Previews

Ubisoft surprised everyone late last year when they revealed that the oft-delayed action/adventure I Am Alive is not only still in development, but is nearing release. Fast forward to today, and a quite a bit more information has surfaced about this elusive title. Firstly, it is set to be one of the featured titles in the recently announced XBLA House Party promotion. Don't be discouraged by IAA's new XBLA format; it is a full retail title that Ubisoft just so happened to distribute via digital download. Whereas so-called "traditional" Xbox Live Arcade games tend to be shorter titles, that lack the depth and visual fidelity of their physical counterparts, this is simply not the case with this game.

Taking place after a year after an apocalyptic occurrence referred to simply as The Event , I am Alive follows the story of a mountain climber's desperate attempt to reunite with his family, amid the ruins. In the process, our hero will encounter a wide variety of characters, some helpful, some needy, some malicious; but never undead. In a refreshing twist, developer Ubisoft Shanghai is avoiding the traditional - and often cliched - adherence to the usage of zombies, demons, or other such monsters; instead focusing primarily on humans.

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Following the announcement that Mass Effect 3 would support voice commands via Kinect, speculation has been running rampant as to how it was going to work. Microsoft and Bioware have revealed a tantalizing glimpse as to this Kinect exclusive functionality, and we were there first hand to try it out. Last week, at a special invite only press event, Bioware showed us exactly how seamless in-game voice command can be. Although it has been announced that the game will support voice both for dialog and commands, it was the latter that Bioware chose to showcase in this demo. In the demo, Shepard is tasked with saving a certain Krogan female from an onslaught of Cerberus operatives. This combat heavy segment was an ideal scenario to try out the new voice command functionality.

After a brief introduction by one of the on-site Bioware representatives, we were given the opportunity to try the game for ourselves. Combat mechanics are virtually identical to that of Mass Effect 2, which was to be expected, but now have the added benefit of full voice support. Just about anything that was previously assigned to a button command (with the exception of fire and reload, both of which currently are controller only) can now be accessed simply by one's voice.

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Last week, we caught up with Remedy at CES to spend some quality time with Alan Wake's American Nightmare, the recently announced XBLA based followup to Alan Wake. While the events of this game take place after the original, Remedy was quick to point out that this is not a true sequel. From what we've been told, this game is a standalone adventure in the Alan Wake universe, based upon the Twilight Zone-esque in-game TV Series, Night Springs. For those of you familiar with the first game, this will no doubt invoke memories of our hero's nemesis/shadow, Mr. Scratch. In AWAN, Mr. Scratch is back, as psychotic as ever; wreaking havoc wherever he goes.

Unsurprisingly, story mode was not shown off in this demo. Remedy opted instead to focus upon the new, arcade style "Fight 'Til Dawn" mode. The concept here is simple; survive until the sun rises. Fans of the Gears of War franchise will find obvious parallels to horde mode, with a similar emphasis on survival at all costs. Using the same combat mechanics from the first game, enemies must first be illuminated with a flashlight, before they can be dispatched. The instinctive play here is to simply shoot any and everything that moves; doing that in Fight 'Til Dawn Mode can result in certain death.

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Battlefield 3 is going to be a bit more enhanced on the PC side than any of the consoles for the fact that it can support 64 players on one multiplayer map. EA shows off this feature in the video. This game shows quite a bit of promise here. It is especially amazing seeing the firefights going on on the ground during the flying scenes. There is so much happening at once. This may be the first game to actually simulate a battle in a a realistically large scale. Check out the video below.

Battlefield 3 will be released October 25, 2011 for the PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms.

Earlier today at Gamescom a new trailer for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was shown. It features in game footage and hypes up an element of fate. It could not have been more vague, but it said, "Fate is a Weapon." Check out the trailer below. Reckoning is a new action RPG from developer 38 Studios, slated for release on February 7, 2012.