Hi guys – Today LittleBigPlanet 2 is released across the UK, Ireland and several other European countries, and we’ve got some more goodies to help celebrate!

Launch Trailer

First of all, we’ve got a new trailer to celebrate the launch of LittleBigPlanet 2 – it’s a tribute to the history of videogaming, told from Sackboy’s own unique perspective. All the levels shown in the trailer were also created by community members GruntosUK and Jackofcourse.

Advertising Campaign

On top of that, I thought I’d give you all a look at the LBP 2 advertising campaign. Now, the LBP 2 Story mode is fantastic fun – as you’ve all hopefully spotted already from the numerous other trailers we’ve released. But for the launch of the game, we wanted to turn the spotlight on another hugely important part of the LittleBigPlanet universe – the community.

With more than 3 million levels already created (and fully compatible with LBP 2), it’s all the creators out there that really make LBP what it is – and that’s worth celebrating. We approached some of the best creators out there, and asked them to create some special LittleBigPlanet 2 levels that showed off the brand new features, and also highlighted how diverse and truly global the LBP community is.
The fantastic levels that they created formed the focal point of the LittleBigPlanet 2 campaign – from the TV and press ads, to promotion online.

Here are the levels, and their respective creators (take a bow, guys!) – including links to lbp.me so that you can check them out for yourself…

Wexfordian: Rio Carnival Dance-Off
Rtm223: Penguin Turf War
GruntosUK: Venice is Sinking! (Versus & Co-Op versions)
Jackofcourse: Rogue Panda Rescue
Steve_Big_Guns: Mediterranean Street Racing

And here’s how we made use of them in the press ad…

And the European TV ad…

The guys did a fantastic job of demonstrating ways that you can use LBP 2′s new Create Mode features – I hope you enjoy the ads, and the levels!

Enjoy the trailer, enjoy your weekends, and enjoy exploring LittleBigPlanet 2….!

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Hello PlayStation 3 Mass Effect fans! Well, time has finally come and you can now play Mass Effect 2 on your PlayStation 3. On behalf of BioWare and the Mass Effect team, let me say thank you for being patient and welcome to finally being able to enjoy the full Mass Effect 2 experience.

The Mass Effect team is very proud of the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 and has done an excellent job of bringing the award winning game to the PS3 console. Mass Effect 2 has already a won multiple awards from many different sources. Recently Mass Effect2 has won such prestigious honours as being named IGN’s Game of the Year as well as Best Sci-Fi Game, Best Blockbuster Game, and Best Story. Gametrailers declared Mass Effect 2 as Game of the Year as well as Best Story, Most Innovative Gameplay, Best Character, Best Visuals, Best Soundtrack and more. And early word on the PS3 version is extremely positive with a 5/5 rating from The Toronto Sun, 5 Stars from The Guardian, 9.5/10 from IGN and Official Playstation Magazine giving it 10 out of 10!

Now, I hear you ask “Why should I play Mass Effect 2 since I never played the original Mass Effect?” and “Won’t I miss out since I didn’t play the first game?” Well, the truth is that Mass Effect 2 is an incredible standalone game whether you have played Mass Effect 1 or not. Yes, there are some story choices from Mass Effect 1 that do give some background, or flavour if you will, to the story of Mass Effect 2, but the Mass Effect team has worked out a very cool way to ensure you don’t miss either the back story or these story choices.

BioWare and Dark Horse Comics, the same studio that has created the Mass Effect Redemption and Mass Effect Evolution comics, have created an introductory motion comic narrated by Mark Meer, the voice of Commander Shepard, that provides you the story of what happened in Mass Effect 1. And this is not just a really cool comic to watch, it is also an interactive comic that allows you to make the important choices, like who lives or dies, and creates a starting point for your play through of Mass Effect 2. This way you not only learn the back ground story from the first game, you also directly get to choose the important story options that carry over into Mass Effect 2.

Not only do PlayStation 3 users get an award winning game and not miss out on the story choices from Mass Effect 1, you also get a huge heap of extra content included in your copy. Over the past year after Mass Effect 2 came out on the PC and Xbox 360, we released downloadable content to allow players to continue their Mass Effect 2 experience. For the PlayStation 3 version, we bundled much of this DLC into the game, so you get the Normandy Crash site, Firewalker, Overlord, Zaeed: The Price of Revenge, Kasumi: Stolen Memory, the Blood Dragon Armor and the award winning Lair of the Shadow Broker as part of your game right from the start. If all of that doesn’t already convince you, PlayStation Plus members have access to an hour long trial of the game.

So there you have it. Mass Effect 2 for the PlayStation 3 is a multi-award winning game, with an interactive, motion comic introduction to keep you current with the story that allows you to make choices, and a huge amount of bonus content bundled into one awesome package. This is the game that PS3 fans have been waiting for. So head out to your favourite game store to buy a copy or hit the PlayStation Network and download your digital copy of Mass Effect 2.

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Have I got a treat for you?

It gives me great pleasure to share with you information on a very special group combat alert. We’re letting you loose on where Superman grew up; Smallville.

Check out the below video where Chris Cao, Game Director of DC Universe Online, takes us through Smallville as you’ve never seen it before.

