Voxels

Classic Rap Albums, Microtransactions, Games Reviews, and we go shopping for a gaming PC.

Show Notes:

Madvillainy 20th anniversary:
Dragon Dogma 2:
Anti-Cheat Conversation:
packetcat’s video game corner:
Music corner:
packetcat’s book corner:
Chapters:
  • (00:56) - Madvillainy 20th Anniversary
  • (12:27) - Dragon's Dogma 2
  • (25:38) - Anti-Cheat Conversation
  • (37:11) - Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
  • (43:28) - Music Recommendations
  • (57:25) - Book Corner

Creators & Guests

Host
Cristian Colocho
I like computers, reading science fiction, manga, bad anime, rap music, and making hot takes.
Host
Sadiq Saif

What is Voxels?

A podcast on Art and Culture by Sadiq Saif and Cristian Colocho

Sadiq:

Hi. I'm Sadiq.

Cristian:

And you know what? I we're not talking about anime today. This is not the anime episode. That's next week when the new season begins, but Freerin, we talked about it prior, just ended on Friday, and my pitch to you awesome, Christian, but my pitch to all of you listening is just watch the fucking show. Watch the 28 episodes, live your life, enjoy the story that you're going to, you know, just partake in and thrive.

Cristian:

It is good. While they ended it at the end of an arc in the manga, there's still a bunch more manga going on. There's probably enough for another season or so. While that's still happening, you know, the story you're given, it ended on a good place and, frankly, it's just a fantastic show that everyone should watch. So, yeah.

Cristian:

Please watch Fuhren. If you don't, I will add you on signal and consistently spam you with notifications to watch it.

Sadiq:

Yeah. So our first story, we we do we do a lot of music, I guess, top this this week, but, which is which is fine by me. At a good good opportunity, good time to talk about one of the, one of the most important hip hop albums, just, like, of all time. Right? Like, it's, like, I don't think it's, like, an understatement to say that this album, like, influenced, like, artists, like, of all all hip hop artists.

Sadiq:

And even just, like, not just hip hop, but just, like, music, you know? Like, it's it's a big album. We're talking about Mad Lib. We're talking about Mad Villany. It is the 20 20th anniversary of, Madvillain.

Cristian:

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary. It came out March 23, 2004.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Jesus. So yeah. So we have, we have a pitchfork article. We're just gonna link the archive.org link as well because, you know, just in case it disappears.

Cristian:

What's the over under? What's the over under? What what goes to shit first? Old pitchfork pitch for fork links or Bandcamp in the music sphere. Which one's gonna go to shit first?

Sadiq:

I would say I would say I would say pitchfork. Honestly, at the rate the media media world is going, I think pitchfork's articles disappear first. So let's talk about, honestly, it's been a long time since I've listened to Matt Villeney. I'll be real with you. I don't remember the, like, details of this album, like, you know, so it's been a minute since I've listened to this, but Well,

Cristian:

that's actually interesting if you do listen to it. And I think what you're gonna experience not have recently putting into rotation is how contemporary it sounds. I'm stealing this from someone I saw on social media post it, so I'm sorry it's not an original idea, but someone referred to this as an album that keeps de aging as time goes on.

Sadiq:

Interesting. The

Cristian:

more the the more contemporary it sounds as time goes on just because I think the I think the joke has always been that MF Doom and and Mad Lib are, like, your rapper's favorite rapper. Right? But you can hear the influence on it. I mean, outside of the fact that, like, most of the Odd Future sampled, you know, tracks off of, like, this or other MF 2 projects or Madlib projects. And there's a whole run of Madlib and Freddie Gibbs, Kanye has had Madlib produced tracks.

Cristian:

There is so much influence here where you can kind of just draw straight lines from things. It's in a similar vein of like, the old Aphex Twin, right? You listen to a lot of Aphex Twin from and you probably are like, you can just draw straight lines to that, to some of the stuff like Porter Robinson, Skrillex, and other people ended up doing. Did it with, like, Future Sound of London and some of those other nineties groups. So it's one of those albums and it's just the writing on it.

Cristian:

The writing on it is so fucking fantastic. It it's it's it's weird and zany, but it's weird and zany in a time where that shit wasn't the norm. Right? You know, nowadays, like, I mean, what what's if I wanted to get over a 100 boosts on Mastodon, I could just post a photo of a red panda hugging a tree going beep, and people will just breathe reboot that shit all day. Right?

Cristian:

Like, that that that's brombate. It's a and and nowadays, like, weird stuff like that, so that's the norm. Right? You know? Random people just posting jorts because I don't know.

Cristian:

Something compelled them to post it. But in 2004, having that kind of weirdness just wasn't norm.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I mean, can we can we, like, contextualize this? Like, well, 2004 was what, like, era of

Cristian:

When the college dropout came out.

Sadiq:

So that was it was that still, like, the era of, like, 50 Cent ad That was before it. Oh, okay. So I'm trying to Wait.

Cristian:

When did it get rich or die trying? Let me see. Get rich or die trying. Okay. About 2003.

Cristian:

So get rich or die trying came out a year beforehand.

Sadiq:

Well, like, I suppose that's the so we're so we're in, like, peak gangster rap. Right? Like, we're in, like, the sort of the, I would call, like, the golden age of gangster rap, like 50 Cent, being, like, the the height of his, popularity. Right? You know, Greg Rich or Dutch?

Cristian:

Okay. Let me let me put context with it more. I have a list. Alright. Here's music albums released in 2004.

Cristian:

The Carter 1 by Lil Wayne, The College Dropout, Encore by Eminem.

Sadiq:

Okay. That's a big one. Those are all big albums.

Cristian:

Confessions by Usher, Medulla by Bjork. I've not I've I don't listen much Bjork, so I don't know.

Sadiq:

Oh, you don't I don't think Bjork is okay. So it is, so as far as hip hop goes, goes, I think it's probably the weirdest album hip hop album. Like, this is not an album that you'd expect to come out in that year. Right? Like, it's like a not an album.

Cristian:

Avril Lavigne was still releasing new music in 2004.

Sadiq:

Right. Yeah. I'm feeling old now. So that's great. So, yeah.

Sadiq:

It's it's it's not an album that's, like, contemporary, like, when it was when it came out, like like, I don't think it was, like it stood out because it's, like, not it's not gangster rap. It's, like, this weird zany shit. Like, it's, like, it's, like, you know, not not quite what the rest of the sort of hip hop mainstream was, producing or releasing.

Cristian:

And and for everyone who's probably listening to it, like, nowadays, who maybe hasn't checked in if it was never listened to it before, you're listening to it and be like, oh, this is just like Earl's sweatshirt, Danny Brown would be doing. And and because it just it fits so well into that modern, like, that weird, like, monotone, like, just loop sample stuff, because you had a lot of boom bap stuff in that in in that or music in that era, Operation Dooms Day, earlier mad, Mad Lib stuff, but it wasn't it wasn't like one minute of a super weird loop with other just random samples playing just averse the next track because I would even argue too that a lot of Madvillainy actually ended up being the precursor to what most modern albums are nowadays for good and bad.

