We got fun and games. Also, high-tech archery, swamps.

One of Crysis 3's sci-fi superguns fires 500 rounds a second. That would be 30,000 rounds a minute, math fans, if you didn't have to reload after near enough every squeeze of the trigger. With each squeeze, the Typhoon assault weapon emits a low buzz and minces whatever is standing at the business end of the barrel--making it a sound and logical advance for futuristic weapon design, if not a great feat of imagination (why not 5,000 rounds a second, while you're at it).

That's a bit like the general approach for Crysis 3. Set in 2047, two decades after the end of Crysis 2, it closes out the Crysis shooter trilogy, says Crytek, setting aside stand-alone expansion Crysis Warhead. Where the first game was set on an island covered in tropical jungle and the second in the ruins of New York, Crysis 3 is set in the ruins of New York covered in tropical jungle. It's a neat and consistent kind of progression, if not a great feat of imagination.

The cybernetic alien Ceph and the human forces of corrupt private military outfit CELL return to be shot and stabbed by the nanosuited Prophet, who returns from the first game and from the dead (see Crysis 2) to exact vengeance on CELL for sealing New York under a dome in its quest for world domination. Prophet begins the game in a CELL facility, escapes, and ends up in New York's Liberty Dome, which was installed to capture Ceph and cleanse their presence with accelerated biological growth.

As a result of that growth, nature has reclaimed the city. Crytek says its city has undergone a full transformation, making it more of an "urban jungle" and less, say, like the New York of I Am Legend--a recognisable city overlaid with wilderness. The demo we're shown takes place at night in the remains of Chinatown, where Prophet arrives with Psycho (Brit protagonist of Crysis Warhead) nattering advice over his radio. The superpowered nanosuit's augmented visor display is familiar, tagging enemy fighters and the like.

As promised, there's more jungle than concrete to Chinatown. Swamps and leafy vegetation are more prominent than the occasional ruined buildings, though both look mighty pretty; the plentiful rays and detailed shadows come courtesy of an "enhanced" version of CryEngine 3. There, Prophet skulks around in the undergrowth with his Predator-like nanosuit cloak up, stealthing up to the bipedal Stalker Ceph and knifing them in the fleshy, unarmoured parts. His vengeful intentions manifest as post-kill quips addressed to no one in particular ("I'm going to kill you all one by one" and "We'll see who gets hunted").

Shooting from stealth is encouraged, too. Prophet's newest toy is the composite bow: a sleek, fold-out bow and a selection of arrow warheads not unlike Hawkeye-style trick arrows, with explosive, pointy, and electro arrowheads populating Prophet’s nanoquiver. With that bow, and from stealth mode, Prophet can silently skewer distant enemies, in keeping with Crytek's vision of Prophet as a hunter in the urban jungle.

Twang!

Other weapons include those high-tech heavy weapons pinched from alien enemies, such as a heavy mortar called the highpoly. Other enemies include the Scorcher Ceph (small, crawling enemies that turn into flamethrower turrets when they halt and rear up) and Ceph aerial remotes (flying, seeking drones that strip off your stealth cloak). There's a new hacking mechanism, too, that lets you remotely reprogram enemy gun turrets, though don't expect a hacking minigame; the idea, says Crytek, is to add another battlefield element to strategise with, not to tack on a hacking puzzle system.

With our first look being a hands-off presentation, it's not possible yet to gauge how sandboxy the world and action of Crysis 3 will be, but at first blush it's flexible much in the same way as Crysis 2--far from free-roaming, but open to multiple plans of attack. Where and how much it does diverge from the last game, beyond the technobow and the New York jungle, we'll see as we go.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

We got fun and games. Also, high-tech archery, swamps.

One of Crysis 3's sci-fi superguns fires 500 rounds a second. That would be 30,000 rounds a minute, math fans, if you didn't have to reload after near enough every squeeze of the trigger. With each squeeze, the Typhoon assault weapon emits a low buzz and minces whatever is standing at the business end of the barrel--making it a sound and logical advance for futuristic weapon design, if not a great feat of imagination (why not 5,000 rounds a second, while you're at it).

That's a bit like the general approach for Crysis 3. Set in 2047, two decades after the end of Crysis 2, it closes out the Crysis shooter trilogy, says Crytek, setting aside stand-alone expansion Crysis Warhead. Where the first game was set on an island covered in tropical jungle and the second in the ruins of New York, Crysis 3 is set in the ruins of New York covered in tropical jungle. It's a neat and consistent kind of progression, if not a great feat of imagination.

