And so it begins. Your wallet will is in dire peril between now and Thanksgiving. Tighten your belt, take out a second mortgage, and sell the kids.

Fortunately, this week's really exciting release, Mercenaries 2 (above, in a rare moment of repose), is disappointing. It's still pretty great, but it's not the must-have it should have been. It certainly doesn't live up to the standards set for this kind of game set by Bully, Crackdown, Saints Row, and Grand Theft Auto IV. More details in tomorrow's review. Also out this week is the sequel to Viva Pinata, which has a very Viva Pinata v1.1 thing going. Read today's review here.

Then there's some sort of goofy boxing game from EA called Facebreaker, which is the stupidest descriptive name since Ghost Recon decided to append "Warfighter" after its title. Finally, speaking of stupid names, Infinite Undiscovery comes out this week as part of Microsoft's ongoing effort to convince themselves that the Japanese aren't entirely apathetic about the Xbox 360. This Final Fantasy-style RPG is the latest from the creators of stuff the Japanese love like Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean. Maybe this and the recently announced price cut will actually get Japan to love the Xbox.