Waypoint Radio

God. We. So... So here's the thing. We. Hrm. Incredibly deep breath.When we first discussed doing this new end of year format, one of the things we liked about the focus on podcast discussions was that they would be a tight, focused way to critically dig into our favorites while still keeping the discursive flexibility of conversation between friends. The plan was for each of these to be between 30 minutes and an hour long, regardless of if we were doing an episode on a single game or one on our respective top 10 lists.Natalie and I went for nearly three hours. Look.On the plus side: This means that we had ample time to dive into everything we wanted to talk about but didn't have the chance to yet this year. We talk Red Dead Redemption 2, the critical apparatus of the game's industry, and the terrible power of polish. We talk anime gacha games and the pull of comfort play. We talk about giant robots, queer bodies, and utopian ontologies. And, uh, we spent the final 45 minutes or

Don't you just the feeling of the sand beneath your feet and that lovely music made by the jingle of gold doubloons in your pockets? The roll of a great ship under your boots, and the sound of your crew's heels a-clicking as they dance a reel on the topdeck? But the call of the ​Sea of Thieves is unrelenting and like those skeleton crews of pirates long dead, your fate is a peripatetic existence to rival that of clever Odysseus. You'll long to point your toes for home, but you'd best stay ​en pointe ​because you never know when you'll have cross swords with another pirate or struggle against the tentacles of giant kraken. How could someone, hearing all of this, just kick back and say there's "not enough to do", or that ​Sea of Thieves ​was more a proof of concept than a full game? Let this crew of salty sea dogs, featuring Natalie, Austin, and Rob, discuss their unexpected love for ​Sea of Thieves ​with the Pirate Queen herself, Danika Harrod, in whose honor this episode description was composed.  S

Spoilers abound, including spoilers for Undertale and Deltarune! You've been warned!In today's 2018 wrap-up extravaganza, I had the pleasure of chatting with Cado about our personal top ten lists. We had plenty of solid overlap: Into the Breach, Life is Strange 2 (Episode 1), and Donut County all made appearances on both of our picks, as well as two games we each need to play (Dandara and The Return of Obra Dinn).Plus, we had fun being extremely on our respective bullshit, with my obsession for immersive sims and weird puzzle games/platformers and Cado's affinity for fighting games and Destiny. It's an all-out love fest for the games that made 2018 a little bit better.Discussed: Into the Breach, Life is Strange 2 (episode 1), Donut County, Destiny 2: Forsaken, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, All Our Asias, Dandara, Iconoclasts, Deltarune, Return of the Obra Dinn, BattleTech, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Monster Hunter: World, Hollow Knight, Prey: Mooncrash, Hitman 2, Minit, Assemblance: Ove

The end of the year is nearly here—but it ain’t here yet. Even though we’ve basically figured out our game of the year lists and recorded dozens of hours of podcasts looking back on 2018, we managed to sneak in ooooooooone last podcast with Austin, Natalie, Patrick, Rob, and Danielle to talk about a bunch of games (Battlefield V! Gris! Below!) and take a few of your questions.Discussed: Battlefield V, Gris, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Below  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Yes, Hollow Knight was released in 2017. No, Waypoint doesn’t care. It wasn’t until Hollow Knight arrived on Switch earlier this year that Patrick, Austin, and Natalie fell head over insect heels (do insects have heels?) for a game that captured our attention and imagination. Is it any surprise, given the way games like Dark Souls were invoked when talking about Hollow Knight? But the Dark Souls comparison, while apt and important, sells a terrific and ambitious game short, and that’s where this conversation comes in, a chance to spend a long time remembering our terrifying adventures in the deepnest, a deep love for the respectful stag, and so much more.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Austin, Cado, and Rob nerd out over their shared love of BattleTech. With a discussion grounded in their own individual relationships and background to the franchise, the three MechWarriors revisit past glories, great moments, and consider the game's evolution over the course of the year.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Few could have predicted a game about angsty teenagers would not only be good, but arguably an all-time classic. But lots of people, including lots at Waypoint, fell in love with Max Caulfield and Chloe Price during the first season of Life Is Strange. (In our canon, they kissed.) Life is Strange’s second season shifts the focus from Max and Chloe, reframing its themes of isolation and identity around an immigrant family in Seattle caught up in some serious shit. Only the first episode has been released, alongside an emotional prequel called The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, but it’s already captured the imaginations of Patrick, Cado, and Danielle.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nobody at Waypoint was a Monster Hunter fan before Capcom dropped Monster Hunter: World at the start of this year, but for a feverish few weeks in January, everyone was hunting Anjanaths like our lives depended on it. January was a long time ago, but it didn’t take long for Austin, Natalie, and Patrick to remember how the long-running series finally clicked for them. We remember what worked—the nightmarish sense of scale, how weapons became critical to player identity, the deep satisfaction from connecting a well-timed hit—and what left us wanting—the endless grind, the unexplained systems, the uncomfortable colonization themes—and hoping Capcom finds way to address them in the game’s inevitable sequel.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

