Waypoint Radio

Monster Hunter: World is a very good game, but as Austin pointed out in his review last week, it’s a game that “offers intricate environments, lively creatures, kinetic combat... and a dash of colonialist fantasy." Austin, Patrick, and Rob talk about what to do with complicated (and often contradictory) feelings regarding a video game you’re enjoying, while checking in on Rob’s attempts to survive the zombie hordes in the strategy game We Are Billions.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This new world offers intricate environments, lively creatures, kinetic combat... and a dash of colonialist fantasy. Waypoint's Austin Walker shares his thoughts. You can read (and watch!) the full review at https://tinyurl.com/waypointmonhun  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

​On Waypoint's day off last week, a series of investigations into Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream broke out of France, outlining allegations of a deeply toxic studio culture. (There are good write-ups on both Kotaku​ and Eurogamer​.) Austin, Danielle, Rob, and Patrick consider this means for one of 2018's more high-profile games, and what we're supposed to with this information when eventually playing Detroit: Become Human. Elsewhere, we discuss our time with The Red Strings Club, Celeste, and They Are Billions.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With Monster Hunter: World on the horizon, it seemed like the perfect time to discuss the reasons why some games—or game series—have proven tough for us to wrap our heads around. Sometimes, it’s design. Other times, it’s the community around the game. Austin, Danielle, and Patrick hopped on microphones to use Monster Hunter as a starting point for this larger question, which dragged in everything from Dark Souls to Darkest Dungeon. (The embargo is up on World next week. Stay tuned for more!).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We had a special treat this week at Waypoint HQ, with the whole team in town for meetings, streams, and this very podcast. So Patrick, Austin, Rob and Danielle talked about “forever” games, thanks to two pieces Patrick wrote this week, on a Mario Maker Creator who has spent close to 2000 hours playing his almost-impossible creation, and on a Die Hard Desert Golf fan who found the elusive ending to his favorite game. We chat about our very own “forever” games, from the endless appeal of immersive sims to the promise of near-infinite space in No Man’s Sky, and Patrick gets a very special surprise at the end!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Waypoint loves video games, which is why Austin, Rob, Danielle, and Patrick spend the first 20 minutes of this podcast talking about The Thing and the 80s anime Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Of course. Later, we discuss the defense-oriented brawler Way of the Passive Fist, re-visiting Breath of the Wild and Horizon: Zero Dawn through DLC, the good boys of Yakuza 0, and more.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With a few different Waypoint editors taking some time off this week, Danielle and Patrick are joined by one of our more regular writers, Cameron Kunzelman, to break down my piece arguing Assassin’s Creed should ditch its sci-fi trappings. Somehow, we end up talking about the Hellraiser movie that takes place in space, a bizarre D&D campaign called Spelljammers, and why we get hung up on the notion of “it’s good for a video game.”  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

2018 is here! At least, it should be. This podcast description was written in 2017, so if something happens between now and then, apologies. Maybe it was the alien alloys? In any case, before everyone returns to the office and begins formulating another year of hot takes, Austin, Rob, and Patrick returned to The Question Bucket. Yes, we still have questions from more than a year ago. No, we didn't get to all of them. Sorry.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There are so many games we've yet to finish from 2017, but in a few days, 2018 will be here. Though we've spent much of this week taking stock of the year that was, now's a chance to think about what we'll be playing and talking about in the months ahead. Austin, Danielle, Rob, and Patrick looked through the calendar and came up with four games we'll be hot taking in 2018. (Yes, we're aware one of the games we discussed, Psychonauts 2, has already been delayed out of 2018. Oops.)  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Everyone knows video games have to make money somehow, but the question over how games make money became one of the central arguments in 2017, as various big name publishers brought one of the most popular ways to monetize mobile and free-to-play games—loot boxes—into the mainstream. Now, governments around the world are looking into whether loot boxes should stick around. Austin, Rob, and Patrick got together to break down the past, present, and future of loot boxes.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Because there were so many games to love in 2017, there was a pretty good chance our individual top 10 lists were going to include games no one else featured. In an effort to give every possible game its due, Austin, Danielle, Rob, and Patrick decided to huddle around some microphones and propose and champion a game that came exclusively from one of our own lists.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One of the big reasons Waypoint exists was to create a space where it was not only accepted to talk about games and politics, but encouraged. That we stumbled into a year where politics dominated every conversation, sometimes to the point of exhaustion, only underscored our point. To take a closer look at the intersection of gaming and politics in 2017, Austin, Rob, Danielle, and Patrick gathered around their microphones.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There's no reason a game of the year list can't be filled with 15 or 20 games, but by constraining the list to only 10 games, you're forced into making interesting decisions about what you truly valued in the past year. Of course, that means leaving some games behind, especially in 2017! For today's podcast, Austin, Danielle, Rob, and myself picked one game that didn't make the list, and made the case for why it's great.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In-between preparing for next week's holiday break and organizing our game of the year lists, the Waypoint staff has been unable to shake this weird story from The New York Times that, seriously and soberly, suggests aliens are, uh, real?? With the rest of the Fake News mainstream media ignoring this extremely important story, it was time for Austin, Danielle, Rob, and Patrick to weigh in. Also, machine elves. MACHINE ELVES.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There are only a few more days before the Waypoint staff has to finalize their game of the year lists, which means everyone is hurrying through various games, trying to figure out if there's a game they missed (or forgot about). This prompts myself, Austin, Rob, and Danielle to talk about everything from the subtle genius of Resident Evil 7, characters being jerks in Night in the Woods, the bad opening hours of Gravity Rush 2, and more.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Few movie franchises inspire as many hot takes as Star Wars, and with the latest film dropping, you can already feel the Internet shaking. There are zero The Last Jedi spoilers in this podcast, but the movie's release prompted Patrick, Danielle, and Austin to consider why people so compelled to deliver their opinions ASAP, how hot takes relate to spoiler culture, and more.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A new trailer for Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Ready Player One dropped this weekend, which prompts Austin, myself, and Rob into a longer discussion about Ready Player One as a work, the kinds of films Spielberg is making these days, and more. We also dig into the new desert map in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, and why Rob is playing so much Dead Rising 3.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Earlier this week, the popular crowdfunding service Patreon announced some controversial changes to the way it handles processing payments, and basically nobody's happy about it? To wrap our heads around the rocky future of media and react to 2017's Keighleys, CNET editor editor at large (and frequent guest of Giant Bomb's Beastcast podcast) Jeff Bakalar joined Patrick, Rob, and Austin. We also spend way too much time speculating about a 30 second teaser for FromSoftware's new game.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

​Austin is playing the extremely long and anime Xenoblade Chronicles X. Danielle is finishing up Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. Patrick is working his way through the back half of The Evil Within 2. Rob? Rob's playing Dead Space. If you're wondering why Rob's game of the year list sounds like it came distinctly from 2008, you have your answer. Elsewhere, we turn to the mailbag to discuss conflicts between established games writers and YouTube culture, what genres we've had to leave behind as we got older, and more.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of Waypoint Radio Live, we're joined by none other than Scott Rogowsky from trivia app sensation, HQ.Austin and Danika talk to Scott about his beginnings in stand-up comedy, the transient bliss of HQ, grappling with new found fame, what exactly counts as cheating (no googling!), and the development of the HQ community.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.