Your wallet will face a lot of intriguing threats this week, but I don't have much first-hand intel about any of them, so I can only issue a threat level yellow.

Among the most dangerous are also the least assuming, and not just because they're on the Playstation 3. For instance, who knows what to make of Demon's Souls (pictured)? It looks absolutely epic, daunting, addictive, contrived, frustrating, bewildering, and gratifying. I've only scratched the surface, but I've heard enough from people who've lived to tell the tale. If you're into RPGs are you're not already waist deep in Risen, this one looks capable of drinking at least fifty hours of your life. Do I finally start watching The Wire, do I re-read Moby Dick, do I take up an MMO, or do I play Demon's Souls?

Also on the Playstation 3 is Afrika, a game where you run around and shoot lots of cool animals, but with a camera. It's like one of those games that has a photography minigame -- Beyond Good and Evil, Dead Rising, and Bioshock come to mind -- but without that pesky macrogame. I don't know if it'll get old driving around checking out animated animals, but it reminds me of an open-world version of the jungle river ride at Disneyland.

For the Playstation 3 and other systems is the tactical military shooter Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising, a follow-up to the messy ambitious sprawl of the original Operation Flashpoint. But whereas the creators of that earlier game took their mess and ambition into the ArmA series, this latest Operation Flashpoint was created by a separate developer whose goal seems to be less mess and less ambition. Having played ArmA II, I'm inclined to say they have the right idea.

Speaking of less messy and less ambitious, Spore Hero for the Wii and Spore Hero Arena for the Nintendo DS are out this week. They are less ambitious and less messy version of Spore for the PC, more like adventure games than life simulations.

Nintnedo does their trick of lucrative iterations with Wii Fit Plus, which will make more money than god. At the other end of the spectrum, I can't imagine who's going to buy a videogame based on the Saw movies, but that's an option this week. Lucasarts is releasing Star War Clone Wars Republic Heroes, which is probably going to do better than Saw, but not as good as Wii Fit Plus.

There are also a bunch of basketball games out this week, which leads me to believe Real Basketball is starting up soon. Go Raiders!