| Squilliam said: @ Reasonable, you're over thinking it IMO. If I saw LBP in the store, picked it up, read the front and back cover etc I would put it down again and buy something else if I didn't know what it was. The huge issue of the game is theres nothing compelling for me from the front cover to the back cover which would assure me that my $130 would be well spent on that game. I think what causes this is the fact that the game is supposed to mean so much to so many people that it means very little to any of them. Its attention is spread to thin, it doesn't know what it is. Take Mario, you know what Mario is as soon as you pick it up, Gears of War is pretty obvious when you see the box, Gran Turismo is pretty obvious too. But what is LBP? |
I bet you buy books based on the cover too... 
Actually much as I love shooters I mostly hate their covers. Sheesh the covers of Gears 2 would put me off for sure. I agree on LBP though. More than anything its struggling with the fact most people buy genres (something most creative people I've meet actually hate funnily enough) and despite the loose 'platformer' association its actually something unique and hard to categorize.
P.S. I think I read someone thinking I'd insulted SMG. I don't believe I did. My point is that having played both they offer a pretty similar experience (and I don't buy a visual trick makes SMG 'different') with regard to the campaign of LBP but then look how much more LBP offers - online play, offline coop, custom levels, the ability to build your own, at least (if not better) art direction, better graphics (SMG looks very nice but it really pales next to LBP on an HD for textures, richness of the gaming world, etc), and so on. I note that even its creators are stating it was rather conservative as a title.
How much a game appeals to you and you enjoy it is subjective - but you can quantify certain elements and clearly LBP offers much, much more than SMG as a whole.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
