Better off lost

Farming out the development of a respected IP can work wonderfully. Just take a look at Dead Rising 2, a solid attempt to follow-up an insanely popular zombie-fest with mostly positive results. Blue?? Castle Games did such a good job that it was actually acquired by their employer as Capcom Vancouver.

On the flipside, Lost Planet 3 is a perfect example of how farming out existing IPs to w?estern devel??opers can go terribly wrong.

Lost Planet 3 (PC [reviewed], PS3, Xbox 360)
Developer: Spark Unlimited
Publisher: Capcom
Released: August 27, 2013
MSRP: $59.99
Rig: Intel i3-2370M, with 8GB of RAM, GeForce GTX 555 GPU, 50fps average performance, Windows 8 64-bit, DirectX 11

Lost Planet 3 starts on an almost immediate high note, and kind of just tumbles from there. Jim Peyton, the humble engineer and family man is the star of the show, telling the gam??e's story while trapped under some rubble. But while the intro attempts to tell this grand tale of intrigue on the deathbed of a sympathetic old man, the story distills down to shooting some bugs, and then shooting some giant enemy crabs for massive damage. Oh, and it's a prequel to the first few games -- but you wouldn't really notice that (or care) for the vast majority of the campaign.

Once again, those neon insect Akrids still won't quit, and this time, they'll be crawling around in a pseudo open world environment. But despite the attempt at creating a true survival horror sandbox, a lot of heart is sacrificed in the process. For starters, Lost Planet 3 operates more like a cheap Dead Space game than an actual Lost Planet entry. I get the vibe Spark Unlimited was going for, but really, the botched horror reveals? ??and general cheap feel of the game ruins any attempt at a memorable atmosphere.

"Cheap" is probably the perfect word actually, as a litany of issues contribute to an overall shoddy sense of atmosphere. One of the biggest offenders is the fact that many background elements such as enemies are pre-rendered, and can't actually be shot or interacted with. You know how in a survival horror game when a creature shows up and the game limits your ability to shoot it so it can set up a scene? Lost Planet 3 kind of just lets things run free for the heck of it, leading you to think you can fight certain enemies when you can't. All of the game's characters also feel dull, and as forgettable as? its environments.

But the presentation isn't the only under-developed facet of Lost Planet 3, as it has a ton of mechanical issues as well -- most notably, the criminally unfun sandbox element. There's a bread crumb-esque trail that leads to every single mission, but in addition to it killing any real need to explore, it's also problematic. The visual objective mark??er is straight-up broken half the time, leading you back to areas you've already been, into a corner, or in a completely wrong part of the map.

The open world doesn't really feel "open" at all -- more like a series of desolate samey tundras and Final Fantasy XIII-esque tunnels. After about four hours of backtracking into an area that felt the exact same as an area I had just been to, with the objective marker wildly sending me into an empty corner, I had felt the sting of Lost Planet 3 in full force.

Combat is also incredibly simple and will hardly test even the most novice of action fans. The principle reason for this is the broken dodge button, which allows you a giant window of opportunity to enact a special dodge animation for most enemies, leaving their giant pulsing orange weak spots vulnerable. For a few mini-boss encounters, this is fin?e, but when every enemy in the game ?can be bested by super-dodging and smashing orange goo, it gets old quick.

As if you couldn't get enough QTEs, Lost Planet 3 hammers them into your brain because, well, reasons I guess. There aren't a whole lot of them, but the ones that do show up feel pointless and thrown in for the sake of it. The "Rigs," (the game's mechs) are the main problem in the campaign, as they feel like one giant QTE.

A few Rig "highlights" are literally fighting giant enemy crabs, and slowly walking around the map at a snail's pace. With your mech,?? all you can really do is block at the right time to counter a blow, grab an appendage with your claw hand, and then drill it for massive damage. Lather, rinse, and repeat, sometimes for five minutes and you have yourself a boss fight. Whether you're using the Rig or on foot, boss fights are distilled down t??o nothing more than "shoot at the orange weak point for massive damage."

