GTA V’s Ned Luke reveals his go-to gaming and streaming gear

If you hop on GTA Online proper now, you would possibly run into Ned Luke on the streets of Los Santos. Not simply Michael De Santa, the ex-con dad he portrayed within the sport, however precise Ned Luke, the actor, within the pixelated flesh as his personal participant character. Mind your step, by the way in which: He hasn’t quite mastered the Oppressor MK II but.

It’s been greater than a decade since Luke, 67, sealed his place in gaming mythology as a Grand Theft Auto V protagonist, and on this period of his profession, he is launched into a aspect quest of kinds: streaming to an viewers of over 3.7 million throughout TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch. He primarily performs GTA Online, the multiplayer portion of Rockstar Games’ bestseller, although he branches out to different well-liked AAA titles every so often. His Uncharted 4 playthrough featured his good buddy Nolan North, the actor who performed Nathan Drake within the Naughty Dog sequence.

Credit: Zooey Liao / Mashable composite; Asus / Ned Luke

Luke sees streaming as a approach to salute and join together with his longtime followers, whom he speaks of with deep gratitude. “I adore my fans, I really do,” he advised me over a video name final fall. “I appreciate ’em because I believe that the fans are the game. If you don’t have the fans, you’ve got nothing.”

For lots of them, Luke’s broadcasts and stream spotlight reels evoke a nostalgic thrill. There’s one thing delightfully meta about seeing the star of your favourite sport play that very sport. “You made my childhood man, and I love to see that you are still involved in this great journey that Gta 5 has been,” wrote one YouTube commenter. “keep it up as always boss[.]”

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Luke would not contemplate himself a lifelong gamer, as he spent most of his youth taking part in sports activities and using horses, although he recalled taking part in Atari’s Pong as a sophomore in highschool. He lastly caught the gaming bug amid the discharge of the primary PlayStation and Xbox consoles: “I got very into it.”

He had performed each prior GTA sport by the point he landed the position of Michael de Santa in 2013’s GTA V, a gig he was useless set on reserving as quickly as he learn the audition materials.

PC gaming and streaming are a lot newer hobbies for Luke. He bought his first gaming PC in 2021 after recovering from a life-threatening bout of COVID pneumonia — a “screw you, I’m still alive” form of factor — and his son planted the thought of streaming in his head. Luke figured he might leverage the sizable social media following that Michael had constructed him over time. The solely drawback: He did not know use any of his gear.

It wasn’t till 2023 that Luke determined to get his act collectively and stream a whole playthrough of GTA V in honor of its tenth anniversary. He wound up shopping for a completely new PC from his native Micro Center for the event — his first construct was already outdated, he mentioned — and he invited two of the shop’s workers over to indicate him the way it labored.

Those first 5 streams have been “rough,” Luke remembered. First he could not determine get his full TikTok streams on YouTube. Then his web began getting unusably laggy. (He wound up working a large ethernet cable out to his “barn,” the shed-studio that homes his streaming setup and DIY voice booth.) But he caught with it. Eventually, Luke mentioned, “I learned stuff that I never learned before, that I didn’t know, and it [streaming] just took off.”

Luke likes to joke that his boomer standing makes him technically inept, however few boomers I do know have such elaborate streaming and gaming setups. He has a bonus in being a model companion for Asus since late 2024, a gig that has given him intensive entry to the corporate’s Republic of Gamers {hardware} — and enabled a continual case of upgrade-itis. [Editor’s note: Asus is not a sponsor of this story.] Still, Luke may be very choosy in regards to the merchandise he plugs and performs on.

“I don’t attach my name to something that’s not good,” he mentioned. “Not because I’m like, ‘Oh, well, you’re so righteous.’ … If somebody buys something on my recommendation, I don’t want them going, ‘This thing sucks.'”

Here’s a rundown of all of the PC gaming gear, streaming gear, and content material creation necessities which have managed to earn Luke’s five-star seal of approval.

A soon-to-be-upgraded gaming desktop

Luke’s present rig encompasses a ROG Crosshair X870E Hero motherboard with an Intel Core i9 CPU, Nvidia’s RTX 4090 GPU, 64GB of reminiscence, and 4 terabytes of storage. He plans to improve it earlier than Grand Theft Auto IV comes out this November (barring any extra delays). “I would imagine that the gameplay is gonna be off the charts,” he mentioned. “I’ve got to have a 5090 [GPU] for that.” He’s mulling the thought of constructing a brand new PC from scratch on a livestream, Henry Cavill-style.

“I think fans would love to see me build a computer, because I’m a boomer, and I don’t know what I’m doing, and I know I’d probably blow it up at least three or four times,” he joked.

A beefy PlayStation console

Luke switches from his PC to his PlayStation 5 Pro every time hackers and modders mess with him in GTA Online. (They’re a lot rarer on console.) It’s the one system that is taken up everlasting residence in his barn, however he has numerous others stashed in a devoted sport room in his home. It’s a museum-worthy assortment — every part from the unique PlayStation to the Nintendo Game Boy and the Xbox 360. One of the one gaming consoles he would not presently personal is a Wii: “I got rid of the Wii when one of the [controllers] flew through the wall,” he mentioned.

Luke would not imagine in console loyalties (“You can’t play Mario Kart on the PS5, right?”) however he’ll in all probability all the time grasp onto his PS2. That’s what he nonetheless makes use of to play 2001’s SSX Tricky, his favourite online game of all time.

A trio of OLED gaming screens

Luke’s setup is fronted by three 240Hz 4K OLED screens from the esports-tier ROG Swift line. He performs on a 32-inch mannequin within the center — a “beast,” he mentioned — which is flanked by two 27-inch models displaying a collection of livestreaming software program.

