LittleBigThings: Squeenix Finally Does Something

Remember waaaaaaaaaay back in the beforetimes of 2008, when both Old Snake and Sephiroth were shown off in LittleBigPlanet to show off third-party support with the game, via costume and level packs?  Remember when Old Snake got his time in LBP, via the first and likely biggest Level/Costume/Tool pack and we all loved it?  Sure you do; it brought us hours of fun with the Paintinator and the ability to dress up like MGS4 Snake to recreate our favorite moments from the game.  Er....just me?  Well...well, alright then.

Remember when Squeenix's pack showed up?  No?  Well, that's because it never did.  Which is only finally being fixed now.  Coming out next week, on July 13th, (which is a day after Catherine's demo is to go up, apparently, maybe it's a special update?  Or maybe someone's got the dates tossed up  Update!:  Actually, it's the blogpost that's tossed up.  I imagine they copied it wholesale from the EU Blog and just changed the currency signs.) is the Final Fantasy 7 Costume pack, including Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Vincent and of course, Sephiroth for $5.99.  That's right, it's just a costume pack.  It took Squeenix three years to get their costumes done well enough and go through MM's methods to get them in the LittleBigPlanet universe.  Which....well, that's right on target with Squeenix Time.  (Not quite as long as Valve Time, but quality is not assured.)

The Costume pack is part of a line of them ready for the rest of the month that actually started just today with the above inFamous 2 Cole Costume.  (Also available in Evil Cole flavor as well as including some stickers)  Following FF7 is a Killzone 3 pack which will also have two costumes and stickers for the same price as the inFamous 2 pack of $2.99.  After that, sometime, will be the Toy Story pack with costumes -and- levels (and likely stickers as well), to be followed sometime by a Motorstorm Apocalypse pack of some sort.  Not to mention the Playstation Move-themed Pack which will be out sometime....soon-ish?  Yeah, let's go with soon-ish.

I am an absolute whore for LittleBigPlanet themed things, so I'm not too particularly ashamed to admit a good bit of these things will be mine.  (Definitely the FF7 and inFamous 2 things, as well as the original inFamous costumes)  In my defense, I will remind everyone that the costumes will be compatible with the Playstation Vita version of the game as well, which we all know I will be playing the shit out of.

Weekly Wrap-Up in Gaming - June 27 - July 3

I've actually got a few games to talk about this week, so hey, here we go!

Clearly, as indicated above, the first game I'm going to discuss here is inFamous 2, which I just beat on my evil karma runthrough last night, meaning I've experienced both sides of the story.  And, aside from a few dead drops, I would say I've experienced the whole of the story, which means I think I'm fairly qualified to talk about it here, in broad strokes of course, to prevent spoilers.  Of course, if you just don't want anything influencing your take and haven't beaten it yet, do go ahead and skip down to the picture of LittleBigPlanet 2 for that section.

First off, the evil ending has actually forced me to amend my statement of "Nothing is wrong with this game" to "Okay, there's a couple things wrong with this game".  I don't know if it's because there wasn't this big, game-changing revelation at the end to mimic the first game, or the 'finality' both endings bring (in their own ways), but it just felt like it was flopped about.  inFamous 1 clearly gave us a game that knew it wasn't going to be the only one of the series, whereas, to me, it felt like inFamous 2 sort of wanted to get everything in and end it, much like some would say other games have done (MGS4 for example), and while I don't agree with that as a blanket statement, I feel like it happened here, and it didn't work.

While I did like the theatrics present in both endings, in all I just didn't like the story those theatrics presented, not only because they gave that sense of finality, but because they gave a bit of finality even though there's obviously still more story to be had here.  There is a fairly obvious hanging thread of story left by the time the game closes, and while it's not a big one, it's big enough to notice and likely big enough to hook into for the next game, should they choose to do one.  (Which they should, given that they're actually not making Sly 4, lazy bums.)  (I'm kidding.)  I guess it does speak for the game, in that they managed to really try and change the tone so it wouldn't be 'more of the same' like most people will complain about in sequels, but maybe they did a bit too much.

And another, quick little complaint I have, is that they still haven't figured out how to properly trigger a goddamn "Hard" mode trophy.  Look, Sucker Punch.  Just because I didn't set it to hard until after the tutorial fight at the beginning doesn't mean I didn't play through the entire goddamn game on Hard, so give me my goddamn trophy.

