Tomb Raider

[Happenstance]

Yep, looked pretty awesome.

[Aimless]

Pretty much my only complaint is that they need to tone down the chatter. I'm fine with Lara talking to herself, but I don't need a constant narration.

 

Oh, and her jumping/mantle animation could benefit from being more laboured, at least whilst she's suffering the after effects of the surprise kidney removal.

[Mr-Paul]

Loved the look of this. Highlight of the MS conference.

[Burny]

The potential implication of the Fall 2012 release: The game could be on the next Nintendo system, too.

[Shorty]

It looked really good, but it really annoyed me how noisy she was!

[DinKnot]

Looked very impressive. And I agree, she needs to stop talking so much.

[Retro_Link]

The potential implication of the Fall 2012 release: The game could be on the next Nintendo system, too.

ooh good point!! :p

It looked really good, but it really annoyed me how noisy she was!

Personally I didn't mind it, but also it might not be representative of the game, there's a chance they're just going for the more realistic "omg... omg... omg... need to get out of here" of an escape, then after that it'll tone down.

[Agent Gibbs]

i'm really looking forward to this, it looks awesome

[Choze]

CG trailer was nice but the gameplay trailer was pretty bad. Also sounded like a porno. Way to waste the atmosphere set by the CG trailer.

[Nolan]

Looks fantastic, pretty much agree with Aimless on her canned animations not being effected by her physical condition. I didn't mind the talking though, it didn't seem like that much.

[ReZourceman]

Agree on the animations of her movement. I dislike how close she is to the camera. Apart from that it looks awesome. And I thought the voice acting was....freaking brilliant! She sounds sexy as hell, who is it?

[Retro_Link]

Agree on the animations of her movement. I dislike how close she is to the camera. Apart from that it looks awesome. And I thought the voice acting was....freaking brilliant! She sounds sexy as hell, who is it?

I don't know if they've said anything about the new voice of Lara. In the trailer she sounds Kiera Knightley esque at times, sexy indeed!... though I highly doubt it's her.

[ReZourceman]

For real. I took a gander on IMDB but the voice actor isn't listed yet.

[Dante]

Tomb Raider Preview -

 

Needless to say, Lara Croft has been freshly redesigned. Her days as a buxom and sly lass of the 90s have come and gone, and out of her ashes rises someone grittier and noticeably toned-down. The younger Lara stands out in the hands-off E3 demo (an extended version of what was shown at Microsoft's press conference) as a resourceful but scared kid straight out of college – a far cry from the Croft we've come to know.

 

The change extends to the new voice actress, whose take on the character has given her a girlish, moany twang. Croft's ship has crashed off the coast of Japan, and its survivors have been taken captive. When we meet her, Lara finds herself strung up and chained to the ceiling - responding with worried huffs and whimpers.

 

The introductory scene builds to teach you the basics behind Tomb Raider's physics. A back and forth swing from her ceiling chains is the best little Lara can muster, but it's enough to create a simple Rube Goldberg reaction: Lara swings into a nearby corpse that's been wrapped in cloth, the cloth-body swings into an open flame, and off we go with the flame roaming from the cadaver onto Lara's own bindings, causing them to break and her to plummet to the ground.

 

Welcome to Fire 101. This appears to be your tool of choice in the first portion of the introduction. Lara's weapon set is non-existent at the beginning of the game, but we are shown how a basic flame can be used to her advantage and later how far simple survival instincts extend to solving puzzles. Survival Instinct is an ability that highlights pertinent objects in a scene without giving away how they specifically relate to the problem at hand.

 

The demo itself is littered with QTEs, an element that many are already on edge about. As Lara first attempts to escape one of the underground rooms her captor attacks, giving you an on-screen prompt to hammer LS in order to escape – fail to do so and he gruesomely stabs her in the throat with a small pick axe. A similar scene appears a few minutes later when she's attacked once again, prompting the LS order to appear, which if successfully pressed causes a boulder to crush the attacker.

