The Official Lair Thread - Update with Analog Control + DLC on April 15

Nice, just read more impressions from the guy at Insomniac, as well as the guy who wrote the Play article and gave it a 9.

Back to "Day 1" for me.

Non-final build review copies FTL.
 
[quote name='dallow']Man, if they have to delay this to iron out some things, let them.[/quote]

No kidding. I saw a 10 min gameplay movie. FANTASTIC! As much indepth stuff they have to offer in the game they better iron out all the bugs :D
 
In all frankness, I'm just looking for something that'll replace Warhawk's single player since Warhawk has gone multiplayer only.

I don't need it to be the greatest game in the world filled with tactical depth and nuances. I want to fly my dragon and toast my enemies.
 
Thanks for the assuring info dallow. So i was kinda right... the preview disc is flawed. Well, it's $41 shipped for me (Overstock already charged me, since it's on CC, i don't have to pay the bill yet).
 
I'm down with the delay but I don't know how one month gives them enough time to fix all the problems. Wait until it's ready and then give us a release date.
 
The main thing I have against the delay was that I was hoping to play this before classes started. While I'll still get it at release, I won't have as much time to put into it.
 
The Lair Score: Part One

About the music, not any reviews. :)

The link above has a sample you can listen to of the game on it.

My name is John Debney and I’m a music composer working in Hollywood, scoring films such as “Passion of the Christ” and “Sin City.” I also composed the soundtrack for LAIR, and wanted to share a bit about that experience with you guys, as well as offer you a sample of the game’s music.

Composing the music for LAIR has been an incredible creative experience. The teams at Factor 5 and SCEA, gave me great freedom and latitude to develop something unique and perhaps unprecedented. Creating new, original themes for this primal world has been one of the most stimulating experiences of my career, something I will look back on and cherish. The overall tone of the work can best be described as operatic, ethnically rich, lyrical, elegant and, at the same time, tragic. From the heroic strains of Rohn’s theme, to the darkly powerful sister themes, Prophet/Diviner theme, we have a musical landscape both unique and glorious. Some of the finest vocalists and instrumentalists in the world are prominently featured in the score. It was a treat to be able to work with these great talents, and I’m sure you’ll appreciate the scope and the power of what we were trying to accomplish. It is ambitious to say the least, and we are so fortunate to have had the London and Royal symphony orchestras with their virtuosic and impassioned performance.

The score for this game is unique also in that it truly presents a large scale symphony in three acts. Quite simply, to give you a sense of the scale of what we did, the music alone in this game would fill three complete movies! Thus was the task; to create a work richly melodic, deeply passionate and savagely primal, all to fit right in with the theme, tone and dramatic elements of LAIR. With that said, I hope this audio clip gives you a taste of what’s to come in LAIR. I’ll be back later this week with another sample, but click below to hear “Diviner’s Theme,” which describes the treacherous, evil villain in the game. If Darth Vader had an evil cousin, this would truly be him. Enjoy!
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The Lair Score: Part Two

Has another embedded track via the link above.

Following up on my entry earlier this week, without walking you through the whole score, I wanted to call out a few tracks that stand out as prime examples of the principal themes contained in the score for LAIR. When you hear the elegant strains of the “Civilization” theme (Asylia theme), you’ll notice hints at the scope and power of the Asylian culture. It is high culture indeed, yet there is a dark side here.

“Crossing at Dawn-Bridge Battle” is an example of some of the more brutal and textural musical colors. Using primitive skin drums and ethnic woodwinds such as the “Makruna” and “Phillistine horn,” the ethnic side of Lair is revealed. This is a world we have only dreamed of, and for me, listening to the score, it comes to life. Musically, we must experience the majesty and scope of this world, and highlight its many sounds.

I could go on for quite a while describing the beauty of, for instance, Karen Han’s incredibly moving Erhu solo on “Mokai theme,” but that’s enough from me for today, so I’ll step back and let you the listener enjoy for yourself the amazing world of LAIR.
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Preview.

