The much hyped and potential system-selling PS3 game is upon us. First unveiled at GDC (Game Developer’s Conference) 2007, the game stood out from the crowd and has since been one of the most popular and hyped games for the PS3. Around 18 months later and the game hit stores around the world (after several delays I might add). Delays aside however, the hype has been completely justified, and LittleBigPlanet is one of the most original, fresh and enjoyable gaming experiences around.

Good Points:
Beautiful visuals fill the world with charm
Simple controls make gameplay fun and accessible
Creation system is deep and allows for imagination to run wild
Replayability potential is high with the focus on community content

Bad points:
Automatic switching between layers while playing can become a pain
Making a great level can take days so a lot of players won’t bother with it
Single player mode is quite short

“Play. Create. Share.” That’s the way LittleBigPlanet works, and it’s one of the taglines used for the game. I’ll start with Play, as that’s mainly what you’ll be doing. You take control of an adorable little being called Sackboy (or Sackgirl), and his main role in life is to navigate his way through levels using what starts off as simple platforming, but eventually gets quite complicated. LittleBigPlanet is essentially a platform game, but it’s a game based entirely on a brilliant physics engine.

After loading up your game for the first time, you’ll be greeted by an introduction. You’ll be shown the very basics of movement, showing emotions with your Sackboy and how to dress him up, all wonderfully voiced by Stephen Fry. You run through this intro left to right, and as you do the Media Molecule team will pop up behind you in a manner of different ways. It’s essentially part mini-tutorial, part playable credits. Soon after this you’ll be dropped into your Pod, which is the hub where you’ll spend some of your time. It’s here where you can access the three planets that’ll you be spending the rest of your time in. First off is the InfoMoon, which contains the basic things such as your favourite levels as well as ones you’ve made, your friends list, and the news page. The next planet I’ll go to is My Moon, which is where you go to create your own levels. Finally, the third planet is LittleBigPlanet, where you can choose to play Story Levels, Cool Levels (online stuff), and Quick Play, which joins you up with some people online, picks a random level and lets you do whatever you want.

The Story Mode is where the game makes you go first, as you have to finish a few levels before the game lets you access the InfoMoon and My Moon, which to be fair was something I found slightly annoying. The Story consists of 54 levels in total (not including the Introduction which you can repeat at any time), and although there were originally supposed to be 60+, 54 still doesn’t seem too bad, right? Well, technically there’s even less than that. While there may be 54 levels, 29 of them are actually mini-games/challenges designed for quick bursts of play with friends. While that’s fair enough, having over half of the final amount of “Story” levels as mini-games was more than a bit disappointing in the end. That said, the full length story levels that are present are so wonderfully crafted and great to play that in the end, that would have been worth the £40 on their own. The imagination shines out from the screen when you play through these levels, and the most impressive thing is that all of the levels in the game were made in the creator which is included in the game. It’s only when you go into the creator yourself and try to make something good where it really hits you how much time and effort was put into making those levels. The levels are designed on three different layers, which allows for some interesting landscapes. You may be running on the back layer and then the back and middle layers are blocked off, and you have to move forward on the front layer. If you just carry on running right into the wall for a split second, the game will work that out and automatically put you into the front layer. Useful yes? In most cases sure, but there’s a few situations where you try to jump a gap and expect the game to put you onto the layer with the bridge in it, and it doesn’t do it, sending your Sackboy into a fiery death. There’s also other cases where you may be on the front or middle row, and someone has made a ledge for scenery on the back row. You want to continue running right, but when you try and jump across, the game puts you onto the ledge on the back row where you don’t want to be, so you have to manually get back to the front row and try again. It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s usually quite annoying when it does. Still, that doesn’t tamper with the fact that the levels are brilliantly imaginative and fun to play.