Still, it's a fantastic game, and I certainly don't regret the money I put into it.  And if inFamous 3 were announced tomorrow, my hype meter would be off-the-charts.

I did put some more time into LittleBigPlanet 2 this week, not only because it's the only thing my Nephews want to watch, but because I'm on the ever-ongoing journey towards acing the entire story.  While I only added a few spades to the badges on my planets, those spades (indicators of Aced levels, if you didn't know) were hard-fought and they indicate that I'm that much closer.  And as I mentioned at the start of the week, I've been dabbling back into the level creation aspects but I don't have much to show for it -just- yet.  As always, once I do, I'll likely be posting it up here first.

It's amazing to me, the depth that LittleBigPlanet 2 offers everyone, simply because I can go into the MM Picks tab or the Cool Levels Tab, pick any level there and be absolutely blown away by what I get there.  The looks of some of the levels, the designs oftentimes leave me wondering just what in the hell they did to make it look so beautiful and how I can do that.  It's a sort of humbleness that isn't exactly harmful, but it's humbling nonetheless and really does sometimes kick you in the gut, because you can make a level, sure, but it's not going to be -that level- that you just played.  Still, if you get your own level good enough, it might just be -that level- for someone else, and that's always the hope.

The only real frustration with LBP and LBP2 for me lies in the collection aspect, if merely because you have some levels that take forever to navigate, with four people, just so you can trigger some thing at the very end of it to get one or two items.  There's a little unbalance with the effort : reward ratio, is basically what I'm getting at, and while it's fun playing with friends, I would more prefer it to be optional; something you don't have to worry about when you just want to gad about in levels with your pals.  Of course, the netcode is a matter of contention as well.  I'm not sure how much improved LBP2's is now, as when I played it online it was merely okay at best, but then again, that was directly after it launched.  Still, just a little complaint in the face of such a light-hearted, fun game.

The last game I can talk about here is Phantasy Star Portable 2, which I sort of fell back into playing thanks to the lack of computer for however long that was.  I've been playing it since and have found that I'm in that rut where the enemies you can defeat give you jack-all for EXP, whereas the enemies who give you a good bit of EXP will knock you flat on your ass with one hit simply because the gear available hasn't caught up to the challenge necessary.  That's probably the only time it's really just not fun to play the game (Same as it was back with Phantasy Star Online) and unfortunately leads to a lot of "Well, I'm done" feelings and falling out.  We'll see how it goes with me, but I don't know.

The prospect of getting to a similar level to my PSO character does seem nice, but at the same time, that's a looooong gap between where I am (83) and where my old character was (somewhere in the 100s, maybe upwards of 120).  Not only numerically, but just in the amount of time each one of those levels will take, barring some better gear.  But I jumped that hump last time, I can do it again!

That's about it for this week's games.  I did play a couple other things, but nothing that I could talk about at length here.  Until next time!  Whenever that may be.

LittleBigThings: Vita News and a Blast from the Past

As we all learned today, LittleBigPlanet Vita is being developed by Double11 Studios in conjunction with Tarsier studios who has worked on the console versions of both LittleBigPlanet games as well.  It would be nice to be able to link to their Wikipedia page here, but apparently they aren't big enough for one.  So all we have to go on is the fact that Double11 Studios was formed by Ex-Rockstar employees (according to Joystiq) and y'know?  That's probably enough.  Everyone was pretty delighted with the game at E3, and the idea that they're working with people with experience with the series, I'm sure we'll end up with something of a delight.  Hopefully, it'll end up being a bit better on the technical side than LittleBigPlanet PSP, though it's entirely possible that is will.

Speaking of LittleBigPlanet PSP, I finally cashed in my Welcome Back rewards today from PSN and picked LBP PSP as one of my PSP games because, well, a digital version will be nice when Vita rolls around.  I thought I was being clever by waiting to activate it towards the end of the month so I'd get two months worth of Playstation Plus content to browse through (Which, I think, will mostly work), and all the store issues would be cleared up and I'd be able to just claim my free games like that.  That was not the case!  And, in fact, I had to go about the method illustrated here to get them, which was a bit bothersome, but they're all in my download list, ready for me whenever I, and my internet, are ready for them.

I can't think of a smooth transition to type here, so, fuck it:  we're gonna talk about my LittleBigPlanet levels yet again.  As always, the above is my level I made a while back, Journey's Fall, and the reason I bring it up tonight, is for the fact that the other night, I stumbled across the notebook I had way back when I was planning it, with the notes for it, the blank page for JF2, and the notes I drew up for a Saw-themed level which, hey, I might just actually make.  Because I actually do have quite a bit for it done already (conceptually, of course), and I just like the Saw franchise that much.

