 You may have noticed that the average Wii game tends to... suck in the graphics department. How the hell is it that the most graphically taxing game for the Wii is Super Mario Galaxy? Certainly, that games looks nice, but they can do better. Too bad then that the Wii is land of shovelware and crap. Fortunately for those us that do own the system, there are a few diamonds in the rough. While they might not be the most graphically amazing thing out there, they do excel at one key thing - they are fun.
So, yes, Factor 5. They are working on [SECRET UNNAMED PROJECT NAME GOES HERE]. Some people think that it might be a new Kid Icarus. That would be pretty damn cool. Others though, think it might be on the level of Lair, which from what I heard is a graphically amazing, yet horrible experience. Things didn't turn out too well on their first outing on the PS3, but hey, perhaps could be better with their Wii outing, right? Right?!
Anyways, Julian Eggebrecht, the president of Factor 5, had a little chat with IGN. Turns out, we have some new, interesting information. Sure, it has nothing to do with what the game is, but everything to do with the graphics:
Whatever we're working on will at least blow you away in a lot of the technical aspects. We're really trying to do everything to squeeze the maximum out of the machine
My my yes, better graphics, better technical aspects? Neat, but what does that mean? Face it, from a technical standpoint, the bar is rather low. Will they blow the bar away, or will their technical advancements just surpass the current technical marvel, also known as Mario? Time will tell, but there is also this fun tidbit from Julian:
Although we're going to use everything for what we have in development, I think the pointing stuff is probably the biggest innovation which we're working on right now.
Again, the bar is quite low, but who knows, Factor 5 in the past made great games, perhaps they can pull off something amazing. Certainly time shall tell, and if we're lucky we'll know something more next week with GDC about to ramp up.
Update: Factor 5 Wii Project [IGN, via 4cr]
Julian, we Nintendo fans were crushed when you decided to jump ship to the PS3, and release the motion sensitive Wii. You delighted us with Rogue Squadron, but you just had to crush our hearts with the jumping ship to the PS3 front. Well, how did Lair end up doing, huh? I hear it was pretty bad, Julian. So, today we hear that you are officially developing at least one non Virtual Console game for the Wii? Given your last release, I don't know if I should be excited, but none the less here you are, back at the doorstep of Nintendo, developing some unnamed game. Hope it is better than Lair, but hey, that should be easy, right?
Well, I am sort of excited. Factor 5's games were, and are, visually stunning. Factor 5 also was a provider of middleware solutions for the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. Knowing this, I hope that Factor 5 puts other developers to shame with graphics. If anyone can push the envelope, it is them.
At the same time, they might be, like many other developers, in for the quick cash in. I certainly hope such is not the case, but I guess we'll find out for sure once we know what exactly it is that they are developing for the Wii.
Julian, please do not disappoint us. You've already done that once before.
Lair Developer Goes to Wii [Kotaku]
2007 was the year of hype in gaming. Between Halo 3, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, Crysis, and Assassin's Creed, this year has seen the release of some of the most talked up games of all-time. While some of them fell far short of the hype, there were plenty of other far superior games that came out, but received little to no attention from mainstream gamers. So, continuing now and on every Wednesday (or Thursday) (or sometime) until the end of the year, I will be giving you a look at two games released this year that deserve your hard-earned cash and attention. At the end of this five-part series (ending the day after Christmas), I will list them in order of the most overlooked/underrated.
 If you followed the video game world at all this year, you'll likely know that Lair for the Playstation 3 was a massively hyped game that was often touted as one of saviors of Sony's big black monolith of a gaming console known as the Playstation 3, but that did not happen as Lair was a critical bomb. All the hype that was generated by the game blew up in Sony's face as the game got largely horrible reviews and become the butt of all video game related jokes. Did it deserve all the negative reviews? Is it really that bad of a game? The answer to that question is quite simply, no. Lair is perhaps one of the most underrated games of the year (not overlooked, mind you, underrated).
