Speaker 1: All ze media, hell, and welcome to this week's Better
Speaker 1: Offlying Monologue. I'm your host ed zytron. What and let's
Speaker 1: start with one point. Fuck Nintendo. Back in February, Nintendo
Speaker 1: said that shortages of the Nintendo Switch will not be
Speaker 1: a problem and came up with a genius to quote
Speaker 1: motiple outlets means of keeping scalpus from buying them all
Speaker 1: by requiring those buying on Nintendo dot Com to have
Speaker 1: at least twelve months of Nintendo Online memberships as well
Speaker 1: as fifty combined hours of Nintendo Switch gameplay. Two weeks
Speaker 1: before launched, Nintendo America boss Doug Bowser and yes that
Speaker 1: is his name, said that the company believed it would
Speaker 1: have enough units to meet consumer demand throughout the holidays.
Speaker 1: Guess what, They didn't make enough, and now the Nintendo
Speaker 1: Switch too is sold out everywhere, with scalpus charging hundreds
Speaker 1: of dollars extra on eBay. If you're someone who's gonna
Speaker 1: email saying you are easily able to buy one, you're
Speaker 1: an exception to the rule and you fucking know it.
Speaker 1: Fuck Nintendo. They do this shit every time, creating artificial
Speaker 1: scarcity and then blaming on unanticipated demand that they know
Speaker 1: will be there. They do this every single time. They
Speaker 1: did it back with the fucking Wei. It happens every
Speaker 1: time I despise this company. They have this weird, fucked
Speaker 1: up relationship with consumers where they turn them into pay pigs,
Speaker 1: where it's just like, Hey, we're gonna re We're gonna
Speaker 1: do the new Zelda game you want? You want to
Speaker 1: do that dance for me, you little piglert. And I
Speaker 1: say this to someone who's bought a Nintendo Switch. Ah No,
Speaker 1: I'm just of the companies I'm most tired of kind
Speaker 1: of Nintendo's up there. While they may have their nice ecosystem, Wait,
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about a Nintendo here. I have a
Speaker 1: better suggestion, a much better suggestion, by a portable gaming
Speaker 1: PC instead. Since the Steam Deck launched in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: you've been able to play a remarkable amount of very
Speaker 1: very good games like Eldon Ring and boarders Gate three
Speaker 1: with better graphics. No need to have cash to a
Speaker 1: company that fucking lies to you every time they launch
Speaker 1: a console. There's the Steam Deck and it's o led
Speaker 1: screened upgrade. Pick. There's the MSI cl or seven. Lenova's
Speaker 1: leadion go and one I actually got sent by Aesus recently.
Speaker 1: They're rog Alix, and I really like it. One thing, though,
Speaker 1: there is a downside other than in the case of
Speaker 1: the Steam Deck, and it's Windows. Windows eleven is really
Speaker 1: really funky with these handhelds. I'm gonna do a far
Speaker 1: more developed episode than the rog Alix and others when
Speaker 1: I've spent more time with it. But Windows really does
Speaker 1: not like the handheld form factor, and Microsoft has clearly
Speaker 1: not made much of an effort to make sure that
Speaker 1: probably the most interesting form factor in PC gaming, if
Speaker 1: not gadgets, in years, actually fucking works now. The reason
Speaker 1: I've kind of said the steam Deck is different is
Speaker 1: they use their own operating system, steam OS, which is
Speaker 1: a Linux based system that really works very well except
Speaker 1: for when it comes to anti cheap measures, but that's
Speaker 1: just something you'll have to deal with. I know others
Speaker 1: are considering doing Steam Os integrations. I really hope so,
Speaker 1: because I love steam Os. It's really good. And the
Speaker 1: reason I don't play my steam Deck that much is because,
Speaker 1: like I got like, I just don't like it doesn't
Speaker 1: feel good in my hands. Okay, a lot of these
Speaker 1: things are going to be like that for you. It's
Speaker 1: why later on I suggest you don't and play with one.
Speaker 1: But across the board there's another challenge. There's a battery
Speaker 1: life problem two to eight hours allegedly, but if I'm honest,
Speaker 1: running a rock Alix at full tilt tobo mode is
Speaker 1: going to drain the battery pretty quickly. I haven't done
Speaker 1: official battery tests. I was still able to play for
Speaker 1: a couple of hours. It was good. I was playing
Speaker 1: stuff on full tilt too. But this is one case
Speaker 1: where I'm fully willing to say we're only a few
Speaker 1: years in battery tech, and chips will get smaller and
Speaker 1: these things will last longer. Right now, they fit nicely
Speaker 1: in the hand, but they're a touch heavy and get
Speaker 1: a little harm which is gannab seleviy for PC gaming.