Essentially, the level will drop the Sackboy (or girl) into a fairly identifiable area for the series (Not that I'm going to recreate an area, just the trademark look, hopefully) and begin with the normal Jigsaw doll in the TV.  I'm working with Cinematic Cameras currently so hopefully I'll be able to -really- work them out and have them for that part if nothing else.  The general theme that Jigsaw lays out is that you, the Sackboy (or girl) are there because of something a good majority of the people on LBP could generally be there for, the 'crimes' of the community:  Heart4Hearting, Purposefully/Maliciously One-Starring (Or, now, Sad-Facing), False Grief Reporting, and Poor Teamwork Skills.  So the first step, like other helpful programs, is to admit your problem, your 'crime'.

I'm not sure if I want to just have the player tackle only one, or just throw them into a gauntlet of all four, because, hey, the player could be guilty of any combination of all or none of what's presented; and it's not like it matters in the grand scheme of things.  While perhaps not original (Unfortunately, I've seen my share of Saw-based levels and I don't think any of them ranked above poor) I'm hoping I can put some work into it to make it really shine.  Once I get a more solid layout drawn out, I may even post it here (either edit it into this post and then remark about it on my Twitter to lead you back) or just make a new LittleBigThings article.

Who knows, maybe the Journey's Fall Remake might actually have been worked on by then!  (Spoiler:  It will be.)

What's -Really- Wrong with the Industry?

Look at the screenshot above.  Do you know just what game that is?  I'd wager a guess that, well, yes, you do actually.  For some reason, it's hard to find a shot like the above when you really want to, which really annoys me, but that's besides the point.  Anyways, for those of us that know the game is, indeed, Bulletstorm, there's also those who would look at the above shot and wonder what version of Call of Duty it is before going about their merry way.  A lot of people will tell you that it's because the market has become so saturated with FPS games that you could take any of them and put them in a line-up and they'll look the same.

Others will tell you that sequels are what's wrong with the industry, citing even so recent as E3 as proof.  After all, the biggest games shown were:  Halo 4, Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, The Elder Scrolls 5, Legend of Zelda:  Skyward Sword, Mass Effect 3, Saint's Row 3, Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 3, to name a few.  They'll claim that we're so out of ideas that our retreads over the same familiar territories are the only things that can get out of a developer's studio with any chance to sell.  This never, of course, takes into account that, at one point, these games above were all-new, original IPs. 

Obviously, I'm in neither of the above camps.  While the above scenarios aren't wrong, neither are problems facing the industry; after all, video game sequels aren't a new thing, nor would I be willing to believe that they're any more prevalent nowadays than they used to be, when such games like Doom and constant installments of Adventure Game franchises were the things to get in on.  It's no surprise that FPS games are prevalent nowadays!  They sell.  Video game companies are in the business to make money.  Adventure Games (point-and-click mostly) had their turn, RPGs had their turn, and when the next trend comes around, they'll get on that too.  Because for every sequel that comes out, especially the ones that are only 2 or 3, that was a new IP very, very recently, and the sequel is a sign of success.

Some may take a look at the success of certain franchises and scoff; after all, they're not being bought in bulk by the real gamers, the people who are likely to look around on gamefaqs, on Penny Arcade, on numerous other message boards and websites for video games.  They're being bought by the same people who proliferate the other trends that are 'ruining' everything else:  The unwashed masses.  But we all know that's not exactly true, and just because a 22 Year Old frat guy who doesn't know Final Fantasy from Persona enjoys a good game of Black Ops multi-player, that doesn't entitle him to anyone's scorn.  Because he's there, he's got a console, a game, and he's enjoying what we all enjoy ourselves. 

Who knows?  Maybe he'll be that one who uses Black Ops as a gateway into something else.  Maybe he goes from Black Ops to Resistance.  They're both shooters, after all.  And maybe he tells his buddy he's playing Resistance and his buddy, knowing that Insomniac and Naughty Dog are both good companies, sort of close to one another, recommends Uncharted.  Just like that, he's playing something that we can all call one of our games and likely enjoying it just as much as we would.

