Pretty interesting article.
I decided to just post in on the threads about the 2 games it's talking about, instead of creating a new thread.
Why PS3's latest blockbusters failed to impress the gaming massive.
September 4, 2007
So the results are in. With two of PlayStation 3's biggest titles now being reviewed around the world, it has to be said they haven't been as impressive as their initial promise suggested. We're talking scores as low as 40 for Lair and 6/10 for Heavenly Sword. How could such massive releases be so disappointing?
Didn't someone look at Lair somewhere along the line and say "Er... this really isn't working"? And why does Heavenly Sword feel so disappointing despite its beauty? We take a look at concensus opinion across the games review media and condense it into four main issues that can be learned from by all software houses.
1) Unfinished business
We know it's important to meet deadlines and that spiralling development costs can sometimes put developers out of business. But when it comes to a possible 'killer app' for a system, surely it makes sense to wait until it really is finished, optimised and ready.
Take Grand Theft Auto IV as an example - seriously, how long ago did you last hear someone complain about the delay? Exactly. It was devastating, of course, but people do get over it and can rest assured the end result will be worth the wait. Heavenly Sword and Lair both have frame-rate issues and tearing, which isn't really what we expect from next-gen machines.
What the critics said:
"As polished as the game is 90 per cent of the time, there's a lingering feeling the game was deemed 'good enough' rather than fully honed in all areas." - Eurogamer on Heavenly Sword
"It's obvious that all the development effort went into Lair's production values, rather than into making it fun to play." - Gamespot on Lair
2) Controls
The motion-sensitive debate. When it works, it works really well. Just look at Wii Sports to see how motion-sensing control can add greatly to the gameplay experience. Even WarHawk's Sixaxis controls are ok, but - crucially - they're optional. Thing is, when motion control is done badly, it's terrible. And sadly, both Lair and, to a lesser extent, Heavenly Sword both incorporate dubious SixAxis control. But there's an option to switch them off and revert to the tried and tested analogue sticks, right? Not so for Lair. The game's message would appear to be: 'Having trouble flying a dragon? Deal with it.'
What the critics said:
"Buy it if you want to justify all the thousands you spent on your PS3 and that 1080p HDTV you can see from the International Space Station. Don't buy it if you want a dragon that does what it's damn well told." - 1Up on Lair
"Although it feels rather fantastic when you wobble your pad to your target, it's horribly imprecise. After a few hours of struggling with it, we couldn't quite believe how much easier it was to control the direction with the analogue stick in comparison. Nice try, but no thanks." Eurogamer on Heavenly Sword
"A quick jerk vertically is supposed to make your dragon do a 180-degree turn, but that only seemed to work about three-quarters of the time. Either the controller did not read the motion or the games AI decided to ignore the command." - Gamezone
"You shouldn't play Lair. Not unless you have some morbid interest in experiencing what is quite possibly one of the worst control schemes ever devised." - Gamespot on Lair
"The people behind the solid reinvention of Warhawk chose - in their kindness, and in their wisdom - to let the player decide if they want to wrangle their flight gameplay via Sixaxis or the analog sticks, a move that'll prove prescient." - Penny-arcade on Lair
3) Combat
When a game's main point is to engane in combat, it has to work perfectly. Both Heavenly Sword and Lair have variety in their combat scenes, but sadly neither is enough to go the full distance. The lesson? Give the player varied enemies and fun ways to kill them. Not chance kills and cookie-cutter clones.
What the critics said:
"Combat mechanic is 1/3 broken" GamingTrend on Heavenly Sword
"A number of the skirmishes are essentially arena battles where you wind up trapped in a room and need to fend off swarm after swarm of enemies. This just makes it feel like you're trudging through that section of the game and that the designers are keeping you put for a while to rack up the overall game time." - IGN on Heavenly Sword
"In theory, you can lock on to other flying enemies and spew flames at them or dive into them from a fair distance. But the targeting system is a tragedy. You can't choose what to lock on to, so all you can do is keep an eye out for the fuzzy white circle to appear on an enemy dragon." - Gamespot on Lair
"There are some who derive a kind of perverse superiority from their mastery of the game's ambiguous mechanics. For my part, I don't give a good Goddamn if someone has trained themselves to eat **** and like it. The game is not challenging, it's difficult to play, and it's taken many years but I'm ready to begin making this distinction." - Penny-Arcade on Lair
4) Hype
The final lesson is simple. If you've got a promising game, be careful what you say about it. There's a lot to be said for releasing a carefully-managed drip-feed of new screens and videos instead of shouting 'AAA TITLE!' from the rooftops. If the games hadn't been hyped up so much in the first place, we wouldn't have been so disappointed. But as it is, everyone's feeling dejected. Especially this guy:
"There have even been positive impressions at several game conferences for this beast and yet the final release is one of the largest steaming piles Ive ever had to endure. After failing many of the missions an insane amount of times I headed to the bathroom for some relief only to realize that my latest bowel movement was more fun than the 'game' I had been playing." - Gamebrink on Lair.
Conclusion:
So what have we learned? Be careful what you say, take your time and make sure gameplay is the primary element of any game. And if you really must incorporate Sixaxis controls...
...make sure there's an option to switch them off.
...so I'm not being racist - it's just a common saying over here in the UK. (it being a common saying is of course no defense, I was unaware it was offensive)
