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a thread for the sacks

 
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kirkjerk
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Joined: 12 Apr 2006
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:36 pm    Post subject: a thread for the sacks Reply with quote

So.... Little Big Planet.

I bought it for the one friend of mine who has a PS3.

It's a good game, and maybe I'm too harsh because A. we only tried it 2 player and B. I haven't really looked into custom levels, either by me or someone else, but it's not the "gee maybe I should buy a PS3" I was kind of hoping it was.

The credits on the first level were the best done credits I've seen.

The details are great, and the costumes and stickers and what not are more of a draw than I might've guessed!

I think the game doesn't quite pass the Mario "is it fun to move around" test. Despite the niftyness of the physics engine, jumps are very fiddly and the w/o intuitive physics. And there's this "multiplane" thing that can be very frustrating.

It's also a surprisingly challenging game in bits.

It's funny, I did the One Laptop Per Child physics game jam, and I recognize a lot of the little weirdnesses my team and the others experienced when you try to write something in a 2D physicsy kind of way. They do a pretty good job with most of that, but still, sometimes the difficulty shines through.

Other thoughts?
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silentmatt
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Joined: 27 Nov 2006
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Playing the beta, I became really frustrated with the different planes. I kept thinking that I could go further into the background/foreground and it didn't really seem intuitive to me.

However, thanks for getting more than expected with some trade-ins at EB, I picked up the retail version. Working with the level editor - and realizing that there is a maximum of 3 planes to work with - the planes don't seem as cumbersome in the actual game. I think if I had been told that there were only 3 at the start, I wouldn't have had as much trouble with the game at the start.

All that being said - I'm really enjoying the game now. I published my first level yesterday (PSN Twitch_City), which I was kind of excited about since I've never created a level before. And some of the other user created content is pretty fantastic - try checking out the Pac-Man level, or Azure something (Depths maybe?), or, if you liked God of War at all, the God of War level. Pretty incredible to think that this is just the starting point.
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PSN: Twitch_City ||| Wii: 8083 5371 5767 6700
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kirkjerk
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think some of it is the frustration with the jumps, and that terrible ambiguity of "is it my hands or my brains that are not up to this task?"

also, as someone who in theory is all hot to be a game designer, it's funny that making levels doesn't sound more appealing. I guess I'm more of a parody of Carmack than of Romero.
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SuperWes
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Joined: 07 Dec 2004
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 11:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I loved this game in the beta, but there were a few issues with how it works when you're online that I figured would be ironed out by the time of release. The day that the servers were actually up, these issues weren't fixed and they were actually much worse than I ever saw in the beta. The game regularly locks up for 30 seconds at a time any time I try to do anything that requires downloading levels. I tried to play the God of War level 4 times and each time it took four minutes then failed to load the level. Creating levels is infuriating as well, since every time you reverse time it calls back to the Little Big Planet servers for some reason, and if the servers are running slow it can take half a minute to just undo a small mistake.

When this game works right it's one of my favorite games ever. When it doesn't it's a total waste of time.

Also: have you noticed that when you quit the game by holding down the PS button it actually resets your entire system? This tells me that there's some sort of processor loop or memory leak or something that they're trying to clean up upon exit. Pretty odd for a console game.

-Wes
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kirkjerk
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 11:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SuperWes wrote:

When this game works right it's one of my favorite games ever. When it doesn't it's a total waste of time.

Also: have you noticed that when you quit the game by holding down the PS button it actually resets your entire system? This tells me that there's some sort of processor loop or memory leak or something that they're trying to clean up upon exit. Pretty odd for a console game.

2D engines can be surprisingly heavy I guess... (I guess in theory they shouldn't be worse than 3D, but...)

Apart from the creativity aspect, what sells this game to you? I find the core mechanic... I dunno, too much of a compromise somehow. But I really haven't given it a fair shake yet.
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SuperWes
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 4:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kirkjerk wrote:
SuperWes wrote:

When this game works right it's one of my favorite games ever. When it doesn't it's a total waste of time.

Also: have you noticed that when you quit the game by holding down the PS button it actually resets your entire system? This tells me that there's some sort of processor loop or memory leak or something that they're trying to clean up upon exit. Pretty odd for a console game.

2D engines can be surprisingly heavy I guess... (I guess in theory they shouldn't be worse than 3D, but...)

Apart from the creativity aspect, what sells this game to you? I find the core mechanic... I dunno, too much of a compromise somehow. But I really haven't given it a fair shake yet.

Well, the single player is fun from a collectathon perspective, but what I really like is how the creativity of the community combines with your own understanding of the level editor and each build on top of each other to expand your own creativity and your own capabilities at both making levels and your skills in the platforming engine.

Basically it works really well on the principal that learning when you don't realize you're learning is fun and rewarding.

What it all boils down to is that if you only play and don't create you won't be able to fully appreciate the play, and if you only create and don't play you won't be able to fully appreciate the creation.

-Wes
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silentmatt
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.ripten.com/2008/11/03/littlebigplanet-gradius-level-video/

wow.
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silentmatt
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just published my second level. It is called "The Evil Dead" and is based upon the Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell film (there are references to 1 and 2 throughout the level).

Hopefully if you search for either the title or my username (Twitch_City), you'll be able to find it!
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PSN: Twitch_City ||| Wii: 8083 5371 5767 6700
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simplicio
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 11:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just starting off the single player, and I'm finding this a little hard to enjoy. The controls are probably the first barrier; it's slow, too weighty and the multiple planes aren't very well handled. Having an added digital command to move between them, on shoulder buttons or something, would have been a good idea.

Past that, the game is failing to charm me, despite its best attempts. There are (too few) cute objects and moments, but the copy/paste nature of the design hasn't presented me with anything cohesive or beautiful so far.
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daphaknee
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I dont think i have the patience for this game, i mean the big deal is the customization, its really a game where you can make ANYTHING (see little big gradius and the calculator)

but i think i'm not goign to get it, adn just ooh and ahh at what people make online
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kirkjerk
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Played another round, 4 or 5 levels, 3 player.

The multiplayer is... I dunno. I kind of wish there were more opportunities to help each other, rather than hinder.

We had a lot of fun once we figured out the "bitch slap" command.
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SuperWes
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 3:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kirkjerk wrote:
The multiplayer is... I dunno. I kind of wish there were more opportunities to help each other, rather than hinder.

Isn't this pretty much totally dependant on the level creator? It's really hard to make levels that work well both cooperatively and by yourself.

It would be nice if there were more (and better) ways to define, sort, and search for levels. I'd like remakes to be broken out into their own section, for example. There are just way too many bad Final Fantasy VII train levels ranked highly when better levels that aren't based on anything are ignored.

-Wes
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Intentionally Wrong
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Really? I haven't hit a single one of those yet; so far, I've mainly been running into Shadow of the Colossus knock-offs. Ran into an interesting "Olympia" level that would have been incredible for competitive multiplayer but it was just too difficult with infrequent checkpoints. Like, if split-screen multiplayer were possible, then maybe I could see it working, but in practice most of the characters would be dead and one guy would be trying to get through some obstacle, and then he'd die and they'd all start over. A shame, since it was such a clever, intricate level.
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kirkjerk
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 7:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

SuperWes wrote:
kirkjerk wrote:
The multiplayer is... I dunno. I kind of wish there were more opportunities to help each other, rather than hinder.

Isn't this pretty much totally dependant on the level creator? It's really hard to make levels that work well both cooperatively and by yourself.

Yeah, that's probably it; I'm playing the built in levels which are all 1-playerable.
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