What a Wonderful World

Just as Kotaku.com predicted, Phil Harrison announced Playstation Home right on schedule at Wednesday's keynote speech at GDC. What nobody saw coming was the unveiling of LittleBigPlanet, a three-dimensional, high-definition, cooperative platformer for the PS3; see following:

I've been happy with my PS3 purchase all along (having finally been able to play Shadow of the Colossus in progressive scan), but this news, combined with the unveiling of Home (and subsequent video preview of same), has turned quite a few "h8rs" into "b3li3vrs." I'm loving this take on simplicity in HD. The "sac boys" (i.e., the player avatars; please, Sony, please change the nomenclature) are an example of how to do "cartoony" in an HD environment. Don't plunk your goofy cartoony character down in a highly detailed, realistic landscape. That just looks dumb. Find a way to incorporate HD for your cartoony characters---in this case by applying high-resolution, real-world textures to animated characters that are essentially bean bags. I love them.

In other news from GDC, I have heard rumors that object of my affection, Heavenly Sword, has been delayed (again); hoping it's just a rumor. Confirmed is the rumor that, in order to cut production costs, PS3s produced for the European launch, and, subsequently, new PS3s being produced for North American and Japanese territories, will not include the Emotion Engine. The Emotion Engine is the CPU from the PS2, the inclusion of which within existing PS3s accounts for the (reasonably) comprehensive backward compatibility (BC) we've enjoyed thus far. Future BC will be accomplished through software emultation, so it's no biggie. Not all PS1 and PS2 titles will be compatible with the emulation, but many will. If you are concerned, hurry up and buy your PS3 quick---before the Emotion Engine-inclusive models are gone.