Home and littlebigplanet revealed

BlitzKrieg

With the talk from lookingfor that the justifacation for the ps3 will be unveiled at GDC I kept track of announcements as they came in (despite work )

first is Playstation home:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/clips/gdc07-clip-the-ps3s-home-242341.php


I like the idea enough, i mean virtual worlds are always fun. Dont like the look of it cosmetic wise, doesnt appeal to me, I always like my enviroments to be more stylised (especially in character creation)

As an community hub its an amazing idea and one that looks to be combining the popularity of mmo's like second life and wow with Youtube.

But the matchmaking element isnt appealing to me, While the notion of meeting up with friends in a virtual world and then going gaming is something that everyone thinks appeals to them. It will be an extra layer on of coating and *features* when a managable and easy to follow set of lists for friends/servers etc will always be the prefered route if one wants to simply game. but thats just my opinion

then there's littlebigplanet.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/littlebigplanet/clips-littlebigplanet-242305.php

Which is more of the sort of stuff I like and is making me want to play it from that video alone.

There is little I can say that's bad about this. Except that it is again another playstation store feature.

Not bad for the game

bad for the console who had a mainselling point of the blu ray.

Its just worrying that all the best things for the ps3 so far (Tekken, gran turismo, ps1 downloads, littlebigplanet, flow, warhawk.) doesnt need a blu ray disc and yet it was the same blu ray support that caused so many problems for sony to begin with.

not to mention its the big extra cost factor.


Overall though, big thumbs up for littlebigplanet, a nod of approval to playstation home, i'll wait and see how it goes when real people are allowed onto it.

steviec

Not convinced on playstation home really, especially when they were talking about having clothing stores and beverage makers setting up shop and everything, it could just be a cynical way of selling stuff.

Does depend how it develops though, the movie did look interesting in that instead of just, say, downloading and watching a movie, you could go watch it in the virtual cinema and then talk to other people who were watching it afterwards. It kind of gives you more social interaction while having the convenience of being at home I suppose. Same goes for the game arcades, sure you can just have a simple menu and download and play games, but maybe it'd be interesting if it was more like a real arcade, you could walk in, watch people play, challenge them, a crowd might gather, in theory at least. The technicalities of actually seeing the game in progress on each arcade game screen regardless of who's playing are probably a bit big to overcome, but it was the impression the movie gave.

So there's potential but I'm not convinced. On the other hand I really like the look of littlebigplanet, could be a fantastic game there based on what they've shown so far, especially if there's a lot of interest in user made levels. Will be keeping an eye on that one.

BlitzKrieg

another detail i thought of...

The playstation brand (at least with the ps2) was the one for people who played computer games but had a social life aswell...isnt this taking the brand into pseudo geek territory with artificial cribs and invite your homies around to hang out in playstation land?

steviec

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/9860

That shows the full presentation of Littlebigplanet, including them creating stuff and actually playing through a level and messing around with it live, it's a really exciting looking game actually.

It reminds me of my first impressions when they first demoed Spore a couple of years ago, can't think of any other game that's made me go 'wow they could be really onto something' in the same way.

Burning Eclipse

Can anybody see the Madden/NFS/PES/GTA groups going for this "home" thing? I think it's a nice idea but I think it's the kind of thing more likely to influence early adopters rather than a long term strategy for boosting sales. Also, is this not a tarted up version of what Test Drive Unlimited already implemented?

LittleBigPlanet has a nice aesthetic and would definately be something I'd like to play, really... pretty, is the word I'd use I guess, but certainly a game I'd wanna try!

steviec

Burning Eclipse wrote:

Can anybody see the Madden/NFS/PES/GTA groups going for this "home" thing? I think it's a nice idea but I think it's the kind of thing more likely to influence early adopters rather than a long term strategy for boosting sales.

If anything I'd say the opposite. Most early adopters or 'hardcore' gamers probably couldn't care less about features like this when what they want is games. However I think its the sort of thing that will be huge with the myspace/bebo crowd which I'd imagine overlaps a lot with the more casual players.