The cybernetic alien Ceph and the human forces of corrupt private military outfit CELL return to be shot and stabbed by the nanosuited Prophet, who returns from the first game and from the dead (see Crysis 2) to exact vengeance on CELL for sealing New York under a dome in its quest for world domination. Prophet begins the game in a CELL facility, escapes, and ends up in New York's Liberty Dome, which was installed to capture Ceph and cleanse their presence with accelerated biological growth.

As a result of that growth, nature has reclaimed the city. Crytek says its city has undergone a full transformation, making it more of an "urban jungle" and less, say, like the New York of I Am Legend--a recognisable city overlaid with wilderness. The demo we're shown takes place at night in the remains of Chinatown, where Prophet arrives with Psycho (Brit protagonist of Crysis Warhead) nattering advice over his radio. The superpowered nanosuit's augmented visor display is familiar, tagging enemy fighters and the like.

As promised, there's more jungle than concrete to Chinatown. Swamps and leafy vegetation are more prominent than the occasional ruined buildings, though both look mighty pretty; the plentiful rays and detailed shadows come courtesy of an "enhanced" version of CryEngine 3. There, Prophet skulks around in the undergrowth with his Predator-like nanosuit cloak up, stealthing up to the bipedal Stalker Ceph and knifing them in the fleshy, unarmoured parts. His vengeful intentions manifest as post-kill quips addressed to no one in particular ("I'm going to kill you all one by one" and "We'll see who gets hunted").

Shooting from stealth is encouraged, too. Prophet's newest toy is the composite bow: a sleek, fold-out bow and a selection of arrow warheads not unlike Hawkeye-style trick arrows, with explosive, pointy, and electro arrowheads populating Prophet’s nanoquiver. With that bow, and from stealth mode, Prophet can silently skewer distant enemies, in keeping with Crytek's vision of Prophet as a hunter in the urban jungle.

Twang!

Other weapons include those high-tech heavy weapons pinched from alien enemies, such as a heavy mortar called the highpoly. Other enemies include the Scorcher Ceph (small, crawling enemies that turn into flamethrower turrets when they halt and rear up) and Ceph aerial remotes (flying, seeking drones that strip off your stealth cloak). There's a new hacking mechanism, too, that lets you remotely reprogram enemy gun turrets, though don't expect a hacking minigame; the idea, says Crytek, is to add another battlefield element to strategise with, not to tack on a hacking puzzle system.

With our first look being a hands-off presentation, it's not possible yet to gauge how sandboxy the world and action of Crysis 3 will be, but at first blush it's flexible much in the same way as Crysis 2--far from free-roaming, but open to multiple plans of attack. Where and how much it does diverge from the last game, beyond the technobow and the New York jungle, we'll see as we go.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

We got fun and games. Also, high-tech archery, swamps.

One of Crysis 3's sci-fi superguns fires 500 rounds a second. That would be 30,000 rounds a minute, math fans, if you didn't have to reload after near enough every squeeze of the trigger. With each squeeze, the Typhoon assault weapon emits a low buzz and minces whatever is standing at the business end of the barrel--making it a sound and logical advance for futuristic weapon design, if not a great feat of imagination (why not 5,000 rounds a second, while you're at it).

That's a bit like the general approach for Crysis 3. Set in 2047, two decades after the end of Crysis 2, it closes out the Crysis shooter trilogy, says Crytek, setting aside stand-alone expansion Crysis Warhead. Where the first game was set on an island covered in tropical jungle and the second in the ruins of New York, Crysis 3 is set in the ruins of New York covered in tropical jungle. It's a neat and consistent kind of progression, if not a great feat of imagination.

The cybernetic alien Ceph and the human forces of corrupt private military outfit CELL return to be shot and stabbed by the nanosuited Prophet, who returns from the first game and from the dead (see Crysis 2) to exact vengeance on CELL for sealing New York under a dome in its quest for world domination. Prophet begins the game in a CELL facility, escapes, and ends up in New York's Liberty Dome, which was installed to capture Ceph and cleanse their presence with accelerated biological growth.

As a result of that growth, nature has reclaimed the city. Crytek says its city has undergone a full transformation, making it more of an "urban jungle" and less, say, like the New York of I Am Legend--a recognisable city overlaid with wilderness. The demo we're shown takes place at night in the remains of Chinatown, where Prophet arrives with Psycho (Brit protagonist of Crysis Warhead) nattering advice over his radio. The superpowered nanosuit's augmented visor display is familiar, tagging enemy fighters and the like.

