Plus a CONTROL sequel is development and all the big announcements from Nintendo Indie World event
NEWS THIS WEEK
RELEASE RADAR
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SIFTER is produced by Nicholas Kennedy, Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Daniel Ang & Adam Christou. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer. Thanks to Omny Studio for their support of SIFTER.
ADAM: Hi I’m Adam Christou
GIANNI: and I’m Gianni Di Giovanni
ADAM: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
GIANNI: This week Doom Eternal composer Mick Gordon lays out alleged mistreatment by ID software, a sequel to Control has been announced, and Netflix is making another video game tv show. Here is the news for Sunday 13th of November, Let’s Go
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GIANNI: You might have heard that Australian composer Mick Gordon who worked on both Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal had a pretty messy breakup with developer id Software after creating some of the most iconic soundtracks in recent history.
This week Gordon posted a detailed account of his side of the story. addressing the short time frame required to produce the Doom Eternal soundtrack and straight up ripping and tearing into the actions of id Studio Director Marty Stratton.
The statement, partially a response to Stratton's own reddit post from 2020 blaming Gordon for the failures of the Doom Eternal OST, calls out a grueling two-year crunch, delayed contracts, and poor planning.
While Gordon claims he delivered the 12 tracks originally contracted, the final soundtrack had 59 tracks included the rest being produced by ID Software Sound Director Chad Mossholder who is credited as co-artist.
Doom’s music is procedural, it’s not as simple as just pulling the MP3s from the game and chucking them up on Spotify, and Gordon alleges that Mossholder had been working on a version since at least 2019 and that the final version was filled with clipping, overlapping mixes and random edits.
ADAM: At the time of the reporting neither parent company Microsoft nor Bethesda, Zenimax, id, Stratton or anyone else involved in this mess have responded to the allegations.
Mick Gordon joined us on Lightmap to share his creative process creating the soundtrack, he was generous and fascinating to speak to, so if you’d like to hear a bit more of that check the link in our show notes.
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ADAM: Control, the hit spooky sci fi action game from Remedy is getting a sequel.
Still in the early stages of development Mikael Kasurinen game director said in a brief statement that the follow up to the 2019 hit was the most exciting projects he had ever worked on.
The game will be published by Remedy and 505 Games and the first title was absolutely best games of last generation.
GIANNI: The original game It’s absolutely stunning to look at, and the interface design is something else seriously give it a go if you can, it’s usually available on big discount with current gen PS5 and Xbox Series X version available too.
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GIANNI: Nintendo held their indie world showcase this week with a bunch of news about upcoming titles including a smash hit sequel made by an Australian team.
Sports Story the follow up to 2017’s Golf Story by Brisbane’s Side Bar Games is out next month, it’s got cricket, tennis, soccer, BMX and even a bit of metal gear style stealth action. Amazing.
Rogue Legacy 2 which released on to PC in early access in late april, which has been lauded by critics as a bigger and better in every way than the 2013 original is out right now on the Switch.
A space for the unbound, the slice of life sidescrolling adventure game by indonesian studio Mojiken which was caught up in publisher conflict just a few months ago will arrive on Switch on the 19th of January next year
ADAM: Goodbye World is a GBA style game about a couple of developers who are trying to make the next big gameboy stylehit. It’s got a fantastic art style and it’s cool to see some semi-autobiographical story telling happening in this cute title when it arrives later this month.
Botany Manor is a puzzle game set in a beautiful chateau (sha-tow) where you solve plant based puzzles. Looks chill and cozy with a mix of puzzle based walking sim and gardening game elements.
And finally Pepper Grinder is a pixel art side scroller by Ahr Ech where you grind through subterranean levels with a big drill, gatling gun or mech in some fast paced action.
There’s plenty more to see so check the show notes for more titles announced.
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GIANNI: Hot off the back of the Cyberpunk animated series success, Netflix says it is moving ahead with its next video game franchise adaptation, Gears of War.
On the 16th anniversary of the first game’s release, Netflix took to Twitter to announce it will be working on a live action feature film, followed by an adult animated series.
While Gears of War is a relatively popular series in 2022, back in 2006 it was a MASSIVE deal, and one of the major selling points for the XBox 360.
There’s going to be a lot of older gamers out there praying that Netflix do them right with this content.
