To me, LittleBigPlanet is an amazing concept. The creators build a set of platform-game creating tools, and then use them to build a complex platforming title for all the family. That’s great – platforming games have been a long time staple of gaming, and are always good fun. But then, the creators did something that no-one had done before - they gave all the creation tools to the players themselves. This wasn’t some gimmicky system that allowed you to create a slightly custom experience – rather the vast majority of tools that the game’s creators themselves had used to build the levels. Then all they needed to do was sit back, and watch the online community bloom – and occasionally sell decently-priced DLC to give the gamers even more to work with.

And it really has bloomed - gamers all over the world have taken up the task of designing their own personal levels, using a mixture of tools, physics and materials to create platforming games of all shapes and sizes. Of course, not all players produce masterpieces, but the ones that are really shine. People have often gone beyond limits of what even the creators expected – even going as far as making some levels better than those in-built into the game itself. But then… How can you possibly create a sequel to a game with infinite possibilities? With hundreds upon thousands of levels available on PSN, you could potentially play levels almost endlessly. Well, the answer of course, is by improving upon the tools themselves.

That’s essentially what LittleBigPlanet 2 is – an overhaul and expansion of all of the tools and community of LittleBigPlanet.

Play

As soon as you delve into the story mode of LBP2, it’s plain to see that Media Molecule have had to up their game. Almost right away, it’s obvious that the game looks and feels fresher than ever, and that the level designs have become so much more impressive. With dynamic cameras in cutscenes, some of which are fully voiced, the characters come to life – while LBP1′s only “living” characters consisted of the players, old cut-out style characters have been replaced with “sackbots”, AI characters who are programmed to act, walk and interact with the level in the same way that Sackboy can. While it doesn’t affect the gameplay hugely, it really does bring the game to life in a new way. Each world in the game’s story features a different character – from Larry Da Vinci in Da Vinci’s Worskshop, to Eve Silva Paragorica, nurse of Eve’s Asylum, with each world based on a specific theme (as with LBP1), with five stages per world – along with a fair amount of mini-games on the side.

While LBP1′s story mode was fun – calling it a “story” was a little bit of a stretch. This time, LBP2 has a full story – albeit with a quirky LBP feel – revolving around the appearance of a huge beast called the Negativatron, which appeared and started ripping up worlds and their inhabitants. As Sackboy (or indeed, Sackgirl), you are called in by Larry Da Vinci and friends to round up members of the “Alliance” and save the world from the Negativatron. A simple story, but it does the job – and far better than that of the original.

As with LBP1, LBP2 allows for full 4-player co-op and all of the various features the original included. Even better, there are now new power-ups to play with – while LBP1 introduced the Jetpack (and also the Paintinator as part of the Metal Gear DLC), LBP2 introduces a whole host of new tools – the Grabinators are a pair of gloves that allow Sackboy to pick up certain objects, the Creatinator allows Sackboy to fire pretty much anything from a helmet-mounted gun, and the Grapple Hook gives Sackboy the power to, well, grapple onto certain objects in order to swing, hang and climb to other areas. Mixed in with the original gameplay of the first title, the new tools open up a whole world of new possibilities.

Create

However, the power-ups aren’t the only new features to come to LittleBigPlanet. There are a number of features added to make Creation even better and easier than ever. With the original, people went above and beyond to create complex mechanisms – using levers and physics to create mechanical randomisers and such. However, LittleBigPlanet 2 introduces the idea of Logic and Microchips – allowing the player to attach various functions to objects – such as IF and OR switches, pre-build randomisers and various other things compacted into small collapsible microchips, allowing players to create fairly complex systems by wiring things together with emitters, movement controls and batteries to power things and activate various functions and create some really intricate scenarios.

As I mentioned before, Sackbots are a big addition to the game. AI characters that can be customised using all of Sackboy’s clothing options that you’ve collected. These AI characters can then be made to follow the player, or perform other actions - such as acting out recorded animations, or even using tools such as the Grabinators or Creatinators themselves. By using camera tools and text or recorded voice, they can be given personalities and used in more story-based contexts.

Another new feature is the Controlinator - a seat that allows Sackboy to take direct control of another object. By sitting in the seat, it can be used as part of a vehicle, or to remotely control another object. With a handy controller-mapping function, people can actually decide how an object or vehicle reacts to the controller – be it movement or rotation of a vehicle, or firing projectiles as bullets by hooking up a button to an object emitter. Better yet, you can combine the Controlinator with a Sackbot to remotely control your own customisable character – altering the controls to add additional controller functions.

