WARNING: This week will see an escalated threat level to the well-being of your wallet. Threat level "red" applies across the board to a wide range of gamers, so remain vigilant even if you think your interests are narrow enough to be unaffected.

Strategy gamers should be on the lookout for Dawn of War II, the new Warhammer-themed real time strategy game that shakes up the genre in some important ways. A slightly lesser threat to strategy gamers is posed by Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, a Nintendo DS remake of a strategy RPG originally released for the Nintendo in Japan in 1990.

If you like your RPGs straight up, there's Drakensang, an old-school RPGer's RPG from Germany. This is supposed to be a follow-up to the Realms of Arkania series. If you know what those are, Drakensang is for you. If you don't know what those are, might I suggest Sacred 2, Oblivion, or World of Warcraft for your RPG needs?

For old-school fighting game players, Capcom releases Street Fighter IV. For old-school platformer players, there's Prinny for the PSP, a sort of punishing Ghouls n' Goblins take on the explosive penguins from the Disgaea games. For people who like unique things that defy categorization, there's Noby Noby Boy, which is...uh...frankly, I have no idea what it is. It's the next thing from the guy who did Katamari Damacy. That's all I know, but that's also all I need to know to consider this a serious wallet threat.

And for everyone in none of the categories above -- as well as for many of you in the categories above -- there's the downloadable add-on for Grand Theft Auto IV. The Lost and Damned will be available for the Xbox 360 tomorrow. I'll be parked on Xbox Live ready to grab it whenever it shows up late tonight. If you're there, too, drop me a line to say 'hi' on your way back into Liberty City.