Nice chart but I'd actually worry about anyone that relies completely on reviews to tell them what to buy. I mean, Half-Life 2 got stellar reviews and yet, I can't stand playing it. And then I enjoy some games that get mediocre reviews, like Dynasty Warriors.
Heh, yeah, the lock-on can be a bit difficult, but I've never had too many issues with it yet. And really, the controls aren't as bad as they say. It makes it a little more challenging in some areas, but it strangely adds to the experience of the game, for me, in a positive way.
I don't understand how a game being made more difficult by "poor" controls can positively add to the experience in anyway. You shouldn't have to fight with the game to be able to play it, period.
I personally think that a lot of the poor reviews are due to the hype. This game was supposed to be a "killer app" for the PS3, but instead it just reinforced the theory that this next generation of games is all about shinier graphics rather than better gameplay.
Don't hype the shit out of your game if it isn't going to deliver. The gaming media is extremely vindictive.
I dunno, I love it and all, but perhaps we as a collective consumer are overlooking the flaws because we *want* to like it and are able to have fun regardless of the flaws it has.
I think that this about nails it. You bought a PS3 and no game that has been released yet validates the purchase. Lair doesn't fill the void in your wallets and souls, sorry. :P
I personally think that a lot of the poor reviews are due to the hype. This game was supposed to be a "killer app" for the PS3, but instead it just reinforced the theory that this next generation of games is all about shinier graphics rather than better gameplay.
I don't think that is it. Fable, Black and White, Halo 2, and plenty of other hyped games got good reviews.
Nice chart but I'd actually worry about anyone that relies completely on reviews to tell them what to buy. I mean, Half-Life 2 got stellar reviews and yet, I can't stand playing it. And then I enjoy some games that get mediocre reviews, like Dynasty Warriors.
People that generally don't have a lot of money to waste.
People like me.
If I'm plunking down $60 on a game that I really can't afford to be buying anyway, that shit better be stellar.
Just wanted to chime in and say that I intially thought the game was very confusing. I didn't understand where I was supposed to go or how the combat/combo systems worked. So I spent about 45 minutes doing all of the tutorials, some of them more than twice, because I wanted to get better at them. Then I started doing the missions again. I must have done the first one about 10 times, not because I had to, because I started to really appreciate HOW the game is played. I really started to enjoy myself.
-Serpent Monster, almost love
-Spotlight mission, love
-Spider-wasp boss, full admission of love (was crowing to my friends about it)
-Ice fortress level, I'm just going to go ahead and marry this game
It's not perfect, and I'm not saying it's a 10 cause it's not. It's got some framerate issues as well as some playability issues, but it's so worth learning how to play this game, because there really isn't too much out there like it in the realm of flight games. In my eyes, it's the best dragon game out there that isn't on rails, and it's one of the best flight games that isn't an Ace Combat game. Fully enjoying it, can't wait to beat it so I can go back and try to get all golds. I'm making sure not to move on from a mission without getting silver as it is, just so I can learn the missions and play them better. I don't usually do that with games, but here I really want to.
I just finished this game and I have to say I love the controls. I really think the biggest problem with them is that when I panic I instinctly start trying to use the analog sticks to control the dragon, and forget that its actually uses the SIXAXIS. I don't know how many times I was like WTF is going on with the camera swinging all over the place when really it was me just being an idiot.
I guess another complaint about the controls is I wish the rip and tear mechanic (or whatever its called) was controlled with button presses rather than shaking the controller up and down rapidly. That tends to really tire my arms out. Oh...and I loved the AT-AT tow cable like thing.
Uhh, wow, remote play for Lair on PSP.
Happened upon this at the playstation boards, tried it out. Pretty fucking cool. Not all the controls are there so it seems like it's fairly unsupported, but the implications are certainly interesting.
Uhh, wow, remote play for Lair on PSP.
