Check out this Little Big Planet website. Not much to look at now. But if you click on the SackBoy you can place stickers all over the website. It’s actually quite fun. Here is one I created really quick, click to enlarge. Let’s see what you guys can do

NeoGAF has made some too, check it out, lol.

Little Big Planet Website

Pros

• Fun “Fun” is such a vague term to use, but I can’t think of a more appropriate word to describe this game. I was worried that this game would be be more of an abstract thought experiment than an enjoyable title, but fortunately, this game really is fun. And not just for the first hour, but even ten to twenty hours in. It looks like the developers started with that distinct visual “look” and then built an actual game around that, so it’s surprising to see the overall product come together and gel so well into a finished game.
• Unique This is easily one of the more unique titles this console generation, and more importantly it’s one of the few unique titles that is actually really good. This is technically a 2D platformer, but it definitely doesn’t play like any other platformers that I’ve played in the past. The visual vines and plant style of the game looks very similar to LocoRoco Cocorecho, which was also a unique and clever title, but this is overall a far more playable game.
• Extras They really packed a lot of extras into this 144 MB download: Local co-op play for up to three people, full support for the new Trophy system, movie capture + YouTube upload integration, and native 1080p rendering. I usually don’t care about bullet point lists like this, but every one of these actually adds to the game. I’m still playing on an SDTV so I can’t enjoy 1080p yet, and the trophies are all ridiculously hard to get. But the video recording and YouTube video integration worked surprisingly well. It couldn’t have been easier.
• Progression There are ten main levels (”gardens”) in the game and every single one feels fresh. Each garden has it’s own visual theme and soundtrack, but once you get to approximately the fifth garden, each garden has a new surprise twist to it. Just when you think you’ve seen all the game has to offer, it surprises with something new.

Overall

This is easily the best game in the PixelJunk series yet, and I’d hesitantly suggest this as the best downloadble PSN title that we’ve seen so far. It’s really that good. I don’t want to overhype this too much: it’s still a relatively simple game compared to most full price titles, the game can get frustrating on the higher levels, and I’m sure most players will tire of this after a good twenty hours or so. But this is exactly what most gamers want for a $10 downloadable purchase.

Here is me clearing the first spectra from Garden 8 in record time (this was blind luck). This video looks rather drab. Most of the game looks more visually exciting.

John Carmack, a respected authority on programming and 3D performance said this:

Taking the comparison to more current game hardware, he stated that iPhone is “more powerful than a Nintendo DS and Sony PSP combined,” perhaps even nearing the capabilities of the PS2 and original Xbox.

His point is that the iPhone should be able to host more technically sophisticated portable games and that’s great.

But on the flip side, I think it’s safe to say that the PS3 has far more horsepower than even the iPhone. So why can’t Sony put a more sophisticated web browser on the PS3? Have you used the iPhone’s web browser? It’s awesome. Clearly, the PS3 has the hardware to do something even better.

Does anyone use the PS3 browsr? The PS3 can’t use sites like Google Docs at all and has to use GMail in older browser compatibility mode. By comparison, the iPhone isn’t as nice as a PC, but it’s completely usable, and it’s great when you’re not sitting at a desk.

Two big PS3 Announcements:

• The blu-ray movie “Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete” will come with a PS3 demo of FFXIII
• Final Fantasy Versus XIII (this is a separate title from regular FFXIII) has been reconfirmed as a PS3 exclusive.

Also, PSP is getting Final Fantasy Agito XIII, a Kingdom Hearts title, Final Fantasy Dissidia (with console bundle), and Parasite Eve 3. Wow, that’s a lot of PSP content.

(thanks to fleakitten)

In the U.S., a prominent politician recently stirred controversy by referring to the country as a “nation of whiners”. There are no major wars or epidemics or catastrophes, there are record levels of peace and prosperity, continued acceleration of every type of technology, comfort, convenience, and overall standard of living, and yet people still complain endlessly about the price of gas and find a million other nitpicks to moan about.

By the same token, have gamers become a similar group of whiners?

Here are the top three moans of 2008:

• Games are too expensive
• Innovation is dead. There are too many sequels.
• Journalism is horrible. Review scores are terminally flawed.

Games have never been cheaper. There is tons of software for free or for $10 and under. And hardware has never done more for less money. You can get a last-gen console and games for next to nothing. And inflation adjusted, current new release games and hardware are cheaper than ever and more feature rich than ever.

Regarding innovation, the industry is experiencing a true renaissance. We are seeing an explosion of game functionality and polish. We are seeing more experimental and novel efforts than ever before. The industry is remaking and polishing every type of classic cult favorite, is building out new genres such as music/rhythm, is fleshing out previously unexplored social aspects of gaming, and has devoted huge efforts to the absolute mastery and perfection of the 3D shooter. And all this is happening at a historically breakneck pace. Compared to other industries like real estate or education, the video games business is rapidly evolving frontier territory.

And journalism? There are more types of journalism catering to a wider spectrum of tastes, more extensive coverage, and better discussion outlets than ever before. It’s also admirable that the games industry generally takes it review scores so seriously and passionately. The movie industry doesn’t put nearly as much attention or care into reviewing and evaluating their work.

id Software’s famous programmer, John Carmack made some controversial statements at today’s QuakeCon event:

id’s post-apocalyptic open-world shooter Rage (PC, PS3, 360, Mac) will look worse on Xbox 360 due to the compression needed to fit the game’s assets on two DVDs, programmer John Carmack revealed at tonight’s QuakeCon keynote.

