Splash Damage: Recent Episodes
scrivonaut
Interested in video games, anime, and other geeky things and the culture of outrage surrounding them? In this podcast, husband-and-wife duo Scrivonaut and Norayla—and sometimes special guests—dive deep on controversies consuming the nerd sphere.
After removing 500 digital movies from purchasers’ libraries, Sony announced PlayStation will stop the production of game discs in early 2028, meaning expensive digital titles will be the only way to game on future PS consoles. We discuss this news along with Xbox’s layoffs and announcement of “resetting,” the hilarious day-one issues with Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynched and Halo: Campaign Evolved, and Fortnite’s addition of bikini skins.
A trailer for Stellar Blade: Blood Rain released, and everyone who detests attractive women in games instantly accused the new protagonist, Evie, of looking like a child. We discuss the reaction along with Shift Up’s defense of her design along with news of Grand Theft Auto VI and the Steam Machine’s prices, Microsoft’s ridiculous “considerations” for developers and their shuttering of Xbox studios, Lara Croft’s classic look in the upcoming Tomb Raider game, Bungie layoffs, and more.
Another one of PlayStation’s exclusive franchises is following the trend of replacing its mainstay male protagonist with a woman. In God of War: Laufey, Kratos is out, and you instead will play as his dead wife, Faye. We discuss this trend and what it means for the series along with Halo’s dumb gay pride skins, Subnautica 2’s refusal to kill flora and fauna that can easily kill you, and Fortnite’s move toward a more mature audience.
The developers of Lords of the Fallen 2 claimed it would include attractive female characters, and they delivered: Concept art from the game shows its women will wear somewhat revealing fantasy outfits. The drew the ire of industry staples, including The Gamer. We discuss their reaction to the art along with Slay the Spire 2’s reviews tanking after it came to light Anita Sarkeesian was involved in the game’s development, Invincible’s creators crucifying themselves for the sin of being white men, and the wokeness behind Christopher Nolan’s upcoming The Odyssey.
God of War creator David Jaffe tweeted he thought the greedy, big-nosed goblins of Crimson Desert are antisemitic, hilariously showing what he thinks of real-world Jews. We discuss the irony of being so anti-racist that you end up sounding incredibly racist, along with news that the Mass Effect show is being rewritten to appeal to non-gamers, Ryan Gosling’s based take on Hollywood making movies worth seeing, the negative reception to the Harry Potter TV show trailer, and more!
Female gamers are frothing at the mouth over Resident Evil: Requiem’s attractive main character, Leon Kennedy. We discuss the hypocrisy of celebrating a male character’s attractiveness after years of insulting gamers for enjoying attractive female characters, along with Highguard’s shutdown, Nvidia’s depressing AI tech that alters games in real time, Alanah Pearce’s defense of the sex minigames in the upcoming God of War remakes, Marathon not being reviewed at Bungie’s request, and more.
Relooted, an African-developed game about black people heisting museums for artifacts to return them to the cultures from which they came, released to a resounding 57 players on Steam. Despite being an utter failure for “modern audiences,” Kotaku and PC Gamer are covering the game as if it’s actually popular. We discuss the situation along with TheGamer’s complaints about Overwatch’s new female hero design, RuneScape going woke, and the delay of the third Horizon game due to a spinoff no one asked for.
Despite assurances that Assassin’s Creed Shadows was nothing but a success, Ubisoft has canceled six projects, delayed others, and closed two studios, plummeting their stock. We discuss the company’s recent and future woes along with the diversity of the upcoming Fable game, the poor sales of Outer Worlds 2, Highguard’s mid reception, and plenty more!
Lords of the Fallen 2 developer and publisher Hexworks and CI Games are getting flak in the video game industry for a single tweet that confirmed the game will feature attractive characters and outfits. We discuss how far video games have fallen that this creative decision is worthy of ridicule, along with Sony’s AI patent that will censor games in real time, Ubisoft admitting Assassin’s Creed Shadows was controversial, how ugly Farah is in the new Prince of Persia remake, and more!
By all accounts, this should have been a big year for gaming, but recent releases such as Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ghost of Yotei, and Outer Worlds 2 are not selling as well as developers (and shareholders) perhaps hoped. We discuss why they might be underperforming along with Ubisoft’s potential pending destruction, a Eurogamer reviewer who admitted to regretting giving Dragon Age: The Veilguard such a high score, the Steam Machine and what that means for Xbox, and more!
CNN wrote a lengthy piece illustrating how the male gaze is returning, bringing with it the things human beings actually find attractive in media. We talk about this welcomed return to sanity along with Microsoft continuing to kill the Xbox brand by increasing console and Game Pass subscription costs, EA being sold to Saudis, and the weird social justice games indoctrinating children in Roblox.
Several game developers, including a prominent one behind Ghost of Yotei, mocked Charlie Kirk’s assassination. We discuss the irony of “anti”-fascists celebrating a political opponent being killed for his free speech along with Sweet Baby Inc.’s hilarious take on colonialism in cozy games, Metal Gear Solid Delta’s trigger warning, the failure of Relooted, and more.
In an amazing case of everyone involved with the train wreck that was Dragon Age: The Veilguard continuing to fail upwards, Bethesda has hired one of the lead writers of the game, presumably to work on Elder Scrolls VI. We discuss our eroding faith in the anticipated game along with Polygon calling Street Fighter 6 fans gooners, voice actor ProZD’s hypocrisy when it comes to “diversity” in casting, TeamKill Media’s ironic excuse for not putting their game on PC, Outer Worlds 2’s weak anti-capitalist message, and more!
It seems everyone from governments to giant companies to random grassroots groups are suddenly gunning for video game censorship. We discuss recent pushes made to quell what games people are able to buy along with Xbox and PlayStation shifting away from hardware, reviewers dinging great games for the sin of including attractive female characters, and Obsidian dropping the price of the upcoming Outer Worlds 2.
Wonderfilled Games created GiantLands, a game that proudly imagines a future with no white people. We discuss the open and blatant racism of the game along with insider rumors that diversity is being removed from games in response to Trump’s America, Ubisoft’s hilarious idea to make consumers destroy copies of their games once support for them ends, Polygon’s plea for trigger warnings in Death Stranding 2, news that video games sales are plummeting, and more!
Popular PlayStation 5 exclusive Stellar Blade just launched on PC, and it’s the best-performing PS exclusive ever released on PC, despite games journalists constantly (and hypocritically) trying to smear it. We discuss its success and journalists’ out-of-touch takes on the game along with its CEO’s based take on modding games, RuneScape’s canceled pride event, Jason Schreier’s ignorant reporting on Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the wokeness of Brandon Sanderson’s new Wind and Truth book, and more.
Since Ubisoft won’t release official sales data for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, internet sleuths have put together their best guess, and it’s not good. We discuss the lackluster sales along with fan reactions to Ciri being the protagonist and a witcher in the upcoming Witcher IV, author Brandon Sanderson showing an example of how Hollywood purposefully butchers TV and movie versions of beloved IPs, Take Two’s removal of queer-focused efforts from its annual report, Nintendo’s removal of gender from Miis, and Debra Wilson voice acting as someone who actually doesn’t look like her for once.
A small studio of about thirty ex-Ubisoft developers have released an ambitious, critically and commercially acclaimed RPG called Clair Obscur: Expedition. Despite being made by such a small team, it’s blowing the woke, bloated AAA industry out of the water. We discuss how the video game industry at large should be embarrassed by this indie game’s success along with The Last of Us show’s plummeting ratings due to the golf club scene, the racist recasting of The Last Airbender characters for upcoming sequel movies, Nintendo proving how much they suck lately by suing the makers of Palworld, Polygon’s destruction, increasing Xbox prices, and more!