The game's story revolves around two kingdoms, Asilya and Mokai, former allies now torn apart due to their land being ravaged by volcanoes. Now the Mokai's land is depleted of resources, and the Mokai live on a resource rich land. As time goes on, the two become enemies due to religion coming in and teaching them that they are enemies and should not tolerate each other. So, the Mokai decide to launch a surprise attack against the Asylians, this is where you come in as Rohn, a member of the Asylian Sky Guard who fights off the invading Mokai using dragons. It's a good plot, especially for an action game involving dragons and burning things up and is definitely better than stuff like Eragon.
But on to the game itself. As stated, most of the game revolves around you flying around on a dragon burning things and defending your people from attack. The game's graphics are quite good and really capture a world in ruin quite well. The game does support 1080p high definition, however, I have only seen at 1080i and 720p. Both modes look incredible. The only problem is that there are some slowdowns at time, but nothing too distracting. Even more amazing than the graphics is the sound, which is among the best I've ever heard in a video game. Presented in UNCOMPRESSED 7.1 SOUND (!!!) with THX Certification, the game completely envelopes you in sound. Now, I've only played it in compressed Dolby Digital 5.1, but even in that situation, dragons swooping overhead, flames flying in all directions, and exploding ships all sounded awesome. However, what really shines in the game is the soundtrack composed John Debney, who also did the music for The Passion of the Christ and Sin City. The soundtrack is definitely the best of 2007 and rivals most film soundtracks. The music is so good that Sony is selling the whole soundtrack for the game on iTunes.
But enough about the technical side of the game, let's move onto what gets trashed the most, the gameplay. The team at Factor 5 decided to take advantage of what the PS3 offers them in graphical capability, sound, and capacity with the Blu-ray Disc, however, they also decided to take advantage of the PS3's new Sixaxis controller with motion sensing capability. This is what caused the most criticism over the game. The tilt controls were viewed as hard to use and unresponsive. To those people I say, "Pfft, spend some more time with it." Yes, it is kind of tough to get the hang of, but you must remember that you are controlling a gigantic dragon, and not an airplane which can turn on a dime. If you think of it in the sense that you are at the reins of a gigantic beast, then the controls might be a little easier to work, since it basically is like you're at the reins. Slap the reins down and you'll get a speed boost, pull them up quickly and the dragon will do a 180 and face the other way. Once you get used to the controls, you'll be burning those Mokai bastards quickly. Or, take a look at the instructional video included in the bonus material, it's a like a video version of the Lair Review Guide.
However, despite all this, I would only give the game a 7.5 at the maximum because it's slow at times, it's rather short, and the controls don't always work right. It is definitely worth checking out when it gets down to $15 or so.
 This might be an odd inclusion since it never had a retail release, but this is something that I'm sure none of you have heard of by a developer you've definitely heard of. Did you know that Harmonix, the same company behind Guitar Hero and Rock Band released an iPod game this year? No, really, AN iPOD GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The game is called Phase, and it's basically just like Amplitude or Guitar Hero, but on your iPod.
Basically, the game is played by clicking the left button, the center button, or the right button in time to your music. Sometimes there will also be a wave of dots that comes up, known as a flowing sweep. When one of these flowing sweeps come up, you have to scroll the click wheel left and right, following the pattern of the dots. The game has it's own small soundtrack of seven songs (Bang Camaro - Nightlife Commando, Dealership - Dots And Dashes, Freezepop - Pop Music Is Not A Crime (YES!!! FREEZEPOP!!!), Inter:sect - Midnight Gamma, Kodomo - Spira Mirabilis, Speck - The Theme Of The Awesome, Universal Hall Pass - Dragonfly Remix), but the big feature here is that you can import ANY song you have on your iPod into the game and it will make it into a level for you to play, with different difficulties. Want to play on insane (Video is on the default difficulty, by the way)? You can do that! Want to play along to Run DMC? Sure, you can do that too. Want to play along to the I Have A Dream Speech? Uh...yeah, you can do that too. Want to play along to static? No you don't. Of course you don't. But you technically could do that in Phase!
It's a $5 download from the iTunes store, and has been described by many as the only iPod game worth having. The game requires a third-generation iPod nano or better, iPod classic, or fifth-generation iPod or better.
Check back on Wednesday or Thursday when I actually deliver this feature on-time...(at least I hope).
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