Factor 5 surprised by Lair reception

By Robert Purchese Published 12 February, 2008

Might have a way to win you back.

Factor 5 boss Julian Eggebrecht has said he was surprised by the negative reaction to Lair from the hardcore audience.

However, he realises the control system turned a lot of you away, despite - he feels - there being a really good game underneath it all.

"What's disappointing to me is that almost every single person in and outside of the industry who is little bit more of a hardcore gamer had a huge problem with it, and we, quite frankly, didn't anticipate that," Julian Eggebrecht told IGN.

"I hope that a lot of people realise that underlying the problem they had with the base control was a really good game. At least, that's what I think. Well, what else would I say?"

But it seems the Rogue Squadron developer is not finished with the dragon fighting game just yet, as Eggebrecht suggested he was working on a way to win back the hearts of the PS3 crowd.

"We might have a chance yet to bring those [gamers] back to the table and, hopefully, if that should happen, they would give the game a second chance," continued Eggebrecht.

"Nevertheless, we definitely took a long look at the results and learned a couple of lessons. If you're on a platform where this whole motion control is something new and not being pitched as the main feature of the platform, you should probably give the choice between having different control schemes. There is absolutely no doubt about it."

Keep your eyes out for a patch or perhaps an expansion in the near future, then.

Lair is an action game where you fly around on a dragon and kill other dragons and fly around some more and kill more dragons. Sounds tedious, and it was.

Pop over to our Lair review to find out more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (38) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Triggerhappytel #1 4 years ago

    Lair 2, mayhaps? Seems unlikely though; I doubt the first game sold well. Although there needs to be more cool games about dragons. The last one I enjoyed was Drakan: The Ancient's Gates.

  • peterfll #2 4 years ago

    Most other developers seemed to figure out that you should offer optional motion control support and not make it mandatory. Whereas Dinkle Eggbert made it the sole feature to hang the whole game on. It was risky and clearly didn't pay off.

    I would like to see what he's going to do to get those gamers back around the table. Give the title away for free?
    Edited by 1 at 12/02/08 @ 14:40

  • gingerlink #3 4 years ago

    boooo! Get off the stage!

    Or make another Rogue Squadron game for the wii!

  • DanWhitehead #4 4 years ago

    Even with conventional controls, Lair would be a tedious and bland experience. That Factor 5 is still passing the blame onto "hardcore gamers" who didn't get it and don't like motion control does not inspire confidence for future efforts. Lair is a poor game that just happened to also be saddled with poorly thought out controls.

  • Eighthours #5 4 years ago

    "I hope that a lot of people realise that underlying the problem they had with the base control was a really good game."

    No, it was essentially a badly-controlling high-res update to a game released back in 1999 (Rogue Squadron), with added technical problems!
    Edited by 1 at 12/02/08 @ 14:42

  • JediMasterMalik #6 4 years ago

    From what I heard about the game, the controls were't the only issues, the game was just a bit rubbish.

  • Zanuah #7 4 years ago

    From what I remember hearing the motion controls were the least of that games problems...

  • Nylkran #8 4 years ago

    Why are they so surprised? Did the game score too highly? Didnt enough people disliked it for their taste? :p

  • GamesConnoisseur #9 4 years ago

    If they were suprised at the reception they got, then they need to take a good long and hard look at their business. Sony did make a lot out of the sixaxis, but did Factor 5 overbought the feature? What about as other says the rest of the game?

    I simply avoided Lair like a plague as got too much of the negative feedbacks, gameplay is the whole purpose of enjoying game. Lair rank ninth from the bottom of Metacritic which is very bad when you consider there are 132 PS3 games, Factor 5 we can bet is fully aware of this dishonourable distinction that stains their reputation.

  • Apologie #10 4 years ago

    Such a Pitty, Lair had so much potential... good game nontheless.