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered shadow-dropped this week, and while it’s mostly faithful to the original 2006 game, it has been adjusted in some ways for “modern audiences.” We discuss these changes along with the announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2 and its expensive games, Sweet Baby Inc. being dropped by Sony, and Compulsion Games’ distaste for white men.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is out, and while Ubisoft keeps bragging about how many millions of people have played it, the truth is sales are down in Japan, and the game got fewer concurrent players than Dragon Age: The Veilguard. We discuss the game’s launch along with TheGamer’s hilarious article comparing Monster Hunter Wilds’ success to Veilguard’s failure, the Invincible graphic novel creator’s lack of artistic integrity, and more.
Randy Pitchford, CEO of the Borderlands franchise, couldn’t help but shoot himself in the foot by going on a tirade after a loyal fan criticized the direction of the upcoming Borderlands 4. We discuss his overreaction along with news that there’s maybe only two dozen full-time games journalists left, Monster Hunter Wilds knowing how to make attractive female characters, thoughts on Avowed, Overwatch 2’s desperate attempt to make their female heroes cute again, most Assassin’s Creed Shadows controversies, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s ongoing failure.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is out, and it includes several woke and out-of-place elements that never would have been included in the decidedly anti-woke original game from 2018. We discuss the 180-degree turn for the series along with BioWare downsizing and EA learning nothing since Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s failure, Ghost of Yotei’s impending horrible writing, the downplay of Yasuke in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the success of Lords of the Fallen after changing genders from body type A and B to male and female, and Forza Horizon 5 coming to PlayStation 5 in the spring.
The sales figures for Dragon Age: The Veilguard are out, and they show the game fell short of sales expectations by fifty percent. We discuss what this means for Bioware along with drama surrounding the upcoming Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Ubisoft’s change to the description of Yasuke from “samurai” to “warrior” in Japanese marketing for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Xbox censoring female characters in the Ninja Gaiden 2 Black trailer, CI Games removing wokeness from Lords of the Fallen based on fan feedback, and plenty more.
The developers of the upcoming Witcher 4 game admitted at least part of the story will focus on the struggles of being a woman in a medieval world. This isn’t necessarily a red flag, but when you consider other suspicious things about the game and CD Projekt Red, it’s a cause for concern for many fans. We discuss these warning signs along with Helldivers 2’s director’s advice to game makers to focus on making good games instead of contemporary political statements, polls that show gamers don’t care about inclusivity in games, and PC Gamer and other prominent voices that believe Ubisoft as a company is cooked.
Not a single American-made game was nominated for The Game Awards’ game of the year this year, proving how bleak the industry has gotten stateside. We discuss the annual awards show, including the controversial Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet trailer, along with the success of Marvel Rivals compared to Concord, Ubisoft possibly going bankrupt, the pending death of Xbox consoles, and Sony’s attempt to buy out FromSoftware’s parent company.
The art director of the upcoming RPG Avowed is in some hot water after basically admitting to discriminatory hiring practices against white men at Obsidian, the studio he works for. We discuss the hypocritical and blatant racism of such stances along with an IGN article about the burst of the blockbuster game bubble; Kotaku’s defense of Dragon Age: The Veilguard being “snubbed” from the Game Awards; Polygon’s atrocious and politically motivated list of the top 50 games of the year; and Elon Musk’s teasing of a desire to buy Hasbro and, thus, Dungeons & Dragons.
Merely two weeks after awarding Dragon Age: The Veilguard a 9 out of 10, IGN published a long critique of the game’s writing, worldbuilding, and roleplaying, which account for about 99% of what makes RPGs RPGs. We also discuss the game’s likely poor sales and Jason Schreier walking back a mocking tweet about the game’s critics along with news that Alyssa Mercante no longer works at Kotaku and Ubisoft’s hilarious takes on “creativity” when it comes to making Assassin’s Creed Shadows have a black protagonist.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is finally out in the wild, and it’s already stirring up cringe from its terrible writing and voice acting, stale character interactions, and incredibly preachy woke nonsense. We discuss its success (or lack thereof) so far, reviews, and examples of embarrassing moments along with Concord’s official permanent death, Thomas Mahler’s reaction to Alyssa Mercante’s insults, and research that shows women prefer playing as the sexy characters they love to hate.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been delayed to February, no doubt due to criticism against playable character Yasuke, a black samurai in a feudal Japan setting, and the announcement of Ghost of Yotei, a sequel to a game that actually did a historical Japanese setting justice. We discuss how the final game might look along with Ubisoft’s awful response to criticism along with Kotaku complaining about Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s character creator, Silent Hill 2’s manish-looking women, Moon Studios’ CEO’s based take on DEI, and more.
Preorders for Dragon Age: The Veilguard are apparently poor. It might have something to do with the fact the game is now basically a cartoon, the character creator looks like trash, and the devs don’t even know characters from the series. We discuss this train wreck of a sequel along with The Gamer actually admitting the protagonist of Star Wars Outlaws is ugly, a Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts dev discussing why he makes characters hot, the Concord director stepping down, Elder Scrolls Online’s first nonbinary character, and Game Devs of Color Expo.
Concord will go down in video game history as one of the most colossal failures of all time. The game, filled with ugly character designs and pronouns for each one, lasted barely a week before the developers announced they would take it offline and refund everyone who bought it because it sold so poorly. There are others like it, including Dustborn. Will developers finally see the truth that no one wants these woke train wrecks? Probably not, because another one—Fairgame$—is on the way.
The Dead Rising remake is making some notable changes, including changing the race of one of the baddies from Asian to white guy and removing the feature that would reward players for taking risque photos. We discuss the censorship along with the death of Game Informer, Black Myth: Wukong’s alleged lack of diversity, Scientific American’s take on D&D removing the term “race,” rumors about the development studio behind Concord, Runescape removing sexes from character creation while adding pronouns, and more!
Capcom announced they want to increase female representation in management roles to 15%. Surprisingly, even the far-left sides of the internet disagree with the idea of hiring based on sex. We discuss the terrible effort that is DEI along with Ubisoft “apologizing” to Japanese fans over Assassin’s Creed Shadows and wokies upset that Genshin Impact is too white.
The Kotaku brand is one step closer to death as Kotaku Australia shut down last week. We celebrate this fact and also discuss a D&D creator’s reaction to inflammatory remarks about the game’s origin, Japanese players petitioning for the cancellation of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, The Boys showrunner being a hypocrite when it comes to handling sexual assault on the show, and more.
Elden Ring’s expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, arrived to stellar reviews, but a Kotaku writer couldn’t help but use her article to compare her life of mean tweets to the brutality of the fantasy RPG. We discuss this ludicrous take (and our impressions of the DLC) along with the developers of the upcoming Black Myth: Wukong rejecting DEI consultants, woke devs finally realizing video game women are being uglified on purpose, Ubisoft’s hilarious reaction to Elon Musk’s criticism of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and more.
Ubisoft is finally making an Assassin’s Creed game set in feudal Japan, so who is the protagonist? A black samurai. We discuss the controversy around this decision along with Shift Up releasing uncensored versions of the Stellar Blade outfits they originally edited and how far Tomb Raider has fallen.
