Expert game industry analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities stops by this week to chat about the imminent impact of Grand Theft Auto IV, Microsoft’s strategies for 2008, and how the heck one gets to be an analyst. All the math makes our brains hurt!

No Dan today, but Ryan tries to make it up to you by getting Bethesda exec producer Todd Howard on the phone to talk about the myriad Fallout-related things in the news. Hear him speak honestly on the technological issues that pestered the last 2 DLC launches, the genesis of the most up to date DLC (Broken Steel), how the partnership with Obsidian for Fallout: New Vegas became, Interplay’s Fallout MMORPG, as well as a lot more. And also, he remains for a video game of “Stick it to the Todd Howard.” Did you stump him? Learn!