As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
We're funding a new Acquisitions Incorporated series on Kickstarter right now! Check it out at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pennyarcade/acquisitions-incorporated-the-series-2

Tomb Raider: Underworld - Stonking Great Tits!

1246

Posts

  • ChtulieChtulie Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Any Wii/ps2 reviews yet? Or people who have got these versions?

    Aside, the tomb raider retrospective on retronauts .. isn't all that. There's an interview in an old 1up show episode pre the release of TR: Legend where they interview Toby Garland which is much more insightful.
    (the retronauts episode is like doing a Prince of Persia retrospective and never even mentioning Jordan Mechner).

    Chtulie on
  • RookRook Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    So... you can't rebind the mouse buttons in this game. How is that not completely unfucking-believably dumb.

    Rook on
  • agoajagoaj Top Tier One FearRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Rook wrote: »
    So... you can't rebind the mouse buttons in this game. How is that not completely unfucking-believably dumb.

    Just like Lara, you can never go back...

    agoaj on
    ujav5b9gwj1s.png
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Shoany wrote: »
    Worst. Camera. Ever.

    I don't know how you could take the Legend engine and make this game so painful to play. I actually got motion sick and nearly threw up while playing. That hasn't happened to me since I played Wolfenstein 3D for 3 hours straight when I was a kid. Including games ranging from Doom to Descent to Mario 64 to Mirror's Edge.

    It's not just the camera that contributes... Lara jumps horribly and suddenly from hotspot to hotspot, and the sudden jumps the camera makes to keep up are what I suspect jar me so. You'll press a button, say "use," and lara will slide unnaturally and far too quickly into place to play the animation. Hell, you can press "jump" and sometimes she'll slide through the air, again unnaturally and far too quicly, to wherever you were planning on jumping to. A lot of the animations don't blend well. Just... ow. The "pushing foliage out of the way" thing that has been mentioned is really cheesy, and amounts to iffy collision detection triggering canned and choppy animations. Assassin's Creed this is not.

    On the bright side, Lara's looking hotter than ever, and the environments are pretty. That said, I'll be sad to return this to EB for a fraction of what I paid for it a night before... but happy to pick up Valkyria or COD5 instead. Anyone in Toronto want a barely-used copy for 40 bucks? PS3.

    Why not put it on www.goozex.com ??

    urahonky on
  • ChtulieChtulie Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Chtulie wrote: »

    There's a thread on this, and it's not an uncommon practice.

    urahonky on
  • ShoanyShoany Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    ...wow! I was just thinking something along these lines would totally make sense. Will check it out later, thanks! Once again the internets prove a quicker draw than I.

    urahonky wrote: »
    Shoany wrote: »
    Worst. Camera. Ever.

    I don't know how you could take the Legend engine and make this game so painful to play. I actually got motion sick and nearly threw up while playing. That hasn't happened to me since I played Wolfenstein 3D for 3 hours straight when I was a kid. Including games ranging from Doom to Descent to Mario 64 to Mirror's Edge.

    It's not just the camera that contributes... Lara jumps horribly and suddenly from hotspot to hotspot, and the sudden jumps the camera makes to keep up are what I suspect jar me so. You'll press a button, say "use," and lara will slide unnaturally and far too quickly into place to play the animation. Hell, you can press "jump" and sometimes she'll slide through the air, again unnaturally and far too quicly, to wherever you were planning on jumping to. A lot of the animations don't blend well. Just... ow. The "pushing foliage out of the way" thing that has been mentioned is really cheesy, and amounts to iffy collision detection triggering canned and choppy animations. Assassin's Creed this is not.

    On the bright side, Lara's looking hotter than ever, and the environments are pretty. That said, I'll be sad to return this to EB for a fraction of what I paid for it a night before... but happy to pick up Valkyria or COD5 instead. Anyone in Toronto want a barely-used copy for 40 bucks? PS3.

    Why not put it on www.goozex.com ??

    Shoany on
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Also, don't be shy to put it up on www.half.com, really anything other than Gamestop. I really hate that they give you $5 for a game, and sell it again for $55.

    urahonky on
  • RookRook Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I'm kinda shocked they've managed to take a series that is known for having a pretty terrible camera and horrible combat and made them both worse. (And to be fair, I actually liked the combat in TR:Legend, but it's just crap in this).

    Kudos for the adrenaline moments, as they're pretty cool. It's definitely worth getting if you're a Lara fan, it's just a little disappointing that it's taken a step backwards in so many of the niggling areas.

    Rook on
  • freakish lightfreakish light butterdick jones and his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    yeah, and use my referral if you don't have an account

    freakish light on
  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    It's worse than Legend? How the hell did they cock that up? Crystal Dynamics, I expected more of you.

    AbsoluteZero on
    cs6f034fsffl.jpg
  • KorKor Known to detonate from time to time Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    urahonky wrote: »
    Also, don't be shy to put it up on www.half.com, really anything other than Gamestop. I really hate that they give you $5 for a game, and sell it again for $55.

    I'm sorry but this drives me nuts.

    I mean, I hate gamestop as much as the next person but don't mislead people.

    I traded in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2 the other day and got 18 bucks for it... for a DS game, thats probably going to turn around and sell for 25. Not to mention that game is a good 6 months old.

