Tomb Raider 360: downloadable

[pipo]

Winds of change...

Eidos will release Tomb Raider Anniversary for Xbox 360 via the Live Markeplace this autumn - the first time a full retail game has been rolled out via downloads.

The title will be avalable in four episodes; the first two will be released with a training mission in September, with the next two arriving shortly afterwards. A full retail version won't be released until later in the year.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/27536/Eidos-shuns-retail-with-Tomb-Raider-360

And from http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6027&Itemid=2

All four episodes will cost gamers $29.99.

What's that supposed to mean? A piece? Nice try...

 

[Zaphod]

What's that supposed to mean? A piece? Nice try...

Doubt it. The game is $29.99 on other platforms, so that kind of hike, a quadrupling of the price, obviously isn't on the cards. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say $9.99 a pop with $29.99 for the set.

 

[iceberg187]

Doubt it. The game is $29.99 on other platforms, so that kind of hike, a quadrupling of the price, obviously isn't on the cards. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say $9.99 a pop with $29.99 for the set.

All 4 put together is $29.99

 

[Nesh]

Yep. The full game will cost that much. Not the piece.

It should be interesting to see how this first step will change the way developers distribute their games in the future. Although I must say this is kind of an unfair approach since there are territories in the world where mass usage of fast connection speeds wont exist for decades, if ever. These consumers can only get their games through shops.

It could be a blessing though for regions where broadband is common

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Nicer profits for someone then! If they sell it for the same price but without stores getting a cut, someone will be happy. As a consumer I'd be disappointed though. Normally I get a choice with boxed software to pay more for the disk and manual, or get it a bit cheaper as a download.

Ignoring that issue, a full download is something substantial. What size is the game in GB?

 

[macabre]

The PC version is 3,9 gig. I recommend that version anyway. It runs buttersmooth even on older hardware. I send it to my TV in 1080p over DVI/HDMI and it`s a great experience.

 

[Todd33]

Nicer profits for someone then! If they sell it for the same price but without stores getting a cut, someone will be happy. As a consumer I'd be disappointed though. Normally I get a choice with boxed software to pay more for the disk and manual, or get it a bit cheaper as a download.

Ignoring that issue, a full download is something substantial. What size is the game in GB?

Ya, zero trade in value, not a great deal for the customer. Stores also discount games on release day and then after, but this might be like Steam where the product is always more than then store price.

 

[inefficient]

The PC version is 3,9 gig. I recommend that version anyway. It runs buttersmooth even on older hardware. I send it to my TV in 1080p over DVI/HDMI and it`s a great experience.

I agree. The PC version is amazing.

I played the original Tomb Raider on a 486 DX4 that could not even manage a steady frame rate at 640x480-- but the game was still amazing. So playing this remake 10 years later on not even a very high end PC (7800gtx+X2 3800) at 1920x1200 is just such a joy.

Of course the Xbox version will have achievements which is cool because there are lots of treasures to hunt for. And I bet a PS3 version will eventually come out on disc and it will be a 1080p game.

 

[22psi]

I wished all games had this option to be DL only at 29.99

 

[inefficient]

I wished all games had this option to be DL only at 29.99

But in this case, it's only available at that price if you have already purchased the previous TR game Legends at full price. So they are kind of treating this as a $30 expansion.

 

[infinity4]

so graphics are based on Tomb Raider: Legend right?

 

[Zaphod]

But in this case, it's only available at that price if you have already purchased the previous TR game Legends at full price. So they are kind of treating this as a $30 expansion.

If the online-distributed edition is limited to owners of 'Legend', I'd bet that it has to do with download sizes from Live rather than any explicit attempt to treat it as an expansion. I bet the eventual retail version will cost the same as it does on other platforms.

 

[Mariner]

I remember back when Tomb Raider came out, I didn't think it sounded like much fun. I then played the demo and immediately bought the game because I thought it was fantastic!

I remember one of my friends who played through the game without a graphics card being amazed at the difference between the software renderer and the Voodoo-specific (Glide?) remember which I used when I played the game. Anybody else recall the edge anti-aliasing support in this game? :smile:

 

[Capeta]

The first time I played TR was on the PS1, the original version with pixelated graphics. After that I played the PowerVR version with a PCX1 card which ran at 30fps at 1024x768 24bit color with nice filtering and mipmapping etc.

 

[RobertR1]

I'm super lazy so bring on downloadable games! If I can just turn on my console and start playing any of the games I own, I'm all for it.

Who says you can't have online trade-ins and 2nd hand sales directly to other users later on as the platform evolves? Esp. in a closed enviornment such as Live, I can see something like that being implemented if downloading full games service takes off. This would actually be a huge deal if they could pull it off in the long run.

BTW, plenty of consumers don't mind such a service as clearly indicated by the success and popularity of Steam. As I consumer I rather have a choice than not.

 

[DieH@rd]

Guys at EGM podcast have confirmed that only users that have Tomb Raider Legend will be able to play this downoadable Anniversary. TBL disc has to be in drive during the play.

 

[Simon F]

I remember one of my friends who played through the game without a graphics card being amazed at the difference between the software renderer and the Voodoo-specific (Glide?) remember which I used when I played the game. Anybody else recall the edge anti-aliasing support in this game? :smile:

I thought the edge antialiasing was only in another pors of the game? I certainly can't recall seeing it in the original source code** when we did the PCX1/PCX2 ports. (** Oh, and thanks again to "Core" for writing clean structured C code that was a pleasure for us to port. If only the same could have been said for some other titles that were attempted )

The first time I played TR was on the PS1, the original version with pixelated graphics. After that I played the PowerVR version with a PCX1 card which ran at 30fps at 1024x768 24bit color with nice filtering and mipmapping etc.

PCX2 had better filtering and would have been a smidgeon faster but I suppose some people's systems would have been limited by the write bandwidth of their 2D card which was sometimes abysmal.

I think the nicest feature was the "blue fog" used in the water not only because it looked "cool" but because it was so easy to add. The translucent objects (e.g. vines/plants and ammunition) on the other hand were a lot trickier because PCX1/2 didn't have punch-through/alpha-test transparency and so all those objects had to be sorted. Then again, it did make it look prettier than the result on, say, the Voodoo.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Nicer profits for someone then! If they sell it for the same price but without stores getting a cut, someone will be happy. As a consumer I'd be disappointed though. Normally I get a choice with boxed software to pay more for the disk and manual, or get it a bit cheaper as a download.

Ignoring that issue, a full download is something substantial. What size is the game in GB?

Its a great deal for us europeans aswell.

A X360 game normally retails for $100 here in norway. $30 is super cheap

 

[Mariner]

I thought the edge antialiasing was only in another ports of the game? I certainly can't recall seeing it in the original source code** when we did the PCX1/PCX2 ports. (** Oh, and thanks again to "Core" for writing clean structured C code that was a pleasure for us to port. If only the same could have been said for some other titles that were attempted )

I'm sure the 3dfx patch supported edge anti-aliasing through some kind of hack. Admittedly, however, the game didn't run anywhere near as smoothly with AA enabled! IIRC, it ran at pretty much a solid 30fps without AA but dropped down to around 10-15fps in complex areas when AA was enabled. You turned it on and off using one of the Function keys and I'm pretty sure it also included the option to do the same with mip-mapping