff.
And the one guy, the one, the, like the
guy that showed up,
because there was a guy and
then the lady showed up, the guy who
showed up at my door was
like, well, what do you
mean you don't want our service?
I was like, I have a fiber
optic and it's a really good deal.
And he goes, well, I could
get you fiber optic for free.
It would be subsidized by the government.
I was like, I don't want that.
I was like, why would I want free
internet when I could
have good internet that I pay
for?
And where's the catch?
Why weren't you giving it to me for free?
Like fuck that.
Here's the problem with that.
This makes me really upset.
Obviously.
Yeah.
I had Comcast call me because I canceled
and they're like, well,
what can we do to sweeten
the deal?
Like you and the thing is I wasn't, I was
exempt from that cap.
But then when, um, my, like you have to
renew your, uh,
contractor, your price every year,
they took, even though they said they
weren't going to, they
took it away from me.
So I bitched them out.
I tried to be nice to customer service,
but I was just like,
there is nothing on this
earth you can do right now
to make me switch over to you.
I'd rather use dial up at this point.
Um, it would suck, but I would rather go
that route because
you've treated me so poorly
and they still didn't get that.
They're like, well,
what can we do to get you?
I'm like, Oh my gosh.
Like leave me alone.
Do you not understand?
Like, I don't know why
I didn't just hang up.
I was just trying to be nice, but I was,
they don't understand
and they need, they need
to rewrite the customer service scripts
because it just makes
them look like idiots.
Yeah.
Sorry, we've totally derailed.
I know this is, I'm sure a lot of people
can relate to this though.
Oh yeah.
The ISP.
Yeah.
ISPs in the US are terrible.
I'm sure there are a lot better in like
Europe or something like that.
If we have any international viewers, let
us know your experiences.
Do European ISP suck as bad as American
ISPs or Australian ISPs?
I don't know.
Whatever.
Usually it's, it's much better.
Um, and like I said, a lot of
infrastructure is laid out
by the government already.
And a lot of those other countries, um,
have, I think municipal
or like they have public,
but I'm sure with that,
that even comes its own issues.
Yeah.
So there is a lot, there is a lot more
that we should get to.
Yeah.
There's a change.
So they, uh, updated steam workshop.
One of the big changes with steam
workshop is that you can
actually change what gets
synced to what devices.
So like one thing is that like some
people, sometimes there
will be mods that like optimize
games, but you don't need that on your
high powered gaming PC,
but on the steam that can
may be useful.
Like starbound is one such a game that I
play that has steam
workshops for and has optimization
mods.
Oh yeah.
Steam family sharing.
That's one of the biggest new features.
So how it eats.
So you guys remember how it used to work?
Yeah.
So for the audience that does that, they
may not remember how it used to work.
How it used to work is that you would
join a family with a bunch of people.
And then you want, if you want to play a
game from someone else's
library, you could, but
if they wanted to play another game from
the library, it would kick you out.
And I thought that was
totally bogus, right?
Now they made it made more,
now they made it make more sense.
You like, if say we were all in a family
together, we could all
play each other's games.
If you had, if we had like multiple
copies of a game, like
say, for example, Gardner
and I had a copy of a game, then you can,
then we can play two,
two of us could be playing
those copies of that game.
Right?
Yeah.
So it's just more common sense now,
instead of like locking
out someone's entire library,
you can just play another game from the
library and have a much better system.
Yeah.
The one caveat and people get heard about
this, but I actually
think it's fine is you,
in order to be part of a, of a steam
family now, you actually
have to like be on the same
like general premises as the person.
If you're, if you're not, then they'll
detect that and be like,
you guys don't live in the
same household.
You can't do this.
Yeah.
It is a little bit of a bum because I did
share with my sister who lives, you know,
four hours away.
Like, okay, you can play some of my games
when I'm not playing it.
So that's the only bummer.
But like what a family really means is
like you have kids or you
have your spouse at home
and that's how it's supposed to work.
And that makes sense.
Yeah.
Could you not like set up a VPN in your
house, have your sister
tall into your network and
then she just be, she just
be in your house supposedly?
You probably could, but I would rather
just buy you a game that she wants.
I know Valve has anti DRM.
They don't really like
DRMs, but I don't know.
But I think that usually means like
international, right?
Like they don't like using DRM to like,
they don't like using VPNs
to buy games in Argentina
where they're a lot cheaper essentially.
But I don't know if they actually have a
policy against using
VPNs for family sharing yet.
If I imagine, if I tunneled in, like if I
let her tunnel into my
network, like I don't
think it would matter.
I bet it would work fine, but I'd rather
just buy the game for her at that point.
It's a hassle because at one point I'll
do something to screw
up that VPN tunnel or the
tunnel or whatever.
I'd do something screwed up
and then I'd have to fix it.
And I just over that these days.
Fair enough.
Oh, and also game recording.
Game recording is a pretty cool feature.
I don't really use it because I have a
capture card, multiple
capture cards from AVerMedia,
not sponsored by the way.
But yeah, I need to get one of the, I
need to get the Steam Deck specific one.
I like the game recording stuff.
I don't use it, but I like it.
I like the idea that if I was playing an
intense part that I could
go back and save that kind
of like you can on the console.
What this does is it just makes it that
much more a console competitor.
And I think that's a good thing.
Even if not everyone uses it, there's a
lot of people that do
like using that type of
stuff.
And there's typically the
ones I know are console users.
So this is a great step to
be competitive with consoles.
I think so too.
It's honestly one of the
best features of Alpha Z.
And I'm also surprised that it doesn't
use that much, use
that many resources too.
Yeah.
Or maybe I'm just not
playing the right types of games.
I really haven't noticed a great
difference in performance.
Yeah.
It's because the APU has
built in like encoding hardware.
So it's really, it's just about
redirecting the
recorded footage to your drive.
And that doesn't take much.
That is true.
Speaking of which,
there's also specific game.
There are also game specific features
that you can implement
via Steamworks for game
recording.
In theory, let's say Gardener, I don't
think you have any
features implemented yet, but
you could make it so that when you score
a goal in Doodlings,
you could make it, you
could make the slow mo and instant replay
and then save that as
the game record, like
using game recording to do that.
Yeah.
And there's simpler ways
you can integrate it too.
Like if you get, let's say Doodlings
integrates with the thing
where it just says, "Hey, a
goal just happened."
It can then mark your timeline with like
a goal icon and you
could color it red or blue
based on which team scored.
Yeah.
And that way when you go back, you can
just find those events really quick.
Yeah.
And it also marks events, generic events,
like achievements too,
when you get an achievement
in a recording.
Yeah.
That's another one too.
Valve put in a lot more effort, like a
lot more effort than
what I would have imagined.
Honestly, I think most people would have
been fine with just
being able to record and clip
and stuff, right?
But they went above and beyond with the
whole timeline stuff and
game integration too, I
should mention.
That's pretty neat.
I was asking Valve in my videos to do
that exact feature since
the day I got the Steam
Deck in my hands.
Like a recording
feature or like the timeline?
Having a rolling cache of video storage
for what you've played
for the last two hours
or whatever.
There's still one feature
I want Valve to implement.
And for what I understand, it should be
possible with the hardware in it.
So you know how the DS, 3DS, PSP, and
Vita, you could play ad hoc multiplayer?
That's what they call it.
Yes.
That.
That's what I want.
Yes.
I want that too.
People are saying, I posted it on the
Steam like requests and
people are calling and people
are saying, oh, it's already possible.
Like no, not in the
way that I suggested it.
Right.
I've been asking for that too.
I've wanted that for a long, long time
because like if there was a
basic API that would allow
the game to create an ad hoc network and
to search for local
nearby games, that would
be amazing.
And it's definitely possible.
There's not it's not like special
hardware you need to do that.
And Nintendo does it too.
So like why not, right?
Yeah.
Nintendo of all companies.
Yeah, I would love to see that.
I'd also love to see like a street pass
type feature, but that's
that would require special
hardware.
I think.
Yeah, I think that does require it
because I mean, the 3DS
was ARM based too, if not
mistaken.
Yes.
Probably the number one feature.
I know not a lot of games will be
designed for that, but I
but I am like a thousand
at certain if a feature like that
existed, developers would program for it.
They would make it happen.
Maybe not triple A developers, but
certainly some indie games would do it.
