Man Cave Gaming - Busted Buttons Ep. 48

We start off talking about the Mario execution day when Nintendo removed Super Mario 3D All-Stars from the Nintendo Switch. Did it make sense? How did it affect sales? Is it a strategy we will see used again?

We then dive into the world's biggest video game cheat bust that happened recently. How were they taken down? What does this say about the gaming industry? How much did the organization make off of this?

Afterwards, we have a conversation around derogatory bots. Why do individuals spend their energy making something this negative? Why does Valve have a big problem on its hands. How many of these bots can the develops stop?

Later, we talk about Hick putting his PS4 Pro in his garage. How awesome is it to have video games in the man cave? Does he play different types of games on it? Is it a great way to get value out of an old system?

We end with a discussion on our decrease in PC Gaming. How close are the margins now between PC and next-gen consoles? Is it worth the extra money to get something you can already get with the PS5 or Xbox Series X? Do we still want to build PCs in the future?

Help support the show

Become a monthly patron: https://www.patreon.com/tgpzmedia

Make a one-time donation: https://www.paypal.me/tgpzmedia

Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/ETRz9bE

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gamingrealm/

Podcast Website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/799910

Website: https://www.tgpzgaming.com/

Twitter (Busted Buttons): https://twitter.com/BustedButtonsPC

Twitter (TGPZ Gaming): https://twitter.com/TGPZGaming

Instagram (Busted Buttons): https://www.instagram.com/bustedbuttonspc/

Instagram (TGPZ Gaming): https://www.instagram.com/tgpzgaming/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TGPZGaming/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/tgpzgaming

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/TGPZGamingShop/

Two Guys Playing Zelda (TGPZ)

Website: https://www.twoguysplayingzelda.com/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/zeldarealm/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TwoGuysPlayingZelda

Twitter: https://twitter.com/2guysplayzelda

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twoguysplayingzelda/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/twoguysplayingzelda/

Transcript

Red: 0:17

Welcome to Episode 48 of the Busted Buttons video game podcast. As always, we think we've got a great episode for you. We're going to be talking about Mario's execution day. That sounds so morbid, but it's Nintendo's sick twisted version of taking games away from us. And then we're also going to talk about the world's biggest video game cheat bust operation. And that's a phrase I never in my life ever say but that's where gaming is become in 2021. Speaking of cheats and things like that, we're going to talk about bots, and specifically some more racist and offensive bots that are out there that we're gonna talk a little bit about. Hick did a little Yeah, in his man cave, aka his garage, and he's got his ps4 Pro mounted out there great use of a ps4 Pro. I like it. We're gonna talk a little bit about how the rise of the next gen consoles has led to potential has it led to a decrease in PC gaming. And then we're finally going to cap things off. We're going to talk a little bit about a game that Hick has been playing through and that is Spider Man, Miles Morales but the first things first man, as we're recording this, it is, you know, a little behind the scenes, you know, we record a little bit before it hits the streets and you know, today's the death of Super Mario 3d AllStars on switch for some sick, twisted reason Nintendo decided they would only offer this game through March 31. And that date has come and gone so so Hick, I'm going to kick it to you to get us started here. What do you think about the execution of Mario today?

Hick: 1:54

Okay, obviously there's a strategy behind this I think honestly, what they're going to do is rereleased this game in the future but I kind of we'll see how it works out because we haven't really seen like we saw with Disney like Disney puts things like in a vault or wherever and then they release them during short periods. But as far as gaming we've really not seen this strategy so I'm kind of curious to see how the numbers are like for one I know like this last week like there's a 236% increase in the UK in sales of Super Mario 3d All Star so obviously with Mario get executed and then the game won't last until the 31st of March there's gonna be a lot of people going out to buy a bat cat is really I want to see like a like an analysis and a breakdown like when those big report okay not big report I don't want to read through a whole report just give me like a bullet points or something but I really want to know how this strategy played out because it's very interesting because I can't remember I'm sure it's probably not in gaming somewhere I'm not gonna sit there and say it hasn't but it's definitely not be done alive. It has been done so just kind of curious how this all played out. Now this wasn't a big deal for me because as soon as this game released I went out and I bought this game because I was it might take you know three or four months to download so I wouldn't be sure that get this on my switch even though if you buy it before you downloads like if you bought it at like 1150 it didn't download past midnight you're probably still fine But yeah, I didn't want to get changed because that is to Greg gates who great Mario games in this another Mario game center sunshine, like why the hell are you even here you don't belong here. So we'll talk you this galaxy. We're gonna report Super Mario Sunshine one day but just one of these days it was a really interesting strategy I'm sure it helped out with cells like I'm sure helped out like you know, not that we want to talk about shareholders or anything like that but I'm sure they saw an increase during like that six month period and everything so very risky steric strategy I want to know how it played out. I would like to see some of the numbers but yeah, I mean they killed off Mario but what's your way think about the strategy of this

Red: 3:55

now I'm with you in terms of its creative are getting into that and they're never ones for doing things the traditional or conventional way but i i really think by giving people a sense of urgency by saying hey, this is only going to be available for a limited amount of time you need to go out and buy it now. Like I'm completely with you I would love to see how sales in this six month window compared to let's say what Mario 3d world just came out and I don't think they killed that one off now like I would love to see its lifetime switch sales compared to a game like this where they gave you a limited window to buy it because I believe games are a lot better than 3d world and

Hick: 4:40

there's also the same price as 3d world

Red: 4:43

agreed. I completely agree with you there so maybe that's not the best comparing

Hick: 4:46

suckers by 3d world. Yes, that includes me in that category to

Red: 4:51

say Didn't you get Yeah, play

Hick: 4:54

hardly any of it because I bought it right before next gen. Now I didn't know exactly what I was going to get next gen. So my purchase through Israel validate and also the beer, the beer also, actually, I think I bought that one silver. There was a game recently that bought silver. I was like, What the hell is your problem? And I think it was that game right

