Slashdot Log In
Sony Dismisses Critics of Lair
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Sep 07, 2007 11:21 PM
from the its-not-for-them dept.
from the its-not-for-them dept.
Despite some very public, very negative criticism of Factor 5's dragon/shooter Lair, Next Generation notes that Sony remains unfazed. "Outgoing SCEA PR boss Dave Karraker told Next-Gen in a phone interview that despite poor critical reception, the flying lizard game isn't necessarily grounded. 'At the end of the day, I'll be interested in the consumers' response, because the consumer awareness for this title was so huge.'" Meanwhile, MTV's Stephen Totilo notes, with more than a touch of seriousness, that Lairs production may have been a touch cursed.
Related Stories
[+]
LAIR Pushed To Next Month 50 comments
LAIR, the much-anticipated title featuring combat from dragon-back, is a very important title for Sony and the PlayStation 3. Its the first of the AAA slated for the end of the year for the trailing platform ... and so far things don't look good for the title. Now, the company has announced that LAIR has been delayed until early in September. "Due to an extra step in QA testing to enhance the community features in the game, the release of LAIR, originally set for August 14th, has changed to September 4, 2007. Natural challenges that arose while finalizing the offline game to include key online features - such as leaderboards and medal systems - have led to the difficult choice of pushing back the release date. We appreciate everyone's excitement and patience for the game and look forward to its release on September 4."
[+]
PS3's Lair Playable Via Remote On PSP 84 comments
Next Generation has confirmed with Sony a rumor working its way through fan boards: Lair is playable via remote on the PSP. That is, you can load up the game on your PlayStation 3, and then actually play it on the PSP's small-but-beautiful screen. This is functionality that Sony has been hinting at since the PS3 was announced, but up until now remote play has been restricted to music and movies stored on the console. Kotaku notes in their writeup that you need to play through the tutorial first on the console proper if you want to do this. The PSP doesn't have the buttons the game uses to brake.
[+]
Lair Review 136 comments
Nothing disappoints me more than having my expectations met. I managed to see The Matrix without knowing what to expect, and as a result it was a fine moviegoing experience. Lair, one of the first in a series of high profile PlayStation 3 games due out this year, met every expectation I had when I picked up the controller. If you haven't been paying attention to games sites of late ... that's bad. Pushed for time and under pressure from higher ups at Sony, Factor 5 has poorly rehashed the same formula that made for a couple of very playable GameCube games. The difference? Lair is, in some places, literally unplayable. It's disappointing, and a frustrating way to begin my relationship with the PS3. Read on for my thoughts on Lair, and what might have been.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Coincidence? (Score:4, Funny)
a dud by any other name (Score:5, Insightful)
Buy it? You'll be pissed you even blew a rental fee.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:a dud by any other name (Score:4, Interesting)
The general impression I got was one echoed by the guy at the store. It's a tech demo disguised as a game. It did a pretty good job introducing some new concepts (For the PS3 at least) and stood well enough on its own. Later on I'm sure there will be games with a similar control scheme, and they want people to get used to it. That said it wasn't a horrible experience some are playing it up to be. I do wonder if these people even bothered to get the game before opening up their cans of napalm, or if they just read the IGN review and took it as the word of god.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
After god of war and god of war 2, any game is hard to get into... even when I was playing Zelda Twilight princess, I wsa thinking to myself "too bad the god of war team didn't have a hand in making Zelda TP's combat system" heh.
Re: (Score:2)
The dragon moves exactly as my controller does, pitching and diving and turning with grace unless I tried to drive it into a wall.
And yes, the graphics are incredible -- the dynamic mesh system is impressive (increasing resolution as you get closer to important objects) as well as the incredible score (music) and pretty good sound effects
Re: Play Rogue Squadron II instead... (Score:3, Insightful)
I am still waiting... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1, Informative)
Re:I am still waiting... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It may be that the post [slashdot.org] that is currently directly above yours might unwittingly describe the difference.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The main problem with the game is that it's just plain fucking boring.
No amount of changes to fix the controls will change that fact.
This game is definitely a rental.
Bad link (Score:2)
I eventually found a review site at http://ps3.ign.com/articles/817/817117p3.html [ign.com] - it states clearly why the reviewer doesn't like the game. While the user reviews are slightly higher, it doesn't change the fact that the game wasn't that well received (with the people who voted.)
I'm a consumer, hear my reaction! (Score:5, Insightful)
I beat it the other day.
Pros:
Cons:
Some people have complained about the delay between the controls and the dragon, but that felt natural to me. (How responsive would a real dragon be to being whacked on the head with a blunt object?)
Overall, I liked the game. But I didn't have to pay for it, since I borrowed a friend's PS3 and copy of Lair. :3
-:sigma.SB
Re:I'm a consumer, hear my reaction! (Score:5, Funny)
Seems to me you'd only get one chance to find out.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I believe he means the lack of responsiveness (or lag) between the controller and the system. If there is a time delay between the controller and the game (so it executes your commands at a noticable delay) then the game would be lagging...
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
PS, the game is really quite hard -- very fun, decent plot, excellent dialog and most breathtakingly huge battles I've been in in a game before. The game dynamics (mission-based interactive movie) are actually very good, but I still miss conse
Re: (Score:1)
Pay $560 for the system and the game and see if you still like it.
Takes One From The Movie Biz Playbook (Score:5, Insightful)
Translation:
"We knew the game sucked, but we marketed the hell out of it anyway so that suckers who don't read reviews will buy it just on the hype and then not be able to return it given the usual return policies. I'm interested to see just how many suckers we netted when the sales figures come in."
