I love dragons, but have always thought they have gotten a bad rap. With movies like Dragonheart and Eragon, dragons have been portrayed as annoying, sentimental creatures that, surprisingly, have a lot of things to say. I like my dragons mean, mute, and fiery, dammit! That’s why I was so excited about the upcoming PlayStation 3 game, Lair. I thought to myself, “it’s about time these glorious winged beasts got a chance to shine!" Nothin' but love, Spyro.
You can understand my disappointment then when I watched this gameplay footage. It doesn't look terrible; the game definitely has promise. I guess I was just expecting a lot more from something that lets you control one of the most awesome creatures ever!
The game is still being finished, so things could turn out just fine in the end (and, unlike some of my fellow Destructoid peeps, I have yet to actually play it). I think I am also being overly critical because I kind of have an unhealthy obsession with Reign of Fire. But early impressions are very important, and so far I am still feeling underwhelmed.
Check out some more (admittedly cooler) gameplay after the jump.
Is it just me or does everything just seem very blah in the graphics department (which is a huge shocker since the game comes from Factor 5)? Environments feel way too barren and the fire, which you would think would be the main focus of, I don’t know, a dragon game looks subpar. And while I would usually flip out in excitement over a dragon mounted knight jumping off his reptilian steed and plummeting towards the Earth while stabbing an enemy in the face, um, no offense Lair, but we have kind of already been there, done that.
What do you think? Does this new gameplay footage leave less to be desired? Or are you excited about Lair despite some of its shortcomings?
Chad Concelmo is Destructoid's features editor. He loves hanging out with awesome people. That's why Destructoid makes him so happy, since it is full of THE MOST AWESOME PEOPLE OF ALL TIME! Also, dolphins.
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I think the game looks great. If the gameplay can match the visual just as well - I can't really see this not selling very well... I may not understand what you meant by you expected a lot more? Maybe some elaboration?
Did you want spiraling thorned wings of terror with anime styled horizontal tornados of fire?
It looks... well it looks like Dynasty Warriors with dragons. It should be a fun game when it comes out, but I'm guessing that it isn't going to change anyone's life.
Using my dragon to effortlessly maraud through an army of footmen would be fun for exactly 5 minutes. Aside from the Matrix-esque slow-mo, I don't feel any hook with this game at all.
Hmmm, I kinda recall a sequence in God of War 2 looking surprisingly familiar to the first moments of the second video... Maybe is the encoding of the movie but to me this still look pretty choppy. Maybe is still an early build but Im not seeing those 2 gflops here.... Also thats one damn floaty and dry rhino head.
I really hope this turns to be a great game. I enjoyed the Panzer Dragoon series a lot and theres been a while since I enjoyed a good dragon game. If this gets good reviews I'm buying a PS3.
@Dennen,
I guess when I think of a game where you are in control of a huge dragon I want it to be a lot more, I don't know, epic. I can't really put my finger on it, but the footage shown seems to lack originality. Flying around and chomping down guys on the ground looks interesting, but didn't you feel it could have been so much more? I was just hoping for a tighter looking experience that moves beyond button mashing and empty looking sky battles. Hopefully I will be proven wrong ...
Well when i first read up on this, even though the screen-shots made it looks pretty sweet, I just wasn't digging it. I didn't want it at all, not even a demo. However, after seeing the above game-play.... it just seems... fun. Sure it may not be EPIC but they made it seem like you could have tons of fun roaming around causing terror. Then you got those giant bosses to deal with. I am not SOLD yet but I would be willing to rent it at least. Then.... who knows.
They need to stop trying to push it in 1080p and just make it 720. That'll give them alot more legroom in the framerate and overall detail department.
What's the point of having their engine run it in 1080p when it's going to look so barren and run at 25 fps as a result of it? I don't care what a game is pushing technically, a bad framerate has the potential to outright kill it.
...Visually though, it reminds me of Blazing Angels. Lots of air, lots of sky, but everything's so small that it looks like there's hardly anything going on.
@Chad,
That's what I was lookin' for =) Problem when making a game like this in my opinion is that there's always so much to live up to... Part of the bad part over developing for the PS3 as far as I can see, every game is being beaten to death because it's not displaying some godly graphics that will leap out and slap you in the face with amazement.
Hopefully this game will be good. I always tend to find footage lacking in the entire feeling of a game *nod*... Maybe this will be an example of that, or maybe it will burn in the fire it spews.
I dunoo what u guys are talking about, it looks fun as hell to me. Much more so then the old footage. Sure... it might suck.... but for the "flying with dragons and killing giant bosses" genre.... it looks pretty friggin sweet, living up to the hype or not.
Good idea, good graphics... I don't like the fact that they took an arcade approach to the degrees they did. I guess I'll have to play it to believe it, but so far it looks like an old school arcade game with a mighty next gen touch up.
I hate the dragons fireballs, honestly they just spit out like space invaders lasers.
