Since mother nature decided to dump 15cm of snow on us here in Ottawa between yesterday afternoon and this morning (and we’re not quite done yet) I was happy that I already had my copy of LBP and was not about to head out for anything in particular. Snow in November was becoming rare enough, but 15cm in October? It’s going to be a long winter.
There were issues all day with the online servers for LBP, some times they were up, and other times they were down. I have no doubt that they did not know about how popular their game would be, after hyping about it for 2 years. They were having issues a few days ago – before the game had actually been sold to anyone aside from pre-order.
I spent a lot of time going through zones I’d already played through, trying to get all of the rewards. I managed to get the garden to 100% completed – this means not only discovering all of the stickers, materials, and clothing bits in every zone, but also finishing each one without dying. This feat became a LOT harder to do in the Savannah. There are a few zones that I dislike, anything with moving ghosts that like to stomp on me, as well as crocodiles (and there were lots) and buffalo.
I went through a million tutorials on how to build zones, and I’m thinking that I may actually need to buy some sort of manual on how to do it all because I am going to forget. That, and I can’t actually READ the buttons that pop up that they tell me to use. Time for a new TV.
Randomness: The radio is playing Christmas music. Ugh.
Ok, anyhow. I am still amazed by everything you can DO in this game. I haven’t moved on to the wedding scenes yet, just the first two. I’ve been trying to get 100% in each level. Each time I play through I find something I missed the first time, a hidden room, a ramp, some extra stickers and building materials. A few things to keep in mind – never follow the direction arrows the first time through. There’s typically *always* something behind those.
I’ve seen a few other people’s creations, including a level 1 super mario brother’s level, that was a LOT of fun and very cute. One interesting aspect is that you can vote for other creations, and give them a rating out of 5 stars. Some levels are just plain.. plain. They focus on giving you a trophy of some sort. For example, fastest speed. It’s a zone that launches you by a rocket and you fly through the air (typically dying at the end). You unlock a trophy for flying so fast but that’s all there is to the zone. Another was to gain 1,000,000,000 points – and the entire room was filled with the little bubbles you step on to gain points. Again, not much to the zone.
The co-op is still done very well in zones that have it planned out though. Since the game is still brand new to release, I imagine that over time the selection of player made zones will get better. I would love to create one, and I have an art themed one in mind, but I really need to learn the controls better first. Remember, I haven’t been playing PS3 or video games for my entire life. It’s never too late to learn!
They get a little more complicated from what I’ve seen in the Meerkat stage, but that may just be because I’m really *not* good at games that have me jumping through the air and swinging off of things. A little Meerkat stripper pole area (at least, that’s what it looks like to me..) needs some fancy bounce tactics that I just don’t possess. LoL.
I do have two controllers, so I can kinda two-box where I HAVE to, like to collect those stickers you get from that level where you had to press two buttons at the same time and not die from ghosts.
*Excited about that Befallen zone!*
A few notes of interest. If you play co-op (which I have been pretty much all the time, not online though) each player gets everything that’s unlocked as a team. If you go back to the zone individually, you’ll get what you unlocked by yourself, and your partner may need to re-do the zone or go along with you again to complete their own. It’s way easier to get the ‘ace’ for the zone (completing it with no deaths) by yourself, because the screen sort of moves around oddly if you’re with two people especially if one dips out ahead of the other one.
Hanging onto your partners leg as they swing from items completely rocks, until they try to shake you off and you go plunging to your death! Slapping the sackpeople around is pretty fun too, once I learned how to control their hands.
20 zones from what I hear.
I’ve been doodling my plans for Befallen on a notepad while I’m at work.
It’s going to be pretty evil, but I’ll have to unlock a lot more things before I can really get started on it for real.
LBP is pretty amazing.
The game is *fantastic* even offline. I haven’t actually been able to play online yet, the servers have been having so many issues. I don’t have any idea when they’ll be fixed yet either.
I’ve managed to completely unlock the first ’round’ of zones, that is getting them all to 100% completion. I’m still working on the second round, and just *barely* dipped my toes into the third. I don’t even know how many ‘zones’ there are, but the game is great with or without the online components.
You can die in LBP?? I guess the game just seemed too friendly…lol.
How’s the game if you can’t play online? I decided to just buy a new PS3 and have my broken one fixed in order to have a back up but won’t be able to play LBP online for a few months yet. The game just seems too cool to resist.
Hey fellow Ottawa LBPer.
I’ve been a hardcore gamer for 30 years and there has never been anything like LittleBigPlanet. I am only part way through the story levels but I have found myself saying “whoah” every few minutes. The Wedding levels are great, and the music is so catchy. I have gathered so many items for level creation and it’s a breeze to put something simple together.
I doubt I will ever be one of the elite level makers out there, which is fine by me. I’ll stick with my art galleries with framed pics of my kids, with trains and balloons thrown in for fun :) And everytime I go online, there will be hundreds of new levels to explore – some of them masterpieces in their own right (if the beta was anything to go on)
Anyway, enjoy.