Happened upon this at the playstation boards, tried it out. Pretty fucking cool. Not all the controls are there so it seems like it's fairly unsupported, but the implications are certainly interesting.
is it true you have to use your grappling hook (dragons have these?) to take down a 4-legged beast type monster? sounds pretty awesome.
is there a scene where you traverse a narrow canyon and drop an egg into a target mere millemeters wide too?
is it true you have to use your grappling hook (dragons have these?) to take down a 4-legged beast type monster? sounds pretty awesome.
is there a scene where you traverse a narrow canyon and drop an egg into a target mere millemeters wide too?
yes to the first no to the second.
but there is a character called lewbacca in Lair. interesting.
is it true you have to use your grappling hook (dragons have these?) to take down a 4-legged beast type monster? sounds pretty awesome.
is there a scene where you traverse a narrow canyon and drop an egg into a target mere millemeters wide too?
yes to the first no to the second.
but there is a character called lewbacca in Lair. interesting.
Well, I may have just have found myself a new Screen name.
is it true you have to use your grappling hook (dragons have these?) to take down a 4-legged beast type monster? sounds pretty awesome.
is there a scene where you traverse a narrow canyon and drop an egg into a target mere millemeters wide too?
yes to the first no to the second.
but there is a character called lewbacca in Lair. interesting.
That sounds like the name of a player in Star Wars Galaxies.
Uhh, wow, remote play for Lair on PSP.
Happened upon this at the playstation boards, tried it out. Pretty fucking cool. Not all the controls are there so it seems like it's fairly unsupported, but the implications are certainly interesting.
Uhh, wow, remote play for Lair on PSP.
Happened upon this at the playstation boards, tried it out. Pretty fucking cool. Not all the controls are there so it seems like it's fairly unsupported, but the implications are certainly interesting.
Uhh, wow, remote play for Lair on PSP.
Happened upon this at the playstation boards, tried it out. Pretty fucking cool. Not all the controls are there so it seems like it's fairly unsupported, but the implications are certainly interesting.
Nice chart but I'd actually worry about anyone that relies completely on reviews to tell them what to buy. I mean, Half-Life 2 got stellar reviews and yet, I can't stand playing it. And then I enjoy some games that get mediocre reviews, like Dynasty Warriors.
People that generally don't have a lot of money to waste.
People like me.
If I'm plunking down $60 on a game that I really can't afford to be buying anyway, that shit better be stellar.
And what happens when you don't really like the well reviewed game? It's happened to me a lot of times. Personally, I rely a lot more on who is developing the game (eg, I trust Team Ico/Kojima Productions to make good games), word of mouth around forums, trailers and gameplay videos. And if all that fails and I'm still a little interested, I'll rent it.
Btw, wow Lair on a PSP? That's pretty god-damn awesome. My interest in Lair has gone from 0 to 35%. I might pick it up when they drop the price a bit.
Nice chart but I'd actually worry about anyone that relies completely on reviews to tell them what to buy. I mean, Half-Life 2 got stellar reviews and yet, I can't stand playing it. And then I enjoy some games that get mediocre reviews, like Dynasty Warriors.
People that generally don't have a lot of money to waste.
People like me.
If I'm plunking down $60 on a game that I really can't afford to be buying anyway, that shit better be stellar.
And what happens when you don't really like the well reviewed game? It's happened to me a lot of times. Personally, I rely a lot more on who is developing the game (eg, I trust Team Ico/Kojima Productions to make good games), word of mouth around forums, trailers and gameplay videos. And if all that fails and I'm still a little interested, I'll rent it.
Btw, wow Lair on a PSP? That's pretty god-damn awesome. My interest in Lair has gone from 0 to 35%. I might pick it up when they drop the price a bit.
You can't exactly do much with it, though, not without the motion controls. :P It works, but there are a lot of parts in the game where you need to use the motion controls to do something, whether it be taking down a war beast or grappling onto a cannon and ripping it apart. If there's a way to do such things on the PSP, I haven't found a way yet. I just think you can play anything on your PS3 on your PSP, not that it would be very effective with the controls, though.
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
Nice chart but I'd actually worry about anyone that relies completely on reviews to tell them what to buy. I mean, Half-Life 2 got stellar reviews and yet, I can't stand playing it. And then I enjoy some games that get mediocre reviews, like Dynasty Warriors.
People that generally don't have a lot of money to waste.
People like me.
If I'm plunking down $60 on a game that I really can't afford to be buying anyway, that shit better be stellar.
And what happens when you don't really like the well reviewed game? It's happened to me a lot of times. Personally, I rely a lot more on who is developing the game (eg, I trust Team Ico/Kojima Productions to make good games), word of mouth around forums, trailers and gameplay videos. And if all that fails and I'm still a little interested, I'll rent it.
I take all those things into account too, but usually reviews are a bit more scattered than the ones I've been seeing for Lair. And if the game does suck, then I trade it in while I can still get the highest price for it; it's just not something I really like to do often.
A good example: I just bought Blue Dragon today. If it sucks my nuts, then it'll be going toward the purchase of Stranglehold next week.
Nice chart but I'd actually worry about anyone that relies completely on reviews to tell them what to buy. I mean, Half-Life 2 got stellar reviews and yet, I can't stand playing it. And then I enjoy some games that get mediocre reviews, like Dynasty Warriors.
People that generally don't have a lot of money to waste.
People like me.
If I'm plunking down $60 on a game that I really can't afford to be buying anyway, that shit better be stellar.
And what happens when you don't really like the well reviewed game? It's happened to me a lot of times. Personally, I rely a lot more on who is developing the game (eg, I trust Team Ico/Kojima Productions to make good games), word of mouth around forums, trailers and gameplay videos. And if all that fails and I'm still a little interested, I'll rent it.
Btw, wow Lair on a PSP? That's pretty god-damn awesome. My interest in Lair has gone from 0 to 35%. I might pick it up when they drop the price a bit.
See, Lair was an interesting case study in this. It had mainly good previews, a decent to good developer, good buzz, and decent trailers. Yet it is almost universally panned in reviews. I got to play it today, and man alive, it does have its fair share of control issues.
In a year or two when I have a PS3 of my own I'll still think about buying it from some poor unloved bargain bin somewhere just because I love Factor 5 and dragons, and who knows, maybe they'll patch in better controls by then!
I really hope Sony takes this remote play thing and just runs with it. Seriously. I don't get why you can't do it with any other game, though. The PS3 is doing the processing and then just sending the video feet, and receiving the button presses. Shouldn't you be able to put in any disc, really, even a PS1 or 2 game and make it work like this. Hopefully in the future you can. I'd love to be at school, using their wireless, and playing my game at home through my PSP.
well i beat lair inbetween warhawk matches. Not the greatest game ever but I had fun with it. I recommend waiting for the greatest hits or what not if your still on the fence. The controls were fine but I would have preferred analog in the later levels.
I was just playing this a bit, since my girlfriend kept it on. It's really goddamned fun sometimes. I don't really see what the problem is. I prefer motion controls in both this and Warhawk. Really, the only thing I think that they should change is the lock on system. Put a cursor that gets the lock on kind of like Warhawk. But, other than that, I like the game and don't really see any problems with it. Well, there's also the 180 move that I can't for the damned life of me figure out how to do.
So, so far (while I'm not very far in), this game is very much not a system seller, like some had hoped, but it's very very far from being a 4.5/10 game. I'd say it's a 7/10 maybe. It's a solid title that's insanely fun to play. And, hey, if you have a hard-on for dragons and the riding thereof it's even better.
Nice chart but I'd actually worry about anyone that relies completely on reviews to tell them what to buy. I mean, Half-Life 2 got stellar reviews and yet, I can't stand playing it. And then I enjoy some games that get mediocre reviews, like Dynasty Warriors.
People that generally don't have a lot of money to waste.
People like me.
If I'm plunking down $60 on a game that I really can't afford to be buying anyway, that shit better be stellar.
And what happens when you don't really like the well reviewed game? It's happened to me a lot of times. Personally, I rely a lot more on who is developing the game (eg, I trust Team Ico/Kojima Productions to make good games), word of mouth around forums, trailers and gameplay videos. And if all that fails and I'm still a little interested, I'll rent it.
Btw, wow Lair on a PSP? That's pretty god-damn awesome. My interest in Lair has gone from 0 to 35%. I might pick it up when they drop the price a bit.
on reviews, i find i don't just look at a score and go "good!" or "bad!", but read the review, look for opinions and bias. A good review will pick the game apart, and let you decide from what you read whether you agree with the writer or not. If i see lots of things in there that i want to see, and the reviewer has marked it down for some issues i don't care about, then good for me. If everyone's saying a game has control issues, i'd personally count that as pretty fundamental to the game (being how i interact with it), so i'd at least want to try it first, to see if those issues bother me. I certainly wouldn't pay good money for one that appears to have such problems.