And you know, Monster Hunter.
Yeah, yeah.
Monster Hunter is always a good way.
Is the new monster are always online?
Do you guys know?
I don't know.
Monster Hunter is always a good option
for the like that type
of connectivity because
I mean, it was on the PSP and
the 3DS and stuff like that.
So yeah, yeah, basically.
All right.
So tools for game developers.
They also updated steam demos so that
they can have their own
pages now and they would
link it back to that main game itself.
The content survey catalog management.
VR and steam deck.
Platform, platform growth and data.
In 2024, more than 500 new titles
exceeded $250,000 in new release revenue.
And I want to bet Blotcher was probably
at the top of that
new titles list, right?
Yeah.
And more than 200 titles exceeded 1
million in new sales release.
And those are up from 2023.
So it was a remarkably year for new
releases, according to
Valve, yada, yada, yada.
This seems like a very shareholder thing
to mention, even though
Valve is a private company.
So I guess it's pretty good, I guess.
Yeah.
One of the most successful launches from
a first time steam dev
was TCG card shop simulator.
Released by Malaysian studio OP Neon.
Wait, what is this?
I've never heard of this before.
TCG shop simulator.
It looks like, what it
sounds like, to be honest.
I'm surprised they
didn't mention Blotcher.
Maybe Blotcher didn't sell
as well as I thought it did.
Despite being like a mega hit everywhere.
I think this sold well.
I think how much money it probably
generated wasn't as much
as maybe some other games.
I mean, that's fair.
Plus Blotcher is on everything now.
I'd be shocked if they didn't make just
tens of millions of dollars.
I'd bet you they probably made more money
on mobile, to be honest.
Yeah, there's a good chance.
I mean, I play it on my iPad, but I have
it through my Apple subscription.
So yeah, there wasn't too much to talk
about outside of Valve's
new features and some metrics.
But as we recall, Valve
had hit a new all time high.
But yeah, that's my thoughts.
What do you guys have to say?
I mean, the SteamOS update or the year.
I mean, sorry, not the SteamOS update.
The year in review.
Yeah, I think go ahead.
Go for it.
No, I don't have much.
I think I've already.
The thing that I thought I thought was
interesting in this update was the last
paragraph before
platform growth and data.
It says, the future of
hardware at Valve is bright.
Steam Deck, SteamOS and SteamVR are
delivering tons of value to players and
devs built on top of decades of
investment into UI, Linux compatibility,
input support, custom silicon, motion
tracking, displays,
battery efficiency and more.
Every game develop every developer making
PC games benefits from these investments
and players can now enjoy their PC games
in so many new contexts.
Hardware teams at Valve are delighted to
see Steam in the living room, the
airport, the backyard and wherever else
customers want to bring
their library of PC games.
And that just kind of stuck out to me
because Emily has been watching the pit
on HBO Max and she
like she called me out.
She's like, Gardner, come look.
And one of the patients in the show was
playing on Steam Deck.
And then I saw a I saw a YouTube video
from a camera name, but there was a woman
who went down to like Disney and they
were showing her like some of the robots
that they have running around the park
and and they were using Steam
decks to control the robots.
And I've been I've just been seeing Steam
Deck everywhere late recently, like even
like people I don't like
online are using Steam Deck.
I was like, dang, that's pretty neat.
Like who?
I'm not going to mention any names, but I
a streamer that I find just contemptible
was playing on Steam back and I was like,
hey, that's that's nice.
I guess, dude, the pit, the pit.
I've heard of that show is pretty good.
It's like a medical show, isn't it?
Yeah, it's pretty graphic.
I went out there one just like I was just
walking to the living room
and I saw what she was watching.
I was like, oh, my God,
dude, I'm very queasy.
I pass out like just at
the sight of a needle.
So yikes.
I've seen some shit, man.
I used to be a medical a medical device
technician, especially
during covid times, too.
And you can imagine how scary that was.
But, hey, I got some of the benefits that
doctors did like free
Starbucks every day.
Nice.
Yeah, I got sick of it real fast, but it
was pretty cool the
first couple of times.
Yeah, let's see what.
Yeah.
So so steam was three point seven.
Yeah, this is this is like a new preview
of Steam OS and there's some pretty
interesting stuff in here.
They've updated to a new arch build,
which is nice to see.
You know, I kind of wish that they would
do this a little more
frequently, but whatever.
There's a new Linux kernel version six
point eleven new Mesa
graphics driver base.
The desktop is now shipping plasma six
point two point five.
And let's see, there's
there's new controller support.
There's new Bluetooth fixes.
So they Bluetooth devices still being
able to wake up the steam deck from
suspend, which they fix that, which I've
had like my steam deck here on my desk.
And I have the Logitech mouse.
And if I like just switch over to one
thing, it turns on my steam deck and I
like it was actually driving me crazy.
But the fact so they now fix that.
Anyway, there's a whole bunch.
Anything in the stick out to any of you
guys, the beginnings of support for non
steam deck handhelds.
Yes, it's interesting that it's the
beginnings of support.
So I'm curious if this three point seven
is going to be is it going to be the
official one that comes
with non steam deck support?
And they're just saying for this preview
that it's just the beginning of it.
I'm kidding.
Maybe, maybe.
Another thing that really sticks out to
me is Bluetooth controllers can now wake
LCD units from sleep previously only
available on OLED models.
So if you recall, one of the cool things
about the OLED is that you can get like
an ex like a controller that's connected
via Bluetooth and then just turn that on
and it turns on the steam deck.
Whoa.
But now you can do that
LCD with the LCD models.
I thought that was like a hardware thing.
I thought so too, but I guess not.
I guess Valve just MacGyver did.
That's awesome.
Yeah, sometimes you can make a hardware
issues with software.
That that is one of the nice things about
having a device like the steam deck is
valve has like very deep like control
over the device drivers for these things
and the firmware of the hardware in it.
And so that's pretty that's pretty neat.
That's really.
Yeah.
So you still have if you have to steam
decks, you can just make the LCD one your
dedicated docked one.
Yeah, because I have I
have I still have an LCD.
I don't really use anymore because that
the Ola but now it
might have a use for it.
Yeah.
See what else?
No issue.
Blue Bluetooth.
L.E. based controllers.
I believe that's a little bit addition.
Low energy.
Fuck man.
I'm still thinking of cars.
That is a solution.
Yeah.
When cars are better.
They're not like
they're like special cars.
They're like limited
in like capabilities.
That's what they usually mean by L.E.
Yeah.
See, the Bluetooth L.E. based controllers
are not currently compatible with
Bluetooth wake on LCD models.
So it's still they're
still perfecting it.
I don't know what I don't know what
controllers are Bluetooth L.E. based.
But I'll figure that out later.
Let me see if there's
anything else of interest.
What is they enabled AMD P
state CPU frequency control?
What does that mean?
P state?
Is that performance state?
That's a good question.
Let's ask Google.
I think it has to do with like, like CPU.
I thought I was power state.
Let's see.
Oh, yeah, it could be.
Update the plasma 6.2.5.
Previously, it was 5.2, 27.10.
That's a that's a lot of
versions of jump through.
What's changed there with plasma? It's it. It's it. It's it. It's a kernel module.
It's okay.
Yeah.
So it'd probably take a lot to get into
it, but it is
specific to Linux, I believe.
Okay.
So why?
Yeah.
So I don't think there's much else that the user will need to know.
No major changes. I think it's a lot of different things. I think it's a lot of different things. I think it's a lot of different things. I think it's a lot of different things. I think it's a lot of different things. That the user will need to know.
No major feature updates.
You know, Mesa graphics updates are
always good because it may result in some
performance increases.
Not always, but sometimes.
Yeah.
But I mean, it's cool.
It's cool that Valve is still updating.
I know they're starting to slow down on
the major updates, but yeah, there's
always so much you can do with hardware.
That doesn't require a
second, like a new Steam Deck.
I think they took on a lot of the easier
stuff and also stuff that people maybe
wanted that was a little easier.
And there I think it's slowing down a
little bit because they're working on the
major thing, which is making SteamOS more
compatible with other devices, which is
probably a big task.
And you could probably see it
slow down for a little while.
Yeah.
I mean,
it might be.
I mean, I hope Valve gets to telling us
something about the Steam Deck, too.
If not now, then like a
couple of months down the line.
