I hope you've got some reading you've been meaning to catch up on, because this is not the week to be breaking the bank on your gaming addiction. Without so much as a middling movie tie-in release on the slumbering 360 and PS3, apparently worn out from a long week of announcing not much interesting at E3, only the DS offers up anything of interest.

But fear not, for August brings with it the beginning of the game buying season, and with it week after week of budget stretching releases. This, my friends, is the proverbial quiet before the storm. Breathe deep, save some money, because this will be among the last of the desolate The Week Ahead of 2008.

Oh, and as for Game of the Week? Uh, Final Fantasy IV. Sure, that's sounds good.

If you're not into college football you might be better off watching all the E3 footage roll by than pulling out your wallet this week. Most notable is the more approachable Wii version of NCAA Football 09, possibly marking the beginning of an era of sports games everyone can play. Or a new level of waving your arms around and pressing the 'win' button.

Nothing for me this week, so I'll be downloading the Too Human demo on Xbox Live (it's out now) and submerging myself in E3 news. This may very well be the final E3 - cracked dessicated shell that it is. Like a drunk licking the floor to get the last dregs of his spilt whiskey, I suggest we all soak it in while we can.

On DVD this week we have The Bank Job, Penelope, Shutter and other stuff.

Every time a PC developer dips his or her toes into the console waters, it's an interesting study in how they think about the controller bound audience. In the case of Civilization Revolution, hand coded by Sid Meier himself, there are a couple changes to the classic Civ formula to make it more palatable. For one, the Sim-like nonsense babbling from the on-screen advisers must be a comfort to the caveman console player. So too the large, eye popping graphics and colors. Yet, for all their efforts, the Civ series is a devil for details and all the sizzle in the world can't bury that if you still want that addictive "one more turn" gameplay. From what we saw in the demo and early reviews, it looks like that core is still strong in Sid's latest.

On DVD this week we have Stop-Loss, Sleepwalking, Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten and lots more.

I'd have to be pretty stubborn not to give Game of the Week to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. On 3 systems it is the only game being released this week, and on the 4th its only competition is a game called Purr Pals. And yet, despite the fact that I'm certain to rent this game--because I'm a whore for these games, and because I grew up listening to Aerosmith--rewarding the way that Activision is doing business in the virtual-rockstar genre is anathema. I realize that this has become the crown jewel of gaming, that their Guitar Hero franchise is every bit as precious to them as a Madden is to EA, but somehow it's the double whammy of turning both video gaming and rock-and-roll into some whored out corporate commodity at one turn that has completely turned me off.

I'm sure it's just an image thing, but somehow Harmonix, despite being in bed with EA, seems like the cool rock-star, while Activision comes off like Simon Cowell, all snide and haughty while making sure his Coke can is properly aligned for maximum product placement.

So, my game of the week is, instead, Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2.

It has to be said that there are a ton of games coming to market this week. In many ways, this week has it all: two movie tie-in games, a Sims 2 Expansion featuring IKEA (I assume your Sims' moods deteriorate proportional to the amount of Swedish furniture they are forced to own), the usual collection of entirely average and forgettable DS games, further proof that the PS2 ain't quite dead yet and even a candidate for worst game name ever with: Mega Man Star Force 2 Zerker X Saurian. The only thing we're really missing is the typical molestation of the letter Z for edgy plurals.

Among the notables this week, The SimCity Box which includes the solid and dramatically under-rated SimCity Societies + expansion along with SimCity 4 + expansion for $39.99; a definite steal if you gave these games a pass when they were released. Honestly, I could pretty comfortably recommend the price tag just for Societies and its expansion. Also, the 360 continues to try and shoehorn the RTS genre onto consoles with C&C3: Kane's Wrath as well as Supreme Commander. The DS sees Guitar Hero go portable with On Tour. Along with all that you also have Naruto on the PSP, Alone in the Dark and Top Spin 3 on multiple platforms and on the next-gen systems Battlefield: Bad Company.

But, despite this cornucopia of newness, I'm going with the Wii release of Rock Band as my Game of the Week. It would be fair to characterize this as an activist decision; recognition with an agenda. I wouldn't even argue against such claims. So brazen is my bias.

We'll be keeping it short and sweet this week. There ain't much to talk about anyway.

If you're looking to get your undies in a bunch over the creation of a retail product from materials that otherwise barely constitute a demo, then this is your week to get steamed. EA is releasing a version of the Spore Creature Creator for $9.99, turning a product we might traditionally see as a reward for something like a pre-order into a money maker. Frankly, I'm ok with monetizing these kinds of products, taking advantage of clear demand while not really penalizing traditional consumers like myself that will just wait for Spore to actually be for sale. It might be different if the final release were somehow neutered for customers who don't own the retail Creature Creator, or if there was no free alternative, but since neither of those conditions are met, then my angst-o-meter is solidly in the green. Still, I expect the internet to burn orange from the light of ten thousand flames condemning Electronic Arts for any number of lesser evils.