As promised, there's more jungle than concrete to Chinatown. Swamps and leafy vegetation are more prominent than the occasional ruined buildings, though both look mighty pretty; the plentiful rays and detailed shadows come courtesy of an "enhanced" version of CryEngine 3. There, Prophet skulks around in the undergrowth with his Predator-like nanosuit cloak up, stealthing up to the bipedal Stalker Ceph and knifing them in the fleshy, unarmoured parts. His vengeful intentions manifest as post-kill quips addressed to no one in particular ("I'm going to kill you all one by one" and "We'll see who gets hunted").

Shooting from stealth is encouraged, too. Prophet's newest toy is the composite bow: a sleek, fold-out bow and a selection of arrow warheads not unlike Hawkeye-style trick arrows, with explosive, pointy, and electro arrowheads populating Prophet’s nanoquiver. With that bow, and from stealth mode, Prophet can silently skewer distant enemies, in keeping with Crytek's vision of Prophet as a hunter in the urban jungle.

Twang!

Other weapons include those high-tech heavy weapons pinched from alien enemies, such as a heavy mortar called the highpoly. Other enemies include the Scorcher Ceph (small, crawling enemies that turn into flamethrower turrets when they halt and rear up) and Ceph aerial remotes (flying, seeking drones that strip off your stealth cloak). There's a new hacking mechanism, too, that lets you remotely reprogram enemy gun turrets, though don't expect a hacking minigame; the idea, says Crytek, is to add another battlefield element to strategise with, not to tack on a hacking puzzle system.

With our first look being a hands-off presentation, it's not possible yet to gauge how sandboxy the world and action of Crysis 3 will be, but at first blush it's flexible much in the same way as Crysis 2--far from free-roaming, but open to multiple plans of attack. Where and how much it does diverge from the last game, beyond the technobow and the New York jungle, we'll see as we go.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Now that we've gone hands-on with Ninja Theory's Devil May Cry reboot, we can stop talking about the hair. Right after this preview.

Tameem Antoniades is relieved to put DMC into the hands of the press at last--maybe now we'll stop banging on about how Dante looks and start on whether he's any fun to play. "Ironically, Dante's hair is black and mine's turning white now," says the Ninja Theory chief, referring to months of being denounced by fans for supposedly remaking the white-haired Devil May Cry star in his own image.

And we would stop banging on about it, if Dante weren't naked as a nudist jaybird as we find him at the start of DMC. He's sleeping off a heavy night in a grungy trailer strewn with pizza boxes and someone's girly underthings. But gratuitous this (non-graphic) nudity is not, says Ninja Theory. It's an allegory for Devil May Cry's fresh start, of course, in which its protagonist has been figuratively and literally stripped down, then rebuilt and reclothed from scratch. Therefore, you'll spot young Dante in an introductory fight cinematic, doing a slow-motion dive into his free-falling outfit, adult-rated anatomy slyly concealed with props (pizza slice, baseball bat).

Combos in limbo.

Demonic forces have brought a grudge match to Dante's front door, turning the pleasure pier on which he lives into a nightmarish limbo dimension, a twisted version of the real world with a sneering layer of satire, where neon arcade signs read "Spend Money" and "Gluttony's Good," and omnipresent security cameras house twitchy red eyeballs. Only Dante can see (and shoot and skewer) the denizens of limbo, though the impact of certain actions crosses back into the real world; when Dante and his hunter demon adversary tear down a Ferris wheel, it's sent crashing and rolling down the pier in the land of the living as well.

But nakedness and hellish backdrop aside, how does it play? Very nicely, in fact. The action doesn't cleave quite as close to Devil May Cry 4's as claimed (if it did, why bother with a reboot?), but it's emphatically a Devil May Cry game, with the essentials firmly in place. There are scores and combos and grades to beat the band, and paths locked off with supernatural obstacles until you clobber all the demonic nasties in the area.

Dante is armed with his canonical twin handguns and sword, but also an angelic and a demonic weapon (an ethereal scythe and a fiery axe in our hands-on), tied respectively to the left and right triggers. The face buttons call up a familiar set of moves--shoot, stab, launch--but, in combination with a trigger, also bring the corresponding special weapon into play.

A demonic smackdown on the pier.

With an angel weapon active, Dante can grapple across an arena to a distant enemy (or up to a flying one) or swing around with a quick, wide-ranging attack, and the "launch" manoeuvre with the angelic weapon equipped can whirl a whole host of spindly demons skyward. With the devilish weapon enabled, Dante can drag a lighter enemy from across the arena into stabbing range, pull a flying foe out of the sky, or bash a shielded, heavy enemy with a more powerful blow.