 

However in an interview with developer Crystal Dynamics' global brand manager Karl Stewart, we're told the game will not be "heavy when it comes to quick time events" - despite the elements shown in the demo footage.

 

We skip through time to a scene that should ring familiar to anyone whose finger has been on the pulse of Croft news. The wolf attack sequence that was leaked in a script last month here rears its head in full animated glory. At this point we meet Conrad Roth, a 52-year-old treasure hunter who helps turn young Lara into the Croft we know.

 

Roth is attacked by wolves and passes out, leaving our bewildered Lara to pursue the animals to their den to retrieve items they've taken. There's an element of non-linearity to the mission, which means Croft can find the den a number of different ways – in this case she scales a nearby dilapidated building, but alternatively she could have followed the wolves' fresh prints. Similarly she can get back to Roth using a number of different routes. In the demo she does this by diving down from the top of a waterfall, as opposed to crawling down the side of the same building she just scaled.

 

We're told this island is just one of many hubs that Lara will be able to travel to repeatedly, by forming basecamps at each of the hubs she discovers. Fast Travel allows Croft to easily get back to old hubs for further exploration - although what you gain from exploring these areas isn't made clear. Crystal Dynamics has also implemented varied weather conditions as well as night and day cycles which affects the islands you visit. Additionally, Lara will be able to salvage material to craft into items, which offers a nicely literal take on her resourceful survivor persona.

 

Little is known about the game's combat system, or even much of Lara's revised character as of yet, but so far the refurbished Tomb Raider seems like an impressive concoction of old themes and very new interpretations.

[Shorty]

"girlish, moany twang"

 

Yep, that's the phrase I was looking for.

 

Don't get me wrong, vocalisation is great. But there was too much. I don't want to listen to three different voice clips every time I do a jump.

[Hero-of-Time]

Another day, another delayed game.

 

“When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about,” said Gallagher in a message to the community. “The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers. The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of. We truly believe that we have something very special on our hands and we can’t wait to share it with you.

 

“Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game. In order to do this, we have decided to move the game’s release date by a few months, from Fall 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

 

“We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can’t wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.”

 

Surely a Wii U version is on the cards now?

[Shorty]

We can't jump to that conclusion every time a game is delayed :p

[Cube]

Still, I am kind of glad about these delays, what with having to buy a new (probably very expensive) console this year.

[Hero-of-Time]

We can't jump to that conclusion every time a game is delayed :p

 

Of course we can! Then we get to throw our toys out the pram when the developers give us various excuses on why they don'y release it for the Wii U.

 

These recent delays are a bit of a shame really, two of my most anticipated games this year were Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite. Hopefully Resident Evil 6 and Borderlands 2 won't go slipping into next year....

[Shorty]

Borderlands 2 is literally the only game I'm looking forward to this year. If that suffers delays, I am going to have a miserable gaming 2012!

[Cube]

Borderlands 2 is literally the only game I'm looking forward to this year. If that suffers delays, I am going to have a miserable gaming 2012!

 

At least wait a few weeks before dismissing this year.

[Ike]

I was really looking forward to playing this despite not really being a fan of the series (didn't like the older games anyway). I liked what they showed at E3 last year. Shame they keep pushing it back.

[Aimless]

This doesn't come as much of a shock, they haven't really said anything about the game since last E3.

 

Ultimately I'd rather a delayed game than a rushed one, and it makes sense to try and avoid the crowded Christmas period.

[Hero-of-Time]

Ultimately I'd rather a delayed game than a rushed one, and it makes sense to try and avoid the crowded Christmas period.

 

Thing is, the once crowded Christmas period is now pretty much the Cod/Creed period and the first quarter of the year, usually Feb/March time, has become what used to be the Christmas rush of games.

[Happenstance]

I dunno, last years November time was very crowded with good games if I remember right.