No podcast this week, as we’re off for the Christmas holiday. Everyone have a Happy Holidays, from us at TD Gaming Podcast.

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This week it’s Jordan Lund’s turn to be absent, while Jonah Falcon and Paul Nowak discuss just how bad The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is. This week’s Gaming Flashback is Peter Molyneux’s ambitious title Black & White.

In the news:

• Silicon Knights’ cancelled games revealed
• Gabe Newell: Valve planning console-like PC for living room
• Windows Store “begins accepting” 18-rated games
• Rockstar muses on “one big world containing all” GTA cities
• Defiance‘s TV show and game “stand up on their own,” don’t ‘need’ one another

There’s also some Reader Feedback, while the Question of the Week is, “How in tune with an MMO’s story are you while playing?”

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No Paul this week, no Gaming Flashback this week – just Jonah, Dan and Jordan discussing a ton of news items where Jonah expresses shock that Jordan had never heard of No One Lives Forever.

The items this week include:

• Wii U sells 1.2 games per console
• BioWare was planning spy action title in 2009
• Sony Santa Monica outline reasons for sticking with God of War franchise
• Hitman Facebook app removed for off-color joke
• Activision: Black Ops II grossed $1 billion in 15 Days
• Spike VGA 2012: The Phantom Pain announced, probably MGS5

This week’s Question of the Week: “What’s the most offensive thing you’ve seen in a videogame?”

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In this episode of Gaming Podcast, Jonah states he got to see Wreck It Ralph, while Paul still can’t find a black Wii U. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the 2002 Gamecube launch title Super Mario Sunshine.

This week’s news includes:

• The Lund Report: Black Friday 2012 NPD
• Nintendo Power’s last issue released
• Blizzard acquired ‘Project Blackstone‘ domain November 26th
• Rumor: Next gen Xbox coming Holiday 2013
• Dead Island: Riptide banned in Germany

All this and Reader Feedback, and the Question of the Week is, “Did you read many issues of Nintendo Power?”

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This week’s episode is short due to Jonah Falcon’s impending trip to San Francisco to cover a preview event of Company of Heroes 2, while Paul Nowak gets irritated at the complaints coming out of the Wii U launch.

The news items include:

• Wii U’s launch day update reportedly causing major problems
• Nintendo DRM traps $400 of downloaded games
• GTA: Vice Cityremoved from Steam over music licensing
• Report: Next-gen Xbox TV device coming in 2013
• Sony: Our iPhone and Galaxy S3 challenger is coming

The Question of the Week: “Do you play real-time strategy games. If so, what is your favorite. If not, why not?”

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This week’s Gaming Podcast is chock full of news and reader feedback. Rather than do a Gaming Flashback, a conversation about the middling sales of the PlayStation Vita is discussed, while Paul is anxiously looking for a black Wii U so he can play Epic Mickey 2. We also hand out the indie game prizes to our two winners.

This week’s news includes:

• Star Citizen hits $4.5M stretch goal, biggest crowd fundraiser ever
• Black Ops 2 1.03 patch doesn’t fix server issues
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution film director tabbed
• Spector: Epic Mickey 2 takes “choice and consequence to new levels“

This week’s Question of the Week: What was the best game you ever played that cost less than $5?

In addition, this is the two days of Kickstarter funding. Help the TD Gaming Podcast with its Kickstarter fundraising.

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This week, Gaming Podcast is giving away free indie games: Dungeon Defenders and the Zeboyd 2-Pack including Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VIII. The Gaming Flashback includes the original Splinter Cell from 2002.

There’s also plenty of news items including:

• Blizzard facing class action lawsuit over Battle.net security
• Former Square boss calls merger “a complete failure” between Square and Enix
• Nintendo details Wii U network ID system
• Molyneux skeptical about tablet/TV gaming
• Halo 4 makes $220M in first day, Forward Unto Reach garners 46M viewers
• Analyst: Grand Theft Auto V will sell 25M units

No Question of the Week – just let us know if you’d like to win either Dungeon Defenders or Cthulhu Saves the World/Breath Of Death VIII.

In addition, this is the final week of Kickstarter funding. Help the TD Gaming Podcast with its Kickstarter fundraising.

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The podcast is back this week after being knocked out by Hurricane Sandy hitting New York City hard. As the Kickstarter continues to struggle to find donors, Jordan discusses his hands-on experience with the new Microsoft tablet, the Surface, in lieu of a Gaming Flashback.

This week’s news items include:

• Civilization MMO being developed in Asia
• Yoshida: PlayStation Vita sales are below expectations
• DICE giving away Battlefield 1942 for free on Origin
• Redding: “lower-case aaa” games where the industry should be heading
• Microsoft and 343 Industries taking hard stance on sexism

All that and Reader Feedback. This week’s Question of the Week, “What do you do for fun when you can’t access the internet?”

Help the TD Gaming Podcast with its Kickstarter fundraising.

Thanks to Superstorm Sandy, the podcast has been delayed indefinitely. It’s likely that the next one will be recorded next Monday.

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The TD Gaming Podcast has started its Kickstarter fundraising, and really, even if every listener donated a few dollars, the project will get funded.

This episode is a bit short thanks to Dan having to skip this week and Jordan and Paul’s busy schedules. Don’t worry, this is only a one time thing, and a full length podcast will be recorded next week.

In any case, this week’s news includes:

• Avellone: Kickstarter still in its infancy
• PAX Australia tix now on sale
• CD Projekt RED’s new licensed sci-fi RPG officially titled Cyberpunk 2077

This week’s Question of the Week, “What is your favorite convention to attend?”