The angel and demon weapons amount to a combat system with instant switching between a quick and a heavy mode, lots of variety for creating combos, and the means to stay all up in the enemy's grille for chained attacks. A flock of cherubic flying monsters, for instance, lets you string together a series of grapples, hoisting Dante higher and higher over the battlefield, smashing demons all the way--and staying aloft by shooting and skewering the enemy is gleeful good fun, with the soundtrack music and vocals ramping up according to how high your grade rises. So relax: there's much more to DMC than a bratty hero with a controversial haircut.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Now that we've gone hands-on with Ninja Theory's Devil May Cry reboot, we can stop talking about the hair. Right after this preview.

Tameem Antoniades is relieved to put DMC into the hands of the press at last--maybe now we'll stop banging on about how Dante looks and start on whether he's any fun to play. "Ironically, Dante's hair is black and mine's turning white now," says the Ninja Theory chief, referring to months of being denounced by fans for supposedly remaking the white-haired Devil May Cry star in his own image.

And we would stop banging on about it, if Dante weren't naked as a nudist jaybird as we find him at the start of DMC. He's sleeping off a heavy night in a grungy trailer strewn with pizza boxes and someone's girly underthings. But gratuitous this (non-graphic) nudity is not, says Ninja Theory. It's an allegory for Devil May Cry's fresh start, of course, in which its protagonist has been figuratively and literally stripped down, then rebuilt and reclothed from scratch. Therefore, you'll spot young Dante in an introductory fight cinematic, doing a slow-motion dive into his free-falling outfit, adult-rated anatomy slyly concealed with props (pizza slice, baseball bat).

Combos in limbo.

Demonic forces have brought a grudge match to Dante's front door, turning the pleasure pier on which he lives into a nightmarish limbo dimension, a twisted version of the real world with a sneering layer of satire, where neon arcade signs read "Spend Money" and "Gluttony's Good," and omnipresent security cameras house twitchy red eyeballs. Only Dante can see (and shoot and skewer) the denizens of limbo, though the impact of certain actions crosses back into the real world; when Dante and his hunter demon adversary tear down a Ferris wheel, it's sent crashing and rolling down the pier in the land of the living as well.

But nakedness and hellish backdrop aside, how does it play? Very nicely, in fact. The action doesn't cleave quite as close to Devil May Cry 4's as claimed (if it did, why bother with a reboot?), but it's emphatically a Devil May Cry game, with the essentials firmly in place. There are scores and combos and grades to beat the band, and paths locked off with supernatural obstacles until you clobber all the demonic nasties in the area.

Dante is armed with his canonical twin handguns and sword, but also an angelic and a demonic weapon (an ethereal scythe and a fiery axe in our hands-on), tied respectively to the left and right triggers. The face buttons call up a familiar set of moves--shoot, stab, launch--but, in combination with a trigger, also bring the corresponding special weapon into play.

A demonic smackdown on the pier.

With an angel weapon active, Dante can grapple across an arena to a distant enemy (or up to a flying one) or swing around with a quick, wide-ranging attack, and the "launch" manoeuvre with the angelic weapon equipped can whirl a whole host of spindly demons skyward. With the devilish weapon enabled, Dante can drag a lighter enemy from across the arena into stabbing range, pull a flying foe out of the sky, or bash a shielded, heavy enemy with a more powerful blow.

The angel and demon weapons amount to a combat system with instant switching between a quick and a heavy mode, lots of variety for creating combos, and the means to stay all up in the enemy's grille for chained attacks. A flock of cherubic flying monsters, for instance, lets you string together a series of grapples, hoisting Dante higher and higher over the battlefield, smashing demons all the way--and staying aloft by shooting and skewering the enemy is gleeful good fun, with the soundtrack music and vocals ramping up according to how high your grade rises. So relax: there's much more to DMC than a bratty hero with a controversial haircut.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Now that we've gone hands-on with Ninja Theory's Devil May Cry reboot, we can stop talking about the hair. Right after this preview.

Tameem Antoniades is relieved to put DMC into the hands of the press at last--maybe now we'll stop banging on about how Dante looks and start on whether he's any fun to play. "Ironically, Dante's hair is black and mine's turning white now," says the Ninja Theory chief, referring to months of being denounced by fans for supposedly remaking the white-haired Devil May Cry star in his own image.