Red: 5:11

there a beer validates most of my decisions. Yeah, that's that's my story and I'm sticking to it. But no, you're absolutely right. Like I would love to see if condensing your entire sales period into one six month period is a better strategy than the long tail approach. Because with most games, you absolutely see like you had that initial like week one, the huge rush people who want it day one, yeah. And then it tapers and it tapers and tapers and you get that long tail of sales where it's less and less every month. But it still extends for a long time. So I'm wondering if by Nintendo right off the bat coming out and saying this will only be available through 331? Will that juice sales and make more people go out and buy it? Because like we said, I may not play it right now. But I at least want to have it. Yeah. And that's Oh, dude. That's how fucking steam gets me all the time with our steam sale. That's a whole different do. The

Hick: 6:08

worst thing is when you buy a game multiple times on different systems. Like you might only spend $3, like on a steam sale on PlayStation. And it's like, perfectly legit. Because you're like, Why don't Well, we'll get to this, like you don't like some people don't do as much PC gaming, or their system might be a little bit outdated, the graphics might not be there. So you're like, Hey, I spent an extra I know I got this game. But you know, I really spend extra $5 and play in 4k. So that's something I'm struggling with. We will get to that later.

Red: 6:37

We will get to that. But so I'm with you. I would like to see not necessarily a full blown report or paper but like at least some sales numbers on how a sick the sales in a condensed six month period where that was literally the only time it's available, compared to a longer term game that's available forever, you know, and yeah, the game that's available forever, may only sell a couple 100 copies a month, you know, a couple years after release, but you're still getting something from it. So so I'm, I'm with you. I'm 100% curious, and I really liked your analogy with like the whole Disney in the vault. And I know that now the Disney plus is out there that's kind of gone by the wayside. But they did that for what 20 years. Yep. Like their videos like they're, you know, originally VHS. And then DVDs were only available for a short amount of time. And then they said nope, you gotta wait or buy it secondhand on Amazon. So I'm, I'm, I'm curious to see the numbers. I don't know if Nintendo will ever release them. But you know,

Hick: 7:35

you know, going in one day I was typing a little bit. Yeah, this is supposed to be a celebration. So that's kind of why they were doing like a six month thing. I'm kind of like, but here's what really made me upset. They said that re release sells weather down all fucking video game sales with their dad as they're out longer and longer, like, okay, you do have those occasional spikes here and there. But for the most part, a video game sells are the highest when it is releasing it and then it goes down after that. And if you have some DLC or remake or update, whatever, it might jump there for a little while. But for the most part, you're gonna be a downward trend. So when they said that I was calling it you know, whatever, but you're kind of speaking of bringing things to a halt. Let's talk about this cheap bus operation guys read about this. I was like, Man, this shit is crazy. Like I know there's a lot of crazy things going on behind the scenes in gaming But okay, there's like this bus in China and read out to you here a little while but there's a lot on the left that these guys that were like creating these. I don't know exactly how it works, but they were enabling people to cheat. I think I got it in the notes somewhere. But I just came right now my eyes. But it was so crazy to access all picture of like this place, or at least I think it was. And these people have like luxury cars. I'm talking like Ferraris, Lamborghinis. I'm like, I mean, I know they just got arrested. But I'm like, shit, you know, maybe I should think about doing this. Like, I don't have the brains to do something like that. But it's like, why I did not know that energysage you're like making cheats that you can make this much my friend but maybe thinking about just you know everything in like a lot that's based about around how the gaming industry is becoming oversaturated in certain areas you to buy the esports where everybody's trying to be competitive, not everybody most. Okay, now most gamers a lot of gamers are trying to be you know, competitive make basically all comes down to you are trying to make a living from gaming. And just like how many people will go out of the gamers will go out of their way just to get that little cheat just to get above people and you know, everybody hates cheaters. It's bullshit and when you're trying to make a lot of money and you put a lot practice into a game is bullshit when you get cheered that can lock onto your head because of I don't know exactly how it works, but some kind of code that are using so I mean, it just really brings up a good overall conversation about gaming. But I don't think you're really surprised about this.

Red: 10:07

No, I'm not. And obviously, this mostly factors around multiplayer gaming, competitive gaming, and because if you cheat in a single player game who gives a shit, it's a single player game, you play it however you want to I cheat and singer player game sometimes like Grand Theft Auto. Give me the code that gives me the fucking rocket launch. Yeah, I'm gonna have fun. Maybe not GTA Online, because that's a whole different story. But no, I was fascinated to see this topic pop up. Because, you know, there have been companies that make cheats, as long as there have been video games. Oh, yeah. We're not companies, maybe individuals or gangs or organizations, whatever you want to call it. And you know, every because you're right. Everyone wants that competitive advantage that lets them you know, win without having to put any work into it, which is bullshit and defeats the entire competitive spirit of multiplayer, gaming, sports, whatever, I don't care, but I get there's so much money in gaming now. Especially competitive or multiplayer gaming that you've got eSports you've got the twitch streaming, you've got YouTube, you've got all these avenues to make money. Of course, it's just like people using steroids in sports, people are going to look for that edge. That advantage that makes it seem like they're better than they truly are. And to see an organization this like, organ organization, this organized I know, that's, I get it, but I mean, like they made millions I think overfit like what I think$76 million dollars. And all they were doing they were charging subscription fees to their clients. And if you get enough hidden

Hick: 11:47

dollars a day, up to $200 a month

Red: 11:51

to pay to cheat in video gaming. Yeah, blows my fucking mind. But you know, but it's just everyone in any competitive environment and that includes eSports that includes your MMO you know, the big massively multiplayer games like your war, World of Warcraft, all that stuff like everyone is looking for an advantage and unfortunately that fosters this environment of cheating but this bust I mean, I'm just reading through some of the details here. Yeah, like there were like something like like 10 people got arrested they seized millions upon millions of dollars worth of assets you mentioned

Hick: 12:25

$46 million worth of assets a lot of those were luxury cars.

