Shadow of the Tomb Raider [XO, PS4, PC]

Girl should really invest in a scuba regulator.
This wasn't really a big deal in the old, cartoony tomb raider games. But when you're shooting for something that tries to pass itself of as somewhat realistic, having all these easily avoidable near death experiences pile up seems a little silly.
This is a very minor nitpick mind you. I'm actually glad underwater action is making a return. I always considered it to be a strong pillar of the TR experience.

 

This actually feels more like a TR game indeed, shame the graphics are not up to standard, the lighting and shading look almost Uncharted 3 era aka the era of plastic . The sooner we ditch a 1.3tf baseline the better I say, need to see a true next gen TR game on a 12tf machine asap.

 

You mean people can actually backflip off 10 metre high branches while shooting arrows at enemies on the ground? At least it's not as bad the Dead Rising series in terms of presenting a pseudo-realistic worldscape. The zombies in DR4 now drop gold coins when killed.

 

Sounds like an average Thursday afternoon to me.

 

I don't think the can do a backflip from a tree branch and a 10 meter drop is actually pretty lethal iirc. That said, she can pull off similar things without much of a problem. On the other hand she's almost always on the verge of drowning during the diving sections, so why not bring some diving gear? She's not exactly cash-starved, is she.

 

Lara is from aristocratic family so she has no need to be putting herself in any danger period. She is a thrill seeker though, so it's not that surprising she'd eschew any safety gear.

 

Diving gear are not exactly easy to carry around

 

Not talking about full on diving gear here. No idea how these things are called, but they are basically little mouth pieces with small oxygen bottles attached.

Either way, it's a teeny tiny nitpick. Nothing more.

Talking about something like this:

https://www.fathomdiving.com/en/spare-air/1125-spare-air-heed-3-package.html

 

The reviews are in and they are solid. Metacritic is currently reporting scores of 83 (Xbox), 77 (PlayStation) and 81 (PC).

 

Lol :



Anyway, Metacritic is a good indicator but ultimately, you have to try the game yourself. Obviously, if the score is very low the probability is higher that you won't like the game too, but you could very prefer a game rated 75 on Metacritic than an one rated 95.

Metacritic is not everything. I'm saying that because some people only give value to game rated at 90 and more.

 

Even without a patch, it's just a detail to me. One bad isolated interpretation doesn't make a bad game.

 

Launch Trailer

 

Didnt reach the high scores I was expecting. It repeats the same mistakes of the previous 2 games but at least they expanded the exploration.

Lacks the soul of a Tomb Raider game.

 

If you pause at @0:53, this is what annoys me the most about the current Tomb Raider (and games in general), is the overuse of specular mapping, rather than a more diffused look. Never in my life have I ever witnessed someone wearing normal cotton clothing (i.e., shirt, scarf, pants, etc.) with that amount of sheen or gloss. It looks like someone sprayed a whole bottle of clothing-starch on the material, and applied heavy heat beyond the typical iron. But it doesn't end there, its the overall environment esthetics like the rainforest areas and caves that have that awful plastic-gloss. You can create the illusion of wet surfaces and materials within wet environments, without the need for overly obvious effects that give them that glossy plastic look. And yes, not every character needs to look like they came from a perfect spray-tan as well.

 

Looks like wet clothes to me. I walk in the rain a lot and this looks perfectly normal to me. Now, if he's supposed to be dry, that's an entirely different story. But that's not the case as it's raining (you can see the raindrops) in that scene.

Regards,
SB

 

Sorry, still looks terrible. If he was drenched with rain, the clothing should be matted to his body, not glossy like a car wash shine. It looks cheap and obvious, IMHO.