The developers of Farm Folks took to X to ask for fan input on breast physics in their game. The woke, of course, got offended, and the CEO apologized, starting a series of events that will likely end in the game’s failure. We discuss why you should never apologize to the left along with Sony’s attempts to ruin Helldivers 2 and Ghost of Tsushima, Microsoft closing several studios, Kotaku firing a handful of writers, and Hades 2 continuing to racebend Greek gods.
A few days before release, developer Shift Up promised their highly anticipated Stellar Blade wouldn’t be censored. Well, even before official release, fans discovered a fast one was being pulled: Several costumes and gore have indeed been toned down, and the developers tried to sneak it by gamers. We discuss the ramifications of such a game opting for censorship. We also talk about Kotaku’s hypocritical comments about the game compared to the “hot” characters of Hades 2, Pokemon Go’s wildly unpopular decision to uglify players’ avatars, Fortnite allowing gamers to block “offensive emotes,” and more.
The upcoming Tomb Raider: Shadows of Truth won’t be a Tomb Raider game at all, considering the developers are flipping the entire premise of the franchise on its head in the name of wokeism. We discuss this IP-killing move along with Microsoft’s guidelines for devs on how to design female characters, Kotaku sticking to “news,” Star Wars Outlaws' uglified protagonist, a couple community managers who hate white men and gamers, IGN France’s meltdown over Stellar Blade, and more!
An ex-Sweet Baby Inc. game developer working on the upcoming Black Panther game openly admitted to not hiring white people while working on an indie game because they make her feel “unsafe.” We discuss this blatant (and illegal) discrimination while highlighting all the ongoing Sweet Baby Inc. drama, including an interview with the Sweet Baby Inc. Detected page on Steam, Kotaku writers and developers weighing in, and more. Plus, we cover the Game Developers Conference nonsense, such as a reeducation panel for canceled devs.
Smaller games like Palworld, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Helldivers 2 are becoming increasingly popular while major studios are seeing major layoffs. Could one of the reasons be that these games aren’t tainted with the woke mind virus that seems to permeate the gaming industry as a whole? Sweet Baby Inc. is one example of a company determined to make games worse by inserting specific political ideologies into every game they consult on. We discuss the controversy surrounding the company that some are saying will spark Gamergate 2.0.
Crystal Dynamics remastered the original Tomb Raider trilogy and included a long trigger warning about how racist the games are. We discuss this virtue signaling along with the creator of Stellar Blade’s based opinion about attractive characters in media and the Xbox news that came about after a week’s worth of rumors about the end of the brand.
A Ubisoft executive recently said in an interview they want more players to get comfortable with the idea of not owning video games, instead turning to subscription-based models that have proven time and again to be detrimental to the fans. We discuss this growing trend along with bureaucrats telling Japanese developers to censor their games, Stellar Blade doing its best to ignore such advice, and some concerns with the upcoming live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
A Final Fantasy vocalist was going to appear at a convention, but when permanently online Twitter users discovered she had merely liked certain “problematic” tweets, her appearance was canceled. We discuss the ludicrousness of this decision along with the double standards in sexy mods, Snow White having dwarves again, and reactions to South Park: Joining the Panderverse.
The developers of the highly anticipated Spider-Man 2 game, Insomniac, have proven themselves to be the ultimate hypocrites by inserting an absurd amount of woke messaging into the game but censoring it all in the Middle Eastern version of the game. We discuss the irony of this decision along with League of Legends developers being equally hypocritical with their ogling of male characters, voice actors’ role being segregated by race, Magic: The Gathering removing the word “witch” because it’s a “real” religion, and plenty more.
Developers are bad at their jobs, so naturally, fans are going to mod games to their liking. However, certain mods, such as one to remove pronouns in Starfield’s character creator, are being banned from hosting platforms. We discuss wokies trying to control what others enjoy in their games along with the inevitable censorship in the upcoming Lollipop Chainsaw remake, Bungie getting blasted on Twitter for being woke, the race-bending of the upcoming live-action How to Train Your Dragon movie, and spooky games we’re enjoying this Halloween season.
We spend a lot of time on this show pointing out the ridiculous cultural trends of video games and other nerdy hobbies, but that’s only because we love it all so much. To celebrate our 100th episode, we discuss some of our favorite games, books, and shows and why, at the end of the day, they’re worth fighting for.
The Witcher TV show is likely going to be canceled, and Feminist Frequency is finally ending. We discuss both and how their deaths are well deserved along with the controversy surrounding Skullgirls and the weird wokeness prominent in players of games like Dungeons & Dragons.
In a confusing but unsurprising move, Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed game based in feudal Japan is rumored to feature a female samurai and a black shinobi as the two playable characters. We discuss the odd choice to shoehorn in genders and races where they don’t make historical sense along with the increasing price and decreasing quality of AAA games, Call of Duty changing an operator’s name to avoid offending anyone, challenges to Hollywood’s diversity initiative, Disney’s choice to remove the dwarves from the upcoming Snow White remake, and the ironic decision to rename the new Captain America movie.
Some reviewers are panning the recently released Final Fantasy XVI for a pretty dumb reason: Apparently, despite it being an entirely fictional fantasy world based on Medieval aesthetics, the cast is too white. We discuss what a stupid critique this is along with the new Prince of Persia being black, streamer Nickmercs’ comments on Pride, diversity hires in the new Harry Potter show, and more.
Blizzard is virtue signaling hard this month, creating a month’s worth of LGBT pride content for Overwatch 2. The game now includes personalization items reflecting every imaginable sexual orientation, and a map that has been “pride-ified” has replaced a cop car with a standard vehicle. We discuss all this plus Capcom not censoring booties in Street Fighter 6 and Magic: The Gathering’s awful race-swapping of its Lord of the Rings sets.
With the latest predictable twist in Horizon Forbidden West’s Burning Shores DLC, the question must be asked: Why do so many modern female protagonists have to be, well, you know? It’s almost like developers think normal women are incapable of being strong. We discuss this trend and the agenda behind it along with Dove’s awful take on sexualized video game characters, PC Gamer shaming the co-creator of Doom and Quake for attending BasedCon, an actor’s take against Hollywood’s diversity quota, and the hilarious public reaction to the Cleopatra movie.
The arbiters of social justice in the video game sphere, Kotaku, made a little oopsie this week when one of the site’s writers showed his true colors by making a racist tweet in reaction to being upset that Nintendo has (rightfully) blacklisted the publication. We talk about the irony of this event along with the success of the Super Mario Bros. movie, Wizards of the Coast sending Pinkerton agents to retrieve trading cards, and more Queen Cleopatra drama.
Jeremy Crawford, one of the lead designers of Dungeons & Dragons, raised some eyebrows recently when he announced the new Player’s Handbook for the popular tabletop roleplaying game would remove half-species, such as half-elves, calling the concept “inherently racist.” We discuss the backwards idea that race mixing, whether in fantasy or real life, is racist along with a teenager being disqualified from a Pokemon tournament after being asked his pronouns, teabagging being banned from an “inclusive” Overwatch 2 tournament, Netflix’s Cleopatra being black, and J. K. Rowling continuing to not be canceled.
Kotaku has a weird take on sexiness. Things like Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village and the cartoon dragon from Ring Fit Adventure are fine to sexualize, but, for some reason, a human girl’s iconic skirt turning into a skort is something to celebrate. We discuss Kotaku’s bizarre take on such changes to the Resident Evil 4 remake along with Hollywood’s anti-Christian bias, the charges against Justin Roiland being dropped, and a ridiculous article about how to avoid being ableist in fiction.