Nice chart but I'd actually worry about anyone that relies completely on reviews to tell them what to buy. I mean, Half-Life 2 got stellar reviews and yet, I can't stand playing it. And then I enjoy some games that get mediocre reviews, like Dynasty Warriors.
People that generally don't have a lot of money to waste.
People like me.
If I'm plunking down $60 on a game that I really can't afford to be buying anyway, that shit better be stellar.
And what happens when you don't really like the well reviewed game? It's happened to me a lot of times. Personally, I rely a lot more on who is developing the game (eg, I trust Team Ico/Kojima Productions to make good games), word of mouth around forums, trailers and gameplay videos. And if all that fails and I'm still a little interested, I'll rent it.
Btw, wow Lair on a PSP? That's pretty god-damn awesome. My interest in Lair has gone from 0 to 35%. I might pick it up when they drop the price a bit.
on reviews, i find i don't just look at a score and go "good!" or "bad!", but read the review, look for opinions and bias. A good review will pick the game apart, and let you decide from what you read whether you agree with the writer or not. If i see lots of things in there that i want to see, and the reviewer has marked it down for some issues i don't care about, then good for me. If everyone's saying a game has control issues, i'd personally count that as pretty fundamental to the game (being how i interact with it), so i'd at least want to try it first, to see if those issues bother me. I certainly wouldn't pay good money for one that appears to have such problems.
I agree completely. I mean, GI just railed Paper Mario, and gave it a 6/10. Even disregarding the 7-10 scale that games are in these days, going from 1-10, 6 is a bad score. Read the review, they LOVED it. Why dock it from an 8 or 9?
"Our readers might not like it."
Of course, it got pretty good reviews across the board, more or less, though...which is...ah...entirely unlike Lair.
Nice chart but I'd actually worry about anyone that relies completely on reviews to tell them what to buy. I mean, Half-Life 2 got stellar reviews and yet, I can't stand playing it. And then I enjoy some games that get mediocre reviews, like Dynasty Warriors.
People that generally don't have a lot of money to waste.
People like me.
If I'm plunking down $60 on a game that I really can't afford to be buying anyway, that shit better be stellar.
And what happens when you don't really like the well reviewed game? It's happened to me a lot of times. Personally, I rely a lot more on who is developing the game (eg, I trust Team Ico/Kojima Productions to make good games), word of mouth around forums, trailers and gameplay videos. And if all that fails and I'm still a little interested, I'll rent it.
Btw, wow Lair on a PSP? That's pretty god-damn awesome. My interest in Lair has gone from 0 to 35%. I might pick it up when they drop the price a bit.
on reviews, i find i don't just look at a score and go "good!" or "bad!", but read the review, look for opinions and bias. A good review will pick the game apart, and let you decide from what you read whether you agree with the writer or not. If i see lots of things in there that i want to see, and the reviewer has marked it down for some issues i don't care about, then good for me. If everyone's saying a game has control issues, i'd personally count that as pretty fundamental to the game (being how i interact with it), so i'd at least want to try it first, to see if those issues bother me. I certainly wouldn't pay good money for one that appears to have such problems.
This. Reviews can be extremely helpful if you read things other than the score. So, in going over the text, you can determine whether a well-rated game isn't for you, kind of like Disgaea for me or Ico for you. Or, conversely, whether you think the flaws in a lower-rated game can be overlooked/endured.
People who just say "all reviews are crap" are knee-jerk gits who fit nicely into Xenogears' chart for whatever reason.
Wordherder on
Why the crap did I ever make my original name "cloudeagle?"
I dunno, I love it and all, but perhaps we as a collective consumer are overlooking the flaws because we *want* to like it and are able to have fun regardless of the flaws it has. Kinda like putting up with bullshit in order to get to the awesome stuff. Where, the awesome stuff and the bullshit are mixed together in every single level so therein lies the problem. Perhaps being unable to discern the bullshit due to there being "awesome" 5 seconds later and not caring about said bullshit anymore, because of the awesome.
