If you feel the ground trembling beneath your feet on March 3, don’t be alarmed. It’s probably just millions of gamers stampeding their local stores to pick up GRAND THEFT AUTO IV , which arrives that day for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Rockstar has released three appealing trailers that have shown progressively more of the game. But the first, a rather somber number inspired by the documentary Koyaanisqatsi, was the most intriguing: it depicted a faithful virtual depiction of New York City and introduced the world to a lead character who — we’re shocked to say — seemed to harbor some inner conflict about his criminal deeds. Heady stuff for Grand Theft Auto, to be sure. But we know Rockstar can make an engaging, convincing open world. What it needs to deliver now is a game that’s as sophisticated thematically as it is technically.

A fiscal quarter can’t pass without a new Tom Clancy game, so it’s no surprise that RAINBOW SIX VEGAS 2 is on its way to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in March. But it’s the launch of a brand-new Clancy franchise that’s the most intriguing. TOM CLANCY’S ENDWAR , also for the PS3 and Xbox 360, zooms out from the ground-level perspective of games like Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell to depict nothing less than World War III. EndWar is a real-time strategy game writ large, featuring a massively multiplayer game world whose battle lines are redrawn daily depending on the results of that day’s matches. Although not without precedent, this type of multiplayer experiment has never been attempted on such a large scale. EndWar will ship on April 1 — if the developers can finish it in time. Which brings to mind this important caveat for the coming season: release dates are always subject to change.