Stay ConnectedGirl Mode is a podcast (mostly) about video games by two trans women and gaming journalists where we talk about the latest news in the industry, our takes, weekly topics, and more about the Mets than you’re probably expecting.
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Copyright: © Copyright Girl Mode Podcast
With Willa fleeing the country for reasons I can’t disclose here, Into the Aether cohost Brendon Bigley stopped by to chat this week! We cover Shy Guy Surfing, Brendon’s most formative childhood game, the surprising 2024 release he can’t stand, and of course, where the key grips stand on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Timestamps
(00:30) What’s your deal, man?
(16:00) Shy Guy Surfing and other actual games
(20:30) The game that made Brendon
(33:00) Shit-talk corner
(40:00) The Deadlock Saga
(54:00) What else have Brendon and Robin been playing/doing? (feat. a game I don’t want to spoil, Fields of Mistria, Man I Just Wanna Go Home, and Minishoot Adventures)
Mentioned this week
We played Valve’s secret new shooter, Deadlock
The Bright Sword is a Radiant Reimagining of Arthurian Legend
Brendon’s blog, Wavelengths.online
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Music
Street Food by FASSounds
We stand for a free Palestine, and against the occupation, oppression, and genocide perpetrated against its people.
Please consider donating or otherwise standing up to support Palestinians in the wake of Israel's attacks.
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Demand a ceasefire from your representatives
Game Assist's "Gamers for Palestine" resource packet
Cartoonist Cooperative’s e-SIM fundraiser
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Borderlands the movie is out and we couldn't be more excited to hear about how terrible it is. After that, we realize that a sequel to The Order 1886 would be the best game ever, get cautiously excited about two newly announced spiritual sequels, and talk about a couple of new games we actually liked.
Timestamps
(01:30) A vault full of disappointing bullshit
(15:00) The Order 1986
(24:00) ONE BTN BOSSES
(27:30) Creatures of Ava
(35:00) Dishonored 3, kind of
(40:30) Is this Terranigma 2?
(45:20) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week?
Follow us and send us questions!
Music
Street Food by FASSounds
We stand for a free Palestine, and against the occupation, oppression, and genocide perpetrated against its people.
Please consider donating or otherwise standing up to support Palestinians in the wake of Israel's attacks.
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Demand a ceasefire from your representatives
Game Assist's "Gamers for Palestine" resource packet
Cartoonist Cooperative’s e-SIM fundraiser
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Shockingly, the news remains bad, so we’re keeping it short this week for the good of all of our mental health. We cover the Olympics, Star Wars Outlaws, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, and another awful week for the games industry and games media.
Timestamps
(01:00) I guess this is a sports podcast now
(11:50) Maybe Star Wars Outlaws will be good?
(15:40) Let’s get sad! (RIP Game Informer, fuck GameStop forever)
(21:20) We’re transitioning into Pokémon
(29:50) Let’s get sad again (RIP a bunch of Bungie staff, fuck Pete Parsons forever)
(32:40) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week? (feat. SteamWorld Heist II, Babel by R.F. Kuang)
Follow us and send us questions!
Music
Street Food by FASSounds
We stand for a free Palestine, and against the occupation, oppression, and genocide perpetrated against its people.
Please consider donating or otherwise standing up to support Palestinians in the wake of Israel's attacks.
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Demand a ceasefire from your representatives
Game Assist's "Gamers for Palestine" resource packet
Cartoonist Cooperative’s e-SIM fundraiser
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Like most weeks, there’s a lot of bad news this week, as we talk through the death by restructuring of Humble Games and Ubisoft making everything worse by both-sidesing racism. Then we pull out of a nosedive with a SAG-AFTRA strike and the formation of a massive game dev union at Blizzard, complete with a little union 101 session courtesy of a listener’s questions and quotes from World of Warcraft senior producer Samuel Cooper!
Timestamps
This is already coming in late so no timestamps, sorry!