Wish the environments were more naturally destructible, I'm expecting cut scene environment destruction, but for having such a powerful beast on you're side, and with the idea of the carnage of battle, that they seem to be trying to push out... all I'm saying is it would have been cool to get you're dragon to pick up one of those big rhinos, toss it into a tower and have that tower collapse on to a bunch of soldiers.
I just want some more panzer dragoon :O
Its all i want... that and being able to play orta (and nearly all of my other sega games from my xbox(aka the reason i bought it lol)) on my 360...
Factor 5 apparently believes that Yoga Fire is better than Yoga Flame, but I disagree. Felt like the dragon was shooting just rockets and there was no big dragon flamage goin on there. While disappointed, it looks like the best PS3 game so far. Not counting Motorstorm.
hmmm, gettting less interested the more I see of it. It seems a lot of the ps3's games have cool concepts but aren't quite to the point of realization, they are trying to pump out games before they are done, like Motorstorm. This month in EGM they interviewed the producer of Motorstorm about how they feel about the game now that its out. So all the questions are about how the game seems bare and what things they should have included in the game but didn't (more tracks, hard disk install, custom soundtracks, bots) and the answer to each was how they ran out of time. Of course Shane Bettnhausen (bigger sony fanboy than Kaz Hirai) was the interviewer so he just let everything slide. What sony needs to do is rent Shiggy miyamoto from nintendo and have him help their developers finish games. I think Tommy Tallarico said on one of the first podtoids that when Shiggy thinks a game is done and ready to ship he adds 6 months to the date to polish it up. So Sony take your time, add a few months to Heavenly Sword. And it's probably better to just cancel Killzone 2.
I get what you saying. The reason nintendos first party games are so polished and awesome is because they aren't afraid to push back the release date. The only reason sony is rush the products is because they need to sell units now or the system won't sell.
Dynasty Dragoon..... It's a mesh between Panzer and Dynasty Warriors..... And not even coming close to those two in variety of gameplay.... now if the dragon did some of the whacky combos in Dynasty Warriors.... that would be interesting, but it looks like he just swats guys Sauron style..... and it looks like there's still a pause before you go Kratos on the other dragon rider.... figured they would have ironed that out by now.
Yeah, I think they need huge explosions of fire and limbs being ripped off and blood everywhere. Hell, you're a dragon for god's sake. Looks good but they need to up the carnage.
When the Japanese make something new and cool, leave it to some western game developer to make copy of it with nicer graphics and make a big fuzz about it.
Looks fine to me. Extremely cinematic, massive and realtime. I think it will look stunning on 720p or even 1080p. I have no idea if it will play good but the clips look extremely impressive even scaled down. Some people on this thread are dismissing it on the assumption that the whole game involves running around eating soldiers when obviously that is just a small part and probably part of the opening level.
The flying looked nice, as did the dragons.
Pretty much everything else, like the dragon's fire, "hack-n-slash" gameplay, and the ground on which they fought (I'm being picky) looked rather generic and repetitive.
One new thing I noticed was the 300-y time slow down during action. Sadly, it only makes it clearer that the units you're throwing around have the same falling animation.
Why does EVERY dragon game/movie end up looking like a huge turd that was forced out violently?
I hope you can at least appreciate the irony of being critical over Reign of Fire :P
The game definitely looks pretty but the gameplay looks pretty blah. Running around knocking guys over on the ground looks particularly awkward. Gotta love how PS3 is "the most powerful system on earth" yet there are still legions of guys 30 feet away just standing there watching" who will undoubtedly rush in valiantly *after* their comrades are slaughtered. The more things change the more they stay the same. (That's not a knock against PS3 BTW, just games in general.) I've got to give credit for the character models at the beginning too. There is still some uncanny valley heebie jeebies going on but they are getting much better and depicting people.
I find it ridiculous that the dragon and spew out fireballs seemingly as fast as you can mash the button. When I think of a firebreathing dragon...I think of a dragon rearing it's head back with a massive intake of air only to follow that up with a massive jet of fiery death in a long lasting stream (ala a flamethrower)... not this pew pew pew action in this vid.
I had originally thought it'd be something like out of the Dragonlance novels (Legend of Huma ftw)... boy am I sadly mistaken. MEH
Damn, you win me to it, Artadius. First thing to hit me. How could they spit out fire so fast? It's a great concept but it's being underdeveloped into a generic shooter. Though jumping from the dragon to smash other riders in the air is pretty awesome. =D
It looks like the game focuses too much on the "OMG YOU'RE ON A DRAGON GO KILL ARMYS!" aspect. I'd love it if you could just say "Fuck it" and hop off the dragon to lay down some whoopass.
It would make it a bit more challenging. From what I saw that dragon plows right through the enemy soldiers, and they go down with no fight whatsoever.
