Quality Control

After 192 episodes and millions of downloads, Polygon's Quality Control is going on hiatus. To celebrate we brought back creator Justin McElroy. Until the next time we've got a game, a movie, or anything at all to talk about, thanks to you at home for listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Managing editor Chelsea Stark stops by to discuss her review of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just Cause 4 is good. Right up until it isn't. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Polygon's review of Battlefield 5. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An audiobook version of Polygon's Pokémon: Let's Go! review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Polygon’s Quality Control podcast, we’re joined by Jenna Stoeber and Tara Long. Between the two of them, they’ve spent dozens of hours in the Fallout 76 beta, so who better to bring onto the show to discuss it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Charlie Hall sits down with Polygon's senior reporter Colin Campbell to discuss the latest game from indie developer Lucas Pope, Return of the Obra Dinn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All about Red Dead Redemption 2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week’s Quality Control podcast, we discuss the newest edition to the Call of Duty franchise, a battle royale mode called Blackout. It’s available as part of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. At a glance, it looks like many other battle royale games on the market. But, in motion, there’s a lot more nuance to the experience. I sat down with our Austen Goslin. Between the two of us, we’ve spent hundreds of hours inside PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite, but also precursor games in the Call of Duty series. You can listen to the entire conversation below or on your podcast service of choice. We’ve also highlighted a few parts of the conversation and broken them out in the transcript below. Read our review, already in progress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Polygon’s Quality Control podcast, Mike McWhertor joins Dave Tach to discuss Mega Man 11, which is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows. In this episode, you’ll learn about Mega Man lore, how Mike played the game — and what Capcom seems to have figured out across a bunch of franchises lately. Much of the discussion centers around what Mike wrote recently in his Mega Man 11 review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the latest episode of Polygon’s Quality Control podcast we grapple with the Greco-action game Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Guests include Colin Campbell and Simone de Rochefort. https://www.polygon.com/reviews/2018/10/1/17920288/assassins-creed-odyssey-review-ps4-xbox-one-windows-pc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At the beginning of every Pokémon game, players must make a Sohpie’s Choice-like decision to ally themselves with a single, cuddly fighting animal. While their stable will undoubtedly expand, it is that creature who will be their intimate companion on the long road to becoming the very best. Like no one ever was. Today’s formal debate brings three Pokémon experts to the fore, including Polygon’s Allegra Frank and Ryan Gilliam as well as The Verge’s Megan Farokhmanesh. They will each make their case for one of the three iconic starting Pokémon: Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur. Later this week, Polygon will also publish passionate analyses of each of these starting Pokémon. Then, next week on our official Twitter account, you will be able to make your voices heard with a final vote. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Polygon’s Quality Control podcast, Chris Plante and Dave Tach join host Charlie Hall to discuss Shadow of the Tomb Raider. How did the franchise get to now, and what's it like to play through an introspective look at the narrative roots of Lara Croft herself? You can read Polygon's full review right here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Polygon’s Quality Control podcast, Chelsea Stark joins Dave Tach to discuss Spider-Man on PS4. In this episode, you’ll learn about why Chelsea and Dave like the game so much, even if they come just short of loving it. Much of the discussion centers around what Chelsea wrote recently in her Spider-Man review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ryan Gilliam returns to Quality Control, joining Dave Tach to talk about Destiny 2: Forsaken. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of Quality Control, Chris Plante and Charlie Hall explain the future of Polygon's reviews. Games have changed since we launched Polygon. We’re changing with them. We believe that a new strategy, focusing on criticism and curation, will better serve our readers than the serviceable, but ultimately limited reviews rubric that, for decades, has served as a load-bearing pillar of most game publications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week’s episode of Quality Control, Dave Tach and first-time guest and World of Warcraft veteran World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. This week, you’ll learn about Ryan’s history with the game, which doesn’t span from vanilla WoW, but still lets him say things like, “back in my day.” A lot of our discussion centers around what Ryan wrote recently in his review, “Battle for Azeroth continues World of Warcraft’s legacy as an excellent, but safe MMO,” where he wrote: "World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth has been given the unfortunate task of following up Legion, one of the best received World of Warcraft expansions in the last decade. Where Legion saw players go to space and fight hordes of demons, Battle for Azeroth brings the conflict back to Warcraft’s core: the Horde versus the Alliance in all-out war.  "Thankfully for World of Warcraft players, Battle for Azeroth does almost everything right, and even succeeds in places where Legion failed. But in other cases, the expansion is left feeling a bit safe compared to its predecessor." Press play to hear about the good and the bad and the incomplete. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This latest incarnation of the Monster Hunter franchise carved off many of the series traditional rough edges, but the console version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One didn’t always impress fans with its performance. The PC version, which launched more than six months later, has been a fixture on the Steam best seller’s list all month long. Patrick is our resident expert, so we wanted to ask him about his experience and also talk about starting out on PC for the first time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week’s episode of Quality Control, Dave Tach and Charlie Hall talk about We Happy Few. Press play to learn about the game’s history from Kickstarter to Early Access (where the original concept changed pretty dramatically) to its recent release on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One (which at launch reflects the changes that the game’s earliest players asked for). We Happy Few is the story of what comes after the fall of European democracy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week's episode of Quality Control, Charlie is joined by Gamers With Jobs' Allen Cook to discuss Gen Con 2018. Here's all of the very best board games from the largest tabletop convention in the United States. https://www.polygon.com/gen-con https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1302125 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices