Weekend Confirmed 93 - Year end special

Let's talk about handhelds.

After I finished listening to the rest of the discussion tonight, I noted that Mario 3D Land got mentioned....and not discussed and that was the grand total of handheld discussion for the entire year.

To be fair, neither did anyone else (Giant Bomb was actually pretty shitty to handhelds) btu it's depressing to see everyone in the entire industry *deliberately* ignore two *entire* systems because they all have their tongues stuck up Apple's rectum.

Ghost Trick deserved a mention
Radiant Historia was the best JRPG of the year. The endless cliche complaint of JRPGs not evolving is flat out untrue with games like this.

Aliens Infestation - There was no good reason for this not to be in the discussion.

God dammit guys, do your jobs.

I wanted to ask what the Weekend Confirmed community thinks about preordering games.

I really like doing it for three reasons. First, it allows me to plan out what releases I am going to buy and pay them off slowly. Second, I feel like I am helping to show a real, monetary support for titles that I am interested in. Third, I feel like companies will see games that are getting preordered and give them even more development funds if the support is greater than initially expected.

I think it could be argued that the preordering campaign behind the Operation Rainfall movement was the biggest and most successful component of what they have accomplished so far.

I just preordered Dragon's Dogma because I think it has a ton of potential, even if early showings have been a bit rough.

I know a lot of people hate GameStop's aggressive and dishonest ways of pushing reserves, but I also find it a bit crazy when people complain about not being able to find games on day one. I know Garnett thinks the whole thing is ridiculous from his days at EB, but when I was working at GameStop there were a lot of times that day one demand was a lot stronger than the preorder period had hinted (often due to surprisingly good reviews) and we would run out of copies other than the ones set aside for preoder customers. I do think they should have had enough on day one, but they are also taking a risk if they order too many. The nature of the business makes it a lot harder to judge the X factor that makes a game a hit, unless it is a guaranteed hit, like a AAA title.

People know there is the ability to preorder, but most seem opposed to it on some principle I just don't understand... Other than how GameStop shoves it down customer's throats.

Do you preorder? Why or why not?

Regarding the GOTY discussion

Where was the outrage about the online pass for Batman AC during the GOTY discussion? The pass make it ineligible for GOTY.

Now, as far as Skyrim goes. I think any site that puts it on a GOTY list should offer a public apology.

It is *inexcusable* to put it on a GOTY list at this point.

Bethesda continually puts out broken games on the PS3 (speaking firsthand here) and are now starting to practice underhanded tactics like only giving the 360 version out for review. If this were any other kind of product, Bethesda would have been sued for fraud or had a class action suit by now.

Andrea was annoying enough before, but her "nobody has had enough problems that they couldn't play the game" crap was so abhorrent to me that I will skipping any show she's on now.

Garnett saying "I don't know how to cover it" (I believe that was what he said, I can't remember the exact wording) was a total cop out too.

Here's how you deal with the situation.

Don't cover it. Don't review it.

Just say "we're giving any press to the game, here's why" and move on.

These kinds of issues are *fundamental* to your job because people depend on reviews here (and on other sites) to inform their opinions on games.

The time to overlook these kinds of issues when considering GOTY is over.

For buying or crying, it should have been Final Fantasy XIII-2 or Ni no Kuni. The latter is the first JRPG I've been interested in the whole generation.

Seriously, is Andrea going to bring up female characters on every podcast? Cause we can add that to the drinking game.

Lara Croft as a super hero is a cardboard construct. She is one-dimension and boring. She is a pair of tits and a pair of guns, with no other characteristics of note.

Lara Croft as a human being that can be wounded and scared, and find strength through resourcefulness or internal drive is an interesting character.

So for me the most underrated game of the year is Mortal Kombat. What that game does with the fighting genre, let alone with the Mortal Kombat brand, is an important feat. Making the arcade mode an interwoven epic kind of Saturday morning cartoon is a pretty genius thing that I think any fighting game could benefit from.

That said, the most overrated game of the year for me is Batman Arkham City. Where as MK successfully adopted a narrative feel into its core gameplay, I think BAC tries and fails to imitate an actual cartoon series many gamers know and love.

