Sorry about that. Going on now!

So...it looks like Lair is taking a pounding from reviewers so far, and all seem to be focused on the controls.

What say you, PS3 owners? Are you going to get it and try it yourself, or rent/play a demo first?

I just keep having this nagging feeling that everybody's missing some function of the gameplay that allows the controls to respond better. It doesn't make sense for them to have come this far and not to have gotten the actual gameplay part right.

At any rate, I'm glad I never preordered. Hopefully Heavenly Sword will feel like a much more satisfying purchase.

The problem isn't so much the reviewers, LAIR is just something that people won't be accustomed to off the bat. Also unlike the Wii, with the lack of SIXAXIS support people haven't had much oppurtunity to get a feel for the PS3's motion sensitivity.

Luckly for me my Block Buster screwed up and put LAIR on the shelf today. (as mentioned) So far I have done a hand full of extra training and the first two missions. Before I move onto gameplay, the graphics are the new bench mark for ANYTHING right now. Simply unbelievable. However onto gameplay.

The flight is REALLY bare bones. No map, and not much of a lock on. Most reviewers dont's seem to be able to grab this natural/bare bones approach to the game. However every review that gives the game a low rating is mostly because they can't play this sort of game without a lock-on to walk them through the game. Even if it does have close rang lock-on and an aiming assist.

As for the SIXAXIS itself. The motions you do to control your dragon are quite natural. Since you are flying a beast you don't have to do any fast or drastic movements (until combat). All the movements are suttle and smooth just like your dragon's flying. This is where a person could get into trouble if they are doing quick jolting movements thinking that it will have the same outcome... which it won't.

I myself havent had too much of an issue that's unacceptable or not expect from a game that relies on a motion sensor. However the controls are still the low point of the game, despite their awesomeness. I would rate LAIR a 7.8 myself. If it even interested you before, then there's no reason not to check it out.

So Warhawk is pretty cool, though pretty much no one on there ever talks. I have played a bunch of games yesterday and today and have enjoyed it. The flight controls are kind of tricky at times, but not terrible. I have mainly played Team Deathmatches and I typically stick to planes. The Homing Missiles are awesome. I also like to sneak around the back side of the other team's base and lay waste to their ground troops from behind; by the time they figure out where they are getting shot from, it is too late, I have already taken their ammo.

Also, can someone tell me why I have consistently finished in the top three or four players in 24 person matches? I'm not that good, but apparently no one else is either.

Because people suck. I've been ran over by own own teammates so many times and sometimes it can be annoying. I also stopped playing on games hosted by other people because it really pisses me off when the host randomly decides to end the game.

More GFFers need to get in on this game. So far I've only seen russ. I'm trying oh so hard to get skills to buy a PS3. He's getting pretty close to purchasing one. :3

I'll jump on it when I get my first paycheck from my new job. Basically, in about a week.

MY PSN is my GFF nick -- SouthJag.

Are the Sony servers the only ranking servers? I play on a combination of SCEA servers and player-hosted servers, buuuut I don't really know which one's been giving me my rankings.

Only a few more till Heavenly Sword is released, what do you think? So far, IGN didnt like it due to it not having much enemy variations.... tsk.... And with that, I feel like I should just buy Folklore first before Heavenly Sword :| Suggestions?

Isn't Folklore like almost a month after Heavenly Sword? Why not buy both?

After playing some more Warhawk last night, I've pretty much figured out that the ground-to-air missile turrets are mad over powered. The only problem is that in order to use them to their full potential, you have to have some teamwork and communication so as to draw enemy planes into range, but since hardly anyone talks and most people run around without much idea of what they are wanting to do, that part gets tricky.

Also, I almost ran Miles over in the jeep.

@Chip
If you like games like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden then Heavenly Sword is a must buy game. If you don't really play thoes kinds of games too often then it's till worth at least a rent to check it out before purchase.

I know that a few people here have added me, and unless a person's name is the same as their GFF account I don't really know who's added me or not. I think SouthJag sent me one that sat there for a bit before I noticed and when I had the thing was no longer acceptable so sorry about that SouthJag or whoever that was, if you see this feel free to send me another invite, thanks ;)

No offense, but how do you know this? The game isn't out yet. Lair was "must-buy" until it came out, and then all of a sudden it was "This game is terrible unless you're a blind fanboy willing to ignore the flaws in the game." Read GameSpot's user reviews for Lair, it's ridiculous.