Maybe if they added the ability to go on foot, maybe some more weapons other than fireballs. And a really cool thing would be a sort of open ended enviorment where you could go into villages and wreak havoc. Or just go to the highest point in the game and chill.
since when do dragons shoot fireballs that fast? you'd think it be some kind of flame breath or fire-beam or something. but come on, that fast? pretty dumb. damnit i wrote this out and then saw artadius' comment haha, but yeah.
Wow, I kinda enjoyed the video...
I mean, this game wasn't meant to be a MGS4 or a DMC4. It wont redefine a genre, but the game looks like a semi appealing blend of hack/slash with a shooter mentality.
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Contest:
6:06 PM on 04.13.2007
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Did you want spiraling thorned wings of terror with anime styled horizontal tornados of fire?
http://www.laps3.com/foro/imagenes/lair/lair1.jpg
I really hope this turns to be a great game. I enjoyed the Panzer Dragoon series a lot and theres been a while since I enjoyed a good dragon game. If this gets good reviews I'm buying a PS3.
Sony needs it to better.
I want it to be better so I have an excuse to buy a PS3
Dragons should be lean and mean just like Reign of Fire....kickass movie btw
I expected much more than this......please Factor 5 ... make this better
I guess when I think of a game where you are in control of a huge dragon I want it to be a lot more, I don't know, epic. I can't really put my finger on it, but the footage shown seems to lack originality. Flying around and chomping down guys on the ground looks interesting, but didn't you feel it could have been so much more? I was just hoping for a tighter looking experience that moves beyond button mashing and empty looking sky battles. Hopefully I will be proven wrong ...
Nice $600 paperweight you have there.
What's the point of having their engine run it in 1080p when it's going to look so barren and run at 25 fps as a result of it? I don't care what a game is pushing technically, a bad framerate has the potential to outright kill it.
...Visually though, it reminds me of Blazing Angels. Lots of air, lots of sky, but everything's so small that it looks like there's hardly anything going on.
That's what I was lookin' for =) Problem when making a game like this in my opinion is that there's always so much to live up to... Part of the bad part over developing for the PS3 as far as I can see, every game is being beaten to death because it's not displaying some godly graphics that will leap out and slap you in the face with amazement.
Hopefully this game will be good. I always tend to find footage lacking in the entire feeling of a game *nod*... Maybe this will be an example of that, or maybe it will burn in the fire it spews.
I hate the dragons fireballs, honestly they just spit out like space invaders lasers.
Wish the environments were more naturally destructible, I'm expecting cut scene environment destruction, but for having such a powerful beast on you're side, and with the idea of the carnage of battle, that they seem to be trying to push out... all I'm saying is it would have been cool to get you're dragon to pick up one of those big rhinos, toss it into a tower and have that tower collapse on to a bunch of soldiers.
Its all i want... that and being able to play orta (and nearly all of my other sega games from my xbox(aka the reason i bought it lol)) on my 360...
I had hope for this one. :(
I get what you saying. The reason nintendos first party games are so polished and awesome is because they aren't afraid to push back the release date. The only reason sony is rush the products is because they need to sell units now or the system won't sell.
Like Panzer Dragoon much?
Pretty much everything else, like the dragon's fire, "hack-n-slash" gameplay, and the ground on which they fought (I'm being picky) looked rather generic and repetitive.
One new thing I noticed was the 300-y time slow down during action. Sadly, it only makes it clearer that the units you're throwing around have the same falling animation.
Why does EVERY dragon game/movie end up looking like a huge turd that was forced out violently?
The game definitely looks pretty but the gameplay looks pretty blah. Running around knocking guys over on the ground looks particularly awkward. Gotta love how PS3 is "the most powerful system on earth" yet there are still legions of guys 30 feet away just standing there watching" who will undoubtedly rush in valiantly *after* their comrades are slaughtered. The more things change the more they stay the same. (That's not a knock against PS3 BTW, just games in general.) I've got to give credit for the character models at the beginning too. There is still some uncanny valley heebie jeebies going on but they are getting much better and depicting people.
I had originally thought it'd be something like out of the Dragonlance novels (Legend of Huma ftw)... boy am I sadly mistaken. MEH
Damn, you win me to it, Artadius. First thing to hit me. How could they spit out fire so fast? It's a great concept but it's being underdeveloped into a generic shooter. Though jumping from the dragon to smash other riders in the air is pretty awesome. =D
It would make it a bit more challenging. From what I saw that dragon plows right through the enemy soldiers, and they go down with no fight whatsoever.
I mean, this game wasn't meant to be a MGS4 or a DMC4. It wont redefine a genre, but the game looks like a semi appealing blend of hack/slash with a shooter mentality.
Yeah, the fireballs sucked hard though.
but this video kinda made me sad....
i've had more fun just searching the worlds for Jinjos
as Banjo on Kazooie's back....
"I hate the dragons fireballs, honestly they just spit out like space invaders lasers."
when i read that, i had this image in my mind where the dragon said "pew! pew! pew!" sounds when he breathed the fireball.