What you should be playing in Little Big Planet.

Someone must have posted this one already considering the recent outcropping of web portals charged with sharing user levels in LBP, but I'm posting it anyway. ;)

That, and it isn't half bad for a very condensed version of a full 3-D game. If you loved "Ico", then dive in and see what this does for you.

A Brief Chat with Alex Evans Courtesy of Gamevideos.com

Little Big Planet 'Spike VGAs 2008 Interview'

Sam Kennedy, site director for 1UP.com, speaks with Alex Evan regarding the future of Little Big Planet at the Spike VGAs..

Game Diary: Left 2 Rot...

**This is a post from a few weeks ago that I sat on for a while, mostly because I've been focused on other stuff.**

I did a horrible thing my first night playing "Left 4 Dead".

I followed my self-preservation instincts and ditched my teammates, leaving them as fodder for the infected horde.

It should never be over stated that some choices, especially tough ones, aren't simple. Take our situation for example. We were surrounded on the hospital rooftop, engaging in the final rush, a final crescendo moment where waves of infected attacked us from all corners of the rooftop . Worse, we already failed three times before and although no one was frustrated yet, there were small bouts of in-fighting on th team.

But this time things were going much differently. We survived the first wave of zombies without a problem. The next obstacle came in the form of a Tank, a special infected that can take large amounts of damage and deal high damage as well. We took him out quickly. In fact, everything was looking great until the middle of the third wave. Special infected zombies managed to up our team, making us a group of desperate men. I managed to hold my own, dropping as many infected as I could.

And then the helicopter came, and along with it the pivotal choice: save my friends or make a run for the rescue copter.

The tension in this moment was palpable, the choices distinct and very clear. As much as it made sense to stick it out, grab more ammo, and save my friends from the horde, I chose the easier goal. I chose the copter and what would be my first level completed achievement.

So maybe my decision was influenced by outside achievement-whoring urges. Or maybe it was the feeling that I didn't want to chance restarting the level for the fourth time. Regardless of the initial factors I made my choice, and the results were exhilarating and still troubling for me all at once.

Yeah, the "Left 4 Dead" has a few flaws - not enough weapons, needs more maps, special infected could use a little more variety - but the experience as a whole is still amazing.

Simply said, Left 4 Dead is incredible (probably more worth it for PC owners than the way I played it, on 360) and worth your time. It punishes you relentlessly with infected hordes, it manages to be engrossing without a connected story-arc, and it presents you tough choices similar to the one I faced. I may have chosen to save myself, but who knows what you'll do given the same choice.

I'm Back on the Wii Fit Bandwagon!

**REPOSTED FROM http://ghningtest.ning.com/profiles/blog/list **

A few months ago, I made an ambitious promise to myself - that I would spend at least a month or more exercising to Nintendo's self-help/feel-good game of the year, Wii Fit. But between spending way too much time reading and working a retail job (plus school), my Wii Fit time had all but diminished.
I suppose the same thing happens to anyone that joins a gym, as those ambitious fitness promises are all too slowly broken. Missing my "Wii Fit" fitness regimen still filled me the same self-loathing you feel after weeks of skipping my workout, and then realizing that 'this time' might not have been the 'right time'. Still, I'm glad Wii Fit managed to make me more conscious of my very unhealthy diet/ lifestyle, and that's something that no other game this year could do.

That's right. Regardless of how cool it felt to parkour, I'd stand little chance scaling my house and executing graceful jumps over to my neighbors' rooftops. But getting myself to get up and stand on a scale to do Yoga poses and other stuff worked like a charm. It might lack some focus and polish (like the ability to follow a set regimen of workouts to burn fat in certain areas of the body - i.e. like my gut), but its still a good experience.

Its easy to complain that Nintendo has lost focus with the people that made their products successful. And as betrayed as core gamers have felt, there is something I feel is right with products like Wii Fit. It's a different experience and one that I welcome next to all the space marine driven shooters and open world games. Something like Wii Fit or Wii Sports is unique in and of itself. Sure, those hi-def games were much more entertaining and sported higher caliber presentations than most of the stuff on Wii, but simple fun - a.k.a. most of the stuff Nintendo's put on the Wii - is still a good thing and its still manages to be just as fun.

Its what manages to make a friendly game of Boom Blox multiplayer shift into a tense free for all. And that feeling is still alive on the Wii, despite the negative sentiment out there.

So, I for one, am glad to be right back on the scale giving it another try and slowly become more invested in my physical health. I've already admitted to myself a long time ago the affects of Wii Fit are more placebo than anything else, but I still desire something to get my physical fitness ego rolling, and for a gamer like me, making it a game is a good place to start.

(Images courtesy of Gaygamer.net and multiplayer.mtv.com)

The Artist Formerly Known as Prince

Prince of Persia is my most beloved franchise from last gen. The three prior Ubisoft games were true milestones of game design featuring grand storytelling, inspired art and engine design, and a great musical score (Yes, even the emo-inspried sequel to the original Sand's of Time continued the tradition). As the player, you deftly guided the nimble Prince past a series of twisting puzzles and dark foes trying desperately to save his homeland from the darkness affecting his world. And lets not forget the principle gameplay mechanic of the series, the actual Sands of Time - a system designed to reverse ill platforming and combat decisions to give players a second chance, a do-over to set poor choices right.

As amazing as those games were times have changed. It was only a matter of time before Ubisoft revived the Prince franchise for this console generation. Of course, few expected a complete series reboot, but it's happened. Thankfully, this new Prince is still quite nimble. He just isn't surrounded by the same old sand. Those powers are gone, replaced by this game's biggest addition - Elika, your adventure/ platforming/ combat partner in crime.