Multiplayer is the saving grace of Lost Planet 3, but it doesn't really offer up anything you haven't seen before. Amidst a sea of typical 5v5 multip??layer gametypes across six maps, there's also a horde-like mode that's mildly amusing called Akrid Survival. In a nutshell, it plays like your typical horde mode at first with two teams competing with one a??nother, but then the map opens up and allows both teams to fight amongst themselves with the Akrid in the middle.

All of your earnings can be used to power up the "Progression Sphere," which is basically Spark Unlimited's take on Final Fantasy X's Sphere Grid, allowing you to take your character into multiple directions of your choosing. But while it is a neat mechanic, you most likely won't be compelled to keep playing to actually earn them, and considering the PC version uses GameSpy support, you may not even find any games in the near future.

Just as how The Bureau: XCOM Declassified was a watered down focused tested version of Mass Effect, Lost Planet 3 feels like a watered down Dead Space. Any redeeming qualities of the Lost Planet franchise are dead and gone, leaving a husk of its former self. Capcom has recently stated that they're moving back into more internal development, and for their ??sake, I sincerely hope they k?eep a better eye on their IPs in the future.

The post Review: Lost Planet 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

New trailer

We knew Lost Planet 3 would have multiplayer, but ??we've not heard a?nything about it until now. 

Capcom says that the game will feature four modes across six maps. You'll play as either t?he NEVEC or the Snow Pirates in modes like Scenario, where each team ??goes through random offensive and defensive challenges. This mode can be played on foot in third person, or in Suits in first person.

Akrid Survival mode has two teams of three going up against enemy waves? for ??a bit before they go PvP. Kill baddies, and then kill each other.

You can get a peek at MP in this new trailer.

Lost Planet 3 is coming to Xbox 360, PS3 and ??PC o?n August 27. 

The post Lost Planet 3 multiplayer details revealed appeared first on Destructoid.

Still not feeling it

Lost Planet 3 is still set for an August release date, which could have fooled me, given how little we've heard about it this year outside of a delay. But the radio silence ends today as a new multiplayer trailer has surfaced, showing off some of the game's combat, and tactics, l??ike upgradeable tools and abil??ities.

A classic Counterstrike style Demolition bom?b-defusal mode also looks like a go, and we get a closer look at the new first-person mech gam?eplay. If this doesn't pan out, can we just get an E.X. Troopers localization instead, Capcom?

The post Watch dude?s blast dudes in this Lost Planet 3 MP trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

Coming June 28 in Europe

Capcom has officially set the release of Lost Planet 3 for June 25 in North America??, and June 28 in Europe. The game was originally slated for an early 2013 launch, but was slightly delayed to later thi?s year.

Feelings towards Lost Planet 3 have been mixed at best, and from what I've seen it looks alright. Check out today's new trailer and screens, plus our preview from last year to get a better since of what the gam??e is offering.

The post Lost Pl???anet 3 set for June 25 release in North America appeared first on Destructoid.

SCORPION! FISTING!

So I haven't been paying too much attention to Lost Planet 3, but I'm genuinely intrigued now thanks to this nine minute long look at the new game. It looks like it's trying to go for more of a realistic and cinematic take on the franchise, and overall it's giving me a giant Dead Space vibe.

The mech combat looks pretty neat too. Especially the part?? where you get to fist a scorpion in the butt. V??ideogames!

The post Lost Planet 3 will have scorpion fisting YEAH! appeared first on Destructoid.

Trade show demos usually go one of two ways: well or very well. Even when a game stinks, the demo is usually put together in such a way that you can't even tell there is a major problem lying under the surface. Sure, Resident Evil 6's E3 demo raised some concerns when I played it and some games didn't exactly float my boat in press demo form, but I've never quite been so frustrated and angry at a trade show demo as I was with Lost Planet 3.

