LittleBigPlanet, touted as the PS3's biggest game in 2008 - which yes, i would agree with if Metal Gear Solid 4 had not come out that year.
It, however was the most important game to come out in 2008 and could be the most important game to come out on the consoles so far this generation, it brought user generated content to those who were always too intimidated to get into user-generated content in games due to the complexity of the tools and the lack of help available to those interested.
Graphics:
One word, amazing! While it is quite a technical accomplishment, it isn't a killzone 2 impressive. The thing that makes the graphics great is mostly the art style. Yes, it may look like a childs game at first glance, but this is the great thing about LittleBigPlanet - you can make it look how you want - for example, if you played through the user-made Dead space level you wouldn't call it a childs game again. It has wide appeal and the art style is completely unique to LittleBigPlanet.
Sound:
Another place LittleBigPlanet excells in, it has a licensed soundtrack - but isn't anything you'll find playing on the radio. The soundtrack, even though not created specifically for LittleBigPlanet - sounds like it was, if that makes sense? It is catchy and really keeps with the mood of the game.
There are loads of tutorials in the game, all voiced by stephen fry - a voice many people recognise, even if they don't know who's it is. Fits really well with the game and makes sure that a wide range of people can understand it.
Gameplay:
This is a side scrolling 2.5D platformer, however it isn't your typical side scrolling platformer, it is physics based. While this may throw some people off to completely hating the game, for me - this is what makes it great, it makes you calculate your moves and generally is fun to mess around with.
One of the great things to come out of the user-generated side of things is that this gameplay is used in all different ways, you may not even see your sackboy and it may not even feel like your sackboy is even there, it could be your sackboy playing a large user-created tetris or pinball game - the huge variety of amazing things that have been done by the community is amazing.
There is one negative i can comment on, which is the controls - now they're fine 90% of the time, but when it comes to switching between the 3 panes on the levels it can feel unresponsive, depending on what you are doing when you are trying to change panes. It is a small annoyance that i wish they would tweak through a patch or something, but after a while you get used to.
Story:
There isn't much of a real story, there is one there but that isn't the point of the game. There are around 60 pre built levels on the disc with most of them being story ones, however there are some great little mini games. Anyway, the way i see it - is that the story is mainly to show you what is possible on the game or just to have to some great co-op fun on.
The levels show off the amazing creativity behind the level designers at media molecule and really show what the game is capable of, even if some of the user made levels have even shown the developers what the game is actually capable of.
On the story levels, you can find "Prize bubbles", these prize bubbles includes items which can be construction material to build your own levels with or clothes for your sackboy to wear, either way - for some odd reason, even if you're just playing it for fun, they are really fun to collect.
Online:
The user-generated content delivery method is single handly the best i've seen on ANY game, not just console games, ALL GAMES.
All uploaded content is displayed on a planet, you can scroll through the planets, you can use search filters with the most popular, most hearted (favourited), highest rated etc etc. It used to be over crowded with rubbish, but all the best stuff now is all pushed to the front with the rubbish being thrown to the back.
Now, actual online play - this seems to rely totally on the hosts connection so you can come across very laggy games if you join one that is already in progress, it seems to send all the physics data (which is very intensive) all at once to try help your PS3 catch up with where everything is.
However, if their connection is good it will catch up pretty quickly then the lag will go away. If you join a level at the same time as the host and their connection is good, then you shouldn't have any lag problems either.
Actual play online is a great laugh, slapping other sackboys around never gets old. Like explained above, gameplay can be pretty much anything, along with puzzles that require more than one player, so co-op comes into this and is great.
Conclusion:
This game had alot of hype, and as far as i am concerned it delivered 100%. The game is great fun and with all the updates, it just keeps getting better - there are the hardcore players that pump out all the great content and there are the casual players who just play the hardcore players levels.
The content just keeps getting better and will continue to, this game will live on for years. Highly recommended.
It turns out that many moons ago, Microsoft once had its eye on the Sony published LittleBigPlanet series.
Project Spark idea was decent but they quickly gave up ..
LBP was wonderful
Microsoft in a nutshell. Always tried to poach Sony employees, games, 3rd party games and devices like the depth camera that was turned into Kinect but was running on PS2 before Xbox 360. Wouldn't be surprised they wanted LBP. Just like they worked behind the scenes pushing the MLB to bring Sony's baseball game to Xbox instead of making their own.
https://www.playstationlife...
They didn't spend years trying to develop their own baseball game. They wanted Sony's game.
They're scum.
Microsoft didn't force MLB on Xbox. MLB gave Sony 2 options either go multiplat or risk losing the license.
Totally ridiculous comment.
The only exclusivity Sony had was to their own creation of The Show. Microsoft could have paid the MLB for the license just like Sony did and made their own baseball game.
