One of the biggest complaints about Konami's Lost in Blue series is that the games feel like too much work. If you weren't working your butt off in order to ensure your own survival, you were probably leading a vision-impaired girl around the island or doing some other sort of menial task.

Gamers don't necessarily mind doing "chores" in games -- if so, titles like Harvest Moon wouldn't exist. The work and play needs to be at least somewhat balanced, though, for a game to succeed.

Fortunately, it seems like Konami has come to realize this, and the third installment of the series will show improvement over its predecessors (and not just artistically). A new game page for the title claims that time will be equally spent exploring the island for fun and ... well ... doing survival stuff. Lost in Blue 3 will also include over twenty minigames if you're looking for other ways to break up your daily tasks.

There will be four playable characters in the game. You choose one character at the beginning to control throughout, and that person's attributes will affect the gameplay (this is something we've see before, but this time you get more characters to choose from). All in all, we think Lost in Blue 3 is shaping up nicely and might be the best game in the series yet. To check out some news screens of the upcoming survival sim (which will be released in America this month on the 18th), make sure you check out the gallery below.



[Via CVG]