According to Carmack, the royalty fees to include a third disc in the Xbox 360 version would be so high that it simply isn’t a feasible solution, with the programmer hoping for Microsoft to make a concession. He stressed that the issue is merely a storage problem and has nothing to do with the power of the Xbox 360 hardware.

This is a little surprising coming from Carmack, who seemed to prefer the more PC-like 360 in the past and famously referred to the PS3 as a “pain in my ass”.

We’ve seen PS3 exclusive shooters such as Resistance 1 use over two DVDs of storage, but we’ve also seen large games like GTA 4 manage to completely fit on a single DVD. Carmack isn’t the type of guy to make this kind of thing up, so I believe him.

It will be interesting to see how this Rage title turns out. Will it be a tech demo for their new 3D engine or will it be a fully fleshed out game?

UPDATE: Removed “Unconfirmed” as this seems to be legit.

Tomorrow, on Friday, Gran Turismo Prologue gets Gran Turismo TV. This is a series of auto enthusiast video programming that can be purchased for $1-$2/episode.

I know we have some real auto enthusiasts on this site, so I’m curious: Is anyone excited about this? Personally, I don’t see the draw. Most GT fans that I know are excited about many other things, most specifically, having a full version of GT5 with a full selection of cars, tracks, and non-linear game progression modes.

However, Gran Turismo’s fan base has always been split between auto enthusiasts and technology fans and it’s possible that this is intended to appeal more to the former category. It’s also very possible that this is just a nice extra going in on parallel to main development efforts.

Sony released their financial statements for Q2 2008 (fiscal Q1, calendar Q2, April through June), and it’s good to see that the PlayStation business back in the black. Sony’s gaming division made profits of ¥5.4 billion yen on revenue of ¥229.6 billion yen.

As you can see, both hardware unit sales and software unit sales are up. The report says, “Hardware sales increased while software sales decreased”. Since software unit sales were up, I assume this means that software dollar sales were down, which means that the average software selling price has dropped as they are selling more budget priced titles.

Full Sony financial statements can be found here.

Plenty to pick from this week. Anything for you?

* Dark City: Director’s Cut
* Stargate: Continuum
* The Hunt for Red October
* Top Gun
* Doomsday
* The Lost Boys
* Shine a Light
* Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo
* Bay: Special Edition
* Clear and Present Danger
* Patriot Games
* Beowulf: Director’s Cut
* The Sum of All Fears
* Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle: Extreme Unrated Edition
* Lost Boys: The Tribe
* Human Body: Pushing the Limits
* StarGaze HD: Universal Beauty
* Vengeance
* The Tiger Blade
* Salvage

Blu-ray.com

Here they are! Tallied up from the votes last week:

Best Exclusive PS3 Game

LittleBigPlanet (6)
Resisistance 2 (5)
Killzone 2 (3)

Best Multiplatform PS3 Game

Resident Evil 5 (6)
FFXIII (4)
Fallout 3 (3)

Best PSN Game

Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty (8)
Fat Princess (5)
Pixel Junk Eden (2)

Best Surprise (Game)

MAG (4)
DC Online (3)
Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty (2)

Best Surprise (Non-Game)

Video Downloads (6)
FFXIII (3)

Best Conference

Sony (10)
Microsoft (5)

Biggest Disappointment

No PS3 RPGs (4)
Nintendo’s Showing (4)
No Support for Europe or Canada in Initial PS3 Online Movie Store (3)

Best of Show. Game, event, anything.

Killzone 2 (4)
LittleBigPlanet in Sony Conference (4)

Three big titles are expected to hit PSN tonight!

PixelJunk Eden Demo

This title has gotten some really positive buzz. The previous game in the PixelJunk series, Monsters, was a big hit, and this one is rumored to be even better.

Siren Full Game

A quality, survival horror game. The demo was fun, can’t wait for the full version tonight!

1942 Full Game + Demo

A polished, accessible, remake of a classic top-down shooter.

And the next issue of the online magazine, Qore, will include access to the beta for Resistance 2. Supposedly, you can also get into the Resistance 2 beta by pre-ordering the game.

From IGN’s preview:

All the enemies that are assaulting your base will be trying to get in and get their fair lady out. Now, you can kill these guys if you like, but your best defense is to go outside of your stronghold and find pieces of cake and other dessert items. You’ll then bring these snacks to the opponent’s princess, force her to eat them, and watch her get fatter. Big gals are heavy and that means your opponents are going to have in groups to carry her fat ass back home.

The fat thing is a little weird, but aside from that, the game sounds really fun and has generated a lot of excitement. However, the fat thing has caused others to get quite offended:

—but the only thing I can’t figure out is why anyone would want to rescue a fat princess in the first place, since everyone knows that fat girls are unlovable human garbage at whom any sensible bloke would sooner hurl invective than cast a longing glance.

Woah!

UPDATE: Removed semi-offensive picture

So are fat people taking this cartoon action game a little too seriously? Or maybe the game should have toned down the force feeding fat girls cake gameplay?

GT5 in 2009 or 2010

Ouch! On the good side, we one or two substantial GT5:P updates this year.

Vote in the comments. These will be manually tallied

• Best Exclusive PS3 Game
• Best Multiplatform PS3 Game
• Best PSN Game
• Best Surprise (Game)
• Best Surprise (Non-Game)
• Best Conference
• Biggest Disappointment
• Best of Show. Game, event, anything.