Since the second failure of G4, Adam Sessler continues to prove how jaded and bitter he is about the industry he covered for decades with his latest Twitter meltdown. We discuss his lack of accountability over X-Play commentary on JRPGs along with yet more and more examples of publishers and producers censoring and gender- and race-bending beloved classics—further proof of the absolute oversensitive and creative wasteland that is the entertainment industry.
Hogwarts Legacy has been in the wild for over two weeks now, and still streamers of this incredibly popular game are being reduced to tears by people who think they have the moral high ground while bullying players of the game. We discuss this issue along with Games Done Quick banning Hogwarts Legacy and other games from its events, Ukraine trying to restrict sales of Atomic Heart, and more.
Due to Hogwarts Legacy’s ties to the “transphobic” J. K. Rowling, many screeching leftists have attempted to boycott the game, but their efforts were in vain; the game has been nothing but a critical and commercial success. We discuss the game and surrounding controversy along with Wizards of the Coast’s decision to reverse its proposed new Open Game License for the next version of Dungeons & Dragons, Forspoken’s flop getting blamed on misogyny and racism, Frosk leaving the video game industry, Xbox’s Phil Spencer acknowledging cancel culture, IGN review scores, and The Last of US TV show.
Dungeons & Dragons fans have been raging for weeks now after Wizards of the Coast, publisher of the popular tabletop roleplaying game, had a leak of its new Open Game License that puts everything from third-party content to virtual tabletop programs at risk of obsoletion. We discuss the ongoing controversy and the hopeful decline of D&D’s popularity along with the ridiculous Velma show and Hogwarts Legacy pending success.
Kotaku, PC Gamer, and probably others blasted Final Fantasy XVI, an upcoming game with Medieval Europe aesthetics, for not including black people. We discuss how ridiculous it is to expect diversity in every piece of media along with Hogwarts Legacy developers removing gender from the game as a swipe at J. K. Rowling, Dungeons & Dragons requiring cultural consultants on all future products, The Rings of Power actors tripling down on their stance on black characters in Middle-earth, and how based Emily Blunt is.
EA took to Twitter to apologize after a single person got offended by the company’s lack of representation during a presentation about The Sims. We discuss this spineless move along with how much the new Gotham Knights sucks, G4 being canceled, Kotaku’s hilarious article on climate change, Overwatch 2’s sexual game modes, Henry Cavill leaving The Witcher, D&D’s quest to become worse and worse, and plenty more!
CD Projekt Red recently announced a slew of new games the studio is working on, but there’s a catch: They’re joining ESG, a sort of social currency system that funds only “woke” games. This likely means future CD Projekt Red games will cater to social-conscious investors rather than fans. We discuss this disappointing news along with Overwatch 2’s required phone number blunder, The Last of Us TV actress being told not to play the original game to learn about her character, Polygon’s awful take on Elden Ring’s women, the UN blaming “toxic masculinity” and video games for the world’s problems, and more.
God of War developer David Jaffe went on another tirade last week, accusing men who don’t like lackluster female Marvel characters of being misogynists. The problem is Jaffe helped create the original God of War games, full of sex minigames and female nudity, nevermind the depraved parties his employer threw. We discuss his hypocrisy along with Frosk getting fired from G4, the GTA VI and Diablo IV leaks, how the Splinter Cell remake will be “modernized,” the government wasting tax dollar researching terrorism in video games, and plenty more.
Dungeons & Dragons has long been aboard the woke train, and the latest controversy proves just how hollow and hilarious it all is. D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast censored lore from its latest book after just a few Twitter wokies complained it was “racist.” We discuss how the only true racists in this story are those who found the lore problematic along with Game Informer wanting The Last of Us Part I censored, Kotaku’s ridiculous take on the censoring of Velma in MultiVersus, Awesome Games Done Quick virtue signaling about how terrible Florida is, a Warcraft pro being punished for his private support of Andrew Tate, and reactions to The Rings of Power.
Nexus Mods removed a mod that changed the pride flags in Spider-Man to American flags and banned the user who uploaded it. We discuss how players should have the right to experience games the way they want along with the failure of the new, woke Saints Row game, how The Last of Us remake looks worse than the original game, the terrible direction Dungeons & Dragons is taking, more warning signs that The Rings of Power is going to suck, the hypocrisy of She-Hulk, and more.
Former Polygon games journalist Ben Kuchera took to Twitter recently to rant about the website, its higher-ups, vaccinations, and sexual abuse. We break down his tweet tirade and discuss other topics, including the ongoing trend of uglify-ing classic female video game characters, a pointless in-game climate march in a Ubisoft game, and yet more claims that D&D is racist.
Grand Theft Auto VI is in development, but don’t get too excited; according to reports, the upcoming entry in the popular franchise will no longer “punch down” at minorities. In other words, GTA VI won’t be the Grand Theft Auto series fans know and love for being an offensive and satirical take on politics and America. We discuss this groan-inducing news along with Kotaku getting upset at Stray and Quiet, Games for Change’s warped view of reality, As Dusk Fall’s spoiler-filled trigger warning, San Diego Comic Con using the term “Filipinx,” and more.
Eric July is a libertarian who raised over $1.2 million in a day for an indie comic line he’s launching–one that will be decidedly not woke, like so many Marvel and DC comics are today. We discuss his wild success and what this means for nerd media along with The Watch trying to eliminate racism in gaming, Ubisoft continuing to be terrible, Bayonetta 3’s censored mode, Hideo Kojima being falsely identified as a political assassin, tokenism in the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel, and more.
TheGamer.com has always been a terrible games “journalism” website, and today they prove it by disparaging their entire audience over the sins of the few. We discuss their awful article along with Activision Blizzard virtue signaling in Overwatch 2, G4TV’s imminent demise, scientific research that proves sexy video game characters don’t hurt anyone, a God of War Ragnarok writer who really wants Kratos to be gay, the horrible companies Ubisoft and EA, and more!
Kotaku published an article last week not only defending proven abuser Amber Heard but comparing her experience to GamerGate, an eight-year-old push against unethical journalism. We discuss the lunacy of this piece along with Kotaku being jealous of virtual women, Bungie bungling a Juneteenth cosmetic, PCGamer’s hate boner for Elon Musk, Diablo Immortal’s predatory practices, the Xbox Games Showcase, and plenty more.
Kotaku writer Ian Walker got some flak recently when he falsely claimed in an article that the upcoming Street Fighter 6 would feature the series’ first black woman. We discuss Walker doubling and tripling down on this claim along with Xbox calling out Kotaku’s terrible take on Game Pass, a Halo co-creator criticizing the show, Marvel’s double standard on objectifying characters, Netflix telling woke employees to get lost, and more.
This week, Kotaku interviewed an indie developer about how it seems a popular movie copied a scene from his game. Little did this developer know that Kotaku, being Kotaku, would write the article in their typical garbage, race-baiting style, and he called Kotaku out for it. We discuss the whole story along with former Kotaku CEO Stephen Totilo finding out more embarrassing stuff about Activision Blizzard’s ridiculous diversity algorithm and how Twitter employees are basically all commies.
When you think of video games, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Definitely not the divisive social issue of abortion, right? Well, apparently, some game studios thought it wise to speak in support of Roe v. Wade while Kotaku and others embarrassed themselves with terrible takes on the subject. We talk about it all along with diversity checklists in video games, including Activision Blizzard’s hilarious new diversity-measuring algorithm; Kotaku gatekeeping Elon Musk over his Elden Ring build; Demon Slayer censorship; how terrible the Halo show is; Percy Jackson’s raceswapping; and more.