So, what is the problem, if not something easy to admit and point out to, which has already been done?  My wager is that the above problems are merely symptoms of the real problem here.  The fact that we as 'Gamers' cry out that there's not enough innovation, enough originality, and then when it comes around, it's not rewarded as one would expect, merely because it's something new, something untested.  A rough formula.  Pictured above, obviously, is Catherine, which is Atlus' first dip into the HD side of the pool.  Likely not their last, but it's almost that easy to tell you that Catherine will not make as much money as they're used to in previous games they've put out.

You can't get anymore different than the current climate of gaming than Catherine, and yet all those people who are quick to knock the latest number game, the ones who scoff at FPS games, of those, only a small percent will go out and buy Catherine when it's released.  This, in turn, sends a message to developers, one that says 'Make what's already out there if you want to get a paycheck'.

In my opinion, that is the problem here.  Developers are afraid to make new, untested games, and rightfully so.  Though we ultimately benefit from their efforts, as we generally end up getting to experience something new and wonderful, we're not the only ones in the equation.  It's the Developers we have to worry about; those people with a dream and the ability to do something new, they're almost never given what they want or need, and things just don't work out.  The ones that don't just get cut out or fired end up elsewhere, which is good at least, but they'll likely never forget the game they made that 'could have' changed things, but didn't because nobody wanted to buy something that looked different.

I'm not really sure there's a point here, honestly.  Maybe it's just the idea that inFamous 2 and LittleBigPlanet 2, two games that are near and dear to my gaming heart, could get lumped in on a checklist of games with numbered iterations in a statement claiming the industry is devoid of creativity and originality.  Just because they're not brand-new games with brand-new concepts and ideas, in a brand-new world in the eyes of certain people because of the '2' at the end of them, they're not as 'important' as something else, something unestablished like Dragon's Dogma, Dead Island or Rage.  Which I'm sure we can all agree is bull, whether you're excited for these new games or not.

What I Did on My Summer Vaca- er, Hiatus

So, if you paid attention to the handy-dandy gadget I put on the sidebar with my twitter feed, you no doubt saw that I implemented that at just the right moment, for directly after, I found a real use for it:  informing you, the readers, that my computer had gone all pear-shaped.  So, I hope you saw that at some point!  Because it's not an intentional outage that I went through, I assure you, merely something out of my control.  The skinny of it is something the internet has, no doubt, told you anyway:  Never buy Norton Anything.  Norton Anti-virus, Internet Security, what have you, just don't shell out the money.  It can, quite possibly, get infected in such a way that it turns into a megalomaniacal super-tyrant who will ruin your computer if not stopped.  And the means of stopping it involve completely wiping the computer.

Thankfully, the guy who fixed our computer has been doing things with computers since I was a kid, so he knows what he's doing, and the important things that were on this computer were saved.  So no worries on that.  He even optimized it (and gave it a half-gig more of RAM, bringing the total up to, uh, 1 gig) for us and it works like a dream now.  A....ten year old, technological hurr-durr of a dream, but a dream nonetheless.  So hopefully, everything will be cool on the computer front.  If only Windows would, uh, stop updating.

Anyways, you likely don't care about that.  You care about what the title says:  What I did with my, er, 'time off'.  And I'll tell you what, it was a lot.  I'd like to make special mention to my PSP for being awesomer and awesomer every time I want to do something with it.  Thanks in part to the world going all mobile-sites, the browser in the PSP is a little more capable than the days or yore, and while it's still not perfect, it's a fine stand-by while we wait for the real treasure:  The Vita's browser.  Which...I imagine will just be the PS3's browser.  But hey, it works fine, and it streams youtube videos.  Hopefully we'll see that on the Vita as well, since that's the only thing that could have made the hiatus more bearable.

I'm sure it'll surprise no one (especially if you kept up with my twitter) that the bulk of my time away was spent with Sucker Punch's latest gem, inFamous 2, which has me feeling all sorts of things; the majority of them being good.  I will open by berating Sucker Punch for making the same mistake in this game as they did the last:  Holding out on us with the really good mobility powers.  Without spoiling too much for you, at a certain point, you get a power that makes getting up to higher places much, much easier, in a way that I akined to being Electric Spider-Man, but that point is not in the first half of the game, much like the Static Thrusters weren't that soon in the first game.  Which is not a good thing!  Stop holding out, Sucker Punch!

My only other gripe would be, in a surprising twist, too much of a good thing.  Namely, quite a few powers locked to the R2 key.  Two are in my head off-hand (one of them being a good side power, since that's what I beat the game on), and it's just too much of a hassle to switch between them.  They both make mobility really, really excellent, and it's just a shame that you can't swap one of them with a different key to make use of the both of them in a quick, easy, and efficient way.

