Lair - updated hands-on

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We straddle a giant, fire-breathing lizard for five levels of fiery, surface-to-air adventure

So was the river raid level, which gave us our first real taste of ground combat. Divvied up into objective-oriented stages, the raid first tasked us with landing in an open field and barbecuing about 80 enemy ground troops, all of whom seemed helpless to do anything about us massacring them. Then, we had to defend some great lumbering beast that was pulling a few barges full of… something. Supplies? It wasn't really clear. It also didn't matter. All we knew was we had to fly ahead and take out a bunch of catapults on the ground, all of which were being "protected" by largely decorative ground troops, who just had to sit and watch as we burned their big wooden toys.

Once the barges were safe, we had to sail into a full-on battle between the Asylian and Mokai armies, taking out a few giant, gleaming trebuchets on the way in. Note that when we say "armies," we really mean armies, as in dozens of orderly marching units, each consisting of a few dozen soldiers and a banner carrier on horseback, stretching across a vast, open plain. It was an impressive feat - or it will be, when the game is finished and no longer goes all slow and herky-jerky from trying to animate so many large characters at once. Nevertheless, we're looking forward to seeing it again when Lair is more polished.

Mikel Reparaz
Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.