I realize Lair has been out a while and already has been beaten down by the gaming media so no need for "welcome to last year" posts.  I just got a PS3 and this was a game I really, really wanted to be epic.  I was watching it from the beginning as the original Panzer Dragoon on the Saturn still reigns as one of my all-time favorite games.  I finally got my hands on it and all I can say is holy shit, this game sucks.  It had so much potential.  The whole idea of dragons -- epic battles on land, over sea, and in the air, held great promise.   There are moments of brilliance though they are very few.  Occasionally, we can see (and hear) what the PS3 is capable of but then they throw PS2-era graphics in our face and provide highly annoying voice-acting that will tell you what you should be doing.  The maddening part is my response was always.  Shut up!  I'm fucking trying, asshole!  Then the mission fails and I'm forced to start all over again from the VERY beginning.  Wow.  Way to piss on a guy when he's down.  Granted it's a dragon and it shouldn't turn on a dime, but I feel like I'm flying a greyhound bus with hummingbird wings.  The whole thing just feels like a massive wasted opportunity as it had the potential to be an amazing game.  I was hoping that fanboy hate was responsible for a lot of the negativity.  It's not -- the game is just that bad.

I got about half way through it and I can't stand it any more.  It is maddening to the point I'm ready to throw the controller at the screen.  It is that bad.  That's not healthy, lol.

Damn, can you tell I'm disappointed?

Try playing it with the original controls......

Well it's good to hear from your point of view ^_^ My roomate and I were curious as to why there was so much hate :D We might still rent it for a twisted sense of adventure, (we play morbid games sometimes just for shits and giggles :D ) but after hearing that the game actually is just bad... I've lost faith in it being blind fanboy aggression :P

I want to rent it just to see how bad the motion sensing is

I can see where going in drunk and expecting it to suck might be for a fun evening. Just remind your friends to NOT throw the sixaxis/ds3 at the screen (or at all).

No doubt. Some games don't age well. Some games are FTOA - Flaming Turds On Arrival. I can think of other POC - NARC, Two Worlds and a few others. It happens. It's unfortunate, but LAIR was touted as a AAA title. When it was less than stellar, even the dev who created this turd tossed it under the bus. Unbelievable.

i thought lair wasnt all that bad theres much worse games than lair.

my main fault with lair was the mission structure on some of the levels because at times they was to frustrating. to frustrating in fact, especially the level where you have to break the dam and kill off the ballasts and lol kill off the ships all at the same time, thats what killed it for me.

controls for me was fine, with the new stick control update lair will be easier to play for many.

grafix i thought were epic along with the audio.

the serpent boss in the sea looks spectacular, i know your let down but there isnt any ps2 game that can look like that.

i had this a while ago, got it new sealed for £20 off ebay, it was worth a play through imo.

id give lair a 6/10 i was dissapointed but its done and dusted now.

Thanks for the post. I actually intended to try it when it would be available cheap because as you said the idea is awesome. But this doesn't sound like something you need to play.

Fire the game back up and tell me the lava on the volcanoes in the very beginning isn't PS2-era.  The straight "bands" of lava are about 10 shades of red/orange cycled for an "animated" effect.  I was dumbfounded it looked so "EGA Waterfall" that I LOLd at it.  Later, we see high res dragons and I think wow, that looks great.   Again, a game that showed there was something special in development here that crashed and burned on the way to the podium.  There are definitely areas and moments when the PS3 shines graphically, but there are so many more with a WTF moment...

I do not think him firing it up will change his opinion. He just sees Sony with rose-colored glasses and sees some wrong, but not a lot. Knowing this will help your post response.