Ready Up

Little Big Deal…

My ‘next-gen’ console collection is now complete following the purchase last week of a PS3. I’d held off getting Sony’s shiny box for a number of reasons:-

  1. Multi-platform game   =     Xbox 360 (Gamerscore)
  2. Blu-Ray                       =     The enemy – yes I bought the HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360
  3. Cost                            =     Significant
  4. Space                          =     Limited

It’s mine I tell you.. MINE!

But I knew it would happen one day and that day arrived. When I advised one of my esteemed colleagues here at Ready-Up of my purchase he remarked “Oh, you got a Little Big Planet player then!” in reference of course to both the perceived dearth of original titles for the PS3 and Sony’s huge impact in the gamespace with LBP.

Not for me!Sorry I just don’t get it.

My reaction to this flippant and totally superficial comment surprised me enough to write today’s missive – principally I don’t care about Little Big Planet! I may be the only PS3 owner in the world who has no intention of spending money on the game and no desire to invest time in playing it.

Yes, we saw the power of the engine at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival last year – everyone remembers our own Max’s reaction to the remarkable creativity which can be unleashed! Yes, I visited the ‘shop’ in London’s Covent Garden – possibly the most under-played piece of PR I’ve ever come across, but you know what? LBP wasn’t the reason for those trips, it simply happened to be available at the time.

Being the analytical type I am, I’ve spent some time navel-gazing to try and understand why the geek in me isn’t falling over itself trying to get hands-on with LBP to sample its delights, quirks, ohhs and ahhs,  and here are the results:

  1. I’m not a platformer fan – I’ve never played Sonic, Super Mario etc.
  2. I’m pretty much a lone-gamer – designing levels for online gaming action simply doesn’t ‘fit’ with my persona
  3. I naturally rebel against hype – in the face of world-wide whooping and hollering, my reaction is likely to be a staid “Meh”

But I do appreciate that LBP is a great game, the delivery of the concept is unlike anything I’ve seen before, so please, continue with your level design in honour of your dog; re-create your family holidays through the medium of gaming – me though, I’ll load up Fallout 3 and pretend I have a clue what to do.

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14 responses to “Little Big Deal…”

  1. Tony avatar
    Tony

    Do you know, I was going to say “How could you NOT play LittleBigPlanet, particularly as you can find it for about £20 now?” but then I realised something.

    I’ve never played any Metal Gear Solid game, any Final Fantasy game and I’m not intending to play Fallout 3, either.

    I guess if it just doesn’t appeal, it just doesn’t appeal…

  2. Lorna avatar
    Lorna

    I’d pretty much echo your second and third points entirely as I’m the same. I have no interest in LBP either. I acquired a PS3 last year at a heavily discounted rate thrugh some store negotiation and I has been switched on by me about once to set up my gamertag. I have the grand total of one game – Drake’s forune and once I have (if ever) played other games in the Metal Gear series – provided I can get hold of them now, then I will pick up Metal Gear 4. Hard Rain this year will be on my shopping list but not much else.

  3. Simes avatar
    Simes

    I actually wish I hadn’t bought it. I spent one evening messing about with it and haven’t loaded it up since.

  4. Jake avatar
    Jake

    Considering this website focuses on the Xbox 360 your comments don’t surprise me at all.

    What will you write next? ‘1001 reasons that the Xbox 360 will pulverise the PlayStation 3?!’

  5. City avatar
    City

    I love and adore my PS3, I dont have an Xbox, and I dont think that will change.

    Okay so recently becomming the PSN editor here @ Ready Up means I am a bit bias, but quite rightly so.

    Most people who have a bad word to say about the PS3 have never played with one – it was just Sony’s very bad marketing that got it off to a bad start and clouded everyones judgement about it. It is an amazing console, and components/capability wise – Far better than an Xbox,

    Really Glad you finally got one John, and who cares if your not all about Little Big Planet (though I do love it, I havent played it for ages) there are so many other awesome games, including exclusives, PSN content etc.

  6. GamerGeekGirl avatar
    GamerGeekGirl

    Do you mean Heavy Rain?

    Or is there another Rain game I’ve not heard of? 🙂

  7. John avatar
    John

    Jake, I’m not sure where the ‘focuses on Xbox 360’ comes from.. I’ve personally reviewed Wii and DS games here and I know that some folks don’t even have a ‘360.
    Sure, there’s a Gamerscore list down the side, but as of yet I’m not sure what we could do for the PSN equiv?

    As I said I now own pretty much one (or two) of each machine and I have to say that my opinion, like most of the well grounded folks we meet, is that each has it’s own quirks and foibles and things we love and hate (NXE?!). No fanboyz or grrlz here that I’ve ever met.

    Here we love games, but we’re not afraid to ask the awkward question or even point out the the emperor is indeed, wearing no clothes.

  8. Lorna avatar
    Lorna

    I do indeed mean Heavy Rain and not a dodgy Christian Slater movie…that’s what I get for typing with cold fingers and for being in a hurry 🙂

  9. Michael avatar
    Michael

    Heavy Rain will be all kinds of awesome! Not just Christian Slater in that tripe but Morgan Freeman too! I mean, really? Oh, and what is it with you and cold fingers?

    Jakey jake (dunno why I called you that but anyway), he wasn’t knocking the PS3 (at least, I didn’t think so) but LBP. well, not knocking it, just saying it wasn’t his cup of tea.

  10. Lorna avatar
    Lorna

    I always have cold fingers 🙁 I thinkI was warmer walking to the shops today than sat at my desk 🙁

  11. Simes avatar
    Simes

    My observation of other sites is that accusations of bias usually come from fanboys of the “other side”.

    Oh, and if there’s a place where Sony makes trophy information available in the same way Microsoft does for Gamerscores, I’ll gladly write a widget for it.

  12. Swift avatar
    Swift

    Dude, I totally agree. I never understood the hype for LBP. Sure it’s charming and single player stuff is probably fine, but it’s a glorified level creator that only the most hardcore will create or even download stages for and play for a long period of time. My PS3 remains a Blu-Ray player after I finished MGS4 months ago.

  13. Scott avatar
    Scott

    A friend of mine was privileged enough to be included in the pre-release beta for LittleBigPlanet. Practically ignoring the single-player content, we jumped into the community levels with great haste and were blown away by the hilarious homages and wacky meta-games present there.

    This experience guaranteed a purchase from me. Unfortunately, by the time I got around to playing it, LBP was in the middle of a moderation fiasco that generated a lot of bad press. Gone was the most appealing element of the game, and I was left with just another platformer, albeit one that oozed a weird British charm.

    However, booting it up a couple of weeks ago I was pleasently surprised to discover that the situation had changed: once again, the community is flowing with creative and unique uses for the game engine, partially due to the MGS content pack.

    In any case, I think your reasons are completely logical for not enjoying LBP.

    I only recently picked up a 60GB NTSC PS3 (I have a bunch of NTSC PS2 games), and although it took some time to get there (as City noted, Sony’s marketing was a clusterfudge), I think it’s an excellent machine with some great exclusives. Just like the Xbox 360. Or the Wii. Or the DS. Or… any other major platform, really.

    Enjoy the PS3, John.

  14. Duncan Aird avatar
    Duncan Aird

    Hold on, hold on, hold on… someone where hasn’t played a Metal Gear game?!

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