Industry News -

Episode 256: AAAA ExperienceEpisode 256: AAAA Experience

March 21, 2012| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 6:59 pm

This week’s Gaming Podcast gets down and dirty, with plenty of AAAA goodness. The Darkness II contest is still going on this week, and winners will be announced next week.

In the meantime:

Analyst predicts 66M iPad sales in 2012
Diablo III gets May 15 release date
Epic: Next gen console launch titles will probably use Unreal Engine 3
Microsoft looking for executive producer to work on an “AAAA” Xbox title
Wasteland 2 aiming for October 2013 release date

All that, plus Reader Feedback.

Episode 255: The Darkness II ContestEpisode 255: The Darkness II Contest

March 15, 2012| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 12:01 pm

Dan Quick returns again to cover for Paul Nowak, and this week, the Gaming Podcast is offering free copies of The Darkness II Limited Edition, which comes with the main game and some free DLC. The guys are giving away an Xbox 360 version and a PlayStation 3 version. To win, just listen to the podcast and post what your favorite scary movie is.

The game news this week includes:

Ex-SCEE senior VP Phil Harrison joins Microsoft’s European team
DOOM developer John Romero has “plans” for “old school” shooter
EA defends Mass Effect 3 From Ashes DLC data being on disc
Notch settles with Bethesda over “Scrolls” trademark
DICE: 2GB RAM won’t be enough for next gen consoles
Angry Birds theme park to open in Finland
GAME puts itself up for sale, GameStop interested
Diablo III release date announcement “in a few days“, no PvP in launch version

And yes, they know that the announcement was just made today – May 15th release date for Diablo III.

The contest to win either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version of The Darkness II will run this and next week, with the winners announced in Episode 257.

Episode 254: Mass Effect TrioEpisode 254: Mass Effect Trio

March 6, 2012| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 4:21 pm

This week, the full man crew is back, and incredibly deep-voiced as they proclaim themselves the Protectors of Humanity™, as Mass Effect 3 launches today. The Gaming Flashback is a Gaming Preview of Assassin’s Creed 3.

This week’s news includes:

Microsoft: Xbox Live Arcade will be phased out eventually
Leaked images “nothing to do with” Doom 4, fans will “see awesome”
SimCity 5 coming in 2013
GAME drops 5% in shares after Mass Effect 3 no-show
Rumor: PlayStation 4 ditches Cell processor tech

This, and the most contentious Reader Feedback ever.

Episode 253: Future GenerationEpisode 253: Future Generation

February 29, 2012| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 6:20 pm

This week, Paul is still not available, which is unfortunate, since the Gaming Flashback is the classic DuckTales for the NES. There’s also a bunch of scintillating news items including:

Pachter: Nintendo “Blew It” With Wii U, “In Disarray”
Bethesda hiring talent for Xbox 720, PlayStation 4 game
EA reveals Mass Effect 3 preorders well ahead of Mass Effect 2‘s
Pachter: Next generation Sony and Microsoft consoles will have 4GB SKU
Sony filed patent For Kinect-like motion device
PSN Minis not working on Vita

We also reveal the winner of the Pixie Diamonds contest.

Episode 252: DuckTalesEpisode 252: DuckTales

February 21, 2012| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 4:38 pm

This week, Paul can’t make it, so we bring on a Paul substitute, Dan Quick of the PolyCast podcast – and the show doesn’t skip a beat thanks to Dan behaving like Paul without realizing it. This week’s Gaming Flashback explodes like a blood sausage with Wasteland.

This week’s news items include:

Dashboard update gives Indie Marketplace more visibility
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 outed by Amazon France
Skyrim DLC won’t follow same model as Fallout DLC
Electronic Arts terminates “free Battlefield 3 for preordering Mass Effect 3” deal early
Alan Wake on PC because Remedy “a nagging little kid” to Microsoft

In addition, we have Reader Feedback for Paul’s Pixie Diamonds contest – the winners will be determined next week. The contest’s Question of the Week remains the same: “Who is your favorite Disney Prince or Hero, and why?”

