A holiday for many sports gamers, Madden NFL 12's release moved to the final Tuesday of August to position it closer to the league's opening day, which is Sept. 8. The 23rd edition of EA Sports' venerable football franchise is still the week's headline release.
Monday
• Achron (PC)
Tuesday
• Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2)—This year's presentational additions, adjustments and new gameplay features were built to appeal to the hardcore NFL football fan—no new stuff built to be marketed to the casual sector. Variable player performances, more realistic personnel management and more authentic collisions are this edition's calling card.
Also: Bodycount (360, PS3); The Sims Medieval: Pirates and Nobles (PC); The Baconing (PC, XBLA, PSN); ClaDun x2 (PSP)
Wednesday
• Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (PC, XBLA, PSN)
• Elevator Action Deluxe (PSN)
• Rock of Ages (XBLA)
• Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon (XBLA, PSN)
Thursday
• Tropico 4 (PC)
Looking Ahead
Sept 6: Driver: San Francisco, Dead Island, Resistance 3, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. Sept. 13: Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad, NHL 12. Sept. 20: Gears of War 3. Sept. 27: Pro Evolution Soccer 2012; X-Men: Destiny; FIFA 12. Oct. 4: Dark Souls; NBA 2K12; RAGE; Spider-Man: Edge of Time. Oct. 11: Ace Combat: Assault Horizon; Dead Rising 2: Off the Record.
What are you getting? What do you want? What are you looking forward to? Sound it off below, and at #twig.
Sources: Video Game Release Calendar; GameStop
You can contact Owen Good, the author of this post, at owen@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.