While the creation mode does take a little practice - it’s all more or less as simple as it can be, whilst opening up almost limitless possibilities. Oh, and just to note – all items and DLC you might have collected in LBP1 all carry over to the sequel – so don’t worry about any of your purchases going to waste.

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With all of the new features, LittleBigPlanet 2 is an almost complete overhaul to the original. With all it’s new features, Media Molecule have done their best to make things easy to manage. The game’s community filters have been improved to make searching easier than before, and there’s now an online service – at www.lbp.me – that can be used to look at player profiles, and queue levels into your queue list in-game to play next time you’re online.

All in all, LittleBigPlanet 2 offers more of the same, but even better than before. Many of the originals’ flaws have been fixed, and a host of new functions open up a whole lot of new possibilities within creation – with players managing to even go as far as developing RPG-style games, flight sim games, and much more. If you liked LBP1, or even if you didn’t play it, LBP2 is definitely worth picking up – and it will only get better as the community grows.

-Leon

LittleBigPlanet was a huge success on the Playstation 3 – allowing for some of the most creative gamers to really dig deep into its core, producing some of the most amazing platforming levels you could think of. While the story mode was good, the real depth came in the form of its online modes – tagged with the simple brand – ‘Play. Create. Share’, there you could find some true artists, with some of the best user-generated content seen on a console to date.

So you may think – with a seemingly infinite supply of levels, how could Media Molecule possibly offer us anything more? Surely the endless nature of the original made sequels redundant? Well, as it seems, there’s a lot more to the game than some new levels and graphical updates. We attended the Media Molecule developer session, where it was demonstrated to us exactly what we could be looking forward to in the next installment.

The key to LittleBigPlanet 2 is in its creation tools. While the first game offered us the tools to get the job done – Media Molecule had developed the game from scratch, creating the game, and it’s tools at the same time. The sequel, however, has been able to take what was already there, and begin to develop new tools, ideas, and seemingly endless amounts of new ideas. So, what’s in store for us?

Power-Ups

Power-Ups in LBP are items that can be placed within levels, granting Sackboy new abilities – the first game only had one included in the game – the jetpack – which obviously gave Sackboy the power to fly around stages – a nice touch. Later on, the Metal Gear Solid pack introduced the Paintinator, a paint-firing pistol that offered a new way of taking down opponents at long-range. Seeing how many new options these power-ups opened up, Media Molecule decided to add a few more in the next installment.

First off, we have the Power Gloves. While Sackboy is able to drag certain materials by grabbing it and running, the power gloves allow you to actually pick things up. It sounds simple, but it opens up so many new ideas. While the original game forced you to clumsily pull things around, it’s now possible to make any object liftable with the Power Gloves, allowing Sackboy to effortlessly lift objects and carry them around the level. It’s even possible to carry the object between layers, so there’s a lot more ability to have moveable objects in a less chore-like fashion. Of course, you can pick up your fellow Sack-people for multiplayer “co-operation” as well.

Next up, we have the grapple hook. While the power gloves offer some functionality that now seemed an obvious addition to the game, the grapple hook is a bit more fun. Any material that can be grabbed by Sackboy can now be grappled to, using an extendable hook. Platforming wise, this opens up a lot more fluidity getting around, and it’s even possible to pull objects around. The hook also reacts with realistic physics – so if you attach to a moving object you’ll find yourself flung around realistically. Obviously… you can.. grapple the other players… too.

Thirdly, we have the Creatinator. This essentially works as a head-mounted gun that sackboy can fire at will. While the downloadable Paintinator already gave us a way to fire, the great thing about the Creatinator is that it’s able to fire anything any object in the game can be assigned to the gun, allowing you to fire bombs, fire, water, missiles, blocks, or even cheese blocks. As creators can also tell objects how to react when they hit certain objects, it will be possible to make guns that can fire special objects that can destroy certain objects, or put out flames with water. Or squash other players by firing a giant boot. Who knows?

New Level Elements

Now, those are just the items Sackboy himself can pick up as power-ups. However, there’s a lot more than that. With the new tools at the creators’ disposal, there are new ways of playing, and working with elements in the levels themselves.