Red: 12:29

Oh dude, which I guess if I was a

Hick: 12:32

nice man I'm not gonna lie about that.

Red: 12:35

I mean, hell we had a whole Twitter thread about the the awesome cars in cyberpunk I get it is yes. But you know, it's just it goes to show you that no matter how good you know, games make their anti cheating their moderation whatever tools and systems they have to combat cheating. There's also always going to be developers or coders or whatever that come up with cheats to try to beat it and it's

Hick: 13:03

always going to work because there's more people trying to create the codes versus people that can stop it at the company so it's always gonna happen Oh, somebody's always gonna find that opening that code that like you know the loophole that someone has not exposed itself I mean a good job for like a first of all Chinese police which crazy they got involved in the video game that's a different country but just over here like to get the police involved in the video game industry scanned it would be pretty I mean, I mean you got you like you read like you know like if your sexual harassment girl or something like that Yeah, they are going to get involved with something like that but as far as like just like a cheating like you expect the police to get involved over there so good job Chinese police and also the gaming giant over there Tencent collaborate with them to kind of make this whole thing working to take this operation down so

Red: 13:53

they don't want cheaters on their games. I was cheating troll a lot of a huge chunk of games over there. I get it. So sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.

Hick: 14:02

You're fine. But I make I goes back to my whole point that well, actually last week we talked about this last week where I forgot what's going on with that exactly. Oh, where people try something without making a living people like Peter I don't know where I was going with that.

Red: 14:16

So I make a living off gaming and this is

Hick: 14:19

more like a cheat. Oh, no, I know. I know where I was going. I know where I was going. Like these people that have behind the scenes help. We talked about Thanks for getting in there and I was eventually I was looking at my notes. I was like okay, I'm trying to remember what I was looking at my notes I was like I can't like get to it but we talked last episode about how a lot of these people on YouTube or whatever twitch that are like you'll get a big following and making money a lot of times those people have resources behind the scenes like you know, whether it be money, a company back in them, whatever they came from a big company, they already had a falling there. Most people do not just get there from scratch. Yes, it does happen to some people, but the majority has some kind of help in Just kind of goes with that is that these players should help.

Red: 15:03

This is

Hick: 15:05

a 2019 survey, around a third of gamers admitted to cheating. So this shows you that all a lot not all there are some people out there that play by the rules, but I can guarantee you that a lot of these gamers that are really good at a game are cheating somehow you know was locking onto headshots or whatever. I don't cheating games because I play single player like I don't really know how it's

Red: 15:28

not cheating. It's not cheating in single player. Yeah, yes.

Hick: 15:31

Like these players like they, not all of them, like I said, but there are lots of them that they're against some kind of help and like, you know, whether it's training or even cheating, which is what we're talking about, like there's something going on, like Red allies, players are great for a reason. And not all of them are sleazy, but a lot of these gamers that are making money to have a following are fucking sleazy, and it just pisses

Red: 15:55

me off as someone who we both played sports in high school. You know, you were football I was tennis you try and I played sports. You tried to Hey, I was all conference my senior year in tennis, thank you very much. So step off. But anyway, no like, and just the cheating I get the money aspect. I get that if you're if you appear better than you are. You get more followers, you get more viewers, you make more money. From a fucking competitive standpoint, though, this goes back to like, even playing Halo two in college when Xbox Live was really in its infancy and first taking off. And there was a trick where if you're you were the host of the game, you could like reset your router. Oh, yeah. And it would glitch the other team and you just wipe them out? And I'm like, back then no one was making money on this shit. Yeah. And people still they wanted to see a nice big ranking name, but it's like, you didn't fucking earn a bit of that.

Hick: 16:58

And that like there's so many people that don't care about that, man, you know? That's right. And

Red: 17:03

and I'm, I'm with you from now that there's so much more back then there wasn't money involved back then it was back then. It was so much more innocent. You know, whatever. Yeah, there was always some money, I'm sure. But now,

Hick: 17:15

there's some gambling going down behind.

Red: 17:19

There's millions of dollars involved in gaming. You've got everyone trying to get twitch sponsorships, you know, YouTube views for ad revenue. You know, you got the competitive tournaments. You know, I just I look at it now. But just from someone who liked to play competitive stuff, and just it was fun competing even it's just with your friends

Hick: 17:40

to find that fun anymore. That's

Red: 17:42

it. Yeah. Just a fucking cheat and to say that, Oh, I'm better than you know, whoever coded that fucking cheat for you is better than me. You know, you are Yeah. So I

Hick: 17:54

bring up a good point. I'm pat myself on the back, right. A lot of the reason why we don't play with like online like doing multiplayers because everybody did so good. We said this, but everybody got so good. Because it became important for reasons that we don't necessarily care about, like back in the days, you just want to play competitively, like, you know, a lot of times with your friends in the original go Halo here, because that's what we played the most. You know, back in the day, it was just friends like just being competitive, and having a lot of fun. And then we get to like, you know, Halo two, and Halo three, like, yeah, it was competitive. But it was that fun aspect in like, nowadays, we were trying to make it into a living. Okay, I get these followers I get this ranking. And the reasons for why you want to be good online had changed. And that's why we've gone away from because people have, like their motivations are different and we don't care we just want to play for fun. Like, do we care about our rankings? Yes, we care about rankings, but we don't care a lot. We just want to have fun playing and a lot of these players that you play with these days, like you're just too competitive. They take it too seriously and we don't like those people that money. But we don't play our lives get our ass kick butt Well, that's

