West Karana

Last night was a LittleBigPlanet night. I didn’t know that it was going to be a LBP night, but when I sat down to play, my cat pinned me to the couch and I wasn’t able to leave for hours. Besides, when Stargrace and Sirhyl stopped by the Pod of Love, ready to play, how could I not?

Things went pretty well when it was just me and Sirhyl, but when Stargrace popped in, we ALL had problems. I dunno what the deal is, or if this morning’s LBP patch fixed it, but with three, we just weren’t in control. My character would be zipping around, or go in some mystery direction… it was very hard to complete anything.

The other issue is the camera. The camera is the hidden extra player in the game, and this is the player who wants you to die. Unless all three people stay really close, the camera struggles to show everyone — and even a missed jump that leaves someone at the bottom while everyone else is at the top can do this — it becomes so zoomed out you can’t see or do anything and just have to eat a death and respawn.

We played solo after that, but even though we weren’t playing together, the achievements we made and levels we finished got flashed to each other’s screens, so it was nice. I followed them to some user-made levels which are designed to give you certain trophies, and those were kinda cool in a god-mode kind of way.

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While I sit and stew because I can’t play Rock Band 2 on my PS3 yet, news comes that LittleBig Planet, the multi-player platformer where building your own levels is part of the game, will be out in less than a month.

It’s a game that, like Spore, runs on player creativity. Good stuff :) I’ll definitely be checking it out.

They have some early adopter rewards — you can see those and get more detail at the writeup on Wired.com.

(Oh yeah — Rock Band 2 for the PS3 is supposedly out October 19, so, busy week that week.)

I’m not being snide or dismissive when I say I am still waiting for a reason to buy a PS3 as a *game* machine, as opposed to a media hub, a job it does admirably but no better so than others you could make. I’m just saying that the Xbox 360, so far, does the business of games, better.

I could be changing my mind. While browsing through game trailers on PSN this weekend, I stumbled across one called simply, Valkyrie. At first I didn’t know if I wasn’t watching a new Miyazaki movie, aside from its lack of flying things.* That same sort of attention to detail, the same sort of pastel watercolors style that is Miyazaki himself and is seen all the time in his concept art. This was an anime I wanted to see. I have the trailer below — the version I saw was exactly the same, except with all the Japanese removed (and nothing added).

Except it’s a GAME. It’s a real-time tactical game similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, except without so much fantasy. You have a five person squad, each with a specialty, and you move them through battles, arranging them, and so on, except this is 3D and real time.

I’m not big into war games. but I DO like tactical games, they are one of the few kinds of games I can do fairly well, I LOVE the art direction. It comes out Nov 1 in the US, and so on Nov 1, I may have finally found a reason to buy a PS3 for gaming. People are begging for online multiplayer deathmatch stuff, but not me. Give me a tactical strategy game like FF Tactics, Tactics Ogre or Shining Force, and I will absolutely be there each and every time.

Here’s a review in English of the game ith a lot of gameplay shown.

* Miyazaki loves flying.

Nausicaa — Personal flying wing, Mehve, plus a whole bunch of massive flying war machines and even a two-person flying pot.
Laputa — Mom and her pirate crew in their family airship? Flycycles? More huge flying war machines? Flying robots? Steerable kites?
Porco Rosso — low hanging fruit here, the entire movie is about flying.
Totoro — aside from a levitating Oh-Totoro, not so much flight. There is a catbus, though. Nekobasu (catbus) is my fave song.
Spirited Away — flying dragon/enchanted boy.
Mononoke — um hmm well aside from some pretty amazing wolf jumping, I guess not. But he was TRYING to be historical.
Kiki’s Delivery Service — Witch. Who flies. And delivers stuff. Plus her boyfriend with the pedal-powered airplane.
Howl’s Moving Castle — more immense flying war machines, plus small flycycles, reminds me of the ones in Laputa.

Trust me. It’s a theme with him.

I almost — ALMOST — bought Guitar Hero: Aerosmith this weekend, for the PS3. And I probably would have, if I’d gone there Sunday instead of Saturday. Games for the PS3 are $60, the new price point, and I’d have had to buy a guitar controller for the PS3 as well.

I have two guitar controllers for the Xbox 360 and two more for the PS2. My desire to invest in more guitar controllers is precisely zero.

And yet, I wanted to find a game to play for my PS3. It’s great for watching Doctor Who on the big screen (”The Stolen Earth” — AMAZING.) but I feel really frustrated that I haven’t been able to find even one game for the PS3 worth the $60.

I thought Guitar Hero: Aerosmith would be the one. But it wasn’t for sale when I went. I played the Guitar Hero demo system they had set up near the Aerosmith display, thinking it was a preview for the new game. I realized, though, as I worked through the set list, that this was Guitar Hero III, a game I’d played through once on the PS2, but was so turned off by the awful boss battles that I never played it again.

I went home, plugged the PS*2* in, and played Guitar Hero III again. I was AWFUL. Absolutely HORRID.

What followed was at least an hour or two of calibrating the game for the new widescreen TV. Ahhhhh…. I could play again.

I mean, when you can’t even hit the notes at the very slowest speed in practice mode — it’s not you.

Anyway, I wanted the game for the PS3, but it’s the exact same game as for the PS2, and I already have the controllers for the PS2 (and they remain my favorite of all the controllers). The picture was a little fuzzy but the music was just as loud.

I WANT to believe. I WANT to believe that the $400 lump of metal and plastic beneath my TV is worth more than just a REALLY GOOD media controller to someone who isn’t into shooters and war games. (PS3 fans go WTF? What other kinds of games ARE there?).

My search for a game that I can show people that will justify the PS3 continues.