Gravity is one such feature. While a lot of thing were possible to simulate in the original game, it would take a lot of hard work, and sometimes not turn out brilliantly. While a select few could pull off optical illusions and such that would appear to make Sackboy be doing something he isn’t, features such as gravity mean that it’s possible to alter the level of gravity in the stage – this means that Sackboy can jump higher and further, or could be mired down by heavy gravity. The stage we were shown had Sackboy in a collapsing space station type area, and gave a lot more leaping ability than usual. It’s also possible to have objects affected by gravity, with levers and such that could reverse gravity, causing some objects to move from floor to ceiling. In one case, they even had a vehicle that sackboy could ride, and by pressing the X button, the small “wheelchair-like” device would flip from the ground and attach to the ceiling, and visa-versa.

While vehicles were possible in LBP1, they were more “forced” essentially built as objects that would roll, propelled by a rocket. They could do the job, but could be difficult to control. However, LBP2 introduces Direct Control Seats. These clever objects allow Sackboy to attach to a static seat (which may or may not be attached to the vehicle or object in question), and allow him to control the object. This means that the X button could be used to accelerate, while Square can allow you to fire from a mounted turret or such, while pressing left and right control the vehicles’ direction. Control Seats don’t necessarily have to control vehicles, though – they just allow sackboy to be rooted to the spot, while you take control of another object – they even showed Sackboy playing Pong on an arcade cabinet within the level, sat in the chair as the controller controlled the paddle on the screen. This means that players will be able to essentially “remote-control” objects – so I can see a lot of puzzles and such being made later on.

One of my favourite new features are Sackbots. While the original game’s cast were all essentially cardboard cut-outs with faces stuck on, LBP2 allows for creation of non-playable characters. The great thing about them is that there are so many options – with Sackboy’s entire wardrobe available, and options to change their size, there are more options for Sackbots than Sackboy himself! Once they are created, they can then be programmed to do certain things, stand in the spot and spout dialogue, follow Sackboy around the level, or even used as enemies. At one point, they demonstrated creating an angry, flaming, panda-suit-wearing sackbot that would follow Sackboy around, walking like a zombie (using a zombie animation that could be selected in the settings). The levels themselves had sackbots pacing around, sweeping, or performing other actions that gave the game a lot more life (such as a couple that sat in seats apparently playing an arcade game together).

More Technical Stuff

While there are a lot of new things added as fun ideas to the game, there are also some new additions that have the creator in mind. These will definitely improve the overall experience, while adding more efficiency and allowing creators to do even more than before.

One such feature is the Microchip. While clever creators were previously able to create clever mechanisms in order to create special functions (such as randomisers, or complex sequences of objects spawning), it was quite complicated, and even worse, it ate up memory that determined how many objects that could be placed within the level. Now, some of these ideas can be stored in small “Microchips” that attach to objects. Now, I’m no creator, but as I understand it this means that creators can go into details such as if statements, sequences of events on a timeline and various other things. With direct control seats, it’s possible to map different controller buttons to different actions (such as rotate, change gravity, spawn object),  allowing creators to effectively create their own control layouts for their own games using controlled objects. It’s even possible to create your own music, by mapping various notes to a score that can play, with various instruments.

Lastly, for those who like to create huge levels, we have the level link. In the past, creators would often create “Level – Part 1″ and “Level – Part 2″ etc, when they couldn’t fit their whole idea into a stage. With Level Links, creators can add doors into stages that will directly take them to a different level – as well as creating longer stages with various zones, this opens up the idea of world maps and such as well, with various stages leading into one another.

Overall, there’s a hell of a lot of new stuff to look forward into LittleBigPlanet 2. With all of the LBP1 content and DLC carrying into the second title (excluding the storyline levels), and being almost completely backward compatible, LBP2 is almost more of a glorious expansion than a sequel. With loads of new tools on the way, and plenty of new ideas for creators to entertain, I’ll definitely be picking up a copy just to see what the community can do this time.

-Leon

Disclaimer: The interviews for Inside Look are the ideas of the Plus XP Team ONLY and are not the ideas of the creators and developers of the games. All characters interviewed in Inside Look remain the property of the video game developers and creators. Basically we are sorry if we took your characters guys, we promise we’ll give them back.

The camera zooms in, Leon sits on a chair opposite Sackboy, who is waving frantically.

Leon: “Welcome to Plus XP, Sackboy. We are glad to have you here to talk to us.”

Sackboy nods and waves to the camera.

