Wow. What a charming game, brimming with little touches and brilliant ideas. From the second Stephen Fry’s voice kicked in I knew I was in for unique treat. So what is LittleBigPlanet about? well I’m lazy sod so I’ll pinch the description from Wikipedia

In LittleBigPlanet, players control small characters (nicknamed either “Sackboy” or “Sackgirl”, owing to their material and appearance), each of which can jump, move, and grab objects. Players can use their abilities to shape and develop the highly manipulatable environment to build custom spaces either individually, collaboratively, and/or competitively. Levels focus on co-operative, physics-based gameplay, and players can use mechanisms such as cogs and blocks to build anything from small level parts to large, complex worlds. The game will also allow opportunities for players to acquire new skills and tools.

It’s a joy to play. At face value the gameplay can seem simplistic, sure it’s not a deep or complex platformer like say Super Mario World. But that doesn’t matter as there is just so many cool little ideas and fun things to do. The level creation mode is where it comes alive. The scope of what you can do is staggering, the game comes with an enormous toolkit of stuff to play with and build levels. Levels can be published online and shared for everyone to play, picking through some of the user created levels online has been a mixed bag – but several of them have shown stuff I didn’t think was possible, and you come away with ideas for your own creations!

I’m in love with LittleBigPlanet – roll on the 24th Oct when it’s released fully.

Very little comprise has been made with the controls, so it’s fairly unforgiving, and yes there is no jump button – which does take some getting used to. It’s difficult too, small mistakes can result in instant death especially on the later levels. Old gamers like myself (ahem) will remember a time when all games were like this. I had a bit of a on/off thing going with it – often giving up as it was too hard (If I’m honest I claimed it was impossible and switched it off in a huff several times!) only to come back the next day and breeze past what ever level or boss was causing me pain.

Anyhow I finished the game last night – a real genuine sense of achievement. I more than got my 6 quids worth of fun from it.

I hope developers pumping out cheap ports and remakes on PSN and XBLA will take note. This is how a proper remake is done.

Wow so that’s 2 games in 3 days! Well I’d been playing this on and off for a while. What can I say? It adds very little to the series, it’s a cut ‘n paste job of DMC 1, 2 or 3. Now I guess Capcom reckon if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. But by the time you get to a forth game in a series you expect some innovation.

Well it’s very pretty, very, very pretty in fact; but all this eye candy comes at a price – interactability (I don’t even think that’s a word – but you get my drift). In gameplay terms 95% of the environents are basically box rooms and corridors, they don’t look like box rooms and corridors, they look like ultra detailed, epic pieces of gothic architecture, but you just glide through them, there is nothing to do in these places. The locations merely serve as a sumptuous backdrop to yet another demon slicing fest. OK maybe I’m being unfair, Devil May Cry doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a beat ‘em up with completely OOT sword and gunplay, and in those regards it’s fine. Special mention has to go to the cut scenes; these were gorgeous, well choreographed and even more OOT than the game, which is going some. Extra special mention for the cheap shot Capcom pulled making you fight through the same levels twice (once as Nero, once as Dante) you even get to fight all the bosses twice too, yay! actually some of the bosses you fight three times! Come on Capcom that’s really lame!

Still not a bad game. And defintily one to show off to your mates if you are looking for a true HD game that doesn’t just look like a PS2 game with extra varnish.

I didn’t have high hopes for UT3, I played a lot of the original on the PC way back in the day, but recent experiences with online multiplayer FPS games haven’t been good (my Halo 3 experience below being a case in point) But much to my surprise I’ve been really getting into this; firstly the PS3 version allows you to download & install custom content, such as maps, mods etc. a feature common on the PC but this is the first time I’ve seen it done so openly on a console. I’m a sucker for this sort of stuff and I’ll happily while away hours trying out new maps and such like, but I’m odd like that.

The game still plays and feels a lot like classic Unreal Tournament, a fast paced, twitch shooter almost arcade like in its core simplicity. In essence not a lot has changed over the years since the original game back in 1999 and basic deathmatch & team deathmatch is still its strongest side for me. It’s very pretty too, sadly most of the time it’s rushing past in a blur, but if you take the time to look around you’ll find some very nice looking and well designed environments. As an added bonus I’m not totally shit at it, yay! and this has come as the biggest surprise to me! I’ve played a far few matches and even won a couple, coming second or mid-table at worst. This isn’t a boast; I’m not that good, but it’s sure a lot more fun to play when you are not dying every 3 seconds or feel like you are merly n00b cannon fodder for all the other players that probably spend about 12 hours a day doing nothing but playing. Don’t expect a detailed plot or story (the offline campaign mode attempts this and it’s frankly embarrassing) but for a quick & mindless blast you can’t go wrong.

Top stuff…

Until last week that is. I randomly asked in a branch of GAME if they still had any 60Gb models (I knew the answer, but sometimes you just have to ask) to my surprise the guy told me they have one, but it’s a pre-owned and it’s only 10 quid less than they were new. So I let it pass, but I get home and it’s still gnawing away at the back of my mind, a quick look on eBay and I can see the 60Gb models going for 400, 500 even 600 quid. OK so now the one if GAME is looking a bit like a bargain.

Eventually my willpower gives way, I dash back to the branch of GAME and buy the damn thing. It was dusty as hell and had a couple of tiny scratches on the top. But the dust was blasted off with some compressed air, and the scratches can be seen as I have it on a shelf under the TV.

First Impressions – Good.
It looks beautiful running at 1080i over HDMI on my telly. I like the user interface, everything seems a lot more accessible than on the PS3 than the 360. It found my uPnP server no hassles and I was able to stream music and DIVX movies without any effort. The on-line store (equivalent to XBLA and the Marketplace on the 360) seemed a bit lacking; only a handful of games for download, some pitiful old PS1 games and a limited selection of full games (admittedly it’s quality over quantity here with the likes of Tekken 5 DR)