I think end of the year, we'll learn at
least about one of the projects are
working on because we know that they're
working on like three or four.
So I would be shocked if they didn't.
So I will say Bluetooth
controllers that wake up LCD models.
That's a big.
That's a big plus.
That's probably the biggest new feature.
But that's coming to
like the older Steampicks.
Yeah.
But I mean, so that though.
Yeah, I don't I don't have
much else to say about this.
No, I mean, with that, we can move on to
the Saudi Arabia thing.
This is absolutely wild.
Saudi Arabia bought Pokemon Go along with
Pikmin Go or whatever it's called.
And like Monster Hunter
like mobile and all this stuff.
They bought a bunch of everything that
Niantic was doing with Nintendo.
Saudi Arabia bought.
This includes a hundred million players
real time location data,
at least going forward.
We don't know if this also includes
historical location data,
but I would imagine it would.
And this is just absolutely wild.
I don't know.
What do you guys think about this?
Do we know which Saudi Arabian Prince?
Oh, this company.
No.
So this is Saudi Arabia
is a very interesting.
And I'm not going to get too much into
the political side on this because you
get really deep into all this.
But I don't understand companies not having at least some.
Some loyalty to their country, because
once you sell it to Saudi Arabia, it
becomes like a huge betrayal, I feel
like, to your players.
If you sell it to another country, almost
in some ways, it becomes a
betrayal to your players.
Like when I'm playing Pokemon Go and with
all my telemetry and all
the other data, I don't know.
I don't know.
I almost feel like there needs to be laws
against doing some of this stuff because
I don't trust my data in Saudi Arabia.
I don't think they're going to do
anything themselves nefarious, but they
could end up selling that to.
Does the Saudi ground
have any stake in Nintendo?
The Saudi crown is
Nintendo's largest outside investor.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, snap.
Yeah.
Saudi Arabia is a huge investor into
technology and people don't
understand this sometimes.
There are very much behind
the scenes on a lot of stuff.
I know Saudi Arabia owns a lot of
companies that I mean, they might be like
the new they might be the new Tencent.
People are worried about Tencent only
things now, but Saudi Arabia is like I
would rather have Tencent, honestly, at
least I know about
Tencent more than Saudi Arabia.
My problem with Saudi Arabia is that I
guess I'll get in a little bit of
politics, but they haven't entered
servitude and they have a lot of other
issues on the social side
of things that it's just.
Yeah.
Plus there was that huge controversy with
the assassination of the
journalist of a Cushion.
I don't know if that's a controversy.
I think that's just
something that happened.
Just straight up murder.
It's straight up murder.
Fascination.
Yeah, honestly, I mean, it also depends.
I mean, I don't know.
I don't know what there are.
So I should mention that fun fact.
There's a Saudi Prince on Steam and his
have you have you seen
his profile on Steam?
It's crazy.
No.
Saudi Prince Steam profile.
Yeah, it's it's not what you would have
expected out of the
Saudi Prince, to be honest.
But it's shit.
Let me see if I can find a link to it.
Does he have a really
high kill death ratio?
That'd be awesome.
Well, you play as Dota too.
So I don't know.
Or is this like an Elon Musk kind of
thing where he doesn't
really play that much?
We have someone else.
No, I just like to be that indentured
servant servant that has to play games
for your math, like for
the person you're serving.
No, it's a I got a
speech out of it right here.
Let me let me send it
to you guys on Discord.
We're going to put we're
going to put this on this.
We should put this on
in the video, by the way.
Yeah, this is what I need to take this
out so I can travel to Saudi Arabia.
We are Yuki Yuki, Prince Abdullah Bin
Salman Bin Abdullah Zizah.
He is. Oh, wow.
He's an otaku.
He's he's a he's a weeb.
He's a weeb.
You can tell he's the number
one investor in Nintendo here.
Just yikes.
He's got a picture of it looks like
trying to remember the
sister's name from Demon Slayer.
A Nezuko.
It kind of looks like Nezuko.
Yeah, but I don't think it is.
The eye color is level 274.
Damn, I don't think I know anyone that's
that high on steam like that.
I'm actually friends with.
He has almost as many games in
his steam library as the Fox.
Almost. Wow.
Doesn't the Fox have like
like 5000 games or something?
Oh, yes. Ten thousand games.
Ten thousand games.
This guy, this Prince Prince.
Come on, dude.
Dude, the Fox has you out out Fox, dude.
Well, dude, no one
can compare to the Fox.
That guy Fox.
He does.
Does he play them, though?
That's my only problem
having ten thousand games.
Is there the Fox?
Just collect them.
Well, from my understanding, the Fox used
to collect a bunch of games
when I when I asked him about it.
Yeah, it's it's it's crazy, man.
They had a bug once you went past like
four or five because I know
someone else also like you couldn't view
their profile properly.
It would break.
Yeah, the bug still exists.
I still can't look at
the Fox's game list.
Yeah, it is.
It's it's an outlier.
Probably have like 100
people that have that type of bug.
Yeah, but what's weird is that the Fox is
even like that high of a level
on Steam.
I don't know.
It matters.
I think it's playing the games that you
have matters at the level.
Yeah, the Fox only level 99.
Yeah.
Whereas Mr.
Mr.
You keep Prince Yukio.
You you keep you keep you keep you.
What what kind of a name is that?
You couldn't come up with
a better like anime name.
Oh, my God.
Sweetheart, Yuki Yukio.
Yeah, that's right.
I'm not here to change.
If you're doing that, hopefully they're
not doing something more nefarious.
I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure this
isn't the Saudi Prince that
was behind some of the assassinations.
I'm pretty sure that was like the crown
prince, like one of the older ones.
Yeah.
And hopefully it's not like you play
against this guy and
you waste them so much.
He's like, maybe I'll
get you assassinated.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
So imagine.
So imagine playing against them and then
you get into an argument with them.
And he's like, oh, and
there's oh, let's fight IRL.
And then like you give them an address
and that that would
be so that would be so
messed up.
Yeah.
You're an idiot if you start giving your
address out when you're
fighting with people online.
Yeah.
Some people you might
used to happen on Xbox a lot.
I know.
And they're idiots like that.
You're just asking for
trouble at that point.
Yeah.
That's kind of your fault, to be honest.
A little bit.
So do you think this guy has something to
do with the with the purchase of Niantics
gaming division?
Um, they meant the company name was
mentioned in the Reddit.
The Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia's public investment fund.
They paid three and a half billion
dollars for the
gaming division of Niantic.
Does Niantic also do non-gaming division?
They have like other
location based stuff.
I don't know what it's called.
But like they also
got they got Pokemon Go.
They got Monster
Hunter now and Pikmin Bloom.
So, scopely, so so according to the
article, it's sold by it's
it was being sold to scopely.
And according to Wikipedia, they're a
quote unquote American
game developer and publisher.
They're a subsidiary of Saudi Arabian
company, Savvy Games Group.
Um, the company was founded by the
country's sovereign wealth
fund, public investment fund.
The key people Sala al
Farhiel is let me see who he is.
He is the chief financial officer.
Doesn't sound like a
Saudi prince, though.
Doesn't look like he's a Saudi prince.
So I just think that this is basically
more sports washing, but
with games instead of sports.
Sports washing.
Yeah.
Have you heard that term?
I'm afraid not now.
So basically like Saudi Arabia has come
under fire for like basically spending a
bunch of money to like buy.
Was it the PGA tour or something?
They bought they
bought something with golf.
I think it's PGA tour.
Yeah. And then they ended up banning
anyone from participating in the
tournament if they were critical of the
the Saudi government.
And they've done that with FIFA and
they've done it with a couple other
sports organizations in order to like
change the public perception
around the Saudi the crown.
So it's it's they call it sports washing.
It's like it's like whitewashing, but
using sports to do it.
OK, that makes sense.
Yeah.
And that makes sense.
I remember that they bought a golfing
turn like they did it
was it back in the day.
It's not good. And I and we really got to
push back against these types of
governments owning this
type of stuff, in my opinion.
Yeah. I mean, it's hyper
normalization is what it is.
And it's it's terrifying.
Like, honestly, I just
I find it disgusting.
I don't know.
I don't have much else to say about that.
Do you guys know?
I'm just glad it
wasn't Valve or something.
I really care about.
