Plus all the announced from Gamescom including Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven, Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes and Death by Scrolling
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou, Chris Button and Naomi Jackson. 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.
FIONA: Hi I’m Fiona Bartholomaeus
GIANNI: and I’m Gianni Di Giovanni
FIONA: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
GIANNI: This week there is one absolutely massive story, Hollow Knight: Silksong finally has a release date, plus the other games announced at Gamescom and journalist Chris Hansen goes after Roblox.
Here is the news for Sunday 24th of August. Let’s go!
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FIONA: Silksong!
GIANNI: Silksong!
FIONA: After 8 years of waiting the Australian made Hollow Knight: Silksong finally has a release date of September 4 which is a bit over a week away.
We got to see a bunch of new locations and in this game you’ll be playing as Hornet ascending to the peak of a haunted kingdom, using air vents and carts to travel the different areas.
Hornet plays a bit differently than the protagonist of the first game, her moveset is a lot more acrobatic and fluid.
There will be over 200 different kinds of enemies and 40 bosses. They’re definitely going all out.
GIANNI: Adelaide’s Team Cherry spoke to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier and co-founder Ari Gibson said there wasn’t any particular delay that caused the game to get stuck, just that they were a small team and games take a long time.
The game originally started as a DLC for Hollow Knight but now it’s been expanded into a stand-alone game, and Gibson said at one point he had to stop sketching new characters and locations because everything would end up the game.
Hollow Knight: Silksong will be out on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch.
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GIANNI: Gamescom Opening Night Live was held this week with a stack of news and lots of games to look forward to next year.
Australian developers Massive Monster revealed their next Cult of the Lamb DLC called Woolhaven.
It’s a massive expansion which includes new areas to explore including the massive mountain that we’ve seen in the game, you have to protect your group from snow and blizzards, and they’ve now introduced ranching where you can breed rare animals that provide wool, warmth and also food.
FIONA: Battlestar Galactica is getting a new game called Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes, from the team at Alt Shift which has some strong FTL vibes if you remember that game.
You’ll be taking command of a fleet escaping the annihilation of the Twelve Colonies in this roguelite real time strategy game, with the Cylons fully winning the war this time round.
GIANNI: And we love a good LEGO game and we got another look at the new LEGO Batman: Legacy Of The Dark Knight
Developed by Telltale and Warner Bros. the game tells the story of Batman’s origins to fighting crime on the streets of Gotham, that’ll be out next year too
FIONA: Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War IV is the next sequel in the long running real time strategy series.
There are four playable factions this time round in the campaign, including old faves Space Marines, and the new skeleton robots Necrons.
GIANNI: And finally Ron Gilbert, creator of Monkey Island, is back with a vertically scrolling pixel RPG called Death By Scrolling.
The screen is always moving up so you better stay ahead of it if you want to make it through. That’s also got an Australian connection Elissa Black who lives here is working on the game with Ron.
FIONA: There are stacks more to look forward to announced at Gamescom so we’ll drop a link in our shownotes.
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FIONA: ‘Former To Catch A Predator’ host Chris Hansen has confirmed he is doing an investigation on child exploitation in Roblox and has already been interviewing both police investigators and victims.
It comes after Roblox suspended a Youtuber named ‘Schlep’ from the site who called himself a ‘predator-hunter’ and allegedly helped get 6 different people arrested.
He then shared a cease and desist notice Roblox sent him and announced he had obtained legal representation to fight Roblox’s actions.
GIANNI: Chris Hansen announced that Schlep will collaborate on his project and that he is working with crime network TruBlu where there are rumours that the findings of this investigation will be released as a documentary called ‘Predators’.
In a statement, Roblox said any assertion that they would intentionally put their users at risk of exploitation is simply untrue," adding that "No system is perfect and bad actors adapt to evade detection.”
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GIANNI: Moshi Monsters update! It’s official, Mind Candy have reached their goal to bring back popular title Moshi Monsters.
Their original Kickstarter aiming for 250 thousand pounds or approximately 520 thousand australian dollars didn’t hit its target after being sabotaged by a “malicious actor” so they created a second one with a new goal of 50 thousand pounds or 105 thousand Australian dollars and it hit that new goal in just 6 hours.
FIONA: Mind Candy has also teased new mystery stretch goals if they raise even more money.
This phone and PC sequel will have new playable monsters like the poppeteers and the fizzbangs as well as the things we all loved from the first game such as collecting Moshlings, decorating houses and playing minigames and is expected to hit early access next year.
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FIONA: That’s it for the headlines…Here are the games coming out this week.
GIANNI: Get ready to raise animals, harvest crops and grow your bazaar business in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. It’s the latest game in the series and it looks absolutely adorable. Help Zephyr Town’s grand bazaar return to the thriving market and town that it used to be by tending to your new farm, crafting rare delicacies and selling them at your own stall. It releases on the 27th on the Nintendo Switch and the 28th on PC.
FIONA: Snake is back with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, a remake of the 2004 Metal Gear Solid 3. Jump back into the original story but with new and improved graphics and audio, that enhances the jungle and other iconic locations. It’s out on the 28th on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
GIANNI: Kirby and the Forgotten Land a fave from the Nintendo Switch gets it’s next gen upgrade this week on the 28th. It brings with it a new expansion campaign the Star-Crossed World with upgraded graphics and new abilities. Find that exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2 this week!
FIONA: Out on the 29th is Davy x Jones. Play as the infamous pirate but with a bit of a twist. After being betrayed, robbed, beheaded and sunk to The Locker, you play as the body, Jones, and work with his stubborn skull, Davy, in a revenge quest to face your nemesis Blackbeard. Be the pirate you were meant to be when it comes to early access on the PC on Friday.
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GIANNI: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Gianni Di Giovanni
FIONA: And my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus, thank you so much for listening.
GIANNI: If you like your videos vertical we’ve been putting heaps up on on our Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, it’s a really quick way to grab the top stories if you are already scrolling through. If you see them there, feel free to give us a heart and a follow! We’re @ sifterHQ on all those platforms!
FIONA: SIFTER is produced by myself, Naomi Jackson who edited this episode, Cat Jahne, Kyle Pauletto, Adam Christou and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer, and my cohost this week Gianni Di Giovanni is SIFTER’s Executive Producer, and script editor.
GIANNI: 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.
FIONA: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday, see you then.