Red: 19:08

because people use cheats and

Hick: 19:10

everybody that plays against us cheated everybody back in the day that BSA cheated somehow and we're just like we're done with this

Red: 19:16

I will just say I'm really glad you bring up the halo cuz I remember we played Halo three so much together online and you know we always you always had that ranking from one to 50 on each like you had team Slayer you had you know I you know individual deathmatch,

Hick: 19:29

whatever. Sorry for bringing it down right on your rankings. Oh,

Red: 19:32

no, it's all good. But I remembered any time I was like, if if I moved up a level I felt like I earned it. I was brought back down with a lot I was x match. Don't get me wrong. I was never close to 50 I was not 50 level Halo. I chilled right around like lower 30 maybe 35 on if I got on a hot streak and then yeah, usually you ran and jumped on a fucking grenade for

Hick: 19:54

No. Like I heard a sound. I was like What is that sound and I got pulled up. But you know i I found out what that sound was so you know, and I was really go out

Red: 20:05

you were scouts, but you know, I would never be proud of putting up a fucking 50 on there if I knew I cheated to do yeah. And you know, like I said, we didn't play for money we played for fun. Even then it wasn't even friends then it was just online. Yeah, you and me, obviously, your friends. But you know, we were playing online and we had a shit ton of fun with it. And now it's just, there's so much money involved. Like you said, you get sponsorships, you get viewers, you get subscribers and whatever. It's fucking bullshit. But unfortunately, it's not the only area where there's bullshit in gaming. And you know, I feel like this is turning into a downer of a podcast here.

Hick: 20:41

But you know, don't get me Trust me. It gets better. It gets better, it gets better.

Red: 20:49

But you know, another issue that is always kind of been there and it kind of goes hand in hand with cheating are bots and bots are absolutely something that have been around since like, the original, like Everquest like World of Warcraft, like those MMO RPGs were huge sources people created bots to assist you. But it's it's unfortunately taken and I'm not sure how long ago this started, but it's definitely coming to the forefront more and more. Yeah, people have created bots that are obscenely offensive. Yeah, unfortunately. I mean, we're talking, you know, racist, homophobic, sexist, transphobic, whatever. All the things that are that are offensive, especially in the gaming community. Oh, it seems like valve, unfortunately, because we steam it despite the fact that that steam loves my wallet. But yeah, you know, valve is unfortunately gotten in the news for this a little bit lately with with Team Fortress two. And I'm going to kick it to you here because you know, just the existence of these bots. Obviously, we're both gonna agree. It's fucking horrible. Yes, fucking terrible. It's not something we want in gaming. But I think it's something that you've read a little bit more on me on. So I'm gonna kick it to you. What do you need to ask what you think. But let's hear your thoughts on these bots.

Hick: 22:06

First of all, we can't talked about earlier like how there's always these people that are trying to exploit the system. And there's only so many people at the company that can stop it. So I think in every game you get, some of this is going to happen, because it's just sadly is too much. And you just can't stop all of it. I'm sure that these developers and game companies would love to stop all of it. But I think the real issue with this particular story happens because valve and Team Fortress with valve with Team Fortress two, the video game basically kind of ignored all this. And that's where the problem like really came out. Because first of all, like, What I don't understand is why people want to waste their energy on this, like, okay, like bots can be used like bots or automation, they can be used in a good way. But when you spend your energy creating something like this, like and the sad thing is these people are so immature, that they're probably getting a kick out of this and they're probably so far gone. There's so far lost that it's just not going to change but I have a hard time comprehending why you would want to spend your energy on this when you could spend your energy on something like you know, more positive but this read was happening like you're kind of described like what all involved but it was happening like in every match and then I use like a they would use like these cheats would you be talking about your head shots? And then after that they would like spew all this hate speech in like the chat room. And so like he's players, they documented all this that was going on and like, you know, kind of went out the valve. And valve was like, oh, and then you know what happened? Like it always does it got to the media. And this is where I had the issue about this and oh, okay, now we should make an update. And now she kind of like you know, try to curb this activity but not months later, is still an issue. So these racist bots like, you know, homophobic whatever, like they're always gonna be there, Sally, and we don't like that. We tried it. Like, you know, the developers, they try to stop as much as they can. But the real issue here with this one is that valve is ignoring it. They're like, they didn't do anything until the media said something. And then like not much like they did a little bit about it. It's still going on nomis later and they're still letting it happen happen. And that's the real issue.

Red: 24:15

No, it really is because I think you really hit it on the head where you said like the people who develop this stuff the people who create these bots like they could make so much money if they put that coating that that Yeah, talent because it takes it takes town like taking nothing away from that. Like it takes ability and knowledge to do this. And they could take that and apply they could go fucking work for valve and make money. I mean, it blows my mind that some people first of all, you know, racism, homophobia, sexism. transphobia there's no place for that. I don't care about gaming society, whatever.

Hick: 24:54

It is not negative.

Red: 24:55

I don't say that often. Yeah, but those people

Hick: 24:58

but she's a lot negative energy that My opinion is just not worth it.

