Back from the most arduous hike I've ever been on, I want to direct faithful Multiplayer readers to two parts of my Tuesday GameFile column.
The first, is the Multiplayer debut of **WORLD! EXCLUSIVE! CHEAT! CODES!**.
Sorry, got a little excited there.
See, I interviewed Julian Eggebrecht, head of "Lair" development studio Factor 5, for my column, and wanted to know about his Leipzig Games Convention speech railing against gaming censorship. We talk about it in the column, where he explains just what was changed in "Lair" to get a T rating from the ESRB.
But he did me one better.
He also gave me the code to unlock a cheat in "Lair" that he wanted to call "Hot Coffee." Sony and Factor 5 decided not to call it that, but, well, put in the following code (all caps!) in the game's cheat menu and see for yourself -- 686F7420636F66666565 -- The content that will appear is appropriate for all ages.
The second thing in GameFile worth checking out is Eggebrecht's defense of the game's motion-only dragon flight controls, which many enthusiast gaming reviewers have panned. An excerpt from my column:
When asked by GameFile how often that yank-back-to-do-a-180 move works for him, Eggebrecht replied: "About eight out of 10, which is the same ratio that I get in 'Wii Sports' tennis when I try to do a backspin."
Yes, indeed, that poke into the PS3 has made a developer admit that his game's controls don't work every time. Eggebrecht said that is the nature of motion-control systems, which won't always be able to recognize the player's ever-varied gestures.
What's more, Eggebrecht said that's OK: "The Sixaxis motion control itself feels a lot more organic and free-form than the rigid controls of other flight games and does much better for casual players, as we saw in focus tests. It does seem to alienate some reviewers who are at the top of the hard-core crowd and seem to have a passionate hate for all things motion, be it 'Wii Sports' with sometimes absurdly low scores for what might become the defining game of this generation, or 'Lair' as their newest poster child of evil. It's an unfortunate development that, if the players themselves listen too much to the motion-hatred message, will divide the gaming community. Our potential for growth as an art form for the mainstream is in the easier-to-access control schemes that might be less precise but a lot of fun."
Thoughts anyone?
