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Microsoft announces simultaneous worldwide release for Epic Games’ Xbox 360-exclusive shooter; no beta date yet.

It may be one of the jewels in Microsoft’s 2011 lineup, but Gears of War 3 has had a tumultuous time on the road to release. The game’s unveiling was set to take place on chat show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon but was delayed, though not before the game’s release date was reportedly leaked on Xbox Live.

Shortly after the Late Night showing, Microsoft confirmed that the game would be landing in April 2011, but then had to renege on its initial promise and delay the game to a holiday 2011 release.

Today, Microsoft has announced a new worldwide release date for Gears of War 3 of September 20, 2011. This brings territories such as Japan, Australia, and Europe in line with the US, which was originally going to get the game first when it was slated for an April release date.

Microsoft has also named some of the maps and weapons that are due to appear in the game when it lands in September. There will be new multiplayer maps by the name of Trenches, Overpass, Mercy, Checkout, and Thrashball, as well as new weapons, including a bayonet charge, a retro lancer, a sawed-off shotgun, a one-shot, an incendiary grenade, and a digger launcher. Microsoft has also promised that more news on the multiplayer public beta will be released soon.

Gears of War 3′s new release date places it just one week after another high-profile shooter–id’s Rage. To find out more about Gears of War 3, including the game’s new Beast mode, read GameSpot’s ongoing coverage of the game.

This crass shooter has its drawbacks, but it’s got no shortage of stylish fun. Score: 8.0 / great

Sci-fi first-person shooter Bulletstorm is a celebration of adolescent crassness. It is neither artful nor sophisticated, proudly wearing strings of obscenities as a badge of dishonor. Subtle it isn’t; entertaining, it is. Where the meatheaded characters and forced, childish dialogue fail, the gameplay mostly succeeds, pushing you through a variety of attractive environments and encouraging you to “kill with skill.”

In Bulletstorm, you earn points by kicking your enemies into cacti, shooting them in the rear end, and flinging them into the air with your electric leash, among many other variations and combinations of bullets, boots, and exploding barrels. You spend these points on ammo, weapon upgrades, and more, giving you reason to perform these moves beyond the initial gratification they provide.

Bulletstorm is sometimes ludicrous and often ludicrously fun–an enjoyable and occasionally embarrassing journey to the profane future it predicts.

The Confederation of Planets’ General Sarrano is a product of this future. This potty-mouthed, wholly abhorrent man is part of a secret army called Dead Echo–as was Grayson Hunt, a grunt who discovered that the targets that Sarrano ordered his team execute were innocent of wrongdoing. Years later, a drunken Grayson, thirsty for revenge, leads his crew of mercenaries into a battle they’re ill-prepared to win.

Grayson and Sarrano both crash-land on the planet Stygia, where Grayson’s quest for vengeance is coupled with his plan to escape. As Grayson, you are accompanied by Ishi, a colleague constantly fighting to control the robotic AI used to patch his brain after he’s injured during Grayson’s alcohol-fueled rampage.

Ishi is Bulletstorm’s best character: conflicted, temperamental, and unpredictable. Nevertheless, praising any of this game’s characters is somewhat of a backhanded compliment, given their shallow penchant for describing events, emotions, and each other using four-letter words combined in various nonsensical ways.

A few of these bizarre outbreaks of sexual innuendo might be absurd enough to put a momentary grin on your face, but the cringe-worthy dialogue isn’t coupled with, say, Duke Nukem 3D’s hysterical hypersexual excess, Serious Sam’s vibrant surreality, or Vanquish’s tongue-in-cheek skewering of modern video game machismo. In fact, Bulletstorm’s finest narrative moments are those that leave the trashy talk behind and touch ever-so-briefly on Grayson’s guilty conscience, and his attempts to help Ishi conquer the AI infesting his mind.

Unfortunately, the verbal sleaze gets tiring quickly and undermines any attempt at serious storytelling. Perhaps developer People Can Fly meant for this dialogue to be so over the top as to be side-splittingly funny. Instead, it comes across as a forced attempt to appeal to our basest instincts.

And so Bulletstorm lacks wit, but it has no shortage of entertaining, in-your-face action. The six-hour campaign is packed with fun shooting made even more enjoyable by the way you earn rewards for being awesome. Your awesomeness begins with the energy leash, which lets you grab foes from afar and yank them toward you. Doing so causes them to helplessly hover in the air for a few seconds as if the laws of time and gravity were temporarily suspended just for that particular enemy.