Aside from that, the rest of the game made me various, various degrees of happy, save one part.  Which, if you've beaten the game on good, you know what part and I'm not saying anything else.  Suffice to say that I had to tell myself repeatedly that it's a comic book game, and comic books do that sort of thing all the time and keep going, so I'm not going to worry too much on it.


I know I focused more on the things I was "Ehhhhhh" about, but you have to look at the facts here:  I spent probably 20-30 hours playing inFamous 2, beat it one and a fourth times, and I have precisely three gripes about it, two of which aren't really even bad.  If that's not enough of an endorsement for you, I could very likely gush here for paragraphs about what I loved about the game, but I can just narrow it down here:  Everything I didn't mention above.  Alright?  It's all just perfect.  Go buy it.

Also on my list of things I did, was delve back into the wonderful world of LittleBigPlanet the Second, which made me wonder why I ever left to begin with.  And then I looked at the stack of games I've yet to even touch still and mouthed a silent "Oh yeah" to myself.  However, LBP2 has likely carved out a niche in my everyday while I watch my nephews at least, since they just love love love watching the movies people have created in LittleBigPlanet 2.  Which makes it easy on me too; I can just load it and enjoy as they do!  Though, I do love playing the game, of course.

And of course, dipping back into LBP2 has also meant a resurgence of my ever-long desire to revamp my single published level, Journey's Fall, that I have come to think of as the half-finished manuscript on my coffee table.  I'm proud of it, but it's not done, and I don't know what to do with it; or rather, I do know, but I can't will myself to do so.  And while I might show it off to people who come around and get positive feedback, it could likely never get finished.  Though I really do intend to finish it.  And I do have a few ideas.  We'll see if LittleBigThings will make a comeback, though.

Also on the rather long list of accomplishments is the fact that I have, indeed, scratched one game off of my "To Finish" list:  Grand Theft Auto:  The Lost and Damned.  Though, that's the only positive note about it, as TLAD is, for a lack of a better term, completely and totally poor.  I wanted to like it.  I really did.  Because I liked GTA IV!  At least, I did.  Coming back to the mechanics after such an extended period of time made them feel archaic by comparison.  It was rough getting back in, especially considering the lovely missions and the absolutely fabulous mid-mission checkpoint system, but after I got them back down...well, I managed to finish the game.  (I will note, that obviously, I hated the missions and checkpoints.)

Note to Rockstar for future reference:  If you have a goddamn shootout with five waves of people and then a bike chase to kill even more people on bikes, maybe you want to put a checkpoint somewhere in there.  I cannot put into words the amount of frustration one feels when you're down to just one guy left to kill and you end up dying.

Twice.

Only to have to restart the whole goddamn thing over again.

Twice.

Especially if one of those times is, technically, your own fault because you don't remember how to switch weapons on a vehicle.  Gee thanks, game!  What am I going to do with goddamn pipe bombs on a motorcycle against other guys on motorcycles?  The answer?

Accidentally kill myself.

Yeah.  That was just.....I'm sure you can imagine what it was.  And all in all, I can appreciate the scale of the later missions, but that doesn't mean I liked them or thought they were done well.  While the last missions arguably reaches Three-Leaf Clover levels of grandeur, the execution is much less appealing and even becomes a bit sloppy, like the rest of the game.  (I know it's just an expansion, but it's full-featured enough.)

Directly after, I started up The Ballad of Gay Tony, and it's like friggin' night and day.  The Ballad of Gay Tony, I only got through the first mission before I turned it off, but I was happy while playing it.  Because it was fun.  The animation is noticeably better, the voice-work is wonderful, and the direction is just much, much better overall.  I do believe I'm going to have fun with it.  But time will tell, of course.

Rounding out the list of things I did is the all-encompassing term of "Portable Gaming", by which Phantasy Star Portable 2 and Rune Factory 3 were my main games.  Anyone from the school of Phantasy Star Online will appreciate the gravity of the statement, "I got my main character from Level 80 to Level 82" whereas everyone else will likely shrug at the two levels of advancement.  But those of us that know, know, that that is not something to shrug over.  As for Rune Factory 3, I had my second child on my main file and started a new one because why not with the intent on getting all the girls to like my character so he'll have supreme pick when it comes time to get married.

