True Avatars - A Queer Video Game Podcast

• Episode 32.5 - The Backlog: Hackers, Layoffs, and Pre-orders

  It’s been a busy time for news and I’ve had to cut a bunch of headlines in recent episodes, so Amy-Lynn joined me to cover everything I missed! We talk about the Game Freak hacker (finally), EA layoffs and another Titanfall cancelation, Polygon has been purchased by Game Rant’s owner (I mistakenly refer to them as Valnut), Nintendo reinforces their desire for strong diversity practice, and we also swap Switch 2 pre-order stories!   00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:48 - Nintendo Switch 2 Pre-order Trauma Dump 00:23:12 - News Backlog   This episode was recorded on May 7 2025.   Sources: https://www.polygon.com/pokemon/561817/pokemon-teraleak-nintendo-discord-subpoena https://x.com/pory_leeks/status/1914434500676747489?s=46&t=sVUrhNeL5EXDMRDpzdemfQ https://www.ign.com/articles/ea-cuts-around-300-roles-including-roughly-100-at-respawn https://www.ign.com/articles/apex-legends-and-star-wars-jedi-dev-respawn-cancels-another-incubation-project-around-100-employees-impacted https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/game-development/apex-legends-writer-gets-laid-off-24-hours-after-the-character-she-wrote-is-revealed-because-thats-what-the-games-industry-in-2025-looks-like/ https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/polygon-sale-valnet/ https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/flappy-bird-is-back-promising-no-web3-or-crypto-content-despite-the-team-behind-it/ https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/04/sea-of-stars-throes-of-the-watchmaker-dlc-finally-scores-a-release-date https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/microsoft-says-it-was-the-top-publisher-on-the-playstation-store-by-pre-orders-in-q1-2025/ https://gonintendo.com/contents/48098-nintendo-says-diversity-is-important-to-the-company-and-they-will-continue-efforts https://mobilesyrup.com/2025/05/07/eb-games-canada-president-jim-tyo-interview/

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• Episode 32 - Which queer games would make great movies and TV shows?

  This week Ekamy and Lloyd_Lloydster join me to discuss what we’ve been playing and also cover the last two weeks of headlines. In terms of news: Discord might see some major changes soon (for the worse). GTA VI has been delayed while Ghost of Tsushima gets a release date — but what do these things have to do with the recent Xbox price increases? Plus, Borderlands 4 had a State of Play and Oblivion Remastered was shadow dropped! After the break, we take turns pitching the queer video games we most want to see adapted into movies or TV shows… which ones did we pick? To cap off the show, Lloyd brings his recommendation for Queer Game of the Week: Boyfriend Dungeon!   00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:18 - What We’ve Been Playing 00:19:12 - News 01:13:50 - Most Wanted Queer Games as Movies/TV Shows 01:43:35 - Queer Game of the Week: Boyfriend Dungeon   This episode was recorded on May 4 2025.   Sources: https://www.theverge.com/news/654594/discord-new-ceo-jason-citron-humam-sakhnini https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/03/04/activision-blizzard-employee-suicide-lawsuit/ https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ghost-of-yotei-release-date-announced/ https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/04/ghost-of-yoteis-ps5-price-provokes-fresh-switch-2-fury https://www.ign.com/articles/gta-6-delayed-to-may-2026 https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sonic-x-shadow-generations-will-be-a-switch-2-launch-game-sega-announces/ https://www.ign.com/articles/fbc-firebreak-remedys-co-op-fps-set-in-the-world-of-control-has-a-release-date https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ps5s-classic-playstation-themes-are-coming-back-this-week/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2623190/The_Elder_Scrolls_IV_Oblivion_Remastered/ https://mobilesyrup.com/2025/05/01/xbox-increased-prices-consoles-controllers-games-worldwide-canada/ https://www.polygon.com/pokemon/561817/pokemon-teraleak-nintendo-discord-subpoena https://insider-gaming.com/unannounced-blade-runner-game-canceled-supermassive-games/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KlRBwf3sjY https://variety.com/2025/film/news/split-fiction-movie-sydney-sweeney-jon-m-chu-video-game-1236377192/

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• Episode 31 - They finally let a trans woman play the Nintendo Switch 2!