To get through these fantastic levels though, you’ll need to know how, and luckily the controls are simple. The left analogue stick is used to run left and right, and it’s also used in conjuction with X in some situations to move between different layers. X is used for jumping, and R1 is used to grab onto things. That’s it really in terms of playing through levels. The only other button you’ll be using is the square button, which brings up the Popit menu. This little thing is where all of your stickers, accessories, favourite items and costumes are kept. You can also type out text messages and they’ll pop up at the top of the screen (useful if you don’t have a PS3 headset in multiplayer). There’s also a retry button, which means that if you get stuck, hold in this button with X and your little Sack friend will get all angry and explode, and you’ll be sent back to the last checkpoint. Another thing you can do is use the directional buttons (D-pad), to controls Sackboy’s emotions. There are four different emotions, Happy (up), Angry (right), Sad (down) and Scared (left), and each one has three varying degrees of intensity. Tap up once and your Sackboy’s smile will get a bit bigger. Tap it again and he’ll have a big grin on his face with his mouth open. Tap it a third time and he’ll have his mouth wide open with his tongue sticking out. Tap up a fourth and final time and he’ll be set back to the default expression. One final thing to do with controls is being able to slap other Sackboys. The L2 and R2 buttons control Sackboys arms if you hold them in, and at this point you can use the left and right analogue sticks to wave Sackboy’s arms about. If there’s another Sack person standing to your left, grab hold of your left arm with L2, pull the left analogue stick to the right, then flick it over to the left. It’s sounds overly complicated to do, but it’s quite simple, and done out of nowhere can send laughs through a group of friends.

Speaking of friends, this is what LittleBigPlanet was built around. Sure you can play through the story levels on your own and it’ll still be a great experience, but playing through them with three other people over the PlayStation Network, or even better in the same room, is simply much more fun. You can also play through the levels online with random people, and while the company is still appreciated, it doesn’t beat the fun of playing with a group of friends in the same room.

Moving on, the next thing on the list is Create. My Moon is where you’ll find the creation tools, and when you decide to make a level, you can choose a template if you want. Most people won’t use a template, and I’d recommend not to actually because in a way it hinders you. The main reason people pick a template is because they may want a certain background. When you play through the story levels, once you get to a new area, you unlock the background for that area in the creator. So if you want to use that background and you haven’t got there in the story yet, you’ll have to pick the template you want and delete everything in the level first, which is quite a pain to do. When you first go into the creator, if you try to place practically anything, you’ll have to go into a tutorial on how to use it. The good thing about this is that most people will actually want to do the tutorials as they’re incredibly helpful. The downside is that they compulsory, so if you want to use that particular object or tool, then the game won’t let you until you’ve done the tutorial for it. It seems odd, but it works out better in the long run because then you’ll know how to actually use everything when you get to properly start to make a level.

It’s hard to explain the creation tools because they’re just so deep. With the right mindset, enough time, and a big imagination, the things that you can make in the creator are limitless. As shown in the story levels, variety of things you can do with one simple tool, if you think outside the box a bit, are astounding. There have already been some fantastic levels made by people in the LittleBigPlanet community, and I’m sure the day will come when some levels will be of such a quality that they rival the story levels. While this may make you think “Wow, once I’ve done the story levels there’s hundreds more great levels to play online made by other people!”, that’s not strictly true. Sure there’s hundreds of levels, but only a handful are brilliant, which in a way is to be expected, but also could eventually be the downside to the LittleBigPlanet community.

Share is the online experience, and as I say, one of the most promising things about the game may eventually be its downfall. Having to sift through all of the short, boring and dull levels made by bored players for the sake of it can get tiresome, and the small amount of great levels worth playing doesn’t really make up for it. The community can only hope that the certain users that have made brilliant levels so far continue to make great levels, or better yet, new users follow suit and spend the time making levels too. This is partially resolved in a way though. Whenever you finish playing a level, you have to give the level a rating out of 5 stars, and as an option you can then ‘tag’ a level with a word that you think fits the level. The highest rated levels get pushed towards the front pages of levels, and the lower rated stuff get’s shifted back into the abyss of bad levels. The 3-4 most popular tags selected for the level will then show up in the level description, which gives people a basic idea of what to expect. You can also “heart” levels and users, who then get put into your hearted list, which is essentially your favourites.

It’d be wrong to expect everyone to come out with some high standard levels, but a few more would certainly liven up the selection of levels a bit. I myself have spend many an hour in the creator only to come out with quite poor stuff, so it just depends really. The variety of levels that people have made though is great. Obviously there are the standard platforming levels, but one of my favourite types of levels are the musical levels. The basic idea is that you go into the level and get onto a slow-moving vehicle with a sensor on it. As this sensor goes past some switches, those switches activate some music sounds, and some people have managed to recreate some amazing instrumentals using this design. It takes a long time, but the end result is worth it.

The actual graphics of the game itself are astounding too. Everything in the world of LittleBigPlanet is made out of real-world materials that have been beautifully rendered and put into the game for everyone to see and use. It gives the game a really organic feel, and that’s definitely a good thing because it doesn’t appeal to any key demographic. The physics engine in the game really gives the world a great feel, as everything has its own weight, and it’s all incredibly convincing. The soundtrack is also of very high quality, with some songs that will just play from start to finish, but also some original songs composed by the team who made the game themselves. The best thing about those songs is that, in the creator, the songs themselves are split into about six parts. Rather than just having a song that plays from start to finish, the team have made it so that you can pick and choose what parts of the song will actually be playing, so you can customise how the songs plays throughout your level while still maintaining the overall theme.