I'm kind of over Pokemon Go, but still,
that's just a shame.
I mean, that's not selling. So there's
not. So if Gabe I I know, but I don't
know what it's going to be
like when Gabe retires or is gone.
So all I'm saying is
pretty good and hope that.
Hope that whoever he
selects isn't an idiot.
Well, what they need to do is make valve
like owned by the by the people who work
there like it needs to
be a worker's cooperative.
That's what I think.
That's socialism. I can't believe you'd
say it's definitely not socialism.
You're such a you're
such a it's go Elysium type.
No, I mean, isn't that
technically what socialism is?
But I'm all for that cooperative.
Well, socialism is like a is a public
thing like that would they
would still be a private company,
but the people who work there would own
and have say and I know, but there's so
many different
definitions of cap of socialism.
But like I agree, like well, especially
with valve, they're so smart.
You should have them be doing and they're
kind of already doing
that in a lot of ways.
And the decision making process is
already distributed amongst most like the
people that work there.
It doesn't, you know, and, you know,
capitalism, socialism, whatever.
I believe we're living in a post
capitalist world right now.
Like the capitalism we have is like a
complete perversion of what it should be.
Agreed. And and so, you
know, capitalism be damned today.
It's ridiculous. Anyway, let's move on.
Now I want to get
even more angry about it.
Dude, you get me
fucking furious in a minute.
I keep talking about it.
We'll both be yellow.
My face will turn red. Oh, my God.
Yeah. The the triple initiative returns.
I don't know what this is.
High tech. You're going
to have to fill me in.
So the triple initiative was a showcase.
They have like a three
but entirely indie games.
So it's good.
So yeah, a good three.
No ads either.
Yeah, that's already better than jockey
Lee's stupid summer thingy.
But they showcased a
lot of games last year.
They showcased slave aspired to.
They also showcased the
rogue prince of Persia.
I know that's published by Ubisoft,
but it's being developed by the guys that
made that made Dead Cells.
Risk of Rain 2 update, Power World.
They also announced like
games like Kill Knight.
Death must die. Cataclysmo.
A bunch of games, a bunch of RTS's too.
And, oh, Wizard.
Okay, so here's my thing
with indie games nowadays.
So like, you know how like the
PlayStation 1 era had that era where
every game franchise lost Tri3D.
It seems like every sequel to a
successful game, indie
game is doing that too.
Like Moonlighter 2.
You guys played Moonlighter?
Or heard of it? No. No. No.
So it's kind of, so it's like a shop.
It's like half shop
simulator, half dungeon crawler.
But it was 2D and top
down, kind of like Zelda.
Now that's going 3D. That's going 3D.
You guys play Wizard of Legend?
No.
So that's like a top down rogue like.
It was 2D. Action rogue.
But it's going 3D now.
With Wizard of Legend 2.
Oh, let's talk about Risk of Rain 1 and
2. You guys know of Risk of Rain 1?
Yeah.
And you guys know how
Risk of Rain 2 is 3D?
Yeah, that happened too.
Hmm.
Okay, I shouldn't be ranting though
because it's not like
3D is inherently bad.
But I just noticed a weird trend with
like, yeah, indies going 3D.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't think it's bad.
Like if they can, I think 3D requires
more of an investment.
That's really what it is.
Like it's there's just more complexity
with 3D and the art
assets tend to be more complex.
So when a game is
successful as an indie game,
then they have the money to invest to
make a 3D version of it.
I don't think that's bad necessarily.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's fair.
I just prefer the art style for like
Wizard of Legends 1 more
compared to Wizard of Legend 2.
That's just me though.
Yeah, it's really hard.
I'm for iterative
processes like going for 2D to 3D.
I'm typically more of a 3D person myself.
I lived the 2D life long time
ago and I still enjoy games,
but it is kind of a shame if you really
like a franchise and
they change fundamentally.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
So we don't know when the show, this new
showcase is, I believe.
Let me see what happened last year.
I think it's cool to
have this type of showcase.
Oh, it happened on April.
So we should be expecting
to see it in the next month.
If it happens on a Saturday, would you
guys be interested in live streaming it?
Yeah.
Yeah, no, I'm always down.
All right.
But we'll update you on this if it ends
up being on a
Saturday or like another day.
I don't know.
Maybe we will live stream on another day,
assuming we're not at work or something.
If it's on a work date, then
we're not going to stream it.
I mean, that's just kind of what it is.
I'll take the time off just for the...
Well, actually, I'll
reserve that for something.
I'm interested in this, but there might
be something more
interesting coming this year.
Who knows?
Yeah.
Speaking of interesting, I feel like this
is something Gardner is
interested in this next
month.
Oh, my gosh.
Yes.
So I have been a big champion of Bazight.
I think it's a really great Linux distro.
And it's really great for gaming as well.
And it's based on Fedora, which is one of
my favorite distros in general.
And now they just announced this week
that they are working on
two new spins of Bazlight,
and they're aimed at developers.
They have Bazlight DX, which is the
developer experience, and it
has general developer tooling
and other things to help you debug your
game, to test your
games, and such like that.
But they also have Bazlight GDX.
And Bazlight GDX is the game developer
experience, and it ships with Godot.
I believe it's 4.4.
It's shipping with a bunch of other
tools, pretty much the
same tools that are coming
with DX.
And they also are looking for people to
help them develop
further, create new tools that
will help game developers
bring their games to Linux.
And it's very exciting.
I've seen a couple of folks, even the
guys from RetroDeck in
my Revolt server, he said
that he's going to be switching over to
GDX when it's available.
What's he using now?
That's a great question.
He said it, and I don't remember.
I don't know if he'll be able to find it.
But yeah, he's using something else.
I think he said
Chimera, it was, or Catchy.
I don't know.
One of those two.
Interesting.
I don't even know if I have it open.
I'm really interested in this because I
would like to go more to Linux.
I'm still dependent on Unreal, but I'm
really interested in this,
in the GDX one specifically.
Does Unreal have a
Linux version of the engine?
They do, but it's just
like the Mac version.
It's not great.
I have an Nvidia graphics card, so on top
of that, I don't know
what other issues I'd
run into.
Maybe if I...
You have to build it yourself.
On Mac, they actually have a pre-built
version now, but on
Linux, excuse me, you have to
build it.
I'm fine with that, but building it at
least a couple years
ago, I tried it and it was
a pain in the ass, or at
least with my Nvidia card.
If I switch over to the N70 XT and if I
can get Unreal to run
really well, I might actually
just switch to this full-time.
We'll see.
I'm not committing to anything now, but
if I can, I will try
to because I don't play
enough online games, and the online games
I do play are Linux compatible.
So Zorn from RetroDeck says he is using
Bazite currently, but
he's going to be switching
over to Bazite GDX when it's available.
That makes sense.
So it's an Alpha right now, when are they
going to make it fully available?
They don't know, but when it becomes
stable though, that's
when they'll release it.
Sick.
Right now, it's just for testing.
Okay, so maybe I'll go to Bazite with my
main PC today or
tomorrow and then I'll see how
it goes from there.
I mean, if it's a different image, you
should be able to just
re-image your Bazite install
to Bazite GDX when it goes stable.
Well, the nice thing about having all my
stuff on my Mac
computers, like all my day-to-day
stuff where my other type of development
is that I can then
refresh my other computer
much more often.
So I'm fine reformatting it because all
my business stuff is
on my other computer.
That's why I like doing this dual boot.
I have a KVM, so I
switch between the two.
So I'm much more experimental now with my
Windows and Linux
stuff and have a lot more
fun and I can always expect to edit
videos or to do anything else on my Mac.
In fact, I'd prefer to do game
development on my Mac too,
but for now, I might do both.
We'll see.
News.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
It's cool.
I'm really excited about this.
And it seems like a
lot of people are too.
There was a bunch of comments on this
when I talked about it in
my last video and people
are saying it seems really neat.
So yeah, I'm excited to see how it turns
out because like I
said, I love Fedora and like
Fedora is what I'm running
on all of my laptops now.
And it's just sick.
So speaking of which, James, you said you
had an M1 Mac, right?
Among MacBook?
I have an M2, but I'm going to be looking
into getting an M4 or
maybe waiting for the
M5.
Have you tried Asahi Linux on your Mac?
No.
What is it?
It's a M1, M2, M3 specific Linux distro.
