Plus Roblox is cracking down on voice chat for kids and rumours say KPop Demon Hunters is coming to Fortnite
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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.
CAT: Hi I’m Cat Jahne
FIONA: and I’m Fiona Bartholomaeus
CAT: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
FIONA: This week rumour has it that Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag remake will drop the modern era setting and add RPG gameplay, there is a new game from indie developer of Umurangi Generation and will Fortnite get a Kpop Demon Hunters crossover?
Here is the news for Sunday 21st of September. Let’s go!
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FIONA: Fire up the rumour cannons, set sail on the seas of speculation as french outlet, Jeuxvideo, is reporting that the Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Remake will be ditching all of the modern era sci-fi gameplay.
Assassin’s Creed games always made it pretty clear that you were in a simulation, with the modern conflict between Assassins and Templars playing out in a more subtle less jump from roof and knife that guy sort of way.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Assassin’s Creed Shadows dropped the modern gameplay elements entirely and to make up for it apparently some cut content focusing on side character Mary Read will be reintroduced.
CAT: Fans aren’t thrilled over on reddit, especially with the addition of the RPG like elements of levelling up and gear scores with complaints about fundamentally changing the game they enjoyed.
It’s a good reminder that hey you can just play the old games and enjoy them, your current computer can definitely handle Black Flag and run it at absolute max specs so maybe give that a go.
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CAT: A new game reveal has just dropped from one of our favourite local developers, Veselekov aka Tali Faulkner, it’s called Penguin Colony and it’s spooky.
We’re talking dark creatures, tentacles and moody voice over.
Described by Faulkner as lovecraftian over on Bluesky you take control of penguins, moving across an icey land.
FIONA: Faulkner who lives in Australia, is Maori and has incorporated his culture into the games including some te reo Maori or Maori language right in the trailer.
Faulkner is working with Disco Elysium and Ultrakill’s Lenval Brown so it looks like it’ll be a winner.
There is a trailer live now, we’ll stick that in the show notes, but it’s definitely something we’re keen to see at Games Week.
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FIONA: Roblox has announced this week that they’re committed to introducing a new suite of safety measures after Australia’s eSafety Commissioner raised some concerns around child safety in game.
The new safety measures include making accounts for users aged under 16 private by default and introducing tools to prevent adult users from contacting under 16s without parental consent.
The company has said these new safety measures will be implemented in Australia by the end of this year. So 3 months away.
CAT: Parental controls will also be introduced to allow parents to disable chat for 13 to 15-year-old users, which is wild that parental control for that didn’t exist.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the world-leading codes and standards are designed to raise safety standards. They’ve been chatting with Roblox for several months to make it clear that under Australian law they are required to take meaningful action to prioritise the protection of children.
If you want to read more about it, we’ll leave a link in our show notes.
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CAT: Rumour has it that the next Fortnite collaboration will be with the Sony Picture film Kpop Demon Hunters.
Well-known leakers SpushFNBR and Loolo announced on social media that a reliable source said the collaboration is coming this season.
It would be an incredibly fast turn around if true but the whole world is obsessed with the animated film, so not surprised they’re trying to jump on the craze.
FIONA: Not going to lie, if it’s true I will be tempted to download and finally play Fortnite. I know Mitch is super interested too.
Epic Games hasn’t confirmed the crossover but people have been discussing the possibilities of new dance emotes based on the film choreography, such as Soda Pop, different skins of the girl’s performance and battle outfits, and most importantly their super cool weapons.
This will add to Fortnite’s growing list of music-related crossovers like Sabrina Carpenter, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, and KPop group BTS.
Cannot wait to see what they do with this.
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CAT: That’s it for the headlines…Here are the games coming out this week.
FIONA: The highly anticipated game Renown from RDBK Studios is finally here. The Melbourne made medieval PvP survival builder will launch into Early Access on the 22nd. This multiplayer game is set in a vast ever-evolving world, so make allies, gather resources, improve your craftsmanship and defend your strongholds with all you’ve got. That’s out on PC on Monday.
CAT: Out on the 25th is Silent Hill f, the next installment in the very popular horror series. This one is set in 1960s Japan where a town has been consumed by a sudden fog transforming Shimizu Hinako’s town into a nightmare. Fight monsters and solve eerie puzzles to survive. That’s out on Thursday on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.
FIONA: Also out on Thursday is Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. Get ready to race with all your favourite Sonic characters like Hatsune Miku, it’s not a joke, she’s also in the game alongside Knuckles and Amy. Race across land, sea, air and space, and warp through Travel Rings into new dimensions. It looks like so much fun and you can grab it on all platforms on the 25th.
CAT: Hades 2 finally launches into full release this week, this approachable roguelike has honed the format over it’s year and a bit of early access but if you’re keen to finally kill time you can pick it up on Nintendo Switch and PC from the 25th. Fan artists at the ready it’s going to get silly.
FIONA: Get ready for some adventure in Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac. This remake of the classic game has improved graphics, expanded levels and Pac-Village, and now voice acting. Play as Pac-Man himself, venturing across PAC-LAND to reclaim the Golden Fruit that was stolen by the Ghosts. It also has the option of co-op! So grab a friend and the game when it releases on all platforms on the 26th.
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FIONA: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus.
CAT: And my name is Cat Jahne, thank you so much for listening.
FIONA: We’re gearing up for Melbourne International Games Week, which means you should be able to spot us all at PAX Australia wearing some fancy SIFTER gear. If you’re in town for the convention make sure you come and say hello to us, we’d love to see you.
CAT: SIFTER is produced by myself, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Naomi Jackson, Kyle Pauletto, Adam Christou and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is SIFTER’s Executive Producer, and script editor.
FIONA: 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.
CAT: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday, see you then.
