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LittleBigPlanet Beta Impressions #2

by machofantastico

LittleBigPlanet Beta Impressions #2 IT'S LIKE BEING BACK IN ART CLASS, BUT FUN! Well I have finally got around to writing up more impressions on the fantastic LittleBigPlanet Beta currently in full swing to a much wider group of audience then ever before. Even though this is still classed as a 'Beta' it is starting to feel more like a Demo everyday, this is of course a good thing though to be f...

LittleBigPlanet Beta Impressions #2











IT'S LIKE BEING BACK IN ART CLASS, BUT FUN!

Well I have finally got around to writing up more impressions on the fantastic LittleBigPlanet Beta currently in full swing to a much wider group of audience then ever before. Even though this is still classed as a 'Beta' it is starting to feel more like a Demo everyday, this is of course a good thing though to be fair there is still a large amount who haven't been able to pick up a beta key yet. But it's not like there haven't been enough chances, Beta Key giveaways seem to be happening on a daily basis now and I have already been able to pick up two spare keys with which I gave to friends looking to be part of this very special game's beta. But that's not what I wanted to talk about, I've now been part of the beta for a little while now and I wanted to talk a bit more about my continued experience with the game and how I have a deep feeling that this game will suck up my time almost as much as World of Warcraft did a few years back.

WE GIVE YOU THE TOOLS, YOU CREATE THE LEVELS!

I've been spending way to much time with LBP's stunning creation tools. You might have watched hours of footage involving the creation mode but you haven't experienced anything until you actually get your hands on it. Honestly this is why I wanted to get into the beta in the first place, so I could get use to the many cool tools on offer so I was prepared to create fantastic full levels when the game gets released later this month (21st for US, 24th for EU). The tools on offer are varied and can be overwhelming at first, but once you start messing around with what they can do (using many of the tool's 'Tweak' menu) you'll start to get the hang of them and even start doing all sorts of weird experiments that would have made both your Science and Art teachers proud. Speaking of Art, creating things in the creation mode very much reminded me of my time spent in Art Class a few years back when I was at Secondary School. It does indeed feel very much like that, except creating stuff in LBP is a hell of a lot more fun then seeing your teacher disapproving anything you do in your art class until you decide to just use the lesson to relax and talk about games. Anyway, where was I again? 

The tools avaliable are varied and very excessable, for instance the fantastic Piston tool which simply allows you to get things on the move using a Piston mechanic system that is as simple to use as a Nintendo Wii remote or the ever useful object cutter which you'll be using most of the time. I won't go into the details of the tools on offer here because thats taking away much of the fun that's to be found in LittleBigPlanet. But know that they are a blast and can be very powerful in the right hands, there are already some amazing levels out there and some mechanical machines that I still have no idea how the creator created them. But that's also one of the great things about LBP, your always imagining creations be them evil killer robots made of wood or how to finally solve that small but possibly level destroying bug on your level. Your always using your mind, even if that is to experiment and find out how that level creator made that rotating fireball or just to have some gaming fun. It's just not that much fun to simply go and ask how they made it, why not mess around in the creation mode and try and solve the puzzle on how to make it yourself. That's what makes LBP Creation mode so powerful and so much fun, there are limitless ideas running through your skull that can actualy be made.

Don't expect to go into LBP's Creation Mode and create things in a couple of minutes. You can do that of course but the level wouldn't be that much fun for anyone else playing your level so if you want to be a LBP Community legend you'll want to spend the time to create fun and creative levels that will take you sometime to build. For example, my first level (called 'who knew that Monkey had a soul!') was a very very rough beta level that took me just under two days. I'll admit I lost patience with the level in the end so kind of gave up on it near the end to start building something a little more special. Patience will also be needed, the tools on offer here are suited for those who want to take the time to create wonderful levels but can also be used by those who just want to create a fun quicky with friends on PSN. Not enough can be said for the Creation's best and most important feature, the amazing Undo Rewind Mechanic that allows you to undo mistakes you make in your level and let me tell you my friend, you'll be making a good few mistakes that could even end up destroying a level. It would have been madness if this feature didn't appear in LBP, imagine the anger and frustration at spending days on a level just to see it destroyed by one simple mistake and unable to undo the mistake. You may not realise it yet, but when you do start creating this feature will be a godsend. 

There are some limitations to be found though, these are not all bad though and just require you to use your brain in advance when building a level. It's better to see your level as blocks (of the material you use) rather then a whole big block with which you build your level within. This is because the creation mode can find certain blocks (if they have been cut, sliced and diced endlessly) to hard to calculate and it understands that it would affect the performance of your level so stops you doing anymore changes to it with a nice little message. At first these messages can seem like a killjoy but don't worry, they make total sense and who knows? maybe this message is only for the beta which is more then possible but we will have to wait and see. But despite this it's hard to describe how powerful these tools are, you can create anything you want. It's not a Garry's Mod situation where your given a set amount of items to build with (I do love GMOD tho), but instead you get Materials which are used in conjunction with the shapes to make anything you ever wanted. Want to design a talking insane monkey, then you can do that. The tools are very powerful which means that if you are a bit of a perfectionist like myself then you might find youself spending hours on one part of your level alone not to mention the hours spent working on the rest of it. Some of the tools are simply sensible but brilliant ideas, such as the switches and triggers which you will also be using endessly. They are simple to use yet offer a huge amoung of possibilities and can make a level feel that little bit more interactive. Again, I won't go into to much detail and I'll let you play with them in the Beta or on release.

If your part of the beta then you'll already know what great creative levels already scatter LittleBigPlanet and this is only the beta. Who knows what we can expect from the games release, of course we have the fantastic 50+ levels from Media Molecule but it won't take long to see some stunning levels that we can all play together. That's what LBP is all about and from my experience with the creation mode alone it will exceed the high expectation everyone in gaming as for this game. Beta Key's are hot property right now and this is why, it's totally understandable all this talk concerning LBP and it's creation modes after I spent some good hours with it.. But part of the fun to LBP is experimenting and finding out things on your own. I'm sure I haven't found out most of what the beta alone as to offer me. But I'll keep looking till the 11th of October when the Beta comes to an end. But with a 24th of October release date for Europe we don't have to wait to long to get onto building and playing on LittleBigPlanet again. 

Please check back for more future impressions looking at different aspects to the LittleBigPlanet Beta.
Thanks for Reading.

Joseph Bayliss (TrueEnglishGent)
Classical Eyepiece!