Plus Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra delayed to next year and you can can now speak to Darth Vader in Fortnite
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou and Chris Button. Cat Jahne is Social Producer, Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER.
GIANNI: Hi I’m Gianni Di Giovanni
KYLE: and I’m Kyle Pauletto
GIANNI: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
KYLE: This week Marvel 1943 gets pushed back, Bungie gets caught out ripping off another artist, and yes Gianni has snuck a Fortnite story in as well
Here is the news for Sunday 18th of May. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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GIANNI: Oh oh it’s happened again. Bungie have been caught directly using an independent artist’s designs in their games, this time it’s the brand new Marathon.
Scottish artist Fern Hook who posts as ‘anti-real’ 4nt1r34l but written in old school leet speak, check the show transcript for this one, accused the developer of lifting their graphic design and artwork for the upcoming extraction shooter.
The wild thing is if you look at Hook’s designs - it’s very clear that much of the aesthetic of Marathon has foundations in their work.
KYLE: Hook was right, Bungie admitted it and have promised to make things right also stating that the artist who did this no longer works with the studio.
BUT if you remember from previous episodes of Walkthrough it’s not even the first time it’s happened, last year an artist who designed a gun for destiny found their imagery all over the nerf gun toy.
How does this keep happening Bungie?
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KYLE: And of course Gianni can’t be on the show without talking about Fortnite. Play some different games mate.
GIANNI: No. I won't. Anyway, this week the game of the decade introduced a brand new AI companion into it’s Star Wars themed season, the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader.
Bots that follow you around aren’t anything new but this one is different, it’s a full AI agent that you can speak to and it’ll talk back to you.
The estate of James Earl Jones confirmed that this is a voice agent based on the performances of the late actor and I gotta say it’s a bit janky especially as it keeps referring to the name of the skin you’re using, but I did manage to get it to call me Darth Domino for a while.
Anyway I definitely felt like a 12 year old again haha.
KYLE: And that's exactly the point I think. In other news you know how last Tim Sweeney was like “yeah definitely Fortnite 100% back on the iPhone this week don’t stress?
Yeah it didn’t happen. Shocking I know.
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GIANNI: Well it seems we’ve been bamboozled friends, because despite one of the starring voice actors of the upcoming Marvel 1943 claiming the game would be out this year, we now know that ain't happening.
You might remember earlier this year it was widely reported that Black Panther actor Khary Payton had leaked a Christmas 2025 release date for Rise of Hydra.
Sadly, developer Skydance Games has confirmed a new window of early 2026.
KYLE: In a post to X the studio explained that, as usual, the push is to allow more time to polish the highly anticipated superhero title.
And honestly at this point, I’m starting to wonder why studios even bother setting release dates.
I for one vote that every developer goes for the shadow drop method.
Wouldn’t that be a treat.
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KYLE: Valve is rolling out a new rating system aimed at helping players figure out which games will run smoothly on devices outside of the Steam Deck.
It’s the SteamOS Compatibility label that’ll appear as a blue checkmark.
While the green checkmark still means a game is Steam Deck verified, this new blue checkmark will show up on games that play nice with other SteamOS-based handhelds like the upcoming Lenovo Legion Go S and Asus ROG Ally.
To earn that blue tick, a game needs to launch properly, work with its launcher, and not break under anti-cheat systems.
GIANNI: It’s worth noting that this system doesn’t rate performance, so a game might technically run, but whether it runs well is still up to your hardware.
As someone with a Steam Deck - yeah there are better sources of information like ProtonDB which give a proper picture which I can only imagine will become more useful in future across different devices.
We can expect to see the new labels pop up in the coming weeks.
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KYLE: That’s it for the headlines, here are the games coming out this week.
GIANNI: You lead a construction company cleaning up after natural disasters in Roadcraft, the newest construction sim on the market. Grab it on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and X this Tuesday.
KYLE: Out on the 21st is the latest contender for my worst game title competition, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. It’s a cosy life sim RPG, picture Animal Crossing but you can take time away from the crushing realities of capitalism to battle monsters. Out on all platforms this Tuesday.
GIANNI: Next up we have Monster Train 2, the follow up to the roguelike deck builder hit from 2020. That’s coming to PC, Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and X on the 21st, and keep an eye on our website for Adams review coming soon.
KYLE: Blades of Fire is a new IP by Spanish developers MercuryStream. It’s a third person action adventure title where you forge your own weapons and tackle challenges your own way. Grab it on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and X on the 22nd.
GIANNI: And we’re being treated to a new take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles this week, with TMNT: Tactical Takedown. It’s an isometric, turn-based tactical adventure with a fantastic art style throwing back to the early cartoons. It’s out exclusively on PC this Thursday.
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PROMO: Articles to read, videos to watch and podcasts to listen to on sifter.com.au
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KYLE: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Kyle Pauletto.
GIANNI: And my name is Domino, thank you so much for listening.
KYLE: If you love our podcasts, why not become a monthly backer on Ko-Fi? Your support lets us keep making our shows and It’s easy to do, head to sifter.com.au/support where support starts from just $1 a month that link again is sifter.com.au/support or check the shownotes
GIANNI: SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Cat Jahne, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith, Chris Button and Fiona Bartholomaeus. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and I’m Gianni Di Giovanni SIFTER’s Executive Producer, who edited the video and the script, hosted the show, become a sith apprentice
KYLE: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune, and Audio Technica Australia and Apple for their support of SIFTER’s podcasts.
GIANNI: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday, see you then.
