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Lara Croft and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
UnbreakableVow
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
This thread is about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq9dDlxeRLc
Wait, no, this is more like it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI7DFJDUsNY
Okay so I am so hyped
What may be, no lie, no hyperbole, my most anticipated title ever finally hits in three weeks, after insufferable delays (this game was supposed to ship November 2011)
I count myself to be a pretty big fan of this series, as I have somehow enjoyed every game in the series even despite their incredible dips in quality (like Angel of Darkness and Underworld), so I was really excited about another reinvention of the series
Another reinvention, you say? Yeah, this series has gone through a total of four now, including the newest title.
Let's take a quick trip through the history of the series, shall we?
Tomb Raider
1996 (17 goddamn years old already, holy shit)
So Tomb Raider tells the story of this woman, Lara Croft:
...an incredibly unrealistically-well-endowed female Indiana Jones-type, as she raids tombs to find an ancient artifact called the Scion (they pronounce it skee-on for reasons they never explain!) This game ruled, holy shit. I apparently lived in a Bizarro World where no one I know owned an N64 during its heyday but everyone had PlayStations and even a few people had Saturns, so this was my first real exposure to what a fully-3D, polygonal game was, and it was breathtaking at the time. This game still has some of the best sound work I've ever seen in a game, using music very sparingly at key moments to give the player senses of fear, wonder and unease. As it's an original PlayStation game that is maybe older than some of the forumers here, approach it with that fact in mind - it's dated as hell but if you can get past that, it's still a game worth playing.
Tomb Raider II starring Lara Croft
1997
Some would argue that this is where the game started to get off the rails (the first game was strictly tombs as the name implied), but some would also argue that this is the best the series ever got. The basic controls and gunplay remained unchanged, but you were now climbing around cities, freighters and even the Great Wall of China. They also added human enemies, vehicle sequences, the most hilarious grenade launcher effect ever (fire a grenade at a tiger for best results) and Lara's hair was now in a ponytail, and the ponytail moved! Truly stunning technology.
Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft
1998
Okay, now I'm pissed. While looking up the game on Wikipedia, apparently the PC version of Tomb Raider III let you save wherever you want, similar to TR2. That is awesome and makes me wish I'd played that version. Why? Because on the PlayStation, TR3's save points were both consumables and collectibles - goddamn it sucked. The game was still decent, though you could tell it was starting to lose steam fast. They didn't really add any new gameplay features other than a sprint button, and there were too many drab industrial-type settings.
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
1999
At least they tried harder with this one. Levels had branching paths, and Lara was now able to climb and swing from ropes, and while that might not sound like a huge deal, it helped a lot of the traditionally-stiff platforming sequences feel like they had more to them. You could attach laser sights to guns and take headshots to kill your enemies, which seemed like a big deal back then (the series always had auto-aim, and still does, if you choose not to use this). It also looked really good for a PS1 game. They tried to do interesting things with the character of Lara herself as well, having some playable "young Lara" segments (an idea they would apparently base a whole game around 14 years later). Although it sold extremely well, this was basically the last Tomb Raider game people gave a shit about for a good long time...
Tomb Raider Chronicles
2000
...and rightfully so! Tomb Raider Chronicles is kind of a mess. It has a really neat story structure that allowed them to go anywhere they want with no plot explanation (levels are basically told as a series of vignettes by people close to Lara at her memorial service), but other than that, they were now on the fifth damn game of essentially the same thing and even my patience had been worn down to the nub. Combine that with the fact that this was a PS1 game launching a couple months after the PS2 hit, and it's no surprise that the series died for a while. This one is for the hardcore TR fans only, really, and even then, just for completionist sake.
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
2003
Well, they changed it, at least. Can't fault 'em for that. There are moments of real foresight here; RPG-style progression in my action-adventure games? Yes please! But it's so poorly planned and executed, and combined with what may be the worst controls I've ever seen in a big-budget title and negative reviews across the board, it was only a surprise to Eidos when this bombed the way it did. Despite spending three years in the oven, developer Core's reinvention of the series had failed in the most spectacular of fashions, and they were promptly relieved of their Tomb Raiding duties, as the series was handled to Crystal Dynamics.
