I’ve been told that today marks the new Quake Wars demo becoming available for download. The crew has been needing a new game to sink our collective teeth into and hopefully this baby will get the job done. I’ve always liked co-op and team-based games, but trying to get a bunch of guys working together never seems to work. The crew seems pretty excited about this one though, so maybe it will be a winner and get us pumped for Team Fortress 2 in the process.
On the console front, I’m still playing Metroid Prime 3. I only need one or two more suit upgrades to fill in all the question marks. There is still plenty left to scan and find, though. I hope to finish it in the next week or two, and then it will be on to Bioshock. Also, is anyone not excited about the new Trauma Center? I mean, co-op surgery?! Gaming cannot get cooler than that. I got dibs on the hot chick doctor!
I’ve also finished up my impressions of the final three rounds of the Omegathon, which you can view below. They are certainly longer than my first impressions, but sometimes I get to typing and just can’t stop. My fellow crew members can certainly attest to that. I also have some video clips ready of the Omegathon rounds and am working on posting them online. Hopefully next week with any luck.
MORE PAX '07 OMEGATHON THOUGHTS:
See ya next week.
- Dover
Philbert, our resident turtle and stank applicator, was kind enough to bring by his PlayStation 3 this past Friday so that I could give that newfangled Lair a whirl. Lair, as you may know, is the latest concoction by the technological wizards at Factor 5, makers of such classics as the Rogue Squadron series and Turrican. History, in this regard, is particularly important because Lair was to be Factor 5's first significant break with Star Wars flight action games this century. To further punctuate this point, Lair was touted as an essential title for Sony’s PlayStation 3, even going so far as to necessitate the motion controls inherent in the Sixaxis joypad. Lair has taken quite a beating in the enthusiast press during its review process, to the point that Sony even sent out booklets to the reviewers stating how Lair needed to be reviewed! Enough of its troubled history; how does Lair actually play?
The short answer is not that bad, but not very well either. The idea of a motion-controlled game in which you fly a dragon and defend a kingdom has merit, and in Lair it also has a fair amount of technical expertise. The missions are huge with tons of units dotting the impressively rendered landscapes. It is truly a joy to behold and watch, but the problems lay in the design. Many people have lambasted the control setup, and I can understand why. The dragon is nowhere near as responsive as, say, a Rogue Squadron X-Wing, and that fact makes the simple act of turning around an exercise in frustration. However, I’m going to take a different tact and suggest that the crux of this issue is not that the game is difficult to play (though it is), but rather that Lair sports a kind of control that would better, and dare I say perfectly, fit a different game.
Upon booting up Lair, the old Star Wars influences are obvious. The game is segmented into missions, all selectable from a menu layered over a central command area. You can obtain new dragons to store in your hangar, er, stable. All missions are either "destroy this" or "protect that", or my personal F5 favorite, "escort the gigantic fragile convoy". Hell, even the music sounds pretty similar. Once you take to the skies, the sameness just intensifies. Dogfighting, swooping, and clustered enemy squadrons all caused me to hearken back to Gamecube launch day. Do you remember how difficult the Rogue Squadron games were? Now try playing them with a dragon that steers like, well, a huge flying lizard! It’s slow and laborious, imprecise in its targeting and hapless to fulfill the incredible burdens that videogames often heap upon their heroes.
The problem is the game’s design. The controls felt amazingly spot on for their sense of reality. The Sixaxis briefly transfigured into reins for wrangling the massive creature upon which I was riding. The suspension of belief was thrilling, like diving into Wii Sports for the first time. However, unlike that particular classic of the new generation, Lair fails to follow through on its promises. It is hopelessly mired in the past, requiring such feats of precision that only the most masochistic of players will bother to endure the struggle in igniting the tiny flame of fun. Imagine starting a game of F-Zero or WipeOut with a Toyota Prius, or having to defend Hyrule with a casserole dish. Good experiences can be crafted using innovation as a centerpiece, but the motion controls in Lair were not given a fair chance to succeed.
On another note, I am enjoying Bioshock immensely. In fact, I just viewed Ben Crenshaw’s new rant on the game, and he’s pretty much spot on. The lack of difficulty is upsetting, for sure, and the comparisons to System Shock 2 are amazingly accurate. That said, rarely do I have an FPS that I actually can enjoy, and suddenly I have two. Metroid, you’re next.
- Irving