Check out some of the latest Lair details. Some pretty impressive stuff will be happening with this game.
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Based on previews and screenshots, Lair certainly looks great. And now it is poised to sound even better. Lair's developer, Factor 5, is pulling out all the stops on this one by bringing in some grade-A Hollywood polish in the form of uber-composer, John Debney. This is fantastic news! I'm a huge fan of large orchestral scores in games and Lair's hot dragon vs. dragon action is just screaming for an epic soundtrack

Debney has scored some great flicks, including Sin City, Bruce Almighty and a 100+ more. It will be fun to see how he applies his talents to Lair. He's sure to take the game to the next level... I can't imagine some games without their music (Halo , Medal of Honor and Resistance come to mind). What's your favorite game soundtrack?
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The music featured in videogames has come a long way since the digitized 8-bit clinks and bleeps of old. These days it's not uncommon for a full-fledged orchestra to be utilized in the creation of an immersive and enthralling score for a videogame.

It is also no longer that uncommon for a well-known Hollywood composer to try his (or her) hand at composing a rich sonic tapestry for everything from an RPG to a first-person shooter. Such is the case with John Debney who up until this point in his career is best known for lacing such high profile silver screen projects as Sin City, The Passion of The Christ, End Of Days, and too many others to recount here, with his signature sound that mixes grandiose orchestral themes with strange and often exotic instrumentation and vocals to create sweeping pastiches of aural pleasure.
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Game Informer spoke with the company's co-founder and president Julian Eggebrecht at this week's D.I.C.E. summit, who revealed Lair is in the last stages of development: tweaking and optimization.

"Basically, by all definitions, pretty much everything is there. Now it's optimization and really getting the difficulty curve right and really getting everything tweaked right. All of the systems are there. All of the unlocking-everything is there. Would I want to give it to you? No, because it needs to be tweaked right...."
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Factor 5's co-founder and president Julian Eggebrecht talks PS3 development and about upcoming title Lair. He also points out why Factor 5 went with Sony over Wii and Xbox 360 and will probably remain that way.
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German gaming news site GameFront reports that several new details regarding Factor 5's upcoming PS3 title Lair have surfaced on the latest Game Informer...
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Over at the Sony booth during CES this week a build of the upcoming Factor 5 developed dragon action game Lair was running and firingsquad.com decided to check it out.
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On Boxing Day (that would be the day after Christmas to all of us Yanks) Prime Minister Tony Blair flew out to Florida with his family for a week-long holiday at the Miami Beach home of the Bee Gees Robin Gibb.
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If you're wondering about PS3's rival to the 360's Marketplace or the Wii's Virtual Console, then look no further than here, as there are several new games on their way, starting with fl0w, which we mentioned a while back: the flagship downloadable game for PS3. The game has now been dated, and it won't be long until you get to try it out, as the game is launching in two weeks. The developers have also been signed by Sony to produce three more downloadable games. News also broke of two new games currently in development for the PS3 store, and Factor 5, of Rougue Squadron fame on the N64 and GameCube, and currently developing Lair for the PS3, are the developers behind it.

fl0w, (in case you have no idea) puts you in control of an aquatic organism, where you must eat other organisms, evolve and eventually reach the abyss. Yes, it still sounds confusing, but also makes you think "how the hell do you play that? Best check it out". Well, actually you can, since the game is on the developer's website (thatgamecompany). And are you wondering about the name? Well, the following excerpt provides some sort of an explanation:
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Talking in an interview with Gamasutra, Factor 5 co-founder and president Julian Eggebrecht has revealed that his company, currently finishing Lair, is also making two PlayStation 3 EDI downloadable games, describing PS3 downloadable games as having "huge potential".

Having asked Eggebrecht what trends and aspects of the game biz he's particularly looking to, next year, he commented: "Actually I'm really looking forward to 2007, because we're going to finish Lair, which is my biggest concern right now, but also, I'm really looking forward to working on a couple of smaller projects [for PlayStation 3], with the so-called EDI [E-Distribution Initiative] from Sony, which I think has huge potential, and personally as a director, I think it's one of these things that we in the creative community need a little bit."

San Rafael-based Factor 5 started life as a small German developer in the late '80s, particularly known for the Turrican series, before moving to California to begin a long association with LucasArts and Nintendo on the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series for both Nintendo 64 and GameCube. More recently, its deal with Sony has produced PlayStation 3 dragon combat title Lair.

Therefore, with such small developer beginnings, it's obvious that Eggebrecht feels that smaller titles are a boon to both his staff and the company as a whole: "People who work on these two and a half year, three year projects have a chance, even within an organization like Factor 5, which usually works on these large games, to work on something small again."

The Factor 5 president concluded: "That's the biggest thing I'm looking forward to in 2007, which is also going to be a challenge, because of course we were there about 15-20 years ago doing these small titles, so suddenly you've got these production challenges with working on something really, really small."
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