[Before I start, I just wanted to say that if you are sensitive and you don't want some of the cute little surprises about the new LBP Metal Gear level pack ruined, you probably shouldn't read this.]

I'm not accustomed to my partner Amanda keeping tabs on PSN updates. If it's a new Aquarium simulator on the Wii, she's got you covered, but she wouldn't know what a Crash Commando was if it jumped out from behind a crate and bazooka'd her in the face and I believe she thinks wipeout hd is a skiing game. So needless to say, when she got home and handed me the credit card, saying “LBP. New levels!”, I was a bit surprised. It wasn't that I didn't know about the new levels and costumes, believe me, I knew. But I figured I couldn't get them because I blew 70 bucks on PSN last week (two of their gift cards, a $50 and a $20, we finally got them at target around here), and even suggesting that I wanted to buy something else would be asking for “that look”.



It's funny too, because the new levels and costumes were MGS4 related – not exactly a game she's been known to pop in and play on a whim. Of course, she did watch many of the cut scenes with me, and I think she even squirt out a tear or two during the more heart wrenching moments, but I don't think her thoughts on the game went much further than “Oh, it's sad that all that bad stuff keeps happening to the old man with the bandanna!”



So it was nice to have her support on the download. To have her be so demanding about a game that wasn't WiiPuzzle Number 36 was sweet. The real question is, how did she like it and of course, what did I think about it. Well, first off, she didn't like it. She LOVED it. In the last 2 hours we've played through the entire set, not getting all the stickers, but completing all of the 5 new levels, and we stopped only because she has to get up early in the morning and the rule is that we have to play it together. Which I don't mind because playing with her actually adds a challenge – but don't tell her I said that.

So what were my initial reactions? I was a bit tickled with the direction they went with the story, lampooning the ridiculous number of Trophy levels on LBP by suggesting that Liquid was busy polluting the Little Big Planet with them using some kind of overly complex machine. It was actually pretty funny, and the final scene was really engaging. We got down to our last life, and just barely made it by the skin of our teeth. A GOOD boss fight on LBP? YES!



The weird story line wasn't the only surprise the level pack had in store for me. I mean, I fully expected the new guns and familiar aesthetic of MGS4 to freshen things up – even the music, but I have to say that the stealth gameplay completely caught me by surprise. It's funny too, because with the 3 layered playing field of the game, it's perfect for hiding from the search lights that sit at the top of the level. The first time we hit a search light and heard that familiar alarming sound, and the doors dropped down trapping us so that we were materialized by the turret – well, I jumped out of my seat and I also got a warm feeling in my heart. I knew this little level pack was going to make a game I already adore EVEN BETTER! Which, if you asked me a week before I even knew this level kit was coming, I would have told you was impossible.

So aside from the surprises, how did it play? Very well. Each level, even the introduction it seems, offers multiple plays. Similar to the pack-in levels on the disk, they use sticker triggers to have you play through more than once. A sticker you may need at the beginning of the level could be found at the end, so you have to play through once, get it, and then go again and place the sticker on the trigger to get the reward. The difference here, which I first noticed with the VR Mission, is that, with the placing of the acquired sticker, not only did I get rewards, but the entire level transformed, becoming a new, harder level. Turrets appeared where there were none the first time, the floor dropped out in certain places. It become much more challenging, letting us utilize the new shooting and dodging mechanics we'd learned our first go through.



My girlfriend, who really isn't into shooting games, had a little trouble with aiming and fighting with the guns at first, but I was there to get her out of trouble most of the time. And soon she was running and gunning like no tomorrow! Speaking of the shooting, I loved the way they handled the aiming, very similar to the aiming in Crash Commando – R1 shoots and you aim with the right stick, giving you a full crescent range of motion.

So the real question is, is it worth it? Hell yes. I'm actually surprised they didn't charge the usual 10 bucks this time around. I suppose we can chalk it up as a christmas gift, although no one will notice. Most people seem to only want to complain when gaming companies make mistakes, but they never want to give them props when they are nice!



Anyway, if you own LBP and you haven't picked up the expansion yet, what are you waiting for! And if you've decided to wait on getting LBP altogether, the shear range of possibilities this download offers is definitely the nudge you've been waiting for.

If you're on LBP, my PSN is NEScrozen. Lets do a time run on the VR level together. The name of my character? Solid Sack.... Yeah, I know.

Let's talk about Crash Commandos, one of my new favorite games - and quite possibly the best downloadable game for the PS3 this year. First off, let me just say HOLY SHIT!

