IGN June 6th 2007: ( http://ps3.ign.com/articles/801/801928p1.html )

"One thing that is apparent from the time we've already had with Lair is that it's progressed enormously since the bridge levels we first saw at the tail end of last year. The missions have been fleshed out and the controls refined, plus visually it looks as spectacular as it ever did, running in 1080p at a steady 30 frames per second. Admittedly there were a few moments when the frame rate dropped, but Sony is certain this will be ironed out come release."

In a preview 2 months before the games release, that was the most negative thing IGN said.

Gamespot July 7th 2007: ( http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/lair/news.html?sid=6174463&mode=all )

"Paying attention to the gameplay was a tough task though, mostly because Lair is simply stunning to look at. The draw distance is fantastic, and the enormous maps are rendered down to the last detail. We saw plenty of gorgeous details, from beautiful water-shaders to lovely motion-blurring when we did a 180-degree turn. Even more amazingly, Lair pulled it off without a single hitch in frame rate, making for plenty of smooth flight. And as you can imagine for a game featuring so much fire, the flame effects are some of the best we've ever seen."

Gamespy: ( http://ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/lair/780390p1.html )

"Last week I spent a few hours playing with Factor 5's new PS3-exclusive Lair. With an official release date of July confirmed, I have to admit some concerns about the state of the polished alpha build we saw. At the same time, there's so much promise to the premise, and Factor 5 is such a reliably excellent developer, that I think there's plenty to be excited about this summer. We've seen dragon-riding games before, but this may be the first that really sells the feeling of commanding an immensely powerful beast."

Wow, the most negative comment so far ... I'm sure that I'd be crying mysefl to bed after someone said "there's so much promise to the premise, and Factor 5 is such a reliably excellent developer, that I think there's plenty to be excited about this summer. " about my game ...

1up:

"#1 -- Playing Lair, one word really comes to mind: Epic. Seriously, the experience of flying through these stunning, expansive landscapes with tons going on all around you and a fantastic orchestral score playing underneath is really quite something. You've simply not experienced anything like this before -- certainly not on this scale. The lighting and weather effects (lightning and rain were specifically impressive), the draw distance (you can see for miles and miles), the amount of on screen action at times (tons of other dragons flying through the air, ships in the sea, and warriors on the ground), and the ability to simply and seamlessly switch between fighting high in the sky and down on the ground -- this is absolutely a next generation experience.

"#2 -- There is one major worry and it's perhaps a damning one: the Sixaxis controls. At times, the Sixaxis seems fantastic for a game like this -- controlling the dragon's giant swoops seems perfectly suited for motion sensing controls. At others, it feels clunky as all hell. Trying to bash another dragon in close range combat took me out of the experience right away -- I felt like I was fighting the controls. More often than not, I couldn't help but wonder how much more I'd be enjoying the game were I just using standard controls. Now, perhaps the controls will improve with more familiarity, but this is certainly a concern shared by many others who played the game today and in the past.

"Factor 5 has about a month left to finish tweaking the game. Here's hoping our concerns with the controls are either addressed or alleviated by its release, as a game this epic really deserves to be played. "

It wasn't until the game was practically complete that people started to say anything (really) negative and even then there was little indication that they would end up reviewing the game with a score of 40% to 60%.

I'm actually not sure why everyone hates GG, I read something a while ago that stated the only reason the first Killzone was mediocre was because they had some great ideas, and no budget to match, hell the game had some amazing implementation of certain features.

Then Killzone Liberation for PSP comes out and it's friggin awesome :P The game is really fun, plays very well, and is a very nice piece of software if I do say so myself.

So now they have a much bigger budget, much stronger hardware, and this is bad? I have a feeling this game is going to be fantastic, the graphics are already obscenely amazing, and hell if they follow the formula of the first one's gameplay I'd be more than stoked, the levels in KZ were pretty well setup, with a multitude of environments, and it made for some great combat scenario's.  

You silly people actually trying to put logic in your arguments. You're talking about things Surfer Girl said, someone who lives off of rumors. Some that she makes up and some that she gets from magazines a few weeks before they get sent out.

There are two reasons there is no point in arguing this:

1. No new magazines don't come out for another 2-3 weeks so don't expect her big rumors for another 1 to 2 weeks.
2. Even if this wasn't just word of mouth from some random contact, a magazine isn't going to print that in an exclusive preview of such a big game. They would rather run positive previews of games people want to see. They always have a backup story in case one of the games they cover does turn out to be shit.

IGN rated the first killzone 75%, the next one received 90% from IGN. Looks like GG knows how to make a great game. And if you go look at gamerankings some sites decide to rate it low for no reason. This has caused the game to get dragged down in the rankings.

The gamerankings average for Killzone was 73.1 and for Killzone: Liberation was 78.7; Killzone Liberation was also a smaller project released on a platform with less competition.

My initial point was can be explained with an analogy ...

If you take a C student and give him/her a tutor in the next grade he/she has the opportunity to become a A+ student; if you take that same C student and have them skip 3 grades they will have difficulty becoming a C student even with a team of tutors.

A PS3 project is way larger and more complicated than a PSP or PS2 project, I'm not sure if it is realistic to expect a developer with games that average below 80% to suddenly produce a game that averages 90% (or better) while they are trying to deal with the added complexity and scale of a PS3 project.

Surfer Girl is playing the averages ... 95% of development teams with the history that Guerrilla will be unable to produce an 80%+ game, 4% will be able to produce an 80% to 90% game, and 1% will produce a 90%+ game.

untill someone has some official information
surfer girl = rumor mill

where in her post does she state that it is mediocre. i see her saying that it is eating up a bunch of money (duh?) and that its not good that its eating up so much money, but i see nowhere where she states the game is barely mediocre. she doesn't seem to comment on the gameplay at all, just the financing.

 Yeah but Sony NEEDS a first party FPS producer, they saw SOMETHING in Gorilla Games and went with them. Insomniac obviously doesn't "need" Sony to survive, the same can't be said about GG. I figure anyway I look at it from here, this is the worst it can get, they have some experience now (1 decent, 1 good) game out, and from a technology point of view they're certainly not lacking. 

Hell even on graphics alone, this "run of the mill" shooter will at least be solid, and great looking :P Worth a purchase in my opinion. Do I think R2 will be better? Oh hell yeah :P But who's to say I can't own both?

Plus with as many dev's that have been added to the KZ2 project, I could almost consider GG to be a brand new company lol. 

All FPS's anymore feel pretty much the same to me. As long as it doesn't get reviewers on the level of Lair it'll sell pretty well no matter what.

I'm sure anyone that likes console FPS's will find enjoyment will be had. People put too much hype on these things.