From TV to tabletopCharging its way up the charts this week, new hotness Gears of War 3 is all the video game world is talking about. But it's bringing with it an unusual squadmate: a detailed, serious board game recreation of its cover-based gunplay. Seems like an odd move for a video game, but you'd be surprised at the diverse range of electronic entertainment properties that have gone from TV to tabletop over the decades. Here's just a few of them.

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Electronic Arts really wants to screw up your last minute Christmas shopping this year.

The Old Republic (Bioware/LucasArts)After months (or years, even) of anticipation, the company has finally unveiled the launch date for Star Wars: The Old Republic — and it's a bit of a head-scratcher.

The World of Warcraft competitor will hit shelves Dec. 20 in the U.S. and Dec. 22 in Europe, both very unusual choices for a major game launch. Typically, publishers who want to take advantage of the holiday rush make a point to have their games out by the end of November. Failing that, they usually opt for early January, when the crowd thins out a bit.

One of the biggest games of 2011 won't be out until 2012.

Diablo III (Blizzard)Diablo III, Blizzard Entertainment's much-anticipated role-playing game, has been officially moved into next year in order to give developers time to further polish the title.

"While this news might not be a complete surprise, I know that many of you were hopeful that Diablo III would ship this year," said company CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime in a blog post. "We were too."

If you've owned pretty much any computing device in the past thirty years or so, you've likely had the opportunity to play Tetris on it.

The immensely popular puzzler has appeared on just about everything with a screen since its 1984 debut, and while the Game Boy version released just five years later would become the most widely played version, it's been a hit everywhere. Next up? A new board game version, Tetris Link, which arrived in Europe earlier this year and will hopefully hit the U.S. in time for the holidays.

But while you certainly know how to rotate blocks, did you know these five fun facts about the line-clearing classic?

There's an interesting trend taking shape in the gaming world these days: First-person shooters where the player can't actually shoot anyone.

Warco (Defiant Development)An Australian development team has put together a prototype for Warco (short for War Correspondent) -- a game that puts you in the boots of a reporter in the midst of a war zone. Instead of bullets, you're shooting footage via a video camera.

It's admittedly an odd concept. After all, a game about a typical journalist would involve a lot of phone calls, "research" at the corner bar and sneaking in Facebook updates without your editor catching you. But Warco's team, Defiant Development, is made up of former members of the Pandemic Studios team, the now-shuttered group responsible for games like Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront and Destroy All Humans!, among others.

BY: Liana B. Baker, Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Electronic Arts Inc may never recover its Silicon Valley swagger. But maybe it doesn't have to, its top executive says.

The Sims Social (EA)Three years after EA went from being one of the hottest kids on the video games block to industry also-ran, the leaner, more focused company now hopes to take on Zynga and make $3 billion in revenue from digital game sales in the next few years.

Chief Executive John Riccitiello told Reuters in an interview his company survived a "near-death experience," three years ago when its profit shrank, game quality was poor and it lacked an Internet presence.

Not content with covering the floor in sharp, tiny bricks, filling your game console with hit releases, and expanding the imaginations of high-school students with its Mindstorms robotics sets, Lego has its blocky eyes on another conquest.

Lego HeroicaFamily game night.

Debuting in August, Lego's new 'Heroica' line of board games are targeted, laser-like, at families where Dad grew up building with Lego in between playing fantasy-themed board games like Hero Quest, or even fully-fledged role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons.

Combining nearly all the trappings of the fantasy genre (hit points, varied character classes, potions, treasure, and, naturally, evil goblins) with the plug and play fun of Lego, the new series could be a serious holiday hit.

Communication and financial problems are the two leading causes of divorce today, but a new study shows that video games are quickly climbing the list.

World of Warcraft (Activision/Blizzard)

Conducted by Divorce Online, the study breaks down the reasons couples split. Of the wives that pointed to "unreasonable behavior," 15 percent said their husbands put gaming before them.

One year ago, that figure stood at 5 percent.

So which games are the biggest home wreckers? Perhaps unsurprisingly, Activision's mega franchises World of Warcraft and Call of Duty get the lion's share of the blame. Such is the price of success.