The final article I will be doing on the LittleBigPlanet Beta, I originally wanted to get this up on the final day of the actual beta. The 11th of October to be precise, but to be honest I was quite busy with none game related matters these past two weeks so I didn't get a whole lot of time to experience the tail end of this very special beta. I did have the final Saturday free though, so I thought it best to experience more of the beta before it ended and the world collapsed into itself. Of course that never happened thankfully, but the rush and determination to obtain beta keys made me wonder if the internet was indeed seconds from breaking. As I talked about in my first early impressions of the game, I felt as if the beta key code distribution could have been a lot better organised by Sony then it actually was. Many gaming related sites who carried beta keys couldn't handle the extra pressure of higher amounts of traffic, I won't name any sites on here but some sites were a total mess and I think I gave up on getting one on two different ocassions. What also didn't help was the time difference, which meant I at to stay up much later then I wanted to just to try and win a key, I'm not sure how many late night forum sessions I had but I thank you all for your company in those dark and sometimes frustrating hours waiting to hear how to obtain my own golden ticket to the LittleBigPlanet beta.

Thankfully near the end of the beta, it seemed as if both Sony and Media Molecule sent out a good amount of extra beta keys to those who had missed out the days before. So a large amount of the LBP community got to experience the game before it's actual release. Though I defiantly wasn't one of the first to obtain one, I did get mine pretty early on in the timeline of the beta and I later won two more which isn't bad for a gentleman who hasn't won a beta key for anything in about 6 years. I gave my extra beta key's to some fellow friends on my PSN with one calling me a god for providing a key code which was quite nice, even if it was for only a short while. It was insane what some folk were doing to obtain a key though, at one point I was sent an email from a guy wanting my beta key in exchange for WipeoutHD full game. Now I already own WipeoutHD so I wasn't interested but I was shocked at the thought that this guy simply wanted the beta key code that much. I also heard rumours of people selling their beta keys which is a sad state of affairs but not that surprising. Thankfully Sony have already said they will look into these cases though I'm not totally sure if anything will come of it. Despite the beta crashing websites and the internet itself, full credit as to go to the actual overall performance of the betaf. Which went great in my opinion.

From my limited experience of beta's, they are often inconsistent experiences mainly done for the purpose of bug fixing. So I was surprised to see so very few issues with the beta which in itself is a very good sign for the full released game. Media Molecules co-founder Mark Healey as admitted himself that he was surprised how well the beta went, so the signs are positive indeed. There were bugs to be found but the overall experience felt more like a demo then an actual beta. When playing online with up to 4 Sackpeople, it wasn't always so consistent and I defiantly found one to many lagged out levels due to this, but that might not be LBP's problem and could simply be a internet speed problem with the players I was playing with. But for the most part when I did get to play online with friends it ran well and opened up a whole lot more to the overall experience the game looks to offer, with it's sackslapping and often playground styled fun. It's clear LBP's co-op feature will be a big crowd pleaser when the game it's store shelves. One of the reasons I had decided to take part in the beta was because I still had a few concerns and worries about certain areas of the game. One concern, that being the overall performance when playing online in coplex physics heavy levels is still there but most if not all of the other worries I had vanished almost after day one. It was of course a beta, so problems will still appear and I suspect that there will still be bugs in the final released package due to LBP being such a complex and deep game, now that's something you don't say to often with 2.5D Styled Platformers. 

For those that took part in the beta, you'll have surely seen some of the truly special levels created by LBP's beta community. Levels like Shadow of the LittleBigColossus or Heist Part One and Two were only two of the amazxing levels on offer here. Thankfully Media Molecule have stated that many of the great levels found in the beta will be kept for the full game, despite eariler reports stating that the levels would be removed for the full games release. Which would have been unkind to the original creators, it's clear that many hours were put into creating these often stunning levels for all to play, enjoy and have a good laugh at. It's clear that LBP will be trying to please a huge amount of gamers, for some people it will be all about the levels created by both Media Molecule and the LBP community but for others it will be all about the creating of levels using the amazing tools on offer here. I personally can see myself spending many hours on creating levels, being a bit of a perfectionist at heart. I like to make sure things both look good and work well. Of course they mus alsot be fun all at the sametime. In many respects LBP reminds me of the hugely successful MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) game World of Warcraft. A game in which I spent many a hour of my freetime developing my character and adventuring around it's world. Now I'll admit I always felt dirty when I played WoW, I always felt as if it was wrong and usually required me to have a shower afterwards. But theres no problems with that happening with LBP. Though I suspect I'll be spending many hours using my occasionally creative mind. 

Being the respectul gentleman that I am, I will also be sure that my sackboy is dressed to impress and I will have a lot more items to dress my sackboy in when the game gets released. I'm still hopeing that we will be able to tell one sackperson friend from another due to it's uniqueness, but we will have to wait and see if that will be the case. But with the two special preorder costumes of Kratos and Nariko on offer, not to mention Old Snake and Sephiroth. I personally picked up the recent Official Playstation Magazine UK with it's Kratos costume code, though I already suspect I'll be one of another million kratos's traveling around LittleBigPlanet. But like the level creation tools, it will be funny to see some of the designs folk come up with when it comes to costumes and maybe even future characters from Sony games. I still want me some Nathan Drake and his half tucked in shirt. The beta only offered a limited amount of costumes, but even with that there were some great looking custom costumes such as one player I came across dressed totally in pink wobbly flowers and it honestly looked great, the flowers coming from the world props menu . Media Molecule clearly want YOU to create much of the fun yourself, this is why LBP reminds me of my fond days playing Soldiers or football(Soccer) in Primary School as a small gentleman child creature with mates. 

My final thoughts on the beta all end up talking about the actual game, because even though the beta sometimes felt more like a demo then anything else. It did sort out a lot of the concerns and worries I had for the game. With early reviews very positive the Game of the Year talk as already began and to be totally honest it probably will end up deserving it. But theres a whole bunch of special games coming our way in the next few months so who knows what to expect right now. I just hope LBP gets the credit it already clearly deserves and doesn't get ignored in favour of some same old FPS we have all seen and played before. The community could play a big part in LBP being the hit it deserves to be, so get creating and do your part. I hope to see you a all online and look forward to possibly meeting you in one of the many levels when the game gets released next monday for the US and next friday for the UK/EU. If the beta is to go by, then LBP will indeed be a special game.

Thanks for Reading,
Joseph Bayliss (TrueEnglishGent).