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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?”

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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?”

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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.

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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?

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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?”

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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?”

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CES 2012 is going strong, as Jonah and Jordan do tonight’s podcast without Paul, who is packing for a trip. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the notorious Custer’s Revenge, and a punch of intriguing news and rumors comprise this week’s topics:

• Fallout MMO rights belong to Bethesda as Interplay settles
• Pachter sez there’s “zero chance” of PS4 at E3 2012
• Rumor: Next Xbox tablet-based?
• Rumor: Kaz Hirai to return as president of Sony
• Diablo III release held due to South Korea (from GameFront)

Plenty of Reader Feedback this week, which is good because we forgot to include a Question of the Week this time.

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This week is double-stuffed full of goodness, with over two hours of podcast, as Jonah, Paul and Jordan cover not only the news of the last week, but also recap 2011, talking about games that pleased and disappointed them.

Aside from the biggest news of 2011, the current news items the gang listed to include:

• Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony all pull support from SOPA – sort of
• Wii U launch price expected to be $399
• Guitar Hero may return in 2012
• Judge ruling deals Silicon Knights a serious blow in suit against Epic Games
• FlatOut 3 dev calls Modern Warfare 3 a “beta“
• Bioware defends The Old Republic subscription model, teases free-to-play for older IPs

The podcast also received a ton of new Reader Feedback, while the Question of the Week is “Which would you rather game on – a handheld console or a mobile device?”

It seems that the Wii U will be one of the most expensive launches in Nintendo’s history, as reports indicate that the console will launch at a $399 price point.

In an interview, Nintendo of America prez Reggie Fils-Aime stated:

“If I’m the head of a household of a family of four, and my disposable income is $50,000 to $60,000, I’m going to continue to look at the Wii because of the software, and it’s a great entertainment device. For consumers who want to have the latest gadgets and have a higher disposable income, that’s for the Wii U.”

Those eyebrow raising comments have laid an expected MSRP of $399 for the Wii U and its tablet-styled controller. Let us know what you think.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays – did you get what you wanted this year?

Let us know what you got from your loved ones.

We have a few fun reward tiers – our most hardcore fans will definitely want an MP3 of one of the crew or any of the crew recording a voice mail or answer machine outgoing message, or the entire podcast bantering for a few moments. There’s also the requisite T-shirt, which will have the awesome Gaming Podcast logo.