Plus Sony in talks to buy Elden Ring parent company and Back 4 Blood 2 is on the way
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Smith, Adam Christou and Chris Button. 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
KYLE: and I’m Kyle Pauletto
FIONA: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
KYLE: This week the Game Award nominations are here and everyone is chill about it, a Back 4 Blood sequel could be on the way, and is Sony angling to buy from Software’s parent company? Yes.
Here is the news for Sunday 24th of November. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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KYLE: The 2024 Game Award nominations have dropped, and of course, we have thoughts about it.
As always it’s the game of the year category that is causing the biggest stir in the community, for what I think is a pretty interesting reason.
The nominees are what you would expect, we have Astro Bot, Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Metaphor: ReFantazio.
But here’s where the controversy, if it can be called that, is coming from.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is also nominated.
FIONA: That’s right, a DLC expansion of a game that already won this exact award back in 2022 is nominated, and some people don’t think that’s right.
What are your thoughts Kyle?
KYLE: Don’t get me wrong, Shadow of the Erdtree was a tremendous, truly stunning expansion on what was already a near perfect video game.
But it was an expansion, and I’m inclined to agree with the haters on this one.
Where do you stand Fi?
FIONA: My first reaction is nope, DLC’s shouldn’t get a turn in Game of the Year.
But, I do kind of see the other side, especially when it’s a massive DLC that is essentially a whole new game with hours and hours of playtime, but at that point just release it as a sequel if you want to qualify for the awards.
Gotta say it’s a no from me.
The Game Awards 2024 will take place on Friday December 13, and we’ll discuss all the winners and losers for you on that week's episode of Walkthrough.
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FIONA: Thanks to some fans who went on a deep dive, rumours are floating around that a sequel to Turtle Rock’s Back 4 Blood is in development.
In the backend of Steam, fans have found the word ‘Gobi’ which is supposedly the internal codename for the original game. Then after looking at the online portfolio for motion capture actor and stuntman Jesse Hutch, they found he is down as a lead performer for Gobi 2. Plus he also worked on the original game.
KYLE: People have also found that the domain back4blood2.com was registered last year.
It feels like one of those theories with the pin up board and red string connecting it all.
Nothing has officially been confirmed but the zombie survival game was pretty well received back in 2021 and has received several expansions. So time will tell if we get more zombie survival fun.
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KYLE: Remedy held their investor presentation this week and one of their highlights was that Control 2 will be an action RPG.
Bit of a weird thing to announce and focus on considering many people consider the first game as an action-RPG, as well as a third-person shooter, and it’s non exactly a new ground-breaking genre.
NOT TO MENTION Action RPG is often what we describe games like Diablo IV as, a top down fast isometric game so throw that into the murky pool of game descriptive terms.
FIONA: Even on their Twitter post, that was the only information they gave about Control 2.
Bit strange but ok.
They also announced the first Control game will receive a free update in early 2025 unlocking some previously released content, and Alan Wake 2 has now sold over 1.8 million units.
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FIONA: And finally, one for the speculation folder.
Reuters is reporting that Sony is currently in talks to purchase the Japanese Media conglomerate Kadokawa, which owns a majority share of FromSoftware.
Kadokawa confirmed it received a letter of intent from Sony as well, so this is looking possible.
KYLE: At this stage that’s where we are at. It’d be a huge move for Sony who could pick up a massive suite of different franchises, Anime, Manga and of course Elden Ring and Dark Souls.
We’ll keep you up to date here on Walkthrough if any more information emerges.
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FIONA: That’s it for the big headlines, here are the games coming out this week
KYLE: Releasing Monday we have the really interesting looking Neon Blood. It’s a Cyberpunk style action RPG where you play as a no-nonsense detective in the year 2053. It has a super unique art style, blending hand drawn and pixel art in a 2.5D perspective. Neon Blood is coming to all platforms from the 25th.
FIONA: Out Tuesday is Critter Cafe, a cosy life sim where you rescue fantastic animals and I guess force them to work in a cafe…Animal rights issues aside It’s really colourful and light and if chill is your vibe, check this one out on PC or Switch on the 26th.
KYLE: And finally Snow bros Wonderland is the latest entry in the 30 year old arcade action series, and now features a 3D isometric play style, four player co-op,and a bunch of new features. It’s coming to PC and PlayStation this Thursday.
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FIONA: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus.
KYLE: And my name is Kyle Pauletto, thank you so much for listening.
FIONA: If you’ve ever been curious about how games are made, you should check out Lightmap… SIFTER’s award winning video game interview show. Recently we’ve featured the developers of Civilization VII at Firaxis and the makers of the Steam Deck from Valve. Incredible conversations are yours for free on the Lightmap podcast. Search for Lightmap and SIFTER in your podcast player now, that’s Lightmap and SIFTER.
KYLE: SIFTER is produced by Fiona Bartholomaeus, myself, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith and Chris Button. The episode is edited by both Senior Producer Mitch Loh and Gianni Di Giovanni who is SIFTER’s Executive Producer and also Walkthrough’s 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.
KYLE: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday. See you then.