I might even be forgetting a thing or two here, but the short of it is that the computer is back and better than ever, and I had a lot of free time in the meantime.  But now Kupowered is back in business!

Quick Note - Getting Better, Still Rambly

So, I'm finally feeling less dead-like.  Which is good.  I'm not feeling 100% yet, of course and likely won't since it's cooling down just to warm up again later which will likely kill me again, but for now, I'm pretty alright.  Only mildly stuffed up, my throat doesn't hurt, and sneezing doesn't cause my muscles to rip apart from themselves anymore.  This is called progress, and is quite nice.

The other night, I had the bright idea of actually making a backloggery for, y'know, the backlog that I actually have and is quite problematic.  Unfortunately, it seems that they're not taking new registrations currently because they're amidst a site change and the guy running it has run into health problems.  Rather unfortunate, but I guess I don't need it.  After all, I can just meter out my games here for roughly the same effect.

I did manage to make it to the final (at least, I think it is) chapter of Sly 2, but I'll save my verdict for when I actually finish it.  Hopefully I get enough into Sly 3 that I can at least post impressions of that Sunday, but no guarantees.  After Sly 3, it's a bit of a mystery to me what I'll do, since I have far too many games.  I was considering Saint's Row 2, even though I really despise having a gimped version of a game, The Saboteur, since hey more platformer-ish goodness, or finishing up The Lost and Damned so I can finally work on The Ballad of Gay Tony.  But then I remembered my birthday pick-up of Bladestorm, and now I don't even know what to think.  Probably going Sabotuer, TLAD/TBGT, SR2, Bladestorm is the most logical course of action since, I'll be going through rather similar games and then get to put myself into the Hundred Years War without worrying about getting too used to the gameplay and not knowing how to get back to the open-world-y feel.

Of course, in a complete shift in gears I have, as I said, been getting back into Dungeons and Dragons lately, picking my old 3.5 books up and giving them a look over.  Giving me the urge again to 'create', which makes me feel like I should just be playing LBP2 again, which I might still do at odd intervals.  Maybe for my own funsies, I'll make something in D&D (a town, dungeon, whatever layout) and remake it in LBP2 as close as can be to try and get me really into feeling those new tools.  It's an idea, at least.

LittleBigThings: Water water everywhere...

So I finished the Pirates of the Caribbean DLC today, though, unfortunately did not get everything.  Not only is there a nigh-arbitrary x2 section in one of the levels, later on there is an even more arbitrary x4 section in the same level.  I'm not sure if I care enough to bother for them, honestly.  I got what was important out of the pack already:  The Water.

Awww yeah.  We wanted it, we got it.  Mostly.

Before this, you were merely stuck with using glass and/or poisonous gas in varying shades of blue to depict "water" in your levels, and even as is, it's not entirely optimal, as it's merely a switch that floods the level, but to a degree you adjust, and one that can be altered on the fly with switches.  Still, it works; you swim in it, they give you a scuba pack if you want to put that up, ensuring that you won't drown, or you can add bubble stations to recharge the 30 second air limit.  Not a concept any of us should be unfamiliar with, certainly.

Quality-wise, I'm not sure what I think of the PotC levels and, in fact, I was trying to think while playing it, since I knew I was going to report it here.  The levels retain a charm that is distinctly LBP, one that you can't mimic without flaw, but the actual enjoyment of the levels is middling.  Not unenjoyable, but not exactly fun.  Not difficult, but you don't manage to simply walk through every level and get an ace.  Especially the boss-fight, which, on first attempt, befuddled me as to how I would even manage to ace it, seeing that it seems very nearly random regarding your chances.

This is part of the Kraken fight.  The part with the tentacles.  Clearly.

It's very very near lazy, I'm loathe to admit.  You are on the boat, and there's four cannons on it, the second tier requiring you to grab something on a piston to get to.  Said piston might also shield you from the flaming cannonballs that the enemy ships shoot into your ship from the top.  Of course, they might drop the cannonballs directly onto your little stuffed head as well.  With the space as cramped as it is, it's hard to prevent such a fate, and instead, better to simply hope it doesn't befall you.

