Tomb Raider: Underworld

Yes, shadow seems to be a little off as well. The problem with shadowmaps is if you remove jaggies by bluring it/sampling (or whatever you do to smooth it), it get's unnatural softness around the contact point. In reality penumbra next to the contact point pretty much doesn't exist and you have hard transition from umbra to the lit part. So yeah, shadow contributes to this effect too. But it's great to know that IK is in and this kind of behavior is at least minimized. :)

Cheers!
 
In hentai, nothing's ever too big.

...so I've uh... heard. :)

Pretty large scale! Can't wait to see more, and thanks for the blog link.
 
ShootMyMonkey said:
I was wondering when I'd first see a comment like that about the kraken. Well the kraken's a little too big for that. Though I suppose the anime attitude would be that it's still worth a shot.

The top banner bar here should give you some sense of scale --
http://www.tombraider.com/server.php?show=nav.8
Click to expand...

Hello again. What kind of play time length are you aiming for? And have you succeeded? Will there be reason for replay? Merci Monkey Owner
 
AlStrong said:
In hentai, nothing's ever too big.

...so I've uh... heard. :)
Click to expand...
Ah, yes. I think some scientists have theorized that in hentai physics, female sex organs warp space and time within them and can extend for several light years.

deepbrown said:
Hello again. What kind of play time length are you aiming for? And have you succeeded? Will there be reason for replay? Merci Monkey Owner
Click to expand...
I honestly don't know what sort of play time goals there were, since I'm not specifically on the game team.

As for Tomb Raider and corresponding focus testing, there isn't really a good gauge at the moment as to how the "average" player plays through and at what rate. It was mentioned in in one of the podcasts (I think the first one) that going through at maximum speed without cheating, making no errors, and knowing the answers to every puzzle, it's about twice as long to playthrough as Legend is given the same sort of playthrough.
Here's the podcast link (I think it's mentioned somewhere near the last 2 minutes or so) --
http://www.tombraider.com/upload/mp3/TRU_podcast1.mp3
 
ShootMyMonkey said:
Ah, yes. I think some scientists have theorized that in hentai physics, female sex organs warp space and time within them and can extend for several light years.


I honestly don't know what sort of play time goals there were, since I'm not specifically on the game team.

As for Tomb Raider and corresponding focus testing, there isn't really a good gauge at the moment as to how the "average" player plays through and at what rate. It was mentioned in in one of the podcasts (I think the first one) that going through at maximum speed without cheating, making no errors, and knowing the answers to every puzzle, it's about twice as long to playthrough as Legend is given the same sort of playthrough.
Here's the podcast link (I think it's mentioned somewhere near the last 2 minutes or so) --
http://www.tombraider.com/upload/mp3/TRU_podcast1.mp3
Click to expand...

OK good. Legend was far too short IMO. But I think it's very important you get an accurate average - though it's most likely too late now. Because on asking NT on Heavenly Swor'd game length they always said 10-12hours...it turned out to be quite a bit less than that for the average player.
 
Problem is there's no such gauge for 'Average Player', and such a gauge would be hard to read off anyhow. eg. A lot of the first people to buy a game are likely fans of the genre, and so their average ability will be higher than those drawn to the game outside their usual gaming experiences. Those same average players who whiz through an action romp might stutter along a bit on a shooter. Unless someone were to create a scientific research panel of mixed gamers and study their performance, any 'average' figures are pretty much guess-work, probably erring on the optimistic side for sales reasons.
 
I agree with Shifty, I would guess for the Heavenly sword type game, I am an average player or worse :D And I spent about 12 hours I think to get to the final boss.

Uncharted I did in 9 or 10 I think and COD4 I did over 2-3 days of smaller sessions. Darn work takes so much time ;)
 
That too, I can't imagine that they'd even be looking for an average gamer across the entire spectrum, either. I can only picture it, at best, being something like "average among gamers who might buy Tomb Raider." Of course, the earliest buyers are the sort of people who are so attached to TR that they'll leap on that has "Tomb Raider" in the title... and people like that are very likely to get through much quicker than most people.

Of course, these are the same people who I strangely find will fight tooth and nail to defend the notion that Angel of Darkness was a fantastic game, so that gives you an idea just how large a population they represent.
 
Yeesh... I feel vaguely filthy spamming this stuff, but at least its on a forum that has a significant share of discourse that leans on the intelligent end of the spectrum and not that which imbues the stereotypical gaming forum... you know, the type of forums where the limits of people's brain capacity bring them to such eloquent usage of the English language like "zomg!!!"

Anyway --
1up has their little week-long feature on TR, and it basically finished with today's addition of a preview that basically spoke at length about the first level.
http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3168332

Preview --
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3168456&p=37

But of course, the crucial thing everybody wants is more screens :
media

media


http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3165177&sec=IMAGES

And yes, all of these are scenes from the first level. The only screenshots from a different level date back to February (November build, actually) with the Mayan calendar puzzle bit. I expect a perfect storm of frustration from here on out.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Q: Are the camera controls the same underwater as on dry land? Are there options for inverted X and Y axis?
 
AlStrong said:
Q: Are the camera controls the same underwater as on dry land? Are there options for inverted X and Y axis?
Click to expand...
Yes and yes.

I'm not 100% sure about camera control when you're using the screenshot functions, but I haven't really tested it myself so I don't know for sure on that one. I'll surely have to test it at some point, though, seeing as how likely it is that there will be some nasty bugs falling on my lap that will be associated with it.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Problem is there's no such gauge for 'Average Player', and such a gauge would be hard to read off anyhow. eg. A lot of the first people to buy a game are likely fans of the genre, and so their average ability will be higher than those drawn to the game outside their usual gaming experiences. Those same average players who whiz through an action romp might stutter along a bit on a shooter. Unless someone were to create a scientific research panel of mixed gamers and study their performance, any 'average' figures are pretty much guess-work, probably erring on the optimistic side for sales reasons.
Click to expand...

I know, but it's very simple to have a reliable test to record playtime...get your friends and families on it. I think it's important.

I also thinks it's important to have someone on the team to know how to pace a game...how to make a game FEEL like it should now end, that feels like it is fulfilling in its conclusion.

Leading gamers towards a fake ending and then surprising them with more gameplay has been the best way I've seen to make a 10-12 hours game feel much longer than it actually is.

Plus each section should become more lengthy - start with a shortish training level, building up with changes in pace to big FAT levels towards the end. Many games fail by making levels shorter than the one before it (considering that the player has a better grasp over the controls and will be playing at a faster speed as the game goes on).
 
ShootMyMonkey said:
But of course, the crucial thing everybody wants is more screens :
Click to expand...

Do you know if the PC version will becoming out day and date with the 360 version? I'm torn on which version to get. I'd have to forgo achievements and xblive if I went pc, but on pc I can get super sampling and 60fps on the plasma tv and still use the wireless 360 controller with it anyways while playing it on the couch. New pics look legit btw :)
 
joker454 said:
Do you know if the PC version will becoming out day and date with the 360 version? I'm torn on which version to get. I'd have to forgo achievements and xblive if I went pc, but on pc I can get super sampling and 60fps on the plasma tv and still use the wireless 360 controller with it anyways while playing it on the couch.
Click to expand...
Honestly not sure. Although everything we do applies to the PC as well as the 360/PS3 (and certain universal things like UI applies to PS2/Wii), a lot of the PC-specific work is done by Nixxes. I'm not aware of any indication that they're due to ship on a different date than anyone else, but that doesn't mean they're not. As far as I'm concerned, I work as if they're due on the same date, since most all I do affects all platforms (save the DS version).
 
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