Well, that certainly was a lot of negativity, wasn't it?
Yeah, it was! But you know, Crystal Dynamics? The Soul Reaver guys? Those guys were pretty good. Maybe the series had a bright future after all. Maybe I just had to give it one more chance...
Tomb Raider: Legend
2006
Far and away my favorite Tomb Raider game, and one of my favorite games of last generation (though the 360 version is best, so sorta-this generation?). Purists may still have been in a fit over the lack of tombs in a game called Tomb Raider, but man, this game just did everything so right. It controlled like you'd expect a game made by sane people to control, the gunplay was actually fun and required a bit of skill, platforming had never been better (I still think it does this even better than Uncharted did years later), levels and settings were fun and imaginative, collectibles were well-hidden and fun to search for, it had a really nifty time trial mode and the story was actually something to care about, unlike any preceding game! For a series so well-known for its heroine, she had surprisingly little character before this game, but Legend rectified that and the big MacGuffin of this entry was tied into Arthurian legend (always a plus). Sales went up, critics loved it, and Tomb Raider was suddenly relevant again, though not quite at its former standing.
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
2007
Tomb Raider Anniversary! Happy 11th Anniversary, Tomb Raider! Well, that's an odd year to celebrate, but whatever! They remade the first game, same thin plot and all, but with expanded levels and the same sane-person controls and combat of Legend. While obviously not quite as impacting as Legend, it was a fun nostalgia trip for those of us who remembered the original and a nice little "in-between" game for those waiting for the follow-up to Legend's story (because the story was something to care about now). Protip: Backflipping and shooting at the T-Rex doesn't work anymore.
Tomb Raider: Underworld
2008
Oy. Notice the years? Notice that this came out in 2008, and there was an entry in each of the preceding two years? Crystal Dynamics was coming dangerously close to falling into the same trap Core did; annualized releases without anything new and relevant to add to the mix. Underworld is kind of a murky mess, graphically, and the levels are exceedingly drab. They try to milk some nostalgia out of you at the beginning with some underwater levels where you fight sharks, reminiscent of TR2, but after the second movie wherein Lara Croft punches a shark, there's just no topping it anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z6_GAPIkTU
Go to 1:37 to see shark-punching. On top of that, it continues Legend's pretty good story in the dumbest way possible. I generally have to advise against playing Underworld, unless, like me, you're a crazy person.
Time to mix it up, Crystal D
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
2010
I was so unbelievably pumped for this game and no one else cared! And then it came out and blew everyone's socks off. It's an isometric, twin-stick shooter/platformer best played with a co-op partner. None of those things I just said have applied to any previous Tomb Raider game, which might be why they left that out of the title. This might also be the straight-up most accessible game in the series, it's only $15 on XBLA/PSN and probably cheaper on Steam, and I implore you all to play it, play it.
Okay Crystal D, that was pretty great, but now what? Lara Croft 2? I could use another one or two of those, but what are the long-term plans?
And then that Game Informer cover happened
Oh.
And inside they talked about their awareness that the series was growing stale, that they needed to push the series to new places for games, not just new places for Tomb Raider. Which is great! Because as good as Legend was, it was just a catch-up to where modern games were in 2006. It was funny that they said this, because initial trailers of this game (back at E3 2011) basically made it look like Uncharted Starring Lara Croft. And while that's something I'd be fine with, it seemed to go against what they said. Anyways, I was pumped. November 2011 release, I was all aboard that hype train. And then that aforementioned E3 trailer hit, and while it was a great trailer, it hit with a hard truth at the end: Fall 2012. Fuck. Another year.
So time goes by. I'd like to think I'm a patient guy. Good things come to those who wait, etc. I wait another year from that E3, and apparently Microsoft are showcasing Tomb Raider at their press conference! Great, I get to see how far it's come along. What I saw was a trailer that was very...worrying, is the word I would use. Not because of the new delay teased at the end (March 5th, 2013 was now the provisional release date) but because Lara didn't seem to be doing a whole lot here except getting victimized. Now, I am down for some bad shit happening in video games, if it's handled well; I think The Walking Dead handled some objectionable content in satisfactory ways. The new trailer even implied attempted rape; I'm not necessarily against this subject in video games, and honestly, on an island that's filled with a bunch of males with ill intentions, I'd be surprised if there weren't some sort of scene like this.
