Plus DOOM announcements galore at Quakecon 2024 and CULT OF THE LAMB announces an interactive comic
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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 for their support of SIFTER.
KYLE: Hi I’m Kyle Pauletto
FIONA: and I’m Fiona Bartholomaeus
KYLE: Welcome to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
FIONA: This week Rip and Tear into some DOOM news from Quakecon, Fortnite is changing how battle passes work after 7 years, and the new Cult of the Lamb DLC includes a cool interactive comic.
Here is the news for Sunday 11th of August. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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FIONA: It’s been a big week for retro Doom fans, with a bunch of announcements coming out of Quakecon 2024.
The news that got fans the most fired up was the announcement of the Doom + Doom II enhanced port.
Out on all platforms right now, it includes the first two original Doom games enhanced up to 120 hz in 4K, a brand new episode titled Legacy of Rust, Sigil made by Doom creator John Romero and more community mod support, multiplayer death matches and co-op, and modern soundtracks.
Best part of all it’s free for anyone that owns either Doom or Doom II, and under $20 for those who don’t.
KYLE: Also announced was Doom Eternal getting mod support, a new physical release for the SNES edition of Doom that looks fantastic, and a massive bundle titled the Doom Anthology that includes every game plus a BFG replica.
There was a sneaky little tease as well for a crossover between Starfield and Doom, which features the Praetor armor, Crucible Sword and some hellish enemies.
Check everything out for yourself at the link in the shownotes.
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KYLE: Next week Cult of the Lamb will be getting its Unholy Alliance update but now on the same day, the game will be getting an interactive comic too.
Announced by Massive Monster, the interactive comic will allow fans to choose between different branching storylines and explore the world through a new protagonist’s eyes.
So remember your actions will have consequences.
It sounds really cool as the comic will have music and sound effects, and according to the devs, the comic will explore the lore of some of the ‘often asked after’ characters.
FIONA: The comic will be part of the Pilgrim Pack DLC which will also include new guests, Special Followers, outfits and new decorations for the main game.
The devs also teased that there is a whole separate bonus comic that unlocks at the end of the in-game quest, but haven’t hinted on what it’s about.
The Pilgrim Pack DLC be available tomorrow on the 12th of August.
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FIONA: This week Sony shared its first fiscal year 2024 financial reports which has shown that the sales of PlayStation 5’s have decreased.
Compared to the first quarter sales of last year, there was a decrease of 900,000 purchases however Sony did make gains in other areas like an increase in operating income, and improved gaming and network services sales.
The total number of PS5s sold has now reached 61.7 million units. So either everyone who wants a PS5 already has it or they just don’t have enough to lure in new customers.
Or maybe buying a console that is hundreds of dollars at the moment is off the cards because of cozzy livs.
KYLE: The report also shared that sales of PS5 and PS4 titles have dropped by almost two million units compared to the first quarter last year, and of those sales, only 11% were for a first-party game published by Sony.
It was also noticed that the ratio between physical and digital purchases had changed, with 80% of the games sold across PS5 and PS4 were digital copies.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Sony responds to the findings, stay tuned to Walkthrough for all the latest.
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KYLE: The eagerly anticipated fantasy-action RPG Avowed, has been confirmed by Microsoft that it will no longer be released this year.
There were rumours floating around last week that it would be pushed back to avoid a very busy period for Game Pass and sure enough that’s the case.
Xbox posted on X that it was being delayed until February 18 2025 to help players get through their backlog of games, including the upcoming World of Warcraft The War Within, Age of Mythology Retold, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Shattered Space and much more.
FIONA: Honestly with the big list that they have, it’s definitely a good idea.
A few months ago developers were saying that the game was in good shape and they were very much in the finalising and polishing phase.
There is a livestream schedule for Avowed on August 23 so hopefully we’ll get to see more of the game in action.
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FIONA: Fortnite set the standard with battle passes when they first launched back in 2017 but a change this week might mean the fomo for past cosmetics are over.
In a post on the Fortnite site, Epic Games have announced that cosmetics from upcoming battle passes will have an 18 month exclusivity, then they could appear in the shop.
It’s not everything of course, there will be a few genuinely exclusive skins each season.
KYLE: There are a lot of possibly maybes perhaps in that press release, but one immediate change will be that the amount of in-game currency you can complete by doing the battle pass will jump to 1500 vbucks from 950.
The 950 vbucks price of a battle pass won’t change, and that means knocking off a previous battle pass means you had the credits for the next one and a bonus.
What I’d really like to see is them to move to something like Helldivers, where the passes don’t expire at all, but hey less fomo is still better than no fomo.
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KYLE: That’s it for the big headlines, here are the games coming out this week.
FIONA: One of 2023’s biggest games, Dredge, is getting a new DLC. The Iron Rig is the second expansion of the spooky hit, and brings a new story and constructable location. Pick it up on all platforms this Thursday.
KYLE: Up next is Farewell North. Playing as a border collie you’re tasked with restoring colour to a land inspired by the Scottish highlands. That’s out on PC, Xbox one, Xbox series S and X and Mac on the 15th.
FIONA: Coming to Xbox on the 15th is Kena: Bridge of Spirits. It’s a gorgeous third person action adventure game that has been reviewed really well on PlayStation and PC for the last couple of years. Play it on Xbox this Thursday.
KYLE: And out Friday is Madden NFL 25. It’s the same game as it is every year, but now with more football than ever before. Hang on a second here I’ve got the press release and they are getting rid of the ball??? That can’t be right… no wait it’s still NFL with the ten-huts and life long concussion injuries. Grab it on PC, Xbox and PlayStation on the 16th.
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KYLE: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Kyle Pauletto.
FIONA: And my name is Fiona Bartholomaeus, thank you so much for listening.
KYLE: Hey Fi we’ve been firing up the old Twitch channel and streaming a bit more thanks to our friend Courtney, if aren’t following us on Twitch what are you doing? Here is the link twitch.tv/sifterHQ that’s twitch.tv/sifterHQ come hang out with us there as we have frankly too much fun. We’ll let you know in Discord with a special alert when we go live!
FIONA: SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, myself, Adam Christou, Courtney Smith and Chris Button. The episode is edited by both Senior Producer Mitch Loh and Executive Producer Gianni Di Giovanni, who is also Walkthrough’s script editor.
KYLE: 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.