Leon: “You’ve become somewhat of a mascot for Sony this last couple of years, how do you feel?”

He gives a thumbs-up.

Leon: “Not much of a talker, are you?”

Sackboy gestures toward his open mouth, then pulls a sad face.

Leon: “Ah, you can’t talk, eh? Well, I guess we’ll have to improvise.”

There’s a sudden knock on the door, and Sonic peeeks his head round, pulling a huge grin.

Sonic: “Heyy, I can talk lately! Why don’tcha interview me instead? Wanna chilli dog!?”

Leon presses a button on the underside of his chair, and Sonic disappears behind the door once more, his cries muffled as the door closes and the security guards escort him off of the premises.

Leon: “Ah, yes… Now I remember why silent protagonists are so good. Sonic grew vocal chords and just look what happened to him. Hopefully he’ll be out of rehab in time for Sonic 4.”

Sackboy looks uncomfortable, his eyes flicking toward the door now and then.

Leon: “Don’t worry, he won’t be bothering us. Anyway -” he trails of for a moment. “Why are you naked anyway?”

Sackboy shrugs. A few pops can be heard and seconds later he’s donning a suit, some bunny ears and a pair of shades. He looks happy.

Leon: “Ah, getting ready for easter?”

Sackboy looks at his suit, then looks back at Leon, looking somewhat confused.

Leon: “Right. Anyway… where was I… ah, yes! So… after your time in LittleBigPlanet, what have your personal highlights been?”

Sackboy looks a little lost. Leon pulls a small whiteboard and a pen from under his chair, and hands it over to Sackboy’s woolen mitts. He nod happily, and begins to scrawl on the whiteboard.

A couple of minutes later, Sackboy holds up the board. There’s a roughly drawn picture of Sackboy lying in a pile of cash, and what appear to be other sack-people wearing bikinis. He gives the thumbs up once again.

Leon: “Well, yes I suppose… But I more meant, well, do you have a favourite aspect to the game? A favourite part of the story mode, or a specific part of DLC perhaps?”

A couple of pops later, and Sackboy is donning his Sack-Sparrow costume, waving his cutlass around with his tongue hanging out.

Leon: The Pirates of the Caribbean eh? Good call.

He smiles.

Leon: On the subject of DLC…

The sound of locks bolting shut can be heard. Sackboy stops moving, looking back at the door.

Leon: ..that Final Fantasy DLC that was announced over a year ago…

Sackboy shakes his head, before scribbling on the whiteboard hurriedly.

Leon: Is that so? I’m sure you know something… there’s nowhere for you to run now, Sack.

Sackboy pulls an angry face, and leaps at Leon. He attempts to batter him with his cutlass, but the wooden sword snaps. He backs off, and runs toward the door.

Leon: There’s no point trying, this room is completely sponge proof and is crafted entirely out of metal blocks. Just tell us what you know. We’ve all seen the Sephiroth costume, we just want some new information is all…

Sackboy pulls out a paintinator but misses Leon, hitting the camera and coating the lense with paint. Scuffling can be heard, and then silence. A minute later, Leon’s hand wipes the paint off of the camera, revealing Sackboy tied to a chair. Leon holds the paintinator to Sackboy’s head and turns to the camera.

Leon: Media Molecule, we know you’re listening… tell us what’s happening with the FF stuff, or Sackboy gets coated with paint which will not dry clean.

[Picture freezes]

The levels are very loosely based on the popular Disney movies, revolving mainly around having to find a legendary ship which can defeat the Kraken, the most feared beastie of the seas. You travel through areas such as Port Royal and the cannibal islands, with plenty of swimming and jumping around on boats and skulls. I’m a fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies - and although there are odd references dotted around, it felt a little generic at times, aside from the odd key area such as the waterwheel-ride seen in Dead Man’s Chest. The levels themselves weren’t bad, but I must admit I wasn’t as impressed with the attention to detail as I had been with the Metal Gear pack. However, I did enjoy a couple of the scenes with the Kraken, with one particular scene in mind toward the end of the levels.

Like the other level packs so far, it’s largely a matter of showcasing the new tool, which allows for swimming and water physics within LBP. There are also a couple of tutorial stages just showing how water tools can be used; explaining buoyancy, global controls and water-related switches.