But what worried me here was weakness - they were intentionally showing Lara not only victimized in myriad ways, but also crying and speaking with an undeniable fear in her voice (understandably) as you guided her through dangerous environments. The first trailer ended on the tagline, "A Survivor Is Born." This newest trailer did not convey this notion at all:
And then the PR shitstorm happened
So an executive producer on the game, guy by the name of Ron Rosenberg, goes on to say stupid shit like this:
I bolded what I feel is the stupid shit, but I underlined what I felt could go in an interesting way.
The newest trailer, the VGA trailer at the top of the page, that's what is giving me the most faith that hopefully this Rosenberg was just talking out of his ass and catering to what he thought his audience would
be without any realistic notions of common sense. Some shit is going down with Lara for sure, but she seems to be rising to meet the challenge even after some initial hardships. From a cinematic perspective, it has setpieces that look like Uncharted 2 turned to 11. From a gameplay standpoint, it almost seems like a third-person Far Cry 3 (from what I understand, the game even has a similar leveling and ability system).
So obviously, this game is rated M, and for good reason. They seem to be going for a real hard edge here, something beyond just simple shocks like blood and grisly deaths. It could be they fail miserably! Maybe. Maybe they make a horribly misguided product that does more to offend than it does to provoke genuine emotional response. Maybe they get that stuff down, but the game turns out to be a clunky mess. Maybe it follows Far Cry 3 even further and just has the dumbest plot in the world while offering an amazing play experience.
Who knows?
But this shit is three weeks away, finally, and I know I can't be the only one who is super-excited
Holy shit I spent way too much time typing about Tomb Raider but whatever it's 7:30 AM leave me alone. Unless you wanna talk about Tomb Raider
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq9dDlxeRLcWait, no, this is more like it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI7DFJDUsNYOkay so I am so hyped
What may be, no lie, no hyperbole, my most anticipated title ever finally hits in three weeks, after insufferable delays (this game was supposed to ship November 2011)
I count myself to be a pretty big fan of this series, as I have somehow enjoyed every game in the series even despite their incredible dips in quality (like Angel of Darkness and Underworld), so I was really excited about another reinvention of the series
Another reinvention, you say? Yeah, this series has gone through a total of four now, including the newest title.
Let's take a quick trip through the history of the series, shall we?
Tomb Raider
1996 (17 goddamn years old already, holy shit)
So Tomb Raider tells the story of this woman, Lara Croft:
...an incredibly unrealistically-well-endowed female Indiana Jones-type, as she raids tombs to find an ancient artifact called the Scion (they pronounce it skee-on for reasons they never explain!) This game ruled, holy shit. I apparently lived in a Bizarro World where no one I know owned an N64 during its heyday but everyone had PlayStations and even a few people had Saturns, so this was my first real exposure to what a fully-3D, polygonal game was, and it was breathtaking at the time. This game still has some of the best sound work I've ever seen in a game, using music very sparingly at key moments to give the player senses of fear, wonder and unease. As it's an original PlayStation game that is maybe older than some of the forumers here, approach it with that fact in mind - it's dated as hell but if you can get past that, it's still a game worth playing.
Tomb Raider II starring Lara Croft
1997
Some would argue that this is where the game started to get off the rails (the first game was strictly tombs as the name implied), but some would also argue that this is the best the series ever got. The basic controls and gunplay remained unchanged, but you were now climbing around cities, freighters and even the Great Wall of China. They also added human enemies, vehicle sequences, the most hilarious grenade launcher effect ever (fire a grenade at a tiger for best results) and Lara's hair was now in a ponytail, and the ponytail moved! Truly stunning technology.
Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft
1998
Okay, now I'm pissed. While looking up the game on Wikipedia, apparently the PC version of Tomb Raider III let you save wherever you want, similar to TR2. That is awesome and makes me wish I'd played that version. Why? Because on the PlayStation, TR3's save points were both consumables and collectibles - goddamn it sucked. The game was still decent, though you could tell it was starting to lose steam fast. They didn't really add any new gameplay features other than a sprint button, and there were too many drab industrial-type settings.