We’ve reached peak lunacy as Kotaku publishes an article equating game developers who refuse to leave Twitter after Elon Musk’s purchase of the social media giant to war heroes. We make fun of games journalists losing their minds over the change along with Gene Park being crucified by the games press for going on Colin Moriarty’s podcast, Frosk from G4 demonstrating what an objectifying hypocrite she is, interesting new rules for Magic: The Gathering tournaments, and more.
A few games journalists and activists cried about trans representation in Grand Theft Auto V, so Rockstar quietly censored their own game. We discuss this cowardly decision along with a Resident Evil 4 developer’s support of censorship, Twitch’s sexism against men, a woke Cards Against Humanity clone, and Lara Croft’s slow transition to becoming a man.
Game Rant published a bizarre article arguing that the tragedies Elden Ring characters endure are gender coded, or, in other words, women and men in the game suffer in different ways and somehow that’s a problem. We break this idea down and also discuss a popular easy mode mod for Elden Ring along with a New York Times article that claims the game is successful only due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Blizzard’s new diversity officer’s influence on games and the company’s reversal on its vaccine mandate, and plenty more.
Alan Wen of VG247 says Ghostwire: Tokyo is more authentic than Ghost of Tsushima or Sifu because Ghostwire was created by Japanese developers. We discuss this racist implications of this thought process along with Sam Maggs continuing to embarrass herself and the video game industry at large by taking credit for creations she had little to do with; Anita Sarkeesian trying to remain relevant a decade later; and, by their own admission, Disney’s queer agenda. Oh, and E3 is dead, in case you didn’t hear.
An upcoming series of adventures for Dungeons & Dragons is written entirely by black and brown folks, and Polygon just thinks that’s the greatest thing ever. We discuss why it’s racist to care so much about something as superficial as skin color along with Ash Parrish defending the new Halo TV show, Ars Technica’s article in defense of video game cheaters, and accusations of oppression against yet another video game developer.
The developer of Lost Ark has added less-revealing outfits to the game after complaints the female outfits are too sexy, but this hasn’t stopped GameDevelopment.com from demanding the game go farther and cater Lost Ark only to Western audiences. We discuss this puritanical argument along with GameSpot’s old article about bra sizes, Elden Ring’s tendency to not hold players’ hands, awful takes on race in Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV series, and more.
Ash Parrish is back, nitpicking one of the greatest games ever made—Elden Ring—because it doesn’t have enough hairstyles for black characters. We discuss her tendency to turn everything into a race issue along with Sony’s hypocrisy regarding nudity in Horizon Forbidden West, Age of Empires III new trigger warning, open racism against white anime voice actors, CD Projekt Red stopping sales in Russia, and a God of War director’s bizarre hypothetical.
Journalists are digging up the old criticism that Horizon Forbidden West is problematic because it features the aesthetics of Native American culture. We discuss how cultural appreciation is not appropriation along with references to racism in The Cuphead Show!, Kotaku being upset that attractive women exist in Lost Ark, censorship of Lost Ark for Western audiences, a female gaming pro being fired over a joke about men, and more.
Reviewers admit kung-fu action game Sifu is awesome, but games journalists can’t resist saying the game is problematic simply because it’s about Asian culture but made by white developers. We discuss how racist it is to gatekeep fiction by skin color along with PC Gamer’s embarrassing take on video game violence, Kotaku not realizing the irony of comparing Dying Light 2’s zombie pandemic to COVID-19, Sony’s censorship of Martha is Dead, Horizon Forbidden West’s endless accessibility features, Kotaku calling out Critical Role’s newest D&D campaign setting as problematic, racebending in Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and more.
Kotaku threw us for a loop after writing an article defending gamers Cloud Imperium Games called “noisy” for daring to care about the development of Star Citizen. We discuss this ironic sentiment along with Sony buying Bungie, Waypoint calling Pokemon Legends: Arceus colonialist, a false copyright claim Riot Games made against an independent artist, how much the upcoming Halo and Lord of the Rings TV series are going to suck, Elden Ring’s difficulty, and more!
Indiana Black of the recently relaunched G4 went on a tirade about the sexism she faces in gaming, basically blaming her audience for the comments she gets because she is not as sexy as previous hosts. We talk about how Black has doubled down on her victimhood along with claims that Chinese company Tencent is influencing the races and breast sizes of characters in movies it funds, Dungeons & Dragons getting more streamlined and woke, censorship of Genshin Impact’s outfits, Elden Ring’s impending release, and a video game developer going above and beyond for a fan.
The collective internet mocked Kotaku after they published an article claiming that Halo: Infinite hurts players’ feelings by tracking individual scores. We join in on the mocking and also discuss Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard, people claiming it’s racist that a Dead by Daylight cannibalistic murderer wears a black victim’s face as a mask, Bloomberg’s complaint that games are sexist and Horizon Forbidden West is not because its hero is ugly, Kotaku’s angst that non-black people are making a game with a black protagonist, a G4 host’s tirade about sexist gamers, Polygon really wanting Frodo and Sam to be gay, and plenty more.
There have been recent changes to Dungeons & Dragons, stripping certain races and monsters of their lore because apparently even fictional evil is exclusive. We also discuss how The Witcher actor Henry Cavill seems pretty based, Splinter Cell getting rebooted, the decision to not include NFTs in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl, Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock selling out to Tencent, Cowboy Bebop’s failure possibly spelling the end of live-action adaptations of anime, and more.
An IGN editor last week tried to justify why the games media had not covered a PlayStation executive being caught soliciting sex from a minor. Meanwhile, games sites are quick to jump on “news” about conservative game developers simply existing. We discuss this lack of journalistic integrity along with Kotaku calling gamers “toxic a-holes,” highlights from The Game Awards, the mainstream media falsely associating video games with a Michigan school shooting, Kotaku being upset that a right-wing group agrees Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick should resign, Nintendo trying to hire more women for no reason, gamers’ hate for Ubisoft’s NFT announcement, PlayStation Spartacus, and much more!
With so many inexcusable problems in recently released blockbuster games, has the golden age of gaming come and gone? Will major games ever redeem themselves, or are we stuck with pathetic, half-finished cash grabs? We ponder this question and also discuss the heat rising around Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, Kotaku’s sad take on the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, IGN’s blatant paid advertisement for Battlefield 2042, sexualized costumes in Arcane and Cowboy Bebop, and more.
Call of Duty: Vanguard has gotten flack this past week, and not just for being another totally boring cash grab of a shooter. Kotaku and others called the game Islamophobic for daring to use pages of the Quran as set dressing, despite the fact entire games openly mock Christianity without so much as a complaint from anyone. We discuss this hypocrisy along with Kotaku’s ironic complaint that Vanguard is too woke, Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans’ bizarre and desperate desire to see two animal characters officially become gay lovers, trans people getting offended over Forza Horizon 5 “deadnaming” them, and GamesBeat’s surprising advocation for diversity of thought in the games industry.
Five Nights at Freddy’s Scott Cawthon retired not long ago after Kotaku and others attacked him for daring to be a right-leaning Christian. Now, months later, Kotaku has taken another jab at him by calling him “weird” for his beliefs. We discuss the game industry’s intolerance to Christians and rightwingers along with the Grand Theft Auto remakes being censored, Kotaku getting mad at a new developer for having only male employees, PC Gamer getting upset at Call of Duty marketing that actually benefits real veterans, and why not every video game can be accessible to all people.