Elika's chief goal is to help the Prince. Think of her as sort of like Yorda, that silent girl from the Ico series, minus the tedious babysitting. The Prince can't advance without here. She's playable, in a sense - her attack moves are mapped to your controller, but that doesn't stop her from competently keeping up with the vaulting prowess of the Prince - in fact, she helps him double jump. Elika's focused attacks weaken enemies, putting the Prince in a prime attack position to defeat powerful creatures. As much as Elika's design makes her more of an assist character, she also shares an agenda with the Prince - her main purpose is to harness spirit orbs that unlock her powers to rejuvenate the corrupted land.

The inclusion of an assist character in the new Prince of Persia game represents a major shift in the series' design. The focus seems to be on making the game accessible and remove the punitive measures commonly associated with the adventure/ platforming genre. It affects this game in slightly unusual ways; there aren't many ways to die in this adventure. Miss a jump, and Elika extends a hand, saving you from a terrible demise (and putting you back on the platform you jumped from). Elika will also come to your rescue in combat, saving you from a potentially lethal blow.

As much as this makes her the opposite of a damsel in distress, the results left an uneasy feeling for me.

As impressive as this design goal might be - less frustrating platforming, seamless in-game checkpoints whenever you misstep -, but how will removing death for the player affect the final game? See, taking away penalties is fine to an extent, but the unfortunate side affect is that it makes this game feel way too easy. Yes, dying/ losing in games is an artificial consequence, but it's still a consequence or more importantly, an outcome. The penalty forces players to learn what killed them, or what not to do. It contributes to a game and adds a certain amount of risk. Miss that jump, die, and go back to the beginning. As boring as loading screens can be, this formula is something that we're used to, and removing it (while helpful) is quite jarring.

It can also be argued that using the Sands of Time removed any sort of punitive consequence, but I'd argue that while it did in some respect, the mechanic is slightly different because you controlled that system directly. If a certain amount of time passed, you'd be unable to rewind time and die. If you ran out of sand - the fuel that makes time manipulation possible -, you'd die. Maybe my whole remove-death and-game-is-easy-mode argument is invalid, but it's still worth considering.

The new Prince of Persia game really has the potential to be many things. It's again a visual graphic benchmark and the platforming mechanics are quite solid; sporting fluid animation and some great new tricks. If it can mimic the strong presentation of the last trilogy, then Ubisoft has another chart-whopping hit on their hands. But it'll be interesting to see what the fans think of the new game. After all, what happens when a game takes away the ability to lose?

Only On Xbox 360?

"Gears of War 2" is finally out at retail to equal amounts of both hype and rapturous rejoicing.

Okay, so I haven't played Gears 2 yet, but plenty of evidence suggests how awesome it is. But ignore that user score, that score is bogus ;).

But the bigger take away for me is this: Now that Epic has released a proper Gears of War sequel on the Xbox 360, what will happen to the future of the intellectual property? According to Epic's deal with Microsoft, they retain intellectual property ownership after the fulfilling their contractual agreement. Will Epic take one of the most notobale franchises of this console generation multiplatform? Or will they ignore the potential multi-billion dollar sales, and submit to another exclusive agreement with the boys at Redmond?


Honestly, Epic can go either way, but the wait for their next big announcement will be tantalizing, and the end result will still undoubtedly surprise.

What Can We Learn From Little Big Planet?

Sackboy is the undisputed hero of 2008
So how awesome is "Little Big Planet", really? It's fair to say that Sony's burlap-fabric-laced world is easily one of the most ambitious console games this generation. It boldly attempts a seemingly impossible mission - to inspire players to be game creators and slowly cultivate their design ambitions. Despite the launch of LBP being anything but smooth, the potential for the design platform is unprecedented in the console video gaming industry.

But can we expect much from the growth of the LBP community now that the critical darling of GDC 2007 is finally available at retail? The rather obvious answer is, yes. Each week we'll see uploaded creative content, and a metamorphosis of community as they accept their new role as judges, sifting through the sea of material to find the best stuff the community has to offer.


Despite my own reservations of ever being a successful video game creative, I can definitely admire the little things that "Little Big Planet" does so right - namely, it's charming presentation and deep tool set. In fact, it's the tool set specifically that makes the designers at Media Molecule so incredibly genius. They conquered the one thing that so many previous D.I.Y games like "Fighter Maker" and "RPG Maker" struggled with - easy access tools lumped together in simple and understandable categories. If it's mechanical, the player knows to examine the tool box portion of the "popit". If it's a scenery piece, then they look in the goodie bag. This marvelous design choice makes the tools so light and easy to use, yet the near endless tutorials in the game emphasize the importance of choosing the right part for the job.

But prior game creation tools on console made another fatal error in that they were too technical, and focused on very niche genres like fighting or RPG's. Well, to be fair, maybe fighters were more mainstream, but that doesn't make them easier to design. In fact, the average fighting game takes months of proper balancing and animation work. On the other hand, RPGs need strong narratives, character development, and battle systems. Set pieces need to be carefully orchestrated to guide the player through a world of possibilities.


The D.I.Y. model of games is not new. The PC has seen way too many mods come and go, but this genre has stumbled by failing to understand the importance of simplicity. Little Big Planet rewrites the D.I.Y. rules for a very different console audience. This is an audience that doesn't memorize dozens of hotkey combinations or menus. It's an audience that just wants to dive into simple tools and make charming and visually impressive content. Simply put, Little Big Planet is the right product at the right time, and in the coming months we'll bear witness a dearth of content, a growing community of designers, and the real start of D.I.Y. games on console.


Fast forward ten or twenty years, and we'll see the fruits of Little Big Planet's labor, a game designer who claims he got his start designing levels in Media Molecule's incredibly deep burlap world.