And we would stop banging on about it, if Dante weren't naked as a nudist jaybird as we find him at the start of DMC. He's sleeping off a heavy night in a grungy trailer strewn with pizza boxes and someone's girly underthings. But gratuitous this (non-graphic) nudity is not, says Ninja Theory. It's an allegory for Devil May Cry's fresh start, of course, in which its protagonist has been figuratively and literally stripped down, then rebuilt and reclothed from scratch. Therefore, you'll spot young Dante in an introductory fight cinematic, doing a slow-motion dive into his free-falling outfit, adult-rated anatomy slyly concealed with props (pizza slice, baseball bat).

Combos in limbo.

Demonic forces have brought a grudge match to Dante's front door, turning the pleasure pier on which he lives into a nightmarish limbo dimension, a twisted version of the real world with a sneering layer of satire, where neon arcade signs read "Spend Money" and "Gluttony's Good," and omnipresent security cameras house twitchy red eyeballs. Only Dante can see (and shoot and skewer) the denizens of limbo, though the impact of certain actions crosses back into the real world; when Dante and his hunter demon adversary tear down a Ferris wheel, it's sent crashing and rolling down the pier in the land of the living as well.

But nakedness and hellish backdrop aside, how does it play? Very nicely, in fact. The action doesn't cleave quite as close to Devil May Cry 4's as claimed (if it did, why bother with a reboot?), but it's emphatically a Devil May Cry game, with the essentials firmly in place. There are scores and combos and grades to beat the band, and paths locked off with supernatural obstacles until you clobber all the demonic nasties in the area.

Dante is armed with his canonical twin handguns and sword, but also an angelic and a demonic weapon (an ethereal scythe and a fiery axe in our hands-on), tied respectively to the left and right triggers. The face buttons call up a familiar set of moves--shoot, stab, launch--but, in combination with a trigger, also bring the corresponding special weapon into play.

A demonic smackdown on the pier.

With an angel weapon active, Dante can grapple across an arena to a distant enemy (or up to a flying one) or swing around with a quick, wide-ranging attack, and the "launch" manoeuvre with the angelic weapon equipped can whirl a whole host of spindly demons skyward. With the devilish weapon enabled, Dante can drag a lighter enemy from across the arena into stabbing range, pull a flying foe out of the sky, or bash a shielded, heavy enemy with a more powerful blow.

The angel and demon weapons amount to a combat system with instant switching between a quick and a heavy mode, lots of variety for creating combos, and the means to stay all up in the enemy's grille for chained attacks. A flock of cherubic flying monsters, for instance, lets you string together a series of grapples, hoisting Dante higher and higher over the battlefield, smashing demons all the way--and staying aloft by shooting and skewering the enemy is gleeful good fun, with the soundtrack music and vocals ramping up according to how high your grade rises. So relax: there's much more to DMC than a bratty hero with a controversial haircut.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Now that we've gone hands-on with Ninja Theory's Devil May Cry reboot, we can stop talking about the hair. Right after this preview.

Tameem Antoniades is relieved to put DMC into the hands of the press at last--maybe now we'll stop banging on about how Dante looks and start on whether he's any fun to play. "Ironically, Dante's hair is black and mine's turning white now," says the Ninja Theory chief, referring to months of being denounced by fans for supposedly remaking the white-haired Devil May Cry star in his own image.

And we would stop banging on about it, if Dante weren't naked as a nudist jaybird as we find him at the start of DMC. He's sleeping off a heavy night in a grungy trailer strewn with pizza boxes and someone's girly underthings. But gratuitous this (non-graphic) nudity is not, says Ninja Theory. It's an allegory for Devil May Cry's fresh start, of course, in which its protagonist has been figuratively and literally stripped down, then rebuilt and reclothed from scratch. Therefore, you'll spot young Dante in an introductory fight cinematic, doing a slow-motion dive into his free-falling outfit, adult-rated anatomy slyly concealed with props (pizza slice, baseball bat).

Combos in limbo.

Demonic forces have brought a grudge match to Dante's front door, turning the pleasure pier on which he lives into a nightmarish limbo dimension, a twisted version of the real world with a sneering layer of satire, where neon arcade signs read "Spend Money" and "Gluttony's Good," and omnipresent security cameras house twitchy red eyeballs. Only Dante can see (and shoot and skewer) the denizens of limbo, though the impact of certain actions crosses back into the real world; when Dante and his hunter demon adversary tear down a Ferris wheel, it's sent crashing and rolling down the pier in the land of the living as well.

