Rumor: Update to Lair could be in the works

When Lair was originally released on the Playstation 3 last August 2007, hopes were high that it would be the first major hit to be released on the then struggling system. There were good reasons for expectations to be set so high as Factor 5, the same company that worked on the highly acclaimed Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series, seemed to be the perfect candidates for the medieval dragon soaring shooter for the PS3. However, with some of the worst controls seen in the past five years, Lair failed to take flight in the eyes of most gamers.

Six months after Lair’s North American release, a newer version of the game might be on the horizon as a re-release on the PS3. While many gamers found that it was nearly impossible to handle the Sixaxis control setup of Lair the first time, Factor 5 hinted at releasing a more traditional control solution.

F5 president Julian Eggebrecht recently spoke with IGNabout Lair‘s mixed reception at the marketplace, horrible controls and the future enhancement to the game.

” I think that everybody who got the controls actually enjoyed the game. I think the IGN review was probably the most scathing. I didn’t think you left one good hair with that nice 4.9, which opened up so many great jokes. But on a more serious level, I think that people who actually got it had something really going going there,” said Eggebrecht about Lair’s critical reception. “What’s disappointing to me is that almost every single person in and outside of the industry who is little bit more of a hardcore gamer had a huge problem with it, and we, quite frankly, didn’t anticipate that. I hope that a lot of people realize that underlying the problem they had with the base control, there actually was a really good game there. That’s at least what I think. Well, what else would I say?

“If we find a chance in the future that would bring Lair to the audience which didn’t get any access, that would be fantastic,” stated Eggebrecht. “I can’t say anything quite yet, but there might be something in the works there. We might have a chance yet to bring those back to the table and hopefully, if that should happen, they would give the game a second chance. Nevertheless, we definitely took a long look at the results and learned a couple of lessons. If you’re on a platform where this whole motion control is something new and not being pitched as the main feature of the platform, you should probably give the choice between having different control schemes, there is absolutely no doubt about it.”

So, with Lair 2.0 perhaps on its way, will gamers be forgiving? In this writer’s view, probably not.

Mr. Eggebrecht might be missing the point. While the controls were certainly unbelievably bad, the game as a whole missed its mark. Despite good sound, general design and the potential of the title, a company that bluntly admits that they aren’t fantasy fans certainly proved that with their first attempt at the genre was a clear miss. It would seem that millions of production dollars wasn’t enough to make up for passion for the theme and genre as true fantasy fans all but rejected Lair outright.

Read [IGN] Site [Factor 5]