LAIR Thread - * Rules: post #469

You wouldn't have to do that. You'd only need check a few games and see how close IGN's was to the final average. Perusing GameRankings, quite often IGN are within +/- 2% of the average. And then sometimes they're out by 10%. (Or you just find and click the statistics link, if you happen to know there is one )

Though IMO it's silly to second guess the scores when you only have to wait a while. Why try to predict the average score from one or two reviews? Why not wait for GameRankings and Metacritic to turn in the averages?

As it is, Metacritic has HS at 83% and GameRankings has it at 85%. Early days yet, but it's not the 'HS is no good' score that some (notably a friend of mine!) had been jumping to conclusions with. And scores aren't much use. While looking at GR scores to see how IGN fairs in picking the average score, you come across some interesting figures. Driver, the original PS game score 97% with IGN, the average is 88%, and Gamespot gave it 77%. Depending who you follow, it's a truly excellent game, a good game, or an okay game. As it was, it gave us a huge amount of fun. Lots of mates gathered around the TV taking turns to do missions, and helping each other avoid the fuzz. Not many games are good a spectator experience. I'd give it 10/10 for enjoyment, despite weird bugs, graphical glitches, and on occasions terminal difficulty.

 

Maybe the IGN reviewer was just really crap at playing LAIR...

The score could always be self referencial e.g. He gave himself 4.9 on average for his ability.

 

OR maybe it's finally time, after months and months and 57 pages of arguing that this game sucks?

 

While the sound may be deserving of a higher rating, rating it solely on 7.1 is similiar to rating graphics solely on something being 1080p. Sound should be rated on how good/immersive the effects and music are.

 

I can understand him not liking the controls etc but Visuals and Audio getting such a mediocre score ? come on that’s ridicules.

Lairs score is among the best easily

 

here are his actual comments on that

and here is what 1up said...

 

Lair has framerate issues and tearing on occasion, square waves i have yet to see, don't know what he means with water effects looking like sand. (waves ? Splashes ? looked fine to me )

 

Way to correct myself.

I have just finished level 5 (Yay ! after 2 failures). The game is indeed non-linear. What happened is that the huge battle is disrupted by about 5 cutscenes alerting the player more enemies (rhinos, tauros, assorted dragons) have joined the battlefield. What I did was to attend to them in a linear fashion.

That's why I lost.

I finally won by "juggling" between the enemies, focusing on the most damaging ones but not forgetting the human soldiers since they decide the outcome. At any one point, I have 2-3 different types of enemies on the loose. I also didn't notice the catapults the first 2 rounds because the narration and cutscenes did not mention them. It is actually pretty chaotic and immersive (my mind was totally engrossed in it for a good 30-45 minutes and then I'm late for work).

These artifacts are there usually for an instance because the dragon fly so fast, and some only in selected spots (e.g., at the bottom of the waterfall). The entire bridge battle is very well done, with some flaws here and there.

The problem is in such a busy, huge world, the quality of the visual also varies. Most of it is good though.

 

You can find some polygons at the bottom of the waterfall if you wander close enough, but it won't matter one bit. Most of the time, you'll be _busy_ fighting. I still feel pretty good about this game (Definitely above 5... about 7, not exceeding it, but I have not finished the game yet).

EDIT:
It is a little like playing inside a Warcraft RTS campaign.

 

The visuals are quite bad, actually... Lack of art direction and rushed assets and levels...

 

So is it better than Panzer Dragoon?

 

Yeah, I kinda wonder why this is not an option... Large budgets and self-hype won't guarantee an exceptional game, not even a good one.

 

It clearly sucked for some reviewers. I was able to overcome all the issues they mentioned (fighting with controls, confusing objectives, ...), some are non-issues and some more difficult. Some gamers also reported similar experiences as me. I enjoyed it thus far. It would be an evening well spent, but it's not highly addictive or brilliantly fun per se. I look forward to the sea serpents soon.

Never played that before

 

According to gamefront.de the official playstation magazine has given it a 6. Heavenly Sword receives a 7 and Warhawk a 9.

Lair (PS3, Sony): 6
Heavenly Sword (PS3, Sony): 7
Stuntman Ignition (PS3, THQ): 7
Stranglehold (PS3, Midway): 8
Singstar (PS3, Sony): 9
Warhawk (PS3, Sony): 9
Colin McRae Dirt (PS3, Codemasters): 8
NASCAR 08 (PS3, EA): 4
All-Pro Football 2k8 (PS3, 2K Sports): 7
NCAA Football 08 (PS3, Electronic Arts): 8
Gauntlet II (PS3 PSN, Sony): 2
Crazy Taxi Fare Wars (PSP, Sega): 7
Worms Open Warfare 2 (PSP, THQ): 8
Tony Hawks Project 8 (PSP, Activision): 7
PQ2 Practical Intelligence Quotient (PSP, D3): 6
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP, Capcom): 7
Final Armada (PSP, Virgin): 2
Singstar 90s(PS2, Sony): 7
Guitar Hero Rocks the 80s (PS2, RedOctane): 7
Obscure II (PS2, Playlogic): 6
Premier Manager 08 (PS2, Zoo Publishing): 3

 

IMHO, any number between 5.5 and 7.5 is reasonable depending on what you hate/like. I personally won't give it over 7, but very close to 7 (It's immersive). Here're some other user reviews and tips (that I missed myself):

* http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7634905&postcount=1270
(Agree with him, but I hate throwing people because the camera will follow the fallen, which is distracting).

* http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7634427&postcount=1267

* http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7634872&postcount=1269
(This one is more assertive. Lock-on can be a problem if you're too far away and something else unseen or just arrived is nearer)

Also the game actually plays better in replay because I know what to expect. The rest is my execution

 

Maybe gesture controls for games are harder to program well than people have been giving them credit for.

 

Choose your destiny

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i157/lmff/review.png

 

I wouldn't say that levels where rushed but a good art director would have done Lair wonders despite that I still find the game visually impressive.

Lair reminds me of Yakuza: flawed but fun

Where are you now in the game ?

 

Surprisingly accurate. You know, I think in all future games discussion threads I'll just lock them and post that up (perhaps editing out a little of the language). It'd save a lot of time and effort for posters and amount to the same thing anyway

 

Possible. In general, sudden horizontal movement (for ramming dragons) seems to be a problem in Lair. The "180 degree turn" gesture works better.

Perhaps. I can see why some people call out the "unpredictable" dragon controls. It operates well, but is constrainted/affected by the high speed dragon flight. e.g., Some attributed the large turning radius to SIXAXIS (especially after they missed a target). But this is really because of the speed. It also tells me they didn't use the "180 degree turn" gesture to achieve a tight turnaround.

After the bridge battle. I think the sea serpents are next