LittleBigPlanet [PS3]

[Tig]

I finally got around to play this, it was as I feared; Barely a game.

As someone on the verge of dropping a big chunk of cash in order to play this, I'm interested to hear what you mean by that?


From what I've seen so far, this is at worst a "game", and at best some kind of nutty game++...

[Eight Rooks]

<stuff>

Meh. I like what the beta's given me, I'd very much like to buy the full game, the toolset and the distribution channels it offers are very impressive and I'm sure the game could last you a very long time based on the official levels and the best of what becomes available to download. It's just not the second coming, at least not yet. What we're seeing now is (mostly) not a revolution in user-generated content, it's not the new bar in old-school platforming - it's a handful of extremely pretty and highly entertaining, if rather simplistic levels that serve as a taster for the full game, a level editor that's impressive in user-friendliness and scope but still has some frustrating inadequacies/teething troubles and requires a fair amount of work to get great results out of and a deluge of the same old crap that accompanies every new piece of software that promises to empower the end user. Sure, it's nitpicking, but I don't call that moaning - just commenting on how the beta's not perfect, shrugging to myself and saying "Hey, it's a very, very good start, I'm pretty confident the full game improves on this and I'm sure the whole experience will be something amazing before too long".

Sorry I can't go overboard like you, but for me, the user levels are part of the game. It's like Edge marking Spore down for not letting you track your creature as it journeys through other people's gameworlds - given Spore was/is sold heavily on the idea of the game being all about your own personal input and that input propagating throughout the (real) world, if you can't quickly and easily see that for yourself as far as I'm concerned that's a failing of the game. If the official LBP levels were amazing and the editor was ****, that'd be something to mark it down severely over. As it is, the game is being sold as a revolution in user-created content - that's pretty much fact, given half the forums I visit seemed unaware the single-player even existed until recently - and yet the editor in the beta is (somewhat) limited and the game could definitely do more to let you sort through people's levels to distinguish the wheat from the chaff - it doesn't deserve to be harshly criticised for any of this, but I don't think saying "Christ, there's a lot of ****, isn't there? I'm getting a bit tired of this" counts as flooding Metacritic with 1/10 user reviews in advance or anything.

And there I was thinking "Don't bother with a long post". Oh, well. I just feel sometimes the internet wants me to love everything, or hate it, nothing in between, and it winds me up something cruel. Sorry. <shrug>

[Darwock]

Confused by this comment of yours Eight Rooks -

"and if you think the user-created levels so far truly represent the pinnacle of what we're going to see out of LBP in a month or two then you really do need to put down the pixie sticks."

Sounds like you're saying it's got massive potential, since as it's already been said there are some excellent user levels out there already??? (after only 2 weeks no less). Doesn't seem to match with your other opinions.

Anyway I really feel like I am missing out, as I have still been unable to connect to the LBP servers on my Japanese Beta. Am I the only one? Is there any place to leave feedback on the Beta?

I thought each region's user levels were region specific in the beta, but someone just mentioned playing a Japanese titled map (which means someone in Japan CAN connect to the server, and maybe I have a problem?)

[ShadowDancer]

Well..I've just had a 10 hour session and it is a platformer fans wet dream.

The game has so much scope it is breathtaking. I do have a mild orgasm when i think of what can be done with this.

I was underwhelmed with the developer stages..but started playing stages that users have put on and it has been flipping amazing.

I done authors that had a decent level..random stages..high 'hearted' stages and I'm in my element.

I see it as a platformer with run/jump or puzzle elements and then you get the twist with multiplayer.

Of course they're a few things that need ironing out. They're already mentioned though.

I can't wait for this to bloom. It is stunning. SO MUCH SCOPE!

[Eight Rooks]

Confused by this comment of yours Eight Rooks -

"and if you think the user-created levels so far truly represent the pinnacle of what we're going to see out of LBP in a month or two then you really do need to put down the pixie sticks."

Sounds like you're saying it's got massive potential, since as it's already been said there are some excellent user levels out there already??? (after only 2 weeks no less). Doesn't seem to match with your other opinions.

World of Colour and Platformer Pandemonium are very good, but they're not excellent. The Sky Pirates level is not excellent. The calculator is not a level. All these things are worth getting excited over, just not... that excited. I think two months after release, hell, probably a month or even less, people will create things that'll comfortably eclipse anything made with the beta so far. It's blatantly obvious there's massive, massive room for improvement in just about anything I've seen browsing through the DLC so far. So if you're foaming at the mouth about anything that's there right now, I guess you may as well put the plastic sheeting up on your ceiling for when your head explodes come mid-November.

[mastercom4]

a few questions about the online level creation...

firstly, will there/is there a ranking system to determine which levels have been voted as the best? i have ran into a couple of ****ty levels to be honest

secondly, how much of the level creation is actually user created? do you get to add text of the characters in your levels? i came across some funny dialogue earlier and was wondering if this was user generated

and by the way....there seems to be soooooooo much scope for the created levels...unbelievably. I cant wait to see what phenomena this game has created in a years time!

