“Wow, what a great idea, let’s make Portal 2 themed LittleBigPlanet 2 levels!” Right, that would be a good idea, and hopefully someone does, but that’s not quite what we’re talking about here. In fact, it’s slightly more exciting.
Rather than creating Portal 2 themed levels in LittleBigPlanet 2, how about we just go for the money shot and create the levels in Portal 2? That’s what Chet Faliszek, one of Valve’s writers, says we’ll be able to do when the game releases. Thanks to Valve bringing Steam to the PS3, it will be relatively simple to receive updates from it, which will include user generated content created on the PC side of the game. He told NowGamer:
The mod tools have to stay on the PC side just because there’s a bunch of dependencies that require the Windows platform. But the content that comes out is agnostic, and so we will be seeing that on all the platforms. Depending on the platform you’re on I should say, will depend on how we’re delivering it.
It’s about time we see some cross-platform support, and this is a great way to implement it. Portal 2, and many other puzzle games, are perfect for generating loads of user generated content, meaning we’ll have lots of replay value when the game releases later this year. Also, since every one who purchases a PS3 copy of the game and links it to their Steam account gets a free PC version, all PS3 users will have easy access to the PC editing tools for the game. Xbox users will apparently have access to the content as well, although it hasn’t been said how they will receive it. If user content doesn’t interest you as much as the packaged campaign, Chet also told VideoGamer.com that the game would have two endings. They asked if he could give any details and he replied:
Noooooo, come on! The cool thing is that we’ll make sure that the game doesn’t get too difficult – it’s more complex – it’s never so difficult that you can’t solve it. You’ll get to the endings. We’d hate to think that people would only watch the endings on YouTube.
Okay, no spoilers, and we didn’t really want any. It’s good to know that the game won’t be impossible, but at the same time lets hope the different challenge modes return, for those of us who are hardcore puzzlers. In the case that they don’t, we’ll have to make something extra hard for the community to solve. All the pieces are there, and we’re sure to find puzzle elements in the full game that haven’t even been previewed yet. Will you be trying your hand at creating Portal 2 levels when it releases later this spring?