  Please forgive me for that dorky, bad-joke title, True Avatars! I’m just really excited because this week, I went to the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience event in Toronto and had the chance to test out the Switch 2 over a month before its official release! I also got to play a bunch of games, including Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4, Drag x Drive, and so much more! Some of my opinions were changed, and others were cemented — hit that play button to hear all of my thoughts!   00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:14 - General Event Info & Console Thoughts 00:14:28 - Mario Kart World 00:22:43 - Donkey Kong Bananza 00:27:43 - Metroid Prime 4 00:31:50 - Drag x Drive 00:36:12 - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 00:38:31 - Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV 00:41:42 - Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour 00:46:15 - GameCube NSO 00:48:47 - Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World 00:51:51 - Split Fiction 00:53:37 - Overall Thoughts   This episode was recorded on April 27 2025.   A couple of quick notes I missed while recording: -  In Mario Kart World, the feather item I mentioned is designed to help you jump higher than normal -  Jaggies are the rough, pixelated edges you can see on objects on the screen when the game resolution is lower than the screen resolution -  It’s hard to explain, but the original Super Mario Bros game from 1983 is playable in Welcome Tour, but it’s played at its original, low resolution making it appear tiny in comparison to the 4K resolution of the screen. It appears as a tiny box and as you move through the level, the whole level stays on the screen as you progress, to show you exactly how big 4K is compared to the original NES’ resolution (it really is better if you see it)

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• Episode 30 - Final Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch, Mario Kart World Direct, The Last of Us Season 2 Premiere

  Nicole joins me for this week’s double whammy segments: discussing that underwhelming(??) Mario Kart World Direct and the exciting premiere for The Last of Us Season 2. We share our thoughts, criticisms, and all the queer goodness. It’s also a busy week for news: Dead by Daylight introduces the game’s first playable trans character, PlayStation Plus prices are going up in several countries, the final major patch for Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available on all platforms — and so much more! Queer Game of the Week also returns, and I make a case for the Final Fantasy VII remake (soon-to-be) trilogy.   00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:50 - News 00:17:00 - What We’ve Been Playing 00:22:30 - Mario Kart World Direct 00:45:21 - The Last of Us Season 2 Premiere 01:05:06 - Queer Game of the Week: Final Fantasy VII Remake + Rebirth   This episode was recorded on April 19 and 20 2025.   Sources: https://baldursgate3.game/news/the-final-patch-new-subclasses-photo-mode-and-cross-play_138 https://x.com/lbabinz/status/1912572302556078316?s=46&t=sVUrhNeL5EXDMRDpzdemfQ https://gamerant.com/playstation-plus-price-hike-canada/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZRGDZCl9pg https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/metal-gear-in-concert-coming-to-london-later-this-year/ https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/niantic-is-laying-off-68-employees-after-selling-its-game-business-for-3-5-billion https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/the-witcher-4-beta-test-invites-are-a-scam-cd-projekt-red-warns/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZblwGH-C7eg https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/metal-gear-in-concert-coming-to-london-later-this-year/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq4uCJDwO9U https://www.ign.com/articles/our-big-nintendo-switch-2-interview-with-nintendo-of-americas-bill-trinen

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• Episode 29 - Spilled! Impressions & Queer Headline Catchup

  This week Amy-Lynn joins me to catch up on what we’ve been playing (and want to play)! In particular, we discuss Spilled!, which is a recently released cosy game from a queer dev about cleaning up oil spills! It’s really good, and True Avatars is here with many of the reasons you need to check it out. We also cover a bunch of queer headlines! The Last of Us TV series has been renewed for Season 3 early, Sims 4 receives a free queer content update, Hades II and Cyberpunk 2077 have some Nintendo Switch 2 news, and we discuss what’s going wrong with PlayStation’s upcoming concerts.   00:00:00 - Intro 00:04:21 - What We’ve Been Playing 00:23:41 - News   This episode was recorded on April 11 2025.   Sources: Spilled!: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2240080/Spilled/ https://x.com/lentegamedev/status/1909633823362417074?s=46&t=sVUrhNeL5EXDMRDpzdemfQ https://x.com/naughty_dog/status/1909999973258719307?s=46&t=sVUrhNeL5EXDMRDpzdemfQ https://www.gamingbible.com/news/tv-and-film/last-of-us-tv-not-extend-beyond-games-943649-20250401 https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/hades-2-will-be-a-nintendo-switch-2-console-exclusive-at-launch/ https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/04/switch-2-allows-players-to-create-per-game-controller-profiles https://gaymingmag.com/2025/04/sims-4-release-new-pride-ful-items-for-create-a-sim-and-build-buy-modes/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXFGmnNbp5s https://store.steampowered.com/app/2318330/Neverway/ https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/xboxs-big-summer-showcase-is-officially-returning-in-june/ https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/playstation-the-concert-is-reportedly-cancelling-numerous-tour-dates-and-delaying-others/ https://bsky.app/profile/cyberpunk.net/post/3llw6kniz4s2f

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