Sadiq:

Like you mean you mean you mean

Cristian:

the ways the sample 24 tracks, 1 minute, 2 minute songs at most.

Sadiq:

Like sample use of sampling. No. No. I'm not talking

Cristian:

about using sampling. I'm talking about how modern like, how how how long was Culture 3? It was, like, 30 tracks. How many hip hop albums nowadays are just Too many tracks, honest. Super long, super short tracks.

Cristian:

The Uzi Vert one with the pinball sample, that was, like, 28 songs.

Sadiq:

Yeah. That was massive. Yeah. So and it's sort of, like, you know, like, artist, like, contemporary, like, you know, sort of produces, like, knowledge. I think, like, it's always, like, come back to knowledge because knowledge just releases these, like, all the time on Bandcamp, he releases these, like, what do you call them, like, beat tapes?

Sadiq:

Like Yeah.

Cristian:

Beat tapes. Yeah.

Sadiq:

They're just like beat tapes, and it's just like a lot of samples. Like, it's just short, very short tracks with with with with, samples on them. Like, and sometimes it's very funny samples, honestly. Because that's one sample, you know, Sometimes I listen to what was that? What was that sample?

Sadiq:

I'm talking I I think you know which sample I'm talking about. It's a very funny sample. But anyway

Cristian:

This with the damsel, where'd you find this?

Sadiq:

No. It was it is sometimes I like knowledge, but sometimes I'll listen to, you know, like you know, I forgot what the what the this.

Cristian:

I feel like I well, you have to send me a link of it. I'm trying to remember.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I I I I feel like it's at the tip tip of my tongue, but I can't remember the whole sap, the whole sort of vocal, on it. But

Cristian:

Holy shit. Beyonce wasn't even a solo artist when this album came out.

Sadiq:

Oh, Jesus Christ, man. So this was like Destiny's

Cristian:

child was

Sadiq:

still releasing music. Yeah. Okay.

Cristian:

Okay. Actually, if you wanna be feeling even older, Jay z and Linkin Park released their collab, album this year.

Sadiq:

Yo. That album slaps, by the way. I I I'm just putting it down. That that album goes, like, really hard. It's, like, better than it's supposed to be, better than feels like it should be.

Sadiq:

Yeah. That I it's this era of hip hop, I feel like there's a lot of stuff I am not, like, I would have been, what, like, like, 12? Like, how old are they? Like, I was too young to, like, really be pay pay attention to hip hop as, like, as a genre. So I would, like, when this stuff all came out, I wasn't, like, paying attention to, like, the hip hop subculture.

Sadiq:

So it's hard to get, like, the context. I feel, like, why this is so important as a as a historical, like, reference to the historical object. Well,

Cristian:

it just because the era came out in. Right? Like, Green Day released American Idiot the same year. You gotta, like you the reason we keep saying this is this album sounds like it came out in 2020 or 2021. It sounds like some Modern Earl sweatshirt stuff.

Cristian:

It sounds like this is before this is when the alchemist was still rapping. This is before you had, like, that style of beat production on so many different artists. Griselda wasn't even making music then, and and it's and that's the influence that carries on, and that's why it's such an important album to be talking about 20 years later. Because it also it's just it's it's aged so fucking gracefully. There is there are very few albums.

Cristian:

I don't think anyone from, you know, nowadays, like, you know what? American Idiot, I can listen to that end day of the week. But you get to store a Madvillany, whatever, and it's a vibe. Yeah.

Sadiq:

It's like a timeless sort of, like, vibe to it. That's that's,

Cristian:

Also too, MMZ was fucking run. He also released Mm-mm Food a few months later. Homeboy released 3 albums in the same year that were all classics. I don't know if you ever listened to Mm-mm Food. If you it's it's really I you should I'm gonna be late.

Cristian:

Okay.

Sadiq:

So I should just listen to, like, all of basically, like, all of Man of the discography. Yeah. That is

Cristian:

MF DOOM's discography. Yeah. Also the vaudeville and stuff, King Ghidra, other acts. I would say

Sadiq:

Yeah. MF Doom, we could do an entire podcast series on MF Doom. Like, I feel like MF Doom himself is like this, like, kind of like a legendary figure at this point, like, in hip hop, like, sort of culture and, like, history is just like, we could do, like, an entire more than an entire hour talking about, like, you know, MF Doom and his, and his music, sort of career. It's just like a prolific, rest in peace, but, you know, prolific producer, a prolific artist, like, really just ahead of his time, like, so ahead of his time. It's kinda crazy.

Sadiq:

Just really honest. It's crazy. So I do like, okay. This is my question to you. If anybody has not heard, MF DOOM's work, do you think, like, Mad Villainy is, like, a good place to start?

Sadiq:

Or do you, like is there, like, another album that people should, No.

Cristian:

You start with Mad Villainy. I mean, honestly, if you're trying to give someone a hip hop starter pack for as good as bad as as that sentence sounds, you start with Madvillainy because it it explains so much of why people do things the way they do. Right? Like, monotone flows, this kind of writing style, this kind of production style, it, it fills in a lot of gaps that, you know, just by listening to the record you'll get. Fantastic album, r I p m f doom, play Madvillainy, buy it on vinyl, Stone's Throw.

Cristian:

Also, this is this is the album that made Stone's Throw like the record label because Stones Throw didn't have any, like, it just it was just Madlib's record label. Did not have a bunch of artists, like, knowledge and all that beforehand.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Stones Throw is like, I would I guess you would call it like an underground label. Not really.

Sadiq:

Like, I don't think I don't know if it's I would give you these days, you'd consider it like an underground, but it's like, back then, it was, like, definitely, like, you know, very small label. Like, not it's just underground and underground. So, yeah, Stone's throw, which is still around. And that's that's wild.

Cristian:

Yeah. I think the the last thing we could say if we want is there's a really good flying lotus suite that I don't have a link to. But when when MF Doom passed all he said is Madvillany, all you need in hip hop is this record. Sorted, done, give it to the fucking aliens.

Sadiq:

That's good. I love that. That's a great you know, they should have put that on the golden record that they sent out into space, honestly, for real. Flying Lotus also, I mean, it's like side note, like, Flying Lotus, if you never listen to Flying Lotus, go go listen to Flying Lotus as well. Good shit.

Sadiq:

So, we wanna talk about video games for a bit. Dragon's Dogma 2. First, before we get mad about this, I just wanna, like, I just for for for the purposes of the discourse, I just wanna, like, link to, like, Austin Walker's post on this on revamp radio. Because first of all, Austin Walker hasn't written any of my films like anything like this in a long time. And it is like, it is truly incredible to, read Asa Nwahkar again, but, I'm just gonna put that.

Sadiq:

But I I find it interesting because the only reason I even know about Dragon's Dogma as a as a video game, as a cultural object, is because of Austin Walker. Like, I don't think I would have ever heard about Dragon's Dog about the starter game that sort of was like, the first game is like a cult classic at this point, but it never re it would never have reached me otherwise. And Dragon's talking about 2 Capcom, like, finally was like, alright, we're gonna make we're gonna make this game, which is I don't I don't think I I don't think when I when I first heard about Dragon's Top, I was like, no ain't no way they're gonna make a second game up up from this. Like, it was not popular. It was a it was it was not it's not a game that seemed like it would, you know, be sell sell a lot of copies.