Red: 25:01

It is it is. And I feel like like we said, those people have have some talent, they have some ability, like take that and put it towards something good, or something that makes you a career. And I'm hoping these people aren't making money off this crap. But I'm absolutely with you. And when it comes to valve, unfortunately, I love steam. I am a huge fan, but they have in the, in the past been slow on the customer service side of things. They've I've, I've, I've never really had to deal with it too much. But even on just the steam platform, they've had issues with like, you know, responding to the community, they've had issues with addressing legitimate concerns that people have had with just their storefront when it comes to one of their games. And they don't have a ton of games, because I mean, they, at this point, they're just printing money with steam. But you know, when it comes to their games, I'm not shocked to hear that they were a little slow on the uptake, I feel like they try to stay like Swiss, stay neutral, stay neutral as much as they can, until someone pushes them far enough. And I'm glad the media got ahold of the story. I'm glad the media at least forced their hand. But you're absolutely right. It should not have come to that it should not get to the point where a company brushes it under the rug, it's your game, you control it, you run the servers, you know, you have responsibility for the content in your game. I mean, it's just it's sad that it took the media getting involved. Yep. To help it and and like you said, it's still kind of going on. I mean it Yeah. And I get, you're never going to be able to stamp out every single bot, every single racist commentator, whatever, you know, no matter how many moderators or programs you're running to detect this stuff, or people who report it, you're never going to get everything, but at least show that you're making Yep, you're making the effort. But man, okay, this has been a negative like 20 minutes. So let's, let's try to switch gears, let's, let's, let's take a drink. Let's bring up the mood just a little bit and talk about something a little more positive. You have been working on your man cave slash garage, and I am excited to hear you talk about I want to hear you talk about your new man space. In the garage, go, oh, man,

Hick: 27:23

I am so excited right now. Like, I kind of feel like, you know, like going back behind the scenes with me 2019 like it was a rough year that was during the recession and everything. And what I actually ended up doing was taking a job making less than unemployment and kind of like, you know, progress between another job and then another job, it's how I got to where I'm eventually at now. And you take you take those steps like you know, to provide for your family provide like, you know, for you, or your kids or your family, but you know, to have a house to have a family to provide to provide shelter, food, clothing, and I get this idea the other day that I'm sitting there. Okay, first of all, I'll go through I was like, it all came to like he would make you work hard for stuff like that. But as I'm putting my ps4 in the garage, I'm like everything that I've done up until this moment has been for this has to put a PlayStation four broke in the garage. This is what I've worked so hard for my entire life. So I didn't want to tell that story. They go somewhere else and they go back to but I can't tell you how to get there to that thought. Like I was sitting there and I was looking at my ps4 Pro. And I'm like, What the hell am I going to do with this thing? People I don't sell my systems because you're never going to get out what you put in and like for me, I really like I'm not big into collecting stuff but like my forever home one day when I eventually get it down the road, I would love to have one of those dressers where you put every like you know every system that you've had in it might not be hooked up or anything like that but you know it's more of a ration but I just mean most people I never saw my systems I've always wanted to keep them because the kind of namesake she's like you know, I don't like having a lot of clutter but I do like having my systems I had bought around so I'm sitting there I'm looking at the ps4 Pro. And I'm like yo hates a 4k game machine is nice, but anything that I want to do I can do on my PS five I can download the games, I bought most of the games, I don't know if I can do all of them but most of them that want to play like I could download on my PS five and they have updated graphics and everything so I can send it on like when am I ever going to use this ps4 Pro and that's when the idea popped into my head. The only way that I'm going to use this is if I put it somewhere where the PS five is not in a perfect place for that is out in the garage so I knew that I wanted behind my TV because I got to 50 we're gonna go into specs now. That's got it yeah 35 inch TV out there. So like you know the front kind of tilts down so there's quite a bit of room behind the TV to put So I didn't know if it existed but I figured that is a good possibility that it did. So I looked into wall mounts Hey, can I get a wall mount for ps4 Pro? Oh, I found a beautiful wall mount man it's very they had these like anchor screws that you don't have to actually use anchors like it I didn't know they even existed so as like no drill no anchors like you don't have a tiny little Yeah, it was awesome dude. It has a leveler on like the bass so it's easy to level it the easiest thing I put up like on the wall or whatever, in a long time. So anyways, that's not really important. But I put

Red: 30:36

while you're at it, do you want to pimp the brand and let the

Hick: 30:42

brain is to be honest with you

Red: 30:43

a shout out maybe they'll pay us yeah,

Hick: 30:46

if y'all go to Amazon and search ps4 Pro. Mac is there are different ones for whichever system you have. Um, it's why God floating man. I don't know exactly what it was called. But it's one of the top results but anyways, man, I put this thing up. I slide the ps4 Pro, like in there. It all do. It just looks beautiful. It just looks beautiful. It's hidden behind the TV. And I know I'm going on for a while because I'm excited. But oh, you're Oh, it's

Red: 31:11

your garage man.

Hick: 31:12

Yeah, I know. I mean, I'm excited about like, the the grad is coming together beautifully. I for you. I've not talked about law, but it's like to drywall and paint it so it looks like a finished room. I like you

Red: 31:22

know, like so clutch.

Hick: 31:24

Yeah. And I have neighbors that drink, you know, beer with. And so it's kind of like, you know, this, like, there's gonna be like, I don't play a lot of sports games, like, you know, on my main systems, but this is basically put out there for competitive reasons, like your neighbors or your friends. You're having some beers, you're smoking a cigar or whatever playing

Red: 31:41

Tiger Woods.

