So I just realized that Skyrim is going to be a Steam unlocked launch for PC. What are the odds that they'll actually release the game at midnight? Or is this going to be a classic some time mid-morning or early-afternoon deal that Steam seems to love?

It's because you have to buy your own headset on PS3. No one's going to buy a $60 bluetooth kit to yell racist things at strangers. They buy them so they can play as a team.

Call of Duty's public channels are like a horrific Frankenstein's monster of 4Chan and Chat Roulette in terms of general ass-hattery. But they're at least equal opportunity in their willingness to be complete jagoffs to everyone.

What? Someone affiliated with entertainment has turned a profit off exploiting global fears? That's never happened before! Someone should write a book about it, then turn a profit off pointing out that others exploit fear for profit. Then I can write a book exploiting how they exploited the exploiters for profit.

Congress agrees. They didn't even bother to budget or plan for this one. Oh! Political burn!

Right. It comes down to two-way free market negotiations. There's nothing morally wrong with included locked content on the disc, but they need to convince me it's worth my money. I am sure not going to spend $10 for a little bottle of rum in the mini bar, just like I won't spend $10 on DLC I don't care about.

I agree with you there, and probably won't grab the DLC. But for your same reasoning. It's not worth the price tag, ergo I am bypassing it. But it's a business issue, not some sort of ethical dilemma. I am just confused at the outrage.

That's true. Movies have seen ticket prices almost double in the past decade. Games have been pretty stagnant. I think you're right, though, in that no one really wants to lower prices, nor are they brave enough to raise them. So you get the arbitrary decision that $60 is the price. End of story. PC games, to be fair,…

Yup. That's the other side of the coin. If you don't think it's worth your money, don't buy it.

Sometimes I wonder how economies can get screwed up. Then I look at the gamer math in the comments.

It's a flawed comparison though. A game has to be something really big to sell a million copies over its lifetime. That's $60,000,000 in profit. Over a lifetime. And for some blockbuster games, that's a breakeven point.

I got to interview Jonathan Coulton this week for a site I write for! We mostly talked music, but he did talk about how family life and touring has made it hard to be a gamer, and why he prefers iOS games for their pick up and play anytime nature. [popblerd.com]

Looks like my stint as the "Nudie Bandit", a serial killer who always left the clothes of his victims neatly piled next to their corpses, is finally worth something.

The fact that there is a Roomba ad on the page (at least for me) makes the insane amounts of Black Eyed Peas in this article that much better.

That's right. It is cover. I just recall rolling into the open on several occasions in the last one. I wouldn't slag the game to a C over it myself, but it was a minor annoyance.

But crouch and roll are the same, and you generally have to crouch to be stealthy. However, crouch with the stick pushed a little and you roll like an idiot into the enemy. I had problems with it in the last game too. I loved it, but controls did feel floaty at times.

Video game reviews are, on the whole, a joke and laughably inflated. Don't believe me? A film scoring over a 60 is marked as a positively reviewed film on Metacritic. Same with albums. For video games? A 75. Essentially game reviewers so frequently jack up scores that there has to be a 15 point curve on the thing.…

That's such a great album. I listened to it at work the other day and had to restrain headbutting coworkers because I was so amped up.

I am on the fence. I'd love to and have an idea I am excited about but I just have way too many other writing projects on my plate. I suppose I need to decide today though.

Just interviewed Jonathan Coulton. He is as awesome as you'd imagine him to be.