​The concept of game cloning is about as old as games themselves, but there's new, tricky territory to cover here in 2018. Inspired by a few tweets and a GI.biz article profiling Voodoo—the mobile publisher behind Hole.io, a game that sure takes "inspiration" from indie darling Donut County—we discussed the situation this week on Waypoint Radio. Join Patrick, Natalie, Rob, and Danielle as they look at the complications that separate genre and mechanical inspiration, the ethics of farming game ideas with a big checkbook, and the fear that this could have a chilling effect on the spirit of sharing and creativity in the indie space.Discussed: Hole.io, Donut County, Threes, 2048.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Waypoint gang has to work through their complicated feelings about the Slate Political Gabfest and, in particular, the worldview they bring to their work as expressed by their recent episodes on the passing of George H.W. Bush and the assault allegations against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Is there a point where centrist punditry literally becomes one with parodies about it? Is the technical language of expertise more about gatekeeping and limiting political imagination than about describing and explaining the world around us? Finally, in our second segment, Rob has been watching the latest season of ​Hard Knocks ​and finds a fascinating portrait of a doomed coaching regime planning for a future that will have no room for it. Austin explains what a Herb is. Both topics center on Hue Jackson and the waning days of his tenure at the NFL's worst team.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

December is a big month for a lot of reasons. It’s only a few weeks until we get a few days off, and reset for the new year. The Chicago Bears are playing meaningful football for the first time in nearly a decade. And we’re also feverishly trying to play as many video games as possible, so we can figure out what our game of the year lists are. The problem? A bunch of last-minute games we didn't expect to like so much are forcing Austin, Rob, Natalie, Patrick, and Cado to throw up their hands and totally rethink their list. Who will be sacrificed in pursuit of a pure top 10 list?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On Monday we made our predictions: At this year's Game Awards, we'd finally see the new Avengers game, we'd get a 15-30 second trailer for a new Dragon Age game with Solas voice over, and we'd probably be more bored than entertained by the proceedings. Were we right? Well... Not exactly, yup, and, shockingly, not at all, in that order.Austin, Natalie, Rob, and Patrick talk through the highlights of the show (the Sonicfox, ​Dead Cells​, and Celeste ​wins; a new Obsidian RPG; Persona 5's Joker joining Smash Ultimate) and the occasional missteps (skipping through some key awards, the failure of the "big 3" to announce anything collaborative despite being on stage together). Plus, Austin offers up some early Ashen impressions, the crew debates the likely outcome of 2Milly's lawsuit against Epic Games, and, uh, Natalie has some thoughts ​about the Dread Wolf​Discussed: Fortnite, Epic Games Store, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Far Cry New Dawn, Hades, The Outer Worlds, Ashen, Dragon Age, That Egg Fuck Solas, The Pathless,