Courtesy of Three Speech reader and regular contributor Tom Eccles.

After reading what various game review sites and magazines thought about L.A.I.R, I was really looking forward to getting my hands on it. You take the role of Rohn, who rides a veracious dragon defending the skies for the Asylian civilisation – currently at war with the Mokai. The game involves fierce air combat with other dragons, as well as ground fights with enemy soldiers.

The first level of the game is a basic training exercise – like something on a flight simulator. Guided by another warrior you fly up, down and through hoops. You get the idea. Then you get your first taste of combat with another dragon. It’s not very exciting, but it introduces you to the scene and controls so it’s worth going through.

Talking of controls, L.A.I.R’s can be quite complicated. For what should be a simple game, Factor 5 put in some fairly complex controls which will probably take some getting used to. The easy part is moving – simply tilt the Sixaxis in the way you want the dragon to move, then tapping X speeds you up while L2 or / and R2 will put on the ‘brakes’. To target an enemy dragon (or an enemy object; i.e. a catapult) you hold either L1 or L2 until you see a red glow around it – then you can press square to send balls of fire, or circle to swing in and physically ‘attack’ them. After this, things get complicated – you sometimes enter a mode where the two dragons latch onto each other and fight, giving you the option of biting or breathing fire over the enemy. Other times, you enter a mode where you have to line up your dragon with the other before you can attack, and I have yet to be successful in doing this.


One of my favourite parts of the game is landing on the ground and ripping through crowds of enemy infantry. To land you have to fly close to the ground and hit L2 and R2 – after which you can run around on the ground. You can breathe fire onto the Mokai troops or simply hit them with your dragon’s claws. You can even swoop down, pick a soldier up and drop him to his death over the sea. During the game you will not only meet enemy dragons and soldiers, but also rhinos and other weird creatures. In game, often in the parts with big armies, you have a bar at the top telling you who is winning - sort of like a set of scales. The massive battle scenes are definitely one of the best parts to L.A.I.R..

L.A.I.R’s full 1080p graphics look great, the water movement is extremely realistic, the enemy dragons look great and the sky is beautiful. One thing that looks especially good is the lightning during dark scenes, where the sea and any other dragons in the sky get lit up in the flash. Its lighting is fantastic, and you’ll definitely be impressed when you’re flying through the skies. The game runs at 30 frames per second - however when you do actions that require quite a lot of power, or there are lots of dragons on screen, it goes down which is disappointing. Despite that, the game does look great and swooping down onto a mass crowd of infantry is a joy.


L.A.I.R has mission-based gameplay, set in different locations with different objectives. The storyline follows on from each mission and there are a lot of cinematic scenes to help tell the story. If you like story driven games, then L.A.I.R is definitely for you. After the mission, you get a scoreboard which has how much damage you’ve done, how many people you’ve killed, time taken etc. and if you do well enough you get graded with a medal. You can then go to the online leader boards and check how you’re doing compared to others. There will also be online forums for you to use.

Finally, the soundtrack to the game is fantastic. Composed by John Debney (who produced soundtracks for Sin City and Passion of the Christ), the game provides appropriate music for whatever you’re doing in game and it sounds great. The battles are brought alive by the fast paced soundtrack, in uncompressed 7.1 surround sound, which does a great job of immersing you into the game.

L.A.I.R has great gameplay, its 1080p graphics look superb and the heavy storyline really brings you into the game. Its faults in my opinion are the often complicated control system and the frame rate noticeably dropping when you’re in combat with lots of Mokai dragons or troops. However, its mass combat scenes really draw you into the game and if you’re one for a full, dense storyline, then L.A.I.R is definitely worth picking up.
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Disappointing to hear about the frame rate drops. :( I have issues with lower frame rates - gives me headaches/motion sickness. I had to stop playing Elebits because it got too laggy when a lot of stuff was flying around the screen.

I'll still give the game a shot, but probably won't be picking it up the first day.
 
Bah, on the IGN podcast, the editors said "Lair is painful, repetitive and not very fun". They said the full review will be released in 2 weeks, coinciding with games release.

