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It’s the final podcast of 2011, as Jonah, Jordan and Paul will not be podcasting next week. However, there’s plenty of news, reader feedback and a Gaming Flashback of the terrible PlayStation One game, Irritating Stick.

The news for this week includes:

• EA selling virtual car for $100 in NFS World
• Modern Warfare 3 beats Avatar
• Naughty Dog: Move to next-gen is “terrifying“
• Star Wars: The Old Republic sales could already be 1.5M
• Man sues Sony for ToS update forbidding suing
• Nintendo only showing E3 Wii U demos at CES 2012

The question of the week is “What game are you most interested in for 2012?” Let us know what you think, and see you in 2012.

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The latest episode, which is on the short side after having a really long one two weeks ago, sees Paul returning from the flu with somewhat of a shady attitude this week. Meanwhile, the Gaming Flashback is the 1976 coin-op arcade game Blockade.

The news for this week includes:

• Gabe Newell teases something for E3 2012 with a “3” in it
• Richard Garriott working on Ultima successor
• Microsoft includes “do not class action sue us” clause for Xbox Live
• Bizarre circumstances surround GSC Game World

All that plus Reader Feedback and the Question of the Week, “What was your favorite handheld game?”

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Since Paul is not in this week’s episode, Jonah and Jordan do the podcast completely nude, to help boost ratings. While being naked, rather than a Gaming Flashback, this week is a Gaming Preview, and Jonah and Jordan discuss the recently announced South Park: The Game, developed by Obsidian.

The other news covered includes:

• Electronic Arts responds to expiring Online Pass issues
• Bethesda: Divided memory pool causes lag for Skyrim PS3
• Sony claims Uncharted series has 13M sales lifetime
• Skyrim Creation Kit landing in January
• Sony: PlayStation Network now has as high a “world-leading security system” there is

There’s also some Reader Feedback and the Question of the Week is “Have you ever taken a console with you on vacation (not handheld)?”

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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.

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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?”

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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?”

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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!

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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?

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This week, Paul is not around, as Jonah Falcon and Jordan Lund discuss the latest news, which includes pandas. Lots and lots of pandas. That, and a Gaming History profile on David Crane.

The news this week includes:

• World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria announced
• Sony: April PSN outage has resulted in improved service
• Deep Silver: “There is a clear technology gap“
• Starcraft II DOTA mod will remain free but monetized
• “Literally, there’s three of us” on console Diablo III
• Minecraft dev wins interim injunction over Scrolls name

With that is Reader Mail and the Queston of the Week: What was your favorite Atari 2600 game?

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This week features a spirited debate between Jonah Falcon and Paul S. Nowak on the Catwoman DLC story below. There is no Gaming Flashback, but there is the following news items:

• The Lund Report: September 2011 NPD
• Catwoman requires online pass to play in Arkham City
• DICE: Battlefield 3 is ‘mission accomplished’ despite beta concerns
• EA defends cop killing in Battlefield 3
• Legit Forza 4 users banned for “pirated” copies
• Xbox Live Accounts scammed for FIFA DLC

The Question of the Week is When was the last time you bought a game you knew nothing about?