November, 2011 -

Episode 241: Air QuotesEpisode 241: Air Quotes

November 30, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 9:48 pm

This week features a long podcast, as there’s a ton of news to report. Jonah tries air quotes on a pure audio podcast, while Paul refuses to believe The Legend of Zelda: Skyword Sword failed to hit the top 10 in software sales.

In addition, the Gaming Flashback checks out the JRPG Ys.

This week’s news includes:

Ubisoft polling gamers for next Assassin’s Creed setting
Electronic Arts bans a user for saying “badass”
Newell: Piracy is “almost always a service problem” and not price, DRM agitates
Christwire makes mock petition asking Pres. Obama ban Skyrim
Holiday shopping madness sees woman pepper spraying for 360
Microsoft refunds victims of Marketplace phishing scam

All this, and a bunch of reader feedback, as well as the Question of the Week: “Did you buy videogames as holiday gifts for friends and family?” Let us know.

Episode 240: ThanksgamingEpisode 240: Thanksgaming

November 23, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 10:47 pm

It’s the episode just before Thanksgiving, and both Jordan and Paul have new jobs, as the latter settles into his new Los Angeles home. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the Atari 2600 game Kaboom!

The guys also discuss the following news items:

EA targeted for class action suit over Battlefield 3 PS3 bait and switch
Modern Warfare 3 makes $775M in 5 days
Square-Enix officially opens Montreal studio
Blockbuster has “ramped up the rental” of games, getting an “awful lot of support”
Rockstar eager to return to Bully IP

The question of the week: “How do you buy games most often these days: retail, online retailer, or digital distributor?”

Episode 239: This Episode is DRM-freeEpisode 239: This Episode is DRM-free

November 16, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 3:32 pm

This week, Paul is too busy unpacking in his new home in California, so it’s just Jonah and Jordan, as the news mainly deals with DRM. The Gaming Flashback this week is the Activision racer The Great American Cross-Country Road Race, while this week’s Gaming History doesn’t focus on a video game company or developer, but a fictional character instead, Mario’s favorite mount, Yoshi.

The news this week includes:

EA forum bans cause game bans
Research film states piracy’s up 20% in past 5 years
GOG sez customers hate DRM
Steam user database cracked
Uncharted 3 launches with 1.1M sold in first week

All that plus Reader Feedback and the Question of the Week, “What DRM would you tolerate?”

Episode 238: No Free PornEpisode 238: No Free Porn

November 9, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 8:06 pm

This week’s episode is also abbreviated, as Jordan is somewhere in Pennsylvania looking for a gingerbread house while Paul is still trying to pack his entire NES library into a single suitcase. Jonah and Paul still got in enough time to do a Gaming Flashback on Thief: The Dark Project, and the following news items:

Steam forums hacked
Xbox 360 failure rate down to 10%
Sony revamps< PSN sharing policy
BioWare and EA send cease-and-desist order to NeoGAF over Mass Effect 3 spoilers

All this and Reader Feedback, too, as well as a new Question of the Week, “If you have the opportunity to read or view a highly anticipated game’s story months before it was released, would you do it or would you deliberately turn it away to preserve yourself from spoilers?” Let us know!

Episode 237: Half a ShowEpisode 237: Half a Show

November 3, 2011| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 12:59 pm

This week’s episode is abbreviated due to Paul’s move to California, and various Halloween delays. That’s not to say there’s no great stuff in the show, as there are some big debates about privacy and bugs.

The news this week includes:

Electronic Arts insists that Origin is not spyware
Rumor: Grand Theft Auto V to be download only?
Dev: Sword of the Stars II is a “turnip“

All that, and Paul feels older thanks to the Reader Feedback.

Question of the Week this time is non-videogame related: What’s your favorite vacation spot?