I dunno, I'm still looking foward to it though.
 
I was never really sold on Lair after seeing the same gameplay shots, and after seeing the low scores it makes me even more unsure about the game...

$41.90 preordered from overstock is still pretty good though :\ haha
 
I'm getting it anyways.

First was the poor EGM review, then the delay, now this.

I think something it trying to stop me from getting this game, but I still will.

LAIR 4 life!

Of course if it really does suck I'm going to close the drapes in my room and sit in a dark corner :p

And 6.5 seems low for Warhawk. I'm sure most people that were in the beta know it's better than that.
 
Joystiq hands-on.



Ah, Leipzig Games Conference Business Day: a full nine hours of exploring the massive halls of the Leipziger-Messe convention center without a member of the 'Dreaded Public' in sight. We managed to get our hands on a number of games during this time and, after hearing mixed reviews and impressions of Lair, we made that our first priority.

We were immediately impressed with the visual quality of the game. The effort put into the character models and environments are evident, though there are occasional framerate drops. (We only noticed one framerate dip during the 20 minute play through and it was over within a second or two.) The detail in the graphics is most obvious when your dragon belly is scraping along the ground, or across the ocean.

As far as gameplay goes, we only had a chance to play a flying section, but it was very enjoyable. The SixAxis controls felt great -- which surprised us, since the controls had received the most negative press. Flying around as a dragon was incredibly satisfying as we could feel the weight of the creature when swooping down or pulling up further into the sky. It reminded us of the old DOS game Magic Carpet in how you had to compensate for momentum, lest you fly much further than intended.

As a result, the game features an auto lock-on targeting system. If your target is near the center of the screen then your fireballs will hone in on it, allowing you to concentrate on which attacks to make, not when to make them. The lock on also allows you to press the circle button and zoom towards your target, initiating close-quarters combat. An arrow in the top right hand corner alerts you to any nearby targets and a quick flick of the remote makes your dragon perform a mid-air U-turn, making maneuverability quite manageable.

Overall the demo was good fun, though there was no indication as to the length or depth of the final product. The one thing we're hoping for is that they change the voice acting before launch. Honestly, you may as well call it "Frat Boys On Dragons: The Game."
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Nice to see the controls being applauded for once. I guess they took advantage of the delay.

[quote name='Joystiq article via NamPaehc']Overall the demo was good fun, though there was no indication as to the length or depth of the final product. The one thing we're hoping for is that they change the voice acting before launch. Honestly, you may as well call it "Frat Boys On Dragons: The Game."[/quote]

Ugh. How can a game with such a beautiful score have 'frat boy' voice acting? I hope they're exaggerating.
 
Could this possibly be coming out on the 30th? Both Gamestop and Amazon have that date and I'm pretty sure at one point GS had 9/4 as the date.
 
[quote name='whoknows']Could this possibly be coming out on the 30th? Both Gamestop and Amazon have that date and I'm pretty sure at one point GS had 9/4 as the date.[/quote]

Yes. Our Sony rep swung by a few days ago and said that the release was getting pushed forward. Look for it by this weekend. Hopefully, anyway.
 
[quote name='Scorch']Yes. Our Sony rep swung by a few days ago and said that the release was getting pushed forward. Look for it by this weekend. Hopefully, anyway.[/QUOTE]
Awesome :D

Are you going to be getting it Scorch?
 
[quote name='whoknows']Could this possibly be coming out on the 30th? Both Gamestop and Amazon have that date and I'm pretty sure at one point GS had 9/4 as the date.[/quote]
playstation.com still has "Sept. 04" under PS3/Upcoming Games.
 
[quote name='whoknows']Could this possibly be coming out on the 30th? Both Gamestop and Amazon have that date and I'm pretty sure at one point GS had 9/4 as the date.[/QUOTE]
Yeah our computers are telling us it's street dated for the 31st now, and we'll be receiving it on the 30th.
 