I think partially as a result of the sandbox game design it just felt boring. All of the random grunts in the city, and having to figure out where my next mission activation point was made the game feel padded with filler.

Also, despite all the praise just found the combat to be boring and kind of fundamentally flawed from a design stand point. Hitting one or two buttons in a rhythmic pattern over and over again just doesn't do it for me. And as much as people praise the combo system, its sort of bizarre to me that no one mentions how you can't really play the game as a straight brawler 75% of the time. Whenever enemies have guns you basically have to go into pseudo stealth mode to avoid dying.

So even though did enjoy the brawling somewhat (but found it kind of dull), most of the game for me was spent jumping on gargoyles and doing glide kicks or stealth knock outs. Its sort of bizarre to me that while you guys deconstruct Uncharted's melee as being rinse and repeat, that you don't point out how canned Batman's basic design is with enemy encounters.

Finally, I have to say that I felt AC's handling of the multitude of villains and side characters was just clunky and drains the story of having any stakes. The best Batman stories focus on only one or two enemies at a time. In fact, depending on which enemy Batman is dealing with the story adopts entirely different tones---the Riddler is playful, Catwoman provides this forlorn romance, Joker is of course sadistically sardonic/twistedly comical. Having so many different villains co-occupy one game makes it feel jumbled.

Going back to Uncharted 3's combat, I think what you guy consistently overlook is how the scenarios help define the quality of the mechanics. If I think back to that horseback riding sequence where you're chasing jeeps, boarding them, shooting RPGs at other cars, all in pursuit of rescuing Sully at the head of the convoy---having that kind of scenario unto itself makes the game more fun than a Gears of War, or other similar shooter/third person action game.

Also, to my point about Batman, obviously the sparing in Uncharted isn't as in depth, but its not meant to be the central mechanic of the game either. Like for me, I have more of a problem with there being like 5 snipers who can arbitrarily kill you with one shot when you're in the middle of a gun battle. That said, if use a powerful close range weapon, or you're using the game's environment's and traversal mechanics, you can pretty easily avoid melee in most situations.

And like, I think I heard Jeff say in this episode that he enjoyed the melee in Crysis despite it being overpowered, because it was fun. But I don't hear anyone in general complaining about how melee in first person shooters is simplistic or overpowered. So to me, with or without technical flaws in the aiming, or the simplicity of its stealth kills/punch parry punch combat, Uncharted's gameplay has always been about being greater than the sum of its parts. It is Naughty Dog's scenario design, and combination of gameplay styles that makes it so tower a game like Gears, or Batman Arkham City---which I ultimately found pretty boring.

I think that's my two cents for now. Great show as always, and happy New Year!

So, instead of reflecting on 2011, what are you guys' most-looked-forward-to games of 2011?

I can't wait for:

Mass Effect 3
Assassin's Creed 3 (at least I HOPE it's 3 -_-, here's hoping for Egypt!)
Halo 4

I'm excited for Bioshock Infinite too, but all the pre-release hype, eerily similar to the build-up to Skyrim's release, has me concerned. Skyrim turned out to be awesome but overrated before and after release, IMO, and I hope Bioshock Infinite is different. Loved the first two games, so the new setting should be great.

As a HUGE long-time fan of the X-Com franchise, I really can't see eye-to-eye with Jeff and the people even more extreme than him when it comes to this new XCOM game. I simply don't have a problem with it. At all.

Would I love and adore a new, modernized TBS X-Com title, in the vein of a Civ Revolution? Absolutely.

But I'm not prepared to piss all over this new XCOM game, simply because it has the gall to try something different with what I think every fan of the franchise can agree is a interesting and fun game universe.

Let me bring up another franchise I love: Baldur's Gate. Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance was not Baldur's Gate 3. It played nothing like the Baldur's Gate games before it. But it was a well-done entry in a different genre, that took full advantage of the concept of the universe and ran in another direction.

I don't recall a vocal reaction of disgust when that announcement was made, certainly not on the level we've seen with the announcement for the new Fallout and XCOM titles.

Have long-time gamers just become more insecure about the future of their favorite classic genres and franchises, that we're willing to attack anything different than the previous gameplay design without even giving the new games a chance to fail?