Mentioned this week
Assassin's Creed Developers Didn’t Have To Explain Their Game
Kazuma Hashimoto on Ubisoft bullshit
Humble Games Lays Off All Employees, Carries On In Name Only
Humble Games ‘Restructuring’ Shows There’s No Easy Answer to Gaming’s Layoff Crisis
World of Warcraft Devs Form Blizzard’s First Wall-to-Wall Union 3 Years After Walkout
Five Years Later, Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ Best Character Is Still Edelgard
Follow us and send us questions!
Music
Street Food by FASSounds
We stand for a free Palestine, and against the occupation, oppression, and genocide perpetrated against its people.
Please consider donating or otherwise standing up to support Palestinians in the wake of Israel's attacks.
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Demand a ceasefire from your representatives
Game Assist's "Gamers for Palestine" resource packet
Cartoonist Cooperative’s e-SIM fundraiser
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We’re running through some news updates first this week, from alarming details about the death of one of the best game studios ever to Overwatch’s latest attempt to convince us it’s good again. Then we talk through some recent games we’ve been getting into, and by recent we mean some of them are 20 years old.
Timestamps
(00:20) The Mets are not doing great
(03:20) Spooky scary bag head man update
(8:20) Japan Studio you will live forever in our hearts
(13:00) Congrats Bethesda *The Internationale begins playing*
(16:00) Juno came from space to make Willa play Overwatch again
(21:30) Recent games roundup (feat. Riven, The Star Named Eos, Jeanne d’Arc, Cataclismo, Diablo 2, Nobody Wants to Die)
(49:00) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week? (feat. Spy x Family, Mayonaka Punch, Interview With A Vampire, An Education in Malice)
Mentioned this week
.45 Parabellum Bloodhound Trailer
Parasite Eve-Inspired Cyberpunk Game Announced, Looks Cool As Hell
Follow us and send us questions!
Music
Street Food by FASSounds
We stand for a free Palestine, and against the occupation, oppression, and genocide perpetrated against its people.
Please consider donating or otherwise standing up to support Palestinians in the wake of Israel's attacks.
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Demand a ceasefire from your representatives
Game Assist's "Gamers for Palestine" resource packet
Cartoonist Cooperative’s e-SIM fundraiser
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
There’s lots of news to cover this week, so we’re spending half an hour talking about Endwalker instead. Also the Mets missed their shot this week and we’re bummed about it.
Timestamps
(00:30) Having a non-apocalyptic one
(01:30) Mets update
(04:00) Spooky scary bag head man
(07:00) Xbox Game Pass sucks now
(16:40) Jeanne d’Arc hive rise up
(19:00) Willa finished Endwalker/Tons of FFXIV spoilers
(45:20) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week? (feat. Flock, Spy x Family, Assassins)
(57:00) Mets update update
Mentioned this week
Is Xbox Game Pass really worth it anymore?
Final Fantasy 14’s Post-Endwalker Story Feels Like A Mini-Expansion In The Best Way
Flock Is A Delightfully Chill Birdwatching Game I Can’t Stop Playing
Follow us and send us questions!
Music
Street Food by FASSounds
We stand for a free Palestine, and against the occupation, oppression, and genocide perpetrated against its people.
Please consider donating or otherwise standing up to support Palestinians in the wake of Israel's attacks.
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Demand a ceasefire from your representatives
Game Assist's "Gamers for Palestine" resource packet
Cartoonist Cooperative’s e-SIM fundraiser
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We’re halfway through 2024, so this week we’re running through our GOTFHOTY (Game of the First Half of the Year) picks and of course talking shit on this year’s most beloved games that we don’t like.
Timestamps
(00:30) Copious table setting
(03:30) Six months of being haters (the worst game of the year)
(19:00) Games we need to go back to
(24:00) Underrated games
(26:20) Surprise Mets break
(28:00) Back to 1000xResist (and more underrated games)
(34:00) Lots of Hoyoverse talk
(46:00) What we’re looking forward to in the next six months
(51:20) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week?
Mentioned this week
"Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria" Part 1: The Cooties Theory of Transgender Identity
‘The Bear’ Season 3 review: Carmy bears down on success, with uneven results
The Bear Season 3 Premiere is A Messy Amuse-Bouche
Follow us and send us questions!
Music
Street Food by FASSounds
We stand for a free Palestine, and against the occupation, oppression, and genocide perpetrated against its people.
