I think this will be the last of this series, as I’ve covered everything interesting that I can think of. We played some Little Big Planet for the first time on Saturday, and it was a bit overwhelming. They throw you right into the action and start explaining things as you’re wanting to do other things, which makes it easy to miss some of the tutorial stuff.
The game plays decently well – controls are straightforward as one would expect for a platformer, although the surface that you’re moving along generally has 3 different “tracks”, for lack of a better description, ranging from closer to further away. Obstacles and platforms respect these tracks which makes for some interesting little puzzles (moving things in the foreground and the background and then using them as steps, for example). And while I respect the idea and agree that it adds to the gameplay, sometimes moving between the different lanes can be difficult or impossible for no good reason. And sometimes you’ll find the opposite is true – you’ll have switched lanes unintentionally, causing you to end up somewhere you don’t want to be.
But overall it’s good. Customization and creation are the true driving factors here, and the options abound. I haven’t been overly compelled to create any kind of level yet, but the stuff that you can do is truly epic. I am pretty sure that all the different elements within the actual game levels can be recreated with the level editor, which is impressive. What I’ve been enjoying is the levels that people have already created and shared online – my favorite so far has been a marathon level that starts you in a prison cell and lets you gradually work your way out, ending in a police chase! The only major fault I ran into (and I believe Sony has acknowledged this) is that playing online with other people in the same level is incredibly laggy, to the point of being essentially unplayable.
Unfortunate
One of the few other games I’ve been looking forward to trying was Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. I was happy to find a demo available for download, and in retrospect it saved me a bunch of dollars. The game plays fine – there’s not really anything technically wrong with it – but it just felt off. So for now I’ll continue to chip away at LBP when Abe has free time, and explore the user-created stuff when I’m on my own.
Super Summary
The PS3 is a respectable piece of hardware with some really cool and impressive features and interesting games that I still wouldn’t pay $400 – $500 for. That money would get you much farther if spent on an Xbox 360, which has many of the same games and more attractive exclusives.