Hick: 31:44

I'll get to that shit. Well kind of gets that shit. But like, you know, this is mostly for sports, and competitive things like hey, we're all having a beer. Let's turn on sports game. It's wireless controllers. So you have to stand right next to the system. Right right wireless controllers for a while. But the reason I brought that up is because I think about putting my SDS classic out there also because like, you know, once you get one great idea, the idea start flow like those

Red: 32:07

creative juices

Hick: 32:09

that so I was like that wouldn't work with the chords and everything. But I'm kind of run out of breath here a little bit. So I'm kind of like you got come over check it out sometime, man. No,

Red: 32:19

I absolutely will. And I really love that you found like a creative use. For an older system. You have another room or a space and I keep calling it man cave. I know that's a little you know, or you know, whatever. Whatever your you are, I made it and and like, it's fun to find a good use for like old cons. I would want to call it old. It's only like, what two years old? Yeah, it's a great idea. And because I'm with you, I am not a big fan of just getting rid of my old consoles, or, or just you know, trying to sell them because you're right. Unless you find a collector that's willing to shell out for them. You're not going to recoup anything and the nostalgia value that they carry, I think makes it worthwhile to hold on to them and maybe not for the ps4 Pro. It's hard to call it nostalgic when it's just two years old. It's

Hick: 33:04

for gay two.

Red: 33:05

And it's 4k. So it's still a great gaming system. There's still great ps4 sales that go on every now and then. You know, it's like on games that have not yet been converted to next gen so I'm excited that you found any like a good use for it. I will happily come over and place yum yum place something whatever while we're getting back into the sports game,

Hick: 33:27

you know now like I don't play on there being like long gaming sessions out there. It's like, Hey, you want to basically play for maybe 30 minutes it's gonna be like that. Mostly sports, like I said, but still like you know, it'll be fun. It's just something else to do in the garage. I am going like my next we're

Red: 33:43

smoking a cigar Yeah.

Hick: 33:44

Yeah, my next project is to build a bar high in bars have you went to where you can sit at the bar? That's not gonna be look as nice as a regular bar. But how are you working? Go sit there and play video games. So I'm really really excited about but here here's where I'm struggling man. Here's the issue. I'm thinking hey, I'm gonna put this all together and I'm gonna go buy FIFA 20 because this is not something I need to spend a lot of money on like I said 30 minutes sessions like you know basically just competitive don't need the best games. So I'm What about FIFA 20 that 21 because that's gonna be a lot more expensive. FIFA 20 will be cheap. Go to FIFA 20 it's unavailable oh my gosh shit and not take it right here like in how they only make the most recent games available. Now I know you can beat this by by physical but you know me, like you know now outside of the garage. I might not mind switching the disc but I would still like to go digital if I could. So that's my issue now is that I would like to play these cheaper games, but they're only available on EA Play. Well, I got game pass and I got EA Play on that so Rabat to talk myself into some shit right here on the podcast episode. Oh, go go now sit over here. I'm like, well, he plays only five bucks a month and I would like the sports games because that's really where I want to play outside in the ground. But I got a play with my game pass. So now my question is do I put the xbox one out there also because I got my slot for it. So I got because it's a smart TV sorry, has the ABS so I got an extra slide. Now it's a little bit bulkier, it's a little bit heavier, but I'm almost guaranteed that you can find a man for the Xbox One. So read once again, I'm sitting there thinking what in the hell am I going to do with my Xbox One now? I

Red: 35:30

don't know. Now here's the downside though. If you do the Xbox One and game pass route, you have the original Xbox One not the 1x you're not getting 4k Now I know. That man worth going out and buying the old FIFA or tie or you know whatever golf game it was before Tiger comes back. I think the previous episode for Tiger Woods conversation

Hick: 35:53

I think we're gonna do is I'm kind of see how much people want to play it. And now kind of basically, like, if people are out there playing a lot. I don't mind spending 499 a month on EA Play Actually, it's 30 bucks for the year. If you'd like people to use it, I would spend 30 bucks for an entire year. It'll probably go up soon. But you know, I'll do it for this first year. But yeah, I don't know, man. I'm thinking like now I might, you know, put my Xbox One out there because I'm not gonna play it. You know, it's not 4k, but it's still good HD gaming, so it's still cheaper than rebuying.

Red: 36:22

These games are really still a play on it too. So Exactly. Exactly. So I you got an interesting conundrum.

Hick: 36:31

That's my the most excited I've been on this podcast. You guys like this talk about that.

Red: 36:36

Like if you didn't live, you know, out an hour a frickin way I might come over half an hour when you click

Hick: 36:42

that exaggeration right there.

Red: 36:44

slight exaggeration, but no. Like, that is a really good point. Like, if you've got the PS and we've talked about this a little bit before you've got the ps4 Pro. You got the Xbox One, the Xbox One's not 4k, but it's got the game pass. It's got EA Play. It's like, Is it worth pulling the trigger on a game again, you know, to play it in 4k? And you're absolutely right, it comes down to how much people come over and play. Yeah, ain't gonna be worth it. If if no one comes over as

Hick: 37:12

I'm not spending money on unless I found a lot of value in it.

Red: 37:15

Right right. So I completely support that. I love the idea that you've even got the ps4 Pro mounted out there you right you sent me a text with a picture of like the model. It's such a tiny little thing like the mount and it looks good out there. It's so hidden behind the ps4 itself. So I the TV mounts was behind the ps4 is what I was trying to say. But yeah, and then it's all behind the Divi. So I

Hick: 37:44

made it looks like your ps4 Pro is hanging on the wall. That's exactly what it

Red: 37:48

absolutely does. I think it looks great. I think it's a great use for a console that is no longer your primary console. And that's, that's such a common issue that people run into when you place a system. Yeah, what do you do with the old one for me? When I bought the Xbox series x, I just gave the Xbox One to my girlfriend because it also has game pass. So it's got it's also got all those apps that I'm sure you know, your Netflix or HBO all that crap,

Hick: 38:15

and it was good for that.

