lair - Kotaku

posts about #lair more →
A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5
Factor 5 Officially Shuttered
What Factor 5's Superman Once Looked Like...
Rumor: Factor 5 Sacks Half Its Staff
Rumor: Lair Dev Out Of Funding, Can't Pay Employees
Lair Wises Up, Gets Analogue Controls
Lair Analog Patch Confirmed?
Lair Score Wins IFMCA Award
Factor 5 To Tweak Lair Controls?
Lair Developer Goes To Wii

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Demonbird
05/14/09

In reply to A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5
Rogue Squadron made me so happy.
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Altima NEO
05/14/09

In reply to Factor 5 Officially Shuttered
Rouge Squadron on the Game Cube, Easily one of the best looking games on the system, even from launch. Very few devs used bumpmapping, or any of the effects factor 5 did.
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excel_excel
05/14/09

In reply to A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5
Its not fair. ITS NOT FAIR.

Also having the whole of the previous game as a two player co-op in its sequel was startling value for money
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Shiryu
05/14/09

In reply to A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5

I still play it up to this day. =(

I hope the future brings good things, for the now german only Factor 5. Chances of seeing a new Turrican just keep getting smaller and smaller... =(
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monkeysaresilly
05/14/09

In reply to A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5
Now THAT is writing. Fantastic article Stephen (even if there was one typo, the "cure" of kotaku, maybe? hehe). I've never played a Factor 5 game, but this makes me want to go buy a $5 copy of Rogue Leader and get to know them.
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shufflemoomin
05/15/09

@monkeysaresilly: At the risk of the banhammer, it was great writing but a once over before publishing wouldn't have gone amiss. Took me a minute to work out what the 'cure of the dragon games' was.
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Stephen Totilo
05/15/09

@shufflemoomin: I wouldn't ban you for pointing out my mistakes. Thanks! Fixing
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okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under)
05/14/09

In reply to A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5
OOOOHHHHHHH :o... Totilo's accusing Sony of killing Factor 5 ~drama~
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Striderhayasa - Can we get some damn m/kb support?!
05/14/09

In reply to A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5
First time I heard of factor 5 was when my father bought me an amiga 500 back in the early 90s. I was playing SuperNES and Genesis at the time and thought they were all the rage. until I played Turrican. It was the Amiga that proved to me that computer gaming is far superior than console gaming. The Amiga and Factor 5, not the PC and sure as hell not the Mac. I didn't like Factor 5's SNES or Genesis Turrican titles as they weren't quite as good as Turrican and Turrican 2 on the Amiga.

The next time I was graced with Factor 5 awesomeness was on the 64 with Rogue Squadron. That game needs to be updated and re-released on Wii with co op modes and online. Awesome game. To this day Rogue Leader on GC is still one of the most impressive games of the generation bar none. Factor 5 made the GC do things that other developers still can't get right on Wii. Massive amounts of ties, lasers, xwings, awings, star destroyers asteroids etc..on screen at a smooth framerate? Factor 5 did it long before anyone even came close on PS2 and Xbox. As a matter of fact, there isn't a similar Star Wars game on xbox or PS2 that's as good as Rogue Leader.

Just when we all thought it couldn't get any better, Factor 5 pushed the envelop even further in Rebel Strike by having even better lighting, better geometry, better textures and even more ties on-screen than Rogue Leader. Just to kick the naysayers in the balls, they included Rogue Leader on the disc with a split screen two player mode. (We won't talk about the land based missions in Rebel Strike though)

I have no idea what happened with Lair. But it seems Factor 5 may have been better off sticking with Nintendo instead of betting on PS3. Come to think of it, maybe the same could be said for Silicon Knights. I would rather play Eternal Darkness 2 than Too Human. For all of us that wanted a 2.5 D metroid, Factor 5 would have been better served making a 2.5 D Turrican instead of Lair IMO.
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procrasturbate
05/14/09

In reply to A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5
Lair sucked...have you covered any wars totillo? :)
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bobtheduck in Korea
05/14/09

@procrasturbate: Lair Did suck... Worst game purchase I ever made, though certainly not the worst game I've ever played.
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Antiterra
05/14/09

In reply to A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5
All I can say is: that was a nice tribute that I would have preferred to never read. Don't get me wrong, the piece is beautiful, but what inspired it isn't...
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Paladin58
05/14/09

@Antiterra: C'mon, Factor 5 was a lot more than Lair. They made one of the best console dogfighting game series, hands-down.
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Dayvie
05/14/09

In reply to A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5
I still play Rouge Leader: Rouge Squadron to this day. Its the one of the few reasons that I still have my GameCube plugged in along side the PS3.

I hope in the future they continue to make games for the PS3. Although Lair might not have lived up to the hype, it was ambitious as hell. And that's something that should always be congratulated.
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excel_excel
05/14/09

@Dayvie: Lair certainly didn't live up to the hype. It didn't at all. I want them to come back!
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DigitalHero
05/14/09

In reply to A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5
LAIR did some serious damage to FACTOR 5. I hope the best for it's former employees. They had some talent.
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Sweetz
05/14/09

In reply to A Reporter's Memories Of Factor 5
It's a real tragedy the Rogue Leader games were never ported to any other platforms (especially PC). I played it a couple times on demo units and thought it was fantastic, I just couldn't justify buying a Gamecube for that game alone.

Hmm...what's the state of GameCube emulation these days?
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subnet6
05/14/09

@Sweetz: For that game alone? Sheesh, there were dozens of games on the little purple cube that made it worth buying.

And gamecube emulation is rocking, just buy a Wii! The games run purrrrrfect!
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Antiterra
05/14/09

In reply to Factor 5 Officially Shuttered
To sput a slightly positive spin on a bad piece of news, the people at Factor 5 have lost their jobs, not their skills. If other studios have any sense at all (as well as hindsight that extends beyond Lair), they'll quickly hire them.
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Shiryu
05/14/09

In reply to Factor 5 Officially Shuttered
This one of the sadest news I have ever read in allmy years in Kotaku... =\

Im a Factor 5 fan way before Rogue Squadron, from C64 and mainly Commodore Amiga ages of old. I will miss them very much...

Will we ever see Turrican again? =(
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Paladin58
05/14/09

In reply to Factor 5 Officially Shuttered
I have to go and re-buy the Rogue Squadron games now... :(
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