I don't believe they have M4 support just
yet, but I honestly,
I like Mac OS enough.
I don't think I'd switch
like my for this type of thing.
I don't think I'd switch over to Linux
anytime soon unless like
Apple really does something
that piss me off.
I really like the synergy.
Like I can right now I have my AirPods in
listening to you guys.
But if I get off and go to my iPad to
watch something, which is
often what I do, it works
like that.
So not as my flow is really
nice, but I like the team car.
I like to do games and all that.
And Mac is just not there for games.
Plus on top of I like supporting Linux.
I like doing the open source stuff.
I just got to the stage in my life where
I just, I'm getting
tired of windows and it
just disrupting my flow.
So and I want to support Linux more and
more and plus gardeners,
you know, talking me into
it more and more.
He doesn't talk me into it, but like him
talking about all the cool
stuff again is like, okay,
I need to get back into this world.
So I'm plus Bazlight
is awesome on my ally.
Like I still have always tinkered with
and messed with it and even developed.
A software on Steam OS.
But yeah, but like doctors like a Linux
YouTube, he has a vested
interest in people using Linux.
Don't you know, man?
It's all like conspiracy, dude.
I do.
I am a shell for Linux.
If you ask my comment section, I know
he's being paid by big Linux.
Yeah.
IBM.
That is a thing, but yeah.
Yeah.
Red hot.
You mean paid off by that hat, bro.
Yeah.
Microsoft's paying me to love Linux, you
know, because Microsoft
loves Linux, you know, and
they should.
They do.
Oh my God.
Server.
I have like the description of my YouTube
channel says, follow me for bad takes and
biased opinions because that's all people
say in my conference section recently.
It's like, that's a bad take.
That's a biased opinion.
It's like, how the fuck
can an opinion be not biased?
Yeah, exactly.
That's the stupidest thing.
What bad opinion were they
roasting you for this time?
Dude, every one of them, dude, the I made
a video about Mozilla
like two weeks ago and
people are still like leaving comments
about how I'm a shell for Mozilla.
It's like, I literally know one guy who I
met before he worked
for Mozilla and that's
it.
Like actually two guys, but you know.
But still, it's like, I don't fuck dude.
These people are, I don't know.
It we're not even going to do it.
Doesn't, doesn't, doesn't a glorious egg
roll work at Mozilla
now or like thunderbird
or some shit.
I know he worked on red hat, but I
thought he worked at red hat.
I didn't know if he changed.
I must be thinking of other Linux guy.
Well Jason Evangelow.
Yes, that's dude.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
It works there, but Jason Evangelow.
I met him at system 76 a couple of years
ago and he's just the
coolest dude and also Ryan
Sipes.
You might know him from, he was like the
public marketing guy for,
for mycroft, the AI, like
the open source, like assistant dude,
like, like Google home or Amazon Alexa.
I don't know if you remember that, but he
was, he made a splash
there and then he worked
for system 76 and I met him there and
he's really cool and
now he works for Mozilla.
So Jason Evangelow and him are the two
that I know and it's like
neither of them are like
shills for, and they
work for thunderbird too.
It's not even like
they're working for Firefox.
Ah, yes.
So yeah, I mean, bad takes are bad takes.
I have some really bad takes too.
I think, I think QTE, I
think QTEs and games are good.
You know, Q, quick time events.
Yeah.
Bring them back.
I don't care if they instantly kill you.
Bring them back.
I want them.
Like seven years ago, I once said that I
thought it would make
sense for valve to have a, like
a timed exclusive on Linux, right?
Seven years ago and people
still use that against me.
I'm like, guys, like
this was seven years ago.
I don't think that anymore.
We, can we chill the fuck out?
I don't think that's a bad idea.
I don't think people never change.
It's not a bad idea.
Like, how did valve get its, get its foot
in the door with steam?
They made, they made steam.
You had to install steam in
order to play half-life too.
Like that was my whole thought process.
I don't necessarily agree with that
anymore, but I think that
like it would make sense
for valve to do something like that.
They wouldn't do it.
And I'm not advocating for them to do it,
but like people still
use that against me.
And it's like, they
need to chill out guys.
Everybody needs to chill.
I don't, I don't know why.
I don't know.
I have a hard time
because I, Linux is free.
Yeah.
They made it.
It's not like you have
to buy anything else.
Yes.
You'd have to reformat your computer, but
heaven forbid, whatever.
You have to buy a computer.
I don't know.
Yeah.
I guess so.
But then if you're a console, okay.
Okay.
But then you're, if you're a console user
and you complain about
an exclusive somewhere
else, then you're already a hypocrite.
So they can talk about bad days.
Well, not if you're not, if you're one of
the eight Xbox series owners.
Yeah.
Well, they don't have exclusives at all.
Don't you know?
That might be a bad take.
Dude, the, the, the Xbox, Xbox is putting
all their games on every platform.
You know, I love it.
I really like I'm here for that.
Yeah.
So he's putting all their
exclusives on PC too, man.
So it's pretty clear if you want to
invest in both worlds
just by a PC and an agenda
switch, if you want to
play an agenda switch.
We didn't talk about that, but in the,
from my understanding,
when I looked into the,
the Xbox handheld and also the 20, 27 or
the 20, 27 Xboxes are
going to be multi platform
based, meaning you'll be able to
potentially have Epic and steam on them.
So that's what it sounds like for 20, 27.
That is sacrilege.
The quote from one of the, from, from
Jason Ronald, the VP of
next generation at Microsoft
at Xbox said, I have the quote right here
because I have my script from yesterday.
It says, I would say our plan is to bring
the best of Xbox and
windows together because
we have spent the last 20 years building
a world-class operating
system, but it's really
locked to the console.
He's talking about Xbox OS.
And so what we're doing is we're really
focused on how we can bring those
experiences, experiences
for both players and developers to the
broader windows ecosystem.
So as if, as if windows 11 wasn't bloated
enough, they're going to cram the Xbox OS
in there somehow too.
And so like that's what this is.
I think that's what
they're planning is there.
It's going to be a hybrid windows Xbox OS
where you can also
install steam and access the
desktop.
So it's going to be ridiculous.
The Xbox OS is already
windows based from my understanding.
And so it really is just a UI layer.
So if they do a game mode with the UI
layer, I'm down for that.
But they're going to have to do some fat
trim, you know, trimming some fat ID.
If the new Xbox is unlocked, say for
example, you can just
install your other OS.
You want to just solve that instead?
Well, if they're, if they're bringing
over the Xbox shell to
windows, who's to say they're
also not going to give the OS away for
free to OEMs in
exchange for completely locking
the device to windows.
I fully, that's
something Microsoft would do.
And I fully expect that.
It is interesting.
I think it's interesting.
I definitely, I want to see more before I
get more like just in
time for general steam
OS release to no less.
But here's my thing.
Whatever they do with the 2027, the X, if
they call it an Xbox
ally or something like
that, let's say this, you know, this
year, it will be able to play.
And it is the first time that I, from
understanding that Sony
exclusives will be on Xbox because
you could play because, you know, Sony
exclusives are going to steam.
You'd be able to play Last
of Us on the Xbox or not.
Yeah.
And so you'd be able to play
certain things on the Xbox.
You know, big quotes on that.
I think that's kind of.
I hope that Sony sues the shit out of
Microsoft over that.
Yeah.
Because there could be like genuine like
brand issues that Sony
would take with that.
I think it'd be hilarious.
I would be hilarious.
Yeah.
I'm down for the hilarity between these
two brands getting what they deserve.
Yeah.
And I just we're talking
about the Xbox in 2027.
I don't even think Xbox has that kind of
momentum to make it to 2027.
Like honestly, I like
my I am a huge Xbox fan.
I love the original Xbox.
I have a modded 360.
I love those consoles.
I never once in my I've never once
touched or played at Xbox one.
And I have I don't know anyone in my life
who owns and I know one person who has an
Xbox series console, one person.
And that's like everyone in my circle of
friends were all Xbox
gamers just two generations
ago.
And it's like the I
just don't see anecdotally.
I just don't see Microsoft
being able to keep it going.
You know, you just don't understand
Microsoft's like vision, man.
They're playing five.
My still playing like a chest.
Yeah.
I also have another Xbox right here.
Yeah.
There's hundreds of millions of Xbox.
