Girl Mode

Listen this week as we have a normal, friendly conversation and never once shout at each other or cause trouble. We're following up last week's Game Awards predictions with the Official Girl Mode ballot in yet another installment of why Willa and Robin should be in charge of all games media. Mentioned this week: Towards a Free Palestine game jam Press Start's Final Fantasy X episode Follow us wher...

The day before the Game Awards nominees were announced, the Girl Mode council convened to make our own predictions about what would be on the ballot. Tune in to witness our amazing powers of prophecy and/or deductive reasoning. But first, we tackle our complicated feelings on the state of games media, as a new Defector of video games sprung up in the middle of another week of layoffs and shutdowns...

It's Girl Mode's first anniversary! We're celebrating by making our listeners come up with this week's topic, aka, answering listener questions. Tune in as we discuss our dream game mechanics, video games as short films, why we refuse to git gud, and our growing obsession with Final Fantasy XI. Thanks so much to everyone who sent us questions and everyone who's listened to us! It means a lot and w...

We spent the week catching up on some of the best games of the year in the lead-up to the Game Awards. Tune in to hear about some of the best games you might have overlooked of 2023, plus our thoughts on why graphics don't actually need to get any better. We stand for a free Palestine, and against the occupation, oppression, and genocide perpetrated against its people. Please consider donating or...

With spooky season in full swing, we decided to watch some of the "best" "horror" movies of all time this week. We may not be able to remember almost anything that happens in the Resident Evil movies, but we do have strong opinions about all of Milla Jovovich's haircuts. No timestamps this week. It's all Resident Evil, babes! Music Street Food by FASSounds Donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians to...

We've been playing an absurd number of demos this week, thanks to the return of the Steam Next Fest! Tune in to sample our tasting menu of games, including at least one we'll probably both be talking about obsessively for quite some time. Then, TV critic Willa Rowe stops by with her fall anime preview. Mentioned this week Way too many things so you're just going to have to listen to the episode &l...

We're confronting the mortifying ordeal of being known this week by discussing multiplayer games. What do we want from multiplayer, which games are better with an audience, and can you believe Willa didn't tell Zoe she was a fucking cop? Then, it's an extended segment on what we've been doing this week, since Robin can't shut up about her time as a cute little bug. (00:45) The really old books cin...

You're not gonna believe this, but a conversation about a AAA action game leads into an extended lament for the state of the games industry in this episode. That's bookended by Willa failing to show sufficient respect for Dragon's Dogma 2, some really good Pokemon art, and Robin sharing good news on this show for once in her fucking life. Timestamps (00:30) Quokka Talk/Willa's new coworker (05:30)...

This week, we start with Dragon's Dogma, Yakuza, and other updates from the games marketing event extended universe. Then we catch up with all the news we straightup forgot about last week, namely Unity fucking everyone over and Microsoft using court filings as a venue for legal exhibitionism. Timestamps (00:20) Rain (the video game) inspired by rain (the weather phenomenon) (02:00) Even more show...

Nintendo and Sony both bombarded us with promotional materials this week, so we're covering the Nintendo Direct and Sony State of Play. Then we talk about how much we love Armored Core 6, which we played only a few hours of before recording and it's all we can think about. Timestamps (01:00) Swordfighter Peach Appreciation Society (16:45) Willa fixes FF7 Rebirth (32:20) We're fully mech pilled Men...

This week's theme is "Robin and Willa have been too busy to talk so we're catching up now." We share what games we've been enjoying and not enjoying lately, Willa turns out not to be a very good detective, and Robin absolutely fails to guess Zoe's Baldur's Gate 3 companion tier list. No timestamps this week because we talk about too much and I'm very busy :) Mentioned this week Willa on Assassin's...

We're keeping it (relatively) short this week for purely thematic reasons and not because we're both tired and busy. Inspired by Sea of Stars' fishing, we talk about our favorite and least favorite minigames, including one that threatens to break up Girl Mode. (1:00) What if we put a game inside of a game (14:00) Willa decides to end Robin's life (20:10) Blitzball, Gwent, and even more minigames (...

Willa visited her hometown this week, and somehow it made us both nostalgic. After playing Bomb Rush Cyberfunk and Sea of Stars, we're talking about retro throwbacks — games that intentionally evoke their old-school influences. We cover what makes this sub-genre so popular, the different ways nostalgia can be deployed, and cats wearing mech suits. Timestamps (00:20) A whole bunch of bullshit (07:1...

