The HotSpot - Episode 380

My favourite podcast about video games hard drives.

Every Friday ends with these gents. Great UPF replacement

I love hard drives!!

How have I never heard of this show? I've been a member for years! :( can we get a short talk about all the GB shows on the next GBombcast or GBeastcast? Much love!

For those of us out of the loop, why is UPF no longer a thing? Is it because they cannot be in the office?

@pctechnologist: Hotspot was a Gamespot podcast that most or all of these four were on when they were at Gamespot.

They brought it back as a result of the pandemic - maybe to take the place of UPF? It's been going (again) for a few months.

@ryasaur: I think it’s because it was impossible to do UPF before they started using Parsec. They restarted the hotspot way before that point and it seems very popular with it taking the UPF slot. This is just a theory though.

I think they just dont yet have a super reliable way to switch off between people, so it doesn't make sense to try to do a "multi game" show like UPF.

Jeflag can be frustrating to get over.

Just wondering why I keep hearing people say that it makes sense that the external nvme drive for Xbox Series S/X is so expensive because it is pcie 4.0 when it is only like half the speed of the new pcie 4.0 drives that are currently coming out and there are pcie 3.0 nvme drives that are the same speed and almost half the price?

My irrational and pointless complaint about the drives is that they don’t slide all the way in, flush with the console.

@pctechnologist: The first 360 or so episodes of the Hotspot were on Gamespot before Giant Bomb existed, they only revived it this year during lockdown.

I guess Brad really likes Prince

It isnt the object which you are attached to, it is the relationship with the object that is what you value

This week, we learn how sensory-memory association works!

This is quickly becoming my favorite Friday Podcast.

I think @brad needs to get a videogame poster that really speaks to him. Like Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, Dota 2, or Starcraft II.

I've met Wario64 in person.

You know what needs to get better with these consoles? Needing only as much free space as the size of the update. I don't know how common this is but every time I needed to get a Destiny update on my PS4 the console would tell me I didn't have enough space unless I had like 80gb of free space, which is the same amount of space as the entire Destiny 2 installation. It's unacceptable that if I want to keep my games updated I need that much free space on my drive at all times.

When they were talking about covering the console launches one thing does not make sense. People like Digital Foundry, Jeff Grubb at Venture Beat, even KindaFunny are getting consoles for preview/review coverage. Why wouldn't Giantbomb get preview/review consoles? They should have at least one so if they get their pre-ordered consoles does not really matter?

Cloud gaming like Xcloud, Stadia, and Luna are starting to interest me given that my PC doesn't really cut it for AAA games anymore and the new consoles are really pricey. Gaming hardware just keeps getting more expensive (RTX 30 series, oof) and so if I can get a decent way to play AAA graphical spectacles for cheaper then that's pretty enticing.

@larmer: I think this was specifically a ps4/pro issue

@dijidiji:

The 30 series cards are better value than the 20 series cards. The RRP is the same on release, but the 30 cards offer a much better upgrade for your money.

@scottieh: Jeff answered this question (off-site as usual unfortunately) and it’s a problem for them to have a single preview unit because then only one person at a time can use it and they have to pass it around between each other. It’s ideal if they have a few so they’re not bottlenecked by one person going through a game and three others waiting for their chance to play their respective titles for coverage. Although these days I don’t think it’s as much of an issue since GB has long since stopping chasing after day-one coverage for new releases. Still it’s important for a gaming website to have a few different units so during the Bombcast they can share experiences.

Yeah but prices have gone up a whole lot since my last build (GTX 970). Console prices have risen less so, the XSX is launching at AU$750 whereas I'm pretty sure the Xbox One was something like $600 (I forget because I got a huge discount at launch luckily enough) but that can be down to our bad currency conversion rate. Gaming is starting to feel like a luxury I can't really justify these days though, which sucks since I've been doing it since I was old enough to stick a floppy in a computer.

Vinny,

Esxi is a great bare metal hypervisor.

I would also recomend pfsense for your own router.

The way degenerative memory disorders usually work means Ratchet being a Lombax would eventually be the only thing Jeff remembers

Keep Hotspot going, been listening since the Gamespot days, so dope y'all decided to bring it back!

Is Wario64 the Q of the video game world?

Jeff being resigned/sad (or at least appearing to be) that nobody at his video game site put in the work to get new consoles is how I felt too. I know they have budgets and lives and kids and that it was a clusterfuck and everything but I just kept a window open with Wario 64 and got 2 preorders for both consoles. It wasn't that hard and I'm not in a position where the future of a website relies on it, you know?

Not really trying to throw any shade, I just want the site to thrive and it seems like that'll be trickier if most of the staff didn't get new consoles? No shade intended.

I think the other staff will be able to get at least one of the new consoles each before long. It's not like the launch window is packed with new games anyways so I think waiting isn't going to be a huge deal.

Wait. Wolfenstein 3 hasn’t been greenlit? Why?

They were talking as if there's no point in buying games when GamePass exists, but... Generally speaking, I'd rather pay for a game and have it forever than have to keep paying a subscription in order to play it. (Bit of an ironic statement, considering I play WoW, but anyways.) I'm not someone who plays every single new release, so it makes more sense for me to just pay for the game I want individually and then be able to play it indefinitely.