LittleBigPlanet (Series)

[ShiraNoMai]

Mark my words, you go back to that style after playing a full game of good physics, you will be crying at how bad it is. I'm sure the decision was more made to suit the 3D environment more than anything (especially when you consider other 2D sidescrolling platformers transitioning to 3D changing physics) but it was still such a grand decision in the end, I think.

[Moonface]

Oh I don't claim the physics are perfect as a platformer and I get how they can be hated from a technical/gameplay standpoint. They were clearly changed to be more in tune with what a platformer should have and it could be done because it isn't building on an existing game that has no choice but to maintain certain things for consistency with existing user created content. It would be nice if somehow the physics could be brought to LBP4 if one happens, but that would make every existing level unplayable unless there's an option to change the physics engine being used on Sackboy, which would be the ideal approach. Especially because then if there are players who prefer the old style, they can still make levels that use it.

[Metallix]

So I got Sackboy a month ago. Wanted it when I got my PS5 but also didn't want to spend all the money I set aside for games and finally broke down and bought it. I am still playing through it and love the gameplay. The only thing I have to complain about is that the game is way too easy for the first half of it. It's actually getting pretty decent in difficulty now on world 4 but still nothing hard.

[Moonface]

So I got Sackboy a month ago. Wanted it when I got my PS5 but also didn't want to spend all the money I set aside for games and finally broke down and bought it. I am still playing through it and love the gameplay. The only thing I have to complain about is that the game is way too easy for the first half of it. It's actually getting pretty decent in difficulty now on world 4 but still nothing hard.

Yeah, the game doesn't get challenging for a while. Some of the Knitted Knight trials get pretty challenging though I think.

What are your favourite levels/area so far?

[Metallix]

Hmmm that's a hard one. I tend to gravitate towards the levels with good music, licensed or not, but the whole game has a great soundtrack. I really liked the sea themed world(world 3) so far, especially the level with David Bowie.

Some have complained that they got rid of the creative aspect but I think this was the right way to go. Let Dreams be the game for people to play other creations/build levels and let Sackboy become his own gameplay focused game. I also like that they gave him a voice, and didn't make him over talkative.

[Moonface]

I think they need to keep the creative aspect of LittleBigPlanet, given that Dreams is far more complicated in comparison and likely isn't very inviting to younger creators. They're both different enough to coexist I think.

Although the servers for all the LBP games need to be brought back online first. They've been down for over a month because of an attack or something and it's still being worked on.

[Metallix]

@Moonface You know, I never found the creation tools in LBP to be easy so I don't know how it compares. I've only dabbled in creation in Dreams but it does help that assets can be shared so not everything has to be made from scratch. The only Sony game that I felt was easy to create in was ModNation Racers.

[Moonface]

@Moonface You know, I never found the creation tools in LBP to be easy so I don't know how it compares. I've only dabbled in creation in Dreams but it does help that assets can be shared so not everything has to be made from scratch. The only Sony game that I felt was easy to create in was ModNation Racers.

Oh LBP's tools are definitely not easy, but Dreams looks a lot more complex in both its toolset and the levels that get made, especially since my impression is that you don't even get a starting character or physics set to work with like LBP offers. It isn't difficult though to just quickly sculpt some random terrain and put Sackboy into it; however, I don't know if Dreams has something that simple on the table either.

This is the latest update on the server issues for these games by the way. For anyone who didn't know the exact reason the servers crashed, someone managed to load large numbers of levels repeatedly to do something similar to a DDoS attack.

[Moonface]

Welp, looks like the servers are now offline until further notice because of an attack that caused transphobic and homophobic messages to be displayed to players in game. I really wish the responsible party could be punished in some way legally for the damage being caused.

[ShiraNoMai]

I feel like as a first party studio, Sony should really lend a helping hand here to MediaMolecule to resolve these clearly serious problems they're facing with their servers here. And especially for what's at stake here. Such a shame.

[Moonface]

The trouble is that Mm doesn't handle these servers. I assume that Sony themselves do, or it's the community team of LBP that are dealing with it. However given that it's a Sony IP they should help if they're not already.

[Mr EliteL]

Stupid morons whoever they are, attempting a DDoS earlier and now this making servers suffer and ruining games, such a pathetic life they have. 

[Moonface]

I did hear a rumour that the responsible party was managing to send messages by giving themselves moderation privileges, and that they had also been tampering with levels. I've not been able to see anything verifying such a thing, although I expect there's an exploit being used somewhere because otherwise it would be easier to just disable in-game messages as then nothing could be sent until they fix the problem, but the fact that wasn't done makes me think that whoever is doing this would just easily get around that.

The only bright side to this is that it might make people aware of the games again and may encourage players to go back so as to experience the content available before it is truly gone forever. It definitely makes it harder to take the servers for granted when I can see exactly what it would be like to have access removed for them. I think the biggest shame is that whenever that day comes, so many creations will just be lost forever. At least for something like Minecraft if somewhere went down that hosted a ton of maps, people can download that content before it goes and it can even be shared somewhere else. For this, the only levels that would live on are the ones that happened to get put onto YouTube, which is at least something but would still be a huge shame.

[Moonface]

So the servers finally got fixed. However, they can no longer be accessed via PS3 so the only way to play community levels is through LBP3 on PS4. Vita took the hardest hit here though, because its servers got closed down and there is no alternative way to access them, so all those community levels are just gone.
Levels published that are locked to LBP1 and LBP2 by the creator are also gone too unless the creator comes back to update the levels to be playable on LBP3. No idea how many levels are caught in that state of limbo though.

I'm just happy the outcome isn't a complete shut down. I don't play LBP on PS3 anymore anyway, so the loss of access on that platform means nothing to me.

[ShiraNoMai]

Unfortunate it had to come to this but honestly they would've eventually had to do this anyway. Just glad these levels can still be preserved over time and played.