Tomb Raider

I guess it will be a complete reboot, which means this is meant to be her first adventure. And yeah, Uncharted has pretty much given them a good example. Expect a lot more story and characters this time around... the only difficulty is the romantic part, it's okay to see Drake with the girls, but I don't think the mostly male audience would be OK with Lara and some random dude. Might be another reason to go for a young girl...
Agreed, random girl would be better, oh wait.. ;)

I just hope that there will be enough proper adventuring, perhaps some tactical evading of wild beasts while unarmed. :)
 
- "It was important in the game to not only deliver the character arc of Lara Croft emotionally, but to deliver it in gameplay as well so the player gets to grow into a hardened survivor," says experienced director Noah Hughes. As the game unfolds, Lara will scavenge new tools and gear that augment her abilities. Lara's athletic prowess will also evolve. Some areas begin inaccessible due to physical limitations or scarce supplies. With the right skills and gear, however, the island is Lara's for the taking.
This part could be so full of win if pulled off correctly. However I'm also reminded of Angel of Darkness, which I never played but read about certain parts of the game being off limits due to physical limitations. It's this part of the game's design, the metroidvania direction, that can make or break this game IMO.

Also I'm not sure if I'm a fan of TR devs looking at Uncharted for ideas as I've read some on the net suspect. Uncharted is great, but I've always seen it as more of a shooter, where TR has been more about exploration.

@ Sigfried1977: While I understand you about the hand holding in Uncharted, Enslaved, and Assassins Creed, I thought it was pretty easy to jump to your death in the recent TR games.

All this TR talk makes me want to play through Underworld, need to re-buy it.
 
Looks really interesting. I have confidence in Crystal Dynamic, their latest Tomb Raider games were all very entertaining. But i hope they don't clone Uncharted, there is simply too much combat in these games. TR Anniversary nailed it: a lot of exploration, plattforming and great environmental puzzles and only the occasional combat with animals.

There is really not so much hand holding in Tomb Raider. I remember i died a lot in Underworld to reach all treasures and relics, especially the last one in Arctic Sea.
 
I feel that games these days don't punish the players enough for their carelessness, I'd certainly like that to change.
I'd take some bit of thinking & frustration (followed by a sense of accomplishment) over not 2nd doubting my actions at all, even more so when I know that I can simply respawn at the last checkpoint (if I fail) which happens to be exactly before the point when/where I took the action.

This part could be so full of win if pulled off correctly.
I agree, BUT I also realize that this can easily go the usual route of 'character development' ie. get xp/ play more & improve the jump height/distance etc etc...and that would be something which would make me unhappy. :|
 
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I agree, BUT I also realize that this can easily go the usual route of 'character development' ie. get xp/ play more & improve the jump height/distance etc etc...and that would be something which would make me unhappy. :|

Yeah, but at least they only need to look at the past of their very own franchise (well, it was still Core's back then) for the the best example of just how hard this kind of stuff can backfire. It rendered later sections of The Angel of Darkness nigh unplayable.
 
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2010/12/30/tomb-raider-bonus-gallery.aspx


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First screenshots emerge ! Judge for yourself. New Lara ! Very different.
 
Tbh she just looks like a younger version of Lara from TRU to me...and that is certainly a good thing.
 
I'm in love with the new character model, the environments though could use some work. Plenty of time and I think it looks great overall, can't wait.
 
Yeah, lighting engine needs lots of work... the environments look kinda sterile.

Lara is nice, and it seems she can get hurt pretty badly.
 
The original Lara Croft is one of the worst and most embarrassing characters in videogame history. I'm liking the change quite a bit. It's seems like they fixed the terrible mullet hairstyle they gave her in that original promo picture.
 
I'm actually really looking forward to see what the gameplay is like. I hope the platforming is challenging. Even if the path to traverse is obvious, if they can make it reasonably challenging, it'll be good. My guess is they are going more the Uncharted route, where it'll be more of a shooter and the platforming will look exciting but be dead easy. Hopefully I'm wrong, and this one is a good platformer with some Uncharted style action and some Splinter Cell sneaking/maneuvers thrown in.
 
Well they can start by using PhysX to properly model acrobatics with her female body (center of weight, boobies, and hips) at 9001Hz. Meanwhile, they can have the player shoot things while in mid-air and properly simulate bullet physics in a damp environment with lots of wind while taking into account a snowstorm happening in Finland and a volcano erupting in the Pacific Ocean.

:D
 
Hey, all...

It's been a while since I've posted. I'm a lot busier these days and doing stuff that tends deeper down the academic trend (to say nothing of the fact that the neverending cycle of visa headaches are winding down to a close), and I've been way too focused on the book... I've also been asked to revive the creature thread, which I'll probably do in time.

Anyway, I did get to work on this for a while before the layoffs hit and I ended up moving practically next door to Dreamworks. The project is certainly levels beyond anything I got to mess with back when I was still at Crystal, but part of the plan even then was a bit of genre blending. While TR:U was going on, there was another project in the works which was a brand new IP of its own, and because it didn't have the legacy behind it of a Lara character, we were less conservative with it in terms of technique and R&D. Well, it was shelved in the end, but there was at least leaks of concept art --
http://www.shogungamer.com/news/first-look-downfall-yet-another-cancelled-game

Anyway, that was basically a survival horror title which had some superficial similarity to the Alone in the Dark series, and the general theme I saw even as this new TR was in development is that it was bringing a lot of what we wanted to do with Downfall and bringing it into the TR universe, effectively also combining the genres. The general details you'd find in the Game Informer article seems to confirm that they're still going down that line of "survival action."

She needs specular maps :p
Don't you mean chrome? :p
 
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