To be fair, I've been too abrupt in not following PS2 releases on The Week Ahead. While Microsoft may have excised last generation's console like a festering boil with what seems in hindsight to be zealous speed, Sony continues to let people who are slow to upgrade give them money.

I suppose the big game this week is Assassin's Creed for the PC, but I am counted among those who were impressed by Ubisoft's blockbuster for all of an hour. I don't really feel like launching into some kind of tirade of disappointment at Assassin's Creed, because the let-down I suffered was a direct result of the hype I'd managed to get myself get caught up in. So, instead, I'm going to give Game of the Week to Baroque, an Atlus USA RPG that looks as creepily bizarre as every other Atlus USA RPG. I feel secure in describing this as a game whose appeal is a tightly focused beam targeting a pinpoint of a cross-section of a subgenre, but I'm willing to give credit where credit is due. No one seems to sate the perverse desires of the hardcore JRPG crowd like Atlus USA. While I'm sure the game would make me convulse in anaphylactic reaction to its relentless adornment of JRPG tropes and certain misuse of the word Baroque, I'm betting there's a familiar group of players who will find much to love. More power to ya!

On DVD this week you can watch Daniel Day Lewis act hard in There Will Be Blood or watch John C Riley walk hard in, well, Walk Hard. More DVDs here.

PC:
- Assassin's Creed (4/7)
- Civil War Mysteries (4/7)
- Nancy Drew Double Dare (4/7)
- Dirty Dancing (4/8)

PSP:
- World Championship Cards (4/7)

PS2:
- Arcana Heart (4/7)
- Baroque (4/8)

Wii:
- Minicopter: Adventure Flight (4/7)
- Baroque (4/8)