Just a word of warning, while Witcher 3 is as long as 1 and 2 put toghether, the former are still fairly long games. Especially the first. The second is Mass Effect length. (though there's 2 different second acts, so YMMV).
Just a word of warning, while Witcher 3 is as long as 1 and 2 put toghether, the former are still fairly long games. Especially the first. The second is Mass Effect length. (though there's 2 different second acts, so YMMV).
Am I reading too much in to it when Natalie says it's her first day back? Need that Nat dynamic back in the podcast!
I understand it isn't feasible for Patrick and probably the others but I really wish we got some sweet 5 star run times for the podcasts.
Regarding the Witcher games: I'll always adore Witcher 1 more than 2. I was actually fairly disappointed with 2 even though it was still a fantastic game when it came out. Witcher 1 has some really small personal moments for Geralt and captures Geralt as a Witcher far more than 2 does which focuses more on the global political issue of the setting. It is certainly good, and I get why it works for Rob in which that is totally his shit, but the smaller scale that Witcher 1 succeeds at is extremely underrated and covered by a rather janky game (that I don't blame people being unable to look past).
Witcher 3 has smaller moments throughout that hit those beats of Witcher 1 but the larger story kinda fumbles it by the end (I didn't care for the way The Wild Hunt plays out for example) and how the White Frost is dealt with is very... boring. It wasn't until Hearts of Stone when there was an absolute home run of a story again for me from The Witcher. Hearts of Stone itself is a god damn triumph of a story. Absolutely adore it.
Regarding the Witcher games: I'll always adore Witcher 1 more than 2. I was actually fairly disappointed with 2 even though it was still a fantastic game when it came out. Witcher 1 has some really small personal moments for Geralt and captures Geralt as a Witcher far more than 2 does which focuses more on the global political issue of the setting. It is certainly good, and I get why it works for Rob in which that is totally his shit, but the smaller scale that Witcher 1 succeeds at is extremely underrated and covered by a rather janky game (that I don't blame people being unable to look past).
Witcher 3 has smaller moments throughout that hit those beats of Witcher 1 but the larger story kinda fumbles it by the end (I didn't care for the way The Wild Hunt plays out for example) and how the White Frost is dealt with is very... boring. It wasn't until Hearts of Stone when there was an absolute home run of a story again for me from The Witcher. Hearts of Stone itself is a god damn triumph of a story. Absolutely adore it.
I love that I read this and could hear in my head exactly what it was going to sound like without having listened to the episode yet
and now I'm listening to it and: yeah, yup, exactly what I thought
I heard it too , but I'm pretty sure it's reading too much into it. The reduction in full time staff is probabaly a permanent change since Patrick seemed to be hedging his bets regarding future hires.
Waypoint had turned into my "see the runrime of the episodes, and just delete them when a new one comes out" show this year, so the lack of 5-star runtimes for their end-of-year stuff led to me actually listening to them this year (it didn't help that GB has mostly dropped the ball on GOTY stuff, so I had a hole to fill). Really enjoyed the Game of the Decade episode.
The long episodes have had timestamps for a while now (with clickable links in the show descriptions taking you straight to it if your podcast app supports that which I'm sure all major ones do) so I don't really see why you'd immediately delete shows without even seeing the topics covered.
Part of me wants to check out Disco Elysium, because I love the idea of the highly reactive city block RPG, but everything about the game's aesthetic is the anti-me. Plus I can't think of any RPG that did the "now let's solve a murder mystery!" quest right, so having that be the whole game isn't really speaking to me.
Can't speak to your aesthetic sensibilities, although I love the game's painterly style, but the murder mystery is done really well imo. It's not just a simple detective story. The murder investigation is a vehicle for learning about the world. But it does have really satisfying investigation moments. Give it a shot. I wasn't sure if it would hook me but I couldn't stop playing it.
Yeah, I would say that the murder mystery really isn't like what I feel you usually see in RPGs? I feel like that's you usually interviewing a few known suspects and just picking apart their testimony to decide which is the culprit, maybe grabbing some clues first, right?
Here you're starting with much less information and though you're certainly asking people lots of questions and finding things that hint at who was involved with something, it's never really that kind of murder mystery/"whodunit". And it really is used as a way to get you to learn about the world and interact with the characters around you, yeah. You then end up with many tangential things to investigate, that may or may not end up tying back to the main investigation - though of course, what your character believes about that may also be wrong.
Here you're starting with much less information and though you're certainly asking people lots of questions and finding things that hint at who was involved with something, it's never really that kind of murder mystery/"whodunit". And it really is used as a way to get you to learn about the world and interact with the characters around you, yeah. You then end up with many tangential things to investigate, that may or may not end up tying back to the main investigation - though of course, what your character believes about that may also be wrong.
I'm enjoying their goty podcasts more than giant bomb's this year. No filler, just the stuff they want to talk about.
From Austin's top 10:
"But it's also because, despite Sunday Friend's words, it feels like ZA/UM never let themselves have an opinion. [...] Instead, like Parker and Stone if they'd done a grad seminar in Post-Marxism before making South Park, ZA/UM spends its energy swinging fists at every target it can."
I haven't played Disco Elysium yet, but this is the first time I've heard this being said about it. Is that actually the takeaway people have?
"But it's also because, despite Sunday Friend's words, it feels like ZA/UM never let themselves have an opinion. [...] Instead, like Parker and Stone if they'd done a grad seminar in Post-Marxism before making South Park, ZA/UM spends its energy swinging fists at every target it can."
I haven't played Disco Elysium yet, but this is the first time I've heard this being said about it. Is that actually the takeaway people have?