Luke has his right-side monitor oriented in portrait mode. He places his Twitch chat on the highest half of it (“I need to be able to see stuff big”). Below that, he runs the Camera Hub app for his Elgato webcam (“I just like looking at myself”). The different 27-inch monitor to his left stays in panorama mode. He makes use of it to drag up OBS Studio, a livestreaming app that he integrates with Restream, a platform that lets him concurrently broadcast on Twitch, TikTok, and YouTube. He additionally places his precise feeds onscreen to verify they’re working.

A responsive professional controller

Luke has a ROG Harpe Ace Extreme gaming mouse and a ROG Azoth Extreme keyboard in his possession, however he prefers taking part in with a controller. He just lately picked up a ROG Raikiri II to make use of together with his PC and Xbox. It has a 1,000Hz polling charge so it is “unbelievably fast,” he mentioned.

A light-weight gaming headset

When it involves headsets, Luke will typically use “whatever is laying around” (or no matter he remembers to cost). Sometimes that is a Razer headset, generally it is a Turtle Beach headset, however recently, it is often the ROG Delta II. He simply upgraded to it from the ROG Delta S; it has a for much longer battery life, a removable mic, and RGB lighting.

Ever coveting the most recent and biggest, Luke plans on including Asus’ new audiophile-oriented ROG Kitharas to his roster quickly.

A preferred creator mic

Luke mentioned he makes use of a “crazy” high-end Lauten mic for his voice sales space, which was really useful to him by a neighbor’s son who works for a significant music retailer. But for streaming, he makes use of considered one of Logitech’s “really good” Blue Yeti mics. His is the usual plug-and-play USB mannequin with 4 pickup patterns.

A supercharged gaming pill

Luke would not cease gaming when he is touring, and he counts his ROG Flow Z13 as a must-pack for journeys to comedian cons and fan expos. (He as soon as pulled an all-nighter in a Lithuanian resort room taking part in MLB: The Show on it.) The removable gaming pill is “without question” essentially the most beloved gadget he owns, he mentioned. “I take it on the road with me … and just ball out.”

Luke owns the new special-edition Flow Z13 that Asus designed in partnership with Kojima Productions, which has gold accents, a high-end AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, and a hulking 128GB of RAM. It’s “an animal,” he mentioned. Last yr’s standard black version is on the market with the identical specs.

Luke has mulled the thought of getting a ROG XG Mobile graphics dock with an RTX 5090 GPU to pair with the Flow Z13, nevertheless it’s caught on his wishlist for now. It’s partly as a result of he finds the machine highly effective sufficient by itself, nevertheless it’s additionally as a result of he is working out of room on his desk, he mentioned.

A extra compact cell gaming setup

Luke performs on a ROG Phone 9 Pro throughout flights and different on-the-go gaming situations. He pairs it with an ROG Tessen cell controller and the ROG AeroActive Cooler X Pro, a cooling accent with a built-in subwoofer that hooks on the again of the cellphone. Luke really owns two AeroActive Cooler X Pros, so he has a spare to stash in his Jeep — that means, he is bought one available when he goes out on his boat. Yes, Michael finally got his boat back.

The snazzy new ROG Xbox Ally handhelds

Asus and Microsoft’s new handheld gaming consoles are two of the newer additions to Luke’s arsenal. “They are just monsters,” he mentioned. “It really is like having an Xbox in your hands.” He finds them extra comfy to make use of than different handhelds as a result of they’ve console-style controller grips, “so my boomer hands don’t get tired playing on it.”

A drone for capturing unboxing movies

Luke likes to document unboxing movies every time he will get a brand new gadget, however “I don’t think they’re normal unboxings,” he mentioned. Others he is watched are fundamental package-opening clips with bland AI voiceovers, however “I attempt to make stories once I do them,” he defined. He picked up a Snapdragon P40 Lite drone to seize cool overhead pictures and out of doors footage.

An iPhone for recording Cameos

Luke is on Cameo, an app that lets customers fee movies from celebrities and influencers. He information his on his iPhone 16 Pro.

What makes a very good Cameo video? For Luke, it is “one that is not bullshit. … It’s organic.” He likes doing his movies off-the-cuff reasonably than scripting them, and he often riffs on a few of Michael’s strains from GTA V, figuring out that followers wish to see him in character. He encourages birthday celebrants to hit up the Vanilla Unicorn, one of many sport’s fictional strip golf equipment, and ends most movies with a plea to “stop firing rockets at my house!“

Luke particularly enjoys Cameo requests that ask him to roast somebody. “I don’t really have much of a filter unless I look at the age [of the recipient],” he mentioned. He solely has two guidelines for making Cameos: no promotions, and no movies for teenagers youthful than 12 or 13.

Discord

Luke runs a Discord server that is open for followers to hitch. Sometimes, he pops in after livestreams for impromptu Q&As. “It’s a very safe place for these guys to go and hang out and make friends,” he mentioned, including that its members hail from world wide. “It’s kind of cool that way.”

Luke is amazed by GTA V‘s persevering with impression on a lot of its playerbase. At many of the comedian cons he attends, at the very least one fan will get emotional once they meet, he mentioned. Some have advised him he is saved their lives.

“I was like, ‘You gave me a little too much credit,'” Luke mentioned. Still, he acknowledges his medium’s skill to transport players to places beyond reality, pulling them out of doubtless darkish locations. “That’s what video games are, you know?” he mentioned. “It’s a place where you can go and escape.”