Tomb Raider

[H3R3T1C]

Any more news on this?

[Drone]

Wasn't there a thread already for this..?

http://www.nag.co.za/forums/showthre...s-and-Survival

[Sir-Ominous]

2013 can't come soon enough

[Sir-Ominous]

Awesome preview thingy here!

[ZoRPA]

she needs to find a Basecamp which consists of a small fire. Not much was elaborated on the impact of items being upgraded but the developers promised that it would be in-depth.

Now this sounds cool, kind of like the bonfires in Dark Souls.

[3dFoin]

The AI is awesome, when Lara shoots 1 guy the other guy use a table to hide :D

[Drone]

This game just keeps looking better.

[Sir-Ominous]

Interesting stuff indeed

Lara Croft studio: There is no attempted rape scene

The development boss at Crystal Dynamics has issued a statement flatly denying existence of an attempted rape scene in the upcoming Tomb Raider game, despite a colleague making claims to the contrary during an interview at E3.

Studio head Darrell Gallagher said in a prepared statement: "We were not clear in a recent E3 press interview and things have been misunderstood. Sexual assault of any kind is categorically not a theme that we cover in this game."
Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix were yesterday at the centre of a media storm regarding the next Tomb Raider game allegedly featuring a rape attempt on the global gaming icon. National media in the UK and the US also picked up the item.

But Gallagher insists that the game's producer, Ron Rosenberg, had misspoken when discussing the scene.

Said Gallagher: "One of the character-defining moments for Lara in the game, which has been incorrectly referred to as an 'attempted rape scene', is the content we showed at this year's E3 where Lara is forced to kill another human being for the first time. In this particular section, while there is a threatening undertone in the sequence and surrounding drama, it never goes any further than the scenes that we have already shown publicly."

News site Kotaku, which had first published comments by Rosenberg, yesterday published a transcript of the discussion:

Rosenberg: "And then what happens is her best friend gets kidnapped, she gets taken prisoner by scavengers on the island. They try to rape her, and-"

Kotaku journalist: "They try to rape her?"

Rosenberg: "She's literally turned into a cornered animal. And that's a huge step in her evolution - she's either forced to fight back or die and that's what we're showing today."

[Sir-Ominous]

Awesome new gameplay HERE . Each time I see a little bit more of this game, I just land up feeling more sad that it's delayed.

[Sir-Ominous]

The voice of Lara Croft

Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics have announced who is voicing and doing the performance capture for Lara Croft in the new Tomb Raider game, coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on March 5, 2013:

Ready for some big news? We’re very excited to finally reveal the voice & performance talent behind Lara Croft in Tomb Raider – English-born actress Camilla Luddington. Finding Camilla was no easy task, as it took an international talent search across Europe and the US to find the actress to deliver the right emotion and tone for the character.

Camilla will make her public debut discussing the role in San Diego this July, participating in both Nerd HQ and Comic-Con panels featuring Tomb Raider and the story behind reimagining the franchise.

In addition to a recent role on Showtime’s Californication, Camilla can be found in the current season of HBO’s True Blood.

Tomb Raider explores the intense and gritty origin story of Lara Croft and her ascent from a frightened young woman to a hardened survivor. Armed only with raw instincts and the ability to push beyond the limits of human endurance, Lara must fight to unravel the dark history of a forgotten island to escape its relentless hold.

[Sir-Ominous]

Fresh from Gamescom

[.exe]

I have so many sort of mixed feelings about this game. Part of me really wants to believe that this time, all the promises will be kept, and that this time, we get, for the first time in ages, a Tomb Raider game worthy of the hype. But I dunno...the series as a whole has lacked uniformity and direction and frankly, has not deserved the massive hype it has continually generated.

For me, it's very difficult to actually nail down what the Tomb Raider series actually represents, from a gameplay perspective. The first game was really just about exploration and figuring out how to get from A to B.
All other Tomb Raiders had strong elements of that, but they introduced more and more action into the series, turning Lara into some sort of super spy or Jane Bond.
The first three games in the series were fairly similar, barring a few elements, but then in 4 they tried (and failed miserably) to turn it into a sort of semi-sandbox game, and in 5 they had us playing four unique chapters, each with a totally different look and feel, even including a survival horror type of chapter. It never really worked.

The last one I bothered with, Legends, was supposed to be a glorious return to form after the abomination that was Angel of Darkness, but it still (for me) never really hit the sweet spot. There were elements that I liked, but also parts which made me cringe, like having Lara riding Ducatti motorcyles. To me, that was what started to sound the death toll for the series to begin with...trying to turn Lara into some sort of super-duper action star. It just never felt right.

So all in all, the series has lacked a sense of direction. It's almost like they never really knew what they wanted to do with Lara as a character, or in which direction to take the series. It's been all over the place regarding story and gameplay...bouncing around from one idea to the next, with very little sticking and making a strong impression.