Crap. It has a 67.5% so far on gamerankings. And that is only because Play gave it a 90%. And this is the only game so far that I even wanted to play on the PS3. I was excited to have the 8 free Blu-Ray deal come along right at Lair's launch too. ugghh...

I guess at least I got the movies and PS3 for less than retail of the PS3 alone. But that's not much comfort since I don't see the value of Blu-Ray as Ken Kutaragi sees it. I so wanted Lair to be the first AAA title for the PS3. I am sad. And poor. :(
 
[quote name='MorPhiend']Crap. It has a 67.5% so far on gamerankings. And that is only because Play gave it a 90%. And this is the only game so far that I even wanted to play on the PS3. I was excited to have the 8 free Blu-Ray deal come along right at Lair's launch too. ugghh...

I guess at least I got the movies and PS3 for less than retail of the PS3 alone. But that's not much comfort since I don't see the value of Blu-Ray as Ken Kutaragi sees it. I so wanted Lair to be the first AAA title for the PS3. I am sad. And poor. :([/quote]
You do realize that there's only four reviews so far, right? At least wait for more reviews before worrying about what the rating on gamerankings says.
 
[quote name='whoknows']Awesome :D

Are you going to be getting it Scorch?[/quote]

I'm really torn. It's going to look great, but all the bad reviews are putting me off. With so many other things coming out, I'll probably just rent it.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']You do realize that there's only four reviews so far, right? At least wait for more reviews before worrying about what the rating on gamerankings says.[/quote]ummm... PlayStation Magazine and EGM agree. That's pretty good evidence. And Play always has retarded scores. I think they use the dart board method. Yeah, it would be more reliable if IGN were on there too. But many people make judgements on just one review. Just because gamerankings usually has 10-20 reviews for a game does not mean 4 reviews are wrong.

I generally trust EGM and IGN on reviews. If IGN chimes in next, no more than 5 reviews are needed to know this game officially sucks.

But I will play it regardless. I now own a PS3 and this is the only game I have even cared about and it's from Factor 5. I'll do a rental like Scorch.
 
[quote name='MorPhiend']ummm... PlayStation Magazine and EGM agree. That's pretty good evidence. And Play always has retarded scores. I think they use the dart board method. Yeah, it would be more reliable if IGN were on there too. But many people make judgements on just one review. Just because gamerankings usually has 10-20 reviews for a game does not mean 4 reviews are wrong.

I generally trust EGM and IGN on reviews. If IGN chimes in next, no more than 5 reviews are needed to know this game officially sucks.

But I will play it regardless. I now own a PS3 and this is the only game I have even cared about and it's from Factor 5. I'll do a rental like Scorch.[/QUOTE]
EGM also said that dragons shooting fireballs wasn't realistic in their podcast when they were talking about their LAIR scores.

Yeah...
 
[quote name='Scorch']I'm really torn. It's going to look great, but all the bad reviews are putting me off. With so many other things coming out, I'll probably just rent it.[/QUOTE]
It's apparently a pretty short game, so renting it will probably be more than enough.

I hope it's good and the reviewers are over exaggerating on the bad stuff.
 
[quote name='MorPhiend']ummm... PlayStation Magazine and EGM agree. That's pretty good evidence. And Play always has retarded scores. I think they use the dart board method. Yeah, it would be more reliable if IGN were on there too. But many people make judgements on just one review. Just because gamerankings usually has 10-20 reviews for a game does not mean 4 reviews are wrong.

I generally trust EGM and IGN on reviews. If IGN chimes in next, no more than 5 reviews are needed to know this game officially sucks.

But I will play it regardless. I now own a PS3 and this is the only game I have even cared about and it's from Factor 5. I'll do a rental like Scorch.[/quote]
Where did I say four reviews were wrong? Getting worried over the average of just four reviews is getting ahead of yourself since the it can sway easily with a few more good or bad reviews. Then again, those reviews were for the pre-delay build, so those scores could also be negated if anything significant's been touched up since then.

PSM's credible? When did that happen? I stopped caring when they could only give a 7 or higher to pretty much every game they reviewed. Seriously, I want to know when that happened because I can't recall them being all that good since not long after the PS2 launched.

