If there’s anything game, comic, or filmmakers have learned repeatedly as of late, it’s that the process of altering a beloved formula will inevitably generate at least a few casualties. People who once loved the property in question will turn their backs on it, be it silently or after broadcasting enflamed pieces of mind throughout the cyber-cosmos. 

When your job is to monitor those cyber-cosmos and report on those flying, flaming pieces of mind–or even when it’s not your job–it’s easy to forget the point: that with change comes new potential. 

Luckily for us, that point is well delivered in the form of VG24/7’s latest hands-on preview of Lost Planet 3.  If you’ve been thinking the latest game in the LP series is looking awfully different than past installments, you’re right. But if you’re thinking that equals a loss, you’ll definitely do yourself well to give this preview a read at the link above.

Previewer Brenna Hillier went into her hands-on session with more than a pinch of apathy, but came out singing the game’s praises and echoing what my colleagues and I have been saying all along–that the game shares more in common with Firefly  than it does with Dead Space .

Some highlights:

“The few hours I spent with the opening chapters presented me with more interesting, well-written characters than in the last half-dozen triple-A releases I’ve played; better banter than I’ve heard outside of a Marvel movie in the last six months; and an itch to get to the bottom of whatever the heck is going on on E.D.N. III.”

“Developers often wank on about how they want the player’s journey and the protagonists’ to have synergy, so that in effect, the two of you make the same journey. Unlike every other instance of this claim I have ever encountered, Lost Planet 3 looks set to live up to it.”

“Apart from BioShock Infinite, which definitely had its share of “oh shut up already” moments, I can’t think of another game in the last few years that hasn’t made me want to mash the skip button with almost every dialogue.”

“From what I saw, Lost Planet 3 offers a sense of place and time rarely equalled in video games. I’m greatly anticipating it.”

And that doesn’t even touch upon all the fun we’ve been having internally with the multiplayer modes. So be excited!

Lost Planet 3 comes out August 27th for PS3, Xbox 360, and yes–PC.