But nakedness and hellish backdrop aside, how does it play? Very nicely, in fact. The action doesn't cleave quite as close to Devil May Cry 4's as claimed (if it did, why bother with a reboot?), but it's emphatically a Devil May Cry game, with the essentials firmly in place. There are scores and combos and grades to beat the band, and paths locked off with supernatural obstacles until you clobber all the demonic nasties in the area.

Dante is armed with his canonical twin handguns and sword, but also an angelic and a demonic weapon (an ethereal scythe and a fiery axe in our hands-on), tied respectively to the left and right triggers. The face buttons call up a familiar set of moves--shoot, stab, launch--but, in combination with a trigger, also bring the corresponding special weapon into play.

A demonic smackdown on the pier.

With an angel weapon active, Dante can grapple across an arena to a distant enemy (or up to a flying one) or swing around with a quick, wide-ranging attack, and the "launch" manoeuvre with the angelic weapon equipped can whirl a whole host of spindly demons skyward. With the devilish weapon enabled, Dante can drag a lighter enemy from across the arena into stabbing range, pull a flying foe out of the sky, or bash a shielded, heavy enemy with a more powerful blow.

The angel and demon weapons amount to a combat system with instant switching between a quick and a heavy mode, lots of variety for creating combos, and the means to stay all up in the enemy's grille for chained attacks. A flock of cherubic flying monsters, for instance, lets you string together a series of grapples, hoisting Dante higher and higher over the battlefield, smashing demons all the way--and staying aloft by shooting and skewering the enemy is gleeful good fun, with the soundtrack music and vocals ramping up according to how high your grade rises. So relax: there's much more to DMC than a bratty hero with a controversial haircut.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Unless you expected a civilian hero, a personal story, and Western developer Spark Unlimited (in which case, good job).

After Lost Planet 2's modest sales and lukewarm reviews, Capcom must have had a long, hard think on its sci-fi shooter series. A change of direction was probable, then, but not an about-face like this: Lost Planet 3 is a character-driven, primarily single-player adventure set years before the events of the first game. It's recognisably a Lost Planet outing (frozen plains, armoured mech suits, glowing akrid weak points), but there's a civilian hero, a personal story, engaging voice acting, and nary a nod at multiplayer co-op in its debut presentation at Capcom's annual Captivate showcase.

The new direction comes partly of a new studio. Lost Planet 3 is in the works at US studio Spark Unlimited, not with a Capcom in-house team. The new looks come of a new engine--not Capcom's own MT Framework, but ubiquitous workhorse Unreal, doing a spiffy job on the bluish alien glaciers, orange sunlight, and glinting mechs of E.D.N. III. The action, meanwhile, combines third-person shooting and exploration with first-person mech piloting and robo-brawling.

Where Lost Planet 2 took place after a thaw, revealing new jungle and desert environments, Lost Planet 3 turns back the clock to when the alien world was fully frozen, in the early days of human colonisation. Franchise director Kenji Oguro, still overseeing, promises a return to strictly cold climes, implying the second game steered too far from the icy terrain that marked out game one. "When you think of Lost Planet," he says, "you think of snow and ice and a very desolate world. This is one of the core concepts of Lost Planet 3."

Capcom producer Andrew Szymanski, meanwhile, talks up the story, a tale of "surviving in a harsh environment and unravelling its mysteries" as everyman protagonist Jim, a bearded construction labourer working to support his wife and baby back on Earth. ("The more I earn, the sooner I get to hold you both again," he says.) The hands-off demo was heavy on the cutscenes, charmingly voiced, showing Jim waking from a nap in the cab of his construction mech suit--the game's main vehicle and the series' biggest mech to date, says Oguro-san.

The portion presented comes from early in the game, starting in the enormous ice cavern hangar of the colony construction squad to which Jim is contracted. He ambles around this quest and upgrade hub in third person, whipping out a Dead Space-style holographic menu interface projected from a gauntlet gizmo. When he's piloting the mech suit, on the other hand, the game pops into first person: a cockpit view through the rig's frosty windows, from which he controls its mighty power arms--one a giant claw, one a giant drill, both strictly meant for construction work and clearing paths, but also handy in a scrap with a giant akrid crab beast.