I'll be renting it, too, since I don't have the money to purchase the game and it's more convenient for me anyway.
 
[quote name='whoknows']EGM also said that dragons shooting fireballs wasn't realistic in their podcast when they were talking about their LAIR scores.

Yeah...[/quote]

To be fair, the makers of LAIR insist that EGM was reviewing a preview copy of the game full of framerate hitches and control issues.

They swear they've fixed them since then, but we'll have to wait and see.
 
[quote name='whoknows']EGM also said that dragons shooting fireballs wasn't realistic in their podcast when they were talking about their LAIR scores.

Yeah...[/QUOTE]
LOL @ dragons shooting fireballs = not realistic

You're playing a dragon game...wtf?
 
[quote name='whoknows']EGM also said that dragons shooting fireballs wasn't realistic in their podcast when they were talking about their LAIR scores.

Yeah...[/quote]LoL. What else are dragons supposed to do?


[quote name='FriskyTanuki']Where did I say four reviews were wrong? Getting worried over the average of just four reviews is getting ahead of yourself since the it can sway easily with a few more good or bad reviews. Then again, those reviews were for the pre-delay build, so those scores could also be negated if anything significant's been touched up since then.

PSM's credible? When did that happen? I stopped caring when they could only give a 7 or higher to pretty much every game they reviewed. Seriously, I want to know when that happened because I can't recall them being all that good since not long after the PS2 launched.

I'll be renting it, too, since I don't have the money to purchase the game and it's more convenient for me anyway.[/quote]You're probably right. Also, I wasn't aware that EGM reviewed pre-finalized games these days. I heard they had gone downhill since the days I read them, but that is ridiculous. Apparently someone needs to fire Shoe. He's ruined the formerly greatest videogame publication out there...

And I assumed PSM was the old OPM. Sorry about that. But OPM would have probably gone down the crapper by now just as much as EGM apparently has.

I hope you're right and these reviews are stupidly based upon early builds. I guess I can still hold out a little hope for the game.
 
I'm getting it tomorrow, screw the reviews. Many games I end up liking get slammed in reviews, and I've been anticipating this one for too long to let someone else make my mind up for me. Nice that it hits just in time to get one last use out of that GS 10% off coupon. :)
 
I've seen a couple allusions to the game coming out tomorrow now - did I miss something? Last I heard it was slated for next week. I did see the one thread in the deals forum about a TRU selling it early, but didn't think it was widespread.
 
Just to let you guys know, EB is selling Lair now. We got an email tonight telling us we could start selling it. So you can pick it up tonight. I got my copy!
 
[quote name='Rei no Otaku']Just to let you guys know, EB is selling Lair now. We got an email tonight telling us we could start selling it. So you can pick it up tonight. I got my copy![/quote]

I expect impressions within the hour!
 
[quote name='MorPhiend']You're probably right. Also, I wasn't aware that EGM reviewed pre-finalized games these days. I heard they had gone downhill since the days I read them, but that is ridiculous. Apparently someone needs to fire Shoe. He's ruined the formerly greatest videogame publication out there...[/quote]
I didn't say anybody was reviewing pre-final build versions of the game, just the build that was thought to be final build before it was delayed. Things may have been changed, so it'd be nice to see the game get a second look for improvements.

[quote name='MorPhiend']And I assumed PSM was the old OPM. Sorry about that. But OPM would have probably gone down the crapper by now just as much as EGM apparently has.[/quote]
OPM was actually doing very well, content-wise, until Sony decided that since they weren't going to do Blu-Ray demos, that the mag wasn't relevant anymore.

[quote name='MorPhiend']I hope you're right and these reviews are stupidly based upon early builds. I guess I can still hold out a little hope for the game.[/quote]
Again, it wasn't like they were reviewing old builds. What they had was the final build at the time, but then the game was delayed, possibly making the reviews out of date with the build that's out now. It's just a strange situation that's caught the mags off guard.
 
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