Heavenly Sword is even easier than God of War, so I'd hesitate to lob it in with the likes of Ninja Gaiden and DMC. If you enjoy grand spectacle, it's bound to entertain, but as a game it doesn't really do anything that hasn't been done before. Not a must buy then, but good fun, especially considering the drought of good PS3 titles.

It may be easier on Normal thans God of War but there are probably harder difficulties after you beat the game. Also the depth and expanse of the combat seems to be as deep as DMC or Ninja Gaiden... so far at least. But from what I've heard about the story and cinematics they're worth experiancing on their own.

@Mo0
I can't really comment un-biasly about LAIR. I will say that it's not for everyone. There are a LOT of controls and actions to memerise. And without a real lock on system or HUD map you can't just pick it up and play thinking it's going to be like an Ace Combat or Rogue Squadron (most reviewers were relying WAY to heavily on the lock-on). The game is something on it's own, everything is manual. So while the game isn't as broken as a lot of reviewers are making it out to be, it does take a lot to get the hang of it, but once you do you can do anything you could possibly want to be able to do.

But yeah, I was skeptical after seeing the reviews too so I rented it. After 4 missions I was hooked and had to go and buy the game.

What the heck does this mean? All those games have harder difficulties after you beat the game. And even then it doesn't remove the fact that it was made to be far easier and shouldn't be lobbed in with the others.

As for depth of combat, you've got to be freaking kidding me. Have you ever even played Ninja Gaiden? Heavenly Sword is the kind of autopilot spectacle gaming everyone dreams of making for mass sales. You press a button and a hundred things happen, with less control, the better. You don't even have a block button, much less jump. Every single enemy is defeated with the same button bashing, barring perhaps some of the bosses.

It's made to entertain and strain you as little as possible, so that everyone gets through it and sees all it has to offer. It's worth experiencing for the story and voiceacting (which is quite good), but depth of gameplay it does not have.

Well I suppose it can be abused. However I played it chaining combos together and countering. And then countering into combos, I found it quite deep. It may not require the use of all the depth to win, but you can't say that it doesn't have depth (even if it's not to the extent of NG or DMC).

As for Gaiden, I pretty much played it in a similar way. I used the bowstaff 70% of the time, and performed counter -> combo. Or you can just spam the jump+heavy attack combination. It's definately harder then HS, but... in the end fun factor is the main goal, so if you don't always need difficulty to have a good time then HS is still an experiance to be had I'd say. Maybe not a system seller, that has yet to be seen, but still worth checking out.

I've gotten the impression from the reviews that "everything is manual" is far from the intent of the game. Good on you for skipping the lock on system and killing shit the old-fashioned way, but the way I see it, if a game has a feature in there, it'd better either work or not be there at all.

Additional Spam:
Well, at least now I can see how you can claim pretty much any game has depth. Anyone who ignores all of the hundreds of viable strategies in Ninja Gaiden and instead cheeses the same weapon and skill combination is right up, say, Dynasty Warriors' alley.

Additional Spam:
There's nothing wrong with a game having shallow gameplay, so there's no need to defend it. If a game makes up for shallow or easy gameplay with a story that ties in well to the experience (See BioShock, which had deep but difficulty-free gameplay) it can be as much fun to play or more.

But it doesn't justify putting Heavenly Sword on, say, the same pedestal as Devil May Cry.

@Mo0
That's the thing with LAIR though, the lock-on works fine for what it was meant for in LAIR. You're supposed to get medium - close range to your target and then lock-on to then either perform a finishing move or to engage in chase mode. If you try to lock onto something from a distance it'sjust going to lock onto the nearest thing instead, it's a dragon after all not some super targeting computer. I know it's hard for anyone to really know what I mean without the game being out yet, but I swear that if a person is willing to speng the time to figure out the system, it does actually work quite well. In the end though, I suppose that it is Factor 5's fault for not explaining the system more clearly I suppose.

For the HS thing, I suppose it depends how deep something needs to be in order to consider it deep. Nanobreaker is a game that does NOT have depth. God of War I consider deep enough to allow for variety. HS is deep enough to cover all the bases. And then DMC and NG are like the deep games that allows the creative mind to go to work.