Of which there are plenty on Jim's first mission. In it, he's despatched to plant ice-melting thermal posts at an intended building site. When a sudden storm ices up the cockpit canopy, he has to kick his way out--and the rest of the time, we're told, you can hop in and out at almost any point. Initially there are man-sized, four-legged akrid to see off; later come the colossal crab monsters, inevitable glowing weak spots protected by thick plates of translucent ice, as well as smallish, skittering, buglike variants. These latter beasties turn up in a mysteriously abandoned base Jim discovers while going about his day job; locations like these are inaccessible by mech, leaving Jim to tramp about on foot.

And the view from his mech suit.

The strategic akrid battles that combine shooting and mech controls are the most interesting. In one scuffle with an armoured, scorpionlike akrid, Jim uses the suit's claw hand to seize the monster's giant arm and pin it in place, before leaping out of the cockpit to fire away at exposed underbelly. In other fights, the mech can do all the work, grabbing with one arm and drilling with the other, spattering the windows with glowing akrid goo.

As first impressions go, this was a good one--a blast of icy fresh air after the ho-hum shooting and stomping of game two. Spark's last offering was the mediocre Legendary, but that's ancient history (2008), and on the strength of the demo, be prepared to keep an open mind. Capcom's approach here to rejuvenating Lost Planet (hand it to a Western studio) resembles the Devil May Cry reboot given to British developer Ninja Theory. Here's hoping it pays off.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Unless you expected a civilian hero, a personal story, and Western developer Spark Unlimited (in which case, good job).

After Lost Planet 2's modest sales and lukewarm reviews, Capcom must have had a long, hard think on its sci-fi shooter series. A change of direction was probable, then, but not an about-face like this: Lost Planet 3 is a character-driven, primarily single-player adventure set years before the events of the first game. It's recognisably a Lost Planet outing (frozen plains, armoured mech suits, glowing akrid weak points), but there's a civilian hero, a personal story, engaging voice acting, and nary a nod at multiplayer co-op in its debut presentation at Capcom's annual Captivate showcase.

The new direction comes partly of a new studio. Lost Planet 3 is in the works at US studio Spark Unlimited, not with a Capcom in-house team. The new looks come of a new engine--not Capcom's own MT Framework, but ubiquitous workhorse Unreal, doing a spiffy job on the bluish alien glaciers, orange sunlight, and glinting mechs of E.D.N. III. The action, meanwhile, combines third-person shooting and exploration with first-person mech piloting and robo-brawling.

Where Lost Planet 2 took place after a thaw, revealing new jungle and desert environments, Lost Planet 3 turns back the clock to when the alien world was fully frozen, in the early days of human colonisation. Franchise director Kenji Oguro, still overseeing, promises a return to strictly cold climes, implying the second game steered too far from the icy terrain that marked out game one. "When you think of Lost Planet," he says, "you think of snow and ice and a very desolate world. This is one of the core concepts of Lost Planet 3."

Capcom producer Andrew Szymanski, meanwhile, talks up the story, a tale of "surviving in a harsh environment and unravelling its mysteries" as everyman protagonist Jim, a bearded construction labourer working to support his wife and baby back on Earth. ("The more I earn, the sooner I get to hold you both again," he says.) The hands-off demo was heavy on the cutscenes, charmingly voiced, showing Jim waking from a nap in the cab of his construction mech suit--the game's main vehicle and the series' biggest mech to date, says Oguro-san.

The portion presented comes from early in the game, starting in the enormous ice cavern hangar of the colony construction squad to which Jim is contracted. He ambles around this quest and upgrade hub in third person, whipping out a Dead Space-style holographic menu interface projected from a gauntlet gizmo. When he's piloting the mech suit, on the other hand, the game pops into first person: a cockpit view through the rig's frosty windows, from which he controls its mighty power arms--one a giant claw, one a giant drill, both strictly meant for construction work and clearing paths, but also handy in a scrap with a giant akrid crab beast.

Of which there are plenty on Jim's first mission. In it, he's despatched to plant ice-melting thermal posts at an intended building site. When a sudden storm ices up the cockpit canopy, he has to kick his way out--and the rest of the time, we're told, you can hop in and out at almost any point. Initially there are man-sized, four-legged akrid to see off; later come the colossal crab monsters, inevitable glowing weak spots protected by thick plates of translucent ice, as well as smallish, skittering, buglike variants. These latter beasties turn up in a mysteriously abandoned base Jim discovers while going about his day job; locations like these are inaccessible by mech, leaving Jim to tramp about on foot.

And the view from his mech suit.

The strategic akrid battles that combine shooting and mech controls are the most interesting. In one scuffle with an armoured, scorpionlike akrid, Jim uses the suit's claw hand to seize the monster's giant arm and pin it in place, before leaping out of the cockpit to fire away at exposed underbelly. In other fights, the mech can do all the work, grabbing with one arm and drilling with the other, spattering the windows with glowing akrid goo.

