On my girlfriends recommendation, nigh, insistence, I picked up LittleBigPlanet.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hesitate to comply, the game had simply dropped while I was on holiday and at the rate we’re moving forward even the most remarkable titles can get left behind. Shortly after the title’s release I had played a couple of levels at a friends house, and enjoyed my brief exposure. But I still wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, was this game really as good as they’d said it would be?

The answer is yes. And no. Well at least, not yet. I was honestly amazed by what MM where capable of achieving with some of their levels. Prior to purchasing the game I read a comment on Kotaku in reply to a your favourite gaming moment of 2008 type post which read “LBP… Hands down” and I couldn’t comprehend it. I do now. But unfortunately it’s this all encompassing understanding that Media Molecule have over their game and mechanics that threatens to defeat LBP’s other selling point. Simply put, I can’t beat them at their own game. If I try to make something simple or derivatory, I can’t present it as well as MM. If it try to make something outside the box.. well MM have crafted a pretty big fucking box. Alas, my attempts so far have been enlightening learning tools and observing what MM have done in their levels is a great way to expand my own ideas. I will create an awesome level, and you will love it. It may just take a while.

I must mention that Julia loves the game and is a competent player, at times she has a better grasp of the mechanics than I – although I’d argue that my mind is split between actually playing and studying the exposed workings of each obstacle, and not necessarily in that order.

I just watched the Dante’s Inferno trailer and I’m pretty sure this game isn’t allowed to be bad. I’m not saying it’s necessarily going to be good – it’s being developed by EA Redwood Shores and that does fill me with hope – but my point is an epic of this magnitude deserves to be treated right; or actually, deserves not to be treated wrong. Either way, I can only hope that when the focus returns to Dead Space, Redwood Shores will have a taste for excellent narrative and give us a plot I couldn’t piece together with a few sci-fi dvds.

And I guess Naughty Dog think Drake looks cute when he’s hurt too, and I hope he spent some of his fortune on travel insurance. There’s a gallery of ‘leaked’ screenshots for the game, which you can visit if you’re into that kind of thing.