LittleBigPlanet places you in the role of creator - in the most flexible, innovative console game, possibly ever.
LBP lets you take almost anything on the planet, and massively improve it. Cows, for instance. Important for food and clothing, but a bit, well, mundane. But in LBP you can make a cow, cover it in photos of your mates, turn it into rubber and push it off a cliff and count how many times it bounces. In your face, God.
April 14, 2008 sees our first proper hands-on with LBP. We're busy creating a mock wedding, merrily slapping wheels and bunny ears onto an EyeToy photo of ourselves before rolling it down a hill to a chapel, where it will 'marry' a photo of a fellow journo, decorated with shells and vampire fangs. And we're loving every minute.
But that doesn't explain what LBP actually is - it defies pigeonholing. Is it a platformer? Yes - there are stacks of platform-based Story Mode levels, as you leap from one end of the level to the other, avoiding traps. Is it a puzzle game? Yep, it's that too - there are tricky mind-teasers scattered throughout, sometimes involving landscape manipulation or requiring you to co-operate with other players to, say, operate a pulley system. A race game? Well, there's on-foot racing, certainly - one stage sees you desperately trying to outpace a bulldozer that's creeping up behind.
A straightforward points-collector? There are levels like that too. A game creator? LBP is definitely one of those - everything you see in these screens you'll be able to make yourself at home. An FPS? Well, no... but we wouldn't be surprised if devs Media Molecule suddenly unveiled a level based on a fluffier Call Of Duty 4. It's the sort of game where anything feels possible, because - most of the time - it is.
Joy to the world More than that, it's a game that feels like digitized happiness. The sackboys and girls ooze character, smiling, laughing, wincing in pain... they're incredibly charming. You can use the right stick to control their gestures, making them wave and dance on command, while holding p and i and moving the right stick makes them dish out a ferocious slap to the nearest character, sending them flying. It's inherently comic. You'll fall in love with them.
Media Molecule hope LBP will spark an online community who'll make levels and play each other's creations. You can make stages alone or together, which you do by inviting mates - via the PSN - to come and create levels in your LBP 'pod', where you design stages, before making them 'live' on the network.
To encourage community spirit, people can rate each other's levels and leave comments, with the most popular stages topping the LBP leaderboard - "to ensure the good stuff bubbles to the top," MM's Alex Evans says. Levels don't need to exist separately from each other - it's possible to lock them, and place keys to them in other stages. In this way, you can create your own cohesive game and let other people loose in it. "What ships on Blu-ray is only day one of LBP," Alex tells us.
Easy does it Brass tacks, then - how do you actually go about making your own stage? It's got to be complicated, right, looking at the sheer volume and range of objects in these shots? Actually, no - it's a remarkably simple process.
First, you press r. This will bring up your Creation menu, floating above your little sackboy or sackgirl's head. The first thing you'll probably want to do is customise your actual character, and you can do that by using the D-pad to highlight the Character option (the little sackboy icon) and pressing q. In here, you'll find a stack of options - our first sackboy ended up being a bright red, one-eyed, sword-carrying knight with star-shaped sunglasses on, single eye poking between the lenses. The options are manifold, and you can spend ages experimenting.
That done, you'll be wanting to make something. So enter the Creation menu and heading to Objects. You can now create an item of your own, or use one of the many pre-created items - these range from trees to wildlife to signposts and beyond. But it's more fun to design your own masterwork.
To do so, you'll be asked to choose a material to make your new object from - metal, sponge, wood, polystyrene, etc. You can then hold down r and use the left stick to draw, while the triggers allow you to specify your object's depth and which 'layer' of the screen (there are three layers of depth - objects can be placed in any, and your character can run in and out of all three) they'll be placed in.
A quick word on materials - it does make a difference which one you choose. Metals, for instance, are obviously heavier than wood - so if you're expecting your sack-people to be able to pull a big metal object (u grabs onto things) from one place to another, think again. They're only tiny little mites, after all. Best to make it from another material - or just stick some wheels on it so it can roll.
So you've got your object. Now you'll want to decorate it. You'll be given a choice of colour scheme straight after you've chosen your material, but if you want to make a proper work of art (or a total mess), you'll need to use the Stickers menu.