Sadiq:

But here we are in 2024, with Dragon's Dogma 2 has been released as we speak, and it is well, we're like, it's it's very annoying actually, kind of, like, in a way, if you're like because a lot of the games, like, actual game bits have sort of been, like, sort of been taken over by discourse about, micro transactions and, bad performance, which, which is not great. So let's let's talk about the micro transactions first. I think because that is the most important problem. Are the performances performance issues can be fixed, easily, and I suppose they will be fixed in a few months time. But, the the microtransaction on that has so what's the gist of the microtransaction?

Sadiq:

So you have microtransactions to buy, fast travel objects, like, things that give you fast travel. Right? Am I understanding that right? Like the Yeah. That's, there are other, like, ability to I think there are other problems like ability to create a new character, like, you can't delete your existing save and create a new character.

Sadiq:

I

Cristian:

You can't reroll your character without deleting the saves. That's the issue. So let's say right now, I have a character, and I'm like, you know what? I wanna modify something on them. You have to delete your entire save and redo a new playthrough.

Sadiq:

Yeah. That seems like an anachronism. Like, I feel like even older RPGs have, like, sort of respecing, like, you know, I

Cristian:

think the way to say this is if Starfield lets you do it, Dragon's Odd must let you do it.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I mean, Dark Souls lets you do it. Like, you know, it's like not like, it's not a it's not a particularly new or, new concept to have an RPG where you can respec. Right? Like, that's not that's a concept that has been around a long ass time.

Sadiq:

Like, it it would make RPGs extremely, inflexible if if if people couldn't, like, you know, respec, to a certain amount. Right? So, yeah, like, these micro transactions, like, I think the the biggest sort of point of this that has been sort of, brought up is that, these these micro transactions are not present at all in review review bills of the game. So reviewers, when they play this game and review the game, and the reviews came out, there was no zero mention of of these these microtransactions. Like, they were not there because they were they weren't they weren't put in the review bills, which meant that, like, the the review bills are misleading in that sense.

Sadiq:

Like, it's not it's it's like the the the reviews are miss in a in a way misleading. It's not complete. Like, you you have to, like, sort of go into go to the game. Like, you look at Steam, it's like, it's sitting at mixed or or negative, like, it's, and I and I don't think Steam reviews are like the end all be all of anything really, honestly, because they're easily brigated. But there is a sort of vibe to this game where people are like, why, like, why would I play this game?

Sadiq:

Why, like, this is a Singapore game, first of all, for this $70. Like, by the way, this is a $70 title. 70 US dollar title, with with my single player game with mega transactions, which were not present at the review bill. So I think a lot of people are just like, you know what? I'm I'm not gonna I'm not gonna play this game.

Sadiq:

It's not stop work. Like, it's it's like even though there a lot of the actual game stuff in there is is pretty funny if you were, like, into this kind of RPG. It's like, you know, even I like, honestly, I've been considering picking this game up, but not not yet. I was thinking of picking this game up in May after I I play, Horizon Forbidden West, which came out of PC in the same day. So but right now I'm thinking like, you know, I need to wait longer.

Sadiq:

Like, I feel like there's also the performance issues that I mentioned, which, we can we can link to the digital foundry video on it, I think, which which goes into why, like, it's it's bad on both all all the consoles as well and and then the, and the PC versions as well. It's just, the CPU multi threading seems a little, sketchy there. It doesn't take advantage of, advantage of of the CPU problem. It seems surprisingly CPU heavy, which, yeah. That's that's a Dragon's Dogma.

Sadiq:

I I don't know. Do you have you played the original Dragon's Dogma? I it feels like a game you you might have played. I not me, but,

Cristian:

I have not played original Dragon's Dogma and honestly, what I when I look at games like Dragon's House and other games, all I think to myself is, hey, what if someone did this but in a first person style and it had the same combat as Destiny? You know? I would I would have fucked with that. I want I want first person souls like games.

Sadiq:

So you want you want Destiny, but Skyrim, like, is that what you want? Like, no. No. No. No.

Sadiq:

No. No. No.

Cristian:

No. No. I want that souls like, you know, experience where you gonna get rocked and then rock with it. But I would like it in a first person, way and not in, like, a third person slow moving combat way. I think there is something to be done with that.

Cristian:

Bungie is kind of explored with it in, some of the dungeons in Destiny, but I feel like there's a gap there and there's totally room to be able to make that into something that is interesting. But this micro transaction surprise trend has actually happened in a few games recently, and I I I think Metacritic is is is bad. I think the reviews industry is weird because, oh, they talked about an aftermath a while ago with it with I think it was a Jason Schreier episode of the podcast, but it to me, it seems weird that we were are reviewing art like products. You actually go back to Pitchfork. You go back to the Pitchfork Review Madvillain.

Cristian:

It is not reviewed like a product. And if games are are, like, it's

Sadiq:

So I think I think we I need to I think we need to, like this is like a this like, I feel like this is sort of like a semantics discussion, but also, like like a philosophical discussion. Like, what is a review? Is it a critique or a or a, like, like, of a critique of the art, or is it a buyer's guide? Like, is it

Cristian:

I think there's 2. There's this I think there's 2 there's a line in the sand. It's once you when you're reviewing something that's a little more no. It's all I have to do with music. There's a technical aspect of it and once it meets the technical bar quality, the rest of it is all subjective and the rest of it is all just, a conversation on art and and how it moved you or how you feel about that art.

Cristian:

I think a good example of some music is mixing and mastering. You you have an album that is poorly mixed, it is clipping, it is actually unlistenable because you cannot hear what is being said. That may be the artist's intent, but if it's obviously not the artist's intent, then that would not be the technical bar quality for what you would expect from a from an album. If everything's super loud or super quiet and and it just makes it where, like, you're not able to actually enjoy the art the the intent of whatever, you know, the album's supposed to be. And I think the same thing goes for games where, yes, there's and I think that's where games reviews are are mostly like a lot of games reviews tend to be copying what tech reviews do where it's like, yes, here's this product And I mean the Verge has done a lot of it where they do tend to talk about, like, what that product feels or, like, what what you feel like using it.

Cristian:

But I think for a lot of people we kinda understand that, like, hey, if I'm gonna, you know, read the latest iPhone or or Pixel review, I'm probably just wanting to know, like, do these new features work as advertised? Is it, like, competent? Battery life and and, you know, I already know what I can do with it, so I don't need that much explained to me for the basics. But that's not how we should be talking about games and a lot of it is like, you know, this quest system was neat. And then, alright, because we're going to the next point, where it should be I think a lot more of a deeper conversation on the art and and and that's a harder skill though.

Cristian:

I think that's why not enough people do that. It,

Sadiq:

Yeah. That's I I and and that's a skill that's not, I mean, Gabe Gabe's critique and games journalists has never paid well. But I would say, like, the subsection of of of games writing that is could be called games critique is, like, basically nonexistent at this point because, like, nobody's paying for it. Like, nobody wants to pay, like, no public there are few very few publications that are paying writers to write what I would consider, like, you know, games critique. Right?