Red: 38:16

Oh, absolutely. And like and her kid loves playing some of the little game pass games, and it's all free. It's you pay for game pass, but the games are free after that. So like it worked out great. I found a good home for that console but I literally have a gamecube a Nintendo 64 and a we sitting in my closet inboxes Yeah, with a shit ton of games. And but I love them. I don't want to get rid of them. Yep, a part of that's the selja but I'm also like, when am I ever going to plug in the Nintendo 64 especially on a frickin 4k television. Like I don't have an old CRT screen. Yeah, to plug it into anymore. It's gonna it looks like complete ass I remember

Hick: 38:59

I said I might use my for decorations. I might just put them in the console but never use them.

Red: 39:03

Oh, that's what I do love seeing those those bookshelves. They're like divided into squares. And I have a console in each one whether it's connected or not whatever. Yeah, it's you know, that's a bonus if it is but if not, it still looks cool to have them there. But I absolutely remember I on our Discord. I believe I was like I busted out the 64 for whatever reason. And I posted a picture of a bunch of games and someone was interested in buying them. And I'm like wow, God, I got to make sure they work before I screw you over on that and I plugged in the 64 into a modern day you know HDTV it looks like shit

Hick: 39:39

yeah, but does this widescreen versus like the standard four by three back in the day

Red: 39:44

dude. It's it's hideous. Like I it's so credit to people who kept like an old tube TV or CRT around to play these old consoles because I'm with you. I don't know what to do with mine. Like I still use my way you because it's The best selling machine ever. But my we my my 64 my, you know, they're they're just sitting there like they're not doing

Hick: 40:08

my game and the way you is a great Zelda machine. It is.

Red: 40:13

But you know, so it's, you know, finding a good use. Yes, there's charities you can donate them to, which is probably the best idea of the day the best solution. Yeah, I know there's things like childsplay and and some of the the ones where you donate him to a hospital where they can play with the hospital, I we absolutely support that. But it's you know, it's tough to find a place to do that sometimes. So yeah, but it's interesting, we spend all this time talking about, you know, getting value out of old systems, but you know, talking about the new systems a little bit, we went on a kick there where we talked a lot about PC game. Yeah, that is a that's kind of gone by the wayside here. A little bit recently. Obviously, part of that is driven remote, let's be honest, most of that is driven by the emergence of the next gen consoles. And and I want to kick this to you because, you know, I went on my tirade about what the hell do I do with my old consoles, too, but, um, you know, so you, we've, we've got, you've got a PC, you're gaming on it for a while you were playing Odyssey you were playing a couple other games. You know, now that you've got your next gen console, I feel like you're, you're not going back to that very often, especially now, you were playing an older Assassin's Creed. Now, you're playing Valhalla on ps4 on your Xbox, whatever. And so, what do you think, you know, you've obviously noticed a decrease in your PC playing time. Can you kind of expound on that a little bit?

Hick: 41:35

Yeah. First of all, we're not gonna get to that last topic today, folks, the Spider Man Miles Morales, no big deal. We really, I just was looking for a topic. We can talk about that later on down the road, wherever. So it's gonna skip that topic, topic and finish on this. PC gaming thinking back to your question, like, I'm really having a hard time with this, because you're right, I'm not doing any PC gaming right now. Because my computer like I got a laptop, and I did not buy a gaming laptop. What I did was, and I've talked about this, in many episodes, I just wanted to buy something that would give me a taste and make me decide if I ever want to do it. And at that time I did, and I think I still do want to do it. But it's kind of like okay, gaming, and tonight up versus next, these two next gen systems which are 4k, and ever since I've gone the Xbox series x and the PS five, like I've not done any PC gaming whatsoever. And it kind of stinks because like you said, You've been doing PC gaming for quite a while. But I recently got into it really kind of around the time when we started this podcast. And I really enjoyed it. I really got into it. But now it's like the margins are like, like I've already said, I am planning still building a PC. But the margins are getting just so small now where it's like yeah, okay, you got paid. I don't know exactly. Because I've never built a computer. You probably know more on this and you can talk about it. But oh, yeah, you guys spend a lot of money to probably get to the same specs, as the consul's nowadays, whereas back in the day, to get the best graphics, like you know, you had to have a PC you couldn't do on the Xbox, or the PlayStation, you could only do on PC. Well now Yep, that margin of gap has diminished in like, you know, it just kind of sucks, I can't really get into it. I really want to build one but it's like, Damn, it's gonna be so much money and then went to buy a new monitor with HDR which I am actually not upset about that. Because I got space for another monitor. Like, you know, I got about another hour but I had to space for another monitor so I can make all that work and have three monitors so that I'm not not upset about that. Now I'm upset about the money I've had to spend because HDR monitors from what I've seen are expensive. And then if I get one if I build a computer, I'm gonna have the best screen to like, I'm not gonna I don't I'm not gonna say I have to get the complete best but I got to get close to the top it's gonna cost me a lot of money but can't go and speak on a you know more about this topic.

Red: 43:54

Now the problem we're running into right now is there is an absolute shortage of video cards. Yeah, computers and and part of that's being driven Of course, by the supply chain. It's been it's been crushed by COVID. You know, so much of it comes from overseas and getting it to America getting it to wherever they put it all together. It's just getting hammered. I mean, COVID has not been good for anything, but with freaking computers and computer components. It's been an absolute nightmare. Just to like video cards sell out in no time and the resale is absurd. Yeah, and you're completely correct. I will always go to bat for what PlayStation and Xbox have been able to do to get 4k or even up potential down the road for 8k HDR ray tracing By the way, right? You

Hick: 44:44

got good HDR TV for this next year. Man. Like those colors on there. They just make the gaming experience so much better. You can get one for like$300 nowadays.

