The Girls on Games Podcast

The State of Open World Games - GoGCast 188

We’re stepping out in the vast open world in this week’s GoGCast. Games like Skyrim, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Witcher 3 set a new bar when it comes to open world games in terms of gameplay innovation and quality. Today’s open world games axed features like mini-maps and set task lists in order to prioritize exploration and remove the pressure of completing every bit of content available. We share our favourite open world games, what we love about them, how they’ve changed and how we now approach playing these games.

Motherboard article referenced: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvzj45/open-world-games-finally-got-out-of-their-own-way-in-2017

This week in news: Switch becomes the best selling console during Black Friday, Bethesda giving 500 atoms to gamers who bout the Fallout 76 Collector’s edition in view of poor “bag” quality, Bioware teases Dragon Age announcement and the Xbox adaptive controller makes Time’s Best Invention of 2018 list.

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Thanks for listening! The GoGCast comes out weekly so make sure to subscribe and you won't miss an episode. For more about us, Girls on Games, check out girlsongames.ca.

Interview with Michael Antonakos - GoGCast 187

Michael Anotonakos is our guest for this week’s GoGCast! He’s the actor behind Alexios in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and his body of work includes Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, Sleeping Dogs, Max Steel, Dead Rising 5, Mass Effect Andromeda, and the upcoming Anthem. We chat with Michael about his work in video games, TV and movies as well as his upcoming short film project An Unexpected Vocation. Plus, Ali talks about the current state of Fallout 76.

This week in news: It’s awards season with the Video Game Awards, Gamer’s Choice Awards and the Golden Joysticks, Playdiablo4.com no longer redirects to Path of Exile, Pokémon Let’s Go beats launch sale records on Switch and Rainbow Six Siege cosmetic changes will only affect players in China.

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Thanks for listening! The GoGCast comes out weekly so make sure to subscribe and you won't miss an episode. For more about us, Girls on Games, check out girlsongames.ca.

Toronto Defiant: interview with Chris Overholt - GoGCast 186

Get to know one of the Overwatch League’s latest team the Toronto Defiant! We chat with Chris Overholt, President and CEO of OverActive Media which owns the Toronto Defiant. Chris comes from professional sport background with an impressive résumé including the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Miami Dolphins, the Florida Panthers and the Toronto Raptors. We chat with Chris about his jump into esports and what’s in store for the Toronto Defiant. Plus Leah shares her first impressions of Pokémon Let’s Go.

This week in news: Disgruntled QA employee leaks most of Black Ops 4 Zombies, Microsoft acquires studios Obsidian and INxile and Sony pulls out of E3 2019.

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Thanks for listening! The GoGCast comes out weekly so make sure to subscribe and you won't miss an episode. For more about us, Girls on Games, check out girlsongames.ca.

Interview with Sam Maggs - GoGCast 185

Author and Senior Writer Sam Maggs is our guest for this week’s GoGCast! Sam is currently a Senior Writer at Insomniac Games, contributed to projects such as Bioware’s Anthem and comics such as Star Trek, and is the author of books THE FANGIRL’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, WONDER WOMEN, and the recently published GIRL SQUADS. We chat with Sam about her career in games, her work as an author, nerd over Tamora Pierce books and more.

This week in news: Riot Games releases amazing kpop song and video (bonus: video essay on the visuals on K/DA) but is also getting sued for gender discrimination by former and current employees, Ninja streams with Logic and Rick and Morty but it falls flat and Rainbow Six Siege announces cosmetic changes as the game gets ready for the Asian market.

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Thanks for listening! The GoGCast comes out weekly so make sure to subscribe and you won't miss an episode. For more about us, Girls on Games, check out girlsongames.ca.

 

GoGCast 184: Fallout 76 B.E.T.A.

Tune in Vault Dwellers because we talk Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. on this week’s GoGCast! Ali shares her first impressions of Fallout 76 and her experience of playing the B.E.T.A. Plus we round-up the hot news stories about Fallout 76, Blizzcon and Super Smash Bros Ultimate Direct.

Fallout 76 news round-up: Bethesda enlist Ninja, Logic and Rick and Morty for a promotion stream of Fallout 76 (Endgadget), Hackers have already found a way to hack Fallout 76 (Forbes), Fellow dev replies to article on how physics are tied to framerate (Twitter), Game files being totally deleted by a bug (The Next Web).

This week in news: Blizzcon highlights - Diablo Immortal was announcement receives lackluster reception and Ashe is Overwatch’s new hero, Nintendo announces new Super Smash Bros Ultimate characters and single player mode World of Light during Direct and finally, Mixer Season 2 is on.

