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 o...
Dec 26, 2018•2 hr 51 min
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 po...
Dec 25, 2018•52 min
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 obsessio...
Dec 24, 2018•1 hr 3 min
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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info...
Dec 21, 2018•1 hr 36 min
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...
Dec 20, 2018•56 min
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 19, 2018•1 hr 10 min
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 ...
Dec 18, 2018•52 min
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...
Dec 17, 2018•51 min
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 id...
Dec 14, 2018•1 hr 2 min
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 a...
Dec 13, 2018•1 hr 39 min
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...
Dec 10, 2018•1 hr 24 min
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 jo...
Dec 07, 2018•2 hr 6 min
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 ...
Dec 06, 2018•1 hr 44 min
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?...
Dec 03, 2018•1 hr 23 min
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 . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 30, 2018•13 min
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 Wa...
Nov 30, 2018•48 min
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 rive...
Nov 29, 2018•1 hr 30 min
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 serie...
Nov 28, 2018•1 hr 41 min
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 ...
Nov 27, 2018•1 hr 41 min
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 indiffe...
Nov 22, 2018•1 hr 25 min
In this bonus episode Austin Walker interviews Ben Makuch, host of Motherboard's new podcast "Cyber", about cyber security, why we always seem caught off guard by each new cyber threat, and what responsibilities large companies like Facebook have in keeping people safe on the internet, followed by the first full episode of "Cyber." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 21, 2018•1 hr 3 min
What, if anything, does a sequel owe its predecessors? While didn't realize it at the time, that's the question we chewed on during this nearly two-hour long episode of Waypoint Radio. Some games, like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, try to satisfy long time fan and newcomer alike. Others, like Fallout 76, eject much of what made the series what it was in favor of new experimentation. Which one of these tactics is right? Or is the truth... somewhere in the middle? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...
Nov 19, 2018•1 hr 59 min
This week's Waypoint Radio is about the anxieties surrounding commercial art and the way they can often overshadow art's cultural value, and how the latter often has more to do with personal meaning and artistic goals than performance in "the marketplace". Our first point of entry to this topic comes via an article by Liz Ryerson, over at the New and Improved Deorbital, called "There Are Not 'Too Many Games': What The Indiepocalypse Panic Ignores" . Then we look at a gorgeous personal essay o...
Nov 16, 2018•1 hr 10 min
For this week, we have an unusually music-centered episode as the gang welcomes Noisey's Colin Joyce to talk about Lil Peep's posthumous Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2. What does it imply about the what Peep's creative direction might have been, and do the circumstances, assumptions, and compromises around its production complicate its place in Peep's body of work? And then Rob has been listening to Let England Shake as the world observes the centennial of the end of World War I. What does P...
Nov 15, 2018•1 hr 21 min
Most horror franchises don’t survive the transition to a sequel, let alone a third movie. We were pleasantly surprised by the action-y, Punisher-esque turn of The Purge: Anarchy, but there were enough red flags to have us deeply concerned about where The Purge would go with its third entry, Election Year, a movie centered around protecting a bizarre Hillary Clinton stand-in, who promises to save the country, from her political opponents. Austin, Patrick, Danielle, Natalie, and Rob dive gathered ...
Nov 15, 2018•1 hr 12 min
The holidays are upon us, which means new video games are dropping fast and furious. That makes it the perfect time to spend a long time talking about...Vampyr? Rob spent the weekend with one of Patrick's favorites from earlier this year, much to his delight. In an episode that was supposed to be "short," Rob and Patrick join Austin to spend nearly two hours also discussing Tetris Effect, how every human being is actually connected, The Gardens Between, the many ways to creatively kill in Hitman...
Nov 12, 2018•1 hr 39 min
With the 200th episode of Waypoint Radio behind us, we turn back to our roots: The Question Bucket. Join Austin, Rob, Natalie, and Patrick as they answer your questions about all of the most important topics: Being disappointed by your favorite series. How to grit your teeth and send your creative work into the uncaring void of the internet. Peanut Butter. We promised you that Sim City article from Ian Bogost, but we couldn't find it. Discussed: Peanut Butter, Europa Universalis IV, Victoria II...
Nov 09, 2018•1 hr 30 min
This week, Rob has convinced Austin to watch one of his favorite screwball comedies, My Man Godfrey. This may been a poor choice! (Or the best choice - Cado) But the main focus in this episode is politics! You want election takes? We got 'em! But first, we need to explore some of the context and history of this political moment by taking a look at McKay Coppins' profile of Newt Gingrich and the brand of politics and the anxieties he represents. Discussed: The Man Who Broke Politics (article a...
Nov 08, 2018•1 hr 26 min
Episode 200 of Waypoint Radio is here! And we worked hard to ensure that it is the quintessential episode. No special guests or new segments or live bands, no, this puppy is stuffed to the brim with the games we've been playing. Austin and Rob have both Red Dead Redemption 2 updates and a sort of Subterfuge post-mortem. Danielle has further thoughts on Call of Cthulhu and a very fun, very 90s-tastic racing game in Grip: Combat Racing. Natalie has her hands full with Dark Souls and Red Dead. And ...
Nov 05, 2018•1 hr 46 min
Content warning for discussion of racism in horror games and movies, and a mention of rape in horror movies at 1:10:00-1:11:00. H.P. Lovecraft, the author so well-known for his works of horror, his writings on monsters and madness and cosmic horror, was a radically, horrifically racist person, even for his time. So, how do we deal with that, when his influence is all over the horror genre, indirectly through popular tropes and immediately, in games inspired directly from his work, like this week...
Nov 02, 2018•1 hr 24 min