Sadiq:

Like, the stuff the stuff that, Austin Walker wrote for revamp radio. Like that kind of thing. Right? Like that kind of writing, but the more, like, sort of subjective, sort of, talking about the art for the sake of the art, but not like the technical aspects of the creation of the art in a sense, feels like so rare nowadays. Like, I feel like there's only very few small magazines or or websites.

Sadiq:

I don't know if I don't know if Paste Magazine is still around or, like, there are some, like, other other smaller games magazines that, did this kind of sort of more critique level writing. Just just it's not it's just not it's not, it's it it doesn't get views. So it doesn't get clicks that in a in a in an industry where that is so focused on, like ad ad revenue and, views, page views that stuff like, nuance critique of of, like, mechanic or or or or like a a story or narrative, for a video game is is not gonna get us as same amount of, like, sort of views as like, you know, just like a straight up more base basically technical review, which, yeah. I I I I do kind of agree that games shouldn't be reviewed entirely on, on the on the merits of their pickle ability because if if we did that, it would be extremely boring. That's

Cristian:

true. I mean, I guess most most game reviews, like if we need to take the most cynical view of it, I mean, given what happened to Kotaku this week, you know, that our chief leading is probably actually not that cynical. It's more accurate than not. But most game reviews probably just exist at links or to to, increase s SEO ranking of the guides for that game.

Sadiq:

Okay. I I mean, yes. But also, I I I don't think that's entirely true either. I I I think it's kind of like this sort of, like it's like it's it's like I I think there are still writers writing good reviews. I think it's I mean, I read reviews often actually.

Cristian:

I'm not talking about from the writer's perspective. This is from the game site's perspective. If if for most if, like, Geomedia, Future, Plc, whatever the, you know, the ones that run the big sites are, whoever the fuck Tencent, whoever the fuck's behind Fandom, whatever company owns Fandom right now. Like, for all of their perspective, I'm pretty sure they'll take a game review and they're like, well, this is a great way to silo on new peoples who wanna access our guides content, because that's where we make a bunch of money.

Sadiq:

Exactly. It's like a it's like a way to drive traffic to the site to stuff that actually gets a lot of views, which is the most cynical way to look at it. But, yeah, that's, it's it's it's it is the industry is like that, which is, which is unfortunate. Dragon's Dogma, I I like, I'm on an RPG kick really recently. I've I've played a lot of more RPGs that I have recently, and I I I I do wanna play Dragon's Rock Me too, at some point.

Sadiq:

I don't know when. Maybe maybe I'll play later in the year or maybe I'll play next year, but, I I'm planning on eventually, at least when at least when the technical problems are resolved or or mitigated, I will I will I will pick it up. Is there anything else to say about Dragon's talk about before before we move?

Cristian:

Yeah. You know, I'm happy that y'all got, it it it's genuinely a good time. People get sequels that are called classics. But, you know, I am, I am not going to be surprised if you see Capcom do some kind of BS and investor meeting being like, this is why we can't make games like this because it doesn't meet some, like, asinine sales expectation.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Yeah. They're gonna be like, oh, it's it's sales fell below expectations like Square Enix always does.

Cristian:

But it drag your dog, but I don't what expectations were? There's probably a million Yeah.

Sadiq:

What expectation? It's a it's it's like yeah. I'm surprised this game got made in in the first place, honestly. Like, I I I wasn't expecting dog Dragon's Hour 2 to be a thing that exist. So I know.

Sadiq:

So let's talk about, this is I mean, this is one of your hobby horses, I think. Because you're gonna want to get it too. This I've I don't know why. This is this is this is I've everybody has their thing, but, you know, anti cheat. We're talking about it, specifically anti cheat on PC, PC PC titles.

Sadiq:

There was a story recently about, Apex Legends finals, e Apex Legends Esports final, sort of postponed after suffering what what what is like a remote, execution exploit, remote code execution exploit, RCE, that happened to players while they were in in match, in in during the tournament, which, I don't think I've ever actually seen happen. I think this might be the first time this has happened in sort of any significant kind of way, a significant game. And that sort of brings us to our sort of conversation about anti cheat, which is that is, like, why is anti cheat, like, why is kernel anti cheat a thing? Right? Like, this this is your hub.

Sadiq:

This is your things. I'll let you introduce this. Like, why what's what's what's what's the deal?

Cristian:

Yeah. Yeah. So I wanna take even of a bigger step back. So I think it is safe to say that on most, most gaming PCs, most regular PCs, a lot of people, for better or worse, will install software that they think will help them with their games, right, Or that software that is able to access a lot of parts of their system to help control their PC. You know, bases it from hardware stat info to, other GPU monitoring tools, the Nvidia driver, of course, AMD driver and also RGB controllers.

Cristian:

And what I don't understand from Microsoft's perspective is why do they let all of that get just outsourced to third parties and not be integrated into the OS. And not in like a control every way, everything perspective, but like in a, all of this stuff could be easily exposed by APIs of the OS controls and not drivers or things that the, kernel, you know, that you need kernel access for. It just it seems like a lot of this gaming software is probably some pretty fucking big security holes, especially as most gamers, like, don't use much anti malware software because it does does have an impact on gaming performance. Right? Like there's actual reasons where you don't wanna have stuff standing in the background when you're trying to play a game, especially if you don't have a baller, like, 40 90 system, where you can't brute force stuff, you're, like, on a more moderate, you know, 30 60, 30 70 Core I 5, you know, more more mid spec system.

Cristian:

And and that's what's weird to me is that it's all outsourced. It's all just other outsourcing is a bad word. It's all, like, not done in house. It's not Microsoft official stuff. And they should just start, I think, influencing some of this piece.

Cristian:

I think it's getting to the point where it is a, like, actual security vector for for devices to be compromised, because if I if you wanna go after an affluent market, right, with ransomware or whatever, the gamers, bro, gamer raids, gamers will pay gamers pay so much money. Gamers pay 3 times the same amount for the same quality microphone or headsets because it integrates with their RGB controller. Like, you they they don't know what the fuck they doing. So this goes to a little more in more closer to Apex where if you look at macOS, right, you have, like, the, Secure Enclave and other stuff. And what Apple does is for games through the App Store is is they don't have like necessarily anti cheat built in per se, but because it's, signed binary and it's running in in in the sandbox, it's a lot harder to do on macOS, if that makes sense.

Cristian:

Right? You would have to turn off system integrity protection and the game will be able to know that. Right? Like, you can check if that's turned on or off and turn off specific features. Like, you know, if you have some features enabled, you can't record screens on on macOS, that kind of stuff.

Cristian:

So the system will make that available if you're worried about in the integrity of the environment it's operating in. But on Windows, there's not like a very similar feature. Microsoft does in Windows 11 have some, like, memory protection stuff with the TPM chip, but it's just weird to me that they do not have, like, a built in anti cheat system that also relies on a hardware security chips, you know, some kind of integrity there. Because while, you know, it it there is a case to be made, but what if that hardware chip has an exploit in it? I mean, the OS will probably have more.

