KEY POINTS:
From the long and dramatic opening scenes of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, you know you're in for a visually stunning action fest of sci-fi proportions.
The long-anticipated sci-fi thriller has all the old school game elements that make a great game and is the PC port to the original on Xbox 360.
Growing tired of mundane human existence, mankind set up the human colonisation project to inhabit a hostile frozen planet ruled by the Akrid - giant insectoids creatures.
The creatures utilise stores of precious thermal energy within their bodies.
Humans planet-side quickly work out they can harness this energy from the aggressive beasts to help survive the sub-zero temperatures and the hunt is on!
This PC port is something of a wish-come-true for fans of the series as slow-downs on the console made it hard to play. Thankfully this is not so with the PC and there are heaps of screen resolutions and visual options like anisotropic and anti-alias filtering as well as the standard game options.
It does however retain the menu from the Xbox controllers and unfortunately, I was left guessing on how to navigate through the menu. The hard-hitting style of play allows few errors but the camera angles and the speedier PC graphics cards have done the playability factor for this game a massive service.
Getting the game onto the PC has been all good for the Games for Windows series as it is a next gen title that looks splendid in higher wide-screen resolutions.
Parts of gameplay are more difficult but generally easier to target and track enemies. Mastering the "anchor" ( grappling hook ) to haul yourself away from dangers is so much easier with the PC.
The all-important heat dissipates from fallen Akrid quickly, so keeping a watchful eye on the thermal energy meter is a wise thing, oh - and not being mulched by any of the enormous Akrid whilst you hunt for the next Vital Suit (VS).
Each enemy you kill or energy resource you come across gives you a bit more of the life-sustaining thermal energy which is absorbed into main character Wayne's right arm. So there is a pressing need to keep moving through the game to the next battle.
There's considerable flexibility in the game engine so you find you'll be taking out the enemies with energy weapons or rocket launchers and any of the weapons left by the Snow Pirates - bands of outlaws roaming the lands. While Capcom lacked the polish on the 360 original, this is a worthy PC title despite the odd console hangover.
Lost Planet: The Game
Genre: Action From: Capcom Platform: PC Rating: M
MadGamer rating: 7.5