I know a guy at work who was in the break room telling someone who was considering getting a new game console that "Microsoft has NOTHING, the 360 is going to fail within a few months because they've got no good games coming out, but I've been having a blast playing Genji for the last few months, it's possibly the best action game on any console"
he stood in line for 3 days to get his ps3 mind you... I personally think neither console is living up to it's potential. I haven't played lair but my experiences with trying sixaxis in other games is less than good, analog control works fine for games like that so why force sixaxis on people? Seems like a stupid design decision.
I dunno, I love it and all, but perhaps we as a collective consumer are overlooking the flaws because we *want* to like it and are able to have fun regardless of the flaws it has. Kinda like putting up with bullshit in order to get to the awesome stuff. Where, the awesome stuff and the bullshit are mixed together in every single level so therein lies the problem. Perhaps being unable to discern the bullshit due to there being "awesome" 5 seconds later and not caring about said bullshit anymore, because of the awesome.
Don't even think that, man! There is nothing wrong with liking a game that a minority of so-called “professional gamers†didn’t like. All you need to do is look at others gamers who are enjoying it to know where you stand. There is nothing wrong with your view on the game; it’s the widening differences between the average gamer and those “professionals†that's the real culprit in all this.
I doubt it's me wanting to like it so far, actually. I wasn't really looking forward to it at all. To me it was just a pretty game with some dragons. I really didn't care whether I'd ever played it or not. So, it had no hype for me. But, my girlfriend was hyped for it because she loves dragons, so that's why we have it. I played it, and I'm absolutely loving it. I just completed the bridge mission and had all kinds of fun with that. It also got much better now that I sat down and figured out the exact motion needed to do the 180. So, going back and forth grabbing things off the bridge and throwing them into the water was pretty much awesome.
Beat the snake mission. It's rather confusing, but ultimately pretty awesome. I'm guessing they made the game in such a way that passing the missions is easy, but really beating the missions (taking a ton of life off the snake, saving all the mantas, etc.) is really freaking hard. The game's still frustrating but fun so far.
I'm really liking the game thus far (I think I might be near the end). Some of the boss battles can be confusing, as well as some of the objectives in missions, and the 180 can be a bitch sometimes, as can targetting (which I find you really get the hang up after 6 or so missions), but beyond that I don't really have any complaints and I'm having a pretty good time.
Getting some of the awards is going to be tough...I played through one mission I really enjoyed about 3 times and the third time I totally rocked it and I just KNEW I'd gotten the gold award.
Nope...bronze.
dachish on
My heart it ceases, my breath undrawn.
Eyes forever focused, on the sanguine, metal dawn.
I heard the bad reviews, and went to EB to switch my pre-order. At the last second, I said, "The hell with it..." and picked it up.
I like the game. I have no problems with the controls. I honestly don't understand the horrible reviews. You're supposed to be flying a dragon, so you can't pivot around in the middle of the air. Its more like controlling a powered glider than a jet or a X-Wing.... You need to figure out how to use the 180 flip, or you're going to spend a lot of time making wide circles.
I'm glad I got the game regardless of the bad reviews. I could see it getting in the 7s or something with complaints about the controls, but I don't think the game deserves the "NEVER BUY ME!" ratings it has gotten.
Maybe it is because I also have a Wii, so motion controls aren't too scary for me. I'd imagine that most of the professional PS3 reviewer don't play much beyond that.
Maybe it is because I also have a Wii, so motion controls aren't too scary for me. I'd imagine that most of the professional PS3 reviewer don't play much beyond that.
I wouldnt hang too much on this. It isnt that the controls are hard to get used to because people arent used to motion controls. It is thatthey are actually really bad controls. Dont confuse the two scenarios. Plenty of experienced Wii players still have trouble with Lair. Also, control issues aside, a lot of reviews have criticised the rest of the game. Its not like bad controls = 4.9.
That said, it does look pretty. I wish they would patch the controls so at least that is one large area of complain done. Shit, even if you want the mandatory sixaxis control in at least make the 180 a button press, that is the single biggest complaint ive heard, it confuses the 180 for something else.
also, check out the interview with julian on the latest egm live. its not dyack redux but it is pretty heated. to give him props he defends lair well and made me think twice about it.