Cristian:

So I I think there's a trade off there. And you can you can build it in a way where it's just checking if it's been tampered with. It's not like scanning everything on your system or checking for specific behaviors that, you know, would go against whatever the expected output is of, you know, the game logic itself. Or more importantly, just use, like, an actual hardware TPM or whatever to validate the integrity of the operating environment or sandbox the game in a way, since it's being offloaded to hardware, it's not gonna have a huge impact on performance because it's not trying to do some software, anti cheat stuff, and doesn't need to give random third parties access to your kernel. Because I just keep repeating this every time people, like, yeah.

Cristian:

I need anti cheat installed. I have easy anti cheat. I have these 10. I have ricochet. I have whatever they use in Call of Duty.

Cristian:

And do you trust Activision Blizzard of access to your kernel? Do you trust Riot Games of access to, like, all the memory on your computer?

Sadiq:

Yeah. This okay. So I that this is not a new thing. Right? I I remember when Valorant first came out.

Sadiq:

Right? This is this is, this is not a new talking point. Like, when Valorant first came out, like, there was a lot of discourse about, like, I think Valorant was the first big game to implement kernel level anti cheat. Right? Before that, games games did have anti cheat, but they were not running in kernel.

Sadiq:

They did have kernel level privileges. They were running, like, user mode, which which have meant that they didn't have as much access to to various things as as as as code running in kernel mode does, just just by the nature of where the kernel sits in in the perspective of the operating system. Vowrit was was running this, and and I remember that the time everybody was like, oh, we shouldn't give, like, anti cheats, like, access to the kernel. Like, why are we running stuff at kernel mode? Like, why are we running this particle a bit of software at kernel mode?

Sadiq:

Like, this especially software that's like looking at processes, looking at looking at memory. That seems a little bit, you know, too much privilege for a piece of software app. And I think the discourse sort of died down after a while as as these things gamers can't pay attention to anything for more than a week. So like, it it it it didn't seem to affect Valorant's popularity or anything. So it it it it it it's like a discourse that kind of what people don't like to think about it.

Sadiq:

It's like, you know, I'm gonna install these video games and they're gonna install these other pieces of software that's like, I don't know exactly what it's doing. And it's gonna sit in in in kernel space doing whatever the fuck it wants. And, yeah, I I I do agree that, you know, software like this should not exist like this because I think it's a massive, like, surface area for vulnerabilities. Like, I I I I just I think it's only a matter of time before like in this, in the case of the current, Apex Legends hack, we don't know if it was caused by a vulnerability in easy anti cheat, which Apex Legends uses, or Apex Legends itself, like Apex Legends server or client side code. Like, we don't we don't know what what the vulnerability the source of the vulnerability was.

Sadiq:

But it's only a matter of time before, like, some major game gets, like, an RCE that is exploited, because of, like, code running in kernel space. I it's it's I I don't I don't trust any of these companies, honestly. Denuvo, Yeezyandici, ricochet, Riot Games, like, no. Ain't no way ain't no way I trust video game programmers to make good anti cheat, honestly.

Cristian:

Like, the only reason I say trust Microsoft Like they have more of a the anti cheat vendors, like what's the incentive structure here, right? So let's let's we're welcome to the 1st cast, we're stealing what words they use. But the incentive structure of the anti cheat platforms of those vendors is prevent cheating at all costs, regardless performance impact, right? That's a nice to have, but the north star there is always gonna be anti cheap. Whereas Microsoft's like, hey, we would want to make one that makes using Windows nice, because we want people to do everything on Windows.

Cristian:

We don't want we want them to game, etcetera. You know, we don't just want this game to work well. We have a more holistic approach because we're the OS vendor. And more so, they also have the power to force some, like, motherboard configurations and stuff that might make it a little bit easier, right? Like easy anti cheat is never gonna get MSI, gigabyte, and, you know, Asus all on board with, hey, for gaming PCs, we'd really like it if you have this stock configuration on the motherboard because it'll help anti cheat better, or help any this anti cheat that's built in work better.

Cristian:

Which is coming too, they actually used to have an anti cheat. I knew it was off the top of my head because that's this is the person I am. The Windows 10 creator up fall creators update. Do you remember that? It brought Windows Mixed Reality and My People.

Sadiq:

Oh my god. Jesus. We're not getting into My People. This is this is the wrong podcast for that.

Cristian:

But it did also bring, a new any cheat system that was built into Windows. So somewhere how I'm sort of talking about only for UWP games though called Trueplay. It never went live and it randomly got removed.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Probably because it didn't get any actual traction from

Cristian:

No. No. No. Like, no game ever shipped using it is what I'm saying. So, like, no yeah.

Sadiq:

Because honestly, who wants to ship games in UW, like, Windows 10 UWP is, I mean, without that's that's cap going to UWP.

Cristian:

It's over. UWP is dead. It's dead.

Sadiq:

It stops a whole whole other can of worms. Whole other can of worms, but most developers on, most game developers on who are releasing games on on on Windows are releasing them either on Steam or on, or on like the Epic Game Store or on itch. Io if you you're, like, in a small indie title. Right? Like, you're not you're not gonna release on the Microsoft store.

Sadiq:

Like, who the fuck releases on the Microsoft store except for very big except for games that go on Games Pass, I guess. Like, you're not you're not releasing

Cristian:

Xbox play anywhere is a requirement for Game Pass. Yes. That's why.

Sadiq:

It's it's there's still this problem with, like, the whole Windows ecosystem being extremely variable in hardware and software. Like, there's a lot of different kinds of hardware. There's a lot of old hardware out here that still is fully capable of running video games. Right? Like Well,

Cristian:

that's why I'm saying it should be like an add in card or something for this. Right? Like, I'm not I'm saying you could it's it's a Pluton chip. You can get that on I think it's enterprise only right now, but something similar to that where it's shipped on a lot of motherboards of, like, enterprise laptops, the Pluton chip. Peter, I think it's also they basically took the, same security chip that's on an Xbox and they started shipping it in Windows PCs.

Cristian:

Yeah. The Microsoft Pluton Security Processor is what it's called. So something similar to that where, okay, so it maybe could be built on in the motherboards for laptops and all that. But if you have an older computer, just run it via PCI or whatever. Right?

Cristian:

Or include include in, like, if someone upgrades their motherboard.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I think I think Microsoft is just like, doesn't wanna get involved in this business. It feels like they they don't it doesn't seem like they particularly wanna care about this at all. I think you are gonna you're gonna this this is always gonna be a a discourse point for you because it's not gonna get resolved.

Cristian:

Yeah. I don't I don't I mean, and and hey, I you know, is this year I finally switched to Windows for for gaming? Who knows? But you know what would get me to switch a lot better? Listen, you have a nice easy cheese solution.

Cristian:

I'm buying a PC tomorrow.

Sadiq:

Oh, okay. Alright. Microsoft, you heard it here first. You have

Cristian:

one new customer, one new One new fucking weirdo on your platform.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Alright. Let's talk about another video game that I, that I finished actually yesterday. I I finished it yesterday. Been playing it throughout this, throughout this month.