Military shooter Battlefield 2042 has a character named Emma who looks like a woman but goes by they/them pronouns. We talk about this pandering tokenism in a game that glorifies warfare, of all things, along with Riot’s decision to eliminate chatting with opponents in League of Legends, CSI pushing its anti-Gamergate narrative, Dave Chappelle landing in hot water for his trans jokes, Superman becoming bi, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series including black hobbits, and plenty more.
Waypoint writers are paid big bucks to cover video games and can’t even make it more than a few hours through the games they cover, including Far Cry 6. We talk about Waypoint’s moral qualms with the series along with Kotaku’s offense at Twitch streamers being predominantly men, the ridiculous levels of censorship seen in the upcoming virtual reality remake of Resident Evil 4, the ongoing moral purge in World of Warcraft, a hilarious change to how gender is handled in Halo: Reach, and the bad news that Brianna Wu is making a Gamergate TV show.
Happy Mag published an article asking if Grand Theft Auto V’s “harmful” depictions of trans people should be retroactively censored. We dive into why censorship is never permissible along with China’s endless quest to censor games, an actor complaining the Super Mario Bros. voice actors are too white, Bungie’s hilarious efforts at “diversity and inclusion,” and more.
Kotaku has a new black writer who believes Skater XL is too white. We discuss how Kotaku and its staff treat blackness like a personality trait, elevating race above all else, along with games media’s silence when it comes to abuse allegations against a woke female game developer, Diablo II: Resurrected’s hilariously ironic profanity filter, Daniel Craig’s views on a female James Bond, and a Marvel executive who thinks the term “X-Men” is outdated.
Tripwire Interactive President John Gibson resigned last week after he tweeted that he is pro-life. We discuss the groupthink pervasive in the video game industry that makes it impossible for anyone to tolerate anything but leftist worldviews, God of War: Ragnarok including a black character, activist Sam Maggs’ role in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, Kotaku complaining about Ubisoft hiring a white man, Evil Hat Productions saying only ideologues can play their game, and more.
Under a new law in China, those younger than 18 are limited to only three hours of gaming a week. Kotaku has, of course, defended the tyrannical country from accusations of government overreach. We discuss what this means for the industry along with the irony of Kotaku being upset that Call of Duty: Vanguard is rewriting history, Kotaku defending Boyfriend Dungeon from censorship as a thinly veiled attempt to bash men, Sony backtracking on its promise to allow players to freely upgrade their PS4 versions of Horizon: Forbidden West to the PS5, and more.
Volition’s upcoming reimagining of the Saints Row series will not feature the over-the-top humor and offensiveness that made the game stand out in a sea of generic third-person, open-world shooters. We discuss how today’s political landscape led to a watered-down version of a beloved franchise as well as Twitch socialist Hasan Piker’s hypocrisy in buying a multimillion-dollar mansion, the upcoming live action Cowboy Bebop butchering Faye Valentine’s look, Blizzard’s decision to rename Overwatch’s McCree to placate fans, why not every piece of media needs to cater to all identities at all times, and more.
Actress Geena Davis released a report blaming men and video games for violence and sexism. We go over its more ludicrous claims and debunk them and also discuss Rhianna Pratchett’s disappointment in Grand Theft Auto V not having female protagonists, a developer using her race and gender to express disappointment in Fortnite stealing Among Us’ game concept, the irony of hypersensitive weirdos sending death threats to a Boyfriend Dungeon voice actor because they’re triggered by his character, Wikipedia labeling GamerGate a harassment campaign, and more.
New studio Raccoon Logic got heat this week over the sin of being an all-white, all-male studio. We discuss the irony of Jason Schreier crying about a studio’s lack of diversity along with the fallout at Blizzard, a Respawn developer being fired for comments made 14 years ago, Kotaku reporting Back 4 Blood zombies are screaming racial slurs, Game Rant’s weird idea of how to protest sexual misconduct allegations at Ubisoft, how men who play as female characters are actually misogynists, and how the Dead Space remake might be censored.
The last “respectable” video game journalist, Jason Schreier, admitted he knew about the sexual misconduct occurring at Blizzard years before it came to light. He claims he wanted to corroborate the allegations before reporting them, but that caution never stopped him from signal-boosting the paper-thin allegations against developer Chris Avellone. We discuss Schreier’s hypocrisy and agenda-based reporting along with the latest in the Blizzard controversy, Ash Parrish leaving Kotaku, Destructoid saying a lot of nothing about gender in games, Mary Sue bullying a Twitter nobody over his benign opinions, and Susan Arendt buying a game based on nothing but its protagonist’s appearance.
With Psychonauts 2 having an invincibility toggle, the debate about video game difficulty has resurfaced, with at least one games journalist proving how incompetent she is by saying she refuses to play on anything other than easy mode. Other topics covered this episode include the new lawsuit against Blizzard, updates on the Chris Avellone allegations, Kotaku embarrassing itself in more than a couple ways yet again, a game developer’s very bizarre Twitter thread about making female characters look less feminine, and plenty more.
People are finally beginning to realize Ash Parrish’s race-baiting antics for what they are; readers criticized a recent article in which she reduced a gamer’s record-breaking achievement to her race. We discuss how Ash is incapable of seeing anything but skin color along with Kotaku’s cringe take on the NYPD’s game truck, a game developer white knighting for a feminist who insulted him, how “adapting” Japanese games is just a codeword for censorship, Polygon trying to make Luca gay, and Kotaku shaming readers for contributing to climate change.
This past week, video game developer Chris Avellone broke his silence on sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him a year ago. Forbes writer Erik Kain was the first to report on this newsworthy event, and for his troubles, video game journalists trashed him. This wasn’t the only heat Kain faced this week; he also garnered attention for criticizing The Gamer’s awful take on a press event. We discuss these happenings, plus Patricia Hernandez’s confusing goals for the future of Kotaku, the failed cancelation of a Factorio developer, and Polygon’s hilarious attempts to retrofit homosexual themes to The Lord of the Rings.
Five Nights at Freddy’s creator Scott Cawthon announced his retirement after receiving death threats and harassment over his benign, right-leaning political views. We discuss games journalists’ reaction to his political donations along with the good and bad of E3, the laughable state of Kotaku since Patricia Hernandez became editor in chief, and a cringe VG24/7 article comparing Mass Effect 2 to the United States funding terrorist groups.
IGN wrote a piece this week criticizing Dice for saying Battlefield 2042’s story and setting themes exist only for gameplay reasons. We discuss game journalists’ penchant for demanding games take polarizing political stances, Kotaku holding a grudge against Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s ongoing success, the Tolkien Society going woke, and Wargamer’s reminder to not be racist while playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Only three days into Pride Month, Kotaku got upset with how gay characters are represented in video games. We discuss Kotaku’s regressive complaint about queer representation in Injustice 2 Mobile along with Patricia Hernandez becoming the site’s new editor-in-chief, Asian-American voice actors hypocritically expecting only Asians to voice anime, how dumb it is to have wheelchair-bound heroes in Dungeons & Dragons, and the Prison Architect board game being canceled due to a few offended fans.
In their never-ending quest to link video games to unrelated real-world issues, Polygon and Paste published pieces talking about Mass Effect’s police state mentality. We break these hilariously bad articles down and also talk about Twitch’s new hot tub streaming category and marginalized channel tags along with the fallout from gaming sites weighing in on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Vice was so offended by Mass Effect 2’s Overlord DLC that they published a piece calling for its outright censorship in the series’ Legacy Edition. We talk about how ludicrous it is to blame a fictional villain’s “ableism” on the writers who made him along with Anita Sarkeesian’s terrible take and IGN’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Devolver Digital supporting Sarkeesian’s grifting, Activision firing a sexist voice actor, the He-Man remake censoring and race-swapping women after its showrunner promised that wouldn’t happen, and the Power Girl co-creator ironically calling out “sexism” in manga.