As first impressions go, this was a good one--a blast of icy fresh air after the ho-hum shooting and stomping of game two. Spark's last offering was the mediocre Legendary, but that's ancient history (2008), and on the strength of the demo, be prepared to keep an open mind. Capcom's approach here to rejuvenating Lost Planet (hand it to a Western studio) resembles the Devil May Cry reboot given to British developer Ninja Theory. Here's hoping it pays off.

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Unless you expected a civilian hero, a personal story, and Western developer Spark Unlimited (in which case, good job).

After Lost Planet 2's modest sales and lukewarm reviews, Capcom must have had a long, hard think on its sci-fi shooter series. A change of direction was probable, then, but not an about-face like this: Lost Planet 3 is a character-driven, primarily single-player adventure set years before the events of the first game. It's recognisably a Lost Planet outing (frozen plains, armoured mech suits, glowing akrid weak points), but there's a civilian hero, a personal story, engaging voice acting, and nary a nod at multiplayer co-op in its debut presentation at Capcom's annual Captivate showcase.

The new direction comes partly of a new studio. Lost Planet 3 is in the works at US studio Spark Unlimited, not with a Capcom in-house team. The new looks come of a new engine--not Capcom's own MT Framework, but ubiquitous workhorse Unreal, doing a spiffy job on the bluish alien glaciers, orange sunlight, and glinting mechs of E.D.N. III. The action, meanwhile, combines third-person shooting and exploration with first-person mech piloting and robo-brawling.

Where Lost Planet 2 took place after a thaw, revealing new jungle and desert environments, Lost Planet 3 turns back the clock to when the alien world was fully frozen, in the early days of human colonisation. Franchise director Kenji Oguro, still overseeing, promises a return to strictly cold climes, implying the second game steered too far from the icy terrain that marked out game one. "When you think of Lost Planet," he says, "you think of snow and ice and a very desolate world. This is one of the core concepts of Lost Planet 3."

Capcom producer Andrew Szymanski, meanwhile, talks up the story, a tale of "surviving in a harsh environment and unravelling its mysteries" as everyman protagonist Jim, a bearded construction labourer working to support his wife and baby back on Earth. ("The more I earn, the sooner I get to hold you both again," he says.) The hands-off demo was heavy on the cutscenes, charmingly voiced, showing Jim waking from a nap in the cab of his construction mech suit--the game's main vehicle and the series' biggest mech to date, says Oguro-san.

The portion presented comes from early in the game, starting in the enormous ice cavern hangar of the colony construction squad to which Jim is contracted. He ambles around this quest and upgrade hub in third person, whipping out a Dead Space-style holographic menu interface projected from a gauntlet gizmo. When he's piloting the mech suit, on the other hand, the game pops into first person: a cockpit view through the rig's frosty windows, from which he controls its mighty power arms--one a giant claw, one a giant drill, both strictly meant for construction work and clearing paths, but also handy in a scrap with a giant akrid crab beast.

Of which there are plenty on Jim's first mission. In it, he's despatched to plant ice-melting thermal posts at an intended building site. When a sudden storm ices up the cockpit canopy, he has to kick his way out--and the rest of the time, we're told, you can hop in and out at almost any point. Initially there are man-sized, four-legged akrid to see off; later come the colossal crab monsters, inevitable glowing weak spots protected by thick plates of translucent ice, as well as smallish, skittering, buglike variants. These latter beasties turn up in a mysteriously abandoned base Jim discovers while going about his day job; locations like these are inaccessible by mech, leaving Jim to tramp about on foot.

And the view from his mech suit.

The strategic akrid battles that combine shooting and mech controls are the most interesting. In one scuffle with an armoured, scorpionlike akrid, Jim uses the suit's claw hand to seize the monster's giant arm and pin it in place, before leaping out of the cockpit to fire away at exposed underbelly. In other fights, the mech can do all the work, grabbing with one arm and drilling with the other, spattering the windows with glowing akrid goo.

As first impressions go, this was a good one--a blast of icy fresh air after the ho-hum shooting and stomping of game two. Spark's last offering was the mediocre Legendary, but that's ancient history (2008), and on the strength of the demo, be prepared to keep an open mind. Capcom's approach here to rejuvenating Lost Planet (hand it to a Western studio) resembles the Devil May Cry reboot given to British developer Ninja Theory. Here's hoping it pays off.

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