Overall, LittleBigPlanet is a triumph. It manages to succeed in what it tried to achieve in trying to create an accessible game for all ages. On top of that, it then allows people with a bit more time on their hands to create more content for everyone to enjoy. Top that off with a variety of incredibly enjoyable story levels, and multiplayer orientated challenge levels and you’ve got a winner. There’s also weekly downloadable content, which although is only new costumes for your Sackboy at the moment, there’s no reason why they couldn’t add new story levels or items for the creator into the mix. The potential for replayability is definitely there. While the story levels won’t last overly long if you just run through them, there are lots of prizes to collect throughout the levels, some of which you can only collect if you are playing with two, three or four players. There’s also trophy support for this game, and one particular one wants you to finish every story level without dieing, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

LittleBigPlanet is the first of its kind, and I hope that it keeps on going and going. Whether that be in the form of a sequel, an on-disc expansion, or extensive downloadable content, this is one game that really shouldn’t be missed, and most definitely shouldn’t be left behind.

Score: 4.5/5

The release date has been set back from Friday 24th October, to Wednesday 5th November over fears of causing offence to Muslims and members of the Islamic faith.

One of the background songs in the game containt 2 verses from the Koran, set to music. This is found to be very offensive by Muslims, who see the Koran as coming directly from God.

Sony has apologised for any offence that it may have caused from the use of this song, and has recalled all copies and issued a new version that no longer contains the afrementioned Song.

This comes after similar trouble in June of 2007, where Sony had to apologise for part of it’s PS3 release title, Resistance:Fall of Man, featuring a gun fight within the walls of Manchester Cathedral.

A Quick Overview:

It may not be the best hand-held media product on the market, and the games lack the innovation of those for Nintendo’s portables, but as an all-in-one device, the Sony PSP is king of the hill. After a decade at the top of the home console industry, Sony decided to tackle the portable system market — one heavily fortified by Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance and the DS. Sony sought to take down Nintendo by adopting the tactic that made the Playstation 2 such a runaway success: by offering sophisticated, graphically intensive games and a heavy dose of multimedia functionality. The Sony PSP was first available online in a number of bundles. Two of the most common were the base model pack, which is just the console, battery and the AC adaptor, for around £150, and the Giga pack – which usually has a carry case, a pair of headphones and a 1GB Memory Stick Duo – for around £200. Games are around £30 and UMD movies around £17 for the latest titles

Design:

From an aesthetic perspective, the Sony PSP is a gorgeous device. It was one of the gadgets that I knew I had to have. It was the sort of thing – like with a new laptop – that you love to use, but are scared to break; fortunately, a simple neoprene slip cover was included with the £180 Value Pack. Weighing essentially the same as the Nintendo DS (176g, including removable battery) and measuring 170 by 74 by 23 mm, the body feels well built and solid in your hand. Although not a lightweight, it was by no means a brick, nor was it especially durable in a fall; you’ll want to treat the PSP just as gingerly as an iPod or a Palm-style PDA.

The centrepiece of the hand-held is especially impressive with a 109mm (4.3-inch) wide-screen display (480×272 pixels, 16.7 million colours). The screen is flanked by controls that are immediately recognisable to fans of past PlayStations: the directional keypad is to the left of the screen, and the familiar square, triangle, circle, and X buttons are to the right. Sony managed to include an analogue ‘joystick’ below the directional keypad. The stick wasn’t raised like the analogue controls on a PS2 or an Xbox, but it conveyed that multi directional element that gives it a joystick-like feel. The PSP only has two shoulder buttons but – due to the redesign of all the games for the new disks, and the fact that most companies simply brought out an exclusive PSP version of their games – this is not a problem.

The PSP uses Sony’s recently created ‘cross media bar’ interface. You use the directional keypad to horizontally navigate through Settings, Photo, Music, Video, and Game icons, and each section has other icons attached to it on a vertical axis. All in all, it’s a simple and elegant way to access the PSP’s many features.

The Slim & Lite:

In keeping with both the PlayStation and the PS2, 2 years after the release of the PSP Sony announced the new Slim and Lite.Sony decreased the weight of the PSP by 33% and made it 19% smaller.