Game Rant wrote an article based on a single streamer’s complaint that Valkyrie, the new playable character in Apex Legends, does not represent her Japanese heritage enough. We break down this silly complaint and also discuss ZombaeKillz and Girl From Canada being eaten alive by their woke allies, games journalists thinking it’s just fine to not be good at or finish the games they’re reviewing, and Doctor Strange being pulled from the WandaVision finale for the sin of being a white male.
As is their custom, Kotaku published a stupid piece saying including white cis women characters in games isn’t progressive enough, adding more proof to the never-ending pile of evidence that video game journalists will never be satisfied with their social justice agenda. We also discuss Dia Lacina’s terrible takes on politics in Returnal and Nier’s auto-battle system, Jeffrey Grubb simping for Lacina and his history of being not a good guy, Respawn’s jab at Polygon’s error-riddled article on Titanfall lore, a Riot developer’s based take on critical race theory, Polygon pushing the idea that people have body dysmorphia over Wii Fit, and a World of Warcraft voice actor being canceled over fruitless sexual misconduct allegations.
Wokies are accusing a game where you play as a Native American chief fighting colonialists of being racist. I break down the completely ridiculous controversy and discuss other recent news, including Diablo II censorship, more Six Days in Fallujah nonsense, a Kotaku story about “black pain” I actually kind of agree with, Marvel comparing Jordan Peterson to Red Skull, and Twitch’s new offsite conduct policy.
Extra Credits recently released a video that implies that evil, ugly orcs in video games are an obvious stand-in for real black people, among other hilariously terrible takes. We watch and break down the video along with their take from last year that WWII shooters will turn players into Nazis. We also discuss some of the cringe writing in Outriders, Kotaku writing a story based on an obvious troll, a senator calling Gina Carano a Nazi, and how Sony is dropping the ball.
Cancel culture has reached a new peak with prominent games journalists and developers alike calling on the government to censor the upcoming Six Days in Fallujah. We recap the events leading up to a petition to cancel the game along with Eurogamer getting offended over It Takes Two’s love story, Ghost of Tsushima getting made into a movie, and Kotaku defaming the developer of Super Seducer 3.
IGN recently published a piece criticizing the unreleased Six Days in Fallujah because a very specific clique in the gaming sphere is upset it doesn’t have the "right" politics. We talk about critics’ reactions to the upcoming game along with Kotaku calling passionate Dying Light 2 fans “toxic,” woke Twitter crying over a jiggle physics mod for Super Smash Bros., Super Seducer 3 being outright banned from Steam, and White Wizard Games changing their name to placate outrage mobs.
Troy Leavitt has revealed why he left the development of Hogwarts Legacy. We discuss his response to the games press’s attempted character assassination along with other examples of “propaganda press,” including Kotaku’s piece about developers being forced to work during a natural disaster and Polygon implying Six Days in Fallujah is apolitical.
Troy Leavitt, a Hogwarts Legacy developer who has made YouTube videos critical of woke nonsense, announced he is leaving the project after games journalists’ attempt to cancel him. Leavitt hasn’t unveiled why he quit, but we discuss the development along with the fact Hogwarts Legacy will include trans options in its character creator, Twitch’s screw up calling women “womxn,” Attack on Titan being falsely labeled as pro-fascism, and Sucker Punch being honored by Japan for Ghost of Tsushima.
Troy Leavitt, the lead designer of the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy, is being accused of sexism and other nastiness all for having a YouTube channel that doesn’t toe the woke line games journalists demand the industry follow. We discuss the attempt to cancel developers over “thoughtcrimes” along with the hypocrisy of women, such as Anita Sarkeesian, who claim to oppose harassment, Sony’s censorship of violence, Super Seducer 3 being rejected from Steam, Pyra and Mythra being covered in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Jezebel not knowing anything about video games, Colin Moriarty still suffering consequences of his innocent dad joke, and more.
Gina Carano, known for playing Cara Dune in The Mandalorian, has been fired from her role and agency. Her crime? Comparing her political opponents to Nazis, something the left has been doing without consequence for years. We break down this story and all its juicy details and rehash the Mass Effect butt shot controversy and talk Steam’s censorship of Super Seducer 3.
Game journalists this week were quick to shame Mass Effect fans who are upset the upcoming trilogy remake will remove camera angles that focus on Miranda’s butt. We discuss the double standard the gaming industry has when it comes to sexualization (see: Jin Sakai’s celebrated naked cheeks in Ghost of Tsushima), Stephen Totilo’s departure from Kotaku, IGN rehashing the Rowling transphobia controversy, The Gamer complaining about fat shaming in Resident Evil Village, the backfire of The Medium’s trigger warning, and hypocrisy about the term “blind playthrough.”
GameStop stocks are on the fritz after Wall Street manipulated the market, and, like always, GamerGate is being blamed. We discuss the stock situation and also talk about Ninja’s stance on streaming with women and teaching viewers about racism, the representation of trans people and women in Cyberpunk 2077 (again), Twitch’s policies that protect some while leaving room to attack white men, Ubisoft calling chicks “womxn,” and more.
A games journalist stirred up controversy this week when she made the laughable claim that men don’t like playing as female characters, using some of the most popular video game franchises as examples. We discuss the very predictable fallout from this strawman in addition to people overreacting to making Cyberpunk 2077 characters romanceable, New York Times reporting on screen addiction, a Mortal Kombat 11 competitor being banned over nothing, an Italian board game developer being canceled over out-of-context comments, and more.
After removing its most popular emote from the site, Twitch announced a different streamer would become the new PogChamp each day. Three days into this policy, Critical Bard was PogChamp and landed in hot water for his questionable comments on race. We discuss Twitch’s double standards along with the irony of Capcom cracking down on “questionable” fan content, CD Projekt Red’s leadership taking the blame for the Cyberpunk 2077 mess, IGN’s leading interview questions about the game’s launch, Polygon’s and Kotaku’s latest terrible articles, and more.
The narrative has jumped from “video games cause violence” to “video games cause fascism” as the riots at Capitol Hill are being blamed on gamers. We discuss why this is a ludicrous idea along with the other game-related fallout from the riots, plus Kotaku’s “gamers” of the year and the push to censor Top Hat Studios’ Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story.
Cyberpunk 2077 had such a horrible launch on last-gen consoles that the game is being refunded, no questions asked, and has been pulled from Sony’s digital storefront. We discuss the fallout from this unprecedented disaster along with Devotion being censored again, Twitch banning the words “simp” and “incel,” what happened during The Game Awards, and Kotaku’s hilariously bad takes on everything from Dragon Age fanfiction to Soulsborne games.
Nearly every major review of Cyberpunk 2077 shoehorns in long tangents about trans representation, for some reason. Video game critic Sophia Narwitz, who happens to be trans herself, joins the show to discuss the gaming media’s activist mentality and clique-like nature. Listen as we discuss trans voices, in-game ads, “fetishization,” nonbinary options, and other nonsense games journalists can’t shut up about.
