LITTLEBIGPLANET 2
PlayStation 3
Out: later this year

Picking up where the first title left off, it will focus on giving players a creative outlet but this time the tools will be easier to use and more versatile.

Players will now be able to easily create levels in many genres, including racers, puzzle games, real-time strategy titles and all manner of shooters, and levels can be linked, allowing players to design an entire game.

For those unfamiliar with LittleBigPlanet, the game starred one of the cutest game heroes, the aptly named Sackboy, and was an incredible success.

Gamers around the world produced astonishingly creative and technically adept levels, from gigantic pinball machines and side-scrolling shooters to a working calculator and Beethoven-playing piano.

With more than two million levels created and uploaded, gamers proved players love to create almost as much as they love to play. The staff at Media Molecule, the studio behind LittleBigPlanet, was so impressed by the community's efforts they hired four of the most talented members to work on the sequel.

The original game was a landmark title, but it took a lot of time and patience to create a coherent level. In LittleBigPlanet 2, the creative process will be far more straightforward. There will also be many more toys and tools to play with, from grappling hooks and power gloves to filmmaking.

Want to create a top-down racing game? Players can now change the camera angle so it looks down from on high, instead of side-on. Want to create a multiplayer shooter? LittleBigPlanet 2 introduces competitive scoring and hats for characters that can do almost anything, including firing rocket-propelled grenades.

Want to populate a level with non-player characters or Sackbots? Creators can now dress characters, record dialogue for them and tell them what to do using digital puppetry. The possibilities are endless - everything can be tweaked, from the minutiae of vehicle control to the strength of gravity.

It's fascinating that gamers have become the new game designers and we can't wait to see what they'll come up with when LittleBigPlanet 2 arrives later this year.