PlayStation Beta Rooms Round-up Part Two
My penultimate piece of coverage of the Sony PlayStation Beta Rooms will recall my hands-on experience with Little Big Planet 2, Gran Turismo 5 and 3D gaming. Get some!
Little Big Planet 2
Just the one level on show, although I caught a fleeting glance of an arena level while the demo guy set up a game for me. What I actually played was a platforming level, a multiplayer point-race game familiar to fans of the original. Sackboy still has a stumpy, floaty jump which is a bit disappointing as it was quite poor in the original, I hope the transitions between background and foreground can be smoothed out a bit more too.
The new grapple was on show though, which will probably go on to become an essential tool for co-op players, and a mischievous sod’s device of choice. The grappling hook can be used to grab onto certain surfaces (like sponge) and then pull yourself up, drop down or swing from side-to-side to get momentum for jumps.
If you’re lagging behind in a race you can even grab onto another player with it. So if they’re making a jump over a fiery pit, just lasso them mid-jump, dropping them into their smouldering grave. Or grab a lift with them when they’re swinging around. Yes it’s very funny and we all had a laugh doing it, but by the end of the race it started to get old and we all kind of stopped doing it to save any potential outbursts of “Ok, don’t take the piss!” to ruin the amiable atmosphere. If it ends up becoming a problem online, maybe it would be an idea to limit the amount of times it can be used per race.
Looking good so far, if not a bit familiar, but I’m sure the huge variety of new game modes (shooters, kart racing, arenas, rhythm-action etc.) in the final version will have us falling for Sackboy all over again.
sound good