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Although the version of Lair shown at a Sony San Diego press event this week was almost no different from the one demonstrated a few weeks earlier, it gave certain editors who werent at that event a chance to play the most recent version of the game. You know, such as me. According to Sony, the differences between what was shown before and what was playable yesterday were primarily in terms of optimization the framerate had been improved in some areas, some minor bugs had been addressed, and so on. This is really indicative of where Lair, as a whole, is at the moment: its essentially finished. At this point, the team is pretty much focused on optimizing and polishing for the games summer release.
Much has already been said about how the game plays, so after spending some handson time with the near final five playable levels about a third of the game Im left with two main thoughts:
#1 Playing Lair, one word really comes to mind: Epic. Seriously, the experience of flying through these stunning, expansive landscapes with tons going on all around you and a fantastic orchestral score playing underneath is really quite something. Youve simply not experienced anything like this before certainly not on this scale. The lighting and weather effects (lightning and rain were specifically impressive), the draw distance (you can see for miles and miles), the amount of on screen action at times (tons of other dragons flying through the air, ships in the sea, and warriors on the ground), and the ability to simply and seamlessly switch between fighting high in the sky and down on the ground this is absolutely a next generation experience.
#2 There is one major worry and its perhaps a damning one: the Sixaxis controls. At times, the Sixaxis seems fantastic for a game like this controlling the dragons giant swoops seems perfectly suited for motion sensing controls. At others, it feels clunky as all hell. Trying to bash another dragon in close range combat took me out of the experience right away I felt like I was fighting the controls. More often than not, I couldnt help but wonder how much more Id be enjoying the game were I just using standard controls. Now, perhaps the controls will improve with more familiarity, but this is certainly a concern shared by many others who played the game today and in the past.
Factor 5 has about a month left to finish tweaking the game. Heres hoping our concerns with the controls are either addressed or alleviated by its release, as a game this epic really deserves to be played.
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