Don't know if anyone else has been watching, but Zachary Levi has been hosting video journals of Tomb Raider and they've been putting them on the 360 dashboard
The fifth and final episode is up now
Also Zachary Levi will be a skin in multi apparently
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Muse Among MenSuburban Bunny Princess?Its time for a new shtick Registered Userregular
I like Lara Croft as a character, she's probably one of the few characters in videogames with any education. Yeah she's sexy, but the last games I played (Anniversary and Legend) cast her in a good light. She was cool.
I will give this a shot at some point. I wish they had kept her old face though, her new design is really 'sweet'. The deaths are gruesome but they don't bother me too badly, I think they tried to push the whole 'vulnerable' thing too hard, I get that they are trying to reinvent the character but to me she was never about vulnerability. Maybe she gets to be a badass in future iterations.
Also the 'rape' controversy was overblown as fuck. It was really, really easy to tell when someone writing on it had actually seen the video, which was creepy but fairly tame and in my opinion, tastefully handled and a realistic depiction of what a lone girl like her could be experiencing in a situation like that.
lara croft's original design always felt oddly angular to me, which I guess was a product of the limited 3D at the time but it looked off when they tried to update it for modern hardware
new lara croft is still recgonizably lara croft but looks more like a real person
I'm kinda ambivalent about this. I loved the original Tomb Raider. II kinda started going down hill for me. Way too many enemies compared to the first. I have The Last Revelation, but I can't remember a thing about it. Uncharted started doing this as well. Christ, just gimme a bunch of stuff to climb around on and find crazy shit. I'm also hoping they get rid of the enemies somehow getting ahead of you in the ruins. If I have to go through an absolutely insane number of steps to unlock the only way into this place, I don't want to see a bunch of goons sitting waiting for me.
I'm kinda ambivalent about this. I loved the original Tomb Raider. II kinda started going down hill for me. Way too many enemies compared to the first. I have The Last Revelation, but I can't remember a thing about it. Uncharted started doing this as well. Christ, just gimme a bunch of stuff to climb around on and find crazy shit. I'm also hoping they get rid of the enemies somehow getting ahead of you in the ruins. If I have to go through an absolutely insane number of steps to unlock the only way into this place, I don't want to see a bunch of goons sitting waiting for me.
So. Is this a exploring game or an action game?
Sounds like it is an action game but opens up later
When the story is complete, the map opens up for you to comb the island for documents, relics and other trinkets that you left behind. Miraculously, you will actually want to do this. Without the plot pushing you through them with a shotgun to your back, Tomb Raider's locales become playgrounds, and you're free to admire their intelligent design as you ponder a relic stashed on a seemingly inaccessible treetop platform. These are far from the corridor-like environments that other action games offer; oddly enough, the game turns into something more closely resembling a traditional Tomb Raider after you've finished it.
Tomb Raider drops next Tuesday, and while our official review does an excellent job of breaking down exactly why you need it in your life, it seems some people are still under the woefully misguided belief that the game is a series of scripted, timed sequences down a "point A to point B" tunnel. Not so. Very much not so. In fact, as I continue to scour through Tomb Raider's huge, gorgeous island of Yamatai, I started getting flashbacks of some of my favorite first and third person action and adventure games released in the last few years. Which ones, you ask? Read on...
