I don't actually know the AU release schedule, but I would suggest you poke around (sounds like you did already). From what I've seen, AU releases aren't generally THAT far behind the US release, and it's been over half a year now. IGN regularly reports on AU releases and has its own separate AU reviews of the same games, might check them out for info.

In the States the game is so common now I'm seeing it sold in Blockbuster Video stores. And I mean the whole big box of instruments, not just the game itself. The price has also gone down by about $40 from the original release.

That price is likely to go lower. The first details on Guitar Hero: World Tour are starting to emerge and it looks like they're trying to out-Rock Rock Band, with a 2-cymbal 3-pad wireless drumset and a wireless guitar that has more sensors and devices on it, leading to more Wii-like game mechanics beyond hitting the notes on the controller. In addition to being able to record your own music and a bunch of other advances on the genre. Looks pretty good on paper at this point.

Rock Band will probably find itself in the position of wanting to move that game as much as they can ahead of Guitar Hero's next incarnation, so if they haven't actually had a proper AU release, they'd better get on the ball.

With the possible exception of, believe it or not, Chronicles of Riddick, just about all video games based on a movie have been universally panned by critics and players alike.

So don't get your hopes up; if history is any judge, they'll suck, and badly.

About your post at the bottom of page 20 in response to Yellow Dog that starts with the words "I am in a county that has been red for far too long...."

I surely hope you publish that story elsewhere besides burying it deep within these here comment pages, sir. There are others in need of hearing it. I encourage you to produce an extended version as events play out.

Reporting in from Oregon, the saturation on this is pretty good in Portland. Lots of bus benches and bus advertisements. It'd be hard to just walk around and not be made aware of it.

I understand the emerging phrase for this phenomenon is now "RMTs", or Real Money Traders, since not all games use "gold" as the name for the currency. But I think at this point all MMO's are infested with RMTs.

You couldn't have posted that one in character? Come on!

A hardware store, a gun store, a food store, and easily sealable access points that are effectively zombie-horde-proof.

I've seen several letters that appear to be copy-and-paste under different screen names. Which could be one nutjob spamming under different handles (see: Roomba, Cat vs; Hell, Merry Xmas From; Satan, Dave; Robot, Electro; et al, ad infinitum), but this has a different feel to it.

Like there are lots of people who've been armed with some talking points and sent to spam the Salon message boards, is the impression that I get. It's quite creepy.

Because, DUH, not only is there a sudden flood of first time posters (it doesn't take long reading Salon letters threads to spot the newbs AND roll your eyes at the tireless usual suspects)...but these first-time posters are all using the EXACT SAME FUCKING PARAGRAPHS as "arguments".

That doesn't seem a little fishy to you? In what universe?

I don't consider any excuses for her not knowing the term as stated to carry much weight. If this were Jane/Joe Average on the spot, that might be a legitimate mitigation. But this is not. This woman is interviewing to possibly be the POTUS. More is expected, to say the least.

It's a little bit ironic that they'll get in bed with and manipulate the media every other way, and yet not know this "media term".

In fact, that's the entire point.

Try this thought experiment: Do you think any other of this year's crop of serious candidates for POTUS would have fumbled that one in such a way? What would YOU do in that position if you were asked? Wouldn't you at least say something to the effect of "That's kind of an ambiguous term, used loosely by a lot of folks to mean different things. Would you mind telling me which meaning of it you're intending, so that I can answer you more accurately?"

^^ is just the latest handle in a long string of them from the same guy. You will have known him in the past as Electro Robot, Dave Satan, Merry Christmas from Hell, Cat vs. Roomba, James T. Kirk, and on and on and on. It's pretty easy to spot; the posting style and attitude are always the same. Also the last handle, of course, stops posting. Note the absence of Cat vs. Roomba and the new presence of ^^.

My assumption was that he changes handles a lot because he periodically steps over the line and gets banned. Don't actually know that for a fact, though.

The supreme irony is that addicts like this guy and rupert and the rest of the usual suspects are probably more responsible for the overall content of Salon at this point than Joan Walsh is.