Now we're all on Xbox.
Dude, you just don't understand.
Yeah.
Sorry.
I'm getting really the steam.
The steam deck.
Yeah.
Let's talk about the steam Xbox.
The controversial game of
Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
That's that's coming.
So speaking of which, but before we get
started, I'm gonna go off
a little bit tangent here.
During the next fest, I saw a game in
this team next fest
called Yasuke Simulator.
And the dumbest thing
I've ever seen in my life.
What does that mean?
I don't even know what I mean.
So Yasuke was a samurai, was that well,
he was a historical
figure in Japan, retainer
in the Oda Nobunaga.
And he was an outlier in Japan because he
was of African descent.
He was black.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, you were telling me
about this last last year.
Yeah.
Last time.
Someone made a game on Steam.
It's not out yet.
It's called Yasuke Simulator.
And it looks like the
worst asset flip of my life.
It's like writing the coattails of the
coattails of the
Assassin's Creed controversy.
Yes.
That's amazing what it is.
It looks kind of funny, but like I'm
pretty sure they made it
because, yeah, you know
how it is.
What side of it is it going to be like a
mocking game or is it going
to be like trying to actually
no, it's like a machin because there are
like assault rifles in it as well.
And like a car.
No, definitely non-sap potentially is
going to be running the
risk of being very racist.
It sounds like it's
going to be very racist.
I'm going to be honest with you.
Would Steam even allow something so
depending on how bad it gets?
Well, they don't.
Well, I mean, like I don't think it's
like a blatantly racist.
The game itself, I think maybe it was
made from a not great place.
Maybe I don't know.
I mean, I've read a lot of pretty racist
things when it comes to this controversy
of having a black character
in Assassin's Creed shadows.
And so that's why I say that.
And in today's political climate, it's
much more acceptable to be that.
So I'm interesting.
Interesting.
It's this weird spot where Yasuke himself
doesn't have a lot of like history behind
him besides what like waited after.
I don't know.
It's crazy.
He doesn't have a lot of history after
no, no, but not after
no, but not like they don't
happen to have afterwards.
They don't.
And that's why Assassin's
Creed shadows plays with it.
And it's not a historical simulator.
And we don't need to
get into the controversy.
Yeah, like the like the Assassin's Creed
plot has gone completely
like it taking historical
events.
It went completely off the rails with the
second game because I
don't know if you guys
remember Assassin's Creed
2, the one with Ezio in it.
But like if you go through all of the
hidden logs, it like
shows that almost the entirety
of history was like was like around the
whole Templar versus
Assassin's like thing.
Even like, oh, here's a crazy one, too.
They briefly talked about the World War
Two era where FDR,
Henry Ford and Hitler were
all on the Templar side.
And yeah, they were all on the Templar
side, like working together.
And World War Two was just as one big
conspiracy to get some more
artifacts of Eden or something
like that.
And Hitler was killed by an assassin.
But it doesn't make sense.
Assassin's Creed is a history simulator,
according to every one thing I read
that's controversial
about this.
Sorry.
I did.
Clearly, you just
don't know history, dude.
Clearly, clearly, you don't get.
I only get talked about history to me
every day because my wife's a historian.
She went to school for history.
I get to learn about history every day.
And obviously, Leonardo da Vinci didn't
invent like a slick,
hidden weapon that goes on your
wrist.
At school, that'd be he invented a bunch
of other crazy stuff like
a helicopter that doesn't
look very aerodynamic.
But I mean, Futurama suggests that maybe
that was a spaceship instead.
Oh, my gosh, Futurama.
True history.
We've got some.
Yeah, we're really off the
rails, but it's still like.
I hate it.
I hate that you can't make a game anymore
that's semi history
based historical fiction.
I think that's the historical fiction.
There you go.
That's a much better way to put it.
Yeah.
So but speaking of fiction, do you think
the assassin's Creed
Shadow is going to run while
on Steam Deck?
No.
But it will still be optimized.
I find it hard to believe, but they're
going all in in this
whole it's going to run while
on Steam Deck thing.
Like the thumbnail of the video shows it
inside of a Steam Deck as
if like maybe if they don't
force you to run origin in the background
or whatever the Ubisoft version.
Yeah, they did mention that if you
install it, if you get it
through Steam, they don't
force you to use the Ubisoft thing.
I'll save you a gigabyte or two of RAM.
OK, so here's the thing, though, if they
truly are doing it like
this, like it can either
backfire and really hurt, I think Steam
Deck verified games or
it could be a big boon to
other companies.
If it runs well, I will personally buy
Assassin's Creed Shadows
within the first week or two.
I might even do it anyway just to see.
Don't make that bad, dude.
Well, I mean, if it runs well, I'm going
to buy it like this is a
game that would be really
fun on the Steam Deck.
And if they can if it can run
consistently 90 percent of
the time at 30 frames at least,
I'm down for that.
Oh, shit.
All right.
So, hey, you're like, I'm not usually an
Assassin's Creed person, but
any game company, especially
AAA, that is going to and I know that
Gardner, you don't do Ubisoft, right?
I don't do Ubisoft at all.
Yeah.
Me personally, like I will vote with my
wallet here if we start getting more
Steam Deck optimized
stuff, because I really
want this trend to happen.
Honestly, that's not bad.
That's not bad.
Hey, I might be with
you on this to be honest.
I don't disagree with you, James.
Like Ubisoft, God
knows they need your help.
I got to buy one their
last game they're making.
So it's the last game
they're ever going to make.
Dude, it's their final fantasy.
That's crazy.
Oh, dude.
Yeah.
I mean, this is this could
be their swan song, honestly.
But like, I mean, if it works well on the
Steam Deck, you know, you have to I don't
know, I'm not going to tell people to buy
it because I really don't like Ubisoft.
Yeah.
They deserve every bad
thing that could happen to them.
But like, and I respect that, too.
Yeah.
And at the same time, I said the first
Assassin's Creed game was a lot of fun.
That was 20 years ago almost.
Yeah.
The second one is probably
one of my favorite games.
Black Flag is the
only one I've completed.
It's amazing.
I love that one.
The only one I've played is the original.
I haven't played number two or any other.
The two black flag is really fun.
Dude, two is very similar to the first
one, but it's like way better.
I'm surprised you haven't played it yet.
And by the time Assassin's Creed 2 came
out, I was already kind
of on the fuck off Ubisoft
kind of train.
So what did they do
something back then, too?
I can't remember.
They've just been shitty the whole time
and I didn't realize it.
Ubisoft.
Yeah.
They have a couple of game franchises
that I and I like to
support the developers.
But yeah, at the same time, I will be
vocal against stuff like this.
And I'm more developer oriented, whether
I'll not buy something or buy something.
But I don't think it's wrong to boycott
if you don't feel
like their practices are.
Good. Yeah, that's fair.
I respect that.
That's fair. Totally valid.
I mean, yeah.
I don't know, man.
I do. I really I think credit should be
gift and credit where credit is due.
I do think if they can actually prove
that it runs well, the
steam deck, which I mean,
the trailer doesn't look
like steam deck footage.
It looks like, you know, obviously you
can just edit a steam
deck over some gameplay
and make it look like a steam is running
it kind of like if they
can prove that it runs
really well on steam deck,
then props should be given.
I'm sure a lot of steam
that users will buy it.
Even if it is Ubisoft.
And if the game is good, if the game is
good, they'll buy it.
Yeah, that's the thing.
They'll buy it even if it's not like
people play some of the
games that do not run well
on the steam deck like.
Baldur's Gate three.
Plays OK in the first part.
It does not play well after the first
portion of the game.
And people and it is one then one of the
most played games on the
steam deck for months for
since it came out, essentially.
So sitting here in my
office and I will hear
of Emily's steam deck out in the living
room when she's
playing Baldur's Gate three.
And I'm like, dude, I can tell I know
exactly what game you're playing.
It did. It's crazy.
But she still plays the
Assassin's Creed shadows.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't know.
Like I don't disagree with you, James.
I think that this makes a lot of sense.
Like if if people want
to buy it, go for it.
I'm not going to.
But like it's it's it.
I hate the idea of like
voting with your wallet, but like
you got to kind of invest in the things
that you want to see in the world.
You know, I mean, yeah, voting with your
wallet is just a way cutting thing.
It's putting money where your mouth is.
