Plus handheld race heats up and fan-made Portal 64 demake shut down
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SIFTER is produced by Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Borrett, Daniel Ang, 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
GIANNI: and I’m Gianni Di Giovanni,
KYLE: Welcome back to Walkthrough, SIFTER’s weekly recap on the biggest news in video games.
GIANNI: This week Baldur’s Gate 3 players are banned for sexy screenshots, Portal gets a massive mod that bridges the story between the games and the handheld race heats up with the first third party device running SteamOS.
Here is the news for Sunday 14th of January. Let’s go!
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GIANNI: If you’re playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox and are tempted to snap a screenshot of some of the racier scenes in the game, you might want to slow it down a bit champ as Microsoft has been handing out bans.
Reddit user Daddy Vegas found out that because of an automatic upload feature these birthday suit screens violated the community policies and three bans were issued in quick succession.
It’s not an automatic suspension though, Microsoft has confirmed that each clip is reviewed by a moderator before any action is taken.
KYLE: They’ve since provided a link to its support page with more information on how to turn off auto-upload but if you’ve been sending racy pics of your favourite wizards and bards you might want to get your hand off it, the screenshot button I mean.
You can be starkers at any point in Baldur’s Gate so it’s not just limited to the spicier sections, but Larian said if you’re wanting to take screenshots maybe turn off the mature content in the meantime and turn off auto upload.
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KYLE: The handheld trend continues as the Steam Deck faces increased competition..
The intel-powered Windows-based platform called the MSI Claw runs on a 7-inch display with a 120Hz refresh, which makes it the same length as the Asus ROG Ally display, but it is a lot heavier than its handheld competitors, weighing in at 675g.
A lot of that is probably the big 53Whr battery which MSI says offers two hours of battery life under full workload conditions.
GIANNI: Interestingly at CES Ayaneo who have been in the handheld game for a while have just announced the Next Lite, which comes in a bit cheaper than the base model Steam Deck and runs a fork of SteamOS called HoloISO, an unofficial version of the software on Valve’s Handheld.
Valve have said they are keen to get their operating system on other devices, but despite all these increasing specs outpacing the Steam Deck hardware, the other manufacturers are still playing catchup when it comes to default software.
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GIANNI: It’s great when older games get an update out of the blue usually, but in the case of some Capcom games, this new change is pretty unwanted…fresh DRM.
Capcom have been cracking down on mods lately after a caster was caught with a Chun-Li nudity patch in an official Street Fighter 6 stream.
Videos posted online which feature mods in Monster Hunter Sunbreak have been hit by DMCA takedowns as Capcom chases down anything that could cause any possible “reputational damage”
KYLE: DRM software Enigma Protect was added but removed after it caused some performance issues and a spate of negative reviews, but Capcom promises it will be back.
Just a handy reminder that you don’t really own the games you buy on digital platforms I guess.
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KYLE: Speaking of mods, a fan-made, seven-hour mod that bridges the gap between Portal 1 and 2 has just dropped on Steam.
The reviews are in and this mod is pretty much universally loved by new and old fans, and after putting a few hours into it myself earlier this week I can safely confirm it is incredible.
It's available now on Steam for free for anyone who already owns Portal 2 which can usually be picked up for a song during a Steam sale.
GIANNI: Unfortunately, the news isn’t so great for another fan-made Portal project, with the Portal 64 demake being shut down less than a week after the first instalment was released.
And sadly the same goes for the Team Fortress: Source 2 project, which aimed to bring Team Fortress to the Source 2 engine.
Interestingly, the two projects met their end for different reasons.
While the Team Fortress Source 2 developers were hit with a copyright takedown notice from Valve, it was Portal 64’s reliance on copyrighted Nintendo libraries that has meant it’s downfall.
Hey at least you’ve got Portal Revolution to play, even if these retro remakes aren’t going ahead.
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GIANNI: That’s it for the big headlines, here are the games coming out this week
KYLE: Prince of Persia is back with The Lost Crown, a 2.5D side-scroller where you play as Sargon using time-based powers and swordplay to unravel puzzles in a cursed city. That’s coming to all platforms on the 15th, and keep an eye on the Drop Rate feed where Chris will be sharing his thoughts on this return to the series.
GIANNI: Jump back into the world of Cult of the Lamb with the new update called Sins of the Flesh. Dubbed the ‘sex update’ by fans, you’ll hatch eggs, care and raise them, until they’re ready to pledge allegiance to your Cult. Develop your Cult on all platforms on the 16th.
KYLE: Two of the best early 2000s RPGs are coming to Nintendo Switch Online on the 17th with Golden Sun and it’s sequel The Lost Age. If you never played the GBA originals these games feature some incredible pixel art and fun systems that still hold up brilliantly today, and it’s nice that new players will get a chance to try them.
GIANNI: Get ready to make lots of pals in Palworld on January 19. In this Pokemon-style game with guns. You capture creatures, explore or even fight monsters with various heavy weapons in this open-world survival game. This game looks mad, I don’t even know what to think about it at all but hey make up your own mind when it arrives in early access on Xbox and PC on Friday.
KYLE: The Last of Us Part II Remastered is a remake of the ancient hard to get game released all the way back in gaming’s past, the distant year of 2020 and arrives on PlayStation 5 on Friday the 19th. While the original PS4 game got a 4K update and looks and plays really well on PS5, this new version features better graphics somehow and a new roguelike mode and behind the scenes features.
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KYLE: This has been Walkthrough by SIFTER, my name is Kyle Pauletto
GIANNI: And my name is Gianni Di Giovanni, thank you so much for listening.
KYLE: We know you love our podcasts, so why not become a monthly backer on Ko-Fi? Your support lets us keep making our shows and It’s easy to do, head to sifter.com.au/support where support starts from just $1 a month that link again is sifter.com.au/support or check the shownotes
GIANNI: SIFTER is produced by Fiona Bartholomaeus, Courtney Borrett, Kyle Pauletto, Adam Christou, Daniel Ang and Chris Button. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer who edited this episode, and I’m Walkthrough script editor, and SIFTER’s executive producer.
KYLE: Thanks to Brian Fairbanks from Salty Dog Sounds for composing the Walkthrough theme tune, and Audio Technica Australia for their support of SIFTER’s podcasts.
GIANNI: We’ll be back with more news next Sunday. See you then.