Red: 44:52

Yeah, one of these days. One of these days. You gotta get one You

Hick: 44:55

make me upset, but I can handle the Nintendo Switch online. She gotta get you a new TV with HDR mean you deserve it. You've been working hard you deserve a new TV with HDR to play 4k and next gen gaming All right, and I can't wait your girlfriend if you need me to

Red: 45:09

do after spending seven hours on my frickin phone today for

Hick: 45:13

a new TV read.

Red: 45:15

I deserve this captain and coke I'm drinking really nice. But no one all sorts of computer components have gotten absurd especially the video cards. That's the big one. Ram motherboards storage processors even aren't that bad. It's the video cards that have just gotten obscene right now to get the same performance on a home built PC now that you can get for a $500 PlayStation five or a$500 Xbox series x like it is it's not compact you'll pay that much just on a video card and I am one of the biggest advocates for PC gaming yeah all for our 48 episodes now this podcast I absolutely love PC gaming I love I love the art of building a computer I love leaning back into computer chair with your keyboard and mouse right there you know I love a nice giant monitor like where you're you're not sitting on the couch looking at the TV you're you're like right you're what four four feet maybe from your mind you're like in front of the monitor like I am I will go to bat for PC gaming all day. It is absolutely almost not worth it now and that says a lot for where consoles have come and that's why I said I will go to bat for PlayStation and Xbox for what they've been able to do to get the 4k the HDR the ray tracing all that into a$500 box and they might be losing money on them and making money on the games or the services you know yeah game pass you got an Xbox Live Gold you have PlayStation now PlayStation Plus whatever that might be where they're making their money but the fact that they can sell you a 4k gaming machine for what it would cost to buy just a video card yeah for a PC is unbelievable. Now I will say with that I still love the art of building a computer Yeah, I love the ownership the and then I'm excited about going yes yes no and that's what I'll throw back to you because you've always talked on this podcast about you know you want to be able to customize you want to do the bells and whistles and and does that still appeal to you knowing it's going to cost a lot there's something

Hick: 47:24

else that appeals to me right now and that's that I said that desk a lot and I'm on my computer a lot so like back in the day like house like I would use it like I needed a laptop because I would go here I would go there nowadays I mostly said that desk so the need for a portable computer is not as great as it was in the past and we're right on stage this house for a little while not forever but a little while. So it's like since I spent so much time at this desk entertain myself with electronics like and not necessarily I still want a laptop I don't need a great one. Like now I can put the you know a good PC a strong PC down there so I would say it's more that aspect excites me nowadays there is the PC gaming so like just that like so that's probably why I still do because the one thing with a p again building a PC is you're still building a computer like it so you want to have it for PC gaming but you're still going to use this as your everyday computer like where's the PlayStation you're just using it. But I know you have apps and streaming and everything you're using to game or stream or as a computer you're doing a lot of different crap on it so like and you know that that retro blue and pink that goes with like the Miami Heat and everything that's about you. That's why I want a PC tower when it changes a bunch of law is there are other ones out there we can change what the car lights are at any given time. Oh

Red: 48:44

hell yeah. Especially you've even got keyboard and like I have product placement razor, keyboard and mouse that they cycled through the color spectrum. They've got a whole app design so you can make different patterns of the colors like they can you can do that with the PC lights too.

Hick: 48:59

It's crazy. I am doing all about that shit like that right there to me it's worth hundreds of dollars like just looking shit

Red: 49:07

like you know I've bashed on like the look of the PlayStation five and all that shit because like in my entertainment system, I want it to all look a little more uniform when it comes to my computer trust me my case has bells and whistles my keyboard and mouse have bells and whistles so my hope my PS five anti look bias is strictly held to my entertainment system once you get in my computer area. Oh all bets are off are

Hick: 49:32

okay CMS changes when you get to PS five because I know like I didn't ever mind the design but I didn't like the white but ever since I had it a stop bothering me whatsoever so no, but we have different opinions on that one but anyways, ready done.

Red: 49:44

I'm done. Talking about Spider

Hick: 49:48

Man Miles Morales some

Red: 49:49

other time. My second Captain coke of the podcast is gone. So

Hick: 49:54

we definitely need to wrap up like we said on the last episode. The next episode very very exciting. before we're going to tie 1077 the entire game um if we were smart we would put that off until Episode 50 because we're not going to two games in a row unless we have to so um right you know we messed up there a little bit but anyways, episode talk and cyberpunk 2070 70 tiertime is going to be fun because is it even with its issues? It is a fantastic game anyways.

Red: 50:24

All right, very excited.

Hick: 50:25

All these links will be in the description you can support us on Patreon or PayPal. If you can't support financially, please leave a review or rating and please go check out our website t GPC gaming.com we have a lot of video game products up there. It's an affiliate shop so we may earn a commission on purchases through our links read go ahead and tell them about some of the other stuff we got going on out there or

Red: 50:50

on YouTube. We all start we started as two guys playing Zelda so check that out. We also have T gpz. gaming on YouTube, our discord we talked a little bit about discord because of all the rumors about the sale and all that last episode. We love our Discord server we talk about Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, booze, sports, TV shows we talk about everything, our discord, it's a great community. Come check it out. And of course we're on social media. We're on Twitter, we're on Instagram Busted Buttons PC, check it out. I thought this was a great episode. I was a little stressed coming into it. It's been a long day of work, right? I'm

Hick: 51:25

not gonna lie. I did not want to do the podcast. You know, you just have some of those days where you just don't feel like messing with it. You don't feel like doing it. But I think the day after St. Patty's day Yeah, like you just keep going man, and you have a lot of fun. But anyways, we're done talking cyberpunk 2077 next episode and we will see you all on that episode.