Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (PS3)

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The mechs mix up the gameplay nicely

All this brings us to boss battles. The majority of levels feature a boss at the end, and these are where the old-skool feel is most apparent. Tackled in Vital Suits and on-foot (on-foot is usually only used as a last ditch attempt once all the available mechs have been blown up), you're generally locked into an arena-like area, with an Akrid or VS boss sticking to a strict attack pattern while you try and spot its weakness. With the Akrid bosses this isn't too hard, seeing as bight yellow areas once again act as clear indicators, but the mechs prove to be far trickier customers - not that a few Akrid bosses won't cause trouble.

The bosses are great, and provide numerous stunning spectacles, but boy, can they be annoying. Lost Planet is a game that'll take somewhere in the region of seven hours to finish, unless you fall foul of a few of the bosses. My clock time read a rather depressing 12 hours on completion, with three bosses sticking out as a big reason for this extended play time. Unless you've groomed yourself on titles like Devil May Cry 3 and Ninja Gaiden, the difficulty spikes in Lost Planet will have you cursing, tearing your hair out and generally feeling rather fed up. It's not game breaking, but for a lot of people it will spoil what is otherwise a superb action game.

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Outside of the campaign you get a fairly complete online multiplayer experience for up to 16 players. At first glance it's pretty standard stuff for a third-person shooter, with favourites Elimination and Team Elimination being your typical deathmatch and team-deathmatch modes. The thermal posts seen in the single-player game make an appearance online too, and gaining control of these not only gives you thermal energy, but also gives you radar control, which can make a big difference to the outcome of a game.

Of more interest are the Post Grab and Fugitive Hunt modes. Post Grab is a Battlefield-esque mode that tasks each team with controlling the thermal posts on the map, while Fugitive Hunt pits every player against a single player in a game of hide and seek. The PS3 game includes all the content found in the original Xbox 360 version and everything released as DLC, bringing the map count to an impressive 16 and giving you plenty of characters to choose from. This certainly makes the game's late arrival on PS3 easier to take, but it doesn't make up for the lacklustre presentation.

You're better off experiencing moments like this on the Xbox 360

On the Xbox 360 both the single-player and online game modes featured some of the most impressive visuals seen on the console, but on PS3 something went rather wrong. From the moment you set foot on the first snow-covered level the frame rate hits a major snag and it feels like you're walking in treacle. This sluggish frame rate continues throughout the game and it really hurts what is otherwise a visual treat. At times during a few of the boss fights the game became barely playable, with the frame rate dropping to completely unacceptable levels. Environments look a little bland when you move indoors, but the snow covered landscape and more urban environments from later in the game look phenomenal, and the enemies and bosses have a quality that would have only been possible in pre-rendered movies a few years ago.

Audio is also pretty hit and miss, with what can only be described as 'wooden' voice acting, but background music and sound effects are spot on, and the surround sound even helps you out now and again by pinpointing Akrid locations. The mandatory 10 minute installation before you can play the game is also a little disappointing. It didn't really bother me, but if you want to get straight into the game, you've been warned.

All in all, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition feels like a hardened old-skool title wrapped up in some lavish next-gen visuals that have unfortunately lost much of their sparkle in the port to PS3. Annoyances with the difficulty spikes are likely to mar the enjoyment for a fair few players and it's hard to recommend this over the far more polished Xbox 360 game.

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