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Top Spin 4 is the latest iteration in the tennis sim, bringing 25 playable pros as well as the ability to create your own star.

Get a look at the My Player and My Career modes from Top Spin 4.

Check out DICE’s new game engine Frostbite 2 in this first look at gameplay from Battlefield 3.

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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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New release slate led by Guerrilla Games’ third Helghan title, People Can Fly’s shooter; Knights Contract, de Blob 2 also out.

Last week, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds led all new releases, but this week’s focus replaces fighting with first-person shooting.

Leading the pack this week is Killzone 3. Due out on Tuesday exclusively for the PlayStation 3, the title is the second Killzone title to debut on Sony’s high-definition console, following 2009′s adored Killzone 2.

Killzone 3 will be available in two versions, a standard release and a 0 limited-edition package with a replica mask and helmet of the series’ signature Helghast armies. While the headgear is the centerpiece of the extra goodies, the collector’s edition will also include a 6.5-inch articulated cloaking Helghast marksman action figure, an art book, and a voucher to download multiplayer maps, the game’s soundtrack, and more.

Out this week for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC is People Can Fly’s controversial first-person shooter/kicker Bulletstorm. Developed by Epic subsidiary People Can Fly, Bulletstorm is built around a skill-shot system that rewards players for dispatching enemies in creative and often gory ways.

Those who purchase the Epic Edition of Bulletstorm will earn access to the multiplayer beta for Epic Games’ Gears of War 3, which will most likely kick off in April.

Also out this week is Knights Contract for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Knights Contract sees players following the unlikely duo of the witch Gretchen and the immortal executioner Heinrich. Though Gretchen actually died at Heinrich’s hands, she has been resurrected and now controls the scythe-wielding warrior. Together, the pair struggles to save the world from a “black spell of death” and a supernatural army called the Harmonculous.

As Heinrich, gamers string together appendage-dismembering combos while the computer-controlled Gretchen uses her magic in a supporting role. Players will also be able to coordinate the pair’s attacks by issuing mid-melee commands to Gretchen, as well as executing finishing moves. While Heinrich is invincible, players will need to protect the vulnerable Gretchen if they want to complete their quest.

Gamers looking to get messy can pick up de Blob 2 this week. Unlike its predecessor, which debuted only on the Wii, the sequel hits the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and DS on Tuesday.

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.

For further details on the week’s games, visit GameSpot’s New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later this week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21
Ys I and II Chronicles–PSP–Xseed Entertainment

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22
Bulletstorm–PC, X360, PS3–Electronic Arts
de Blob 2–DS, Wii, X360, PS3–THQ
The Dreamcast Collection–PC, 360–Sega
Fallout: New Vegas: Dead Money–PC, PS3–Bethesda Softworks
Gray Matter–PC–Viva Media
Killzone 3–PS3–SCEA
Knights Contract–PS3, 360–Namco Bandai Games
Radiant Historia–DS–DS–Atlus U.S.A. Inc.
Rec Room Games–DS–Destineer
Trackmania–Wii–Dreamcatcher
Trackmania Turbo–DS–Dreamcatcher

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23
Bejeweled Blitz Live–X360–PopCap

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24
Gemini Rue–PC–Wadjet Eye Games

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25
Painkiller: Redemption–PC–DreamCatcher Interactive
Trapped Dead–PC–Iceberg Interactive

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.”

Microsoft announces it will release a software development kit for Windows systems in the next few months.

Soon after the Kinect hit the market last November, academics and hobbyists began to experiment with it. Using open-source drivers on Windows-based PCs, various independents created all sorts of applications that used the Xbox 360 peripheral, ranging from helicopter guidance systems to
unauthorized sex games.

And although Microsoft has ruled out any officially endorsed XXX-rated Kinect game, this week it did say an official PC Kinect software development kit will soon hit the market. First hinted at last month, the SDK will be available this spring for noncommercial use, although no exact date was given for its launch.

The release marks a turnaround from Microsoft’s original position on PC users hacking the Kinect, which was initially met with official protest and threats of legal action. Now, though, the official Kinect PC SDK is in the works at Microsoft Research (MSR) in association with the Xbox 360′s parent group, Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business.

“Supporting this community and enabling creativity around natural user interfaces (NUI) is important to us, and our hope is that this SDK will ignite further creativity in an already vibrant ecosystem of enthusiasts,” the company said in a statement. “We are very excited by this announcement. Not only does it showcase our investment in this important technology trend, but it ensures that people have the tools they desire to revolutionize how people interact with technology.”

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.

9 new shots posted.

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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.