I mean, I had no idea how awesome this game was gonna be when I first got it. I thought maybe it was gonna be some fun sidescrolling action game that I'd play for a couple of weeks and then delete. But NO! This is more like a 2D version of Team Fortress. And I know your thinking, how the hell could they do that? They did. And it is awesome - I'll explain how it works - and believe me, it really works! And judging from the fact that there are always pages of open games when I go on to the servers to find one, I'd guess other people are feeling the same way I do.

So what is the game all about? Ok. It has a 1 player campaign which is rather lengthy considering the game is really meant for multiplayer. I started with that, just to learn the controls, but I never even finished it because I decided to try the multiplayer and, well, a few days went by and I still haven't gone back. The multiplayer consists of three types of games, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Map Objectives. The first two are self explanatory. In the third you play in teams, either attacking or defending, sometimes you'll be trying to keep the other team from bombing your communication posts. Other times you'll be attempting to hack the apposing team's database and bring the intel back to your own base. Quite a wide variety for a game that was 10 bucks. My favorite is the objective matches - they can get pretty damn exciting!



So what does the game actually play like? Well, the top left trigger is your jet pack. It's basically like an extended jump. The longer you hold it, the higher you go, but you only get so much and then you drop while it refills.The bottom right trigger is you secondary weapon (c4, grenades or landmines) and top right trigger is your main weapon (sniper rifle, machinegun, lazer, bazooka, grenade launcher, shotgun, you get the idea). You can also switch to a pistol with the square button, but I've never used it so whatever. You aim with the right stick and walk with the left. There is a line that exctends from your character to show where they are aiming, it differs between weapons - the sniper rifle has a long red line, the shotgun a shorter line, the grenade launcher's aiming line curves - stuff like that. Basically it's like super stardust hd or geometry wars, you move the stick where you want to aim - only, instead of viewing the action from above, you see it from the side.

Sounds pretty simple, right? It is! And this simplicity leads to some nail biting action! And lets not forget vehicles. The tanks and jeeps you can drive really add something, and they are ballanced pretty well so that they do offer protection but they aren't too hard to take down. Then there are the guided missiles and the turrets. The guided missiles are really interesting. Basically you put your character into this missile room, which locks you in and then you fire the weapon and your control switches to the weapon itself. Then you find the jackoff who just shotgunned you three times in a row and KABLAMO! It's funny too, because the missile moves kinda slow, but it has a huge blast radias, so you get to watch the badguys run like hell as this slow missile gets closer and closer.



To understand how the turrets work, you have to first understand one of the coolest things about the game. The level has two layers, a foreground and a background. Whatever layer you are on in the foreground and you can see the other part of the stage in the background - including the people fighting. If you go through a door, you appear on THAT layer (which now becomes the foreground), and the area you were just at is in the background now. It sounds weird to describe it, but if you see it in action, it makes perfect sense. The best part is that when you get in a turret, you go into first person mode and you can mow down those folks you see in the background layer. So until you learn the safe spots, no matter where you are, you feel like you could be the next target of someone on the opposite layer!

Wow. That was a lot to explain. I didn't really plan on going into that much detail, but since the game is relying on pretty much word of mouth, I figured I would explain it to some of you PS3 owners out there who are on the fence. This is definitely a purchase - one look at the server lobby will confirm that! See you on the battlefield!

During our ongoing discussions under the latest post about Microsoft hating on Home, dtoid user Squawk brought up a good point about people hating on the PS3:

“I can't really say anything about HOME because I don't have any experience with it.
But....wow, Sony just seems to be tripping this generation at every turn. Even if its not the case, the PERCEPTION is that it is the case, and that's what counts.”

I think that Squawk is on to something about this whole perception thing. As a person who has owned all the current gen system, I can clearly state my preferences, and there is nothing wrong with that, but I've never found myself getting all that engaged in these console fights. I used to back in the day, but I've since learned it's all pretty pointless. The only time I feel the need is when someone is being blatantly retarded, and even then I don't always get involved. Still, that hasn't stopped me from wondering why so many people are fighting tooth and nail and shitting on each other's purchases. Why does THIS console war seem so much more vicious than the previous? And why hasn't it died down yet?

I'm not really sure I can answer all those questions, but I think I have an idea on a few. We'll start with why people have the perception that the PS3 isn't a good gaming device - and it has a lot to do with perception and timing... and fanboys.



You see, Sony was late to the game, Microsoft got the jump and most people bought them up. Then Sony comes along with their system. Now people have a choice. They can save up and buy a another system, the PS3, or they can be happy with what they have and ignore Sony all together. Me, I bought another system, that's just how I am. I saved up the money and I got a PS3. I wanted a blu-ray player anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me.

