Welcome to Waypoint's End of Year celebration! This year, we're digging deep into our favorite games with dedicated podcasts, interviewing each other about our personal top 10 lists, and reflecting on the year with essays from the staff and some of our favorite freelance contributors. Check out the entire package right here!

Nobody at Waypoint was a Monster Hunter fan before Capcom dropped Monster Hunter: World at the start of this year, but for a feverish few weeks in January, everyone was hunting Anjanaths like our lives depended on it. January was a long time ago, but it didn’t take long for Austin, Natalie, and Patrick to remember how the long-running series finally clicked for them. We remember what worked—the nightmarish sense of scale, how weapons became critical to player identity, the deep satisfaction from connecting a well-timed hit—and what left us wanting—the endless grind, the unexplained systems, the uncomfortable colonization themes—and hoping Capcom finds way to address them in the game’s inevitable sequel.