Speaker 1: Either way. While I've played with a few of these handhelds,
Speaker 1: the Steam Deck and rock Alix are the ones I've
Speaker 1: had the most time with, and Thesis is really great.
Speaker 1: It can't really run Doom the Dark Ages very well.
Speaker 1: It looks like a PS four PS three version. It's
Speaker 1: been great for playing Madden twenty five, Redacted Hades two,
Speaker 1: the new Oblivion Reymaster, and a bunch of emulation stuff.
Speaker 1: Both the steam Deck and the rock Alix also use
Speaker 1: power delivery, which is in a lot of modern charges,
Speaker 1: though I will add the rog Alix wanted to charge
Speaker 1: at ninety once when I plugged in the other day.
Speaker 1: Kind of weird, but I also was playing something a
Speaker 1: little bit taxing on it. These things are also not cheap,
Speaker 1: and while the steam Deck is three hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: nine dollars, it's getting on a bit, and the more
Speaker 1: recent yet year old rock Alix is eight hundred bucks,
Speaker 1: though we should add it's more powerful and has one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty eight hurt screen. I also really like it,
Speaker 1: like I've just been I've been playing with a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know on this show I'm constantly bitching about stuff
Speaker 1: such as like one minute ago, But I really do
Speaker 1: like the rock Alix. The steam Deck is just too
Speaker 1: chunky for me. Too chunky, oh oh if I've got
Speaker 1: small hands, but for my hands they're kind of chubby,
Speaker 1: just like the rog Alix. More and I will say,
Speaker 1: there are other options, two more powerful options, and look,
Speaker 1: the GPD Win four it is like a thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: It's too much. It doesn't do enough it's not worth
Speaker 1: your money. The rock Alix R eight hundred bucks. I
Speaker 1: actually really like I think you could. You will be
Speaker 1: using this thing for years and you'll be very happy
Speaker 1: with them, and you could probably plug it into a
Speaker 1: battery when you're charging as well. So going and I'll
Speaker 1: say this segment is probably the most exciting part of
Speaker 1: the tech industry for me at the moment, and it's
Speaker 1: also the way I do most of my gaming. These
Speaker 1: consoles work really well. Yeah they're a little bulky right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah they got heating things, but there have been significant
Speaker 1: leaps between generations as far as power and battery life goes.
Speaker 1: I really hope we see more companies get into this space,
Speaker 1: and as they do, I'll probably end up playing with
Speaker 1: their versions too. I want to do a bigger episode
Speaker 1: on handheld PC gaming. I've not done my rounds with
Speaker 1: all of them yet, but if you somehow INPRF for
Speaker 1: one of these things, email me easy at better Offline
Speaker 1: dot com. And I'm looking forward to on a larger
Speaker 1: level doing more gaming stuff. Gamers can be a little
Speaker 1: bit angry, and I'm sure someone is gonna hear me
Speaker 1: say fuck Nintendo and get really upset, But you know
Speaker 1: what gaming industry needs a look at too, But there
Speaker 1: are really positive things. PC gaming rocks right now. There
Speaker 1: are tons of fun games you can play, but also
Speaker 1: these handheld gaming there's years of games that work on
Speaker 1: them really really well. I mean, I played madd in
Speaker 1: twenty five because it's like ASMR for me, but it's nice,
Speaker 1: it works really well. I love these things and I
Speaker 1: think you will too, So I really recommend if you can.
Speaker 1: I think like Best Buy has a lot of them,
Speaker 1: go and play with them, pick them up, fill them
Speaker 1: in your hands. It's a very personal choice. And yeah,
Speaker 1: buy that instead of a Nintendo Switch too. You don't
Speaker 1: need to play the latest version of Mario kar Mariocar
Speaker 1: has been the same goddamn game for years. You know it,
Speaker 1: and so do I. Anyway, that's going to get me
Speaker 1: in trouble too. But give these things a go, and yeah,
Speaker 1: here you go. A semi positive monologue view for Bloody Once.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.