I think that image has gotten me more excited over this game than any of the trailers or footage so far
So yeah, now that I've had time to go through some of those reviews, the GameTrailers one really gets into the dissonance of survival vs. brutal killings of your enemies
So if you were expecting a carefully-told and gradual narrative about how Lara becomes a killing machine, well, prepare yourself for disappointment. I know @-Tal will be pissed among others
Luckily it sounds like a fantastic game regardless and good god look at how gorgeous this game looks in that video
For those that are squeamish to the other stuff that's been floating around from this game, the first four-and-a-half minutes of that review are free of Lara-impalings but also illustrate the dissonance between gameplay and the tone of the cutscenes
So, yeah, bummer on that front, they could have done something amazing with it
But just like with Far Cry 3, I'll take an amazing game even if there narrative missteps (or train wrecks, as far as FC3 is concerned)
I believe what they are going for is that Lara does not get a break and has to struggle for every inch of progress, much like say dark souls
what makes it not torture porn is that Lara actually perseveres and gets through it on her own, she isn't just a victim
having lara win at the end doesn't make it not torture porn, torture porn is just an awful lot of over the top pain dumped on a character to the extent that you're sure that somebody must be enjoying this otherwise it wouldn't have been made
I don't think it's meant to repulse and discomfort due to the fact that many games either reward you for killing in gruesome ways or use gruesome deaths as a reward for completing certain goals.
Honestly none of the violence against the enemies has repulsed me yet! But I'll see if there are some when the game ships
I say this a few hours after playing a game where you go into slow motion to slice dudes up and it literally tells you how many parts you're cutting them into
But the fact that she's got regenerating health kind of diminishes the effect.
Only if you are completely divorced from the graphical representation of human suffering, that's like saying "brutal shit in movies has a diminished impact because it is just pretend"
Not action gun fight stuff, that hasn't been an meaningful part of media for a long time, but things like falling 20 feet and spearing yourself on a piece of rebar should make you uncomfortable if it is done right
I am going to wait for people I know to play this game and tell me if they felt it properly toed the line between "struggling against extreme adversity" and "exploitative torture porn bullshit"
But the fact that she's got regenerating health kind of diminishes the effect.
Only if you are completely divorced from the graphical representation of human suffering, that's like saying "brutal shit in movies has a diminished impact because it is just pretend"
Not action gun fight stuff, that hasn't been an meaningful part of media for a long time, but things like falling 20 feet and spearing yourself on a piece of rebar should make you uncomfortable if it is done right
I am going to wait for people I know to play this game and tell me if they felt it properly toed the line between "struggling against extreme adversity" and "exploitative torture porn bullshit"
Except it's not like that at all. Brutal shit in a movie would have a diminishing impact if its effect is diminished throughout the movie. A better comparison would be if you combined Die Hard with Die Hard 4 or 5 where in one scene you see fairly realistic depictions of violence and the next scene, McClane becomes like an invulnerable superhero.
Witnessing human suffering will certainly be uncomfortable but if it's supposed to have lasting impact then there has to be some consistency.
I agree that it would be easier to accept the level of violence as meaningful if it reinforced the gameplay. But since this isn't Dark Souls or DayZ, I can't see this happening here. At least not for me.
Platy on
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Garlic Breadi'm a bitch i'm a bitch i'm a bitch i'm aRegistered User, Disagreeableregular
Tomb Raider drops next Tuesday, and while our official review does an excellent job of breaking down exactly why you need it in your life, it seems some people are still under the woefully misguided belief that the game is a series of scripted, timed sequences down a "point A to point B" tunnel. Not so. Very much not so. In fact, as I continue to scour through Tomb Raider's huge, gorgeous island of Yamatai, I started getting flashbacks of some of my favorite first and third person action and adventure games released in the last few years. Which ones, you ask? Read on...
I think that image has gotten me more excited over this game than any of the trailers or footage so far
I am now officially too hype for this game
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PaperLuigi44My amazement is at maximum capacity.Registered Userregular
I still might get this game if the consensus is good, but IGN hold practically no sway in my excitement for anything.
Brad from giant bomb spent a good chunk of the bombcast talking about how much of a mechanically enjoyable game it was and that he had just reached a point where he was really excited to see where the narrative goes.
Honestly none of the violence against the enemies has repulsed me yet! But I'll see if there are some when the game ships
I say this a few hours after playing a game where you go into slow motion to slice dudes up and it literally tells you how many parts you're cutting them into
It's not down to being repulsed, it's down to being necessary or not. I mean every time someone dies they don't get disembowelled and wear their entrails as a hat.
