Last time I was presented with the opportunity to get my hands on Factor 5 and Sony' s Lair, I had to rush it. Not out of disinterest, mind you, but pure time crunch. The Tokyo Game Show floor is thicker with meaty gamers than even E3 was during its busiest days. Later, during my time at the PlayStation Lounge at Sony HQ, I opted to hound Phil Harrison and Ken Kutaragi for caught-on-tape potential embarrassment instead of actual gaming.

What I had played, I' d liked. It had a few rough edges, but hope they' d be smoothed out.

So when given another chance at CES to try out the dragon-flying PS3 exclusive I jumped on it. Unfortunately, my latest impressions were underwhelming. From an artistic standpoint, the game looks fabulous. You are given huge areas within which to fly, with typically no HUD whatsoever obscuring the screen.

The game starts to lose its luster is in a number of places. The framerate is just not up to par. During the training missions and the initial fly through, it held up at an decent level. But during dragon-to-dragon battles and the scorching and clawing of thousands of troops while on foot, it sank to rates that I' d consider bordering on unplayable.

The game also appeared to be heavily aliased, with jagged edges most noticeable on dragon wings and when viewing the hordes of troops from above. This may have been due to the monitor set up, but these were Sony Bravias. Not exactly entry-level.

Now, the PlayStation 3 is being asked to render literally hundreds of armored knights, in addition to fire effects, as well as detailed architecture in a truly massive environment (the expanse is breathtaking), so some drops in frame rate are unexpected. But when those horned tank beasts were dropped by enemy dragons, I had difficulty staying in control. During dragon-to-dragon fisticuffs, the frame rate made the combat look silly, instead of as cool as two dragons biting and clawing eachother to death in midflight should be.

Speaking of controls, while the SIXAXIS-only control system works well, I occasionally had difficulty keeping my dragon on the ground. Taking off from certain ledges off the main bridge were also frustrating. Flying and mid-air combat were easy to pick up, with the motion control feeling very natural after only a few minutes. Still, can we please get an option to use the left analog stick, Sony? It' s currently doing nothing.

The gameplay is varied, from flying, targetting enemy dragons, engaging them in combat, it' s frantic and fun. The satisfaction from burning to death dozens of hapless pawns gives the dragon a real sense of power.

I suspected that the Lair demo may have been an older version of the game (possibly from TGS), but a Sony rep confirmed the game was a " refined" build and that it' s still expected to ship in the spring. As someone who has had Lair on his must-buy list since the game' s debut, I hope that the frame rate issues and graphical hitches are resolved. The game seems like fun, maybe a bit shallow, but still fascinating. While Lair is most likely not the type of game that can be fully absorbed in fifteen minute chunks, I' m hoping to spend even more time with the game in the future.

I just hope those graphical hitches get resolved. Keep your fingers crossed.
Michael McWhertor