Every iteration of this XCOM game has shown a positive reaction to fan feedback. They're adding more strategy and moment-to-moment tactical decisions to a game formula that had plenty of long-term decision making already implemented between missions at the home base. 2K is clearly doing their best to try and give old-school fans what they want from the XCOM franchise within this new wrapper.

Instead of thinking of this new game as the harbinger of death for the style of game we loved, why dont we think of it as a side-story. Another adventure through a universe that I believe has more than enough depth to support many different games, perspectives, and gameplay formulas.

Could somebody explain to me exactly how Minecraft is supposedly going to cause a 'Titanic shift' in the videogame industry?

I've played it. It's fun.

But aside from inspiring a few copy-cats and proving that digital distribution can get you a ton of money (even without a finished product), I don't really see how this game is going to change everything.

Maybe a new genre. That's all I got out of it.

Jeff is so prone to hyperbole that I have to take most of his overly effusive praise with a grain of salt. 2011 does not stack up with 2007, 2005, 2001, or 1998. I know this sounds like a rant from a person who may care too much about games but great gaming years are not just filled with good to great games. Great gaming years are filled with genre defining and/or genre changing games. Name two games that had the impact of GTA and Halo in 2001, Zelda and Starcraft in 1998, COD4 and Bioshock in 2007, or God of War and Resident Evil 4 in 2005. Skyrim is a maybe and Zelda seems to be a love/hate affair. Other than those it was a year of games building on the foundations of the previous entries in their respective franchises or just aping more popular games. Except for Bastion which is really innovative and a must play. Also before someone says i thingy games I think most of them are shit because touch controls are a horrible way to control games.

Can I just offer my gratitude to how this was the sweetest year end gaming podcast of 2011? Compared to Giantbomb's intense GOTY deliberations, and some other websites podcasts being more under the weather or just tired out, you guys were lively, had loads of great moments like the "Hey OH!", and the "Buy or Cry" segment had me in stitches.

Thank you for the amazing episode and entertainment, made my flight back to Prague all the more sweeter! ^_^

My game of year was Batman Arkham City, I didn't get Skyrim until Christmas and I haven't put enough time into to really have an opinion of it yet. I would say that my close second is a tie between Forza 4 and Assassin's Creed Revelations. I enjoyed Portal 2 but it wasn't as grabbing as I would have liked for some reason. Though I did have some great moments when I would solve a particularly difficult puzzle I felt awesome, but overall I had to force myself to get back to it and finish it. Ending was great though. As for 2012 I predict that should GTA V release in 2012 it will be Game of the Year, if not then Mass Effect 3 will probably be my game of the year. I have a question for the Weekend Confirmed Crew, what if at E3 Microsoft announces their next console and gives it a 2013 release like a lot of media types think is highly likely? Does Rockstar hold GTA V for the next system? OR do they release it on the 360 and PS3 if it doesn't come out until 2013? Or does Rockstar try to release on all three systems? Granted if GTA V comes out in 2012 then this would be more than likely a non issue, but if it comes out in 2013 which is likely (though I have hopes it releases in 2012 hence my game of the year selection) what do you guys think Rockstar does with what would clearly be a system seller and would give Microsoft a huge advantage of Nintendo and Sony? Just an idea that could lead to some interesting theories. Thanks for a great year, I throughly have enjoyed your podcast as I listen to it on my way to work and home from work each Monday. Keep up the great work, and how does Andrea Rene not have a bf? She is gorgeous and a riot on the podcasts. Well happy new year Weekend Confirmed. ^_^

Great show as always guys :)

RE: Gaming in 2011

To me, 2011 was one of the most dissapointing years in recent memory. Almost every game that I was excited for fell flat IMO.

Dead Space 2 looked amazing, but just didn't grab me.

Infamous 2: Good, but much more flawed than the original.

LA Noire was great for 2 hours, then just gave up trying to entertain the player.

Batman, although incredible (my personal game of the year) was not as good as its predecessor.

Bastion was fun, but I really think it scraped by on the charm of its gimicks (narrarator, environment "fade in")

Battlefield 3 had the worst compaign in recent memory, great multiplayer, but still not as good as Bad Company 2.

