Let’s face it, this week is going to break a lot of piggy banks but if you work it right it could pay dividends down the road. If you don’t already know why, let me inform you:

If you’re reading this on Monday you should hurry and place your “preorder” for Mass Effect 2 on Amazon because it’ll net you a $20 promo credit on their site. Considering everything they sell, that’s practically $20 cash back just for buying one of the hottest games of 2010. You could do worse. Beyond that, I don’t think I actually need to tell you anything about this game. If your XBox friends haven’t ruthlessly shamed you for not playing it yet then it means you don’t have XBox friends.

The next reason you are now broke? Well that would be LittleBigPlanet 2. Not everyone loved the first one like I did (even though I just. can’t. kill. the final. boss!) but this should be even better. I seriously think I might need this game just for the amazing things that will be done with user-created content. I’ve already seen screens of people remaking classic games that should be very fun. Anyone want to place bets on how long it takes for a user-created version of Angry Birds in Sack physics?

So you’ve spent $60 on Mass Effect, plus $80 on LBP2 (because you know you want that Sackboy plush doll and the book ends), do you really want to drop another $60 on Mindjack? Don’t look at me, I can’t answer that. I’ve heard good things, but it’s a whole new IP with a whole new concept and I’m not going to tell anyone to drop that much cash on such an unproven game. But, if you think you’ll be spending that money sooner or later, you might as well do it now because you can get another $10 video game credit at Amazon. Add that to the $20 you get for ME2 and you’re well on your way to buying another one of the AAA titles coming this year, possibly as early as next week when you get the much-anticipated Dead Space 2.

Happy gaming, everyone.