Danielle, Austin, Rob and Patrick took some time today to discuss their week of writing stories about the relationship between guns and games. We interviewed game developers who never shoot in games, an academic who studies the relationship between games and violence (and lack of strong correlation), and wrote and edited critical pieces on games as cultural objects, customizable trophies, and much, much more. We also discuss Canadian pizza, because, of course we do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...
Mar 23, 2018•1 hr 16 min
Finally, Austin and Danika have a chance to process Drake’s recent takeover of Twitch, while Danielle and Patrick scratch their heads. We talk through our early hours with the surprisingly delightful Sea of Thieves , and introduce a new segment at the end: recommendations from the group. You’ve been, uh, warned. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 21, 2018•1 hr 30 min
As people who play games, we often take the notion that games don’t correlate to real-life violence for granted. But what’s the science behind that statement? How did we get there? To learn more, I spoke with Villanova University professor of psychology Patrick Markey, co-author of the 2017 book Mortal Kombat: Why the War on Violent Video Games Is Wrong . Like most of the country, all of us at Waypoint spent the last month processing the horror of yet another school shooting, while simultaneousl...
Mar 19, 2018•35 min
Austin, Patrick, Rob and Danielle discuss the sad news that is the end of Toys R Us, the store that has always held a special place in our gaming childhoods. We also discuss recent news about Luigi's bulge. It's a very special Friday episode of Waypoint Radio! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 16, 2018•54 min
Sci-fi, Tarkovsky, gender politics, World War II, STALKER , centrism, subs vs. dubs... this Metro 2033 -focused episode of Waypoint 101 has it all! Join Austin, Danielle, and Rob for a in-depth and wide-ranging discussion of 4A Games' 2010 adaptation of Sergei Glukhovsky's 2005 post-apocalyptic novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 14, 2018•2 hr 4 min
Austin, Rob, Danielle, and Patrick are all about playing mecha tactics game Into the Breach lately, though some have caught the bug worse than others. Austin talks Far Cry 5, Patrick also played Florence, and Rob is all about the low-fi beauty of Command Ops 2. Then, we take a nice, refreshing dive into the question bucket. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 12, 2018•1 hr 14 min
Waypoint published a piece this week about a professor who’s cataloged more than 2,000 soda machines in video games, which got Danielle, Rob, and Patrick thinking about the different ways games choose to represent the most innocuous parts of real-life. It’s always handy to have an excuse to get very nostalgic about flushing toilets in Duke Nukem 3D. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 09, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 140
Austin, Danika, Patrick and Danielle recount their stories of weekend triumphs, fending off creatures in Hunt: Showdown, wrecking Anjanaths and dragons in Monster Hunter, playing BioShock again and eagerly awaiting Prey DLC. There's also some solid reality show talk and a shred of good advice (we hope!) for new writers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 05, 2018•1 hr 15 min
Patrick, Austin and Danielle ponder games that have crossed the thin red line from beloved to hated, and how to define where that line actually gets drawn, after all. It's a slightly quicker, but still meaty pod for a stormy Friday! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 02, 2018•40 min
Austin, Rob, Patrick and Danielle dig into the politics, performances, and problems of Marvel's latest film, Black Panther. During our spoiler-filled discussion, we cover everything from the disrobing of Michael B. Jordan to the frustrating (centrist?) answers the movie offers in response to some of its big questions. Wakanda forever? Wakanda forever. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 28, 2018•1 hr 7 min
The follow up to 'FTL' isn't the game you might have expected. But it's still a must play. Listen to Austin Walker read his review of the latest from Subset Games, and be sure to stick around for the conversation he and host Rob Zacny have afterwards! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 27, 2018•34 min
It's an especially monday Monday, but that didn't stop Patrick, Austin, and Danielle from discussing their latest adventures. Patrick's playing Moss, a very cute VR game about the adventures of a mouse named Quill. Austin is all about Into the Breach, a mecha strategy game from the FTL developers. And Danielle is all about Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, but with a few disclaimers (like the fact that Austin did contract work on it). Then they dip into a serious, forward-looking question bucket...
Feb 26, 2018•1 hr 26 min
Most games let you be a “good” person because that’s just how things usually go, but what if more games pushed players outside moral and ethical comfort zones? This week, Rob wrote about how games can uncomfortably reflect who we are as people, which Rob, Patrick, Austin, and Danielle used to more broadly discuss why games don’t ask more from players. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 23, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 136
Kingdom Come: Deliverance, an open world medieval RPG set during the Holy Roman Empire, launched earlier this week, and it's already an enormous hit. Waypoint hasn't covered the game yet, partially because we've struggled over how to over a game whose creative director has both publicly and forcefully supported GamerGate and made highly questionable statements about the game's "historical" accuracy regarding representing people of color. Maybe we shouldn't cover it all? On the podcast, Austin, P...
Feb 16, 2018•58 min
It's a rousing pod today as Austin, Rob, Patrick and Danielle talk about Monster Hunter, "theatrical" minigolf, Dynasty Warriors 9, Civilization 6, All our Asias, and the PS1 aesthetic, and enjoy a refreshing dip in the question bucket. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 12, 2018•1 hr 19 min
Things have been rough lately. The last couple of years have made it incredibly clear that aspects of American culture that many convinced themselves were latent or diminished were only lurking quietly in the background. We've also seen new forces mobilized, driven by fear and nihilism, to dehumanize others—especially those in the margins. So, uh, where do video games fit into this? Well, that's the question I was asked by the NYU Game Center, who invited me to give a guest lecture titled "Makin...
Feb 12, 2018•1 hr 36 min
Austin, Danika, Patrick and Danielle discuss a whole slew of interconnected stream celebrity issues, first, looking at Twitch and Mixer's new rules. We also look into the curious cases of Dr DisRespect and Logan Paul. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 09, 2018•1 hr 13 min
In today's episode of Waypoint Radio, Danika, Austin, Patrick and Danielle discuss Superbowl antics, Monster Hunter, and the excellent pixellated platformers we're playing—including Celeste and Dandara , a Metroid-y Soulslike—before shifting over to Yakuza chat. There will be dads, and especially dads in white pants. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 05, 2018•51 min
A lot of video game villains are cartoonish and over-the-top, but as Danika Harrod argued in a piece on Waypoint this week, sometimes games go too far in trying to make the point that evil people are evil. Danielle, Rob, and myself huddled around some microphones to use Danika’s piece as a launching pad for a broader discussion about how games use villains, prompting us to discuss everything from BioShock Infinite to Resident Evil: Code Veronica . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more ...
Feb 02, 2018•55 min•Ep. 131
In our latest Waypoint 101 excursion, Patrick, Rob, and Austin tackle the grim London of Zombi. Originally ZombiU, an early Wii U game later adapted to other platforms, the game impressed the panel with its tension, early digital video aesthetic, and fresh, high-stakes take on surviving one of video games' most tired settings: the zombie apocalypse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 31, 2018•56 min
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 . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...
Jan 30, 2018•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 130
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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 26, 2018•17 min
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 Clu...
Jan 22, 2018•1 hr 12 min
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!). ...
Jan 19, 2018•42 min•Ep. 128
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 immersi...
Jan 12, 2018•43 min
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 09, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 126
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.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 05, 2018•59 min•Ep. 125
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 02, 2018•49 min•Ep. 124
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.) Hosted on Acas...
Dec 29, 2017•47 min
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast....
Dec 28, 2017•39 min