Assassin's Creed Revelations is great, but not as strong as the previous 2 AC games.

Forza 4: Very good, but felt more like Forza 3.2

Skyrim is by all accounts incredible, except for the large number of people who suffer game-breaking glitches.

Catherine: WTF?

Modern Warfare 3: Even diehard COD fans are saying it isn't as good as previous titles.

Uncharted 3: Not quite as good as 2, and depending on who you ask the controls are somewhere between "annoying" and "freaking unplayable".

Honestly, the only games that I think lived up to their hype and potential in 2011 are Gears 3, Halo Anniversary, Trenched, and Section 8 Prejudice. Great for shooter fans like me :)

My most underrated games of this year: Track Mania 2 and Pokemon Black/White.

As some of you might know, I'm not a big fan of online competitive multiplayer, but there's something about the way Track Mania lets you play against other racers but also nerfs the competitive aspect by giving you essentially 6 minutes to run as many time trials as you can, it's just really easy going, and fun, almost like asynchronous multiplayer that just happens to be in realtime.

That said, I completely understand why no game journalists other than Jeff Gerstmann picked up on this game. It is kind of a weird, hard to explain game.

As for Pokemon, at this point, if you're waiting for a complete overhaul of the mechanics, then this just isn't a game for you anymore. For my money, what iterative improvements they've made to Black/White have made what I would honestly call the best Pokemon game I've yet played. I was ready to call it quits after Soul Silver, but between letting me use TMs as often as I wanted, locking out all the classic monsters until the post-game, 2 on 2 random encounters, faster battle animations, re-balancing the exp distribution, EV buffing feathers, and even little touches like moving the store into the Pokecentre, it all made me excited to keep on catching them all, and also excited for whatever game comes next.

for a series I initially got into with the mindset of "meh, this'll kill time." Black/White has solidified Pokemon as my current favourite Nintendo franchise.

Also, props to the 3D Pokedex app, which I initially thought was the goddamned stupidest, laziest freebie imaginable... until I tried it and realized it has all the evolution charts! The damn thing got me playing the game for another 20-30 hours.

Seeing as 2011 is now over and there are predictions for 2012 coming up, I think it would be interesting to look at the predictions made for 2011.

Garnett: Sony will make a big price cut for ps3 early in the year.

Cannata: There'll be a hardcore Kinect game in the fall, that all of them love and no one expected.
Free-to-play will continue to grow. "One thing I'd like to have happen for 2011: Half-Life 2 Ep.3"

Billy: We'll find out more about the Wii successor.

Keeley: We'll see a new Nintendo System in fall, it'll not just be the Wii in HD.

Shane: Trend for 2011: Kinect games for real gamers. Doubts the Wii and Xbox successor will be revealed in 2011.

Jeff may think 2011 has been one of the best years for gaming ever, but in reality, it's been one of the worst.

More console games launching in a broken state than ever before, only to be patched later, if at all

Certain companies like Bethesda perpetually launching their games in an unplayable state, and never fixing them - yet constantly getting a free pass from the press.

The addition of online passes to just about everything, then finding out that they can *expire*

More content than ever before being chopped up and distributed between stores as "pre-order" DLC, yet if you want it all you have to buy three or four different copies of the game.

Having to fight for months just to get Nintendo to release *one* of three high profile RPGs, with the state of the other two still up in the air

People being banned from Origin and not een being able to access the single player games they paid for

EA, Sony, Microsoft AND Nintendo ALL signing up to support SOPA, the single worst censorship bill America has ever faced.

Jeff may think it's been one of the best for games, but it's probably been the single worst year for *gamers* in the entire history of the medium. Publishers are taking gamers for granted and treating them like crap. And they're taking it right in the face and asking for more. It's downright depressing.

good year to be a PC gamer!

The most underrated game: TF2. I guess you can forgive journalists for saying 'this thing is still around?', but to my mind it (and maybe League of Legends) is the most important story of the year.

The economy they've created is amazing. It ropes in community people to make content and then shares a portion of the profits from the store with them. The maps are free, the community is relatively polite and most servers have an admin on to keep things running smoothly.

