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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We’re rounding up some of last weekend’s game showcases, and mostly focusing on what we actually liked there for once! Despite Geoff Keighley’s dire warnings, SGF was pretty good this year, at least according to Robin who’s typing this right now. Then, Willa walks us through her demo of Citizen Sleeper 2, which Robin is definitely not envious of, before Joanna Dark barges in.
Timestamps
(00:40) Welcome to Keigh3
(02:00) How to watch (and not watch) games showcases
(11:00) Games we liked at SGF (feat. Neva, Blumhouse games, Alan Wake, Outersloth, and more)
(30:30) Games we liked at Day of the Devs (feat. basically everything at Day of the Devs)
(44:30) Picking a bone with Devolver
(48:20) Honorable mention for Ebitapes
(52:50) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week? (Willa’s Citizen Sleeper 2 preview)
(1:07:20) The Perfect Dark interruption (not in real time because there was a lot of dead air)
(1:10:55) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week? (Robin played some demos)
Mentioned this week
Citizen Sleeper 2 Ups The Ante With A Bigger And More Dangerous World
How the fight for bodily autonomy shaped 2022's most fascinating video game
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.
OK, this episode is very late so I’m posting it without show notes or you’d have to wait even longer. We talked about Summer Game Fest and how Geoff Keighley wants you to calm down about it, State of Play and how we wish someone would have warned us it would be bad ahead of time, and an inexplicable amount of baseball. Enjoy!
Watch Drawfee’s charity stream June 8 at 2 p.m. Eastern
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.
This week, Robin had too much coffee and she’s here to YELL. Fortunately, there’s plenty to YELL about, from Neil Druckmann (again) to AI (again) to layoffs (again). After lots of shouting, we finally talk about a whole bunch of things we actually liked this week to prove that we’re not haters 100% of the time.
Timestamps
(1:10) More like Neil Suckmann am I right
(11:20) The Hellblade 2 detour
(22:40) And one more thing about Neil Druckmann
(29:00) The Minecraft detour
(32:00) IGN, what the fuck are you doing?
(45:00) Games you should and shouldn’t play (feat. Paper Trail, Duck Detective, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, and The Rogue Prince of Persia [I keep saying Evil Twin when I mean Evil Empire])
(1:08:00) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week? (feat. the spy thriller genre, Jenny Nicholson, and I Saw the TV Glow)
Mentioned this week
Follow Alice Bell and Brendan Sinclair
That very bad Neil Druckmann interview (lmao they pulled this down, here's our annotated version)
Druckmann's unedited transcript
The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel
The Buzzy A24 Film Making Trans and Queer Viewers Feel Seen
A very good review of I Saw the TV Glow I found after recording
And an interview with Jane Schoenbrun on Gender Reveal
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 spent this week playing some great demos at Ludonarracon so we’re running down a few of the best that you should have on your list! Then, we check in on some disappointing changes and Mountain Dew-flavored events coming to Final Fantasy XIV!
Timestamps
(1:20) Our favorite Ludonarracon (not Next Fest) demos
(42:30) FFXIV Live Letter, RIP Astrologians
(1:04:30) Reminder: Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is very good
(1:08:00) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week?
Mentioned this week
9 Demos You Need To Play During Steam’s LudoNarraCon 2024
Uh-oh, I Already Hate What Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Is Doing To This Job
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 starting the week with bad news, including some pretty shocking layoffs at Microsoft, but it gets better from there. We move next through some of the best indie releases of the week before ending with the best indie game of the year, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes.
Timestamps
(1:00) Somehow, Stray Gods returned
(4:00) Microsoft fucked up
(19:00) A fantastic week for indie games
(35:00) We’re seeing it all through Laser Eyes
Mentioned this week
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes reviews from Robin and Willa
maybe you’ll find me by theydevil
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 keeping things nice and short this week, because we already shared our best/most deranged thoughts with the good people of the Press Start podcast! Here on our feed, we’re talking about Hades 2, Crow Country, and the upcoming Steamworld Heist 2. It’s frankly the most buttoned-up we’ve ever been, so make sure you give Press Start a listen for more of our usual energy (weird, off-putting, horny).
