Sony Dismisses Critics of Lair

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.

a dud by any other name

[amrust]

I don't care how they try to smooth things over in the press... just rent the game. Anyone can quickly see that creature moves about as gracefully as a drunk uncle.

Buy it? You'll be pissed you even blew a rental fee.

Re:a dud by any other name

[deep_creek]

Yes indeed. a fellow complained about it at work today. The control of the lizard is like a drunk uncle or more likely perhaps to turn the poor chap into a drunk uncle. Frustrating as hell he said trying to steer the dang thing. He said the graphics were great but reminded him more of a bunch of cut-scenes put together to make you think you were playing. I mentioned the old game Dragon's Lair, and he said, "Yes, exactly like that".

I'm a consumer, hear my reaction!

[Solra Bizna]

I beat it the other day.

Pros:

• The controls are mostly intuitive and fluid.
• The graphics are beautiful, especially in the cinematics.
• Dragons! (You don't see them very often in games, at least not controlled by the player.)
• Fairly hard. (Most games I pick up and breeze through, Lair actually got my juices flowing.)

Cons:

• The game tends to mistake a dash for a flip and a flip for a dash at just the wrong times.
• LAG. LOTS of it on the later levels. Though it seems to be independent of resolution.
• Minor plot inconsistencies and deus ex machina.
• No offline multiplayer.
• Gatling fireball makes boss fights too easy. (You can shoot fireballs as fast as you can mash the button. For me, that's fast enough to trigger Metal Gear Solid's autofire detection.)
• Final boss fight made no sense. ("A volcano's erupting! Let's drop firebombs on it!")

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

Takes One From The Movie Biz Playbook

[aldheorte]

'At the end of the day, I'll be interested in the consumers' response, because the consumer awareness for this title was so huge.'

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.

unfazed?

[gcnaddict]

"Sony remains unfazed."

Unfazed my ass! They spammed the reviewers with reviewer's guides [ign.com]! They seem pretty desperate to buy back the good votes of the reviewers.

Re:Takes One From The Movie Biz Playbook

[QMalcolm]

Sometimes you don't even need to hide the fact the game is terrible. Enter the Matrix sold really well despite terrible reviews and bad word of mouth.

What a surprise

[Leo Sasquatch]

How much have they spent on this so far? So what are they going to do - issue a press statement that says "We know it sucks, the reviewers are right, it's broken and we hacked it about to get the rating down. We are aware that this level of ineptitude is unacceptable in what's supposed to be a triple-A title for our flagship console. Please don't buy this mess, we'll have it all fixed for the sequel. And next time, we'll actually hire play-testers like we're supposed to."

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.

Re: Play Rogue Squadron II instead...

[trdrstv]

Seriously. Factor 5 did a real good job with that, and at this point you could buy a Used Gamecube and Rogue Squadron II (It was a launch title) for $60.

Re:Casual review then?

[realityfighter]

Split - hardcore vs. casual - is inevitable.

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, we're so insistent on the difference because casual has just recently emerged as a design/marketing strategy, and because we use the term "hardcore" as a cultural delineator. Even the Variety reviewer defined the hardcore gamer as a "13 year old boy"; our definition of the term hinges on that image, just like our definition of "mature" games used to be. (Thankfully, that meme is finally dissipating.) We're ignoring the obvious here, which is that while the packaging and the graphics on Metroid Prime 3 scream "hardcore," it's also casual - as evidenced by the fact that I can actually play it.