33% is a reasonable weight decrease but 19% smaller? 19%?! Surely Sony could do better than 19% – and if not, why did they bother to develop the ‘Slim and Lite’. It doesn’t get better, either. Theres no longer a slide release for the UMD drive and the back of the hand-held is now made of plastic instead of the cool metal. The only new addition to the PSP is a TV out port – but no cable is supplied.

Personally I would place the PSP above the Nintendo DS any day, but in the reduction of their consoles’ size, Nintendo did a great job turning the DS into the DS Lite putting Sony well and truly in the shade with their attempt. If I were to look at buying a PSP now I would take myself to the gym and pump some iron so I could suffer the 33% extra weight and the insane 19% extra size (18% of which is the loss of the slide key) and save myself £70 with an original PSP from our favourite website ebay.

Summary:

Normally I’m not someone who rushes out to buy all the latest things like iphones and PS3′s, being a typically poor student with stingy parents I prefer to wait until the price is lowered. However with the PSP I bought it within a few months of it coming out. I know I’m not the only person who did that and now after over 2 years I am still not disappointed with the PSP. Its value in long journeys is unparalleled, the freedom to simply pass away the hours in a car or plane journey by sitting back with a few hours of Burnout or GTA, followed by a good film is fantastic – especially as it all fits in your coat pocket (trouser pocket would seem a tad risky what with the aforementioned fragility of the device).

The Sony PSP is in a class of its own and I would recommend it to anyone (except for maybe Satoru Iwata) and as much as I think it could be better in many small ways, for its sheer breakthrough genius at the time it was released. I give it a full 5 out of 5

Score: 5/5

Styles: 40GB.

Release date: Out Now

Creator: Sony

The Sony Playstation 3 had a shaky start when it was released back in March 2007. It had missed the perfect launch ramp of Christmas 2006, and as such, had a depleted game base to start with, something that hit it hard when compared with it’s main rival’s, the Xbox 360, game library. The 360 had been out for a year, and the motion sensing of the Wii had created unimaginable hype amongst casual gamers. On top of which, the high specifications of the PS3, whilst meaning an amazing future ahead, slowed it down considerably with a weighty price (£425), and a system that developers needed to get used to before they could create some real gaming gems.

Luckily, the PS3 has found its feet and is really starting to show what it can do. Many argue that whilst advertised as predominantly a gaming machine, it is a multi-media station. Whilst this could have been said to be true during the game drought of summer 2007, this is no longer true. The console is bringing out a whole lot of new games, and this started back around September, with the arrival of Heavenly Sword. The game was too short but had high production values, and was a fun game. Insomniac’s new Ratchet and Clank soon saw daylight afterwards, followed by Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, from Insomniac’s rival/friend Naughty Dog, a stunning game that is recommended for anyone who has or is planning to purchase the console. Lair was also released, disappointing to some, but it was the first game to be playable on the Playstation Portable, via the Remote Play feature of the PS3. These were just the exclusives, as the Multi-Platform stunner Call of Duty 4 was released, along with Assassin’s Creed, Guitar Hero 3, The Orange Box and more recently, Burnout Paradise.

The PS3 is now running it’s race, as a console that I believe will last for many years to come, a future-proofed, multi-media gaming platform. So lets discuss features. What are these multi-media effects that people are getting excited over? The console features the ability to play music and movies, either through CD, DVD or the High Definition Blu-ray Disc (more later). On top of which, it can play them via a USB storage device, such as an Ipod, MP3 player, phone or flash-stick. The original 60GB model also had memory stick slots to make transfers from cameras, phones and PSPs easier, although this has been dropped in favour of a lower price. It can also store photos, which can be viewed normally, or through a stylish, but ultimately pointless, ‘tabletop’ slideshow.

The console has full Internet access, either through an Ethernet cable, or through it’s built in Wireless (WiFi) receiver. Web pages can be viewed through a browser, and it has capabilities to go on sites such as Youtube, and play the videos competently. On top of this, it can connect to the PSP through ‘Remote Play’. This allows the user to connect to their PS3 from anywhere in the world over the Internet, provided you’re near a WiFi hotspot. It can even be turned on. Saved data can be accessed, i.e. movies and music, although games, saved or on disc, cannot. However, Lair has been the first, and so far only, game to be playable through Remote Play, and hopefully games will pick up on this. The Remote Play feature’s main benefit at the moment however, is that you can watch as many movies and listen to as much music as you can save on your PS3, effectively expanding the size of your PSPs memory, if you have one of course.