I sincerely hope this game gets its act together before its release. I'm trying my h?ardest to say this and be the better man, after it kicked me in the shins and called me names.

Lost Planet was never Capcom's most beloved franchise but at least it was something different. Like Dead Rising, it was an attempt to mimic Western games w??hile not being like any Western gam??e.

Lost Planet 3 may as well go by a different name, because it hardly feels like the first two entries. I'd say it's like Dead Space but that's too kind. Red Faction: Armageddon is closer. It's a third-person shooter as generic as they come: Cover-based shooting, space aliens, push l??eft stick to run, e?tc.

With such a safe approach, you'd expect developer Spark Unlimited (Legendary, Yaiba Ninja Gaiden Z) to get the little details right, but the game just doesn't cut the mustard. There are so many perplexing design issues, such as the same enemies you are fighting are also present in the background of the stage as a visual flourish. It reminds me of those D-grade platformers on the Nintendo where you couldn't tell what was a platform you could jump on from what was part of the background. Instead of shooting what was in front of me, I'd have to use my crosshair as a real enemy detector, ????waiting for it to turn red so I can shoot.

Even worse is the QTE of doom that I repeatedly died at during the demo. Because it's not bad enough to throw a life-or-death QTE at the player, Spark Unlimited somehow found? a way to make it worse with a baffling prompt that requires you to push the left thumbstick in a specific direction and press A. Except you also have to occasionally hammer the A button, and the game is very specific with how you direct the stick, which makes these ?QTEs very easy to misread and fail. Usually I give QTEs a pass, but this one really rubbed me the wrong way. I eventually gave up on the game because of this.

All while I was getting frustrated at this part, the guy beside me was complaining about a mech section where he couldn't find the enemy on the screen despite the HUD directing him toward a spot where it should be. It's hard to fine a saving grace for Lost Planet 3. It even looks bad with a main character model that is somehow worse than those in t??he previous games.

I'm not a die-hard Lost Planet fan, but even I am sad to see Capcom phone it in with this sequel. Much like Resident Evil 6, it feels like the company is losing faith in what made the series special and is taking influence from the right games in the wrong way. Except Resident Evil 6 at least looks great and has grander ambitions than being a third-person shooter in space that is hard to pick out from a crowd of similar?? titles.

Maybe the game will shape up to become?? something greater in months to come, but it certainly ??has a long way to go.

The post TGS: Lost Planet 3 is cold as ice, ??yet not very cool appeared first on Destructoid.

Having played and enjoyed Lost Planet when it first came out only to stay far, far away from Lost Planet 2, I'm still eager to give Lost Planet 3 a chance. ??It is, after all, a full-on prequel with a noticeably different direction.

Max got to check out the game at E3 2012, and it sounds as if he's in a similar position. Though LP3 doesn't seem to offer anything groundbreaking from the game builds we've seen so far, he says it's all feeling pretty tight. In particular, those first-person Rig segments look lik?e they could be satisfying.

The post E3: Drilling elbows and more in Lost Planet 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

Remember that hands-off Lost Planet 3 reveal demonstration I saw last month? Capcom finally let me put my hands on it -?- that exact demo. It makes me wonde?r why they didn't let me play it in the first place. Still, I was able to finally play through it last week, and as you'd imagine, I have a bit more to say about it. 

Lost Planet 3 (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Releases: 2013 

Just as in our earlier preview, this demo kicks off introducing Jim, a working-class guy that came to planet E.D.N. III to do some hard labor to earn cash for his wife and baby back home on Earth. He takes on a job that one of his coll??eagues wasn't able to handle, insisting that he'll get double pay for his troubles. His boss demands?? that he get going as soon as possible as they really need the T-energy at their installation, adding that there might be a another storm blowing in.

