While we've heard whispers that a new Factor 5 developed Turrican game may be in the works, it would seem that Julian Eggebrecht and crew are waiting for something to light a fire under them. What's it gonna take, guys?

ESRB Game Ratings [ESRB]

Factor 5 honcho Julian Eggebrecht must be exhausted from constantly "defending" his company's poorly received PLAYSTATION 3 title Lair and its hit-or-miss SIXAXIS controls. G4 caught up with the Dragon's Lair fanboy at Tokyo Game Show to get one more justification out of Mr. Eggebrecht whose game has been retitled Rise From Lair in Japan. I respect what Factor 5 was trying to do, but trying to target gamers who aren't hardcore with a PS3 game? Simply puzzling.

Wait. What? Seriously. What?

Mr Lair says: "Warhawk's controls are... eurgh!" [Games Radar]

If you connect you can get a lot of shader effects which would've been on the 360 or the PS3...it's got so much more power compared to the GameCube. If even with the extremely similar shader hardware, the system clockrate is so much higher, you can do so much more advanced things.

Hmmm I don't know, the hardware is very, very easy to understand. Now the problem might be -and it just might be- is that some studios -or some publishers specifically- are discarding the graphical capabilities automatically simply because it is a Wii title and they're basically telling the developers "look, we won't pay for any advanced graphics."

Factor 5's Julian Eggebrecht on Wii Graphics [flamewaradvance]

Capps was first to respond, saying "We absolutely love the press. Everything they say we immediately put into our game." Joking, of course, but it's actually not that far from the truth.

With the press, Capps revealed that they'll actively solicit their feedback because "the press knows games and they know what's gonna sell" with proposed changes being incorporated as late as six weeks before ship date.

Touching on the hardcore Unreal Tournament userbase, Capps revealed that the team at Epic read forums "all the time", saying "We take [their complaints] seriously because we need to keep those guys happy because they're the ones who are going to sell it to another one and a half million users who aren't so hardcore."

Backer theorized that the games industry has evolved faster than its Hollywood counterpart because of this interaction with its users.

Lair developer Eggebrecht suggested that developers take those suggestions from hardcore users "with a grain of salt" citing Factor 5's inference that the hardcore "seem to somehow resent the idea that motion control is the next evolution, or one of the evolutions, where video games will go." With the hardcore gamer "bashing in our heads" over the use of the SIXAXIS motion detection as the primary control method for the game's dragon flight, it might seem like Eggebrecht ignored player feedback.

Not so. The team did make motion control concessions based on vocal, negative opinions from the PLAYSTATION 3 game's Tokyo Game Show demo. Ripping out the motion control for on-foot segments, Eggebrecht called the earlier control scheme "quite frankly, horrible in hindsight" and that listening to hardcore opinions can often be "a blessing and a curse."

And while some game developers may have a bitter taste left in their mouths by a scathing preview or review of a game, Eggebrecht said "The press isn't the enemy. If anybody thinks the press is the enemy, that's stupid. These guys are usually as passionate, if not more so, than you yourself are so work with them."

Before starting Lair we said we would never use a licensed IP again, but now I'd pray to do one...[but] if you have a small idea...absolutely grab that opportunity.

But if Eggebrecht ships a million copies of Lair, we'll see if he changes his tune and dragons triumph over X-Wings once again.

Eggebrecht revealed his independent studio's difficulties trying to secure a Sony requested Teen rating for its PLAYSTATION 3 dragon game Lair. With a heavy amount of blood and gore, the game was altered to conform to the ESRB's sometimes impolitic ratings criteria. Even though the player can burn scores of human infantry to death, showing blood spraying from dragon wounds resulted in a Mature rating.

Similarly, gory moments of airborne creatures exploding in chunks was met with disapproval, forcing more compromising "hugely problematic" changes to Lair.

And while some violence may be okay for M-rated software, sex in games is a definite no-no. Eggebrecht longed for a time when games can be taken seriously as an art form, not a "corruptive" medium like cinema, comic books and rock and roll music.

Games with intense graphic sex scenes—sometimes mixed with intense violence—were more than acceptable in movies like Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut, clips from which Eggebrecht played on stage to underscore his point. But in games, portrayals of sex are strictly verboten. Eggebrecht said this policy "tends to show that games are not being seen even by our own ratings boards as an art form."

I later spoke to Eggebrecht and GDC president Jamil Moledina about Sin City and 300 creator Frank Miller's distaste for ratings systems, self-imposed or otherwise. He wrote in the early 90s that ratings systems inherently create restrictions on an artistic medium sometimes before any production on the work has even begun. While Miller's main concern at the time was for his medium, the comic book, it was becoming clear that his stance on the matter was becoming increasingly, and worryingly, appropriate for the gaming industry.

The Factor 5 president ended his keynote with a call for developers to push the genre's boundaries or suffer the consequences. He asked for his peers to "show me something that proves on all levels that games are indeed an artform . Push the violence, but also push the sex, and push it in an artistic way where it's not really gratuitous, but where it gets the brain going."

Other speakers include:

• Jason Manley, Massive Black (USA)
• Christopher Schmitz, 10Tacle Studios (Germany)
• Jennifer MacLean, Comcast Interactive Media (USA)
• Dr. Michael Wimmer, The University of Vienna (Austria)
• Alexander Fernández, Streamline Studios (The Netherlands)
• Cindy Armstrong, Webzen (USA)
• Amir Taaki, Crystalspace (Finland)
• Jeff Strain, ArenaNet (USA)
• Vlad Ihora, Telia Sonora (Sweden)
• Barbara Lippe, Avaloop IT Solutions (The Netherlands)
• Pamela Kato The GamerX (USA)
• Uwe Nikl, Level 3 (United Kingdom)
• Matt Firor, Ultra Mega Games (USA)
• Konstantin Ewald, Osborne Clarke (Germany)

Eggebrecht has the honor of making the opening keynote speech at the conference. Don't choke, Julian! Kim Phu

Leipzig's Keynote Speakers Revealed [Advanced MN]

For me, I am not in the rumble camp. I am in the motion control camp. Give me the choice any day and I will choose it as the next logical evolution. You get more disk space with Blu-ray. You get more CPU power with Cell. The pixel shaders with RSX. What changes about the controller? That's my one gripe with the 360. It is very nicely done. Don't get me wrong. On the controls, nothing changed. Sony and Nintendo went the extra mile. Nintendo went the extra 10,000 miles. But Sony said we have to have something fresh in every area.

Julian also makes an excellent point right after this; not every game needs that damned motion controller. Future PS3 developers, please listen to this man!

I still miss rumble in my PlayStation controller, but am finding that learning to live without it is not that hard. However, with the SIXAXIShock is announced, I'll be forced to snap two up. Michael McWhertor

Lair For The PlayStation 3: A Q&A With Factor 5 Chief, Julian Eggebrecht [San Jose Mercury News]