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Sony Dismisses Critics of Lair

Posted by Zonk on from the its-not-for-them dept.

Despite some very public, very negative criticism of Factor 5's dragon/shooter Lair, Next Generation notes that Sony remains unfazed. "Outgoing SCEA PR boss Dave Karraker told Next-Gen in a phone interview that despite poor critical reception, the flying lizard game isn't necessarily grounded. 'At the end of the day, I'll be interested in the consumers' response, because the consumer awareness for this title was so huge.'" Meanwhile, MTV's Stephen Totilo notes, with more than a touch of seriousness, that Lairs production may have been a touch cursed.

3 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I am still waiting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think you're just overlooking all the game issues, due to being surrounded in kittens.

  2. I'm a consumer, hear my reaction! by Solra+Bizna · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I beat it the other day.

    Pros:

    • The controls are mostly intuitive and fluid.
    • The graphics are beautiful, especially in the cinematics.
    • Dragons! (You don't see them very often in games, at least not controlled by the player.)
    • Fairly hard. (Most games I pick up and breeze through, Lair actually got my juices flowing.)

    Cons:

    • The game tends to mistake a dash for a flip and a flip for a dash at just the wrong times.
    • LAG. LOTS of it on the later levels. Though it seems to be independent of resolution.
    • Minor plot inconsistencies and deus ex machina.
    • No offline multiplayer.
    • Gatling fireball makes boss fights too easy. (You can shoot fireballs as fast as you can mash the button. For me, that's fast enough to trigger Metal Gear Solid's autofire detection.)
    • Final boss fight made no sense. ("A volcano's erupting! Let's drop firebombs on it!")

    Some people have complained about the delay between the controls and the dragon, but that felt natural to me. (How responsive would a real dragon be to being whacked on the head with a blunt object?)

    Overall, I liked the game. But I didn't have to pay for it, since I borrowed a friend's PS3 and copy of Lair. :3

    -:sigma.SB

    --
    WARN
    THERE IS ANOTHER SYSTEM
  3. Takes One From The Movie Biz Playbook by aldheorte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    'At the end of the day, I'll be interested in the consumers' response, because the consumer awareness for this title was so huge.'

    Translation:

    "We knew the game sucked, but we marketed the hell out of it anyway so that suckers who don't read reviews will buy it just on the hype and then not be able to return it given the usual return policies. I'm interested to see just how many suckers we netted when the sales figures come in."

    They do this with movies that are absolute bombs by not screening them for critics before release weekend, hoping to get a good opening weekend from the pre-release marketing knowing full well the movie is terrible and once critics review it and word of mouth spreads, no one will watch it. It's a marketing scam intended to catch out initial viewers/buyers who have little information to go on.