We didn’t need the official beginning of fall to know the season had arrived. Games that promise to challenge for Game of the Year honors are hitting over the next several weeks and Weekend Confirmed will be digging into them in earnest. Garnett returns from his expedition to Japan just in time to catch up with the Gears of War 3 discussion to get things started. A nasty bout of the flu knocked Xav out this week but Jeff holds things down with our special guest James Stevenson of Insomniac Games. Naturally, there’s some Resistance 3 talk, but much more as well including the Battlefield 3 beta, Burnout Crash, and yes, Jeff braves the waters to talk some about Kirby. With the trifecta of EA Sports games out we also look at how the annual cycle could be improved. And of course we’ve got all the latest gaming news as well. We tweaked the format a little for this eightieth show, so please, let us know what you think in the official Shacknews.com comments.

Weekend Confirmed Ep. 80: 09/30/2011

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If you're viewing this in the GameFly application, you can play Weekend Confirmed Episode 80 directly.

Weekend Confirmed comes in four segments to make it easy to listen to in segments or all at once. Here's the timing for this week's episode:

Show Breakdown:

Round 1 00:00:00 - 00:31:02

Whatcha Been Playing 00:31:34 - 00:59:38

More Playing and the News 01:00:41 – 01:28:57

Featured Music Break: 01:28:57 - 01:32:14 -- "Point Out of a Curve" – Adam K

Listener Feedback 01:32:14 – 02:07:47

The Tailgate 02:08:30 - 02:16:41

Featured music this week comes from the massively talented house producer Adam K. His track "Point Out of a Curve" is available now on Beatport and iTunes. There's much more where that came from at Hotbox Digital. Catch up with him on the Adam K Facebook page.

Original music in the show by Del Rio. Get his latest Album, The Wait is Over on iTunes. Check out more, including the Super Mega Worm mix and other mash-ups on his ReverbNation page or Facebook page, and follow him on twitter delriomusic.

Jeff Cannata can also be seen on The Totally Rad Show. They've gone daily so there's a new segment to watch every day of the week!

Follow Jeff Cannata on Twitter @jeffcannata and Xav de Matos @xav.

Remember to join the Official Facebook Weekend Confirmed Page and add us to your Facebook routine. We'll be keeping you up with the latest on the show there as well.