It seems to me like a dumb thing to buy, which is why it's not the Game of the Week even though there's almost nothing else to single out, but I'm not going to crucify EA for trying to turn a few extra bucks on the game. As for the actual GotW, that honor goes to Secret Agent Clank for the PSP.

On DVD this week, the usual suspects of television series compilations and Be Kind Rewind. More here.

Outside my window I hear shouts and cheers from a group of teenagers leaving their dance class. I can only imagine they're expressing the same jubilation I feel knowing that Metal Gear Solid 4 is finally coming out this week. It wasn't until I broke bread with Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence that I well and truly "got" the series. Like a man who discovers religion later in life, I'm new to my devotion but all the more eager to spread the gospel to make up for lost time. I've read FAQs, watched retrospective documentaries, listened to podcasts and tried in vain to convince many of you that there's more to these games than extended cutscenes and bad camera controls. Sadly, Metal Gear Solid 4 leans heavily on all that came before it, likely leaving the plot a confusing mess for newcomers. Maybe one of the extended cutscenes will fill in the backstory - but somehow I don't think that would be much of a selling point.

For fans who enjoy flogging themselves, the Limited Edition PS3 Bundle (which includes the collectors edition of the game and a special gun metal PS3) is a 40 GB unit - meaning it won't play the old Metal Gear Solid titles. All for the low, low price of $599! Putting the silly merchandising aside, we're promised that Metal Gear Solid 4 will wrap up the series with a pretty bow, giving fans the closure they deserve after suffering through Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2. Clearly, this is our game of the week.

On DVD this week we have The Beatles: Behind The Music, Boondocks: The Complete Second Season, John Adams, Jumper and lots more filler.

Do you like movie tie-in games? Who doesn't, right? Well this is your lucky week because there's not one, not two, not three but an amazing four games coming out this week direct from the silver screen. From The Incredible Hulk to Kung Fu Panda, Indiana Jones and The Bourne Conspiracy, it's all movie action all week! I suppose an argument could be, and has been, made that The Bourne Conspiracy is actually derived from the book, but the demo was so bad I can't imagine anyone would raise to that defense anyway.

I'm frankly torn between LEGO Indiana Jones and Ninja Gaiden II for Game of the Week. But, in my heart of hearts, I have to admit that I never really bought into the whole LEGO to video game translation, perhaps being the only person on the planet not charmed by the various Star Wars incarnations. It was clever enough in its own way I suppose, but it felt a little tedious to me, so I'm actually going to give the nod to Ninja Gaiden II, which is getting some decent pre-release buzz. Besides, if I can prop it up now, it will fall that much farther when I tear it back down later. Burn it to the ground!

Meanwhile on DVD this week A&E launches its mediocre Andromeda Strain remake onto stores shelves just a week after its broadcast premier. I suppose it's nice to see little Ricky Schroeder still getting work. Also available: Semi-Pro and Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show among others.

This week sees the release of the semi-anticipated, briefly controversial Mass Effect for the PC. In the wake of internet outcry, perhaps only encouraging people on the internet to 'outcry' more, Bioware and Electronic Arts backed down from a planned protection scheme that would require Mass Effect to "phone home" every ten days to keep the game running. But, let's put all that unpleasantness aside and simply revel in the joy of receiving yet another console port as some kind of token offering to a meager PC market. There is some kind of unpleasant hint of an insult in playing a Bioware RPG just oozing with the trappings of a console six months after the game's release, but then again I'm the kind of person who would outcry such things on the internet. Maybe I'll start a petition of some kind. Despite this, I'm give (Note: I'm leaving my embarrassing grammatical error in tact to shame me into not being so hasty next week) MEPC the nod for Game of the Week.

Also of note is the inverse of the above situation where the PS3 receives what was one of the better, if not largely adopted, PC games of last year: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. This is a game that unfortunately got lost in the shuffle of an historic October and November of 2007 releases, and which would probably have been much more widely received any other year. This story is made a little worse for the fact that Activision has just announced the closure of the PS3 ET:QW developer.

Ours is a strangely maudlin Game of the Week segement.

On DVD this week, Rambo. Create-your-own age joke. More DVDs here.

I'm no fool. I know a movement when I see one, and the will of the community is clearly trending like an exponential curve in one direction. It all began a few months ago when our World of Warcraft forum (which we still call the MMORPG forum out of sheer stubbornness) was suddenly infiltrated by an unfamiliar population. At first I logically assumed that AoC simply stood for some upcoming Blizzard raid about which others had advanced notice, but it slowly became clear that this was not just an extension tacked onto the flowering world of Azeroth. This was a groundswell of interest in Age of Conan, an MMO that seemed to have no elves of any breed at all. Inconceivable!

Now, the unthinkable. Our World of War - erm, I mean MMORPG forum is actually populated with more threads discussing AoC than WoW. What does this mean, exactly? I hesitate to draw any long-term proclamations from such ephemeral anecdotes, but it certainly is compelling. And, such enthusiasm is not the kind against which I will resist. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is firmly my choice for Game of the Week, despite the long awaited release of Wii Fit and the far less long awaited release of Haze.

On DVD this week, National Treasure 2 and a typical truckload of television compilations. More here.