Let's start this week early, shall we? Coming up on retail shelves starting July 27 all the way to the first few days of August is another hailstorm of PC games from the independent front, though you'd probably love this week for the release of Namco Bandai's SoulCalibur IV and its limited edition kits. But if there's anything more significant this time, it's the appearance of more Olympics-themed games as the week heralds the eve before the World Olympics in Beijing. We take them all at the full story.

Last week, Jack Thompson had spoken on FOXNews about the Virginia Tech shooting, saying that video games were somehow linked to the worst shootout in U.S. history. Later on, upon catching a video of ace attorney's said stint on the new channel, Brian Crecente of Kotaku did a bit of analysis and dissected Jack Thompson's statements on TV.

And with that article, Crecente seemed to have gotten the attention of Jack Thompson himself. It goes that Thompson asked Kotaku to pull down Crecente's "dissection" article, but Kotaku declined to do so. The following note was then faxed by Thompson to the FBI in Colorado:

Dear FBI:

This web site at the below url is targeting me:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/virginia-tech/

breaking-idiot-thompson-blames-va-shooting-on-games-252702.php

I ask that something be done by the FBI to stop this or prosecute it:

Kyle81 says: Actually the VT shootings are now the biggest mass shooting in US history with 31 dead, not just school shooting. Jack should be shot for taking the opportunity to leech off a tragedy to push his own agenda 04/16/07 03:25 PM

Regards, Jack Thompson

Crecente has contacted the said agency and was told that "it was unlikely they would handle such an investigation, if one was even needed, but that the local police might look into it."

Photo from Kotaku reader Torokun.

An 18-year-old teenager walked into a Utah shopping mall this week and shot nine people, killing five and wounding four. The suspect, a Bosnian immigrant named Sulejman Talovic, walked into the Trolley Square shopping mall in Salt Lake City, Utah, armed with a .38-caliber pistol, a shotgun, a backpack full of ammunition, and fired blindly into the crowd. The FBI said that there was no reason to believe that the suspect was motivated by religious extremism or terrorism.

Talovic lived in a tiny ranch house with his family; parents Suljo and Sabira Tolavic and three younger sisters. Neighbors describe the lanky Talovic as a loner who's always dressed in black. The Talovic family fled Bosnia for Utah in 1998. Sulejman's aunt, Ajka Omerovic, in retaliation to people tying their religion to her nephew's acts said, "we are Muslims, but we are not terrorists."

Citizens freely trade their views on the issue. It must be remembered that throughout the years, the issue of teenage gunfiring has stirred up some quite contrasting opinions. Outspoken citizens have expressed their concern, also, that the issue might be used by some politically-inclined individuals to advance their agenda.

Some gamers and non-gamers alike are only happy to put out that the blame must not be placed on the computer game industry and on computer games, but rather, on the suspects themselves. The gaming community now holds its breath over a possible barrage of blame to be poured on their industry.

A couple of weeks ago, several developers and publishers of MMOs did their job of crushing the emerging practice of website hacking. In our reports, we mentioned that there are actually different ways to pull this act. Most common of all is third party sites offering in-game items for a hefty sum of money. Final Fantasy XI Online and Hero Online are just some of the games that encountered this modus operandi.

Then you have the much more blatant style, hackers attacking the very domain registry of a gaming site. IGG is a classic example of this, when its site for free MMO Voyage Century Online was hijacked not too long ago. The company had to look for a temporary host just to continue their operations.

Usually, this is the part when we would say "Fortunately, it's all over now." Sorry to burst your bubble, but things got a little worse. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation came up with a warning today, saying a "handful" of Web sites were hacked and then defaced with a fake FBI seal. The report then went on by stating that the seal was accompanied by "an anti-piracy warning claiming that the site had been seized by the law enforcement organization."

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson tried to appease the gaming public by saying that the matter is not yet widespread. However, he expressed his concerns regarding the misuse and abuse of FBI's name. When asked about the possible reasons for such attacks, Bresson commented, "I'm not sure if it's financially motivated. I'm not sure what their motive would be."