Lair [PS3]

So you're constrained with a massive turning radius, meaning you'll have to do a lot more flying than necessary when trying to position properly in order to swoop down over that one enemy you're meant to grasp in the dragon's talons. A quick jerk of the wrist is meant to engage a fast 180-degree turn. Sometimes it works, other times not. Blundering through one of the game's several tight canyons you'll wish for a Wii strap on the SixAxis, since throwing the controller through a window might seem like the best flight option.

Factor 5 claims they didn't want to dilute the experience by offering alternate control schemes, but if it works for Warhawk, why not here? The kicker is that Warhawk might actually control better with the SixAxis movements than the analog sticks. Oh, irony.

On to Major Drawback Number Two: Lair's targeting system is annoyingly simplistic and inflexible. The poor controls and slow, wide turn radius make this seem a lot worse than it otherwise would be. Essentially, you'll hope for a white targeting reticule to appear around the enemy you want to kill, roast, or pick up and drop in the sea. You'll see the circle often, at which point you can either dive right into the enemy or press the lock-on to strafe or initiate close combat moves.

But you can't choose which enemy the reticule highlights. If you want to hit an enemy dragon and the reticule is on the tower of a bridge instead, there's no way to switch targets. If the reticule doesn't target what you want...well, spend two minutes circling around like a 747 over a crowded runway and try again.

Other games have presented similarly rigid targeting systems, but most of them don't also force you into timed missions, or ones that will force a fail and replay if you don't execute certain objectives within a set time. More agile controls would minimize the issue, but with those two factors in place, Lair crumbles under the weight of dodgy mechanics. The game is very pretty, yes, but it's far from pretty enough to warrant punishing yourself with this one-two blow of poor controls and terrible targeting.