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Mechanical AI Made In LittleBigPlanet

Laurens writes "Despite slow sales of LittleBigPlanet in the USA, you might have heard of the calculator made within the game, but now that has been topped. I found a fully-functioning AI machine which plays Tic-Tac-Toe against the player. Considering that you can't actually program in LBP, this feat is impressive; it is a machine which has mechanical AND and OR ports made of pistons and proximity detectors, a physically moving Program Counter, and hundreds of wires. The level is called 'Tic Tac Toe' and is by author Cristel." Another player created a similarly amazing level that is a recreation of John Conway's Game of Life.

2 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Is anyone playing this game? by repvik · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Slashdot ceased being a nerd site the moment you signed up.
    The OP is really just being a stupid troll. Who the heck gives a flying fuck about fallout, metal gear solid, gta? Just because he doesn't understand it, doesn't mean it isn't cool/great/awesome/nerdy. It just means he's plain stupid. Kinda like you are being right now.

  2. Re:Is anyone playing this game? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    ...and you're SHITTING on it?

    Uh, yes?

    Like the subject says, is anyone actually playing this game? Because the sales figures don't lie - the answer is "no, not really."

    Yes, the "professional" critics all gave the game large marks, but if you look at user reviews, you'll see a different story. It's at 6/10 for user ratings on Metacritic. It's tanked in sales. No one is playing it.

    And you know why? Because it's crap.

    Level editors aren't new. They've existed pretty much since video games started containing actual levels. I remember creating new levels for a simple sidescroller back in 1985.

    I also remember creating levels for a much more complicated sidescroller in 1995 called Abuse, and it was infinitely more fun than LittleBigPlanet - because it didn't artificially restrict what you can do. It actually allowed you to program new objects in LISP. Now that was a great platform for creativity.

    But here's the thing - because they, too, focused a little too much on the whole "level editor" thing and not enough on making a fun game, the game tanked and the company folded.

    LittleBigPlanet is even worse.

    In order to gain access to the items required to create levels, you must play the single player levels. Sort of. You'll actually need three friends playing with you if you want to collect everything. And they need to be friends, since you actually need to coordinate what you're doing. If you want to do this online, that means shelling out extra for the PS3 voice headset since there's no way you'll be able to use the other chat features. And that's just to get the items that you can use in your own levels. And by "items" I mean things like "materials" which make up the levels.

    Abuse didn't put you through that crap. You got everything at the start. But wait, with LittleBigPlanet, it gets EVEN WORSE!

    In LittleBigPlanet, you have to PAY to get certain addons for the level editor. Yep, PAY. There's currently a "Christmas level editor pack" on sale for $3.

    But wait - if people use it to create levels, that means that EVERYONE has to have the resources in it in order to play those levels.

    So, in effect, you're paying $3 to gain access to stuff that everyone already has to download.

    So the level editor is crap and Sony is nickel-and-diming you for actual content. Can it get worse? Of course!

    All this ignores that the sidescrolling part of LittleBigPlanet is crap. There are lives in this game. But wait, it gets worse. At each checkpoint, the number of lives resets to four. But wait, it gets worse! If you're playing multiplayer, everyone shares the same set of lives! There's no need for that crap. It means if you're actually playing with four players, you get ONE shot at sections that involve everyone moving in tandem.

    But beyond that, it's a very generic sidescroller. There's practically nothing to do in the levels other than race to the end. The only reason you'd go hunting for collectibles is to extend your capabilities in the level editor, and that's just lame. Compared to Super Mario Bros. or Donkey Kong Country or other classic sidescrollers, the game just sucks. And since the level editor isn't powerful enough to allow the creation of really new content - it just kind of sucks too.