Jim's first job works as a sort of training mission, with the game first taking you through the controls of the pilot-able robot rig, and later letting you loose on foot, braving the snow and alien beasts alone. From our first preview, I was worried that the first-person rig controls would be sluggish, but that's not the case at all. In fact, it's pretty fun to stomp about in this big bot and manipulate its claw and drill hands, with its sense of size and power really having you wanting to dig into enemies. It's too bad that the rig froze up in one of E.D.N.'s many ice storms befor??e I got the chance.

It seems silly that Jim has to hop out of this massive and powerful rig to defrost it, but the situation serves nicely as an introduction to on-foot, third-person combat. Being out in the open, alien monsters surround Jim, forcing him to take them on with his gun. Just like in other Lost Planet titles, weak spots glow brightly, so I aimed fo??r these spots on the approaching feline-like? attackers. Too slow. Or bad aim.

One of the monsters pins me down, initiating close range combat, where I had to fight back claws and jaws by mashing the action button, and then use the left analog stick to try to aim a knife attack to its face. It's not as easy as it sounds, but after a few tries I killed one off, an??d then gunned down the others. Movement and aiming felt to be pretty much in line with that of the previous series titles, so no surprises here.

Back safely in ?the de-iced rig, a few more of the same beasts were laughably easy to dispose of. I was able to pick one up with my left-hand claw (left? trigger) and then drill into it to have its guts splattering on the rig's windshield. It was like payback for being pinned down earlier. 

After moving farther toward the mission point, Jim is forced to exit the rig and go into caves on foot. From here, all radio communication is cut off, so it felt pretty lonely. A grappling hook l??et me climb and repel through the cave until I reached a clearing where a large, heavily armored crab-like creature came rumbling from the ground below. This sub-boss was a bitch to take down, as it was huge and constantly plowed toward me, forcing me to run at all times, never quite sure ?where it was behind me. It felt like the camera was working against me the whole time, but I eventually learned that quick dodge rolls would get it to strike me with a claw; when it missed, the creature plunged it into the ground and snow, opening up a short window of opportunity for attacks on its armored back. 

With this boss down and the mission accomplished, the demo took a survival-horror turn. Through the released heat of the T-energy, an abandoned base was uncovered, and wandering around in its dark corridors felt a lot like playing Dead Space. I found myself shooting at creepy crawly aliens with a shotgun, wish??ing I had plasma cutter instead.

After making my way through this maze-like space base (again, very Dead Space), I was able to get back to the open and into my rig. Of course, another huge crab thing shows up. This? time I was able to rip off one of its crab claws, and later was able to hold it up by its stump and drill into its back to make easy work of it. And then,? in a classic demo cliffhanger move, the ground rumbles and about eight more of these things appear. 

It's hard to tell where Lost Planet 3 is at when compared to the last two games. I definitely appreciate the move towards stronger narrative, and I really like where these survival horror-type segments are going, but it's not clear how much of either we'll see based on this short demo. If nothing else, LP3 will provide a more varied experience than the prior titles, and that's always a plus. For me, right now, I'm in, and that's mostly because I like this big bearded Jim character, and I want to?? see what they'll do with him. 

Lost Planet 3 is slated for release in early 2013 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. 

The post Hands-on preview: Lost Planet 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

Lost Planet 3 was announced at a Capcom press event last week. This third game in the franchise is a prequel that moves back towards the ??game's foundations of extreme conditions, but with a new focus o??n survival and storytelling. The game follows Jim, a worker that leaves Earth to pilot a rig for a construction company that will prep the icy planet of E.D.N. III for colonization. 

As you'll learn in our upcoming preview, Lost Planet 3 mixes first-person rig piloting with third-person on-foot shooting, and combinations of the two are possible. When you add this unique combat mix to strong characters and what seems to be a meaty backstory, it looks like Lost Planet 3 will be a treat. 

Lost Planet 3 will be released in ea??rly 2013 on Xbox 360, PS3 and? PC.

The post Lost Planet 3 announced, dated for early 2013 appeared first on Destructoid.