Episode 251: The New Crew ReturnsEpisode 251: The New Crew Returns

February 15, 2012| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 8:25 pm

After last week’s special appearance by Derrick and Jennifer Schommer along with Don Dunn, the regular crew of Jonah Falcon, Jordan Lund and Paul S. Nowak return, and they find themselves with some fascinating news items.

The news items include:

Blizzard brags Diablo III will have difficulties that are harder-than-hard
Sony passed on Demon’s Souls because it was “crap“
Sony credit rating downgraded, “strong recovery in earnings unlikely”
Tim Schafer raises $1.6M (and counting) to develop an adventure game
Epic’s Sweeney: Lifelike graphics will come in our lifetime

Paul is also running a contest to earn “Pixie Diamonds” currency for Disney’s Pixie Hollow social networking MMO, with the prize going to the person who can answer, “Who is your favorite Disney Prince or Hero, and why?”

Episode 250: Do the Time Warp AgainEpisode 250: Do the Time Warp Again

February 5, 2012| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 3:50 am

It’s the fabulous 250th Episode milestone, and this particular podcast features a major surprise for longtime listeners. Not only is this one of the funniest podcasts in a long while, but there’s plenty of show to go around, too. First, the Gaming Flashback checks out the classic shooter No One Lives Forever, while the Gaming History examines the infamous Gizmondo handheld gaming console.

As for the news:

Hirai: Sony could be facing “serious trouble“
Take Two CEO states “strong become stronger” with next-gen transitions
Developer Starbreeze fears Syndicate may be “too hard“
Oklahoma state rep wants 1% violent videogame tax
Ubisoft cuts off legit players With DRM server migration

There’s no Question of the Week, but we’re definitely sure there will be plenty of comments for the podcast hosts.

Episode 249: Milestone LoomingEpisode 249: Milestone Looming

February 1, 2012| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 7:07 pm

For those of you good at math, you might notice that the TD Gaming Podcast is one episode away from a special number. While we have a surprise in store for loyal listeners, there’s still this week’s news to discuss. For starters, the classic Silent Hill 2 is the subject of the Gaming Flashback, even though none of the podcasters have gotten a chance to actually play it.

There’s also some interesting news to discuss, including:

Christian group accuses The Old Republic of “warping kids” with pro-gay message
Rumor: Next Harmonix project being released on XBLA, PSN, and Facebook
EA Sports: SSX will bring extreme sports videogames back to prominence
Xbox 720 rumors springing up like wildfire
PS Vita continues to struggle in Japan
SNK brings Neo*Geo back as a handheld

There’s plenty of Reader Feedback, but there’s no Question of the Week, because there’s a special episode coming up. Ooooh, what could it possibly be?

Episode 248: SequelitisEpisode 248: Sequelitis

January 25, 2012| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 7:41 pm

As the podcast approaches the magic 250th episode, Paul, Jordan and Jonah check out some of the big news that hit this week in the land of videogames, and in the Gaming Flashback, looked back at an all-time worst game, Superman 64.

This week’s news includes:

ESA drops SOPA support (via Herr Alien)
R18+ bill to be voted on by Australian Parliament on 7th February
Vita sales continue to freefall in Japan
Guild Wars 2 open beta this Spring, launching in 2012
Starbreeze states they don’t look at games from a genre perspective anymore

All this and Reader Feedback, as well as the Question of the Week, “What do you look for in a sequel?”

Episode 247: Paul Spews BullbleepEpisode 247: Paul Spews Bullbleep

January 18, 2012| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 9:19 pm

Despite having multiple technical difficulties that were edited out of the podcast, Episode 247 is full of gaming discussion goodness, despite Paul’s constant declaration that companies are full of bullbleep.

This week’s gaming news includes:

Bioware confirms Mass Effect 3 is Origin-only
Electronic Arts passed $1B in digital sales in 2011
The Lund Report for the December 2011 NPD
Gaikai: Sony or Microsoft won’t have next-gen console
Thief 4 rumored to have multiplayer
Videogame industry companies shutting down to protest SOPA

This plus two reader mails and the Question of the Week, “What was the first multiplayer gaming you ever enjoyed?”