Cyberpunk 2077 is only days from release, but Polygon wrote an article of pent-up angst about the game’s marketing over the past two years. We make fun of their offense over such a progressive game and also discuss Polygon’s failure to condemn people who harassed an Animal Crossing player over her hairstyle of choice, Twitch getting rid of the tag “blind playthrough,” why inverted controls have nothing to do with empathy, and Feminist Frequency’s latest attempt to ruin the gaming industry.
An Animal Crossing: New Horizons player was accused of racism and cultural appropriation for wearing a black hairstyle as a white character. We discuss this asinine controversy along with Brianna Wu’s hypocrisy regarding harassment, ZombaeKillz’s attempt to silence critics, Sony’s censorship of PS5 users’ tweets, gaming companies using the cringe term “Latinx,” and plenty more.
Journalist Jesse Singal made waves last week when he pointed out most gamers don’t want politics injected into games despite the fact games journalists can’t stop shoving their ideologies down gamers’ throats. We discuss the age-old topic of politics in games, including Nintendo asking companies to stop making Animal Crossing political and why a communism experiment in Cities: Skylines failed. We also talk about Demon’s Souls’ nonexistent easy mode, why the beautiful characters of Hades aren’t fat or disabled, why it sucks to use your skin color and genitals to get a free PS5, and plenty more.
Ubisoft has updated Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla to remove “offensive, ableist language” referring to a burn victim as “disfigured.” We discuss the future of gaming in a world that caters to the perpetually offended along with weird political takes on new video game console reviews, more games people being canceled over benign opinions on gender identity, race obsession in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Biden’s plan to waste tax dollars on stopping online harassment, and plenty more.
Richard La Ruina, Super Seducer creator and former pickup artist, joins as the show's first guest. La Ruina talks about everything from controversies surrounding the blowback to his first game to problems with video game journalism in general. We also talk about the changes to the upcoming Super Seducer 3, next-gen console excitement, and more.
Kotaku used an article about Amnesia: Rebirth to preach about everything from “stigmatizing” language to abortion rights to race. We break down the hilariously weird take and also cover Vice’s article about how Dark Souls critiques capitalism, colonialism in Animal Crossing, using “minority privilege” to get a free PS5, Pokémon characters being told they’re gay, the latest updates on Halo Infinite and Cyberpunk 2077, the upcoming GamerGate movie, and plenty more.
Being a person who always looks for offense where none exists, Anita Sarkeesian has declared popular Among Us term “sus” homophobic. We talk about how language isn’t that simple along with Twitter calling a Cyberpunk 2077 cosplay transphobic, Sony licking the boots of their Chinese overlords, Alex Hutchinson of Google Stadia’s hot take on game streaming, ads in NBA 2K21, and video game publishers joining the Anti-Defamation League.
Whether it’s censoring games, removing old games from its digital storefront, or recording players’ private chats, Sony keeps screwing up and handing easy wins to Microsoft. We talk about how this will hurt the PlayStation brand next generation along with Kotaku being hypocritical about Balder’s Gate 3’s character creator, games journalists wanting spiders in games censored, Vice using communism to criticize “sexism” in old GameFAQs guides, and how Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s protagonist can be both male and female canonically.
Kotaku writers are so well adjusted that they can’t stand the thought of playing as the Empire, or “space Nazis,” in Star Wars: Squadron, but hey, at least the Imperial forces are diverse, right? We talk about this laughable critique along with Jason Schreier getting blasted for his agenda-driven coverage of game development, the hypocrisy of celebrating racebending Greek gods, complaints that video games are fatphobic for making big characters tougher, Kotaku criticizing capitalism while demonstrating why it’s awesome, and Graham Lineham getting poetic justice with the censoring of his sitcom.
Kotaku is thirsty for everything from Hades’ Greek gods to the dragon in Ring Fit Adventure, but for years, journalists have been shaming gamers for enjoying sexy video games. We talk about such hypocrisy along with more evidence of Sony censorship, wheelchair ramps in game environments, Colin’s Last Stand accepting all fans regardless of politics, why putting katanas in games is never a problem, and Kotaku libeling Rowling as a transphobe.
When 343 Industries unveiled it would remove the police siren nameplate from Halo 3: ODST, some fans expressed distaste, and VG247 decided to label them as alt-right. We discuss the many ways VG247 got this “story” wrong along with news about Kinda Funny rejecting Trump-supporting fans, Ubisoft making everything about gender, Brianna Wu being her hilarious self, what Microsoft buying Bethesda means for the future of games, the latest next-gen news, white voice actors leaving black roles, and diversity quotes in fiction.
People are already planning to boycott Hogwarts Legacy because they disagree with J. K. Rowling’s views on transgenderism. We discuss her “thoughtcrimes” and also talk about Twitch removing Hispanic emotes, Daily Dot tying Among Us’ success to fascism, EA adding commercials to UFC 4, Disco Elysium being criticized for not being communist enough, the latest on next-gen consoles, and the repulsiveness that is Cuties.
Earlier this week, the UK branch of Kotaku was laid to rest. In this episode, we “celebrate” the gaming website by discussing its worst articles and irresponsible writers. We talk about Kotaku UK’s disability slur blunder, awful Dream Daddy gender swap shenanigan, apology over a TotalBiscuit article, and about the problems with video game journalism in general.
Tell Me Why has been criticized for handling its trans character with kid gloves, but The Last of Us Part II got blasted for having its trans character suffer, proving there’s no way to please games journalists. We talk about their hypocrisy along with Polygon’s claim video games need to promote “social change,” how Spiritfarer isn’t ableist, why Caustic’s voice line in Apex Legends should not have been removed, Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad’s intro cutscene being censored, and more.
Blizzard was mocked recently for censoring dialog between Garrosh and Sylvanas on World of Warcraft, so we talk about the company's history of making prudish edits to its games. We also discuss Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War's trailer being censored worldwide, Steam's new chat tool, nü She-Ra's creator getting in trouble for a "racist" joke, and whether white voice actors can play non-white roles.
Communists are mad the new Call of Duty is political, which is ironic considering they’ve been demanding politics in games for years. We discuss why it’s dumb they’re upset along with E3 getting in trouble for tweeting a gamer gurlz article, #MeToo drama at Rocksteady, complaints about racism in Overwatch, how the Oculus is going to die, why Boba Fett killing women is feminist af, and Uzaki-chan and Cuties comparisons.
Grounded has an arachnophobia safe mode that turns spiders into cuddly blobs. Is this an accessibility issue or just a smart business move? We also discuss Epic Games suing Apple over Fortnite being removed from the App Store, Halo Infinite being delayed and why the Xbox Series X is doomed, how much the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender will suck, why Spider-Man bullying bad guys is fine, and more.
Polygon thinks video games should regress to black-and-white stories and characters where heroes are perfect and villains are cartoonishly evil. We blast that hot take and talk about depictions of racism in Red Dead Redemption 2, The Matrix being an allegory for gender transition, the term "race" being removed from Dungeons & Dragons, and how Persona 5's depiction of predatory women is not men's fault.
We discuss critics being upset by offensive language but not offensive actions in Destroy All Humans, Halo multiplayer going free-to-play, Joe Rogan saying video games are a waste of time, Grounded's arachnophobia safe mode, and much more.
Ghost of Tsushima is out, and "critics" are accusing it of racism, imperialism, and even having ties to the alt-right. We blast those critiques and also discuss the controversy surrounding a transperson in Deadly Premonition 2, the gender of lead characters in games such as Assassin's Creed, and what's next for Xbox.
For the debut episode, we discuss our issues with The Last of Us Part II, people's problems with Far Cry 6, and censorship in the wake of protests against racial injustice.