But for those who just have one system, or even a combination of the wii and one of the others, they aren't just happy with what they have, they have to convince themselves that not only do they not want to buy the PS3, but that it is shit and therefore they SHOULDN'T buy it. Of course this is nonsense, the PS3 is an excellent system, and I think most people would agree(those who actually own one). But some of those folks who just have a 360 or a Wii, they don't want to feel like they are missing out, so they tell themselves that the PS3 is shit and then they actually start believing it. That is easier for them than facing the fact that they might miss some exclusive games like MGS4 or functions like Home. Just like Squawk said, perception. And a fanboy is born – or at least, one kind of fanboy, as there seems to be several breeds out there.



Of course, this isn't enough for them. They need reassurance. So not only do they tell themselves that it sucks but they go on websites and they try to find other people to back up their ideas. Misery loves company, so does blind hate. Now you have lots of people roving about, shitting on the PS3. They say it has no games (it does). They say the online sucks (works fine). They need more and more reassurance as they hear more positive things about the system they have told themselves they hate, so their claims get meaner and more insane as time goes on. And this gives birth to the other side of the battlegrounds...



It starts with those people who JUST have a PS3. They go on their favorite games website and start reading this shit and it makes them mad. “What? But I love my PS3!!” They get defensive. They wonder if they made the wrong purchase, their brains go into alarm mode and their minds won't let them think that maybe they are missing out on something, so they have to believe that the xbox 360 is shit (it's not). But telling themselves that isn't enough, they have to go online and find other people who hate the xbox and exaggerate the hardware failure and hate on the online community attached to Live and the mii-like avatars. All of which is just more bullshit.

Now you have a full blown battle fought by two sides who started the whole thing by convincing themselves that something they don't even own is utter shit because they don't want to buy it. Companies get a whiff of the whole mess and realize that nothing equals money like exploiting a two-sided hate-war so the websites jump in to fan the flames with bait-posts and the news sites get involved with bias and some people who own all three systems and shouldn't care but just like to start fights jump in and then you have people who just blindly love a company and will fall for all their propaganda and-



Well, you get the idea. And all this could have been avoided had people just faced the fact that every system has unique qualities that make it worth owning, but unless you are willing to make the monetary sacrifice to own all three, you simply can't complain. Owning any one system and concentrating on its library is a different experience than having to pick and choose games for all three, so there is a positive to that route as well. But no matter what you have, be happy with it because some people have nothing.

I can't think of many games that COMPLETELY revolve around the idea of destruction. I guess this is because it's really hard to frame a story around the act of destroying things and not have any building or collecting to go along with it. Grant it, almost every game has you destroying something as an important element. (Kill this guy, stop this tank, break down this wall – you get the idea.) But luckily, there ARE a few games that have an end purpose which reaches no further than “Fuck This Place UP”. And out of the few I can think of, there is only one I still play to this day.

Pain, a weird little downloadable title I came across one day on the PS3 Playstation Network, is not only a joy to play, it is a masterpiece of destruction! I remember when I first booted up the game, having absolutely no idea what I had just bought, I saw a man loaded in a giant slingshot aimed at a busy city and thought “Holy shit, they've done it!” What they had done is tapped into my childhood and cleverly mined an appreciation for mindless destruction that had been sitting dormant there for some time. And as I fired my character into the city for the first time, banking that poor fool off a speeding cop car, into a building, and finally onto a box of dynamite that was cleverly placed next to an elderly woman (all for the purpose of causing the most damage to get the highest score) I reflected on my love affair with chaos, and how, back in my younger years of gaming, this was the kind of fun we had to make for ourselves.



It's almost as if the creators of Pain were there with me in the early 90s, silently watching over my shoulder as my friend and I took turns playing Road Rash late one night. We were grinding through it furiously because it had to go back the next day and we wanted to get our money's worth. This was a time before Gamefly, when rental times were short, your parents only let you get games on the weekend because of school and you never had enough money to buy the games you wanted, so you better damn well play it to death while you had it! And, with the support of microwave pizza and caffeine, we did just that.

So there we were, stomachs full of Pepsi and pizza, flying down those winding roads, the pixelated roadsigns and trees passing by faster and faster, the odd creaking of the Genesis controller in our hands as we pushed and drove and punched to get to the front of the mob. And then it happened. Crash! My buddy Matt went head-on into an oncoming car right as he was about to jump a hill. Some kind of magic happened with the physics! There was a funny scream and then silence as his rider flew through the air for what seemed like an eternity.



