Stay ConnectedWhat’s good, Internet? Join Waypoint’s Rob Zacny, Patrick Klepek, Renata Price, Natalie Watson, and Ricardo Contreras two times a week, as they break down the biggest stories in video games, talk about their favorite media, and unfairly compare everything to Dark Souls.
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We're deep into GOTY season, so we've been hitting the podcast recordings hard. Listen in as we casually drop references for podcasts that won't release for another three weeks, discuss the new Master Sword item that totally changes Super Mario Maker 2, and take a quick dip in the question bucket to bathe in the glory that is Waluigi.
Discussed: Super Mario Maker 2 2:04, Life is Strange 2 29:20, Final Fantasy XIV 32:54, New Bioshock Game 43:09, Question Bucket 1:04:49
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Rob Zacny interviews Paradox Chief Business Development Officer, Shams Jorjani. He's the last of Paradox's old corporate leadership, and has seen the company through a variety of high and low moments, helping to put out fires when needed, most notably during the acquisition of White Wolf when it was under scrutiny for their mishandling of queer history in a Vampire: The Masquerade source book. They also discuss worker compensation and mobility at Paradox, the focus on long term growth over quarterly profits, and why he's stuck it out at the same place for so long.
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The Waypoint crew is (mostly) back from break, and gearing up for the end of the year. Cado "finished" Pokemon Sword, and found the campaign's focus underwhelming, even if structurally this might be the most immersive Pokemon game to date. Patrick is excited about the new Mario Maker 2 update that was suddenly announced Monday, even if he wishes Nintendo had been more forthright about their roadmap for that game. Austin has some killer Final Fantasy XIV music to shout out, and then takes the crew on a casual lap of the question bucket.
Discussed: Pokemon Sword 10:46, Super Mario Maker 2 20:44, Spelunky 2 27:02, Souls Franchise 42:01, The Outer Worlds 47:33, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 1:03:10, Streaming Services that aren't Stadia 1:26:12
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We're on break but that doesn't mean the #content needs to stop! Cado is playing Pokemon Sword and questioning the sentience of Pokemon when they're in The Box (spoiler: they remember everything). Patrick finished Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and the crew takes a dive into the Star Wars canon, old and new. Rob has been playing the board game Gloomhaven, or rather, a version of it with... let's call it a house rule. After the break we dive deep into the Question Bucket to talk about who keeps it real the most (Rob, probably), cooking Turkey (why bother?), and how much Austin cares about Shenmue 3.
Discussed: Pokemon Sword and Shield 4:47, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 21:47, Resident Evil 2 52:38, Gloomhaven 54:16, Question Bucket part 1- 1:01:55, Half Life: Alyx 1:27:45, Question Bucket part 2- 1:42:35
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It’s Monday, and you know what that means. 'MECHS! We have a special BattleTech double episode for y’all today. First up, Rob sat down with Harebrained Scheme's Mitch Gitelman to talk about BattleTech lore and the ins and outs of trying to run an inclusive and diverse games company. After the break, Austin and Rob chat about Heavy Metal, the new BattleTech expansion that adds new 'Mech specific abilities, weapons, crew events, and more.
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It's been two years but he's finally back. Manveer Heir, who came on Waypoint Radio in 2017 to talk about his time working on Mass Effect: Andromeda, has returned to the podcast studio with Rashad Redic, an industry veteran whose worked on games such as Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Together they make up two thirds of Brass Lion, a new entertainment studio with goal to tell the stories of underrepresented and marginalized groups in their own voices, from their own perspective. Austin sat down to chat with them about their first game, Corner Wolves, their experiences in the industry, building a new startup, and the best hip-hop artists of all time.
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Spoilers for Afterparty from approximately 1:12:08 ~ 1:25:24
It's fall, time for sweaters, hot chocolate, and anime. Austin and Cado went to AnimeNYC, and they're back to report from the anime front lines. Patrick has been playing the new anime console, Google Stadia, and feels that the tech is more interesting than the experience. After the break, Rob takes us to hell in Afterparty, from the developers behind Oxenfree. Then Cado wraps back around to more anime with Pokemon Sword and Shield, when he explains what an EV is, and says the words "Egg Move." The crew takes a quick detour into a mini Waypoints episode to close it out. Stick around after the outro for Football Takes!
Discussed: My Hero One's Justice 2 6:26, One Punch Man: Hero Nobody Knows 8:02, Google Stadia 12:46, Afterparty 57:38, Spoilers for Afterparty 1:12:08, Pokemon Sword and Shield 1:25:24, Waypoints - 2:03:25
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We hear people like extra long pods for the weekend, so we’ve delivered! Austin and Patrick take us on their journey to reconnect with the Force in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Does a Lightsaber give off heat? Is this finally the game that Star Wars fans have been waiting for? After the break, Rob guides us to the front lines of Unity of Command 2, a strategy game that managed to improve on the perfection of it's prequel. Patrick can't talk Stadia yet, so he takes us through the wild Stadia AMA, where an employee actually said "I will personally deliver this to your house." We run down the announcements for XO19, including Dontnod's new game Tell Me Why, which will have a trans protagonist. And Cado talks through #gamefreaklied, and the many different reasons the outlash to Pokemon Sword and Shield have been so vitriolic.
Discussed: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 6:21, Unity of Command 2 1:03:12, Guildlings 1:22:27, Takeshi and Hiroshi 1:25:45, Stadia 1:28:44, XO19 1:35:49, Pokemon Sword and Shield 2:13:14
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Spoilers for Kingdom Hearts III from approximately 1:14:22 to 1:15:10
We’re in the eye of the storm, we've had one weekend of relative quiet before another crop of new games drop. For now though, Austin is living his best deliveryman life in Death Stranding. Rob is feeling cold on Need for Speed Heat, a racing game with less than stellar racing but a plot so wild he’s gotta to see it through. Patrick is feeling the burn with Ring Fit Adventure, especially in his deltoids (those overhead presses are no joke!) Cado is catching up by playing … Nier: Automata, a game he should’ve finished two years ago, and Outer Wilds, a game he wished he’d picked up sooner, and both games that will make you feel sad.
Discussed: Ring Fit Adventure 4:48, Need for Speed Heat 17:02, Death Stranding 46:50, Nier: Automata 1:08:48, Outer Wilds 1:15:10, The Outer Worlds 1:21:40, Pokemon Sword and Shield 1:28:20, Stadia 1:34:41, Radio Commander 1:40:01
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Waypoints returns as Austin, Patrick, Rob, and Cado discuss their need for more time off in light of an interesting analysis by the People's Policy Project. Why do US workers do so much more work every year than most of their peers? Looking beyond vacation time and holidays, what emerges is a series of socio-economic problems that too few people can get help for, from retirement to sick leave to family leave. And why do companies, who are so often worried about productivity, ignore studies that show working less hours in a week leads to more productivity? After the break, the gang tries to figure out what to make of Kamala Harris' proposed 10-hour school day. Is the right solution for the wrong problem? Does this proposal lean too heavily on private funding? And might some of the solutions we spoke to in the first half of the podcast target the root of this problem, rather than the symptom?
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