If you’re into mobile gaming, you may already be familiar with the splattering tropical punch messiness that is “Fruit Ninja.” Later this summer, Halfbrick will be bringing this slashing romp through a fruit salad to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 with Fruit Ninja Kinect. Players will use full body motion slicing, swinging their arms to cut through an endless cascade of flying fruits while trying to avoid dangerous bombs. There are three single player modes; slice for the highest score while avoiding bombs in Classic Mode, serenely slice through 90 seconds of Zen Mode, or throw intense power-ups into the mayhem with Arcade Mode. Fruit Ninja Kinect also adds a local multiplayer mode so Fruit Ninjas can slice side-by-side in pursuit of unlockable blades, backgrounds, avatar shadows and achievements that only the quickest ninjas will conquer. True masters of fruit ninjutsu searching the lands for a worthy opponent can climb the online leaderboards, but only ninjas able to decimate the mysterious pomegranate — a rare fruit that players can attack furiously in bullet-time — will claim the highest scores.

Moving from slashing to shooting and blasting, Electronic Arts (EA) will be releasing Battlefield 3 on October 25. Three years in development, Battlefield 3 claims to leap ahead of the competition thanks to the  power of the Frostbite 2 game engine. This technology serves as a power center allowing Battlefield 3 to deliver advanced  performance in character animation, visual rendering, audio/sound and physical destruction. Battlefield 3 is the only first-person shooter (FPS) in the marketplace using Frostbite 2 and fans eager to jump into battle can join the multi-platform beta in September.

In a preview of the game at last week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), two new playable characters were introduced. Dmitri “Dima” Mayakovsky, a Russian undercover agent, must fight his way from the Paris Stock Exchange through the crowded city streets in a desperate attempt to stop People’s Liberation and Resistance (PLR) operatives from detonating a dirty bomb in the heart of Paris. And Jonathan “Jono” Miller, a Marine Corporal, is deployed to the barren dustbowl of the Tehran desert to engage PLR forces. Battlefield 3 will be available for the PlayStation3, Xbox 360 and the PC.

This fall, EA will also be releasing the latest title in the Need For Speed series — The Run. Adrenaline junkies will find themselves on the wrong side of the law November 15 when the game takes players into an underground world of illicit, high-stakes racing all the way from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Empire State building. This title will also be powered by the Frostbite 2 engine bringing to the game stunning visuals and incredible car physics that hug the road even at top speeds. Drivers will weave through dense urban traffic, rocket down icy mountain passes and navigate narrow canyons at breakneck speeds, as they race for their lives.

But if slicing, shooting and crashing aren’t to your taste, then THQ’s recent announcement may be a welcome development. In November, THQ will bring the uDraw GameTablet, which has already proved popular on the Nintendo Wii, to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 consoles. For these two consoles, uDraw will adopt an entirely new look, with a sleek design and the console controls incorporated directly into the GameTablet. Enhanced capabilities for the GameTablet include high-def art creation and gameplay; a stylus with greater sensitivity for more detailed results; motion features; longer drawing time; plus direct touch-screen controls that incorporate pinch-and-stretch and rotation features.

THQ is also creating a number of new uDraw titles. Two of note are Pictionary: Ultimate Edition, a new, high-tech version of the classic game of quick sketches and crazy guesses, which will feature new clues and new functionality, exclusively created for the uDraw on Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms. And for the Wii, The Penguins of Madagascar will start up an all new, super-secret operation with players leading “Team Penguin” on a zany adventure through the zoo and beyond in a brand-new story that brings them face to face with a nemesis who’s making a surprise return. If you’re curious to see what thousands of uDraw artists from around the world have done with this creative device, view the growing collection of artwork at www.worldofudraw.com/art-spotlight.