What's the story behind the icy wasteland from which Lost Planet takes its name? No one really knows. Not even the fantastically named Wayne, furry jacket-sporting hero of Lost Planet. Seriously, he doesn't have the foggiest clue what's going on - his memory has been wiped, y'see.

But he does remember his father getting sliced into untidy little squares by the Akrids, the collective name for the enormous insect-beings that populate the planet. He's also remembered that he's got some really big guns as well, so he's put two and two together and come up with... the concept of running around blowing them up in a third-person shooter. And that's the right answer.

The planet is as hostile as it is cold however, teeming as it is with over 20 different types of Akrid, none of which would look out of place in the movie Starship Troopers - from flying manta ray-stylised beasts with stingers to match, to horrific land-based beasts that wouldn't think twice about shoving their mandibles up parts of you that you haven't even seen before.

You're not alone against these thorax-sporting turds, however - you're accompanied by a group of rebel survivors known as the 'Snow Pirates', who don't seem to actively get involved much from the action scenes we've seen (although we reckon squad battles are very much a possibility, especially with a 32-player online mode mooted), but they do help out by providing you with 'virtual suits'.