Sadiq:

Banishers ghosts of you, Eden, which is a hell of a title. So this this game, like, I I I had like, this this is not a game I had any. I was looking forward to it. I didn't know even it existed until I saw a a review of it on drop paper shot good. Shout out to Alice Bell, over there who wrote the review.

Sadiq:

And it is like a third person, they call it like 3rd person goth tragedy action adventure RPG, is what Rock Paper Shotgun called it in their little sidebar. And there was enough of, like, enough of things that I liked, you know, 3rd person action, adventure, you know, kinda like the God of War game from 2018, you know, kind of that kind of kind of that vibe going on. I this is like you know, you know, you ever play a game where it's like, you know, this is good. Like, this is everything it's doing is fine. Like, but it's not doing anything special.

Sadiq:

Right? Like, it's like, just like kind of it's it's like a 7 out of 10 game, you know? Like, it's not it's it's it's it's like I think the strongest part of it is the narrative stuff that's going on. I think the voice acting is really, really good. The the visuals of the aesthetic of the game and the team, the way that it it sort of, like, has a a static consistency with the theme, like, is is very, very good.

Sadiq:

Like, this would be the creepy New England in winter vibes is is very good. Mechanically, it's a little bit, like, kinda try to do, like, the whole 3rd person combat, thing like God of War does. And it sort of works. It's like it gets very repetitive, especially because it's like a 40 hour game. And by the time you get to, like like, the end game, the last 3 last 2 chapters of the game, you're just sort of, like, I don't I don't wanna do any world combat because it's just, like, there's it just becomes so sim like, the combat doesn't have enough variety in it for it to sustain, like, 40 hours of gameplay.

Sadiq:

And there's there's a there's a lot of combat, man. And the thing is, it is a lot of combat because enemies respawn when when you like when you rest or fast travels. So you could you could just be like doing collectible stuff across the map, and then you just enemies just will randomly spot and you have to fight them. Like, you can't you can't avoid them, and you just have to fight them. And which made the which made this a 7 out of 10 game because I think, it's kinda I wish I wish it had I wish it was shorter.

Sadiq:

And also I wish it I didn't have as much combat as it did or the combat was better. It just, kinda that's how I'm feeling about this one. Banishers goes of new media developed by Indonod, who are also the developers of the, Life is Strange games. It's very weird. Very different game from Life is Strange, but, yeah, some do not publish my focus entertainment.

Sadiq:

It's war I I I still think it's it's a decent game. If you're looking for, like, a sort of, like, the the the I suggest people read the review, but, like, if you're looking for this kind of gameplay and this this sort of environment of, like, ghost haunted stuff, spooky stuff, like, go go play. That's pretty good. So that's Badishers Ghost of New Eden. I don't I don't think you played this.

Sadiq:

I I would be surprised if you played this. I don't I don't know anybody who else who has played this.

Cristian:

Yeah. I haven't played it yet. I'm actually taking this time to currently spec out a razor blade 14. So continue.

Sadiq:

Oh, you're hold on. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Cristian:

Alright. Sure.

Sadiq:

That that's that's good. Finally, it's happening, folks. It's happening. I I was I told you to buy a gig gig game in a lot of those. It's that's the that's the best.

Cristian:

It's you know you know, actually, I'm gonna take advantage of this. This game sounds great. I just genuinely have not. It's just the first time I'm hearing of this game.

Sadiq:

So, yeah, I don't like, it's hard to talk about this game because literally nobody else has talked about this game.

Cristian:

So, actually, I'm gonna call upon the PC gamers, alright. PC gamers channeling your energy, I don't know what I'll do. I'll just wave an RGB controller in the air a few times. But, the Asus Zephyrus 14 or the Razer Blade 14 sorry, Asus Rog Zephyrus g 14.

Sadiq:

Jesus Christ.

Cristian:

Which which one's the better gaming PC? Because my thing is if we're gonna, like, I don't

Sadiq:

I don't know. Actually, you know, you know, hold hold. Now you already asked me this question. Rock paper shotgun actually does, like, I mean, they used to. I don't know if they still do, but they, if you, like, look up those laptops on their site, they might have reviews for it, and their reviews are pretty good for for gaming laptops.

Sadiq:

So you might wanna you might wanna actually go to rockpapershocka.com and, search.

Cristian:

Alright. Let's see. Zephyrus G14. Alright. Rock, Paper, Shaka.

Cristian:

Okay. They have a 2,020 2. Do we have a 2024 model? I mean, it's 2 years old, but I know a gaming computer is, you know, same model name, but it everything changes. Yeah.

Cristian:

Okay. So we have this one from here. What's the hardware review that is recent? Because, you know, yeah, I like I love how this just turned into the let's buy shit during the podcast hour.

Sadiq:

During the podcast episode. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Very good.

Cristian:

Yeah. I don't I don't yeah. 2022 looks like when they stopped doing laptop reviews. Yeah. Yeah.

Cristian:

But I'll I'll look into some I'll look into some some reviews there.

Sadiq:

Yeah. You might there might be other reviews. I mean, that's not the only place that does hardware reviews, but, yeah. I I'm I'm I'm really not familiar with, like, the market of gaming laptops as a whole, so I I can't personally personally, I wouldn't buy a Razer product. Like, I just don't trust Razer to be good hardware, but, that might not be the case with laptops, so I don't actually use

Cristian:

Yeah. I mean, well, I've only ever had 2 Razer things. So I had 3. I had the microphone, which I don't use because I don't, I, you know, I have a dynamic mic now, I don't need a desk desktop microphone. I had the mechanical keyboard, I had the mouse.

Cristian:

The mouse worked fine. The the keyboard, the key key stopped working, but so that's only one out of 3 things and that's a really small sample size. So I mean, I don't I mean isn't the PC, isn't it so supposed to be repairable? Right?

Sadiq:

Not with laptops, I don't think. But, you know, you could you could I mean, some some parts are probably replaceable, but probably not the whole thing. So do we well, we have I have some books and music to talk, but do I wanna talk about the music first. First. So that's the You

Cristian:

wanna talk about the rap beef? I know. Go for it. Go for it.

Sadiq:

Wait wait. What what what rap beef? I don't, like, I don't I'm not aware of.

Cristian:

Future Metro Boom, We Don't Trust You, the Kendrick album.

Sadiq:

Oh, that. Okay. I I was like, is there something else I'm not aware of?

Cristian:

Yeah. The Drake's another beef. Listen. That okay. So I will introduce this one.

Cristian:

I I will introduce this one. So there's books in there. Go read the books. There are good books. We're not talking about books right now.

Cristian:

We're talking about music. Real stuff. Real gamer hours. So basically, Future and Metro Boomin, there's a track called Like That, which has a very good 3 6 Mafia sample in it, and and Kendrick Lamar comes for Drake and J. Cole, and it's very funny, and people are freaking out over it.

Sadiq:

Yeah. So he's, like, top, top 3. It's just top me. Right? Which is just like, oh, boy.

Sadiq:

I I don't know where this is coming from, why this is happening, or, like, I put you know, this is the most interesting thing that has happened in hip hop in a minute. So I suppose, like, we we talk about it. I I I don't understand where the sentiment is coming from, though. I don't know why Kendrick would, be in this, state of mind. I don't know if it I don't know if it's it is actually serious or it's just like him just kind of having fun.

