Girl Mode

Robin and Willa have both played The Plucky Squire, a kids’ game with some questionable puzzle design that we’re both pretty fond of nonetheless. Then we talk about some things we’re considerably less fond of, namely, just about every decision PlayStation has made recently (except a beautiful new controller).

Timestamps

(00:50) More Mets news

(04:20) The main event (The Plucky Squire)

(25:20) Plucky Squire spoilers begin

(32:20) Plucky Squire spoilers end

(42:10) Sony being Sony (releasing unnecessary remasters)

(48:25) We will stop complaining about Astro Bot when Sony sends us PlayStation anniversary controllers

(52:10) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week? (feat. The People's Joker, Steam Deck x PlayStation Remote Play)

Mentioned this week

The Plucky Squire: The Kotaku Review

UFO 50 review: the 8-bit era returns in this fantastic retro collection

Pirate Kart Dot Com

Indiepocalypse

Horizon Zero Dawn and Freedom Wars Remasters Show the Ups and Downs of the Remake Trend

TheWorstGarbage.online

Join The Worst Garbage Discord!

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.

Gaza Funds

eSims for Gaza

Medical Aid for Palestinians

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 played Astro Bot, a cheerful platformer/Sony commercial that everyone loves. After predictably finding a lot not to love about it, we run through the rest of our week, careening wildly from Chappell Roan to Flappy Bird and more.

Timestamps

(00:20) Hello new listeners

(06:25) Let’s go Mets!

(08:30) Astro Bot, brought to you by Sony

(41:00) News grab bag (fun edition)

(46:00) Robin played some cool indie games (feat. Pyrene, Caravan Sandwitch)

(52:00) News grab bag (bad edition)

(57:40) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week? (feat. Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves)

Mentioned this week

Astro Bot is a Colorful Playground Built on Top of Studios Sony Crushed

Check Out This Amazing Paintbrush Controller Someone Made For FF14's Brush-Wielding Pictomancers

Pyrene Combines Two Popular Genres to Build Something Totally Unique

Caravan SandWitch Is A Slow-Paced Journey I’d Gladly Take Again

Annapurna Video-Game Team Resigns, Leaving Partners Scrambling

Flappy Bird Is Back But This Time It Sucks

TheWorstGarbage.online

Join The Worst Garbage Discord!

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.

Gaza Funds

eSims for Gaza

Medical Aid for Palestinians

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.

After an exciting announcement about the podcast, we have a wide-ranging show this week, covering the return of sword discourse, two recent PlayStation games we feel weird about, and some brief thoughts on a whole bunch of news that broke this week. 

Timestamps

(00:30) We’re officially garbage

(04:30) Echoes of Wisdom and the return of sword discourse

(19:50) RIP Concord

(27:50) Astro Bot looks like a cheerful nightmare

(33:20) Willa’s gone space fishing

(36:00) FFXIV players get weird about a trans woman

(40:00) Arcane season 2 looks good as hell

(42:40) What is Dragon Age: The Veilguard is good?

(52:30) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week? (feat. Rings of Power, Twin Peaks)

Mentioned this week

Nintendo Needs a Reason for the Girl to be the Hero

Concord’s rocky launch is less complicated than you think

Astro Bot - Bot On Melancholy Hill

How Apex Legends made its first trans woman more than “the transition story”

TheWorstGarbage.online

Join The Worst Garbage Discord!

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.

Gaza Funds

eSims for Gaza

Medical Aid for Palestinians

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.

In today’s episode, we’re feeling normal about last week’s sicko-centric Nintendo Direct double feature. We cover a surprisingly stacked set of announcements, revisit the dating sim discourse that will never die, and predictably have different reactions to a re-release of a certified Old Person Game.

Timestamps

(01:30) Two normal people talk about the Indie World Showcase

(14:00) Date Everything and the return of dating sim discourse

(23:50) Nintendo Direct: Dorks and Losers Edition

(49:20) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week? (feat. Alien: Romulus, dotzip’s 1000xResist episode, The Rings of Power, and Star Wars Outlaws)

Mentioned this week

dotzip talks for five hours about 1000xResist

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.

Gaza Funds

eSims for Gaza

Medical Aid for Palestianians

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.

Willa makes her triumphant return and we celebrate by talking about everything we liked and mostly didn’t from Gamescom Opening Night Live. We cover takes both good and bad, commit to playing yet another game we definitely don’t have the time for, and run through the best (and in one case worst) of what we’ve been playing, watching, and eating this week.

Timestamps

(02:40) Gamescom sure did happen

(05:40) We love shorter(ish) games

(11:30) Secret Levels looks whatever

(25:50) Peter Molynieux please never change

(29:00) This time for sure for real we will play Monster Hunter

(31:20) Misc. Gamescom

(41:20) Willa’s plane games (feat. A Highland Song, Arranger)

(47:00) The duality of Square Enix (feat. Visions of Mana, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance)

(57:20) What else have Willa and Robin been up to this week? (feat. Christopher Nolan's entire filmography, Forever by Charly Bliss, and a baking revelation)

Mentioned this week

Shorter standalones like Dying Light: The Beast are "the future of games"

A List Of Every Game Featured In Amazon’s Promising ‘Secret Level’ Show

So yeah, since we recorded this, Wizards of the Coast walked back its most recent idiotic move. Here’s a great explainer from Ash Parrish on the whole debacle: D&D publisher walks back controversial changes to online tools

Video game lawyer Haley Maclean explains copyright law

Monument Valley 3 Looks So Good You Might Actually Remember Netflix Games Exists

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.

Gaza Funds

eSims for Gaza

Medical Aid for Palestianians

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.

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

Listen to Into the Aether!

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.

Gaza Funds

eSims for Gaza

Medical Aid for Palestianians

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.

Gaza Funds

eSims for Gaza

Medical Aid for Palestianians

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.

Gaza Funds

eSims for Gaza

Medical Aid for Palestianians

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.

Gaza Funds

eSims for Gaza

Medical Aid for Palestianians

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

Overwatch 2's new space girl healer takes the throne as one of the most strategically satisfying heroes in the game

.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.

Gaza Funds

eSims for Gaza

Medical Aid for Palestianians

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.