It's been a stressful week at work. First I had to get suited up. Then I had to go to the watchtower and get re-acquainted with the tedium of plugging about 150 piddly arrows into a dragon. Finally I slayed the SOB, knocked off for a late lunch, and got back to business, running up the bridge and trying not to get stabbed by the black knights up ahead. I made the mistake of taking a detour to kill the bowmen, but accidentally slipped and fell off the stairs, which killed me for the eight millionth time. Long story short, I wasn't even close to clocking out, but I got up within inches of the giant silver boss' ankles -- its weak point -- only to be summarily smashed into a pile of inanimate ghostly nothingness for the... I don't even know how many-th time. It's enough to make you want to scream.But that's Demon's Souls, another in a long line of RPGs that gives you a story and a goal, but oh yeah, it's going to be one of the hardest journeys of your life if you want to complete it. One misjudged situation, one step too far, and you'll end up with a torch in your face or several limbs broken. And yet, even though I certainly don't think of myself as a glutton for videogame punishment, Demon's Souls continues to be addictive. It's Stockholm Syndrome on a disc.

  World of WarCraft is arguably the biggest name in gaming, so it stands to reason that the movie would need to be just as big. The production got off to a good start by bringing in high-profile director Sam Raimi, but it's the writer reportedly attached to the project who should be turning a few heads."We want to be really faithful to the game...to the Horde and the Alliance and the mythology that takes place in the game, and the archetypes that the game presents," Raimi told MTV News."I think we would try and find touchstones within the game to make it accurate and true and choose one or some of the lands that are portrayed in the game with as much accuracy and authenticity as possible."

  Top 5 Gracelessly Aging CharactersTicking away the moments that make up a dull day.By Scott SharkeyWe all get older, but rarely do videogame characters. Birthday candles mark our slow advance toward death, but Mario never gets a single gray hair in his 'stache. The few exceptions to the eternal youth of game protagonists provide us little hope for our own decrepitude. On those infrequent occasions where time makes its mark on a beloved character, it seldom does so kindly.5. Sam FisherSam Fisher doesn't visibly grow a lot older through the course of the Splinter Cell games, but man, does he ever get a little cranky. And by "get a little cranky" I mean "turn into a complete and total asshole." I can understand taking issue with some of the stuff he's told to do, but by the end, he really seems to be getting off on his passive-agressive rants against his boss, and agressive-agressive "interrogations" of the newbs he gets the drop on. By the last game, all his dialogue sounds like it came out of "shit my dad says." 4. Max PayneMax is no stranger to personal tragedy, but it's hard to imagine what could have been terrible enough to cause his hair to retract back into his head so fast that it flew out of the bottom of his face. While Max's new look is sure to be a hit with the "I am Jeff Bridges" demographic, it doesn't seem likely to go over well with people who are not Jeff Bridges. Who, I am told, comprise the entire population of the earth, minus one. 3. Solid SnakeAs kind of the poster child for the process of aging, Snake does so at a rate accelerated by genetic tampering and chain smoking. In fact, the ravaging effects time has on his body are only eclipsed by what it does to his fashion sense. The message is clear: Age slows you down and makes you cough, but even worse, it causes misguided experimentationwith facial hair and mullets.2.BombermanI realize Act: Zero was supposed to be some kind of weird reboot or spinoff, but I prefer to imagine that the little doughboy character of the old games finally grew up into awkward teenagerhood. And, naturally, he compensated for a childhood of complete and total wussdom with the robotic equivalent of bleached hair and a black trench coat. Nobody understands Bomberman.1. Donkey KongApparently the O.G. Donkey Kong grew up to become Donkey Kong Country's rocking chair-bound complainer Cranky Kong. I never kept up with Donkey Kong canon, but Parish assured me that this is the truth. You know, while we sat around in rocking chairs and bitched about how videogames ain't like they were back in the day.

  Live TV by Ustream Time: Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 5 p.m. PST Location: Watch the embedded video player above. Questions: Submit your question(s) in our Game Night message board thread.For those about to rock, we salute you. On this week's Game Night, come rock with us as we play Double Fine's Brutal Legend, an adventure game mixing fantasy, the supernatural, and heavy metal.

