Lost Planet arrived on my desk from Amazon on Friday morning. In release terms, many people are calling it the closest thing to a stop gap between Gears of War and the forthcoming (and eagerly anticipated) Halo 3. Despite my sometimes serious demeanour, there's nothing I like more when unwinding than killing a few unrecognizable aliens on my XBox 360.

In many respects Lost Planet fits the bill. In others, you can see that there are some serious problems with the game. I should stress, however, that despite the issues, the game is incredibly good fun.