Posts
Nice chart but I'd actually worry about anyone that relies completely on reviews to tell them what to buy. I mean, Half-Life 2 got stellar reviews and yet, I can't stand playing it. And then I enjoy some games that get mediocre reviews, like Dynasty Warriors.
I don't understand how a game being made more difficult by "poor" controls can positively add to the experience in anyway. You shouldn't have to fight with the game to be able to play it, period.
I personally think that a lot of the poor reviews are due to the hype. This game was supposed to be a "killer app" for the PS3, but instead it just reinforced the theory that this next generation of games is all about shinier graphics rather than better gameplay.
Don't hype the shit out of your game if it isn't going to deliver. The gaming media is extremely vindictive.
I think that this about nails it. You bought a PS3 and no game that has been released yet validates the purchase. Lair doesn't fill the void in your wallets and souls, sorry. :P
People that generally don't have a lot of money to waste.
People like me.
If I'm plunking down $60 on a game that I really can't afford to be buying anyway, that shit better be stellar.
-Serpent Monster, almost love
-Spotlight mission, love
-Spider-wasp boss, full admission of love (was crowing to my friends about it)
-Ice fortress level, I'm just going to go ahead and marry this game
It's not perfect, and I'm not saying it's a 10 cause it's not. It's got some framerate issues as well as some playability issues, but it's so worth learning how to play this game, because there really isn't too much out there like it in the realm of flight games. In my eyes, it's the best dragon game out there that isn't on rails, and it's one of the best flight games that isn't an Ace Combat game. Fully enjoying it, can't wait to beat it so I can go back and try to get all golds. I'm making sure not to move on from a mission without getting silver as it is, just so I can learn the missions and play them better. I don't usually do that with games, but here I really want to.
I guess another complaint about the controls is I wish the rip and tear mechanic (or whatever its called) was controlled with button presses rather than shaking the controller up and down rapidly. That tends to really tire my arms out. Oh...and I loved the AT-AT tow cable like thing.
Happened upon this at the playstation boards, tried it out. Pretty fucking cool. Not all the controls are there so it seems like it's fairly unsupported, but the implications are certainly interesting.
http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=lair&thread.id=7613
It certainly makes you think about the new SOCOM title.
is there a scene where you traverse a narrow canyon and drop an egg into a target mere millemeters wide too?
yes to the first no to the second.
but there is a character called lewbacca in Lair. interesting.
Well, I may have just have found myself a new Screen name.
That sounds like the name of a player in Star Wars Galaxies.
I hope Sony plays around with this in other games, this has some real potential.
Seriously, this is pretty badass. All the possibilities!
Holy shit, that is so awesome.
I guess I'll go give that a try right now. I'll post impressions if it works.
And what happens when you don't really like the well reviewed game? It's happened to me a lot of times. Personally, I rely a lot more on who is developing the game (eg, I trust Team Ico/Kojima Productions to make good games), word of mouth around forums, trailers and gameplay videos. And if all that fails and I'm still a little interested, I'll rent it.
Btw, wow Lair on a PSP? That's pretty god-damn awesome. My interest in Lair has gone from 0 to 35%. I might pick it up when they drop the price a bit.
You can't exactly do much with it, though, not without the motion controls. :P It works, but there are a lot of parts in the game where you need to use the motion controls to do something, whether it be taking down a war beast or grappling onto a cannon and ripping it apart. If there's a way to do such things on the PSP, I haven't found a way yet. I just think you can play anything on your PS3 on your PSP, not that it would be very effective with the controls, though.
I take all those things into account too, but usually reviews are a bit more scattered than the ones I've been seeing for Lair. And if the game does suck, then I trade it in while I can still get the highest price for it; it's just not something I really like to do often.
A good example: I just bought Blue Dragon today. If it sucks my nuts, then it'll be going toward the purchase of Stranglehold next week.
See, Lair was an interesting case study in this. It had mainly good previews, a decent to good developer, good buzz, and decent trailers. Yet it is almost universally panned in reviews. I got to play it today, and man alive, it does have its fair share of control issues.
In a year or two when I have a PS3 of my own I'll still think about buying it from some poor unloved bargain bin somewhere just because I love Factor 5 and dragons, and who knows, maybe they'll patch in better controls by then!
As far as I can tell, this is the only game that runs over remote play. I've tried some others just for kicks and they don't work.
