Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition -- known around these parts as Lost Planet: Colonies or Lost Planet 1.5 -- has finally been officially announced. The game is a repackaging of the full Lost Planet title, plus a bunch of additional multiplayer and single-player extras. The good news: It'll cost about $30. The bad news: Colonies Edition multiplayer will be incompatible with current Lost Planet games.

Scheduled for a May 27 release on 360 and PC, Colonies mainly adds new, creative multiplayer modes to the original game. Several are based on holding checkpoints and CTF variants. Our favorite, however, lets one gamer control an Akrid, with the others teaming up to try to take down the alien. Different creatures are available, and we recently saw a demo showing how a spindly, player-controlled giant can make quick kills with its swiping legs.

New playable characters, new weapons, and new levels are also added. Many of those are tuned for these alien battles, giving bunkers for humans to hide from the less-mobile aliens. Xbox 360 and PC players can play against each other using paid, Xbox Live gold accounts. Non-paying PC gamers will still be able to play online, but they'll only face other PCs.

Colonies single-player adds a few new ways to navigate the snowy wastelands. Score Attack awards gamers points for dispatching enemies and destructible objects. Another mode lets gamers fight each boss in order, one after another. And an extreme-action setting juices weapons, player speed, and lets gamers plow through, head-first.

All of this seems great for the Lost Planet newbie, but current players will likely balk at buying the game again. Capcom wanted the multiplayer modes to work between the old and new editions, but cited non-specific "technical reasons" for it not happening. And Capcom hasn't announced a PS3 version, so Sony gamers will also miss out on the newfound action.