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
1999
At least they tried harder with this one. Levels had branching paths, and Lara was now able to climb and swing from ropes, and while that might not sound like a huge deal, it helped a lot of the traditionally-stiff platforming sequences feel like they had more to them. You could attach laser sights to guns and take headshots to kill your enemies, which seemed like a big deal back then (the series always had auto-aim, and still does, if you choose not to use this). It also looked really good for a PS1 game. They tried to do interesting things with the character of Lara herself as well, having some playable "young Lara" segments (an idea they would apparently base a whole game around 14 years later). Although it sold extremely well, this was basically the last Tomb Raider game people gave a shit about for a good long time...
Tomb Raider Chronicles
2000
...and rightfully so! Tomb Raider Chronicles is kind of a mess. It has a really neat story structure that allowed them to go anywhere they want with no plot explanation (levels are basically told as a series of vignettes by people close to Lara at her memorial service), but other than that, they were now on the fifth damn game of essentially the same thing and even my patience had been worn down to the nub. Combine that with the fact that this was a PS1 game launching a couple months after the PS2 hit, and it's no surprise that the series died for a while. This one is for the hardcore TR fans only, really, and even then, just for completionist sake.
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
2003
Well, they changed it, at least. Can't fault 'em for that. There are moments of real foresight here; RPG-style progression in my action-adventure games? Yes please! But it's so poorly planned and executed, and combined with what may be the worst controls I've ever seen in a big-budget title and negative reviews across the board, it was only a surprise to Eidos when this bombed the way it did. Despite spending three years in the oven, developer Core's reinvention of the series had failed in the most spectacular of fashions, and they were promptly relieved of their Tomb Raiding duties, as the series was handled to Crystal Dynamics.
Well, that certainly was a lot of negativity, wasn't it?
Yeah, it was! But you know, Crystal Dynamics? The Soul Reaver guys? Those guys were pretty good. Maybe the series had a bright future after all. Maybe I just had to give it one more chance...
Tomb Raider: Legend
2006
Far and away my favorite Tomb Raider game, and one of my favorite games of last generation (though the 360 version is best, so sorta-this generation?). Purists may still have been in a fit over the lack of tombs in a game called Tomb Raider, but man, this game just did everything so right. It controlled like you'd expect a game made by sane people to control, the gunplay was actually fun and required a bit of skill, platforming had never been better (I still think it does this even better than Uncharted did years later), levels and settings were fun and imaginative, collectibles were well-hidden and fun to search for, it had a really nifty time trial mode and the story was actually something to care about, unlike any preceding game! For a series so well-known for its heroine, she had surprisingly little character before this game, but Legend rectified that and the big MacGuffin of this entry was tied into Arthurian legend (always a plus). Sales went up, critics loved it, and Tomb Raider was suddenly relevant again, though not quite at its former standing.
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
2007
Tomb Raider Anniversary! Happy 11th Anniversary, Tomb Raider! Well, that's an odd year to celebrate, but whatever! They remade the first game, same thin plot and all, but with expanded levels and the same sane-person controls and combat of Legend. While obviously not quite as impacting as Legend, it was a fun nostalgia trip for those of us who remembered the original and a nice little "in-between" game for those waiting for the follow-up to Legend's story (because the story was something to care about now). Protip: Backflipping and shooting at the T-Rex doesn't work anymore.
Tomb Raider: Underworld
2008
Oy. Notice the years? Notice that this came out in 2008, and there was an entry in each of the preceding two years? Crystal Dynamics was coming dangerously close to falling into the same trap Core did; annualized releases without anything new and relevant to add to the mix. Underworld is kind of a murky mess, graphically, and the levels are exceedingly drab. They try to milk some nostalgia out of you at the beginning with some underwater levels where you fight sharks, reminiscent of TR2, but after the second movie wherein Lara Croft punches a shark, there's just no topping it anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z6_GAPIkTUGo to 1:37 to see shark-punching. On top of that, it continues Legend's pretty good story in the dumbest way possible. I generally have to advise against playing Underworld, unless, like me, you're a crazy person.
