Waypoint Radio

We open this week's episode by discussing the overturning of Roe v Wade, and where we're finding places to take action and find respite in the face of the ever mounting attack on basic human rights. Afterwards we dive into some of the games we've been playing recently, from Cado's speedrunning uhhh.... optimization in Neon White, to Ren's brush with a hot new genre called "a deckbuilding roguelike" in Gordian Quest. Stick around after for a quick dip into the question bucket! Discussed: Roe...

Not-E3 continues this week with the Steam Next Fest! Patrick and Cado checked out a bunch of different demos on stream, so they go over what they played and what their impressions are. Then, special Dragon's Dogma Correspondent Austin Walker joins to talk about the announcement of Dragon's Dogma II, and go over a bit of the ten-year road to this new game. After the break, Ren checks in with Dread Delusion, a Morrowind and King's Field-inspired open world RPG with a striking visual style, and...

Gamer's Christmas is upon us, in a new but not wholly unfamiliar form. Rob, Ren, Patrick, and Cado all gather round the traditional gamer's yule monitor to discuss the announcements of this year's not-quite-E3-but-basically-E3 season. But first, Patrick has a tale to tell, a story of wheeling, dealing, and high stakes email ignoring as he finds himself in the middle of a veritable Deals whirlwind that might have knocked a Sonos speaker off of a truck. After the break we have a special...

CW: Discussion of Suicide at approximately 1:31:42 It's been a banner year not just for narrative games, but for games with themes surrounding labor, surviving under late capitalism, and the self, from Norco, to Citizen Sleeper, to Hardspace Shipbreaker. It should come as no surprise that today we're talking about the Apple TV+ show Severance, which slots neatly and expertly into these same themes. Come for Patrick’s Sonos-buying update, stay for our Spoiler-Lite impressions, and then get...

This week, Patrick has a very Dad weekend, Ren tries out sucking blood in V Rising, and we have an extended discussion around free to play monetization around Diablo Immortal. Then after the break, Patrick, Ren, and Cado go full spoiler mode to talk about Citizen Sleeper, a table top RPG inspired narrative game that got it's hooks in all of us with it's unique and fascinating systemic depiction of surviving with a disabled body under capitalism, and the ways community can be built in places...

We've got a particularly Waypoint episode for y'all today, from scamming the rich out of their money for the greater good in Card Shark, to talking about recent grad student unionizations, to talking about learning on the job in Hardspace Shipbreaker. Of course, it wouldn't be a podcast these days without a bit of an update from Rob on his home appliances, luckily y'all have sent in plenty emails to help him on this journey. Discussed: Card Shark 2:17, School Debt and Unionizing Grad...

Rob's been having some bad luck with home appliances recently, and as unfortunate as that is at least it makes for some good Content(tm). Before we get to that though, Rob, Patrick, Ren, and Cado discuss the current wave of unionization efforts across the US, including the ones beginning to crop up in the video game industry. Then, Patrick and Ren have been checking out the thematically resonant Hardspace Shipbreaker, a game about dismantling ships for scrap under contract for a corporation,...

This week we're bringing you our thoughts on Halo, the Paramount + TV show based on the immensely popular Halo video game franchise. Join as Patrick, Rob, Ren, and Cado discuss the ways this show landed in very different ways for each of them, why it probably shouldn't have been about Master Chief, and how more interesting characters are pushed to the side because of that choice. Then we answer listener questions like "does Cortana still have a dump truck in this" and "what would you do on a...

Rob has invited Leyla and Soren Johnson, CEO and Design Director at Mohawk Games respectively, onto Waypoint Radio this week to chat about their time in game dev- from Soren's time at Firaxis as lead designer on Civilization IV and Leyla's time in the State Department to transitioning into running their own studio and creating games alongside a dedicated fanbase in early access. They also chat about their 4X game Old World and it's new expansion Heroes of the Aegean, and trying their best to...