Please consider donating or otherwise standing up to support Palestinians in the wake of Israel's attacks.
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Demand a ceasefire from your representatives
Game Assist's "Gamers for Palestine" resource packet
Cartoonist Cooperative’s e-SIM fundraiser
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
As usual, we kick things off this week with Willa’s thoughts on the Mets, then move into Willa’s thoughts on Endwalker (which she likes less than the Mets). After an Alan Wake detour, we then dive into the excruciating but still funny Shadow of the Erdtree difficulty discourse and other meandering thoughts about Elden Ring. Let’s go Mets!
Timestamps
(00:30) Willa is here to talk about the Mets
(11:30) Endwalker is generally bad, but also good (or vice versa)
(29:40) Night Springs is also good
(35:50) *sigh* Elden Ring difficulty discourse
(56:50) Baseball lore
Mentioned this week
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Was A Flawed Finale I'll Never Forget
If Shadow of the Erdtree Feels Too Hard, Try Playing Like Hidetaka Miyazaki
Elden Ring streamers Robin has been watching: Alyska, elliejoypanic, ohlindsey, skyytea, wraff
Follow us and send us questions!
Music
Street Food by FASSounds
We stand for a free Palestine, and against the occupation, oppression, and genocide perpetrated against its people.
Please consider donating or otherwise standing up to support Palestinians in the wake of Israel's attacks.
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Demand a ceasefire from your representatives
Game Assist's "Gamers for Palestine" resource packet
Cartoonist Cooperative’s e-SIM fundraiser
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We survived the game showcase gauntlet and our reward is one more game showcase — but good this time! This week is a Nintendo Direct spectacular covering everything from the Apple Arcade jailbreak to the surprisingly controversial Legend of Zelda game where we finally get to fucking play as Zelda.
Timestamps
(01:00) Nintendogz, Catgirl Simulators, and the Nintendo Direct
(04:10) Mario and Luigi: Brothership
(09:00) Fantasian and Hello Kitty escape Apple Arcade (plus “other stupid announcements”)
(19:00) Dragon Quest trilogy
(32:00) Metroid Prime 4 and the Nintendo Switcheroo
(36:20) Put some respect on Zelda’s name
(59:50) What else have Willa and Robin been up to? (feat. Metroid Prime and Arcane)
Mentioned this week
Princess Zelda Doesn’t Need A Sword to Be A Hero In The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Music
Street Food by FASSounds
We stand for a free Palestine, and against the occupation, oppression, and genocide perpetrated against its people.
Please consider donating or otherwise standing up to support Palestinians in the wake of Israel's attacks.
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Demand a ceasefire from your representatives
Game Assist's "Gamers for Palestine" resource packet
Cartoonist Cooperative’s e-SIM fundraiser
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Fresh off SGF, we’re covering even more showcases this week, with Ubisoft Forward and Willa’s takes on the Tribeca games selection. We’re also running down some great Steam demos for games that should be on our radar. And if that’s not enough for you, Into the Aether invited us to be guest hosts this week (for some reason) along with Emily Price, Tamoor Hussain, and AJ Fillari, so please check it out!!!
Timestamps
(00:40) We’re on Into the Aether baybeee!
(02:50) Half of Girl Mode is excited for Star Wars Outlaws
(10:45) Both of us are intrigued by Assassin’s Creed Shadows
(19:20) Some of our favorite Next Fest demos! (feat. Tormenture, One Button Bosses, Dice & Fold, Whimel Academy
(36:30) Willa’s field report from Tribeca Festival
(1:06:45) What else have Willa and Robin been up to? (feat. Ring Fit Adventure and Valorant on console)
Mentioned this week
Listen to us on Into the Aether!
Willa previews darkwebSTREAMER, Neva, and Skate Story
Music
Street Food by FASSounds
We stand for a free Palestine, and against the occupation, oppression, and genocide perpetrated against its people.
Please consider donating or otherwise standing up to support Palestinians in the wake of Israel's attacks.
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Demand a ceasefire from your representatives
Game Assist's "Gamers for Palestine" resource packet
Cartoonist Cooperative’s e-SIM fundraiser
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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