Splash Damage

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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 t...

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 vid...

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,...

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 mean...

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 repulsivene...

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 hav...

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 ro...

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 a...

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 guy...

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 f...

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.