Episode 634: The Best (and Worst) Games of the Year 2021

2021 is finally over. And for the first time in years, a proper Games of the Year Awards has been done by GameStooge/TD Gaming Podcast. While the Worst Game of the Year was a no doubter, the Best Game of the Year was not, with the nominees being Deathloop, Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite, Metroid Dread and Psychonauts 2.

But there are a whopping 26 award categories, technical and artistic, so listen in on this fat 2 1/2 hour episode to find out who the winners are.

Let us know what you think on the podcast’s Facebook page here.

Original music by Liborio Conti.

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Michael Pachter Says Wii HD Will LaunchMichael Pachter Says Wii HD Will Launch

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter is “absolutely convinced” we’ll see a Nintendo Wii HD by 2011. What makes him so sure? In short, Nintendo will start to look bad if their console is said to be “for your mom” instead of for gamers.

What they’ve done, so far, is show the industry there is more market than just hardcore gamers. They’ve also convinced many of us that only hardcore gamers actually buy games. Nintendo says they’re selling games, we’ve just not seen any real evidence of that outside of their own first party titles.

“Nintendo has to overcome that [lack of graphics power],” said Pachter. “A Wii HD would really position Nintendo well, which is why I’m absolutely convinced there is a Wii HD coming. Businesswise, they can’t have people saying that their machine is a toy for my mom.” (gamedaily)

Nintendo obviously doesn’t to be the focus of a “your mom” joke outside of being able to boast huge sales figures. Selling the console into homes has definitely raised the awareness of their brand to gamers and non-gamers alike. Now, it seems, Nintendo is going to have to “grow up” and get with the high definition graphics crowd… by 2011.

Would you re-buy a Wii if it was in HD? It’s also important to note Prachter believed Take-Two would become EA and was “convinced” of it. That didn’t happen. Will this?

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There’s no Gaming Flashback or Gaming History, but there is a crapton of news this week on TD Gaming Podcast, which Jonah Falcon and Jordan Lund eagerly read.

That, and Jordan really wants to know what you have been playing.

The news this week includes:

  • Microsoft officially announces indie self-publishing, to be unveiled at GamesCom 2013
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All this and Listener feedback.

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Yoichi Wada of Square Enix has let the cat out of the bag. The cat is Final Fantasy XIII for the Xbox 360 and it will be simultaneously released with the PlayStation 3 version. This may be an end to an exclusive era for Sony as all their big brands jump to non-exclusion.

This is probably a result of gamers slow adoption of the PlayStation 3 hardware for various issues, one being cost. Personally I think Sony’s move to say “no price cut” in our near future is a grand mistake. It is well understood that they want profitability over quantity but you’re losing your exclusives to a broader audience.

Each generation of consoles brings new industry trends and, for now, exclusive games from third party developers is too risky when you look at overall cost to produce a block buster title like Final Fantasy XIII. Consider the sales of GTA IV, although they were in the millions, imagine how low it would have been if they only released on the PS3. They’d might have actually lost money on the game.

Square Enix can see the writing on the wall, that writing says “ship on as many mediums as possible.” Gamers are split between consoles with a huge segment on Wii and Xbox 360, if you can at least ship on one of those consoles along with the PS3 you’ll do better financially.

(Thanks, Kotaku)