Plus all the PlayStation State of Play highlights and Assassin's Creed Shadows is delayed
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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 we recap a massive PlayStation State of Play, Zelda Echoes of Wisdom’s origins are revealed, and Assassins Creed Shadows is delayed.
Here is the news for Sunday 29th of September. Let’s go!
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PROMO: Join the SIFTER community on Discord at sifter.com.au/discord
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KYLE: This week PlayStation showed off their upcoming titles at their State of Play.
The biggest announcement has got to be the trailer for Ghost of Yōtei, the sequel to 2020 Ghost of Tsushima.
You’ll once again embody a samurai warrior set on a path of righteous justice, but this time the game is set in Japan’s Mount Yōtei in 1603, roughly 300 years after the events of the first game.
It’s slated for 2025.
Another big announcement is Alan Wake 2’s final DLC called The Lake House.
Like the name says, players will be exploring the mysterious Lake House which will expand on the Federal Bureau of Control’s presence at Cauldron Lake.
You can grab it when it arrives next month.
FIONA: We also got to see some new trailers for upcoming spooky horror games Hell is Us and Metro Awakening VR.
Dragon Age Veilguard got an extended trailer, Astro Bot is getting five new online speedrunning levels, and Keanu Reeves is now voicing Shadow in the new Sonic x Shadow Generations game which is out next month.
There were heaps of other games that were announced or got new trailers, you can check out the full list in our show notes.
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FIONA: Our girl Zelda finally gets her moment in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which came out this week, and we also got some insight into the origins of the game.
In the latest episode of Nintendo’s Ask the Developers series, it was revealed that at one stage in the game’s development, the team considered incorporating a dungeon editor. Players could create original dungeons and their own Legend of Zelda gameplay, and share with friends.
KYLE: However as the team played around with mechanics, the feature slowly evolved into a system where you could place items in the game world and use them to fight enemies
Sounds familiar? That’s Zelda’s powerset in the new game, and that dungeon editor mechanic was the beginning of ‘echoes’
The gameplay then shifted from creating dungeons to what it is now.
Echos of Wisdom has been getting some ripper early reviews, if you’ve gone in on this one let us know your thoughts at sifter.com.au/discord.
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KYLE: The new Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been delayed with a new release date of February 14 2025.
In a statement, Ubisoft said they needed more time to polish and refine the experience and key features, and with the two characters having very different gameplay styles, the team wanted to be able to fully deliver on the game
However they announced they would be refunding pre orders, weird.
FIONA: I’ve had games on preorder that have been delayed multiple times and never got a refund, strange move there.
This game will be a bit of a departure from the traditional season pass model, with the first expansion being free for those who preorder.
Ubisoft commented recently that the Star Wars Outlaws launch was softer than expected and they’ll be learning from that experience and applying it to the new Assassin’s Creed game.
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FIONA: The developer behind Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2, Saber Interactive, is already looking towards a sequel after the successful launch.
Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits said in an interview with IGN that the director of the game has already proposed some story ideas that could be a DLC or sequel but nothing is set in stone.
He said they will not disappoint their Warhammer fans and hopefully they'll be working on Space Marine content for a long time.
KYLE: The game has sold over two million copies, and hit over 200,000 concurrent players on release and numbers are still getting better.
There is a post-launch roadmap so there are still plenty of new missions, game modes, weapons and cosmetic packs due to be released throughout the end of this year and next year.
But whether there will be a sequel all depends on Game Workshop and publisher Focus Home Interactive, but fingers crossed there will be more to Titus’ story.
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KYLE: That’s it for the big headlines, here are the games coming out this week
FIONA: If you like the fast paced platforming of games like Cluster Truck and Neon White, Hell of an Office is for you. Jump into non-stop platforming action through over 100 levels when Hell of an Office comes out of early access for PC on the 3rd.
KYLE: Out Friday is the latest 3D adventure set in Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game. You play as Patrick, tearing around an open world packed with physics-based minigames. That’s out on all platforms on the 4th.
FIONA: Also out on the 4th is Until Dawn remade for current gen. Along with a graphical overhaul, the remake offers a re-cut narrative, fresh score, as well as new collectibles and environments. Pick it up on PC and PlayStation 5 this Friday.
KYLE: Fans of nail-biting roguelike combat can look forward to playing Wizard of Legend 2, the sequel to the cult-classic fast-paced, combo-focused spell-slinger. This sequel brings the game into the 3rd dimension and features four player co-op. It’s out on early access on PC on the 4th.
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PROMO: Articles to read, videos to watch and podcasts to listen to on sifter.com.au
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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: SIFTER is produced by myself, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Adam Christou who is actually 3 tweenage boys stacked one-on-top-of-eachother in a trench coat, 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.
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.