Stick 'em up The stickers are where LBP's creativity really lies. Within the Creation menu is the Stickers option, and there are, again, a million and one to choose from. Burgers, kebab shop signs, lizards, hearts, graffiti... you name it, it's there. Once you've got your sticker chosen, you can push 4 and 6 on the right stick to rotate it, and 8 and 2 to make it smaller or larger. Then you can guide your new sticker to the right place on your object with the left stick, and paste it with q.
But that's not what we mean by creativity. No, to really make a world-beating level, you're going to need a PlayStation Eye. You can use the Eye to take snapshots of yourself - or anything else you fancy - and paste them into your level. This opens up whole new vistas of possibilities - you could photograph your best mate and stick him on a Wanted poster in a cop chase themed level.
You could photograph your cat and your dog, put them on skateboards and place bets with your mates about which one makes it down a hill first. And there's nothing stopping you and a mate slapping your faces on a couple of sackboys (well, actually, you'd have to put your face stickers on a box, and then the boxes on their heads), creating some goals and a football and having a kickabout.
The ability to bring yourself into the game really takes the excitement up another level, and the sheer volume of possibilities is mind-boggling. By the way, there's an easy-to-use tool to allow you to cut around the edges of your photographed subject, so you won't have to have lots of Polaroid-shaped blocks littering your creation. If there's any game that can finally make the Eye - or indeed EyeToy - truly essential, it's this.
Move any mountain Now, then - static items aren't very interesting, are they? Fortunately, you can make them move via a simple series of sliders akin to the face morphing bars in Smackdown. You can alter speed, direction and rotation and, if you've used the bolt icon to connect two items together, you can adjust its level of tightness - which will affect how quickly and smoothly your objects move as a unit. Of course, where you position the bolt is critical, especially when you're trying to make one thing rotate around another - place it wrongly and the rotating object might, for instance, be too top-heavy and end up crashing into the floor.
So now you have your item. And now make loads of others and move them into position with the left stick, scatter some point spheres to collect and slap in a finish line - and you've got yourself a (basic) LBP stage.
We mentioned physics just there. A rock-solid physics engine is at the core of LBP - what would be the point in creating a masterpiece of level design if the actual objects didn't behave properly? None, that's what, so consequently balls will roll down hills realistically (depending on the force they're pushed with and the gradient of the slope), see-saws will only work properly if the balance is placed precisely in the middle of the board, and if you knock over a pile of blocks they'll tumble down in just the same way as they would in real life - but in different ways, depending on whether they're wood, metal, sponge or whatever.
It makes levels thrillingly kinetic, and allows you to anticipate what's going to happen before it does - useful in the heat of the moment, and vital in race levels where it can give you a crucial advantage.
But it's said physics that give cause to the one minor complaint we'd be able to make at LBP. What are your characters made out of? Yes, cloth. How heavy is cloth? Not very. Which means your sackboys are very floaty, often seem to struggle to run or jump up steeper surfaces and, when they've got momentum going, not always easy to stop them at the edge of a platform in time. Obviously, this is exactly the problem a real boy made out of cloth would have were one to magically come into being tomorrow, and you do learn greater control the more you play, but it will put some people off.
Get some friends Oh, there might be one other problem - if you're a solo, net-free gamer then there's almost no point in making levels because you'll have no way of showing them off. Sure, there's a branching Story mode (featuring "pirates, kings, queens and meerkats") with a variety of mission types, and all the stages we played were fun - but playing alone really will rip the heart out of LBP.
Even in Story mode, there are lots of secrets that can only be found by co-operating with other players, so singletons will miss out there too. Co-op and competitive play really is where it's at, four of you playing together on one of your own creations, working together but also trying to outwit each other to grab the most points. MM use the phrase "competitive and co-operative", and the concept works beautifully. They admit that making a great level could take hours or weeks, but the fun of doing so means it doesn't matter.
LBP can be as simple or as deep as you like. If you want to use the labels, it's as appealing to the 'hardcore' gamer as it is to the 'casual'. Frankly, we can't imagine LBP not appealing to a huge majority of gamers - yes, it's almost impossible to categorise, but it's oh-so-easy to love. The internet isn't going to know what hit it.
Grab issue 101 of PSM3 magazine for the full feature, with more new screens and info, and a LittleBigPlanet-themed customisable cover.
