LittleBETAPlanet

I was not going to do the LBP beta – I’ve had enough ‘fun’ with the SOCOM beta and I have two other games I need to finish. But my good friends at PlayStation Underground sent me a promotion code – unsolicited – and I thought I would give it a try. In my household is a cute little girl of 10 years old. She watched as I played the first two story levels. LBP is a great game and is a lot of fun, but let me tell you: it’s a lot more enjoyable with a giggly little girl next to you. She loved Sackgirl (of course we made it a girl) and all her expressions – and the concept of ‘stickers’ is always exciting to a 4th grader. And jumping around a cartoon garden is so much ‘safer’ then the Shooters I normally play. I have no idea how Big the LittlePlanet is: creating levels, sharing games, and on-line collaborations – but I am looking forward to simply going through Story Mode with the help of bright eyed, carefree princess. Side note: I have pre-ordered LBP from Best Buy and I will pick it up the day it arrives (but not at Midnight - I think). I will download the Nariko outfit soon after. Oh, one more thing: I have an extra Beta Code from the good people at USA today. If you would like it, leave your request in the comment section.

Getting Beta and Beta Every Time

I went to my local GameStop and pre-ordered the SOCOM Confrontation with the BlueTooth headset on the day the Beta went public. I got home, entered my information, and got the download codes in 10 minutes. I saw on-line that many people had not received their codes yet – providence was on my side.

The first release was not playable. The connection times were greater than 20 minutes! And once I got in, I was only able to be in spectator mode and follow along other players. But things continued to improve with each release. During my second attempt, I was asked to leave the server because I joined-in with a clan. I even got some votes to kick me off! I must have acted like a real noob: I moved and reacted so slow still trying to find the right buttons. (I still think switching weapons is too complicated and slow.)

This last release (1.50) fixed many things, but introduced another bug which renders the game unplayable again. Every few minutes, a dialog box pops-up informing me of server issues. Once, I ran down some stairs just as an enemy player turns the corner. We both aim and … ‘Pop-up!’ We both stare at each other – no motion - he must have gotten it too. I finally let go of every other button, press X, the box disappears, and I go to guns. We both fire at the same time – double kill. That was annoying and fun at the same time. My best round so far is 9 Kills, 2 Assists, and 7 Deaths – but mostly I am 3-0-7.

I have a list of improvements, but I will keep them to myself. Most have already been discussed on the message boards.

But I’ll say this: if it wasn’t for the headset bundle, I would not be buying this next week. SOCOM Confrontation will be a beautiful game – I even would suggest to Slant 6 to delay the launch. I would rather have the final game on a disk, rather than taking up space on the Hard Drive with the latest patch.

Version 1.60 is due out tomorrow; with each new release, they make it better and better.