Love is in the air this week as we're still playing Baldur's Gate 3, a game about getting down with your problematic favs and I guess saving the world or whatever if there's time left over. After sharing our thoughts on BG3's romance and why it's maybe been a little overblown, we talk about what does and doesn't work in game romance generally. Surprising no one, we end by recommending some indie g...

[Baldur's Gate 3 Act 1 spoilers from 3:20 to 53:25] We're actually in sync with the rest of the world this week, meaning we've done nothing but play Baldur's Gate 3. We cover our favorite encounters so far, who we're smooching, thoughts on why BG3 would be better untethered from D&D, and of course our take on THAT video. Timestamps (00:20) Kafka check-in (03:20) Karlach Appreciation Society (5...

On today's episode, we run down the good, bad, and incredibly problematic news from the recent FFXIV Fan Fest. After speculating about Dawntrail's new jobs and thirsting over hypothetical future bunny girls, we turn our attention to what's quickly become the year's biggest RPG. We still haven't played much of Baldur's Gate 3, but we did both get to make hot trans tieflings in its character creator...

We're talking about NEWS this week, because coming up with topics is HARD. Overwatch League may be over, Star Wars Outlaws may be a cooking sim, GTA 6 may finally be coming out, and AI definitely has no place in journalism. Then we have an extended segment on what we've been watching this week, including Robin's new favorite anime and the two — excuse me, three — biggest movies of the summer. Time...

In this issue, Willa emerges from a cocoon at the bottom of Jamaica Bay with more stories of mutants, homosexuals, and homosexual mutants. It's the second part of our sporadic series on X-Men history, in which Willa covers roughly 40 percent of what she planned to and Robin occasionally knows what's going on. From sexy space wives to scratched corneas, we've got it all this week! If you haven't he...

Robin has been upgraded from unemployed to underemployed, so we spend this week talking about jobs. Specifically, job sims. What games belong in this extremely broad genre and do we like any of them? Why do people want to do free digital labor when they don't have to? Is Willa a time-traveling assassin? You'll find the answers to these questions and more in this week's episode. (02:05) So, what is...

To get back into the swing after our week off, we're playing the hits this time by griping about games media and getting excited for indies. First up, Final Fantasy XVI inspires us to talk about the deeply frustrating state of video game reviews and why scores are the least important part of them. Then we move to sunnier territory by running down our favorite parts of the Annapurna Interactive Sho...

Robin has finally played the Final Fantasy 16 demo, so we're back yet again to share our heretical opinions on Square Enix's next guaranteed 10/10 game. Then we turn to a topic that's much less harmful to chocobos, with Willa's trip to play Tribeca's official game selections in-person. We cut things short this week after Robin's computer goes on strike, a decision which we of course fully support,...

Summer game showcase season is in full swing, and may god have mercy on our souls. This week, we talk through the best and worst of Summer Game Fest, Day of the Devs, and too many other shows to list. From fluid herding gameplay to Willa declaring war on Atlus, we cover a lot of ground this time. Timestamps (00:30) It's the most insufferable time of the year (11:30) Citizen Sleeper 2 GOTY 2024 and...

Pride is here and we're celebrating by continuing to be gay. What starts as a fun conversation about queer characters ends up as a lament of mainstream queer representation and why it's so important for developers to do better. (0:30) Happy Pride from two exhausted lesbians (3:50) No cops at Pride (even in Overwatch) (12:30) Return to the Homoverse (20:00) A long rambling conversation about our fr...

Somehow, not-E3 season is already upon us and Sony is first out of the gate to set the bar low. We run through a bunch of games we mostly can't tell apart before Robin falls into a fugue state and rambles about Dragon's Dogma 2 for a while. After Willa shares what she's been reading and watching this week, Robin gives a TotK check-in that's still pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. It's the e...

It's normie week on Girl Mode, with Willa and Robin actually talking about AAA games for once. First, we discuss our time so far with Tears of the Kingdom, a good game with some big issues worth pointing out. Then Willa dives into her preview of Final Fantasy XVI, a game that's so just dark and gritty dude, and what it means for the series as a whole. We round out the week with video essays, board...