Plus Cat played the Nintendo Switch 2 and we got a first look at the leaked images of the Xbox ROG handheld Project Keenan
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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.
KYLE: Hi I’m Kyle Pauletto
CAT: and I’m Cat Jahne
KYLE: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games. And welcome to Cat, who’s filling in for Fiona this week.
CAT: This week I got to play the Nintendo Switch 2 I’ll give you my impressions, Death Stranding 2 is set in Australia, and Apple lost a court case which means Fortnite can return to the App Store.
Here is the news for Sunday 11th 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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KYLE: Cat you got to play the Switch 2 before anyone else in Australia! So give me all the goss
CAT: Okay, so one thing that definitely stood out to me was the improved haptics.
There was a noticeable difference when playing Donkey Kong Bananza between punching stone and punching dirt and when you used Kirby's new spring mode, you would get a little vibration. It was honestly really cool.
The new Mario Kart World looks insane. The maps are incredible. I obviously raced as the cow. And I'll just say one thing on that experience. She does a little shimmy.
KYLE: Like in what context does she do a little shimmy?
CAT: If you press the power up button when you're not holding a power up, she does a little shimmy. It's delightful. She just does a little shake. It's incredible.
The new 4K displays looked incredible, especially in Donkey Kong Bananza. the colors and the shine. It was just gorgeous.
There were also some great third-party games that were ready for release date. I had a bit of a play with Hades II.
Honestly, it may have been made for this console.
KYLE: Well, that sounds incredible. I'm obviously green with jealous rage right now, but I'm sure I'll get my hands on this thing soon enough. Thanks for giving me the rundown.
CAT: No worries.
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CAT: Well speaking of brand new handhelds It seems nothing stays under wraps for long in this industry, and this week we were treated to the first leaked images of the upcoming Xbox ROG handheld, apparently titled Project Keenan.
Unlike a lot of leaks, this hasn’t come from a cheeky hacker or loose-lipped retailer. This time it came from one of the all time great leakers, the US’s very own Federal Communications Commission.
You might not be aware but every device manufacturer needs to submit their hardware for testing to the FCC, and because it’s a government department they publish documents and those documents sometimes contain new xbox handhelds.
KYLE: Interestingly, Project Keenan is essentially an Xbox branded version of the upcoming ROG Ally 2, but I think the most notable part of this leak is just how goddamn ugly this thing is.
This handheld sports two handles reminiscent of traditional console controllers, which hey I’m sure will be pretty comfortable.
But my god, at what cost.
Rumor has it we’ll get a full reveal on May 20, but for now visit the link in our show notes for all that we know so far.
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KYLE: We here in Australia have this kind of embarrassing trait where we get very excited when our beautiful country gets portrayed in the media, so you can imagine how we felt to find out that a large portion of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach will be set right here in the great southern land.
According to James Berich from Press Start, the dev team moved from Mexico to Australia as their next setting, and have looked specifically at the Northern Territory for much of their inspiration.
CAT: All the hits from the land down under are here, vast environments, bushfires, aussie slang, Mad Max director George Miller, even our beloved vegemite, which is undeniably the best of the mite-based spreads.
But this is a video game, so the environment isn’t a one for one, and takes some serious creative license like including a snow capped mountain range in the middle of Western Australia, which I can confirm does not actually exist.
Pretty sure you’ve been up the single snowcapped mountain in WA haven’t you Kyle?
For a more in depth look at the game, read Berich’s full article at the link in our show notes.
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CAT: A new GTA VI trailer has broken records for the number of views it accrued in the first 24 hours of release.
The former record holder of most one day views was the Deadpool and Wolverine trailer, which managed to rack up 365 million.
Well Rockstar has smashed that, with the fresh GTA VI trailer reaching 475 million views in just a day.
KYLE: And it’s not just the views that are making headlines, it’s also the details that sharp-eyed fans and analysts are finding throughout.
Like the numerous references to previous games, a cheeky PS5 controller sighting, and some absolutely insane visuals, and a strong focus on protagonist Lucia Caminos and her Bonnie and Clyde like relationship with Jason Duvall our two lead characters.
Safe to say this hype train is full steam ahead.
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KYLE: After a five-year hiatus from US app stores, Fortnite will once again be available on iOS because Apple effectively lost their massive court case and were found to be lying in court.
Apple and Epic have been engaged in a legal battle royale for years now after an in-app payment system was added to Fortnite, and in 2020 Apple blocked Epic's app store developer account in the US and EU as a result.
This new injunction effectively removes the blocks for third party services using their own payment systems - and avoiding that hefty 30% fee for any transaction.
Now Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has said that Fortnite will be back in US app stores from next week, submitting the game to the US store via an EU based account out of Sweden.
CAT: Sweeney said he’s not sure which day exactly, but it will likely be later in the week.
And would you look at that, just in time for the latest Star-Wars themed season.
Can’t wait to watch Emperor Palpatine do the griddy over my corpse while sitting on the tram.
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CAT: That’s it for the headlines, here are the games coming out this week.
KYLE: Starting out with a big release this Thursday we have Doom: The Dark Ages. It’s the third game in the rebooted series and looks to be another ripper time of tearing through demons to banging metal, this time with a medieval twist. Out on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and X on the 15th. Gianni's review of the game is live right now on sifter.com.au and keep an ear on Drop Rate for another Speed Run.
CAT: Also out on the 15th is a complete change of pace with the roguelike deckbuilder Into the Restless Ruins. Use cards to build the dungeons you then have to adventure through. It looks really interesting, and will be available this Thursday on all platforms.
KYLE: We love to shout out a locally made title here and Rogue Worlds is the roguelite platformer follow up to Aura of Worlds made by Australian studio Cognitive Forge. Some lovely pixel art in this game as you rope swing your way to the end of the run. Find that on PC on the 15th as it exits early access.
CAT: And last up we have Capcom Fighting Collection 2. Eight classic Capcom fighting games in one neat package for a really reasonable price, which is a nice change in 2025. Strangely, this is only releasing on last gen consoles though…so grab it on PC, Switch, PlayStation 4, or Xbox One this Friday.
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PROMO: Articles to read, videos to watch and podcasts to listen to on sifter.com.au
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CAT: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Cat Jahne.
KYLE: And my name is Kyle Pauletto, thank you so much for listening.
CAT: Hey Kyle each week I’m running through the greatest hits of gaming and I want everyone to vote to tell me the best game ever - hit the sifterHQ Instagram on a Thursday for a trip down memory lane and pick your favourite! As long as your favourite is Snoopy’s Magic Show a gameboy game that I’ve never played, that came out a decade before I was born. OR like whatever you want to pick I guess. Find us on @sifterHQ on instagram to join the fun.
KYLE: SIFTER is produced by myself, Cat Jahne, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith, Chris Button and Fiona Bartholomaeus. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is SIFTER’s Executive Producer, who edited the video and the script.
CAT: 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.
KYLE: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday, see you then.
