Ubisoft didn’t state a reason for the delay but an educated guess could point to the fact that games such as Modern Warfare 2 come out right around Conviction’s previous release date.

Either way, expect Splinter Cell: Conviction to hit store shelves sometime during Q1 of 2010.

Players who are planning on reserving Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction from GameStop will be receiving an exclusive in-game semi-automatic shotgun. The website reads, “If you prefer the rugged sophistication of a manual shotgun, but also enjoy the convenience of an automatic, then this is the shotgun for you! Available for online and in-store customers while supplies last.”

Online customers will receive an e-mail with a code to input into the game, while store customers will receive a game card. Either way, it’s still the same code. You can pre-order the game at GameStop. Splinter Cell: Conviction comes out this October for the Xbox 360 and PC.

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So the other day, I managed to get a hold of the latest Tom Clancy licensed property, HAWX.  And frankly, I’ve become convinced that they would slap this guy’s name on any thing if they thought it would turn a buck.

Because you see, HAWX is not the standard sort of Tom Clancy game, in that you don’t wander around and shoot things.  No, nothing so pedestrian for HAWX– this time around you get to take control of heavily armed aircraft against ridiculously overmatching forces.

The plot is fairly standard for anything with the Tom Clancy name on it in that it has to do with armies.  Specifically in this case armies of mercenaries which are now referred to as PMCs, or private military companies.  PMCs seemed to be above the law, operating on what amounts to be a supranational level and accountable to no one save the country that’s signing their checks this week.  In something of a rare departure for the Tom Clancy line of products, at one point the company you work for will actually be sent to attack targets in the continental United States.  It’s interesting to consider the kind of geopolitical dynamics that would make private military corporations a more viable alternative than state-sponsored military organizations, but all we’ll get to do is fly a plane real fast and make things go boom.

And of course it’s not a Tom Clancy game unless somebody makes a rough friends to Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, so Ghost leader Scott Mitchell will make an appearance in a couple missions.

It’s the somewhat limited nature of HAWX that at once works for and against it.  Your role is largely limited to flying a plane, and that’s the kind of thing we were doing back in the 80s with significantly less powered systems.  Aside from vast improvements in graphics there is not a whole a lot of functional difference between HAWX and, say, After Burner.  In fact even the engines look similar with your camera located behind the plane as you fly into danger to attack the legions of enemies that will be thrown at you.  And when I say legions, I mean legions–I personally took out something like twenty targets in the first stage alone and still had to repeat it a couple times because I hadn’t taken out quite enough.  They’re really stacking the deck against you on this one; seriously, you’re going to be busier than a one armed paperhanger, trying to keep up with the sheer number of targets that are all firing at your objective all at once.

It’s not that the experience isn’t fun– indeed they’ve done an excellent job of capturing the feeling of rocketing over a field at extreme rates of speed loaded with large quantities of explosives, but my primary problem is that this is most of what you do.  Yes, you get different planes, and you get different weapons, and you get different missions…but it all boils down to is that you are flying a plane and making stuff go boom.

Over and over and over again.

If you’re looking for a good beer-and-pretzels flight sim, then you could do vastly worse than HAWX.  Otherwise, leave this one in the hangar and save yourself a lot of hassle.

All versions of the demo will offer two missions, three planes and four-player online cooperative support.

Additionally, Ubisoft confirmed that the PC version of the game will be released one week after the console editions, which are due March 6. This move is similar to what the company took with Prince of Persia and Shaun White Snowboarding, both of which saw their PC releases delayed a week after the console versions.

Developed by Ubisoft Shanghai, the game attempts to revolutionize real-time strategy gameplay through voice controls. A demo is now available for Xbox 360 owners.

EndWar will ship to retailers on November 4. A PC version is expected sometime after; PSP and DS versions are also in development.

Moving to the handheld format, the game will change to turn-based strategy and will lose the voice-command feature present in the PC and console versions. As expected, the DS version will feature support for stylus controls.

The game will let players take control of US, European and Russian force in three campaigns, with a total of 30 missions. There will also be two-player multiplayer modes.

No release date was given for the handheld versions.

"In [later] versions [of Clancy games] you’ll find, say, missions generated in the next Ghost Recon (presumably GRAW 3) affecting the world map in the next EndWar (presumably EndWar 2)," said EndWar programmer Vinh-Dieu Lam.

Lam additionally notes that EndWar, the upcoming Tom Clancy RTS, acts as a “basis for future tie-ins”.

Ubisoft confirmed earlier this year that it was working on a Tom Clancy MMO; it is not clear whether Lam was referring to it or not.

The site spoke to EndWar creative director Michael de Plater at a London event. He talked about his experience on PC RTS games at Creative Assembly, noting that EndWar is “in many ways, gameplay-wise, it’s a modern warfare, Tom Clancy version of Total War.”

When asked specifically about the possibility of a PC version: "Yeah, there’s no reason not to."

There you have it! The game is due out on PS3 and Xbox 360 early next month.