Alive || Ubisoft || PC, 360, PS3, Wii
Another survival game, this, but Alive is "oriented toward drama, more life in characters, more depth" according to Ubisoft. Set in the aftermath of an inner-city earthquake, you'll have to escape the danger zone and get to safety.
Interestingly, Ubisoft sees Alive as promoting a more passivesort of gameplay,claiming that "it's still about surviving, but you can't resolve things by shooting only" - a decision reportedly aimed at embracing female gamers.
Rainy Woods || Access Games || 360, PS3
What do you get if you take Alan Wake, remove all the supernatural silliness, turn the author-turned-action hero lead into an FBI agent and, er, give him an alternate personality? Well, you get a totally different game. A game called Rainy Woods.
Set in the remote town (there's the similarity, see!) of Rainy Woods, FBI man David Henning is investigating a murrrdurrrr. It's reportedly styled after US TV show Twin Peaks, and we're gagging to experience Rainy Woods' take on the 'painted midget talking backwards' scene.
Warhound || Techland || PC, 360
If you missed the 'Warhound better than Crysis' internet-o-splosion some time ago, you probably won't have heard of this arrestingly ambitious merc-sim. As a freelance mercenary, you'll be able to choose contracts from a variety of clients, travel across the globe to military hotspots and then kill people for cash when you get there.
It certainly looks exciting, and there's nothing we like better than vicariously living the life of a man who's paid to wreak deadly havoc around the world. And if it really is better than Crysis - which is pretty brilliant itself - then Warhound could push Techland into the big time.
Patapon || Sony || PSP
This wonderfully bizarre rhythm/action puzzler comes from the same devs who created the brightly-coloured LocoRoco. Patapon shares LocoRoco's minimalist approach, being a 2D scroller, but the visuals are less luminous and more like Japanese sillouette puppetry.
This time around, instead of tipping a legion of cutesy characters around a world you use button presses to urge on your gathering of little fellows, akin to beating a marching drum. And you collect an army of tiny soldiers instead of blobby faces. It's a bit like 300, if 300 starred ants, ants who fought monsters. So you can understand why we're buzzing about Patapon.
