First LittleBigPlanet 2 details surface, make LBP1 look silly

In the first LittleBigPlanet, if you could create something that wasn't a second-rate Mario level, you were heralded as one of the finest minds of your generation. In LittleBigPlanet 2, someone's already made a Command & Conquer clone.

That's right: in LittleBigPlanet, you made levels. In LittleBigPlanet 2, you create entire games. How do we know? Because the latest issue of Game Informer's leaked the lot.

Hours after it was announced, the all-knowing videogame hivemind that is NeoGAF managed to get its hands on the issue in question. So, what's new in LittleBigPlanet 2? Hoo boy, where do we even start?

Foremost, the game's focus is no longer on platforming. Rather, if you can dream up a game genre, you can probably bring it to life. Examples given included shooters, racers, puzzle games, RPGs, and even a working Commander & Conquer-esque RTS.

Vehicle creation - once so rudimentary and simplistic that it made Flintstones cars seem like marvels of modern Stone Age engineering - has been taken up a few notches with the inclusion of Direct Control Seats. Basically, you can glue a Direct Control Seat to a vehicle or enemy (!) and assign them a custom control scheme. In other words, it's much more robust than the first LittleBigPlanet, but far from overwhelmingly complex.

Perhaps a bit more daunting, however, are Sackbots - LBP 2's name for programmable AI. You can tweak them in a number of ways - for instance, telling them to be afraid of heights - and even choreograph elaborate acting routines. For instance, the funky folks over at Media Molecule created a disco dancing army by manipulating one Sackbot's arms and legs, and then pasting that routine onto 20 other Sackbots. So basically, the day the game comes out, expect a few hundred levels that reenact the music video for Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

You'll also be able to craft cut-scenes, record your own sound effects, customize HUDs, and string levels together - in effect, creating an entire game.

And that's only the beginning. Basically, when Media Molecule attaches "2" to a game title, they mean it. Click through the link for tons more.