ADAM: I don't know much about Gears of War but they better all have big thick necks in this show
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ADAM: Activision Blizzard, in a rare move for the company, have learned from their mistakes, as the original Warzone won’t disappear when Warzone Two is released next week.
After the shambles of a release that was Overwatch Two, which saw the original Overwatch deleted completely at launch, it seems Activision Blizzard isn’t taking any chances of fan backlash with their most popular franchise.
In a massive blog post on Wednesday, the company outlined more details about the upcoming sequel, and confirmed that the original map won’t be thrown out, but instead remain intact as Call Of Duty: Warzone Caldera.
As far as upgrades, cosmetics and other progression is concerned, it gets a little confusing, as is often the case with this free to play model that we’re destined to endure. At least until some clever capitalist figures out a better way to legally pry money out of children.
So for all the nitty gritty details head to the link in the show notes.
GIANNI: Eventually I think most people will move over to the new game, but it's good there is still a place for those players who want to stick with the older game.
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GIANNI: If you’re a fan of PlayStation's Horizon franchise and MMOs, get ready because we might be getting a game that brings those two things together.
We already know that Guerrilla Games and Sony have confirmed a spin-off is in development for the PSVR2 horizon call of the mountain but new reports are claiming that Sony is working with NCSoft on an MMO set in the Horizon: Forbidden West universe.
According to MTN a South Korean financial news site, it’s in very early stages with the two companies allegedly still discussing their partnership.
But of course this hasn’t been officially confirmed by Sony and is all just speculation at this point, so we will wait and see and hope for the best, because honestly who wouldn’t want to explore the post-apocalyptic future with friends?
ADAM: I know this will be a lot of collecting rocks and reeds, so I'm sceptical about whether an MMO is the right fit for this game.
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GIANNI: That’s it for news, here are the games releasing this week.
GIANNI: Pentiment, the latest game from Obsidian Software comes out on the 15th. This one was designed by a small team of just 8 and helmed by Josh Sawyer the game director behind Fallout: New Vegas and the Pillars of Eternity series. It’s set in the 17th century, has a cool medieval art-style and uses font to convey emotions and character quirks - it looks rad!
ADAM: Out on the 15th is Bound By Blades, the indie action RPG by first time developers Zeth. Prepare for a wealth of intense boss bosses solo or co-op with a friend. It’s coming to PC, Switch, iOS and Android on Tuesday.
GIANNI: The sequel to Call of Duty’s Battle Royale, Warzone, is out this week. In a surprisingly straightforward move given COD’s naming history, it’s simply called Warzone 2, and from what we can tell it’s going to be much of the same with some new features and improvements. There’s also Warzone DMZ coming, which is a narrative -focused extraction mode similar to the PC hit Escape from Tarkov. They’re both out on PC, Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox series S and X on the 16th.
ADAM: On the 17th is the latest in the Goat Simulator series, Goat Simulator three. That’s right, they’ve made only two of these despite this being the third. It looks to be what you’ve come to expect from the series, but the madness is more polished and looks better than ever. It’s out on PC, Playstation 5, and Xbox series X and S this Thursday.
GIANNI: and the week of sequels continues with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet coming this Friday. The minor incremental improvements to this tired franchise continue with this entry, which builds on the past two decades of entries with an open world and even more insane new pokemon. Scarlet and Violet also has this cool nostalgia feature where the visuals look like the game was developed in 2010, Neat! Grab it on Switch on the 18th.
ADAM: The latest game in the Dark Pictures Anthology Series ‘The Devil In Me’, by horror studio Supermassive Games is on the 18th. This one focuses on a group of documentary filmmakers who find themselves trapped in a ‘Murder Castle’. Ooh! Spooky.
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ADAM: This has been Walkthrough by Sifter, my name is Adam Christou,
GIANNI: And my name is Gianni Di Giovanni. Thank you so much for listening.
ADAM: We know you love listening to SIFTER so if you’d like to support our work, we’ve got a Ko-Fi where you can contribute whatever our work is worth to you. Even a small amount makes a big difference to us. Head to sifter.com.au/support where even a couple of dollars helps us keep making our shows
GIANNI: SIFTER is produced by Nicholas Kennedy, Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Daniel Ang, Daniel Hyndes & Adam Christou. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and my name is Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer.
ADAM: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune.
Thanks to both Audio Technica Australia and Omny Studio for their support of SIFTER’s three podcasts.
GIANNI: Thanks again for listening, we’ll be back with more news next Sunday.