Yeah. If you want to see a
trend and this is the trend.
This is the thing I want to see the most
is see the steam deck
as a standard in the PC gaming world
and to treat it like a console in some
form or fashion to where it's like
the bare minimum will look decent and
play well on the steam deck.
I think is because then it will
everything else will benefit.
If they start optimizing for the steam
deck, I think
everything else will benefit
from that and we'll get
better optimized games.
But it's a good way to
have these companies do it.
Meaning because if you say,
oh, well, it's not optimized
because it doesn't run on this one little
device or something like that.
You're not going to win the
developers or these publishers.
But if you're like, well, the steam deck,
I have a steam deck.
If you like, if you
optimize it for that, I know that.
And because these companies already
optimized for consoles.
I really think that they
could optimize this game very well
for the steam deck if they
use some of the same tactics.
So we'll see. Yeah, there's.
I don't know. This is
it's going to be crushed.
I'm sure this is a
big, bold name from Epic.
Not Epic, sorry. Ubisoft.
Remember Ubisoft was
Epic exclusive point.
That was a bad time.
No, it's probably that's probably the
start of their like massive decline.
We can blame Epic for
yet another company dying.
Yeah.
They're just getting them where they want
them so they could buy them out.
Dude, I'm sure Microsoft would
sooner buy them out than Epic.
I I'd rather have Epic own a lot of the
stuff than freaking Ubisoft.
I like I still like Epic, but I get it.
I don't know.
My son, I'm not a big fan
of these franchises, man.
I don't want epic exclusives more.
And then what they're going to do is
they're going to relegate Ubisoft
to a fortnight, a
fortnight support studio.
They do timed exclusives typically,
depending on the game.
Like Borderlands is on.
I'm sure Borderlands 4
will be on Steam, right?
Or at least we're making
fun to be on Steam already.
Yeah, so I don't know.
But it does run the risk. I don't know.
I don't know.
Yeah, it's a really trouble sometime.
Remember Randy Pitchford said that seem
will be a dying platform
or something like that.
Randy Pitchford is an idiot.
Randy Pitchford just
doesn't see the vision.
Dude, remember, do you remember when
Disco Elysium was on good platforms?
It still is on good platforms.
I know. Yeah, it's
still on good platforms.
But now it's coming to TikTok.
No, it's not coming to TikTok.
It's coming to phones and it's going to
be redesigned to capture the TikTok.
Oh,
TikTok fan base.
I see.
All right. You got to give me
the details on that, too. So.
This is the this is a quote from from the
article from Eurogamer.
We intend to captivate the TikTok user
with quick hits of compelling story
and audio, ultimately creating an all new
deeply engaging form of entertainment.
So correctly, if I'm not mistaken,
didn't the entire didn't the entire Disco
Elysium team leave sound?
Like the all of the developers.
All the developers writing is a fairly
anti capitalistic game.
Or is it the opposite?
I can't remember.
No, it's like it's the people have often
described Disco Elysium
as being written by like
some hardcore Marxists. Yeah.
Wow, we're getting political again.
I well, who said that, though?
That's a I just know that it is
definitely much more socialist or
that it runs the gamut of like.
Of that, of the Marxism
socialism thing, it's interesting.
On one hand, it's kind of a
ridiculous statement to say
that you're trying to attract the TikTok
crowd, especially since they're
so used to like 10
second loops of video shorts,
which we have video shorts on our YouTube
channel, by the way.
At the same time, though.
It's another thing, too, that like
because Disco Elysium is a very like,
like I haven't played it personally.
I probably should.
But it's a very like dialogue heavy game,
like to expect the TikTok crowd
to like read that much dialogue.
Is like borderline insanity.
Who knows? Maybe they'll
have someone read to them
and they'll have quick
little dances in it now.
Yeah, but a music just just imagine the
dialogue pantomimed to,
you know, whatever meme
music track is popular on TikTok.
That's I'm just I just can't imagine like
what the fuck they're trying to.
Like I. I don't get it.
I don't I don't get this.
Like all they had to say was, oh, we're
bringing Disco Elysium up mobile
and like redoing the controls and such.
That's all they had to say.
This feels like something they would say
to like their investors.
We're trying to hit the
TikTok generation, guys.
And then all the old old guys with white
hair say, yes, great.
We'll make a lot of money.
It's just it's the it's probably the
worst game to do this type of thing.
Yeah. Also, they should be
choosing a different game.
Do what has been what game would you
choose to appeal to the TikTok crowd?
Because for nights already
on mobile, human fall flat.
What's not?
You know, that would be that'd be kind of
cool, actually, dude.
Well, I mean, like you need something
that's bright, colorful and dumb.
Yeah, I was going to say, it has to be
something that on the Roblox
are mobile to Roblox.
Yeah, dude, I can't tell you how many
times I like I'm like I'll scroll.
I'll be taking a shit and scrolling
through fucking YouTube Shorts.
And then it'll just come up with like
some guy jumping on platforms
in Minecraft and then a robot voice
telling a story from Reddit.
And I'm like, what the
fuck are we doing, man?
Dude, dude, have you seen those YouTube
shorts where it's like
one to the top half of it
is like a family guy clip.
And the bottom half
of it is like gameplay.
So yeah, I believe.
Yep. The worst part
is that it gets views.
You know, imagine that that that's dude.
That's what that's what
dyskalese is going to do.
Yeah, dude.
That's how that's how you that's how you
capture the TikTok base.
I don't know.
I feel like it might end
up being a flop because
I don't think this is the right market.
No, yeah, kids don't know.
Kids play kids don't want to
play games about socialism.
They want to like pretend like they're
morally superior to like our generation.
No, they they like this could work.
I just don't know if TikTok's right.
Targetive to or even to say reimagine for
TikTok generation is just like
this is crazy, dude, just if you're going
to do this, you just name it
like disco Elysium go and
just have it be its own thing.
Like it's an adaptation of disco Elysium.
Disco Elysium sell sold out.
That's what they know.
Yeah.
OK, OK, gross.
Well, this topic was
I don't know what to say about this, man.
It was all the weird.
All I have to say is I'm sorry.
I'm so salty and old man
yelling at clouds today.
I apologize.
It's OK.
I'll hold that vision guard.
No, we just don't understand the vision,
the majestic vision that is
disco Elysium for TikTokers.
To be fair, this topic is very much easy
to yell about because it's.
Yeah, it's so funny.
Maybe they got an investment from Tencent
and that's what they're doing.
Anyway, steam steam spring sale 2025.
What's up?
Let's yay capitalism.
Yeah.
So the steam sale is going on.
I don't have you guys bought anything
from the steam sale this year?
I don't think I've bought anything from a
steam sale in like three months
or several several iterations of the
summer of a sale on a.
Let me tell you right
now, no steam cat girl.
What even is the point?
No more steam sale.
Remember that people love that from like
all the sales last year.
Yeah, no, I like it.
I would like them to do
like different things, but like
I think they should bring the steam cat
girl back every year.
But I don't know for every cell.
Yeah.
Make her like make her a character in half.
That is so funny if they like added
Easter egg and half like three.
And it's the steam cat girl.
Oh, gosh, it would be super viral.
I'm down.
I'm 100% down for that.
No. Are you guys going to buy anything?
I'm I'm I'm over Silent Hill, too.
Because I've been wanting
to get that for a while.
I should have.
I think I could have gotten a copy and
reviewed it when it first came out.
But it's too far out now.
And I'm trying to determine what good
what games are on sale
that I don't already.
That's the thing.
That's the other thing with steam sales
is that so many of
the so many of the best
games on steam, you
probably already have like you do.
Yeah, you probably already
have both the team games, right?
But the new do games.
I mean, that's also the problem.
All the good deals are stuff I've already
picked up over the years.
And so I'm now just
looking at maybe newer stuff.
Yeah, stuff. I mean.
I think maybe Valve knew about maybe
Valve saw this coming.
That's why they can keep doing steam
sales because they
know your own everything.
And then you just have to look at new
stuff that's like not on
like not as much of a sale.
Yeah, Emily, Emily got Mass Effect
Legendary Edition or
whatever it's called.
She's she's into those.
It's like five bucks right now.
Yeah. Oh, dude, that's crazy.
Dude, that's such a good game and it runs
well on the steam deck,
at least what I've played.