It's down to not every game needs that. Conversely you can argue which games get to be the gory ones, but you can't deny that there aren't more games like this more recently.
I think I would enjoy quicktime events a lot more if the buttons they make you press actually made sense.
I remember playing a noirish adventure car game back on the Megadrive that was made up entirely of quicktime events, but was actually fun because instead of just "MASH 'A' TO DO A SWEET DRIFT UNDER THAT TRUCK" it actually had a sequence of button presses that were pretty accurately associated with what you were doing on-screen.
Now I really want to find out what that game was again.
KwoaruConfident SmirkFlawless Golden PecsRegistered Userregular
I liked the quick time events in binary domain
because they didn't happen often and when they did I generally felt like they increased my immersion/involvement in the story
maintain your balance with the stick so you can pull your friend to safety, a cursor is moving over a bar and you have to press a button when it is in the right spot to successfully make the jump from a collapsing/exploding/perilous ledge
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UnbrokenEvaHIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered Userregular
wait there are people who actually like life or death quick time events?
because they are probably my least favourite gaming trend of the last 10 years
+2
KwoaruConfident SmirkFlawless Golden PecsRegistered Userregular
UnbrokenEvaHIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered Userregular
the only game whose QTEs I haven't hated recently was Sleeping Dogs
mostly because they weren't life or death, just "hit button to break grapple" deals. That's fine. If I fuck up or hit the wrong button in a panic I take a bit of extra damage, I can handle that.
QTEs that send me back to a loading screen if I fuck them up? Those can go straight to hell.
Honestly none of the violence against the enemies has repulsed me yet! But I'll see if there are some when the game ships
I say this a few hours after playing a game where you go into slow motion to slice dudes up and it literally tells you how many parts you're cutting them into
It's not down to being repulsed, it's down to being necessary or not. I mean every time someone dies they don't get disemboweled and wear their entrails as a hat.
It's down to not every game needs that. Conversely you can argue which games get to be the gory ones, but you can't deny that there aren't more games like this more recently.
sure I can. unless you mean recently as "the history of 3d games," There have been plenty of very violent video games in the past fifteen years, which is basically the amount of time that consoles have even been able to visually represent violence that wasn't cartoony. God of War came out 8 years ago.
motherfucking doom ended with a head on a stick. You're just selectively choosing to believe that there's been a sudden onrush of violence. There hasn't.
Posts
The only other Tomb Raider game I've played is Guardian of Light so hopefully I'll be 2 for 2 on good TR games.
The fifth and final episode is up now
Also Zachary Levi will be a skin in multi apparently
I will give this a shot at some point. I wish they had kept her old face though, her new design is really 'sweet'. The deaths are gruesome but they don't bother me too badly, I think they tried to push the whole 'vulnerable' thing too hard, I get that they are trying to reinvent the character but to me she was never about vulnerability. Maybe she gets to be a badass in future iterations.
Also the 'rape' controversy was overblown as fuck. It was really, really easy to tell when someone writing on it had actually seen the video, which was creepy but fairly tame and in my opinion, tastefully handled and a realistic depiction of what a lone girl like her could be experiencing in a situation like that.
It's already happening in a lot of these trailers
did you have the nude patch?
new lara croft is still recgonizably lara croft but looks more like a real person
9.1 from IGN
I'd post more but I'm mobile at the moment
Even Jim Sterling seems to like it, and he's usually a negative dick about any and everything
Games that aren't currently being hyped to shit, he generally is fairly even handed
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
It seems this game is pretty heavily hyped?
Whatever, just glad to see it turned out well
If this game had been delayed this long and turned to shit in the process I'd have been heartbroken
that drove me up the wall in gta4
What I'm reading seems to be more like she just gets used to killing too quickly, though?
I don't know if they'll be driving up the horror of the violence she's committing in later cutscenes
So. Is this a exploring game or an action game?