It's currently the best multiplayer action game on any platform. I'm never going to invest my time into CoD again when I know all my items and perks and 15$ map packs are going to turn into pumpkins when the next iteration comes out. Valve has figured out a new way forward, and it's much better than the current status quo.

Happy new year WC.

Thanks for putting so much effort into a free show that brings happiness to my week.

Garnett: Thanks for begin the best podcaster in videogamedom, I have a man crush on you.

Jeff: I love your sense of childlike wonder that has somehow survived the crushing realities of adulthood.

Xav: You're the one cast member with whom my gaming tastes line up with the most.

Andrea: Thank you for getting drunk that one episode. That was beyond hilarious, please do it again more often.

Christian: Thank you for apologizing for Stanky Dick. That song traumatized me.

And thank you to the other assorted cast and behind the scenes crew that brings Weekend Confirmed to my ears.

The Mortal Kombat game you guys were struggling to remember was Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks... the best MK game besides MK2 and MK9 (the new one).

It took full advantage of the MK mythology (over the top as it is) added GREAT 3rd person combat and combo systems, GREAT boss battles against MK favorites, tons of unlockables, and full co-op.

TONS of fun. You should actually play it before dismissing it.

I am Jack's complete suprise of the 2012 conversation,

No Wii U or Vita predictions?
Two resident Evil games coming out in Q1
Xenoblade Chronicles

For all the "dude bro" hate garnett was spewing on SSX(Xav, he was right btw. that first trailer was COD: Alp Boarder) the majority of games you guys picked for 2012 conversation was the typical dude bro games.

Little big planet, it's just a bad game! Get over it we wanted to like, we would have liked it, it was a great idea, and it was just a incredibly less than average GAME. Outside of the graphics it probably would have rated a 6 on a 5-10 scale.

Play, create, share that's the games motto. Let me break it down.

1. Play- game plays like a busted rock.
2. Create- you have to play the game to gain stickers to create with. Refer back to 1 to see what that's like.
3. Share- you have to have other players to share with and nobody wants to play the damn game.

I bought a PS3 for this game then played it, and refused to dislike it for about 5 hours. Then it slowly sunk in I really, really, really can't play something that is just this busted I am not enjoying myself. What a waste of such great art and such a great idea the never ending platformer:(

I can't get with the increasing frequency of commentators who are WAYYYY to cozy with the game making industry and are too often lenient and charitable with busted high profile games, holding game buyers' cash in such low regard.

infamous 2....

The show has mentioned it a couple of times and everyone says how they wish it hadn't been released during E3 because they sure wanted to play it. I wasn't at E3. I played it. There are flaws, but it may be great.

2 things stood out to me.

1) Between Infamous 1 and 2, I think we get one of the best male relationship arcs in video games. Calling it a buddy-comedy or bro-mance is too shallow, it is a modernized, more equitable version of the Don Quixote/ Sancho Panza dynamic. Zeke and Cole have a friendship that is deep and multifaceted. There's comedy, betrayal, pettiness, and an abiding friendship that is challenged and deepened by the introduction of Cole's super powers. Its a large driver of the story and, to me, seems more genuine than any other friendship I've seen in games. It's the human drama that grounds the super hero story we play.

2) Incredible traversal mechanics. You get a great sense of gravity and physicality in the human-based components of Cole's movements across the city. There is a lot of what Cole does that a super-fit version of the player could do, if we were fearless. Its obvious the developers spent time polishing that, and makes the crafted application of superpowers to movement obvious and intuitive. It doesn't hurt that Cole's superpowers stem from a very specific niche and that they become stronger through logical and deeper applications of the manipulation of electromagnetism

I know that people don't like the dichotomy of the morality system. I played good all the way through and got halfway through bad. The choices you make distinctly impact the tactical choices you make and create vastly different gameplay experiences, I found both rewarding.

The show has talked about how morality in games hasn't been perfectly implemented and I agree. But, I like it when a game has both consequences and rewards for your careless killing of civilians and rewards you for either slaughtering or behaving humanely to your enemies. Beyond the good/bad dialectic of the story-driven choices, the game play lets you live (and rewards you for consistently action out) your own morality. The morality system developed over 1 to 2, I hope we get to see how they progress it in a 3. (there is a very satisfying moment at the end of the game that I don't want to spoil)

I think these games work as interesting meditation on the consequences of superheroes to a human society, how friendship can build and mutually re-enforce humanity, and the rewards and consequences of leading a dutiful life.