Burning Eclipse

steviec wrote:

If anything I'd say the opposite. Most early adopters or 'hardcore' gamers probably couldn't care less about features like this when what they want is games. However I think its the sort of thing that will be huge with the myspace/bebo crowd which I'd imagine overlaps a lot with the more casual players.

The Bebo/myspace crowd won't fork out whatever a PS3 happens to cost at the time when something like bebo/myspace/second life can be accessed for free from a pc, which for most people will always be more convenient than the PS3.

Casual gamers are just that, not the kind to put effort into a avatar so they can walk around a virtual environment. They turn on the console, rarely even need to replace the disk as all that's ever in there is PES, and play, then turn off. Rinse and repeat... I live with a few of them.

quad_red

steviec wrote:

It reminds me of my first impressions when they first demoed Spore a couple of years ago, can't think of any other game that's made me go 'wow they could be really onto something' in the same way.

Yeah. More than anything else I've seen on the PS3, that made me go wow!

The physics engine in that game looks stunning.

Captain Trips

LBP looks amazing. More next gen then anything I've seen on 360.

steviec

Burning Eclipse wrote:

The Bebo/myspace crowd won't fork out whatever a PS3 happens to cost at the time when something like bebo/myspace/second life can be accessed for free from a pc, which for most people will always be more convenient than the PS3.

Casual gamers are just that, not the kind to put effort into a avatar so they can walk around a virtual environment. They turn on the console, rarely even need to replace the disk as all that's ever in there is PES, and play, then turn off. Rinse and repeat... I live with a few of them.

Well of course they're just going to go straight into the game, they're not going to sit looking at the PS2 start up screen, why would they want to stare at the memory cards?

And the Home thing is just as free as myspace/bebo once you already own a Playstation, and putting the effort into creating an avatar and everything is precisely what myspace users seem to love, like I said personally I don't get it but if someone will pour hours over covering their bebo page in Widgets and shiny colours and music, then surely having a virtual house to do the same with would appeal?

And, no, nobody will pay €600 just for this. But nobody will pay €1000 just for bebo, its one of the many many uses they have for that PC they spent €1000 on(and to be honest, in the case of some people I know, Bebo is the primary use). And this is just one of many things the PS3 will have, and the PS3 won't be €600 forever either.

steviec

Captain Trips wrote:

LBP looks amazing. More next gen then anything I've seen on 360.

The sooner Microsoft actually follow up on their promises with XNA the sooner we'd see similar titles on the 360 I think.

At the moment innovative independent developers are struggling to make games for Live Arcade, the platform is perfect and the tools are all there, but for some reason Microsoft are really limiting what they allow to be produced and 99% of stuff is just rehashed old arcade games.

LookingFor

To refer latterly to this, LBP was what I was referring to the in the "console wars" thread. I didn't quite say I thought it would bring justification for the console (though I see quite a few people labelling it a killer app), what I said was:

On PS3, I think just this week with GDC, some perception should improve. From what I've heard Sony will be showing some very creative stuff, and the PS3 game everyone will be talking about after GDC (and wanting after GDC) won't be the MGS4s and GTA4s of this world, but something we haven't even heard of yet. I've heard it's pure genius, something you'd perhaps more likely expect from someone like Nintendo. Now, one game can't 'win a war' if that's what we're talking about here, but from what I know of this, I think it will help change the perceived character of the system and the type of games you expect from it.

And I think that's all true in relation to LBP

Vegeta

steviec wrote:

And, no, nobody will pay €600 just for this. But nobody will pay €1000 just for bebo, its one of the many many uses they have for that PC they spent €1000 on(and to be honest, in the case of some people I know, Bebo is the primary use). And this is just one of many things the PS3 will have, and the PS3 won't be €600 forever either.

Why did you quote someone argue with them and then agree with them. The point made by Burning Eclipse was that no-one into Bebo/MySpace will fork out for a PS3 just for Home, which you agreed with above. Strange

dimerocks

I saw the demo for little big planet yesterday, it look quite amazing. I wouldn't be suprised if I get the PS3 based on that game and from a few people i've talked to they say the same.