[Matt]

As someone on the verge of dropping a big chunk of cash in order to play this, I'm interested to hear what you mean by that?


From what I've seen so far, this is at worst a "game", and at best some kind of nutty game++...

It's a quality platform game. If you like platformers, you'll like this. It's got potentially massive scope for level design. Add in bags of charm and the best character design I've seen in a game, it's worth getting a PS3 for - the missus, who plays a game about once every 3 years (the last being PSP Lumines), wants me to get an extra pad so we can co-op through the game!

Every time I put it on, it brings a smile to my face. This is echoed by many around here. If you're unsure, wait until it's out and grab a demo in store

[Darwock]

Just in case my question gets lost, has anyone managed to get the Japanese beta connected online? It's been offline for me since installing last Sunday and there are only three days left of the beta...

[Matt]

a few questions about the online level creation...

firstly, will there/is there a ranking system to determine which levels have been voted as the best? i have ran into a couple of ****ty levels to be honest

secondly, how much of the level creation is actually user created? do you get to add text of the characters in your levels? i came across some funny dialogue earlier and was wondering if this was user generated

and by the way....there seems to be soooooooo much scope for the created levels...unbelievably. I cant wait to see what phenomena this game has created in a years time!

1 - what we're seeing is the most played levels on Tier 1 (whatever it's called). Press R1 to cycle to the next Tier, etc. There are already many great "lost" maps out there. It's basically what you see online in all Top 10 list type of things - casual users click number 1 on the list, which keeps it at number 1. A filter system would be great, say searching by Heart ratio. You can search by player keywords, like "Brilliant", which is helpful. The best bet right now is to see what levels your friends have Hearted. I've got a guy from GAF called CoolLevels on my Friends List, he's going through as many maps as he can and rating them. I can see what maps he's Hearted, play them myself, then Heart them if I like them. There's a lot of very basic levels out there that shouldn't have been published, and some really impressive ones waiting to be discovered

2 - you can add dialogue, yes. Pretty much everything is user created other than materials. There are quite a few materials in the beta, but check out vids of the full editor in action to see a load more. There's a whole category of Metals that I can't wait to play with

[ShadowDancer]

Just finished the night on two retro levels..sonic..green hill 2 and donkey kong. I am absolutely buzzing. If this is just touching on what is in store..we are in for one hell of a treat that will grow and grow. Something honestly deserving of being massive. I really hope it is.

[Eight Rooks]

If you're unsure, wait until it's out and grab a demo in store

For these people who haven't got into the beta, has there actually been any official word yet on MM turning it into a demo? Or was that only a rumour?

[Darwock]

Just in case my question gets lost, has anyone managed to get the Japanese beta connected online? It's been offline for me since installing last Sunday and there are only three days left of the beta...

I found the answer on gamefaqs of all places.

The game won't let you sign in unless it displays the EULA agreement, and in the Japanese beta it won't display the EULA agreement unless your console language is set to Japanese. Moronic.

[Darwock]

OK, now that I've played it online I'm way more excited about this! I was doing a co-op session with some random guy - he kept choosing levels for us to go into, so I tried a few user ones. Some absolutely hilarious moments.. for example there is a pinball level where you are supposed to ride inside a 'ball' and get fired around the level. The launcher was a little bit broken, and our ball kept getting stuck underneath it. So the two of us were working together to try and haul it back up onto the launcher.. end result was the two sackboys got fired around the level without being inside the ball!

It's pretty annoying that I can't connect unless it's in Japanese as I couldn't figure out all the options, but I had a look at the friends list options - couldn't see if any of you had levels created or not though.

[sailor-fuku]

Managed to snag a code from USA Today last night - With only just played through the first 2 single player levels ( Pin the tail on the donkey .. ), and with watching a few vids allready posted here, i'm in awe at what the possibility's are..it's an insta-buy off me...

[EvilBoris]

As someone on the verge of dropping a big chunk of cash in order to play this, I'm interested to hear what you mean by that?


From what I've seen so far, this is at worst a "game", and at best some kind of nutty game++...

To me it seems that there are no actual gameplay mechanics here, there are amusing little visual gags and it's all very cute and weird, But You really just run from one side of the screen to the other, there is no momentum and little in the way of challenge of threat. Even when you do think you can run through a level nice and quick you are restricted by some clumsy controls.

I'll admit I've never been had the most optimism for this game since I first read about it, but most of the time I feel like I'm 'playing' an interactive credit sequence.
It all seems very gimicky and I feel that most of the work has gone into a very intricate and complex level editor (which really is fantastic) but once you have built something there is no fun to be had within the level.

If the game had some kind of lovely combo system or something else you could actually do within the level, then perhaps it would be a bit more tolerable.
You could have just as much fun (or not) making a map and placing some objects in a Tony Hawk's skate park maker then running around it pushing over some barrels and climbing on some crates. Without the skateboard and the actual mechanics revolving around the control scheme and score system it would be a little pish.