Microsoft instead, groomed MLB for years in trying to poach Sony's game and bring it to Xbox. They're worth 3 TRILLION dollars. You think that's not enough money to make their own baseball game? Don't be delusional.
Microsoft spun it like they always do and told the media that they had to trust Sony with their hardware. After they put Sony in that position of not having a choice. Either go multiplatform or stop making one of their successful games. That's a no win scenario.
And what did Microsoft do? They didn't try to sell the game to the Xbox community. They put it on game pass to hurt Sony. Pushing the idea of why buy games that are $70 when you can play them in their cheap service for $10. It was a dirty tactic.
You fell for the Kool aid drink Microsoft served you instead of spitting it out. Hope it tasted good because you were fooled by Phil and the gang.
Xbox executive Sara Bond has told Axios that Microsoft spent a number of years trying to get MLB The Show onto Xbox consoles. And when it finally succeeded in breaking off PlayStation’s long-held exclusivity, the company had to “trust” Sony with pre-release Xbox Series X/S consoles.
Bond revealed that MLB The Show “always came up” in conversations between Microsoft and the Major League Baseball organization. “We always said, ‘We love this game. It would be a huge opportunity to bring it to Xbox.'” she recalled. However, when Microsoft’s efforts materialized, it put the company in an awkward situation where it had to send in pre-release consoles to a rival company.
"Microsoft instead, groomed MLB for years in trying to poach Sony's game and bring it to Xbox."
Take a nap, conspiracies are rotting your brain.
Xbox executive Sara Bond has told Axios that Microsoft spent a number of years trying to get MLB The Show onto Xbox consoles. And when it finally succeeded in breaking off PlayStation’s long-held exclusivity, the company had to “trust” Sony with pre-release Xbox Series X/S consoles.
Lying to yourself is unbecoming.
Article link tells you all you need to know in Sarah Bond's own words.
They were too cheap/inept/lazy to develop their own mlb game, so they port begged for years and bribed the mlb to make the show multiplatform. Like i said many times, xbox brought nothing to the table their 24 years, ZERO.
At least you and others get it. Note drank the Kool aid and asked for seconds thinking it was refreshing.
Most don't even know how it all played out but it's there in black and white for all to see. Microsoft brought it up for years until the MLB forced Sony's hand. It was a win win for Microsoft. Kill one reason to buy a PlayStation or kill the game by dropping it in a cheap service to kill Sony's sales numbers on PlayStation.
"However, Healey said Media Molecule wouldn't have felt right doing that, adding it would have been "morally corrupt"."
Major kudos to Media Molecule for being an upright studio with principles.
They chose well, Sony gave them the backing to pursue their dreams with no restrictions even tho their games especially dreams have very niche appeal. Media molecule and Sony deserve respect for this in an age of risk averse publishing.
Great, more stories like this please. Show the last of the zombies holding the line what we've been saying for years: Microsoft is anti competition, anti industry and has no interest in making games at all.
But hey, at least there's an Xbox Games Showcase to look forward to, right?
Well considering SONY just killed the series, LBP would've been dead by now either way. Though MM probably wouldn't exist by now either, so I'm glad they stayed with SONY, hopefully they don't get shut down any time soon or ever honestly.
They shut down the servers, that's millions of user created levels gone. That and dead are pretty much the same, it's also been years since 3 and they cancelled HUB soooo.
They shutdown the servers because no one was playing, no one in the community cared about the user created levels so why keep them up? Wtf you guys would never succeed in running a business.
Yea dood no one was playing so they shut off the servers. Cause people with enough common sense can't just Google why they were actually shut of, right?
Times are changing, and these games would have never been made in today's climate.
Every single time someone uses this phrase whether it's music, movies, books, comics, video games, etc it's always the same claim.
The ubiquitous "they" won't allow it to be made. And every decade these claims are made the claimant completely ignores all the "offensive" material that is published when the claim is made.
In ten years, you can write a new article about how you can't make games like Helldivers 2, Resident Evil VIII, Mortal Kombat I, Dragon's Dogma 2, Alan Wake 2 etc etc etc any more.
Yeah, people wouldn't be constantly outraged if there weren't games that people found enraging. The whole SBI discourse shit wouldn't be a thing if all games were inoffensive. A game like Starfield can make a guy froth at his mouth, so there will always be room for a list like this.
Normally, I'd be inclined to agree with you, but there are massive caveats.
TV shows like Venture Bros, Ren and Stimpy, and Aqua Team wouldn't/couldn't be made today. Hell, Ren and Stimpy was a *children's* show, same thing with Rocko's Modern Life.