  • Weezer #11 4 years ago

    As a yet-to-be-converted Xbox/Wii owner, is Sixaxis really all it's cracked up to be?

  • JediMasterMalik #12 4 years ago

    What do you mean by that? I've not seen much positive "hype" around it. It works well in flOw, Folklore, and Warhawk but that'w about it.

  • Les #13 4 years ago

    "It was risky and clearly didn't pay off."

    No it didn't. But I applaud developers like Factor 5 and Nintendo that take risks. It's the only thing that can take this industry further. If uninspired HD upgrades are the only thing to get you high review scores, gaming surely is in a petty state right now.

    I like the game. Didn't have much difficulties with the controls and I don't really have problems with the mission based (1999) structure. At least this time it's got a decent narrative to connect everything and there's plenty of variation during the missions. All in all a nice addition to the PS3 library with a gameplay experience not available in any other title.

  • T4RG4 #14 4 years ago

    Thought it looked poor from the off and personally I felt Sony were forcing the control method on the devs (or perhaps the devs were playing up to Sony's desire for someone to really push it).

    Baaaad.

  • Yaz #15 4 years ago

    Les wrote: "If uninspired HD upgrades are the only thing to get you high review scores, gaming surely is in a petty state right now."

    And since that's not the case, gaming is in a pretty good state at present. :)

  • Dizzy #16 4 years ago

    "All in all a nice addition to the PS3 library with a gameplay experience not available in any other title. "

    This should be on the back of the box.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #17 4 years ago

    If uninspired HD upgrades are the only thing to get you high review scores, gaming surely is in a petty state right now

    Is it? Or is it that, it's in a very good state right now, that more of the same with high production values is what we're after, and changing things for the sake of it just spoils things.

  • monkie_king #18 4 years ago

    "Such a Pitty, Lair had so much potential... good game nontheless."

    Err, no. Just no. Apologie, you must have record-breakingly low standards.

    (Maybe that's what exclusive PS3 ownership does to a person? lol j/k)

  • Les #19 4 years ago

    "Is it? Or is it that, it's in a very good state right now, that more of the same with high production values is what we're after, and changing things for the sake of it just spoils things."

    No.

  • Kenshin001 #20 4 years ago

    I'm still intent on playing this game, just because I want to fly dragons and smite swaths of enemies. Hope they do add normal controls as well as motion controls because while I can handle both OK from experience in Motorstorm and Warhawk I prefer the former.

  • nick_f Verified Senior Producer, Microsoft #21 4 years ago

    Eurogamer reader surprised Factor 5 surprised by Lair reception

  • Agent_Llama #22 4 years ago

    The Sixaxis controls for F1 Championship Edition are wonderful. Can't stand them in Motorstorm or Warhawk though.

  • JonFE #23 4 years ago

    How can they actually be surprised by Lair's reception? Weren't Factor 5 / Sony the ones that gave out that "reviewer's guide" book to "assist" Lair's reviewers? When you resort to such strong measures, surely, you must have anticipated something...

  • Kill_Crazy #24 4 years ago

    It was a poor game but not THAT poor. Controls were ok apart from the stupid lift up/ push down to 180 or swoop. The actual tilt was pretty responsive. Target lock-on was poor too as you could never quite tell what enemy was going to be targeted. Definately a 6 or 7/10, average-but-trying-something-new, type of game. They definatley shouldn't force motion controls on you in any game whether it's flying, 'tight-rope walking', or lasering walls.

  • djed #25 4 years ago

    motion controls = magic
    magic like; this x360 is 1 year old and hasn't had a RROD.

  • murphy245 #26 4 years ago

    all they had to do was implement analogue controls with an update but they missed their chance.