Sadiq:

Like, you know, start being it's not being entirely serious. It's just kind of kind of, you know, the the weird thing rappers do where they talk shit about other rappers, but they don't actually, like, mean it. I don't know. They don't mean it in a serious way. Like, it's kinda just having fun with bars.

Sadiq:

Like, I don't know. Do do you think it's serious? Do you think it's actually, like, it actually beats something?

Cristian:

No. No. I don't I don't think it's serious at all. I think it's I I think he's just memeing. I think he's just memeing.

Sadiq:

I I think he's memeing. Like, it feels weird to, like, put that thing in, like, a feature form, like, a future album. Like, it it just doesn't seem like the place Kendrick would do something like that if he was serious about it. So I don't know. I feel like he would release a track of his own.

Sadiq:

I I feel like so, yeah. We're Metro if you're a Metro Moving, we don't trust you. Very good, background music, I would call it. Like, it's not it's not particularly incredible. There's some good tracks on it.

Sadiq:

You know, like that is a pretty the good sound. Metromobie is a good producer. I mean, that's the that's all that's the thing that carries this album, really. It's not future, really. I don't think feature is a, thing that carries any album.

Sadiq:

I don't think feature is good. Like, it is I don't think it's a hot take. I don't think feature is, like okay. Let me let me rephrase that before, like, I don't know, feature stands in our audience get mad at me.

Cristian:

Bro, they they they exist. Go to r /future on Reddit. It's, not a great place.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Look, I'm not okay. Look, I think future's music is just sort of it's a sort of vibe. It's it's like the music of Don Toliver to me, like, where it's just, like, I'm not really listening to it for lyrics or or, like, or, like, you know, kind of, like, the like, I'm I'm not listening to it. I'm just like, listen to, like, I don't know, like, no name album or, like, I don't know, like like a like a Griselda, like, Betty the Butcher album.

Sadiq:

About a good copy here for a written lyricism or or anything. I'm just here for, like, the vibes, you know, like, the sort of the better movie produced vibes here. So that's it's a good vibes album. It's not it's not anything more than that, and that's fine. So that's that's, that's that's hip hop.

Sadiq:

I I have to have a 3 other album recommendations. These are a kind of, very all these are different, genres, I suppose. Fortet, released, a new album by the day of 3, this this past week. Fortinet is like an electronic artist. And if you if you like electronic music, sort of that we were talking we mentioned FX Twin earlier, Future Sounds of London.

Sadiq:

I feel for Ted's music very much feels that kind of era of sort of ambient. Not not quite ambient, but electronic sort of down tempo electronic, stuff. It's it's very good. It's a vibe. It's not a long album.

Sadiq:

It's nice and short 8 tracks. It's a it's a good time. I have another album. This one is is like called house album. It's, by Sofia Corteses, called Madres.

Sadiq:

Very, very sort of chill, nice, sort of laid back, house album. It's a good vibe. The last album I got is very different. It is, okay. So okay.

Sadiq:

This is my question. When I when I say, the genre alternative, what do you think that means, by the way? Well, well, that's my question. Like, what what do you think alternative?

Cristian:

Rock, I think. I think alternative rock is normally the first one that comes to mind.

Sadiq:

Yeah. That's the question. It's so vague to me. Like, I know it like this this album on band camp is tagged as alternative and Kansas City, but it is like not rock. I don't think it's I don't I wouldn't classify as rock, and I I would classify it more as like sort of folk music.

Sadiq:

It's very a lot of acoustic guitars and and and singing on it. And so I don't know if it counts as, as rock. But whatever it is, whatever the genre is, it's it's very it's a very sort of it's it's a very lyric lyrics focused album. I I need to listen to it more. Honestly, I've only listened to it once, and I I did enjoy what I listened, but I I it's it's it's sort of nice vibe to it.

Sadiq:

Waxahachie's Tiger's Blood. Tiger's Blood is the day of the album. It's it's good stuff. It released this this Friday. So those are my music music.

Sadiq:

Do you have any music recommendations? I feel like I I just I just brought, like, 4 albums, but I mean, I don't 3 albums, but I don't know if you have any, albums other than Madvillany, I suppose. We don't Yeah.

Cristian:

Yeah. I have one music recommendation, and that's, is the AMD Radeon RX 68100 s better than a 3060? I actually have recommendations. That is a question that I have an answer to, as I'm specking up these computers, but I do actually have recommendations before, before we we go into gaming talk.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I was very confused. I was like, is that a name of a trap? What's

Cristian:

finally the first post Brockhampton, like, solo album. The first good one because Kevin Abstract's album was trash.

Sadiq:

Wait. Oh, I didn't I didn't know he released, I released an album.

Cristian:

Because Laundry, Matt Champion just came out, Fire. Beyonce is gonna drop her album in 5 days. It's important to alert her country album.

Sadiq:

Well, when is that? Is that, like, The

Cristian:

29th, Friday.

Sadiq:

29th. Oh, shit. It's oh, that's gonna be that's gonna be a good Friday. I'm looking for that.

Cristian:

Dropped Pinball recently. That's another good one. We could throw out Bad Willy influence all all across Pinball. And I think for so far for new albums I've been fucking with, it's basically been those. The new Ariana Grande albums, like, I actually kinda been enjoying it.

Cristian:

The

Sadiq:

I have to actually I didn't even know Ariana Grande released, released a new album.

Cristian:

Yeah. It's called Internal Sunshine or something like that. Also the Final Fantasy 7 rebirth soundtrack is out.

Sadiq:

So, you know. Oh, is it good?

Cristian:

I have not listened to it yet. I'm just looking at new releases and I saw that there. Yeah. So, you know, so we have some good some good records out there. Most 1st and foremost, it really is going to be the School by q one, but yeah.

Cristian:

Yeah. So back to the question, is a 68100 better than a 3060? Or is it or is it is it I don't

Sadiq:

I don't know. Actually, what I would do is I would go look at the review of a 3060 and see if there are

Cristian:

Remember it's a laptop though. Remember, laptop processors are so fucking confusing.

Sadiq:

This I I don't because

Cristian:

it's about the wattage too.

Sadiq:

I really don't know. I I I don't know if it's better.

Cristian:

Alright. Portable gamers out there. I know I know y'all listening. Portable gamers, rise up, and please let me know what is the, what is, what is a good gaming laptop that will play Destiny, you know, at 14 40 p Ultra, I think is, you know, pretty, what would I aim for? A 120 FPS, 14 40 p bits bits back?

Cristian:

Like, I don't know. I don't know what the gamers want.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Let please please help because you get into PC gaming finally at the long last.

Cristian:

Don't don't do 4 k screens. Right? You want you want with gaming laptops, you don't want 4 k?

Sadiq:

No. No. Don't do 4 k because you're not like, this 4 ks is a fucking trap. Like, don't

Cristian:

But, but do I have to run it at native res? So this is the actual question. I'm not this is like a genuine question. I'm not memeing. Is it why not 4 ks for desktop use and then just run the game at 14:40 p versus a 14:40 p in a monitor?