Time to mix it up, Crystal D
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
2010
I was so unbelievably pumped for this game and no one else cared! And then it came out and blew everyone's socks off. It's an isometric, twin-stick shooter/platformer best played with a co-op partner. None of those things I just said have applied to any previous Tomb Raider game, which might be why they left that out of the title. This might also be the straight-up most accessible game in the series, it's only $15 on XBLA/PSN and probably cheaper on Steam, and I implore you all to play it, play it.
Okay Crystal D, that was pretty great, but now what? Lara Croft 2? I could use another one or two of those, but what are the long-term plans?
And then that Game Informer cover happened
Oh.
And inside they talked about their awareness that the series was growing stale, that they needed to push the series to new places for games, not just new places for Tomb Raider. Which is great! Because as good as Legend was, it was just a catch-up to where modern games were in 2006. It was funny that they said this, because initial trailers of this game (back at E3 2011) basically made it look like Uncharted Starring Lara Croft. And while that's something I'd be fine with, it seemed to go against what they said. Anyways, I was pumped. November 2011 release, I was all aboard that hype train. And then that aforementioned E3 trailer hit, and while it was a great trailer, it hit with a hard truth at the end: Fall 2012. Fuck. Another year.
So time goes by. I'd like to think I'm a patient guy. Good things come to those who wait, etc. I wait another year from that E3, and apparently Microsoft are showcasing Tomb Raider at their press conference! Great, I get to see how far it's come along. What I saw was a trailer that was very...worrying, is the word I would use. Not because of the new delay teased at the end (March 5th, 2013 was now the provisional release date) but because Lara didn't seem to be doing a whole lot here except getting victimized. Now, I am down for some bad shit happening in video games, if it's handled well; I think The Walking Dead handled some objectionable content in satisfactory ways. The new trailer even implied attempted rape; I'm not necessarily against this subject in video games, and honestly, on an island that's filled with a bunch of males with ill intentions, I'd be surprised if there weren't some sort of scene like this.
But what worried me here was weakness - they were intentionally showing Lara not only victimized in myriad ways, but also crying and speaking with an undeniable fear in her voice (understandably) as you guided her through dangerous environments. The first trailer ended on the tagline, "A Survivor Is Born." This newest trailer did not convey this notion at all:
And then the PR shitstorm happened
So an executive producer on the game, guy by the name of Ron Rosenberg, goes on to say stupid shit like this:
"When people play Lara, they don't really project themselves into the character," Rosenberg told me at E3 last week when I asked if it was difficult to develop for a female protagonist.
"They're more like 'I want to protect her.' There's this sort of dynamic of 'I'm going to this adventure with her and trying to protect her.'"
So is she still the hero? I asked Rosenberg if we should expect to look at Lara a little bit differently than we have in the past.
"She's definitely the hero but— you're kind of like her helper," he said. "When you see her have to face these challenges, you start to root for her in a way that you might not root for a male character."
The new Lara Croft isn't just less battle-hardened; she's less voluptuous. Gone are her ridiculous proportions and skimpy clothing. This Lara feels more human, more real. That's intentional, Rosenberg says.
"You start to root for her in a way that you might not root for a male character."
"The ability to see her as a human is even more enticing to me than the more sexualized version of yesteryear," he said. "She literally goes from zero to hero... we're sort of building her up and just when she gets confident, we break her down again."
In the new Tomb Raider, Lara Croft will suffer. Her best friend will be kidnapped. She'll get taken prisoner by island scavengers. And then, Rosenberg says, those scavengers will try to rape her.
"She is literally turned into a cornered animal," Rosenberg said. "It's a huge step in her evolution: she's forced to either fight back or die."
It's some dark material, the type of content you might not expect from an action-adventure game like Tomb Raider. But Rosenberg isn't worried about alarming people too much. He says players will see right away that this is a darker, "more mature" version of Lara's story. He compared it to the origin story of a comic book like Spider-Man or Batman, saying he thinks it "has that feel to it."
"We're not trying to be over the top, shock people for shock's sake," he said. "We're trying to tell a great origin story."