Yeah, it's six bucks. Yeah.
All right. Hold on.
Well, we should look at the we should
look at some sales ourselves.
Let's see. You know
what game I want is UFO 50.
How much is that?
Oh, yeah.
And it's 20 bucks.
Oh, UFO 50.
It's 50 like 50 retro style games made by
Mossmouth and a bunch
of other like indie devs.
And it's it looks really great.
And I've just been waiting for it to go
on sale because I'm cheap.
Well, it's like Action 52.
Yeah, that's that's the conceit.
There's a story being told about the
company that made UFO 50.
And it's it is like Action 52.
Like it's very interesting.
It's it seems very.
Action 52.
You know, they should make a reboot of a
remake of a remaster of.
Action 52.
That'd be so funny if they
just released out modern systems.
That reminds me, too.
They've been remaking.
They've been remastering games that the
angry video game narratives reviewed.
Like they they they remastered.
Plumbers don't wear ties.
Have you guys seen those?
Have you guys seen AVGM?
I've seen him.
Yeah, I stopped watching
him after he got acquired.
Yeah, so basically it's an older it's one
of his older episodes.
But like basically it's like.
Oh, I can't describe you.
Go watch the episode, Gardner.
OK. But then he also
talks about like L.G.M. games.
Yeah, I forget what games he
talked about that they oh yeah.
Corpse Killer is another
game that they remastered.
That he played.
Um.
Nice.
I don't know.
It's an interesting trend that I noticed.
Maybe they'll remaster
something else he's played.
Oh, dude, you know
what's on sale right now?
What?
Doodlings arcade sports ball.
Oh, dude, roll the trailer, dude.
It needs to roll the trailer, man.
It's a theme.
It's it's 40 percent off right now, which
is the I think that's the historic
flow that I've done.
I don't know for sure.
And also the deluxe edition, which comes
with the soundtrack,
which is objectively the best
part of the whole fucking game.
It's it's five thirty eight right now for
for the deluxe edition and everything.
Did you compose a soundtrack?
I did like two like
hidden tracks, but like I paid
my favorite Internet band of
all time, the Brothers Nylon.
And they made just this
amazing, amazing soundtrack.
Have you heard it before, high tech?
Not like in a vacuum.
I've played the I've played
a little bit of sports ball.
Yeah, it's it's so nice.
It's it's it's it's it's good.
It's like funky 70s style retro.
Like, yeah, it's great.
Dude. All right.
Hold on. Let's see.
All right. Let's look at some games that
are under ten dollars.
Let's see what.
Let's see what the top
sellers are right now.
Wait, how do I?
The website layout is kind
of weird during these sales.
I'm not sure I like it, to be honest.
It's crazy.
I can't find the like area where.
You would see like top sellers.
I will just do it this way.
Let's see.
Rainbow Six Siege, 80
percent off three ninety nine.
The Elder Scrolls
online, one ninety nine.
Dead by daylight.
If you go through that list,
it's going to be a long time.
Yeah, we're going to be here for a while.
Like they these are a lot of these games
that you're seeing that are on sale
for that cheap usually are
almost every sale, I feel like.
The ones. So if you see something there
like Rainbow Six Siege,
you'll most likely be able to get it for
around that price next sell.
So this is a heads up to people.
Do you know what? Did you know that Dead
by Daylight's getting a
Tokyo Ghoul crossover character?
Which is crazy.
That is a crazy crossover.
But at this point, I'm not shocked.
They do so many weird crossovers.
I'm here for it, though.
It makes me want to go
jump back in and and play.
Yeah, they're bringing a
connecting cannon from.
Yeah. From Tokyo Ghoul
and do it as a killer.
Yep. Yep.
And man, that game has
such a bad gameplay loop
where else I'd play so much more of it.
Yeah, same.
They have alien.
They have so much stuff,
but it's so boring to fix.
Evil. Yeah, I have.
I have that stuff.
Yeah, I have those packs, but and I play
them for a little bit
after a pack comes out,
but repairing a generator
gets so boring after that 80th time.
Dude, what they should have
done is they should have made
Nicole's cage a killer.
They didn't. They
made him as one of those.
Yeah, I know. That's what I'm saying.
They should have made him like like an
unhinged serial killer.
That would have been awesome.
That would have been interesting.
But yeah, Stelaris Stelaris
is only 10 bucks right now.
75% off Stelaris isn't.
Yeah, it's not how you pronounce it.
It's not Stelaris.
I don't know.
I say Stelaris because I'm an American.
Stelaris, sure.
But basically, I reviewed that when it
first came out on my channel
and it was basically Star Trek.
And I love that.
Dude, the see Skyrim's on sale.
The special edition.
Yeah, that's surprising.
Uh, what else?
What's not let me see.
Let's see what's
notable here that's on sale.
If you haven't done so yet,
but the mass effects, like
you mentioned, half lives,
those are always on sale for really good
deals and they're such good games.
Hold on now.
The new hold on now, the actual good
version of Disco Elysium is on sale.
990.
Buy it before they
get to take top of five.
Dragon Age, the Valeguard is half off.
The Dragon Age, the
Valeguard is any good.
I haven't heard about
it since it came out.
Emily's been playing it.
She likes it.
I don't I don't like those
kind of games, so don't ask me.
Like action, like action RPGs.
Yeah, it's not my style.
I like them.
I just.
The last Dragon Age
didn't then I just didn't.
I got bored, so.
Oh, my God, Doom 2016
is a dollar ninety nine.
No way.
Do you do usually pretty good deals, too?
Yeah, that's a good one.
And that's a good game.
Yeah, Undertale is ninety nine cents.
If you haven't played Undertale, you
haven't played Undertale.
Play it. Play Undertale.
Undertale is one of the few games that
actually made me weep.
Like when I beat it, I was
crying like I'm not kidding.
That Undertale is a beautiful game.
Yeah, I like that.
Doom 3 is more
expensive than Doom right now.
Am I a monster for doing the
genocide run after the true run?
I might be.
Well, you did the genocide
run after the true run. Yeah.
Well, I don't see a problem with that.
I mean,
it's like, you know,
I feel like it would
make you more of a monster
if you did the genocide run without
knowing that you were doing it.
Yeah.
To be fair, I played a little bit after.
Everyone talked about it, so that's why I
kind of knew not to do
the genocide run first.
OK, but I'm sure I probably would have
done the genocide run first
if I went to like completely blind.
Yeah. Maybe I am.
Maybe we are the true
monsters all along. Right.
I'm getting someone's trying to get in
contact with you, high tech.
I'm going to turn that off.
Yeah, Ooh, Liza P, that's another one
I've been interested in getting.
Yeah. Well, I mean,
we're at we're at about
two hours here, you guys.
Are there any other games you want to
mention before we wrap this up?
No, let's let's do it.
I'm just going to say here in particular.
Yeah, but I will say.
Steam sales, let us
know what you guys get.
I don't know what you guys
are going to buy these days.
Yeah, let us know in the
comments of the YouTube video.
You can also use your Macedon or your
PeerTube or your Pixel Fed account.
All right. Can you use PeerTube?
Probably not. But you can probably use
your Pixel Fed account
and you can send us a
comment on the Fediverse.
There's a link down
below on how to do that.
There is one game I want to mention.
Yeah, it's a it's a little like indie
game called One Light Heroics.
Normally it's three forty nine, but it's
on sale for 69 percent off.
It's a dollar. Oh,
it's a dollar. Oh, eight.
Nice. It's a it's a roguelike, but like
not like an action roguelike,
but like a true turn based roguelike.
And it's like an auto scroller as well.
It's super fun. You should play it.
Nice. And the DLC is on sale.
The DLC for is on sale
for a one one ninety four.
And it's like a like a whole
new like update to the game.
I know it's like more
expensive than the base game,
but they're both like
really cheap. You should get it.
Yeah, sounds good.
I'm so bad at describing games.
Not you're good. You're good.
Um, cool. Well, I think that's it.
Thank you guys for watching.
Thank you guys, James, and
high tech for being here.
I appreciate it. We have a
lot of fun when we do this.
All right. Take care of the end. Yeah.
Are we done yelling at the clouds now?
Get off my lawn.
Until next week, that is.
Until next week.
Awesome. All right.
We'll see you guys next week. Oh, later. Bye. Take care. Bye. Bye.