At first we were horrified. You see, the further you flew from your bike, the longer it took you to get back to it because the game made you walk back to where you had wrecked as a punishment for screwing up. But this time we looked at wrecking differently. I think it was the unusual amount of time the rider was in the air that made us first start laughing uncontrollably. It was so unexpected, and while there were no ragdoll effects to add drama to the chaos, the scripted animation of the character flying through the air for that extended period of time was just hilarious!

And then a little light bulb went off above our heads. We realized that, while playing Road Rash properly and striving to win the race was great, attempting to be involved in the most epic wreck ever was something completely different and much more fulfilling to our Beavis and Butthead soakeds minds! And so a new game was born! Road Rash was no longer about racing motorcycles and punching people in the face to get first place. It was about going as fast as you could and then creating the most spectacular wreck possible! How many trees could you hit as you tumbled out of control, how much airtime could you get, how long could you skim and how many of your opponents could you get to run over you as you rolled along? These were the questions that we tried to answer as we stayed up into the late hours of the morning.




Now the creator of Road Rash had not intended for the game to be played in this manner, so there was no incentive to play it the way we were, except the ensuing laughter and the need to outdo each other, but that didn't matter. That's all we needed. And that game created a moment that I still look back on fondly to this day. Of course, things have changed now. Matt and I still get together and game. And we still crave the chaos that we tasted all so long ago, but now we have a new game to eat pizza, get drunk and laugh at, and that game is Pain. The people who made it thought outside the box and have created an entire game around destruction. Still, as I see the Pain character tumbling through the air, about to get nailed by a taxi or smack into a billboard and ram through a pane of glass, as I see Matt and I on the couch attempting to outdo each other, trying to hit one more sign, or nail one more car in our loop of destruction, I see that old red-helmeted roadrash character reflected on the screen, flying through the air, about to meet his imminent doom. Just for the fun of it.

Yesterday I posted a blog about how I made a Destructoid clubhouse as a tester for the home beta. Why destructoid? It was the first thing I thought of. Plus, I realized it would have a whole lot more members than, say, a Tom Waits or Mario Bava fan club. And besides, why would I NOT want to put my fave website out there? So I did.

Before I go on, maybe I should explain what a clubhouse is, in the realms of PS3 HOME. It's a pretty simple concept, really. A clubhouse is a structure owned and moderated by an individual where people who dig a certain thing can gather around and chill. You can search for clubhouses to join in the HOME menu, but you have to be accepted by the moderator. Much like the apartments in home, the clubhouses are customizable to your desires. You can add furniture, decorations, all that good stuff. And anyone who is registered as a member of that club can use the structure as they please. But as far as I know, only the creator can moderate it. No word on whether or not the creator can appoint other moderators, but I have yet to come across it in my own experimentation.

So this brings us to the point of the post. NARPs. See, in the comments section of my last blog, brainderailment, stated that he wasn't in the HOME beta, but that once it gets its final release he plans on joining the Destructoid Readers club because we can have NARPs. And I thought "Holy shit, why didn't I think about that!" While not a perfect match to reality, HOME NARPS will be a great substitute for people who couldn't possibly all get to the same place at the same time. You could have a New York, California, UK, Mississippi, Florida NARP, if you wanted to and your only excuse for not coming would be "I don't have a PS3!", to which I would reply "Fucking get one then!"

What do you folks think? Can home bring the NARP to groups who wouldn't be able to get together otherwise? Could it take the NARP to a new level? I mean, having a NARP INSIDE a videogame - that is almost ironic, isn't it?

Either way, my excitement for HOME has been refilled to the brim. And I have Brainderailment and Destructoid to thank for it. See you all at HOME.

To test out the Club feature in the PS3 Home Beta, which just got an upgrade, I decided to make a Clubhouse for dtoid fans. If you want to hang out in the dtoid clubhouse, just add me

psn: NEScrozen

and I will send you an invite. Also another way (although I haven't tested it yet) is to do a search in the club section for either destructoid or dtoid and then request an invite - but I haven't tried this method so I don't know if the club will show up.

The official name of the club is "Destructoid Readers". Clever, I know. But there was limited space and cool words like cock and cunt aren't allowed.

So what does the clubhouse consist of? Its similar to the apartment, from what I can gather. I've only had a short amount of time with it. The only difference I see so far is that there is a bulletin board on the walls for posting messages. There may be more differences, but this is all I've noticed.

The only downfall is, since this is a beta, the club will not exist once the beta ends, but I'll just make another one when its over so no worries.

See you folks there!