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
So, so far (while I'm not very far in), this game is very much not a system seller, like some had hoped, but it's very very far from being a 4.5/10 game. I'd say it's a 7/10 maybe. It's a solid title that's insanely fun to play. And, hey, if you have a hard-on for dragons and the riding thereof it's even better.
on reviews, i find i don't just look at a score and go "good!" or "bad!", but read the review, look for opinions and bias. A good review will pick the game apart, and let you decide from what you read whether you agree with the writer or not. If i see lots of things in there that i want to see, and the reviewer has marked it down for some issues i don't care about, then good for me. If everyone's saying a game has control issues, i'd personally count that as pretty fundamental to the game (being how i interact with it), so i'd at least want to try it first, to see if those issues bother me. I certainly wouldn't pay good money for one that appears to have such problems.
I, for instance, find Eurogamer mostly reliable.
Same.
And Consolevania/Video Gaiden.
I agree completely. I mean, GI just railed Paper Mario, and gave it a 6/10. Even disregarding the 7-10 scale that games are in these days, going from 1-10, 6 is a bad score. Read the review, they LOVED it. Why dock it from an 8 or 9?
"Our readers might not like it."
Of course, it got pretty good reviews across the board, more or less, though...which is...ah...entirely unlike Lair.
I would have mentioned them, but they didn't like Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.
This. Reviews can be extremely helpful if you read things other than the score. So, in going over the text, you can determine whether a well-rated game isn't for you, kind of like Disgaea for me or Ico for you. Or, conversely, whether you think the flaws in a lower-rated game can be overlooked/endured.
People who just say "all reviews are crap" are knee-jerk gits who fit nicely into Xenogears' chart for whatever reason.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBqB5LUKh8A
Just in case you, or anyone else hasn't seen one of the best reviews ever. One of my favorite games too.
Oh I totally knew which review you were referencing before you linked it.
Still, can never link it enough.
I know a guy at work who was in the break room telling someone who was considering getting a new game console that "Microsoft has NOTHING, the 360 is going to fail within a few months because they've got no good games coming out, but I've been having a blast playing Genji for the last few months, it's possibly the best action game on any console"
he stood in line for 3 days to get his ps3 mind you... I personally think neither console is living up to it's potential. I haven't played lair but my experiences with trying sixaxis in other games is less than good, analog control works fine for games like that so why force sixaxis on people? Seems like a stupid design decision.
Beat the snake mission. It's rather confusing, but ultimately pretty awesome. I'm guessing they made the game in such a way that passing the missions is easy, but really beating the missions (taking a ton of life off the snake, saving all the mantas, etc.) is really freaking hard. The game's still frustrating but fun so far.
Getting some of the awards is going to be tough...I played through one mission I really enjoyed about 3 times and the third time I totally rocked it and I just KNEW I'd gotten the gold award.
Nope...bronze.
Eyes forever focused, on the sanguine, metal dawn.
I like the game. I have no problems with the controls. I honestly don't understand the horrible reviews. You're supposed to be flying a dragon, so you can't pivot around in the middle of the air. Its more like controlling a powered glider than a jet or a X-Wing.... You need to figure out how to use the 180 flip, or you're going to spend a lot of time making wide circles.
I'm glad I got the game regardless of the bad reviews. I could see it getting in the 7s or something with complaints about the controls, but I don't think the game deserves the "NEVER BUY ME!" ratings it has gotten.
Maybe it is because I also have a Wii, so motion controls aren't too scary for me. I'd imagine that most of the professional PS3 reviewer don't play much beyond that.
I wouldnt hang too much on this. It isnt that the controls are hard to get used to because people arent used to motion controls. It is thatthey are actually really bad controls. Dont confuse the two scenarios. Plenty of experienced Wii players still have trouble with Lair. Also, control issues aside, a lot of reviews have criticised the rest of the game. Its not like bad controls = 4.9.
That said, it does look pretty. I wish they would patch the controls so at least that is one large area of complain done. Shit, even if you want the mandatory sixaxis control in at least make the 180 a button press, that is the single biggest complaint ive heard, it confuses the 180 for something else.
also, check out the interview with julian on the latest egm live. its not dyack redux but it is pretty heated. to give him props he defends lair well and made me think twice about it.