I do feel it's time to wipe the slate clean and start afresh, and the reboot definitely shows signs of promise, but from watching extended gameplay footage, there are things I feel a little unexcited by as well.

I love the fact that it's on an island. Tomb Raider always felt just completely out of kilter whenever Lara was in a city, or a modern urban environment. In the setting she finds herself, I think there is a lot of potential for this to truly return to what made Tomb Raider fun: exploration, and figuring out how to get from one part of the level to another.

What I'm not too impressed by is that there seems to be a bunch of her friends on the island as well. I personally never fancied it when they introduced new characters, because part of what made TR 1 so special to me was that sense of isoltation and almost loneliness in the game. It was you discovering and exploring some ancient, undiscovered tomb or cave, and somehow that felt marvellous.
So personally, I'm just trying to figure out how all these new characters are going to be implemented, and what effect they will ultimately have on the game.

Obviously she has enemies on the island as well, but what I'm hoping for is that the game does not emphasise too much action. I don't want it to be an action-heavy title with a few bits of exploration thrown in. I want it to be the exact opposite, but in today's climate where so many titles seem to be gravitating towards the action side of things, I'm sceptical.

I also see that there are a quite a few visual prompts in the gameplay that I've seen, like for instance telling us to hit the X button to open a door, or set fire to a piece of cloth.
That's fine and well if they use visual prompts to give us an idea of what's possible in a tutorial level, but I would hate it if there was a strong element of visual prompting right throughout the game.
Leave us to figure things out on our own, like the first few games did. The first couple of games were remarkably free of hand-holding, and it would be a crying shame if, in order to cater to the mainstream, players weren't left to their own devices, but were continually force-fed information on were to go or what to do.
As much as I'd like to believe otherwise, I think it's definitely going to be a strong presence in the game. Hope I'm wrong, though.

Then of course we're yet to experience how fluid the controls are, and the TR series has always had notoriously unresponsive and clunky controls. I'd like a game that challenges the player as well, and is not too easy. I've heard that the devs are aming for a reported minimum ten hour long game,and I wonder if that's really enough. A dedicated gamer could finish it in a weekend. I remember TR 2 took me close to twenty hours to complete.

So overall, as a long-time fan of the series, there are things I definitely like about the new TR, but also a few things that have me questioning as to whether this will really be all that I'm hoping for, or just another decent but largely forgettable game in a growing list of decent but largely forgettable TR games, that never lived up to the hype. Suppose time will tell.

[Drone]

I also see that there are a quite a few visual prompts in the gameplay that I've seen, like for instance telling us to hit the X button to open a door, or set fire to a piece of cloth.
That's fine and well if they use visual prompts to give us an idea of what's possible in a tutorial level, but I would hate it if there was a strong element of visual prompting right throughout the game.
Leave us to figure things out on our own, like the first few games did. The first couple of games were remarkably free of hand-holding, and it would be a crying shame if, in order to cater to the mainstream, players weren't left to their own devices, but were continually force-fed information on were to go or what to do.
As much as I'd like to believe otherwise, I think it's definitely going to be a strong presence in the game. Hope I'm wrong, though.

I have to agree, getting sick of all the pop-ups these days. Don't know why it became a norm for games. In some situations it works but you don't need it for every little action in the game. And it kills the mystery... Getting stuck on a level because you missed one small lever... LOL

Looking forward to this game. But not getting it day one. Will wait a while to see what it's all about...

[BladeMaster]

I just want to actually get my hands on the game and play it. I'm going to keep an open mind. The clips I've seen thus far look very promising. Looks a lot more like an Uncharted game now, then a Tomb Raider game. I don't care though. Until I've played it, I'm going to reserve judgement.

[Sir-Ominous]

[Sir-Ominous]

Some new vids

[H3R3T1C]

End of february can not come soon enough!

[LazyDemoni]

Bump with an IGN review:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/...aider-review-2

Part of me is excited about this game, part of me feels old because all my favourite franchises are being rebooted.

[DarkPrince]

Game is looking really good, gameplay really surprised me, haven't been paying attention to any gameplay vids so the fist I saw was in the reviews and it looks similar to Uncharted which is great.

Really looking forward to this. Hope it turns out good.

[Wesley]

Someone at AMD has a sense of humour

Yesterday, an advert for a imaginary hair product popped up all around the internet, supposedly suggesting that AMD was selling hair products (?). TressFX, with the tagline "Render, Rinse, Repeat" was getting a few tongues wagging in mere hours, with many forumites and bloggers trying to figure out what was going on here. was AMD branching out, or were they planning something to do with realistic hair effects? The answer was revealed early this morning.

http://www.nag.co.za/wp-content/uplo...2b-532x600.jpg

Linky