I'm not sure I agree with the Parker and Stone comparison because I'd say "apathy" is the problem there and that's not really his criticism, but the next paragraph (I'll include the final two after for context) is more agreeable for me:
Austin said:
Well, perhaps that last paragraph is also key- he's not saying the devs don't believe in something (see the second sentence of it), he's saying he wishes it was expressed in the game.
But regardless- my own feeling is that it was hard to say political thoughts because it often immediately jumps to a comedic extreme? That, or it could be used to counter another character's beliefs, and in that case at times it could be difficult for me to tell whether the option I was considering picking was something that was biting sarcasm or instead actual agreement that would be played for laughs. Sometimes that was indicated well, but often it wasn't.
And of course some of that is just the nature of playing a character that is always going to act ridiculous, and having a setting where certain beliefs aren't going to be accepted due to what happened in the past decades, and so on. But it is still true that I didn't feel like I could actually have a conversation about addressing the world's problems (as I/the character learned about them) and things that could actually improve the world, beyond jokes about how I'm totally gonna bring back communism.
We talked about this a little in the GB thread yesterday, but—I've seen similar reads of the game here and there on Twitter. I have absolutely no idea how prevalent that view is among the game's playerbase on the whole. I do not agree with it. I can understand having that takeaway from the first couple hours of the game, but I think the game's final act very firmly grounds the game's outlook and perspective (without downplaying the complexity of the world and circumstance that backdrop the game's events).
Yeah the South Park comparison is terribly insulting and reductive. I can't really agree with Austin's read. I don't think the game needs to offer a solution on how to fix the world's ills. That's waaaaaaay beyond the remit of this game, and probably any game. It's not a polemic, and it's better for it.
Actually I take that back, it is a polemic. The game is a very pointed attack on neoliberalism. It's just not didactic.
Actually I take that back, it is a polemic. The game is a very pointed attack on neoliberalism. It's just not didactic.
This is probably my biggest issue with Waypoint. It's so incredibly annoying.
Like whatever you think about whether Cado's laugh is annoying in general, his presence on this specific pod is terrible. Like a boom mic just hanging out in the middle of a shot.
I dunno man. Waypoint is so many good people but it puts out such a poor product. They need way more resources or way better leadership or something.
I dunno man. Waypoint is so many good people but it puts out such a poor product. They need way more resources or way better leadership or something.
Yeah, I also disagree with Austin's take here. Disco positions itself pretty clearly.
His frustration at devs only identifying the problems and not commenting on possible solutions is not new though. He's been asking for the latter for a while now. I'm sure this will come up during the Cyberpunk discussion too.
His frustration at devs only identifying the problems and not commenting on possible solutions is not new though. He's been asking for the latter for a while now. I'm sure this will come up during the Cyberpunk discussion too.
It's a bummer because, based on the stuff he's written on the site/on Twitter, he's clearly a smart dude. But the minute he gets in front of a mic, he's a shrieking mess. I still enjoy Waypoint but the transition from Natalie to Cado has hurt the podcast's quality for sure.
"Excuuuuuuse me?"
Cado is awesome and I love his semi-regular Destiny updates.
a bit of a shitty way to critique someone tbh. getting comfortable on a recorded podcast takes time. natalie didn't take to it immediately either. most don't. he struggles a bit verbally articulating his points but he's getting better and will only continue to get better.
The EXCUUUSE thing they were all doing like half a year ago was driving me nuts as well.
Cado is great when he's participating in discussions and talking as part of the podcast. Cado is definitely the loudest, but sudden noises and shouting is a general issue with the entire cast.
Speaking of weird noises, did anyone else react to Rob suddenly starting to do funny voices in the latest few casts? That's so out of character for Rob and must have manifested from the joy of seeing being in the same room as the rest of the crew.
I'll always be on Cado's side. Hearing that I'm not the only person on planet earth that loves ice cold water after ice cream is the best.
Vanilla bean then ice water is just so good.
Vanilla bean then ice water is just so good.
I like Cado a lot, too. He often asks inquisitive questions and furthers discussion nicely. And Waypoint is one of the best sounding podcast i listen to. Sometimes I do wish he would be a little quieter when someone else is speaking, bit it rarely gets on the way of my enjoyment of the show.
That's actually true, their audio is usually good, even while using Skype. A lot of podcasts struggle in that regard.
Man, Patrick Klepek talking about Ryan Davis brought back some memories. Miss that dude.
Reminded me of my favorite Ryan Davis moment:
Reminded me of my favorite Ryan Davis moment:
I want to listen to Rob read The Newsroom (US TV) fanfics
The Newsroom is legendarily bad and I'm ashamed to say I totally ate it up when I really was old enough that I should have known it was garbage. but you live and you learn
How anyone had faith that Sorkin had anything left after Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is beyond me.
The Newsroom lasted 3 seasons!
The Newsroom lasted 3 seasons!
Does anybody here remember which Waypoint Radio it was that they inadvertently diverted into jokingly talking about the futility of long-distance relationships and everybody lost it? Natalie was on that episode and she was like "You're missing valuable experiences in your youth!", something along those lines. I'm scrolling through my downloaded episodes and nothing is raising a flag.
That was one of the Kingdom Hearts podcasts. I think it was the first one with Birth By Sleep? That one or the second one with the infamous Natalie drumline.
edit: Good chance it's neither of those, I just know it's one of the Kingdom Hearts podcasts. Skimming through now but I doubt I'll find it quickly.
Last edited:
Found it! It's when they're talking about the climax of the Toy Story segment of Kingdom Hearts III. Thanks for setting me on the right track!
omg Natalie gets REAL. XD
How many times did that S1E1 clip of Newsroom get posted on Facebook? The one where that nerd DARES say America isn't the greatest country?
Robb picked Justified as his waypoint of the decade. Just when I thought that I couldn't love this guy any more.