Will be going again later today

It’s run by an enthusiastic bunch who are neither Sony nor Media Molecule, so there’s little point grilling them. Though there’s plenty of PS3s, the sound is off so they can play generic club music. Hmmph.

The PS3s are not running the final Gold version it appears - there’s debug information in the corner and still some significant flaws in the pod and during creation. Gameplay is rock solid though.

And it was gameplay that was the surprise - the levels can be astonishingly sophisticated considering the simple toolset, and some are very long. There’s loads of hidden stuff to find, toys to play with, but the biggest (and best) impression I was left with was that the levels are far from trivial - some have really hard sections.

It’s really, really impressive, but a note of caution: there is a limit to the “everything is made with the built-in tools” claim. The levels certainly seem to be made (and are editable) with th built-in tools, but many of the objects in those levels, and the decorations you can apply to your own objects, certainly CANNOT be created in-game.

That classic LBP object from many videos, the bowl of chillis, is a case in point - you can’t make the bowl; you can’t make the chillis. What you CAN make is almost any shape cut-out, extruded to one of four thicknesses. You can stick any number of these together in three planes, apply different materials to them and even edit the position of each and every corner node… but only in the one plane. You can’t make a sphere, or a cylinder that isn’t end-on (if you see what I mean).

Having said that, the editting tools are hard enough to use successfully as it is. I really don’t see how full 3D object mesh creation could be delivered to the masses in a simple form.
In summary, a really good game that’s going to have an extraordinary future once people with real skills start using it. In that respect, it’s really a lot closer to modelling clay than Lego.

[ http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2008/09/19/win-lbp-swag/ ]

BFN,

fp.

Q: What has a hazelnut in every bite?
A: Squirrel sh!t.

PS. With “LittleBigPlanet” (now) being seeing a UK release date of 24 October 2008, do you think either “Far Cry 2″ or “Midnight Club: Los Angeles” will see any high street sales that week?

BFN,

fp.

*leaves you an extra nutty present :)”

[ http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3169997 ]
—
1UP News

LittleBigPlanet’s SackBoy Coming to Pain

We predict you’re going to feel like a jerk flinging this cute, little guy around.
By Philip Kollar, 09/17/2008

We had previously heard how God of War’s Kratos and Heavenly Sword’s Nariko will be making special appearances as preorder bonuses in LittleBigPlanet. What we didn’t know is how that game’s adorable mascot, SackBoy (pictured here), will also be checking into another PlayStation 3 game.

The latest issue of Game Informer reports that SackBoy will appear as a bonus character at some point in the future for the PlayStation Network downloadable title Pain. Though the magazine doesn’t provide any information on when or how SackBoy will be made available, we can already hear the cringes and gasps PS3 owners will be making as they whip the poor guy into various death traps to rack up points.

Upon hearing the news about SackBoy’s journey to Pain, Nick Suttner, the author of 1UP’s review of the downloadable game, immediately raised the score three grades and proclaimed Pain his runner-up game of the year. Behind LittleBigPlanet, of course.
—

BFN,

fp.

Fantastic that Manchester gets some love for a change

I’m not that clever I can see into the future.

I used to have an incontinent pet dog that did that.

(Left presents for people)

Does that mean if you do see the folk (or just the female [Emily?] with the “cute sackboy” craving) that you won’t leave her a present?

The name Emily originated as a French name, didn’t it?

If it is Emily who you’ll meet you could always leave her a letter.

(I really need to get out more)

BFN,

fp.