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Chihuahua legislators ask federal authorities to outlaw Call of Juarez: The Cartel saying it will desensitize youth to real-life bloodshed.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel was only announced two weeks ago, but already it is being threatened with a ban. Over the holiday weekend, legislators in the Mexican state of Chihuahua asked federal authorities for a ban on the game.

The reason?

Unlike its predecessors, which were set during the Wild West, Call of Juarez: The Cartel takes place during modern times. As the name implies, the game chronicles a drug war along the Mexican border, casting players as a female FBI agent, a Wild West sheriff type, and an undercover drug agent. Developer Techland said it chose the setting in order to capture a “relevant plot” that would connect with today’s gamers.

Unfortunately, for Mexican lawmakers, the plot was too relevant. According to the Associated Press, roughly 6,000 people died in the Chihuahuan city of Ciudad Juarez–one of the settings of the game–in 2009 and 2010. Legislators worry that seeing the city’s real-life violence translated into video game form will further desensitize youths.

“Children wind up being easily involved in criminal acts over time, because among other things, during their childhood not enough care has been taken about what they see on television and playing video games,” state congress leader Enrique Serrano told the AP. “They believe so much blood and death is normal.”

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars features overhauled visuals and new gameplay alongside the cooperative action and humor the series is known for.

Having chronicled the two trilogies of live-action Star Wars movies, Lego Star Wars is setting its sights on the animated Clone Wars series for its next installment. Lego Star Wars III will follow the entire arc of the Clone Wars series. We visited LucasArts at E3 to check out a gameplay demo and saw Yoda and a few clone soldiers team up to vanquish a good number of Lego foes. Aside from new abilities and new enemies, we were impressed by the graphical overhaul that lends the environments a more realistic look while highlighting the Lego characters and making them look crisp and vibrant. Add in the possibility of large-scale battles featuring hundreds of clone soldiers, and Lego Star Wars III appears to be on track to upholding the series’ good name.

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Bryan Lee O’Malley said California studio approached him to make adventure game based on graphic novel series; author said franchise wasn’t suited for a game from the developer.

Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series was spun into a full-length feature film over the summer via the Michael Cera-led Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Further, a beat-’em-up game accompanied the film from Ubisoft in the form of the coolly received side scroller of the same name. Now, the author has revealed that Telltale Games also courted him for his series.

O’Malley recently tweeted that the Novato, California, studio behind adventure franchises like Sam & Max, Back to the Future: The Game, and the April-dated Jurassic Park: The Game approached him, and he said no.

“Telltale wanted to do Scott Pilgrim, but I said no,” reads his tweet. “I couldn’t see it as an adventure game. All respect to them, though.”

Ubisoft’s Scott Pilgrim game follows the central plotline of the graphic novels, as the mediocre bass guitarist Scott Pilgrim tries to win his dream girl Ramona’s heart by fighting her seven ex-boyfriends. A ragtag coalition of her failed lovers–including a vegan rock star, identical twins, and an infamous skateboarder–are determined to prevent Scott from dating their old flame.

For more on Ubisoft’s video game, check out GameSpot’s review of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

This is the follow-up title to 2008′s popular hit, de Blob.

LOS ANGELES–In February, THQ entered into a development deal with broadcasting network SyFy, in which the two would collaborate on creating new intellectual property for use in games and on TV. The deal also extended to existing IP, and to help launch SyFy’s Kids brand, THQ offered up its colorful 2008 puzzle-platformer de Blob. As could be guessed, de Blob’s television aspirations won’t be the culmination of the franchise.

De Blob can’t be taken anywhere without making a mess.

As part of the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo, THQ announced today that de Blob 2: The Underground will arrive for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and DS in spring 2011. The sequel represents an expansion to new platforms for the well-regarded original installment, having made its debut on just the Wii and PC.

In the console versions of de Blob 2, antagonist Comrade Black returns to suck the vivacity out of Prisma City, rigging an election to regain control of the commonwealth. As de Blob, players platform their way through the mired Prisma City, spreading color and restoring the city to its once-vibrant nature. de Blob will have a number of new moves and upgradable abilities, as well as a robot sidekick named Pinky. In addition to free-roaming levels, the console versions will feature a 2D underground component.

