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Chrissy Snow I started playing video games, and now I play them for YOU!! Tell us what games we need guides for!! View all articles | Contact author

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.