Two things from today:
First off, Sony was in town, and I paid a visit, to check out Lair. Its for the PlayStation 3 and you’re basically a guy that flies around on-top of a dragon, fighting other dragons. If it kinda sounds like Panzer Dragoon, well, it kinda is, though you don’t have a gun, just your dragon to dish out destruction. Not only does he shoot fire but he can even duke it out with other dragons? more on that in a second. Anyway, I was really looking forward to giving it a spin despite not knowing much about it beforehand, other than its by Factor 5, the folks behind Rouge Squadron games for the N64 and GameCube. I had also seen some screenshots from a while ago, and knew going in that it would be very pretty. Plus it was my first real chance to test-drive a PS3 game that played with the motion sensor capabilities of the Sixaxis.
Well to begin with, the game was indeed very pretty. Actually, it was god damn gorgeous. Everything simply looked stunning. Unfortunately, the frame rate was less than stellar. Mind you, I was playing a 75% build. When I asked if it was going to optimized, I was told yes… that in the end, it will be a rock solid 30 frames per second. I was wondering it it might possibly be 60, and I guess it could get a bit higher by the time of its release, but I got the impression that 30 it will be. For those who don’t follow such things, that’s been one of the big sticking points for many of the next-gen releases for the PS3, as well as Xbox 360; everyone wants 60 fps, but all they get are 30 fps. Some say it?s the nature of first generation software. Others claim all the next-gen whistles, like bloom lighting, comes at a price. I won’t even get into all the arguments from the past regarding Project Gotham Racing 3 for the 360, and despite how fucking beautiful it looks, some claim it to be “utterly unplayable” because all racing games HAVE to be 60 fps.
BTW, it was really funny how the demo person constantly reminded me how incredible it looked, over and over and over again. “Check out all those polygons being pushed, and at 1080p!!!” And don’t get me wrong, it was very much gorgeous, but the constant reminders got old after a while…
As for the how it controls… you move the controller to move your dragon around. Tilt down to dive, tilt up to ascend, veer left and right to go that way. Not bad at all. I was actually expecting to be flying all over the place, totally out of control, like in that Warhawk 2 vid from E3, but I actually had fairly tight reigns over my dragon. Though that was during the practice mode where all I had to do was fly around. When it came to actually engaging in combat, the story was different. To do the various moves, like shoot fire, bite enemies, enable berzerker rage, go into dragon-vision, lock onto enemies, and everything else, you have to use the buttons, and I found the implementation to be kinda clumsy. Perhaps given sufficient time, one probably could get used to it, but I myself just didn’t like the idea of moving the controller around to move, yet also using a bunch of buttons to execute actions. In my mind, either just use the buttons, plus the analogue sticks, or just move the controller and maybe only utilize one or two buttons.
Not helping things is how there are three different sets of controls. First is your general flying around and fighting regular enemies, and that’s okay. Next is a duel mode in which you and one other dragon fly and fight against each other. At a certain point you have to quickly snap your controller in the air to “ram” into the other dragon, and it just felt awkward. The third is up close and personal combat, it?s kinda like Rock’em-Sock’em robots; just you and another dragon face-to-face punching each other. This time its nothing but button presses: light and strong attacks, plus fire. Again, the controls just felt like a jumbled mess. I guess they wanted to add some variety, but it just didn’t click for me.
Though in the end, I think it might have to do more with the actual controller instead of how the controls are laid out. At a certain point, when a million things were going on, I kept going for the analogue stick and just kept messing up the camera. Another thing that kept getting emphasized was that it was a “totally new way of playing”, which I can honestly dig, and I even bought their line about how casual gamers had an easier time picking up the controls over hardcore gamers who have all the mental baggage from the past that actually held them back. But sticking with the “traditional” Dual Stick design for the Sixaxis doesn’t do much in terms of fostering a new approach towards controls. The thing about the Wii-mote is that its easier to do something different with it simply because the controller itself is inherently different from what we are traditionally used to.
Anyway, the second big thing of the day comes courtesy of Matt Bernier, who this morning emailed me his entry to the Unlucky anthology. And they are simply AMAZING. Here’s a small sample…
… the original plan was to have a third preview mini ready for APE, but a number of the artists that are working on their stories right now are kinda behind and super busy at the moment (and Lord knows that I feel extra stupid for not getting my stories out there to interested parties faster than I have). So maybe MoCCA then.
Oh, and for whatever reason, Matt intensely dislikes “free publicity” and credit for his work, and did want me to post a link to his site. So let me ask you guys… did you know that there’s a Christian version of YouTube called GodTube? Yup. Well here’s part 1 of a training vid for clowns; according to the narrator, old people are lonely and they long for touch… even a clown’s. The best part is the advice for would be clowns on how not to frighten the elderly. Also, no matter how much they ask for help, DON’T HELP THEM.
And once you’re done with that, be sure to check out part 2.
