Lost Planet 3

This review is purely for the main campaign content, not multiplayer. Lost planet 3 gives a much needed burst of life to the series. While lost planet 2 was clearly geared towards multiplayer formatting and did a reasonable job of it, it lacked in the story department. What story there was tended to be thin and a little convoluted in places. Lost planet 3 delivers a much more cinematic and story driven experience than prior instalments. To that end, the story is quite rich and full of surprises. It also works as a prequel, setting a scene for the first game and introducing the father first game's protagonist in his youth, before being hardened by war. The characters are superbly well developed (except Laroche, who seems to switch teams in a whim), and the cast are simply stellar in their performances, especially Bill Watterson as Jim Peyton. Visually the game is stunning (for best results use a full 1080p display) with nice little touches added here and there to add atmosphere. The only real let downs with this game were with the utility rig. The rig is Peytons personal 30 foot tall mech, as opposed to scavenging VS's in the previous games. It has such potential, but other than a few akrid battles, a rig on rig battle and wandering around doing odd jobs, it feels really underdeveloped. There are a couple of upgrades for it which, while inexpensive, are almost pointless, like a cutting/welding torch that you use once.... Why? These minor issues aside, a worthy addition to anyone's collection, whether you're a lost planet fan or not.