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.

I am still waiting...

[wamerocity]

I'm still waiting to see some post 1.92 firmware reviews that were supposed to have addressed the awful motion controls. Yes, the company is to blame for releasing the game with poor controls, but since the 1.92, I've heard some 'reports' that the controls were better. Any slashdotter with pre- and post- 1.92 firmware care to comment?

Re:a dud by any other name

[TikiTDO]

I actually found Lair to be pretty decent once I got into it. Then I first got the game I was spitting an swearing with the best of them. The dragon would always go in the wrong directions, the dash and flip commands did not work, and it was a generally bad experience. After this I put the controller down for a few days and left it alone. Somewhat later, out of boredom, I picked it up again and I found to my surprise that the controls felt a lot smoother. No longer was I being pushed in random directions, and now I could get the special commands working most of the time. Finally, just last night I sat down to play yet again and it was honestly quite fun. I really got the hang of figuring out what I need to do, and started to get truly sucked into the story. I think enough has been said about the graphics, which are quite impressive, though not nearly enough has been said about the sound and music which are both far beyond what you are used to from such games.

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.

Dirty little secret

[king-manic]

Bad games sell well!

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.

Casual review then?

[ThePhilips]

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 normally tend to ignore console games and write off console gamers as people who grew to live in denial. But I hope that can change.

Some casual reviews already started showing up - as for example Variety's MP3:C review [variety.com]. (Flamed by fanboys here [joystiq.com]). Thanks to the review written in plain human words I would save my 50 for something better than MP3:C when it hits Europe. On on side. On another side, the review had bunch of hints for hardcore folks who have time the game requires to learn to play it.

Split - hardcore vs. casual - is inevitable. It is just better to be prepared. I would side with casual folks, since what they say makes much much more sense. And there is no the elitism aura around them too.

What I'm trying to get to here is that probably if you would grab a random guy from street and give him PS3 + Lair to play for some time - he might like it. Not necessarily he would want to invest $600+ into something like that. Yet. To hardcore folks easy game play (or what I call "enjoyable") is of course no-go.

Well, as Wii fan, I would omit the question about controls. Needless to add that IMNSHO classical controller - main that makes console the suckers - sucks big time.

P.S. Notice how skillfully I have managed in the post avoid saying that console games sucks... Uhm. Stop. ... (rereading post)... Uhm. Never mind.

Re:I am still waiting...

[Knuckles]

Any slashdotter with pre- and post- 1.92 firmware care to comment?

It may be that the post [slashdot.org] that is currently directly above yours might unwittingly describe the difference.

Re:Casual review then?

[sqlrob]

Most PC games suck too. Sturgeon's law.

Re:Dirty little secret

[G Fab]

Halo is a great example of that phenomenon.

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 manipulate. You'd have to steer it physically, which would be a little awkward (try riding a horse). As systems get more powerful and the graphics more realistic, it's a great thing that we're seeing some control schemes that, like reality, are harder to use than a joystick.

I am convinced for once that sixaxis is actually worthwhile (though obviously a gimmic, it's cool to see it implemented nicely).