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Thanks for listening! The GoGCast comes out weekly so make sure to subscribe and you won't miss an episode. For more about us, Girls on Games, check out girlsongames.ca.

GoGCast 183: Red Dead Redemption 2

Saddle up, partner! We’re headin’ to the heartland of America in this week’s episode of the GoGCast as we talk Red Dead Redemption 2. A smash hit by Rockstar Games, Read Dead Redemption 2 is ranking in an epic Metacritic score but does it live up to the hype? Leah shares her first impressions of the game and we discuss all the controversial news surrounding the development of Red Dead Redemption 2.

This week in news: Drake new 100T co-owner, Michael Jordan invests in Team Liquid, Toronto Defiant is the latest team to join the Overwatch League and Microsoft hints at expanding Game Pass to PC.

The Red Dead Redemption 2 news round-up: Inside’s Rockstar Crunch culture (Kotaku), The Human Cost of RDR2 (Eurogamer) and RDR2’ Labor Controversy Explained (Polygon)

Related: Crunch, work-life balance and Assassin's Creed Odyssey: A View From The Top (Gamastura)

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Thanks for listening! The GoGCast comes out weekly so make sure to subscribe and you won't miss an episode. For more about us, Girls on Games, check out girlsongames.ca.

GoGCast 182: 'Next Big Thing' Gamer Sitcom

It’s time to talk about the Next Big Thing. No, not the next big console or next gaming service, but a gamer centric sitcom titled Next Big Thing. Show creator and writers Aly Miller and Paul Castro Jr are on this week’s GoGCast to chat about Next Big Thing which they describe as "a single camera comedy centered around a group of millennial video game fanatics who fantasize about being number one in life... and on the leaderboards." Aly and Paul chat with us about the premise of the show, the characters and more.

This week in news: How Fan Projects are preserving video game history (bonus: No Clip’s Good Old Game documentary), Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. is coming to Xbox and Total Biscuit to be inducted into the ESL Hall of Fame.

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Thanks for listening! The GoGCast comes out weekly so make sure to subscribe and you won't miss an episode. For more about us, Girls on Games, check out girlsongames.ca. 

GoGCast 181: Interview with [ALEXANDROS]

This week, we chat with jrock band [ALEXANDROS] who recently wrote two songs for the upcoming PlayStation 4 game by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios: Project JUDGE. The band talks with us about the inspiration for those songs, the games they like to play, for which games they would love to write songs for and more. Plus, Ali gives her first impressions of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

This week in news: Forza Horizon 4 is the fastest selling of the series in the UK, Microsoft announces Project Xcloud and we have more details about the PSN name changes.

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Thanks for listening! The GoGCast comes out weekly so make sure to subscribe and you won't miss an episode. For more about us, Girls on Games, check out girlsongames.ca. 

GoGCast 180: interview with Lucie Pohl

Heroes never die! This week on the GoGCast, we have the pleasure of interviewing Lucie Pohl, comedian and actress who is the voice of Mercy in Overwatch and Rixxa Fluxflame in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. Lucie shares with us stories of growing up in New York, studying in Germany, writing her first comedy show, landing the voice gig with Blizzard and more.

Here's the video made with Sombra and Pharah referenced in this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGudrGV2myE

This week in news: we go over your feedback regarding buying physical or digital games, Harry Potter RPG “Magic Awakened” leaked, name changes are finally coming to the PSN, new Nintendo Switch model apparently coming in 2019 and the Soul Calibur community designed their own character and the result is hilarious.

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Thanks for listening! The GoGCast comes out weekly so make sure to subscribe and you won't miss an episode. For more about us, Girls on Games, check out girlsongames.ca. 

GoGcast 179: Why Do Gamers Still Buy Physical Games?

Do you prefer buying physical or digital games? Why is that? This week on the GoGCast, we take a look at a survey done by GameIndustry.biz, ISFE and Ipsos Mori's GameTrack consumer asking buyers of physical games why they choose boxes over downloads. We break down the stats and share our insights. Plus, Catherine gives her first impressions of Forza Horizon 4 and Leah has all the highlights from Minecon Earth 2018.

This week in news: Telltale Games is looking for potential partners to finish The Walking Dead which prompted a reaction from God of War’s director, former Telltale employees are also suing the studio for the lack of forewarning and severance, Vivendi is selling off all of their Ubisoft stocks, Microsoft announces XO18 in Mexico City, Sony says there will be no PSX this year, Kinda Funny announces their game showcase and finally, there are political ads on Xbox live.

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Thanks for listening! The GoGCast comes out weekly so make sure to subscribe and you won't miss an episode. For more about us, Girls on Games, check out girlsongames.ca.