Microsoft is getting all up in your wallet's face this week with Halo Wars. But don't let it get to you. While it's a serviceable port of PC-based real time strategy gaming to the Xbox 360, it's got some serious interface issues and AI problems. It does about as well as you can expect without being revolutionary (see EndWar for a best-case example of a revolutionary way to play real time strategy games on console systems). Consider it more of a bluff than an actual threat.

The more viable threat to the wallets of RTS fans is Empire: Total War, the latest in the series that has zig-zagged from feudal Japan to Medieval Europe to ancient Rome. Early reports indicate it's pretty, dumb, and realistic for the way it takes the duration of the Seven Years War to watch the computer take its turn and load the map for each battle.

Ubisoft will launch a surgical strike on the wallets of people who like arcade flight simulators with the release of HAWX. I think Tom Clancy's name is supposed to precede the title, but I can't keep straight which Ubisoft games have been hijacked by the former insurance salesman. Tom Clancy's Far Cry? Tom Clancy's Prince of Persia? Tom Clancy's Petz?

Also new this week is Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, a shooter about fake videogame characters. See, the joke is that Matt Hazard isn't returning because this is his first game. Get it? Comedy videogames can be a tough sell, so I don't have high hopes for this one, even though it was created by Vicious Cycle, winners of the Writers Guild Award for 2007 for, uh, Dead Head Fred. So, yeah. Eat Lead will, however, feature the voices of Will Arnett and Neil Patrick Harris.

I've recently learned that when a sports videogame comes out, it means that sport is about to be in season. So whatever MLB stands for -- I'm pretty sure it's Major League Basketball or Major League Boogie Boarding -- it's about to start soon, because Sony and 2K Games are releasing MLB games.

This week's universal wallet threat is Peggle for the Nintendo DS. Now that's what I call a wallet threat. I haven't played it yet, but if PopCap can successfully translate their Pachinko/pinball gimmick to the DS, your wallet is going to be in trouble to the tune of thirty bucks.