On a slightly out-of-control episode of Waypoints, Rob has been watching ​Ordeal by Innocence​ ​and enjoying a fresh take on a classic mystery genre: Which posh asshole is murdering other rich dirtbags on an English country estate? Meanwhile, Patrick is working through his feelings about a new parenting trend: Parents who eat lunch at school​ with their kids. And finally, Austin has everyone listen to the latest season of More Perfect​, a Radiolab podcast about the US Constitution. Dismay gives way to anger as we discuss the understanding of law, politics, and power that informs the podcast, and why it feels like such a poor answer to this moment in American political life.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As the days pass on and the weather gets colder (then warmer, then colder again), we're finally leaving beyond the rush of big AAA fall games. Sure, we still found time to chat about new releases like ​Just Cause 4​, ​BattleTech: Flashpoint​, and ​(more) ​Darksiders 3​, but under this bright December sun, our focus has shifted: Today, we talk about video game industry news and rumors.Will we see Dragon Age at the Game Awards? What does Sony's absence from E3 mean for their third party partners? How would you make your dream ​Avengers ​game? And hey, what the hell is Obsidian Studios working on?​ Listen in for our thoughts!Discussed: ​Just Cause 4, Darksiders 3, THQ Nordic, Carmegeddon, Get in the Car Loser, BattleTech: Flashpoint, Broken Reality, Dropsy, Hypnospace Outlaw, Hitman 2, The Avengers, Dragon Age, Immersive Sims  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Join Danielle as she interviews Ark from New York Excelsior, our local Overwatch League team! NYXL is in town this weekend to meet fans and play a few exhibition games, and ArK stopped by Lobby 1 to chat about his experiences visiting NYC, his past in Nursing, and how that ties in to being a Mercy main. You can find ArK @Arkyjun on twitter, and the rest of the New York Excelsior team @NYXL.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Content warning: discussion of bodies (especially women's bodies) and ideal beauty, and references to stalking and sexual assault in 80s movies.When you look at Soulcalibur's Ivy Valentine, plenty of things may come to mind. She's a tall, dominating (in many senses) fighting game character with an exaggerated pin-up figure and a whip, and she's the subject of Kotaku editor Maddy Myers evolving feelings in a recent piece entitled The Inexplicable Sexiness Of Ivy Valentine. In this episode of Waypoint Radio, Danielle, Patrick and Rob gather to talk about the piece, sexualized ladies in games, depictions of desirable bodies in games and movies, and what it means to reclaim a character for your own, whether they were intended for your demographic or not.Then we take a dip into the question bucket and ponder the need to "go back!" to previous iconic locations in games.Discussed: Soul Calibur series, Dishonored, Say Anything, Blade Runner  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Austin introduces the gang to ​Evangelion​ with the first two episodes, and places the series' in the broader context of mecha anime the preceded it. Why is ​Evangelion ​so much more explicitly horrifying than most Gundam shows, despite sharing their anti-war politics? And how about that penguin, huh? Danielle has also been watching SB Nation's video series on the history of MMA, "​Fighting in the Age of Loneliness" from Jon Bois and Chapo Trap House's Felix Biederman. An often riveting history of sports and martial arts, the series also attempts to put them in context of the political and cultural currents that flowed around them, to more mixed success. But first, Rob has been fascinated by the story of a tiny little burger joint that was destroyed by a rave review... only to learn just before recording that a far more familiar and ugly story of abuse was lurking under the surface the whole time.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The First Purge is about the first purge, but it’s not actually the first Purge movie. It’s the fourth Purge movie, but set during the first purge in the Purge universe. Still following? No matter, Be Good and Rewatch It is here to help. Writer/director James DeMonaco, who helmed the past three movies, only worked on the script for The First Purge, with Gerard McMurray (Burning Sands) stepping in—a refreshing shift the franchise has badly needed. As we close out our discussion of the Purge series, Austin, Patrick, Rob, Danielle, and Natalie gather to break down a franchise that surprised, delighted, and disappointed us.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

CW: Discussion of Self Harm, Homophobia, and Transphobia during discussion of "The Missing" at 57-58 minutes in, to around 1:18:00 (time varies with ads, When you hear Patrick start talking about staying home instead of going out bowling you can skip 22 minutes and you will skip this entire section)It was a long weekend in the US, so the Waypoint Crew has come back with plenty of games to chew on. Patrick has the less-than-thrilling Darksiders III, FromSoft's new VR game Déraciné​, and Swery's queer-themed platformer The Missing to discuss, as does Austin. ​Austin finally beat Battletech, but he's certainly not done with the game. And Danielle has a delightful Frog Detective game and some hands-on time in Hitman 2 to bring to the table.Plus, there's a lot of chatter regarding "sticky" games and smooth ones you won't want to miss, unless you're about to hit your lunch break.Discussed: Darksiders III, Déraciné, The Haunted Island: A Frog Detective Game, Battletech, The Missing, Hitman 2, Golf Peaks​  

This week's Waypoints has us returning to horror from a new angle. First, we consider the domestic horror of ​Channel Zero: The Dream Door ​and what it has to say about the baggage we all carry, and how the past's survival tactics can become deadly as they follow us through life. Then we take a look at ​The Ballad of Black Tom ​by Victor LaValle, which reimagines a famously bigoted Lovecraft story through the eyes of a young black man. How do the horrors that tormented Lovecraft—the vast indifference of creation, the limits of science and reason—change when they're juxtaposed against the daily life of a Harlem hustler and the pervasive cruelty of the society he inhabits?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.