You obviously haven't read the reviews. They're not complaining about the range, they're complaining about how arbitrarily the lockon picks targets, and how you can't choose one. Yes, it's a dragon, not a computer, but you'd figure you'd be able to, say, point at something and have the dragon go after it. It's not THAT hard.

That's just it though. You have to go after something yourself, then onece you get close enough the dragon will lock onto that target you are going after and then you can do whatever you want. What does it matter if you lock-on and go after something or go after it and then lock on, either way you can't do anything until you get close enough anyway. Like I said most reviewers seem to not be paying attention to what needs to be done and instead play the game how they think it should work, and then when the game doesn't do what they want they get mad at it. Therefore as I said before, if the developer had explained things better in the game people would probably know how things work a little more clearly.

And trust me there's a lot to be explained. 9 pages of the manual are dedicated to controls alone.

Has anyone tried the sixaxis controls for warhawk? I'm curious, I dont know if its the limitations of the sixaxis or crappy programming that makes Lair such a bitch to play.

This right here is the problem. When a control scheme takes THAT MUCH explanation, it's way too dense and liable to be hard to pick up. Whether or not game reviewers bothered to pick it up is one thing, but if I looked at an instruction manual that was 9 pages of how to fly my dragon, I'd just say "Fuck it" and play something else. Gaming should not be that research-intensive.

Additional Spam:
From what I've heard, it's the latter, because Warhawk is being praised as a good use of Sixaxis.

I suppose it should be noted Warhawk also let's you choose whether to use sixaxis or regular controls.

On the other hand, I personally felt the sixaxis controls felt entirely natural in Lair (in early code), far, far more natural than in any flight game or any other PS3 game for that matter. So much so that in general sixaxis is simply unwieldy and uncomfortable to use (simply because of the zero feedback), making you wish there was an alternative for it (such as in Warhawk), which of course destroys the entire purpose of the system.

In Lair though, it felt like the controls were specifically designed for flight.

I've no idea (nor comment) how the controls fare with the rest of the game, ground and air battles included, but the flying itself was perfect.

That one review complained about how you have to make frustrating long and slow arcs to turn around, not realizing there's a move for a quick 180 degrees turn, does hint that maybe they just want to rag on it for the sake of it. It probably doesn't fair very well as a game, no. But to only complain about the controls is like complaining about the difficulty in something like God Hand.

Alright guys. 3 things:

1) Hey look! PS3 Loco Roco isn't even a game, but an interactive screensaver for your PS3…or something?ARGH what the hell. I will admit this would be a pretty sweet screensaver, but I wanted ONLINE PLAY DAMMIT. I’m also not too keen on the idea of purchasing screensavers, either…

2) I finally moved back into my apartment up at school and got everything situated. I have a big 60” SD TV, and wow it’s nothing like the HD TV I got at home. I plugged in my PS3 and noticed some really faint dark diagonal lines moving across the screen from left to right. I went through all of the display configurations and tried out some different settings, but the lines are still there :(. Is this...normal?

I did however notice that I could have chosen an S-Video cable, and also know that this big ol’ TV has a couple of S-Video jacks on the back. I really don’t know anything about TV’s and their resolutions or anything, but if I were to go out and buy one of these cables, would the picture quality be any better than my standard PS2 AV cables that I’m using now? I know it probably wouldn’t be anywhere near the 720p HDMI like back at home, but are they capable of putting out a higher resolution than what I am currently using assuming my TV can support this higher resolution?

Any help on this would be awesome guys :/. Any cable types or brand name suggestions would be awesome, too.

3) I have access to Warhawk again. Who wants some.

That is all.

S-Video cables won't let the PS3 output at a higher resolution than what you're currently seeing with the regular composite cables, but they will improve image quality a fair bit. If you want to go ahead and pick up the cables, it's up to you, but if you don't like the improvement simply return them if you can.

@Mo0
It shouldn't matter how technical the game is along as;

A) The controls work and make sense

and

B) They're explained so that the user can get a hold of the controls to then play the game

While A was executed fairly well, it's B that F5 failed on with their in-game tutorial that covers about 1/2 of the controls.

@Qwarky
Thank you for the positive input on Lair ^^

@BlueBomber
I remember when I got my S-video cables for my PS2 when MGS2 was the best game on the market and I difinately noticed the image quality improvement. Basically S-video increases colour seperation of the signal. Kind of like a prototype for composite. So yeah, it's worth getting if you can get the cable for like $15 - 20.