We recently plunged headlong into the icy abyss of Lost Planet, a third-person bug-hunting shooter due out later this year. Peering over the shoulder of our hero, an amnesiac soldier named Wayne, we unleashed a barrage of bullets at a swarm of huge, flesh-eating aphids. As we flung a grenade into the source of the enraged beetle-beasts, it erupted in an orchestra of brilliant flames, deafening thunder and charred insect limbs. We paused to enjoy the slight break in tension that seemed as thick as our nearly-frozen blood - simply existing in this frigid wasteland saps one's thermal energy (the number in the upper left of most screens), and one has to collect the residual heat from things like explosions and freshly dead bodies just to stay alive.

Lost Planet turns on an axis of gigantic-sized stuff. The insectoid Akrid (your main enemy) can grow to the size of industrial factories, so you need something sufficiently titanic to fend them off. This is where the humongous mechanized vehicles known as Vital Suits come into play. Essentially giant walking tanks, these hulking metal behemoths dish out tremendous amounts of enemy-melting ordnance while fulfilling that secret desire within us all to pilot giant robots.

As we stomped around the deadly winter wasteland, we shrieked with cruel pleasure at the sight of both Akrid and Ice Pirate forces crumpling beneath the torrent of fire laid down by the twin Gatling guns mounted on the shoulders of our Vital Suit. The absolute best moment, however, was after our Vital Suit succumbed to the elements; we hopped out, tore one of the Gatling guns off of it and trudged on, carrying the colossal weapon by hand.