Not to be a shill, but it looks like its available through your game flap, give it a try.

There's no need to apologize about not liking sword and sorcery Garnett. I can't stand it boring game, and no amount of others saying come on it's really good can change that. Sorry, I tried green eggs and ham and it's not for me.

Side note why the hell does the press make such a big deal about soundtracks? A sound track never really catches my attention, theyre best when I don't notice them but I can hum a few bars when I'm done without even knowing it. But I have never made a game purchase based on the games ok, but it has a great soundtrack. That's outrageous.

Jeff brings up a good point - that shooters are often overlooked in favor of, well, anything besides shooters when it comes to "best games". In some ways I understand, because the "best games" usually refer to the single-player package, and shooters are focused more on multiplayer.

Which reiterates something that bothers me more and more - this mindset among many people I listen to talking about games that if a game isn't single-player, it's not a "real" game. If it weren't for multiplayer, I probably wouldn't game at all. I enjoy a good single-player experience, but nothing beats hopping online into a shooter with my friends. In the games press, it seems as though my preferences are "juvenile", because I don't always want to play games with super deep stories that I have to play alone.

I also disagree with Xav, on a related note, that Battlefield and Modern Warfare "don't deserve to be on the list". That's ridiculous. Just because you don't like them personally doesn't mean they aren't heavy hitters. With Battlefield especially, ask any of us here who love multiplayer games (shooters especially) how much goddamn fun we had and/or are still having with that game. But, since the multiplayer is the focus, it's not included with all the "real" games. At least that's my perception. Forgive me if I'm wrong.(I'm right with you Xav on The Witcher 2 being game of the year! Skyrim was just too much generic fantasy/ go here do that for me).

Assassin's Creed: Revelations (and Deus Ex, as far as missing games go) should have definitely been on the list as well. Just because AC:R came out a year after its predecessor is NO detriment to its quality. If anything, it's the standard that year-to-year games should follow, IMO. It's a lot more of a really damn good thing. Couldn't agree more with Andrea fighting for it to be there.

I don't think you guys have anything to be worried about for Kingdoms Of Amalur: Age of Reckoning. I wasn't sure about it until I got to play the first 10 min of the game.

The best way for me to describe it is if Elder Scrolls and God of War got together and had a baby. Right from the beginning the game makes you feel like a bad ass with the combat of an action game, and on top of that you have the ability to customize your armor and attacks the way you would in an RPG.

Thanks to the entire WC crew for a wonderful year of shows. Haven't ever commented here on Shack before, but after almost two years of greatness I felt a thanks was in order. Also, props to Xav for becoming a fantastic regular. Enjoyed you at Joystiq, definitely enjoying you on WC.

Was a little disheartened at the lack of excitement for Max Payne 3, for some reason I think Rockstar's gonna knock it outta the park, but this was a great episode to close out the year. Thanks, duders.

I for one hope there is no forced shootyness(?) in the new Hitman, I loved the many hours in Blood money trying to blend into crowds and hide bodies and the forced shootyness sections are always the lamest part of every splinter cell game.

If heavy hitters are games that sold well wouldn't Duke Nukem Forever count as a heavy hitter?

Garnett, a correction, Platinum Games is not making Binary Domain. That's the creator of Monkey Ball and Yakuza behind it internally at Sega.

As for SSX, I loved the hell out of it with SSX and SSX Tricky's additions. SSX 3 was solid, but drifted away from what I enjoyed from the series. So I agree that I don't buy it if it is more like 3 than the others. Long time Twisted Metal fan, that and Kingdoms of Amular are amongst my early anticipated titles of 2012.

I think Jeff and Garnett overstated how fast and hard Crysis 2 supposedly fell off the map.

That game sold a few million copies, was one of the most played games on Live for a couple months, and made EA money back on the investment.

Sounds like a win to me.

Now, as far as asking why the game didn't perform as well as it could have? It didn't have the brand awareness of a CoD or the marketing budget of a BF3.