Now, one of the console’s main features is its online service, the Playstation Network. Many have argued that it doesn’t provide as much as the 360s more established Live service. You can’t chat to friends during games, or access the main menu during a game, without having to leave. However, Sony is working on changing that, with goals such as an in-game XMB (the main menu), in-game music and in-game chat. Currently though, the PSN is fine for what it does, and considering it’s completely free, unlike Xbox Live, it’s not like you can lose out. Friends you pick up in games will stay friends in other games, and can be mailed and talked to, albeit out of game. On top of which, there is the Playstation Store. Updated with new offerings every Thursday, the Store features free downloads, in the form of demos, trailers and wallpapers (for your main menu), and downloads you pay for, such as full games (like Warhawk, a genius online multiplayer) or items for games already owned, (like new songs for Guitar hero 3). Such content keeps games fresh, and gamers entertained, and it will only continue. Sony also plans to bring out movie downloads too, although the extent of this is unknown. What is known is that they plan to launch a Youtube style service, with user created content.

User-created content. This is key with Sony’s plans for the console. Coming soon to the PSN, is Playstation Home. This free download is like The Sims and Second Life. Players are given a character they can design, and an apartment, to furnish and update over time. They can invite friends over to watch movies, or listen to music stored on their hard drive, or go out into a special area for recreation. This will feature mini games, such as bowling and pool, as well as a cinema, with trailers, and potentially full movies and the ‘Sony Youtube’. People can chat, over headsets or through keyboards, and plans to fund through in game advertising could lead to building of new areas to play in, such as maybe an Adidas sponsored shop, with shirts for your avatar, and so on. There will also be a Trophy Room, or Hall of Fame. This will work a lot like Xbox’s Achievements, with gaming records being rewarded with trophies for friends to see. Potentially, you could win new shirts, wallpapers, furniture, or even apartments by doing well in games, depending on how Sony sees things. This should prove a great addition to PSN.

So, lets hear more about user-created content. Sony is touting it, and putting a lot of work into showing they support it. Microsoft’s refusal to let players ‘mod’ the game Unreal tournament 3 on their console, has meant that Sony is ahead, as they plan to embrace the idea. So much so in fact, that their game LittleBigPlanet, due this year, is based around it, with users creating and sharing levels with each others, to be played and rated.

Now then, games. PS3 received a lot of stick at first for their meagre releases of two major games, Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm, before a long drought of any real noticeable games. This year however, may as well be called the Year of the Playstation. The sheer volume of games on release are shocking, especially when contrast with last years stark offerings. There are a ton of exclusives, and plenty of other games to sate anyone’s hunger for gaming madness. Here’s a small list of some major games, these are all due for 2008, but they may take more time to do, so don’t blame us:

• Metal Gear Solid 4
• LittleBigPlanet
• Gran Turismo 5
• Haze
• Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
• Resistance 2
• Area 51: Blacksite
• Killzone 2
• Grand Theft Auto 4
• Final Fantasy 13
• Just Cause 2
• Mercenaries 2
• Afrika

And there are many more besides, some believe over 150 will be released. I don’t know if the number is only the disc based games, but there will also be plenty of downloads coming, hopefully some more games like Warhawk.

My final point is Blu-ray. Some believe this is the key to the Playstation’s success. It is now almost 100% certain that it will win the ‘format war’ against HD-DVD, making it the new format for entertainment. Like DVD replaced VHS, Blu-ray should be the new format for all movies to be based on. Currently, PS3 is the cheapest Blu-ray player that can upgrade itself (a feature needed for some extras on BR discs). With this, and many other features, it is popular amongst those who like their films in the best quality available. The firmware updates that keep Blu-ray up to date, also let Sony upgrade your machine, so features that people want, people may get.

The point is, that this console is future proofed, in every way. Games can be improved, features can be added constantly and it can play the latest media format to be released. It features top end graphics and power, and developers say that so far, even the best games have only tapped 30% of it’s power at most, meaning quality should rise continuously, something we can see when we compare games from the start of the Playstation 2’s reign, to those released at the end. Some will say that £300 is still too much for a console, but this is so much more than a console, and it has the potential to get better and better for years. It’s also worth noting, that recent decreases in hardware cost could mean another price cut, so keep eyes open for any news on that front. All in all, I thoroughly recommend this console, and all it has to offer. It does so much more than play games, and it’s games are still amazing, with huge room to improve over time, until the PS4 is released. If you haven’t already, go and buy one. If you can’t afford it, remember, that may not be for long. Thanks for reading.