It's not for some arbitrary reason, either. It's branding and IP alignment. Companies are far more risk-averse than they were when I was kid in the 90's. Of course, you have companies coming out of the woodwork to hell spur on similar content, but remember: Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and some incredibly provocative material.
And for movies? it's pretty obvious. American Pie/Wedding Crashers/Eurotrip among many other "raunch coms" have fallen out of style, and are absolutely outside what the modern day film industry is willing to stand by.
Ace Ventura 1 and 2, Dumb and Dumber, Freddy Got Fingered, Rat Race, Harold and Kumar, and Van Wilder follow suit.
Remember: I am not explicitly talking about films put onto streamers. I am talking wide-releases in actual theaters. Same thing goes for games: Carmageddon, Duke Nukem, Manhunt, Six Days In Fallujah (with their original concept), Hatred, and so on and so forth. Of course, I'd be inclined to mention most tactical shooters like Rainbow Six and Joint Ops as well, due to cultural sensitivity regarding *who* you are shooting and why.
And not all of it is bad (obviously). Tastes change, and perspectives change to fit the demographic.
I should add that I'm a lefty, living in L.A. Working in film.
The Boys, Invincible, Jojo Rabbit, Deadpool, Gen V, Last of Us, Banshee... There are plenty of media being made today that people will claim "can't be made today".
Yeah but if you consider manhunt which was basically a snuff film could you seriously make that game with high than PS2 era graphics.
The Outlast Trials just came out.
But the storyline of Manhunt was that you were executed. But then lived. And if you didn't do as you were told, you'd die. And the people you killed were not innocents.
It was all filmed by a psychopath.
As we speak GTA VI is being finished up for a release. You get to play a Bonnie and Clyde type of protagonist who run up against the law.
Bodycam looks so real.
People are making those games. Articles like this will always exist no matter how incorrect they are, no matter how many times they blame "them" for whatever it is "they" do to prevent "those" games from being made.
The UK is the biggest junk country pandering to that nonsense as well, with laws against free speech and expression to match. It got so bad even Rowan Atkinson made a video on free speech about it.
Now the UK raises the age rating on harmless films like Mary Poppins, it's just a load of pansy weak ass nonsense.
The right wing Tories have been in power in the UK for the 14 years you know the ones that are "anti-woke", blame them for your perceptions.
Are these snowflakes in the room with us now?
This is more faux outrage designed to get hits. The consequences are unfortunately creating hysteria amongst those willing to buy into it and blame "them" or "the left" or "liberals" meanwhile the left are kicking off about genocide, actual real world abhorrent acts. Nobody is campaigning to censor this shit.
Not too mention the fact that some of these game are controversial for you know, underage porn and encouraging rape.
So either the guy just came in to comment snowflakes without reading anything, or he is calling people snowflakes for having a problem with said titles. Crazy how much brain rot someone can have.
Dead Island: "The early PC version of the zombie game swapped the playable character Purna’s Gender Wars skill with a prototype name, which shouldn’t be mentioned directly. The skill name made fun of both Purna as a character and feminists."
"Feminist Whore" lmao
ill add one more to the list.
drakengard 1.
its ridiculous tho, especially since they'd still be able to find their place in alot of places in the world. except america of course ha. and maybe Australia.
ppl are so sensitive these days. ha. but it is what it is.
They're not offensive.
And we need another Fat Princess. Fantastic little game!
Some people just have no sense of humour if this sort of thing offends them. They need to lighten up and stop taking themselves so seriously.
Games literally about sexual assault, mass genocide, bombing civilians, and school shooting. None of which is satirical.
Its crazy that people are fixated on Fat princess when clearly the list is going over controversies, and not all of them are equal. Like way worse examples but pretend the entire list is like that.
Alex DS. from Link Cable Gaming writes: "Is the PlayStation 3 retro? This is a surprisingly hard question to answer as the system definitely has the age to be considered retro, having launched in 2006, over 15 years ago now. But with it being home to so many massive games, many of which still hold up today and in fact were released for the PlayStation 4 when that console was released, make the PS3 a retro console that doesn’t feel retro."
Typically, the term retro is given to items which are at least 20 years old (but not yet 40 years old).
Quick google search
No the PS3 is not yet a retro console. But if you're gonna put 1 game from a series in this list, then LBP2 should be there instead of the original, Motorstorm PR is also an overall better game than the 1st game and to put Tools of Destruction over A Crack in Time is a blasphemy when ACiT is the best game in the series.
Yeah totally agree here... LBP just continues to get better and better. My creative drive never lets up (even though few people play my levels) and the community is going strong. It's one of those games that I hype up for myself, knowing that it'll be awesome, and then it comes around and it 100% lives up to the hype. Now if only they could focus more on DLC like the creator pack and the MGS pack, rather than just costumes, and I'll be really happy.
Great review Deathrow ;)