They do this with movies that are absolute bombs by not screening them for critics before release weekend, hoping to get a good opening weekend from the pre-release marketing knowing full well the movie is terrible and once critics review it and word of mouth spreads, no one will watch it. It's a marketing scam intended to catch out initial viewers/buyers who have little information to go on.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I thank you! (Score:5, Funny)
It's you guys with your inability to delay self-rewarding and your industry-promoted belief that being the first to get something is cool, that really test out the waters for everybody else, thus saving the savy consumers that follow you millions and millions of dollars.
You guys really are the backbone of society upon which everybody else's success stands: you are out there, bending over and taking it again and again from the industry, shoddy products, overhyped releases, buggy software and all kinds of crap products and services, serving as the shinning beacon of light that guides all others away from a good reaming.
In the name of all of us, who thanks to your pioneering work have avoided unmeasurable pain in their behinds, I salute you!
Parent
Re: (Score:1)
Though one can equally argue that if these people didn't exist all entertainment would have to sell itself by word of mouth, ergo the crap they protect us from would rarely get made.
unfazed? (Score:5, Insightful)
Dirty little secret (Score:3, Interesting)
Most movie tie ins do pretty well. So a crappy next gen thats over marketed should do as well as a good game that has a lot of word of mouth.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
So is Warhawk. I cannot stand that shoddy game. The gameplay is ok, but the weapons are boring, there is very little variety, and the server issues have been legion.
I love Lair. It's gorgeous, innovative, and fun. It's a but tough to get used to, but it's an awesome game that I think is far more interesting than Gears of War or Halo or Resistance.
If you were flying a dragon, you would not find a little analog stick coming out of its asshole for you to manipulat
Re: (Score:2)
Casual review then? (Score:2, Interesting)
Probably somebody had to start a gaming site dedicated to casual gaming and casual reviews.
For example me, after gaming on PC for more that 15+ year, see most console games as total suckers. And mostly they are - thankfully to terrible game utility (e.g. no save/load functionality), overloaded controls and too much backward franchises (accompanied by flameboys).
But recently, in large thanks to Nintendo and its Wii, there were surge of pretty good playable and enjoyable games even on consoles. I norma
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
PC gaming has one weakness: Cost per player (Score:2)
And mostly they are - thankfully to terrible game utility (e.g. no save/load functionality)
By save/load, do you mean save/load in general, or do you mean the ability to save at any time and reload a single save multiple times?
Even if PC gaming is better in general, what PC-native[1] games don't require the purchase of four recent PCs if you have four people in the house who want to play?
[1] A console ROM image of dubious legality run in emulation is not PC-native.
Re: (Score:1)
It would be nice to see some innovation on the PC side that didn't involve having a video card that hasn't been designed yet. One of the advantages of designing a game for a console is that the hardware is known and previous work and efficiency in software coding can be leveraged (obviously work
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Ah, I disagree. As a casual gamer who really likes MP3:C (that's me in the AC comment below), I believe that the split is only inevitable in simpler games. Big releases should be able to incorporate both. Just look at Ocarina of Time and you'll see a game that was (and still is!) popular with people on both ends of the the leetness scale; any game that has the resources to build in that much optional exploration a can be designed to appeal to everyone.
Right now
Re: (Score:2)
MP3:C was just an example. HArdcore games are not necessarily hard to play. They just appeal to smaller group of people. Like Metroid3: it appeals primarily to people who played Metrod1, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid 2, Metroid 2: Echos. IOW, to enjoy game you have to belong to the elite club of people who played previous iterations of game before. (It is also not necessarily fact relating to MP3:C - they are some brighter examples like Wii's RE4).
To me it is telling. What ever crap load of sh*
Re: (Score:1)
Unlockable items are a mixed bag. You shouldn't feel hampered because somethign isn't unlocked, if so, thats bad game design. A lot of times, unloackables are stuff like alternative outfits, difficulty levels, songs, etc, that are designed to keep you comming back once you've finished the game. Also gives you somethign to aim for,
Re: (Score:2)
Two of them to be precise. On in middle to get a BFG and another in the end.
Compared to usual crap of boss fights in console games - can you believe it - monsters can be killed by actually shooting at them. No - w/o jumping around waiting moment to attack, w/o hitting some obscure combos to attack, w/o hitting even more weirder combos to temporarily disarm or make vulnerable the boss. I didn't even need to reload once to kill bosses in Doom3. How
What a surprise (Score:3, Insightful)
No, they'll punt it out there, and hope it sells enough copies to people who don't read review sites - people who'll just see it on the shelves and go "Ooh! Shiny dragons!".
Having said that, this isn't an anti-Sony diatribe. I'm sure the Cell is capable of some incredible feats of heavy lifting, once some teams of more-than-usually-talented programmers start to get to grips with it. This, however, is not one of them, and they just need to deal with it, and move on.
By what? (Score:2)
... by poor development practices, naïve management who didn't know how to function without LucasArts support, the ever-present Sony marketing team (who is so bad that I don't even have to make fun of them,) production values with five years of dust, and a game design that would have seemed archaic two weeks after the release of Panzer Dragoon for the Sega Saturn?
Yeah, that q
Re: (Score:2)
Meanwhile... (Score:3, Funny)
Aforemention comments. (Score:2)
Wow, I'll be avoiding this at all costs. Shame, I like dragons.