More importantly, it asked more of players than the likes of CoD and its copy-cats, requesting that players think about how to use the armor abilities effectively. I ran into people all the time wondering how I killed them so easily and was 'uh, dude, you were sprinting while cloaked... your energy bar was out so you were like 3-shots from death'.

Asking the average gamer to think beyond 'there's a dude, shoot!' and 'oh, I unlocked something, yay' is just asking for disappointment.

The plateauing popularity of Halo among the crowd that have been playing Halo since the first two games is another example of this. The more you ask of players, the less you'll pull in.

Thank you for including the overlooked games talk because that's what really needs to be discussed. I'm tired of Game of the Year talk. Why do we give a shit when most of those games got their time in the limelight already? Or half the worthy titles can't be discussed because typical GoTY discussions fall at the end of the year when most of the November releases still haven't been played. Zelda was totally brushed aside because almost everyone on the podcast hasn't had the time to play it enough/at all. That's why these kinds of discussions are silly, or at the very least premature.

Next year, please don't overlook Xenoblade Chronicles. I'm predicting it will be, half because it's a Wii game and half because the rest of the world got it in 2011 and therefore it will be looked at as old news. It would be a damn shame to overlook such a fantastic title in 2012 because of Nintendo's mishandling.

What a way to end off 2012. Though it is inevitable that some of the opinions thrown out by the team will be very polarizing, I do feel that the show left with some good "food for thought" discussion as well as the characteristic hijinks. Oh and of course Del Rio's chip-tunes! Great stuff sir!

Excellent work guys! Thanks for confirming the week as well as the end of year. Happy new year guys, and here's to an even better outing from Weekend Confirmed.

I think Saints Row was one of the best games this year (I can't belive I said that)
The totally over the top gameplay, combined with decent driving and a great GPS made it all flow so perfectly from mission, to combat, to driving to I am gunna go punch this homless person.

Now I hate GTA, 100% never liked it and all I have ever seen people do is run around killing cops with cheats. Now from a base level SR3 is pretty much the same thing. But it's not. Melee is incredibly over the top, badass and overpowered (the way it should be) shooting feels like an actual quality third person shooter and I can drive above 10 mph without hiting everything (unless I do it on purpose)

All in all Saint Row is an amazing game that I think if you can get past the fact that everyone is stereo typical, its extremly graphic, over sexed and downright strange (which might be why its so good, because its too over the top) you have to play it.

For the record, Mortal Kombat doesn't get the love it 'deserves' because for the majority of its time on the market, it's online matchmaking and lobbies have been broken.

As in, they don't work.

And every time NetherRealm released DLC, they BROKE AGAIN.

I'm lucky to have a circle of friends that gets together, in person, to drink beers and pass around the control sticks for fighters like SF4, MvC3, VF5, WWE All-Stars, Soul Cali 4 and MK9, but most people rely on online play to match up with other players.

MK didn't work, so gamers moved on.

Thanks for such a great episode guys (and gals)! Been listening for a while now, and really appreciate the hard work that is put in every week from everyone involved. Weekend Confirmed always gets me pumped to get home from work and play video game, and this year end special was no exception!

Jeff really you think portals going to be what changes the industry this year... A puzzle game, I think that game will be remembered, but it was valve and simply put a one off.

Now minecraft completely agree in a year or two will be saying remember minecraft it was the everquest of world crafting games. It really got the ball rolling, and then someother developer really took a little extra, or different step... By the way how is the combat in minecraft?

I'd like to mention another contender for future game changer Zelda SS. Take a few mini games, do them really well, and mix them up enough that the player feels compelled to keep repeating those task. It's the formula for how core motion, and touch games can be done.

oh that jeff cannata!! gunnar optik glasses? gonorr-optik glasses?

I've been listening to the podcast since around May of 2010 and you guys have always kept it entertaining.

Hope you all have a good New Year's and I look forward to, hopefully, many more years of listening.

Haven't listened to this episode just yet, but I want to say thanks to everyone who makes this show possible, behind the mic and in the booth. Definitely my favorite podcast devoted to video games, you guys talk about what I care about when it comes to games and every episode delivers. Thanks, and here's to much more WC to come! Cheers.