PSM3 Staff
// Overview
Verdict
LBP can be a dinky little platformer, or a hugely in-depth, hours-devouring game-creating engine. Whichever you want it to be, it'll be beautiful, polished and one of the rare games that makes you feel joyous inside when you play. If this isn't a hit, then the world truly is a despicably cold-hearted place.
Cannot wait for this, dont think it will do much for the us but hopefully the european and asian markets will boost sales. Looks like a really innovative and fun title from sony.
It'll be another of those games that get great reviews but like Okami and ICO it will probably sell feck all which would be a shame. I hope it does well.
I hadn't been too fussed about LBP prior to reading this preview.
I thoguht it looked pretty but thought it would be the kind of game I would need to get my hands on a demo before I really saw the charm.
However, this preview has really helped me see the potential. This could be great. Not sure how much I will use the level editor myself though, the only time I could be arsed with a level editor was on Revolt on the DC.
I spent about an hour making a track that snaked back and forth and then created the biggest hill I could just before the finish.
The track too about 10 minutes to do most of one lap, then it turned out to be impossible due to the fact that cars couldn't get up enough speed to get over the hill.
So that's the reason I probably won't bother with the editor, myself!
Was really into this 12 months ago, but since then... my interest has just dropped, if there were playable demo's in April 2007 why the 18 month gap till release? Especically if, as they claim, all the levels are being created using the in game creator.
Can you use photos from the PS3 hard drive? or do you have to use the camera? Lets face it.....we'll still get levels plastered in cocks and boobs even if they restrict us to the camera only option.
Is it wrong that all my levels will be filled with cocks and boobs? :wink:
Will this be a straight to PSN release or will it come on disk? Either way I think I'll give this a stab seems like it will be fun plus my gf will like it. She still loves and plays pain. Hope it does well anyway.
I've been waiting for this game to buy a PS3. The delays are killing me....
Will be interesting to see the proportion of 'creative' players. I reckon we're only talking about 10%. But if they sell half a million (I reckon there's potential to go to 1m or 1.5m), and everyone of this 10% posts just one level, that's 50,000 downloadable levels!
Sony are going to have a hell of a time with copyright though.
I have to hold my hands up here, I just don't get LBP. The level of interaction and customisation is pretty cool, but designing levels for little sack cloth characters to play around it just doesn't excite me.
It kinda reminds me of the tech demos Sony usually shows with new consoles, in the sense its cool to look at for a few minutes, but as an actual gaming experience it seems somewhat dull and pointless.
Its worth noting that this isn't really a style of game that interests me, so I might be missing the point of it. Also I'm not knocking the game or PS3 before the fan boys get excited, I'm just saying this isn't my bag.
I really don't get the hype about this game. I am I the only person who thinks it's a bit ironic for a video game to be showing people the fun they can have with just using their imagination and playing around with stuff they find lying around?
That's what we all used to anyway, why bother with a digital version, let's just build a giant sandpit and go crazy! It's cheaper and is likely to be a lot more fun.
Oh, and before someone moans, just because I have a gamercard picture doesn't make me a fanboy, I own all 3 current-gen consoles and whilst Sony have underperformed and overpromised so far, it doesn't make me hate the console. I've just lost faith in Sony and think that the constant shitting on European customers is no longer funny.
Same ere. I think it looks very boring. But u will still get fanboys 'biggin it up'. Like how the 360 fanboys 'big up' viva pinata, even though its the shittest game ever.
What an intellectual discussion this has turned out to be. Why agree with Rob S London's completely innocent comment and fire it up with unnecessary fanboy-baiting bollocks. Congratulations, you're a fool!
The LBP tool is simply amazing. I think it should be mouse aware to make it second nature for non-gamers to create levels. The controller, no matter how easy to use, poses a psychological barrier to them. After the game is released, I hope they can reuse the tools for other purposes - like creating eCards to send to friends on Internet and PSN, making website authoring fun again. It's nice to see this game getting better every time they show it. I wonder what they will do after its released..?
Imo, it certainly seems like the type of game that they could keep improving with DLC without the need for a sequel. Just add more tools and let the community make the content. I am also intrigued by the possibility of user-created trophies/PSN avatar icon using the tool (instead of only developer-created trophies or imported PSN avatars, allow everyone to make 1 trophy = their avatar). These can be used for interesting community building programs to break the ice amongst players, and also encourage MP games.