Join Rob, Ren, and Patrick as they answer listener questions submitted to Patrick's new "question bucket google form." Have you ever wondered if Patrick's ever had hypothermia? If Rob would rather spend a life at sea or a life underground? How about if Ren likes power tools or hand tools better? Get all this and more, and follow us on twitch.tv/waypoint to get notified when we go live next! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's Friday the 13th so we're kicking things of spooky style. The Waypoint Radio crew discuss the new Alan Wake 2 details, Bethesda's double delay situation, and Rob's new induction stove (which comes with its own set of built in curses). After the break, Patrick drops a cursed plan for... coverage of the next Avatar movie? In slightly (but only slightly) less cursed news, Rob and Ren have been checking out Warhammer 40K - Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters, a new Tactics game with heavy Gear Tactics...

We've got a special double interview pod today! First up: Patrick chats with Panic's Cabel Sasser and Arisa Sudangnoi about the development of the Playdate, the boutique handheld with a crank. They go over how the project started, what working on one thing for nearly a decade is like, and personal crank stories. Then, Rob and Patrick sit down with filmmaker Neill Blomkamp to talk about his involvement with Gunzilla Games and their new Battle Royale game Off the Grid. They touch on the...

Much how Rob Zacny Predicted, it's becoming clearer that it will be a Banner Year for Narrative Games, and profound everyman Patrick Klepek is here dipping his toes into the game Renata and Cado definitely didn't bring to the table because they were both too busy doing other things: Citizen Sleeper. Rob's also taken a break from commiting insurance fraud to play that hot new game that everyone's talking about, Guardians of the Galaxy. Then we dive back into the question bucket, where some...

Rob, Patrick, Ren, Cado and special guest Gita Jackson gather around their pod mics on this cold dark night to discuss The Thing, the classic film that inspired 2002's The Thing video game, Patrick's choice for our next Waypoint 101! We talk body horror, cinematic tension, box office flops, intimacy and the lack thereof between men, and the best dog actor of all time. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There comes a time when even the most laid-back people will find something that irks them to no end, and Patrick has found that thing this week. Are your monitors level? Are they the right distance apart? Are they perfectly aligned? Probably not, but hopefully it won't be too distracting. Thankfully the news that Sega is pulling old Sonic games in order to re-release them distracted Patrick long enough for us to launch into a conversation about emulation and "stealing." After the break, Ren...

Rob chats with Greg Foertsch, ex-Firaxis art director and founder of Bit Reactor, about his time on Gettysburg!, XCOM, and other seminal strategy games after getting an internship at Microprose right out of art school. Greg reminisces on his time at Firaxis, learning to turn a computer on, and how making games has changed drastically since Gettysburg! was developed. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We've got a chock full episode for y'all this week, from Rob wondering about one of his recent purchases (Steam Deck) to Rob updating us on an old one (Speaker Update!) We're all still plucking away at Elden Ring, but Rob in particular has a new perspective on his build choice. After the break, we talk about the recent allegations of a union related firing at Nintendo of America, and how even if unionization isn't happening yet, the way contractors are treated may mean it's around the...

Ren has invited Yuts, writer and lead developer on NORCO, onto the pod today to talk about the origins of NORCO as a side-scroller, different literary styles, what we mean when we say "the american south" today, hope, and other equally fascinating and bummer topics. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lore Reasons is back for a very special mini-sode! The Kingdom Hearts 20th anniversary event dropped some new announcements so we had to get Austin, Natalie, Patrick, and Cado back on mic to live react to the announcements! The crew then does a bit of lore sleuthing to see how much they remember about Kingdom Hearts, what the deal with those hoodies is, and which person with an X in their name is which. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rob Zacny, some would say, is a man of taste. And as any man of taste would be, he's incredibly discerning, especially when it comes to his Audio Equipment. Join Ren and Patrick as their whisked away on a tale of audio shops, conspiracies (!?), and audio speaker maintenance. After the break, Ren checked out Gundam Evolution, a new character based team FPS that has surprisingly good Mech-feel. Then she says some objectively wrong things about DOTA 2 that really made this producer question her...