  • Darren #27 4 years ago

    I thought Lair was OK and its the only game on the PS3 that really makes any use of the SIXAXIS controller so it should be commended for that. On reflection though, Factor 5 should have made the motion controls optional and the game itself could have done with another 6-12 months development to iron out the issues - the framerate in particular was quite often poor at 720p and downright attrocious at 1080p.
    Edited by 1 at 13/02/08 @ 08:14

  • Les #28 4 years ago

    "Weren't Factor 5 / Sony the ones that gave out that "reviewer's guide" book to "assist" Lair's reviewers? When you resort to such strong measures, surely, you must have anticipated something..."

    Apparently a reviewers' guide is quite a normal thing. The fact that they sent it out after most reviews were already finished led to mockery.

  • MiY4MOTO #29 4 years ago

    I thought the game was awful, dull to play, had poor controls & was oh so very very brown.

    I kinda liked the idea, but the game was a poor rehash of their original N64 Rogue Squadron game only with much higher production values. Whilst the visuals had improved over Rogue Squadron just about everything else was worse. The menu system & level structure I felt was unintuative, the gameplay felt old and the controls felt broken.

    I guess they'll patch it to allow an analogue control method, maybe a new mission select screen or at least a new campaign. Would it tempt me to buy it? Nah, just glad I only rented it.

  • Shinji #30 4 years ago

    Yeah, it's fairly common to get a "reviewer's guide" when you're sent a review copy of a game. I don't know of a single reviewer who doesn't chuck them straight in the bin, mind, and they're getting less common now (probably for exactly that reason).

  • penhalion #31 4 years ago

    Hang on1 They are suprised that people didn't like the shite controls and the stupidly inept gameplay. How about we (speaking with my gamer hat) are suprised you released such a crap game and wanted us to pay money for it!

  • megastar #32 4 years ago

    eggebrecht

    eggybread

    mmmmmm

  • Scimarad #33 4 years ago

    I wish he would grasp the fact that is wasn't the control system that made it crap...well apart from the 'barging into the dragons from the side' bit. What made it crap was the utterly abysmal framerate.

  • Gaol #34 4 years ago

    I seem to remember most of the reviews saying it was the lock-on system being random, rather than the tilt itself, that was the issue. The DS3 is more than capable of gliding controls - Ratchet and Clank proved this, it was very intuitive there - perhaps the tilt controls are distracting from the real problems.

    Best way to counter negative press if you think its unjustified is to release a demo; Folklore got mixed reviews but the demo sold me on that. I'd certainly be interested in trying it - a lot of people who have actually played it seem to have enjoyed it.

  • Freek #35 4 years ago

    I'm more surprised the guy still thinks the motion controlls were the games only problem. He's clearly not read the feedback properly.
    I also like how he keeps saying it's all the gamers fault for not getting it. Dispite games that have good motion controlls (or make good use of the controller in other ways) are hugely popular.

  • J.C #36 4 years ago

    I have lost all respect for this eggebrecht clown now. go back to nintendo and all will be forgiven .

  • kangarootoo #37 4 years ago

    "Make a fun game, then worry about the controls"

    The two are hardly seperate. Many games are ALL about their control systems (EyeToy, Parappa the Rappa, any dance mat game you care to mention), and the end result can be plenty fun.


    I didn't realise that lair was SIXAXIS control only. That seems a bit risky this early in the life of the platform (while everyone is still getting to grips with what works and what doesn't)..

  • Les #38 4 years ago

    "I also like how he keeps saying it's all the gamers fault for not getting it. Dispite games that have good motion controlls (or make good use of the controller in other ways) are hugely popular."

    Yeah but not on the PS3. Lair is a good game but released on the wrong console or at least at the wrong time. Right now, most PS3 owners fall into the 'hardcore' gamer category which is the kind of group that doesn't take easily to motion controls as demonstrated by their constant complaining about the Wii and it's lack of 'true' games.

    Had Lair been released two years from now, it would have received a much warmer welcome (and by that time the engine would have been more up to the task of rendering such a big, beautiful and busy world) as people would have become more accustomed to motion controls and a whole new public (less hardcore) would have owned the machine.