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.