Chromehounds: single-player hands-on

It's almost three o'clock in the morning, and you know you ought to get some sleep, but if you can just find a way to shed some more tonnage from your colossal steel monster, there might be some room to strap a fourth or fifth machine gun on there. Tweaking the variety of cannon ammunition to a lighter grade, sacrificing some firepower for weight loss, grants you the few precious pounds you need to add that final weapon... now you really should go to bed, but you have to test your giant robot out in the proving grounds first. You just have to.

This is the kind of situation you're sure to find yourself grappling with if you get a chance to monkey around with the brutally deep, mech-crafting tools in Chromehounds. It's an old equation: the more engrossing the game is, the less sleep/socializing/dinner you're going to get... and Chromehounds seems be one of those games that will devour your entire life if you're into giant robots.

Granted, for most people, that's a big "if," and the average gamer may gloss over the incredibly nuanced, remarkably complicated robot creation tools in order to get right into the mech-fragging. But those with a passion for steel goliath building will be more than satisfied with both the expansive menu of shell throwers and the variety of customizable skins you can slap over your Hound to make it distinctive to you alone. Sega isn't joking when they say that Hounds are like snowflakes with no two exactly alike - as you build your metal monstrosity, each part bolts on in a variety of ways.