Cristian:

What is the upsides and downsides for scaling like that?

Sadiq:

Power usage? Power usage of the screen. You're just driving more pixels. So I you just gonna like, if you're gonna play the game, you're gonna if you're gonna use the laptop on battery, you're just burning power for like, really, I don't I don't think it's enough of a good reason on a laptop to to sort of spend that much power to, to generate that many pixels or what. So that's my I look at it from a power to, like, power budget to resolution perspective, like, it doesn't make sense.

Sadiq:

If it's a desktop and you wanna do 4 k and you wanna run games at 40:40 k, that's okay. Sure. Whatever. But, like, if you a laptop, like, I I don't I don't see, like unless you really need the 4 k resolution on the screen for reasons, like, you know, you you you you

Cristian:

Okay. That makes sense. And another question here, AMD or in in or NVIDIA for the GPU, does matter nowadays? I actually don't know these things.

Sadiq:

Okay. So the I I I actually this is a question I can answer. I I did switch, so I could answer this question. Okay. So there is

Cristian:

Oh, you just switched. You actually just switched. So yeah. Okay. Go off.

Sadiq:

2 factors really that sort of matter in this in this case, I would say. I mean, I really wanted the at at this at this sort of, okay, 2 2 it is sort of upscaling features and ray tracing. So this is this so if you if you really care about ray tracing, like, if you really want ray tracing features, you have to go NVIDIA because nobody else, like NVIDIA's greatest

Cristian:

But with a 30, 60 or anything below a a 40, 70, doesn't matter. Right? Anything below, like, a 40, 70, you you would, like, you'd be better off running getting higher FPS with ray tracing off, I would assume.

Sadiq:

That's probably true. I I mean, it's really about our priorities. Like, if you care about, like, you wanna run games with ray trace 30 FPS, but, like, it's really about a perspective. It's really a matter of what you want to do with with your games or rather what you usually do with games. It's just like, if you do want do you want ray tracing or do you wanna run, like, games at 30 FPS?

Sadiq:

Like, if you want that, you wanna get an NVIDIA GPU. Right? The second and the second is the thing is upscaling, which means that you wanna look at sort of AMD's FSR technology versus NVIDIA's DLSS technology. Right? So DLSS and, FSR are like the big ones here.

Sadiq:

So it's like, personally, I I when I when I bought the AMD, Radeon, god, 79100 xdx. Jesus, it's a fucking these names. I I when I when I when I made a decision, I was like, you know, FSR is getting better. Like, FSR 3.3 is gonna come out soon. Like, and more and more games are supporting FSR, like, out of the box.

Sadiq:

So, like, and it's I I I think Nvidia's sort of dominance in the DLSO space is kinda coming to an end. So, personally, I would go with the MB GPU because I don't care about ray tracing. I've I've found, despite having one of the first t p one of the, one of the, like, big, GPUs that supported, like, you know, hardware ray tracing, the 2080TI. I I basically never used that feature. So, I would say go with an AMD card.

Cristian:

Is now the right time to buy a gaming PC then, or should I wait until the fall refresh? Or back to school?

Sadiq:

Now is a decent time. Now I honestly, now is a good time to buy. Like, it's this that's something that that question is always, like, when it you buy the hardware when you need the hardware, but if you like

Cristian:

I mean, I'm gonna sell the MacBook for it. That'd be the idea. Just sell the MacBook

Sadiq:

Air and then pick one up. Yeah. Okay. Just get it. It's fine.

Sadiq:

Like, all the hardware right now is in a pretty good state. Like, I don't think there's any significant upgrades to be coming. Like, sure. If you wait, like, a year or so, you probably get, like, the next generation of a Nvidia or AMD chips, but, like, I don't think it's worth that I worth waiting that long personally, like, if you Or

Cristian:

if you wait you wait a year, you end up getting an AI features put on everything because everything's all these Intel chip chips with the MPU stuff.

Sadiq:

Exactly. So yeah. Exactly. So just, you know, just good hardware out here right now. Even though GPU prices are kinda out of whack, but they're better than me than they were.

Sadiq:

So now is a good time before prices go up again, for the new GPUs. So

Cristian:

Right. Right.

Sadiq:

So yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that's a PC corner, I guess. I I don't know why we turned this into a PC corner episode, but,

Cristian:

I mean, listen, once you switch to Android, everything opens up in your world. You know what I mean? Also too, actually here's the real reason. You know what? This is this is this is not a technical review.

Cristian:

This is the emotions. This is critiquing art. You know, I I was looking at handhelds and then I'm like, these are all compromised, right? I think we talked about in our signal chat, they're just not there yet. But, but I do like actually want a better gaming setup, because right now I'm on the Series S and it doesn't make sense to me to upgrade to a newer Xbox, right.

Cristian:

And as much as I meme about cloud gaming, because Gverse not always really good nowadays, there are just some games that don't run there. Like if I wanted to get into Final Fantasy 14, I just can't, right. And more importantly, paying for Game Pass and GeForce Now is and PC Game Pass is really good now. Like PC Game Pass is starting to get really good.

Sadiq:

Yeah. I mean, p I'm telling you, PC gaming is in a really good place despite hardware prices being kinda kinda questionable. But it isn't a really I

Cristian:

mean, listen. I I I come from Maclad. I'm looking at this $1,200 Jeff Jeff is that for risk? I can't speak. Laptop?

Cristian:

And it has 16 gigs of RAM and a terabyte hard drive. That's unheard of in this part of of town.

Sadiq:

That's true. Yeah. Yeah. That's, Yeah. Welcome to the world of PCs, I suppose.

Sadiq:

We will I I I I I have a few books to recommend. I think we'll just end it off, sort of there. I'll I'll do a quick I don't wanna lengthen this podcast any longer, but, I have to I have I have 4 books I read this past month. Only 3 of them I would really recommend. I read.

Sadiq:

The first one, translation state by Ann Lecky. I did not really like this one. This is probably the first book this year I did not enjoy reading all the way through. I felt it kinda dragged on. The concept was not executed well.

Sadiq:

But if you like Ann Leckie, if you've read Ann Leckie's other other sort of books, sci fi, then you might enjoy this one. I also read 3 other sort of non fiction titles this month. It's been a theme of getting getting books from the library and and reading non fiction. Between the World and Me by Ta Nehisi Coates, which is a nice short sort of it's very it's it's hard to describe the book. I don't know how else you describe it.

Sadiq:

It's like a letter. It's really in the form of a letter to his son, and it's it's it's it's really worth worth a read. Hood Feminism by, Mikki Kendall, also also extremely good. And then The Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon, which is an older text that's from 19 60, but still if you're a leftist, you should probably read that one. So that's all I'm gonna say on those.

Sadiq:

Let's wrap up. We can find the show notes, on voxels.fm. You can find me on mastodon@packetkit@pinforward.social. Add on my website, sodicsafe.com. And Christian, where do people find you on the Internet?

Cristian:

You can find me posting hot takes about, web apps actually. Web apps on, atloficarrots@mstdn.plus. You can find me on website, choose find out website.

Sadiq:

Yeah. Alright. With that, goodbye. Bye.