As Chris said, this is a fierce and ferocious fight so make sure you come prepared.
Until next time, see you in Metropolis!

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Hello all,

Loads of good stuff in this month’s issue which is why I’m just going to get cracking and run through what’s heading your way. Here’s the issue in question…

Probably most importantly: we have the KILLZONE 3 WORLD EXCLUSIVE REVIEW (in case you hadn’t noticed). It’s a sci-fi special this month and the Helghast’s 3D counter-attack is leading the charge in our space-themed issue. Find out what we thought.

Next up, we’ve got the latest on everyone’s secret PS3 man crush, Nathan Drake, in our Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception preview. Find out what’s in store for our hero in the third installment of PlayStation‘s next greatest game. All the info on the desert setting, Sully, and the treasure they’re risking their lives to find. ‘Citing.

Then there’s my favourite bit of the mag (because I wrote it, and I love the game) our incredi-mazing LittleBigPlanet 2 creation guide. I visited Media Molecule to meet the developers and learn their best creations/games/things. This is a ‘how to’ from the people who made LBP2 so you won’t get a higher level of expertise. You’ll also learn how to build that little shooter I teased at last month, which is one of mine.

Continuing the sci-fi theme is our exclusive look at Red Faction: Armageddon. It’s still all about destroying stuff to death, but we find out about the new hero and the new underground Martian setting. And, a little bit of trivia: our writer may have got hero Darius’ earring removed by the design team for saying “it looked a bit rubs” over dinner.

And there’s a load more. Like top tips to tune your car in Gran Turismo 5. The latest shots and info on the Tomb Raider reboot, all the secrets of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and reviews of both Dead Space 2 and Mass Effect 2.

Don’t forget, you can talk to the team directly through our Facebook page, where we’ll feed you all the latest info, pics and videos as we get them. Plus we’ll answer questions and generally hang out on Twitter, too, @OPM_UK. You can also email us directly at OPM@Futurenet.com.

The issue’s on sale now for £5.99 with a playable demo disk. Or you can save up 50% if you subscribe.

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One of the questions that people often ask is: where does the idea for a game come from? For The UnderGarden it was a bit of a journey, so it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the whole idea came together, but there are really several different influences from other games, art and music that played a role.

The UnderGarden started its life as a simple physics-based platform puzzle game. Using the term “game” perhaps was a bit of a stretch: it was really just a bit of a physics playground. Back in those early first prototypes, there was no real goal or purpose, and the game was really just about knocking things around and seeing what happened. As is sometimes the case, the fun comes out in ways you never really planned on, and that’s what started to occur in the early days of The UnderGarden.

The more the team played those early demos, the more we realised how satisfying it was just to move things around and hear them make different sounds as they collapsed or bounced off each other. As we added more colourful graphics and sounds, one thing we noticed right away is that people would often get “zoned” while playing. They kind of got absorbed in watching the little things sparkle and make sounds as they flew through them, and after a few minutes just got lost in the whole experience. When someone described it as “popping bubble wrap”, we knew we were onto something.

Adding the plants and flowers that you grow was something we had experimented with in the past (there are screenshots of something called “Eden” on our site). We’re not sure whether the flowers came before or after the environments, but definitely adding colour to an otherwise dark world as you play, and having them all make different musical tones, seems like a pretty natural effect that definitely enhanced the overall experience. People really liked the way the world seemed to come alive the more you played.

The UnderGarden was designed around the idea that a game does not have to be overly difficult or tense, but can also be a relaxing experience. We’re fans of all kinds of games, but certainly some of the exclusive PSN titles like Flower, Flow and some of the PixelJunk games played a role. There is a nice simplicity to these titles, and playing a game to relax can be a much different and very fulfilling experience in itself. Of course, we all love our shooters too, but sometimes you just don’t want the tension. Sometimes you just need to unwind.

Co-op play is also worth mentioning again. The inspiration for this was simple: how many times do you wish you could play a game with a friend, family or significant other, but they aren’t at the same skill level as you? A lot of co-op games assume both players have the same skill set, but we’ve found this often is not the case. Nothing beats sitting with someone in the same room and being able to enjoy a game together, so we purposely made the co-op play the kind of thing that a second player could have fun with even if they don’t usually play games.

For the environments, there are some obvious influences from nature in coral reefs and exotic plants, for example, but there also some artistic influences that have come into play. Once you have grown a lot of flowers, levels tend to take on a bit of a 1960′s counterculture feel to them. It is definitely not as trippy as some of the works of the period, but the whole idea of growing plants, adding vibrant colours, generating different sounds and becoming more and more relaxed as you play certainly lends itself to some obvious comparisons with that era. These are, of course, mostly coincidental. And then there’s the character itself… he’s a little harder to explain!

As for the music, our music director has created different tracks that not only work on their own, but can be layered together with each other as you go near the different musicians in the levels. His thoughts and inspirations for the music will follow in another article.

Overall, while we’ve drawn inspiration from a number of sources, we’ve also tried to create something unique that stands on its own. We hope you will enjoy the experience we have tried to deliver on PSN.

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