I bolded what I feel is the stupid shit, but I underlined what I felt could go in an interesting way.
The newest trailer, the VGA trailer at the top of the page, that's what is giving me the most faith that hopefully this Rosenberg was just talking out of his ass and catering to what he thought his audience would
be without any realistic notions of common sense. Some shit is going down with Lara for sure, but she seems to be rising to meet the challenge even after some initial hardships. From a cinematic perspective, it has setpieces that look like Uncharted 2 turned to 11. From a gameplay standpoint, it almost seems like a third-person Far Cry 3 (from what I understand, the game even has a similar leveling and ability system).
So obviously, this game is rated M, and for good reason. They seem to be going for a real hard edge here, something beyond just simple shocks like blood and grisly deaths. It could be they fail miserably! Maybe. Maybe they make a horribly misguided product that does more to offend than it does to provoke genuine emotional response. Maybe they get that stuff down, but the game turns out to be a clunky mess. Maybe it follows Far Cry 3 even further and just has the dumbest plot in the world while offering an amazing play experience.
Who knows?
But this shit is three weeks away, finally, and I know I can't be the only one who is super-excited
Holy shit I spent way too much time typing about Tomb Raider but whatever it's 7:30 AM leave me alone. Unless you wanna talk about Tomb Raider
UnbreakableVow on
+1
Posts
Satans..... hints.....
Satans..... hints.....
So did I, and while I'm sure all that content will still be in the game, I'm hoping the tone is more in line with the newest trailer I put at the top of the page
I don't mind a character going through some shit, but I need to know she's eventually going to be able to handle it and get out of it, otherwise it's just exploitation
I'm hoping it isn't though?
Satans..... hints.....
Also I am hoping they cut down on all the torture porn from the original announce trailer.
3DS: 2981-5304-3227
Also it features Daniel Craig with an awful American accent
Both movies are dumb fun
And the first film has straight-up an amazing licensed soundtrack
everything I've seen thus far makes the violence seem really empty and gratuitous
but I haven't seen enough to make a firm decision on whether or not it actually is all empty and gratuitous
iunno
tumblr | instagram | twitter | steam
what makes it not torture porn is that Lara actually perseveres and gets through it on her own, she isn't just a victim
Yeah, exactly this
Unless the ending of this game goes horribly wrong, I think this is what will be delivered
I shouldn't watch it as it proves my point?
Satans..... hints.....
Not really seeing how it's too different from this
They're both similarly hard to watch, and should be
http://www.viddler.com/v/fdc84458?secret=36285036
yeah I was just about to post that it's no different from the RE4 deaths.
Everything I've seen has just been a very violent survival action game, aside from the interview with the producer.
I am not sure what E3 preview you watched but the one I saw mainly featured Lara falling on a piece of rebar and then stumbling injured through a cave to make her escape.
While the rebar thing was absolutely brutal I'm not sure it counts as man on woman violence unless you are arguing its some sort of phallic symbolism.
I believe he is referring to the attempted rape
how dreadful that must be for you to experience
also this game is written by Rhianna Pratchett (Yes that Pratchett), who also wrote mirrors edge.
I hope you don't take this the wrong way Kochi but this post made me giggle.
tumblr | instagram | twitter | steam
May
I'm also curious about Pratchett
Mirror's Edge had a neat world but a garbage story, but I don't think she was entirely to blame for that
the specific scene he was talking about is seen in its entirety at 2:20 in this trailer, that is definitely some attempted rape but apparently it doesn't go beyond this
So your saying I shouldn't say that from what I see this game feels exploitive and explain why? Because what you said is pretty belittling and rude.
Satans..... hints.....
strange date
i am so excited
(as soon as uncharted 3 came out i was sure the brains trust at naughty dog had been up to something on the side, and yep, it's this... oh god i hope it's wonderful. it will be wonderful.)
go ahead and explain why then
Because if I just said violence against women and displayed it with a lack context it wouldn't mean anything so I added context and you were rude.
Secondly not all violence against women does make me uncomfortable, women on women violence is no less horrid than man on man violence, but it isn't necesarily exploitive.
Satans..... hints.....