The DS version will feature exclusively 2D side-scrolling play. The handheld installment sees de Blob lounging in the tropics after having reclaimed Chroma City from the clutches of Comrade Black. In said jungle, however, the evil machinations of Comrade Black collaborator Dr. Von Bolt continue. He is conducting nefarious experiments on woodland creatures. New moves, compatriots, and enemies await de Blob in the DS adventure game.

Ruined suburban schools, double crosses, and mass graves make us uncomfortable in our latest hands-on with this upcoming first-person shooter.

Here’s what we know about Homefront’s single-player side so far: The game will be set in a besieged America of the near future; it will attempt to bring the fight “home” to players by showcasing familiar locales, such as ruined suburbs and shopping malls; and it definitely won’t be for the squeamish. All of those qualities were in force in our latest hands-on with the upcoming shooter from Kaos Studios, where we managed to play through the first three chapters of the game’s campaign to get a real sense of what it’s like to be part of a resistance movement fighting against a cruel and oppressive enemy.

Our last single-player preview went into extended detail about the first chapter. But to quickly recap, you play as Jacobs, a recently recruited member of a small band of resistance fighters battling against the overwhelming technological and numerical superiority of the North Korean People’s Army (NPA). And these North Koreans aren’t the comical, Team America type either. The NPA in Homefront are brutal and ruthless, as evidenced by the cruel deaths of innocent civilians you’re forced to witness in the game’s opening. After your first skirmish with the NPA, the second chapter of the game begins much as the first, with you waking up in unfamiliar surroundings. But unlike the rude awakening of the game’s opening, you find yourself in much more serene surroundings. It turns out that Jacob has been taken to a small refuge hidden amongst some near-ruined suburban houses, and it’s here that civilians have created their own self-sufficient community. As you walk around the refuge, which is hidden away from prying NPA drones by camouflage netting, you’ll see plenty of evidence of this small group’s determination to live–a man using a modified Stairmaster to pump water, couples tending to sickly looking crops, and even some emaciated livestock. In Homefront, the might of America has been reduced to this type of scene.

You won’t have much time for depression, though, as you’re soon thrust into your first real mission as part of the resistance–trying to secure some electronic trackers from a nearby forced labor camp. As you exit from some makeshift tunnels with a few teammates, you’ll find yourself in yet another ruined house. Outside on the street is an automated NPA turret sitting atop a tall crane, and you’re forced to slowly make your way closer to it while avoiding its roving spotlight; if it finds you, it unleashes rapid rounds of hot metal death. After getting close enough to the turret to dispatch of it with a well-placed grenade, you’ll soon find yourself fighting a skirmish against NPA troops in an abandoned school. This locale, much like the houses you’ve fought in previously, is yet another way that Homefront tries to make the fight “real” for players, placing them in familiar yet utterly destroyed areas.

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We chat with Rob Nelson of Rockstar Games about the art and technology of L.A. Noire.

Publisher to hand out free in-game items to entire community if 360, PS3, PC sampler goes platinum by March 1.

Electronic Arts will be priming the release of BioWare’s Dragon Age II on March 8 with a demo, due two weeks to the day prior on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Eager to get that sampler into gamers’ hands, BioWare said today that two in-game bonus items will be unlocked for the entire Dragon Age II player base…if the demo accrues 1 million downloads before March 1 across all three versions of the game.

The two items up for unlocking are the Far Cliffs of Kirkwall and Lothering’s Lament tomes. The first is a book of poems written by a Fereldan refugee fleeing the Blight, and it grants money when read. The second tome is also a book of poems from a Blight refugee, and it grants players bonus experience points when read.

Hawke will meet Isabela in the demo. Expect literal and figurative sparks to fly.

As for the demo itself, gamers will be able to play through Dragon Age II’s prologue as one of three character classes. The demo will introduce the game’s primary protagonist, Hawke, and see him journey to Kirkwall to rendezvous with romantic interest Isabela. Gamers who complete the demo will also unlock Hayder’s Razor, a dwarven blade that grants health, mana, and combat bonuses, for use in the full game.

For a download to count, BioWare said that gamers will have to log into their EA account while playing the demo. Gamers looking to keep tabs on how many Dragon Age II demos have been downloaded can do so through the game’s official website.