The bossfight's pattern is rather simple; it starts with you between two ships.  They shoot cannonballs at you, you can use the cannons to destroy them, but there's little point beyond points (possibly, I don't even remember if you get any for sinking a ship), as, at certain points, they'll move off to let the Kraken's tentacles come up from the briny depths to wiggle threateningly at you, and sometimes encroach on the ships borders, killing you if you happen to be in line with their destination.  No projectiles, no real impact, just a line of poison gas behind the tentacle that is sure to hit you if you're not far ahead of it.  The point is to use the cannons to destroy them, of course.  The balls have sensors that dissolve the green bits as they pass by, and you need to dissolve the top and a good amount of the sections beneath that before it's defeated.  You have to do this twice per stage, as there's two tentacles at all times.  And you have to do this three times.  Three sets of two, if I didn't make that clear.

When you defeat them, the enemy ships swoop back in and shoot at you until they stop and another attack of the tentacles occurs.  And then when you beat that, you just have to go to the scoreboard.  It manages to be wholly underwhelming despite the significance you might think it would have, given that it's a Disney/MM colab.  And honestly, that's mostly the problem; despite it being the Pirates of the Caribbean DLC Pack, if there were none of the licensed stickers or the costumes, you wouldn't know the difference.  It is very generically 'Pirate' which almost didn't really strike me until now.

Still, at no point was I specifically annoyed or disappointed with the pack.  I may focus on the fact that at no point was I specifically enjoying it either, they both deserve an equal say.  If you want Water and any and all chances for new materials and the like, having the Pirates pack won't do you a disservice.  But if you're not much of a creator or don't really think you need the tools, it's a safe pass.

LittleBigThings: Of Contemplation and Exectuion

As I've lamented about before, Create Mode in LittleBigPlanet (as a series, not just one specific game) is wonderfully open, in my case, entirely too open.  It's been said by many gamers that, presented with a sandbox, the first thing they do is freeze with the possibilities, because here they are, playing a game like they have done before; but in this one, rather than being presented with a clear path, say a long corridor in a building, or a more vague "Here's point A, there's point B, get there" over a large map, tools are thrust in their hands and before them lies a canvas, with only the gentle encouragement from the developers to guide them.

"Go ahead," they say.  "Do what you want.  Make what you want to make; express yourself."  Much like that Art Teacher in High School that simply hated being stuck to a curriculum and felt better things would come from less structure, the developers of these sandbox games expect you to derive more enjoyment out of being able to do what you want, rather than what they want you to do.  And by in large, they're right, but that doesn't make the prospect any less terrifying.  Because, as is the natural order of things, once you have managed to buckle down and put yourself to that canvas, to create, truly, what you wanted to create, another push is given, still caring in nature, after all they're just trying to help you. 

"Now show it off.  Be proud of what you've done."  Bless these people, all they want is for you to have a little fun with yourself, and to let others see your interpretation of fun, they want to help you help others.  But damned if it isn't difficult to do, knowing that the second step is there beforehand.  Because, at least I believe that we, as a people, not just the small percentage that enjoy games, have a nature entirely counter to that.  We like to think what we like, enjoy what we like, but we know that there are others who think completely counter to us and, when there is a conflict of opinion, there tends to be other conflicts.  Most people tend to, in general, try to avoid conflict!

As such, as I believe it goes, the first instinct of being frozen when presented with the opportunity to show off in front of others, is natural.  Unfortunately so, as the general line-of-thought goes "I make this, I show this, people hate it." and then that comes back around to making something in the first place.  Obviously, this doesn't affect everybody, seeing that there's, oh, around 3,500,000 levels out there playable by LittleBigPlanet 1 and 2.  But I do know that it affects me, as I've mentioned, which means that of the five levels I started and gave an actual try with on LBP, one got actually finished and published.  And, again as I've said, it's not the best, but I'm proud of it for not only being done by me, but for the fact that it's actually helped a little in getting over this train of thought.

Whether you realize it's because there'll always be 'worse' levels, or because that you honestly don't care what anyone thinks of your level, or what have you, the thing to realize is that whatever you create has the potential to be great in someone's eyes who aren't your own.  If you find that, it makes all the anxiety and such worth it, because honestly, all we want is to have our work appreciated, right?  And I think that's pretty much the reason I'm feeling a bit more open about what I want to do with LittleBigPlanet 2, as far as level creation and hopefully will turn to this blog to offer updates and behind-the-scenes sorts of deals as I move forward.