  Conflict of interest or not, at least one big publisher's games are being features on Steam this week. Each day this week will feature a deal on a different THQ game beginning today with 50% off Titan Quest Gold a bundle of Titan Quest and its expansion pack, Immortal Throne. Instead of the usual $20 they'd be asking for, you need only pay $10 for one of the better Diablo-style action-RPGs ever made.We don't know what other deals are in store for the next few days, but at any point during the sale, you can pick up the THQ Collector Pack -- that includes 13 games, from Dawn of War 2 to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to Company of Heroes and more -- for just 10% off, bringing the $100 price down to $90. That works out to less than $7 per game. Certainly not a half bad deal if you're interested in even a few of the included titles.

  If you aren't too busy treasure-hunting or rocking out this Wednesday, Xbox Live Arcade is bringing two adventure games for you to enjoy. Major Nelson sends word that Axel and Pixel and Sam & Max Season Two will both be coming to Xbox Live Arcade this week, priced at 800 MS Points ($10) and 1600 ($20) respectively.Both are adventure games, which should scratch your puzzle-solving and wacky humor itches. Check out the gameplay trailer for Axel and Pixel above, and let us know which - if either - you're going to plunk down your MS Points for this week.

  The tower defense title Savage Moon is about to take its act on the road. Fluffylogic has announced that the formerly PS3-exclusive tower defense game will soon be on the PlayStation Portable."For the last few months FluffyLogic personnel have been toiling away in an underground bunker to produce the mobile incarnation of the game: Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign - featuring new weapons, new bugs, news maps and new gameplay," wrote producer Ana Kronschnabl and designer Tom Rawlingson the PlayStation Blog.New bugs include the Drainer, which emits a "bio-magnetic pulse-field" that can disable human technology, with the humans having developing the Sniper Tower in response. The latter's name is pretty much self-explanatory, featuring the ability to seek out and destroy the deadliest bug on the map.

  Another classic brawler is making its way to the Wii's Virtual Console, along with pinball for the DSi and a WiiWare game that might be described as air hockey with laser beams. Yes, it must be Monday.First up is Final Fight 2 for 800 points ($8), which is considerably better than the arcade port of the first game. Not only does it feature cooperative play this time, it marks the first appearance of Maki Genryusai, who would go on to feature in the PSP and GBA ports of Street Fighter Alpha 3 as well as Capcom vs. SNK 2.On WiiWare we have Gravitronix for 500 Wii Points ($5), which is described as a game where you "vanquish your opponents with four different projectiles and the powerful beams of your gravity platform. Intercept attacks and take careful aim at exposed vulnerabilities. Deflect incoming projectiles or capture and charge them with energy for devastating explosive attacks. It supports up to eight eight players, and features a campaign mode.

  New Super Mario Bros Wii may follow in the footsteps of its DS cousin by keeping strong sales for a long time, according to Shigeru Miyamoto. Andriasang reports that at a retailer briefing, Miyamoto himself gave the live gameplay demonstration for the upcoming title, and remarked, "It's a Mario that will continue selling even after one year has passed." Most games, by comparison, spike in the first few weeks and then taper off significantly.Even only a few years ago this would have been a lofty promise to make, but Nintendo has made serious headway in creating properties that continue to sell long after their release dates. The DS New Super Mario Bros is among the best selling DS games, and it certainly touched on the nostalgic Mario gameplay that the Wii version shares. And the NPDs almost always carry a few long-tailed titles like Wii Fit. Once this co-op Mario title hits in November, we'll have to see if it similarly dominates the sales figures.

  Harmonix has released the complete track list for Lego Rock Band, with names like Blink-182, All Americans Rejects and Bryan Adams all slated to appear in the more family-friendly title. And as it happens, it's also the only place you can go to get The Final Countdown in Rock Band.Harmonix has also confirmed that the large library of Rock Band DLC will be fully compatible with the game from launch. However, the Lego Rock Band store will be a bit more restricted."Players will have access to all of the songs in the Rock Band Music Store that have been identified to be suitable for all ages," Harmonix wrote in the official release.