Steam ID - VeldrinD | SS Post | Wishlist
Sounds like it is an action game but opens up later
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
I think that image has gotten me more excited over this game than any of the trailers or footage so far
http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/7zar52/tomb-raider-review
So if you were expecting a carefully-told and gradual narrative about how Lara becomes a killing machine, well, prepare yourself for disappointment. I know @-Tal will be pissed among others
Luckily it sounds like a fantastic game regardless and good god look at how gorgeous this game looks in that video
For those that are squeamish to the other stuff that's been floating around from this game, the first four-and-a-half minutes of that review are free of Lara-impalings but also illustrate the dissonance between gameplay and the tone of the cutscenes
So, yeah, bummer on that front, they could have done something amazing with it
But just like with Far Cry 3, I'll take an amazing game even if there narrative missteps (or train wrecks, as far as FC3 is concerned)
having lara win at the end doesn't make it not torture porn, torture porn is just an awful lot of over the top pain dumped on a character to the extent that you're sure that somebody must be enjoying this otherwise it wouldn't have been made
I feel that it's meant to repulse and discomfort in a number of new ways
I think it's succeeding
I meant the violence to Lara specifically though
Honestly none of the violence against the enemies has repulsed me yet! But I'll see if there are some when the game ships
I say this a few hours after playing a game where you go into slow motion to slice dudes up and it literally tells you how many parts you're cutting them into
Troll
Only if you are completely divorced from the graphical representation of human suffering, that's like saying "brutal shit in movies has a diminished impact because it is just pretend"
Not action gun fight stuff, that hasn't been an meaningful part of media for a long time, but things like falling 20 feet and spearing yourself on a piece of rebar should make you uncomfortable if it is done right
I am going to wait for people I know to play this game and tell me if they felt it properly toed the line between "struggling against extreme adversity" and "exploitative torture porn bullshit"
Except it's not like that at all. Brutal shit in a movie would have a diminishing impact if its effect is diminished throughout the movie. A better comparison would be if you combined Die Hard with Die Hard 4 or 5 where in one scene you see fairly realistic depictions of violence and the next scene, McClane becomes like an invulnerable superhero.
Witnessing human suffering will certainly be uncomfortable but if it's supposed to have lasting impact then there has to be some consistency.
I am now officially too hype for this game
It's not down to being repulsed, it's down to being necessary or not. I mean every time someone dies they don't get disembowelled and wear their entrails as a hat.
It's down to not every game needs that. Conversely you can argue which games get to be the gory ones, but you can't deny that there aren't more games like this more recently.
Satans..... hints.....
I remember playing a noirish adventure car game back on the Megadrive that was made up entirely of quicktime events, but was actually fun because instead of just "MASH 'A' TO DO A SWEET DRIFT UNDER THAT TRUCK" it actually had a sequence of button presses that were pretty accurately associated with what you were doing on-screen.
Now I really want to find out what that game was again.
Steam ID - VeldrinD | SS Post | Wishlist
because they didn't happen often and when they did I generally felt like they increased my immersion/involvement in the story
maintain your balance with the stick so you can pull your friend to safety, a cursor is moving over a bar and you have to press a button when it is in the right spot to successfully make the jump from a collapsing/exploding/perilous ledge
because they are probably my least favourite gaming trend of the last 10 years
mostly because they weren't life or death, just "hit button to break grapple" deals. That's fine. If I fuck up or hit the wrong button in a panic I take a bit of extra damage, I can handle that.
QTEs that send me back to a loading screen if I fuck them up? Those can go straight to hell.
sure I can. unless you mean recently as "the history of 3d games," There have been plenty of very violent video games in the past fifteen years, which is basically the amount of time that consoles have even been able to visually represent violence that wasn't cartoony. God of War came out 8 years ago.
motherfucking doom ended with a head on a stick. You're just selectively choosing to believe that there's been a sudden onrush of violence. There hasn't.