Timestamps
(1:00) Press Start Girl
(2:40) Hades 2
(14:30) Crow Country
(26:00) Steamworld Heist 2
(31:00) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week?
Mentioned this week
Robin continues talking about Witching Stone
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.
This time, we’re mercifully bringing you a shorter episode to follow our longest episode ever last week. We spend most of our time on a spoiler-filled discussion of Sucker for Love: Date to Die for, a horror/comedy/romance visual novel that has us both under its spell. Then we make a quick return to the land of sexist grifters to put a cap on the year’s dumbest gaming controversy surrounding Stellar Blade. Then Willa tells you about her favorite new way to play visual novels, and Robin tells you about some very good fish.
Timestamps
(1:00) Sucker for Love: Date to Die for makes monster fuckers of us all
(45:00) No one is coming to take your video game boobies away
(54:00) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week?
Mentioned this week
Stellar Blade and the Male Gaze
Horror and Romance Make Surprisingly Good Partners In Sucker for Love: Date to Die For
This Horror Dating Sim Sets A Hot New Standard
Hades II Is The Kind Of Hot We Need Right Now
Send us questions/fish content
Music
Street Food by FASSounds
Support bail funds for campus protesters!
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.
Palestinian Relief Bundle on itch
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.
This week, we’re starting an all new Girl Mode continuity as we dive into Grant Morrison’s apparently incredible run on X-Men. It’s unsurprisingly our longest episode ever, and Robin even gets so into the description of these comics she forgets to pester Willa for large portions of the show!
Follow along with what we’re looking at here!
Listen to parts one (Ep. 26), two (Ep. 38), and three (Ep. 56) of our X-Men series!
Timestamps
It’s all X-Men baby!
Mentioned this week
Palestinian Relief Bundle on itch
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.
This week, we’re rounding up a whole mess of news, from the good (female Hrothgar) to the bad (Willa has lost interest in Star Wars Outlaws) to the incredibly bizarre (Possibility Space closing in the strangest way possible). Plus, we decide who would be better at making Final Fantasy than Square Enix in a totally serious and well-informed segment.
Timestamps
(01:30) Get out of here, Han Solo
(08:50) Triple-i or, what if we made indie more like AAA?
(22:30) The Final Fantasy Garage Sale
(43:20) Hrothgirls!
(46:00) “Two tickets to Sifu, please” - No one ever
(49:40) Cataclysm Classic
(54:30) Possibility Space closes with a tantrum but we’re still not sure why
(58:50) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week?
Mentioned this week
Jeff Strain’s extremely bizarre statement on Possibility Space
Robin tells you to play Between Horizons in more detail
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.
[CW: mentions of queerphobia, racism, and nazi imagery. We keep it as light as possible under the circumstances but please proceed with caution.]
Now that we’ve lured people in with Dragon’s Dogma 2 and sex stuff, we’re going back to what this podcast is really about — yelling about bigots! First, we talk about Rebekah Valentine’s recent reporting on Life is Strange developer Deck Nine, and how one shitty dude can make life miserable for a lot of people. Then we move on to Helldivers 2 and Signalis, two games that had a lot of fascists up in arms for very stupid reasons over the past week. I swear it’s not as much of a bummer as it sounds!
Timestamps
(00:15) Traditional episode 70 check-in
(08:00) Deck Nine’s very bad iceberg or, why we can’t have nice things
(28:20) Oh god, we have to talk about Mark Kern
(33:40) We get to talk about Signalis again, but at what cost?
(40:00) It’s hard to satirize fascism with fascists enjoying it because they’re too stupid to get that it’s satire
(58:00) What else have Willa and Robin been up to (aside from tearing their hair out)?
Mentioned this week
How Many Clicks Does It Take To Get to the Center of Diablo?
How Hidden Nazi Symbols Were the Tip of a Toxic Iceberg at Life Is Strange Developer Deck Nine
Nick Calandra’s good thread about Mark Kern
For some Helldivers 2 players, the fascist role-play has gone too far
callie’s good thread about Signalis
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 Relief Bundle on itch (coming April 12)
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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