To that effect, I will go ahead and set some goals I'd like to accomplish sometime before I put LBP2 down, not permanently, as I'll never be able to -not- find a chance to play the game, but do finally move on for other things on a more clear basis.  (The first time this will likely happen will probably be in March, where the ability to punch dudes in Yakuza 4 presents itself)  I would like to do something with Journey's Fall, not only as a level, but the series I had envisioned it as in the first place.  I've said it before, but there was a second level to complement the first, and a remake of the first in the works, both I hope to make happen, with likely a third to tie it all up.  I would also like to participate in at least two of the LBP2 competitions hosted by the new LBP2 thread over at Penny Arcade, depending on how many we actually go through.  I'm hoping quite a few, to boost the number of 'two' to a higher value.

If I can get that accomplished, I'll be satisfied.  If the end-products are actually good, I'll be happy.  So we'll see how it works out!

LittleBigThings - Bad News First

Oh noooooooo

So, as Joystiq's reported, plenty of people are suffering from an infinite loading glitch when playing online with pals.  I was hit by this earlier today, as was Kaseius, whom I was trying to play alongside.  It's a real shame, as aside from that, the netcode seemed more improved from the first game, honestly.  Hopefully they'll get that sorted out quickly, as they are aware of the problem and have a fix in the works, apparently.  The article states that a quick fix is to turn off your controller, wait for the level to load (it should, apparently, once the controller is off or shortly after) and then turn it back on and resume.

You can't stay mad at that face.

Happily, there is good news, though.  Plenty of it, in fact.  Not only, as I said, has the netcode improved from the last game, just about everything has improved over the last game.  The visuals are more striking, the characters are more defined, the levels are just that much more entertaining, and the tools, my word, the tools.  Short of some little issues with the Grappling Hook, which is a learning experience, rather than poor implementation, everything works just so well and feels so good and easy to pick up.  The problem with the Hook being that the whole of its controls are hogged onto the left-stick; you go up or down with up and down, left and right accordingly, which doesn't sound all that bad, honestly, but when mention comes up of having the shorten/lengthen inputs being changed, it's hard to not find yourself going, "Well, yeah that might work better, now that you say it."  

The past has shown us that this is just the very very beginning of LittleBigPlanet 2, no doubt MM is already hard at work with supplements to keep us all happy for a while to come.  And with what they've undoubtedly learned with the previous two games (LBP and LBPPSP), the sky is the limit on what to expect.  (Except anything from Squeenix.)

As for my personal experiences in LBP2, I've already completed the story mode, which wasn't too hard to do.  The difficulty is spot-on, so long as you're able to think things out for a moment.  Times when you contemplate going back through the level you've just finished, or that you're having difficulty with, to ace it, you may think to yourself, "Why, that's never going to happen", and then perhaps a minute later or so after thinking more, you just realize all the errors you made, and it becomes that much easier and possible.  I know that's how it happened with me at least; the last boss in the game is particularly punishing until you stop for a moment to recognize all his patterns.  (No pun intended, given the context of the game)

Do you know what's going on here?  Right, neither do I.

I'm not quite sure how far I'll get into the Create Mode.  I know I'll spend all the time in the world in it, but whether anything of worth is produced from it is the part that I'm just not convinced on.  The tools are spectacular, and perhaps it's just experience talking, but they seem a bit easier to use.  On the other hand, there's just so many, and the mere thought of me possibly understanding microchips (it's 99% intimidation, don't worry) is daunting at the very least.

That's me (In a Bomberman costume) swinging on the falling lights in my level, Journey's Fall.

If, or rather, when I do have a project in mind, I'll likely use this as an outlet to express my ideas and intents; hopefully putting it all down somewhere will help the process along a bit.  I did have quite a few levels started in the original, after all, they just simply never saw anything resembling completion.  Aside from Journey's Fall, that is.  And while I'm proud of Journey's Fall, as it was the only level that I made and published and it wasn't complete crap, quality it was not.  It was short, I didn't know much with the tools (Not that I'm some guru now, mind) so there's a lot of embarrassing little things strewn about, and the 'cool' thing of it at the end (A Jetbike) still ends up killing sackpeople about 50% of the time.  While I've begun tweaking it a bit, or at least I had, back in LBP1, I'm not sure I'm happy with putting it back out there with anything short of a full-on remake, though, which will almost be as difficult a task as any.  But it's always been an idea in my head, as has the sequel level to it.  (In fact, I had the framework of the sequel built up before I lost it, but it was not that bad of a loss)

Few games have the ability to make and keep me as excited as the LittleBigPlanet games do (note the present tense), which is why I'm happy to say that it's here to stay, on this blog and in my PS3.  My poor, poor backlog.