You may not be able to tell by looking out of your window, but it really is summer out there. Just check out the latest game charts. For the week ending August 18:
1. Transformers: The Game (Metacritic range: 47-56) 2. Pokémon Diamond 3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Metacritic: 51-68) 4. Pokémon Pearl 5. New Super Mario Bros. 6. Trauma Center: Second Opinion 7. Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Metacritic: 52-66) 8. Mario Party 8 9. Purr Pals 10. Shrek the Third (Metacritic: 55-70)
The top five is almost the same as last week with Mario Party 8 politely making way for New Super Mario Brothers. The only new entry is Purr Pals, THQ's cutting edge kitty owning simulation. In fact, that is the only new entry in the whole top 40, unless you count an unexpected comeback for Red Steel at number 35.
There are five popcorn movie adaptations in the top five - I've included their Metacritic scores (the figures are the lowest and highest totals across the various platforms) just in case you were under any illusion whatsoever that they might be worth purchasing.
Summer is rubbish. Not only is the weather an insult to meteorology, but the games are terrible too. Publishers: not all of us spend six weeks in a Tuscan cottage, you know (although as a Guardian contributor I feel I really ought to).
I'm thinking Bioshock might do quite well this week.