Sackboy can now swim in open water, and in a Sonic-like fashion has a limited amount of oxygen, which can be refreshed by breathing in underwater bubbles that serve as an air supply. Although not used in the levels themselves, the DLC also adds a Scuba Gear power-up item which works much like an underwater Jetpack, albeit slower and granting you infinite air supply. Water also has the added detail of being able to extinguish fire, which is a nice touch. However, it is a global setting, limited to creating an overall water level within the stage that can be lowered or raised to create pools or affect buoyant materials, rather than an object to be manipulated. So although it has a lot of potential, don’t expect to be able to do anything too crazy like creating fountains or water slides; yet people always seem to be able to creatively replicate these ideas so it’s not a total loss.

For a small £4.79, its well worth picking up the pack if you enjoy creation, as the water is a good solid tool – perhaps the largest core tool that LBP really was missing – no longer will people need to create their own water effects using foggy glass and an obscured jet-pack. Included is also a Cannibal costume to obtain along the way, which is a nice little touch, albeit a bit freaky compared to the rest of LBP’s denizens.

Also available is a separate pack of six POTC costumes, for the same price as the level pack – £4.79. Although this is the same price as most costume packs, it contains six whole outfits that are nicely detailed representations of the major characters of the series; Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swan, Captain Barbossa, Davy Jones and Tia Dalma (the crazy sea witch). The characters look great, and there’s a lot of good parts to play around with, even though the Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones head pieces are perhaps a little specific if you want to create your own concoctions. Sadly Jones’ face and hat are a joined item, so making crazy alien octopus creatures sadly won’t be as easy as it could have been. That said, the mask is organic-looking and changes with Sackboy’s facial expressions, so it’s cool nonetheless.

If you are into creation, or maybe enjoy getting a few extra Trophies then it’s worth a go; the levels aren’t bad but are nothing spectacular (compared to some of the other creations I have seen in the last year). For the Water tools, the price is fair and theres plenty of other creation parts such as music, textures and stickers. However, if you’re not into creation and aren’t fussed with the official levels, you’ll be able to play other peoples’ water levels online without paying for the POTC pack yourself.

Overall the stages are fine, but I found the Metal Gear Solid pack to be more… erm, Solid, as a level pack in itself. However, the included Water tool is a worthwhile creation element and is a steal at £4.79 for it’s real potential in a Creator’s hands.

-Leon

So sit back and relax as you watch these highlights from Eurogamer 2009.

Plus XP’s Garvaos speaks weapons and swimming on Assassins Creed 2.

Guitar Girl 24 talks to Chet from Valve about upcoming sequel L4D2. ARGGHHHHH ZOMBIES!

Garvaos takes a breather with media molucule for a candid chat on LittleBigPlanet.

Francis asks the questions we all want to know. HOW DO YOU GET INTO THE GAMING INDUSTRY?

The gang do the rounds with gamers impressions from the AvP demo available at Eurogamer.

The Plusxp and Gamersunite gang join forces to discuss our impressions on playing the game. Nintendo did not sponsor us for our positive reviews of the game, we all genuinely liked it that much.

Then again party games do usually make good expo games.

***

My Site www.gamers-unite.com will be coming soon.

- markBOSS

Now, I am quite new to the whole LittleBigPlanet experience, I mean I only got the game just under a month a go, and I fell in love with it. Having a go on the PSP game which is coming out November 17th was a great opportunity.

So what did the demo offer me in terms of gameplay? I had a bash through a story level that will feature in the game. The first thing I noticed about this is that the PSP version has not skipped out on level design, you get the same outstanding platform gameplay as you did from the first game, its just now on the mighty PSP not the PS3. The objectives are still the same, mainly getting to the end of the level and collecting prize bubbles along the way. Simple but effective gameplay that will have you glued to your PSP on the train… let’s just hope you don’t miss your train stop in the process.

Graphically it looks very good for the PSP – granted you won’t get the same ‘blow your face off’ graphics as you would get from the PS3 - but for a portable  game it really does shine. From what I have played there is no glitching and no screen tearing etc.

Now onto the important info. Yes, the stickers and custom costumes make a welcome return to LBP. Can’t really tell you if the level creation is any good as I didnt have any opportunity to play it, but I think it will make a watered down comeback - I mean c’mon this is a portable game we are talking about! Having all the level design would just take up the space of a whole portable game.

Even though I only had a taste of LPB PSP, I can safely say this is one to look out for this November. Stay tuned to Plus XP as my interview with Media Molecule will be posted up soon.

Garv.