Lair Pushed Back Because It Sucks...Plus Heavenly Sword Preview

Lair, the dragon riding, seemingly awesome PS3 experience, has been pushed back from its August 14th release date to September 4th, putting it in direct contention with Heavenly Sword, which is also set to come out that day. According to 1up.com, Associate Producer, Ryan Hamlyn posted an update on the Playstation.Blog that the delay is because of “Online features – such as leaderboards and medal systems,” that need to be implemented before the game can be released. But personally, I’m not buying it. In the most recent issue of EGM, the game scored TERRIBLY, with one of the key complaints being that the in-air battle system didn’t make a lick of sense, and also that controlling the dragon’s flight patterns was about as graceful as controlling a Hummer in mid-air, which equates to about...zero mobility. So yeah, I’m more than a little suspicious about this delay, and think Factor-5 may be changing a few key gameplay elements to make one of the bigger games for the PS3 into something that’s actually worth playing. And to all those I might have offended before by writing that the PS3 would eventually turn out to be a good system, for that, I’m terribly, terribly sorry. After actually playing the system this weekend at a friend’s house and testing out the Heavenly Sword demo, I must say that I’m HIGHLY disappointed. The gameplay is lackluster, to say the very least, and horrendous to say the very most. Playing like an un-responsive version o God of War, many times, I’d wind up giving strange faces at the television screen when I’d enter commands that worked at one point, but failed to do anything the next. And you know how every brutal hit in GoW just feels like it’s MEANT to happen? Not so in Heavenly Sword, as many times I found myself wondering whether my pressing of the triangle button really meant anything, or if it was just there as ornamentation, as it seemed like my chances of actually hitting anything were about 50/50. The PS3, like the Wii, is another piece of wasted hardware, and as of right now, I’m pretty ashamed to call myself a gamer. As Milhouse would say while crying on his belly, “When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?” When are they going to get to the fireworks factory, indeed.