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Factor 5 surprised by Lair reception News
PlayStation 3 News by Robert Purchese
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.
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Comments: 1-39 of 39 in total
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Triggerhappytel
12/02/08 @ 14:37
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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.
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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?
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most recently on 12/02/08 @ 14:40
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gingerlink
12/02/08 @ 14:40
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boooo! Get off the stage!
Or make another Rogue Squadron game for the wii! |
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DanWhitehead
12/02/08 @ 14:41
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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.
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Eighthours
12/02/08 @ 14:42
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"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!
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most recently on 12/02/08 @ 14:42
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JediMasterMalik
12/02/08 @ 14:42
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From what I heard about the game, the controls were't the only issues, the game was just a bit rubbish.
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GamesConnoisseur
12/02/08 @ 14:57
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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. |
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JediMasterMalik
12/02/08 @ 15:14
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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.
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"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. |
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Mentalist(air)
12/02/08 @ 15:43
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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. |
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monkie_king
12/02/08 @ 15:44
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"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) |
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Kenshin001
12/02/08 @ 15:51
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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.
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Agent_Llama
12/02/08 @ 16:02
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The Sixaxis controls for F1 Championship Edition are wonderful. Can't stand them in Motorstorm or Warhawk though.
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Kill_Crazy
12/02/08 @ 16:11
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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.
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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.
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most recently on 13/02/08 @ 08:14
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"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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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kangarootoo
13/02/08 @ 10:06
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"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).. |
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"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. |
Comments: 1-39 of 39 in total
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