Sweating and achy from furiously polishing the most innovative and beautiful shooter we are likely to see this year, the makers of Prey have released a salvo of alien infested, mind-twisting shots. Click here to see these multiplatform images. This isn't nearly as exciting as actually getting behind the squishy guns and embracing our deepest xenophobia in the demo set for release on the PC and the Xbox 360 on June 22.

In Prey you'll play as Tommy, a Cherokee mechanic who unlocks his spiritual heritage when he is abducted onto an alien ship along with his girlfriend. As if battling incensed aliens aboard their living, hostile ship wasn't bad enough, you'll face two enemies that are even worse: vertigo and paranoia. Thanks to switchable gravity, disorienting portals and alien sidewalks that don't obey the laws of gravity, you'll be drowning in confusion. 

While we'd love to see more games with the high-quality luster of Prey, we aren't willing to wait nearly this long - Prey has been in the works for nearly a decade. But years and months have suddenly now become weeks and days, and before long, it'll be ours.

June 16, 2006