Poor Lair. Looked gorgeous, but, yeah. You know. Controls. Sucky. Well, the rumour that was so good it turned up twice in February has been confirmed by Sony, with a Lair patch due in Japan on April 17 adding the option of analogue controls for the much-maligned shooter. I know what you're going to say next. "Who gives a rat's arse? It's too late". And sure, on one hand, you may be right. On the other, though...this might bump the game from a C to a B- on your ratings scale. Which would mean picking it up on the cheap (and pretty soon, it's gonna be cheap) wouldn't be the stupidest thing you did this year.
Analog Controls Coming to Lair [IGN]

Often rumoured and much desired, Doug Allen from the IGN Blogs has reportedly gotten his hands on the analog controls for Factor 5's much-maligned PlayStation 3 game Lair, and claims they are the bomb - quite possibly the bomb diggity.

I played it and Holy shit; Greg needs to give them a new score. It was kind of clear that Factor 5 put in the extra effort a little begrudgingly, but the results were amazing. This might push me over the edge into the "must buy PS3" territory. I also mentioned Greg Miller's name, and the Factor 5 guys burned a hole through my skull with their looks of hatred. I think they'll be alright once the patch is out for a while though.

GDC 2008 Crazy Shit Report #1 [DugBuzz's IGN Blog - Via QJ.net]

The International Film Music Critics Association have announced their 2007 award winners, and this year sees the debut of their Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media award, which recognizes the increasing importance of music in gaming and gaming as an entertainment medium. This year's winner is John Debney for the wonderful score to Lar for the PlayStation 3. While I didn't spend much time with the game myself, the music did indeed stand out, to the point where I thought it was a bit wasted on the game. If you'd like to hear this award-winning music without having to shell out $US 59.99 for a game hardly worth $US 59.99, then hit up iTunes, where the whole shebang can be yours for $US 9.99.

2007 AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED BY INTL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION [Film Music Magazine]

In between trying to convince IGN that the only people who found Lair's controls to be woeful were "hardcore" gamers, Factor 5 boss Julian Eggebrecht raises the possibility that those same controls might be tweaked in a future update for the title:

If we find a chance in the future that would bring Lair to the audience which didn't get any access, that would be fantastic. I can't say anything quite yet, but there might be something in the works there. We might have a chance yet to bring those back to the table and hopefully, if that should happen, they would give the game a second chance.

Factor 5's Lair wasn't exactly the most well received of PlayStation 3 games, despite its often-pretty graphics. It was generally blasted for inaccurate SIXAXIS control, unreliable SIXAXIS control and craptastic SIXAXIS control, among a few other things we don't remember. According to a report from IGN, the team has decided to give game development and motion control a go on another platform, bringing an unnamed game to the Wii. F5 boss man Julian Eggebrecht told the outlet that the team is hard at work on something that's not for the Virtual Console and not running on GameCube era Star Wars Rogue Squadron tech, with IGN believing that it's not a waggle-filled PilotWings sequel.

So what is it, if it's not all that? Could it be that 3D Turrican update Eggebrecht hinted at to Gamasutra last Spring? With all those Turrican ratings popping up on the ESRB lately, we wouldn't be surprised. In fact, delighted might a good word.

Official: Factor 5 Back on Wii [IGN]

The Associated Press just published their worst of 2007 list for video games. The straight forward list includes Manhunt 2, Deal or No Deal and Lair along with some biting explanation:

1. "Manhunt 2": Rockstar Games' strategy -- offend the watchdogs, reap the publicity, then sell a substandard product -- reached its nadir with this ugly, unplayable mess. It begins with a lunatic flinging human waste at you; after about an hour, you'll want to fling "Manhunt 2."

4. "Lair": Sony lavished a lot of attention on this PlayStation 3 title, and it sure looks great. And who wouldn't want to fly a dragon? But with awkward, imprecise controls and lackluster, repetitive missions, "Lair" crashed and burned.

Factor 5 honcho Julian Eggebrecht must be exhausted from constantly "defending" his company's poorly received PlayStation 3 title Lair and its hit-or-miss SixAxis controls. G4 caught up with the Dragon's Lair fanboy at Tokyo Game Show to get one more justification out of Mr. Eggebrecht whose game has been retitled Rise From Lair in Japan. I respect what Factor 5 was trying to do, but trying to target gamers who aren't hardcore with a PS3 game? Simply puzzling.

Fans of Lair will be happy to know that the official soundtrack is available on iTunes for download. And while we understand that Lair isn't necessarily GOTY, the music has received a nomination from BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) for Best Original Score. To find the album, just search iTunes for "John Debney Lair".

Hopefully more publishers will see the low cost and potentially huge benefit in offering their soundtracks on iTunes. Because while Kotaku can't speak for you, we'd love to hear the surprisingly haunting melodies of Pony Friends with the click of a button.

LAIR Score Now On iTunes! [via gamelife]

2K Australia/2K Boston's big man is willing to stand against the waves of critical abuse being tossed developer Factor 5's way over the somewhat obtuse controls of their glorified dragon flying simulator, Lair. GameDaily.biz has an interview with the BioShock designer, where he states:

"Let me speak in these guys' defense for a minute as a game developer. I'm sure somebody came to them at some point and said, 'We have this motion control controller, and we have to make a go of it. And we really think you should try to make your game exclusively on that.'"

BioShock Dev Defends Lair Motion Controls [GameDaily]

Factor Five's Julian Eggebrecht may have taken some knocks on the chin for Lair's gameplay, but not many were complaining about the unquestionably stellar graphics of the title. And that's pretty much enough for me to name him an unquestionable authority on every platform's individual graphical nuances (and anything else necessary for this article to be extremely important). Right now, Eggebrecht's questioning an industry that's all but given up on the Wii ever making pretty games:

If you connect you can get a lot of shader effects which would've been on the 360 or the PS3...it's got so much more power compared to the GameCube. If even with the extremely similar shader hardware, the system clockrate is so much higher, you can do so much more advanced things.