Episodes
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.
Published 01/07/19
Published 01/07/19
Managing editor Chelsea Stark stops by to discuss her review of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Published 12/13/18
Just Cause 4 is good. Right up until it isn't.
Published 12/06/18
Polygon's review of Battlefield 5.
Published 11/29/18
An audiobook version of Polygon's Pokémon: Let's Go! review.
Published 11/15/18
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.
Published 11/08/18
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.
Published 10/31/18
All about Red Dead Redemption 2.
Published 10/25/18
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...
Published 10/16/18
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.
Published 10/10/18
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
Published 10/03/18
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...
Published 09/26/18
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.
Published 09/19/18
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.
Published 09/12/18
Ryan Gilliam returns to Quality Control, joining Dave Tach to talk about Destiny 2: Forsaken.
Published 09/07/18
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.
Published 09/04/18
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...
Published 08/29/18
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.
Published 08/24/18
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
Published 08/15/18
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
Published 08/09/18
In honor of Polygon's Backlog Week, we're tackling the topic of tabletop role-playing games. How do you find a group of people to play Dungeons and Dragons with? What are some good options to introduce role-playing to your friends and family? And how do you keep everyone comfortable at the table? To answer those questions, we invited the team from the One Shot Network onto the show to talk about their strategies. Our guests include James D'Amato, Meghan Dornbrock, DC and Daniel Kwan. One...
Published 07/30/18
In this week's episode of Quality Control, Charlie and Dave are both on hand with Russ Frushtick to talk about Next, the massive new update for No Man's Sky. Our thoughts from way back in 2014: https://www.polygon.com/a/e3-2014/no-mans-sky Recent opinion from Ben Kuchera: https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/25/17611606/no-mans-sky-next-fan-reaction Tara Long, with 250+ plus in-game, gives her take:...
Published 07/26/18
In this week’s episode of Quality Control, Charlie Hall and Allegra Frank talk about Pokémon Go Fest 2018, which ran without a hitch, unlike last year.
Published 07/18/18
In this week’s episode, Dave Tach and Michael McWhertor talk about Mike's Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker review. Press play to learn more about the game’s history and what you get with the new versions on Switch and Nintendo 3DS (spoiler: not a whole lot, but some of it seems cool). Stick around to find out just what it is about this little game that keeps Mike coming back.
Published 07/11/18