Lair (PS3)

I love dragons. I love video games. Put the two together and I am in absolute heaven.
Or so I thought.
After waiting with baited breath for the arrival of LAIR in my local game store, my bf and I brought it home and popped it into our PS3 only to find out....the controls are damned difficult.
At first I thought it was simply him having issues mastering the sixaxis controls, as I'd spent some time previously playing "Flow" where the only controls are via the controller's sixaxis sensors. But when I got my hands on the controller finally and tried it out myself it was difficult, sluggish, and overall very frustrating. So much so that I believe we tried to play this game for 2 hours between the two of us and we haven't put it back in since. It felt like a lot of money to spend on a game that was difficult to maneuver through. (As an aside we're both experienced, veteran gamers. We've had plenty of chances to sample challenging game play AND poor character controls. This game features the latter.)
The game would definitely benefit from giving the players the ability to choose between either using the sixaxis controls or going with the old standbys, your LS and RS on the game controller. WarHawk was designed this way and there has been plenty of time wasted in our house on that game because we could choose between the two.
I do want to give the game props for being visually stunning to play, as well as having a few interesting features. Being able to slam in to the enemy by jerking the sixaxis controller was, although difficult to accomplish, an interesting way to attack them. It definitely made you feel as if you were more in to the story that way. Being blown all over the practice map was irritating but did give you an idea of just how harsh the conditions were that you were dealing with in that world.
If they ever do run the rumored patch to allow you to control the dragon with the joysticks instead of the sixaxis, I will absolutely pick the game back up to play it. Running the practice course was very fun and could only be improved with greater ability to handle your mount. With that one correction I would easily restore the other two stars to this review.

Had great fun with this game. Controls are different and take a little adjusting to, but work well once you get the hang of them. Nice graphics, fun levels. It may have been a little short for a full price game but it is an absolute bargain now.
Personally I'd like to see a sequel as I'm sure there is a lot more that could be done with dragons.

Bought this in the States a few weeks ago. The dependency on SIXAXIS motion-sensor controls will throw a fair few people, and will leave many frustrated. I got stuck once or twice on a couple of levels because the controller wouldn't respond exactly as required in split-second instances.
If you're going to grasp the spirit of the game you have to rationalise the fact that you are, er, flying dragons - huuuuuge cumbersome beasties which (if they existed) would be unable to rotate on a pinhead. Hence flying around can feel a little stilted if you've been spoon-fed on free-and-instantaneous 360-degree movement in other games.
The SIXAXIS is a great way for player control - it's just this game that does it a misjustice. Additionally, some of the combo attacks aren't as easy to execute as Sony the developers would like us to think. Example: the level where you bludgeon the two giant sea-serpents' eyes out feels like you are reliant on the console automatically doing it for you, not through your own handiwork (although it IS supposed to your effort).
Aesthetically speaking, the game's visuals are frequently exquisite. Both in-game and in cutscenes, the graphical texture can be that of velvet. It's kind of showcase stuff, although no doubt within a matter of months other (and overall better) games will be pushing the PS3 graphics engine to the limit in terms of the eye-popping visual delivery we really hoped the PS3 would bring us.
In a nutshell: Lair is visually compelling, unfortunately challenging from a manual not a skill-set perspective, but really rather tremendous fun if torching humans to death with an all-flying 20-tonne scaly flame-thrower dings your dong. Good soundtrack, too.