    Kor on
    DS Code: 3050-7671-2707
    Pokemon Safari - Sneasel, Pawniard, ????
  • Akito01Akito01 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Well, taking advantage of the ToysRUs $20 dollars off deal, I decided to take a chance and get this for Wii after all. At $20, the price is about right, but for a full priced experience, it's hard to recommend.

    Lara doesn't seem to control as smoothly as she did in Anniversary, the camera is just about as awful as everyone is claiming it to be, and the graphics are truly PS2-tastic. Up to the point I've played so far, I haven't had to use my guns at all, since there hasn't been anything to shoot. It feels like there's very little in the way of production value put into it as well, it seems very bare bones in that respect.

    It's hard to gripe too much since I did get it half off, but it has to be telling that shortly after firing up the game and playing for a bit, I swapped it out so I could get back to playing more Castlevania Judgment.

    edit: correction: I had to use my guns once to shoot out a door in the prelude level.

    Akito01 on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Oh man. This game is beautiful...

    Screens! (linked because they are teh huge)

    Pic 1
    Pic 2
    Pic 3
    Pic 4

    And the camera is fine so far for the PC version.

    urahonky on
  • freakish lightfreakish light butterdick jones and his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    That wetsuit is so gratuitous.

    freakish light on
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    That wetsuit is so gratuitous.

    I'll go out on a limb and say: Best. Wetsuit. Ever.

    urahonky on
  • freakish lightfreakish light butterdick jones and his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    It's almost like they design all of her clothing to be revealing as possible.

    Oh wait, of course they do. I enjoy the puzzle-adventure-platforming flavor of Tomb Raider, but I wish they'd tone down the blatant way they present Lara - the larger-than-life tits, the outfits, etc.

    freakish light on
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Eh. You gotta remember the target audience for TR games... Well, games in general.

    urahonky on
  • freakish lightfreakish light butterdick jones and his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I know. I know. It just makes me sad sometimes.

    freakish light on
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I know. I know. It just makes me sad sometimes.

    That's what the great rack is for! All your sadness just disappears. :P

    urahonky on
  • RookRook Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    To be fair, you get the choice of making her wear trousers or shorts. Did anyone select trousers?

    Rook on
  • KorKor Known to detonate from time to time Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Honestly, I've never been sure what the target audience is in tomb raider games. I used to think it was teenage boys looking for their next hentai search... However, I know an rather large female user base when it comes to Lara Croft fans. Honestly, more so than I know males that like TR.

    Kor on
    DS Code: 3050-7671-2707
    Pokemon Safari - Sneasel, Pawniard, ????
  • freakish lightfreakish light butterdick jones and his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    The fact that they have a female as a strong leading role is completely undermined by the company mercilessly modeling her as a sex object. I'd love to see them move more in the direction of Jade from Beyond Good and Evil and have her attractive but not gratuitous.

    You'd think if they were trying for the 13-18 crowd, as is suggested by their insistence on dressing her up in skimpy outfits (see: the wetsuit, original outfit with short shorts, ripped black dress from Legends, etc) they'd go with a genre that they're classically attracted to: the FPS. I mean, look at Halo. Instead you've got this action-adventure platformer that requires a minimum of thought on how to progress the level and solve the puzzles, where a lot of kids I know would just be looking for the next thing to shoot. For instance, my stepdad (who is emotionally about 13 years old) gave up playing Anniversary because it wasn't FPSish enough.

    The way these things mesh together seems confused to me.

    freakish light on
  • Akito01Akito01 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I have to think the nature of the game itself sort of transcends the character. By that I mean, we don't think of something like Mario Sluggers in the same way we do about Mario Galaxy -they both may have Mario in them, but what makes a true Mario game is the fact that it's a platformer.

    So, a Tomb Raider game, by nature, has to be some extension of the Prince-Of-Persia-in-3D model established in the very first game. And the design of the character herself is a symptom of her original creation -in the same way that Mario originally got his mustache as a way to define his face in a very simple 2D 8bit sprite, the proportions of Lara were a matter of creating a sexy female form with rough 3D polygons. I don't think you can radically change her design and not lose the character any more than you can lose Mario's mustache.

    Akito01 on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • freakish lightfreakish light butterdick jones and his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
    edited November 2008
    And yet we have the Prince of Persia reboot coming out, where the style and character and (to an extent) the mechanics are changed, and yet it's still essentially Prince of Persia. I'd like to see something like that in the next game, even just as an episode or a proof-of-concept piece.

    freakish light on
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I dunno. When I think of a Prince of Persia game, I think: Merciless jumping puzzles, and spikes.

    urahonky on
  • The_ScarabThe_Scarab Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    When I think of Prince of Persia I think of WHY THE FUCK CAN'T I WALLCLIMB UP THERE I'VE TRIED IT FIVE TIMES FUCK YOU FUCKING VULTURES FUCK OFF OH GOD I HATE BATS FUCKING BATS

    The_Scarab on
  • bongibongi regular
    edited November 2008
    Rook wrote: »
    To be fair, you get the choice of making her wear trousers or shorts. Did anyone select trousers?
    i didn't even select trousers

    bongi on
  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I think I might pick this up when it hits the cheap bin... thats about it.

    AbsoluteZero on
    cs6f034fsffl.jpg
  • ChtulieChtulie Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Re. Lara Croft being a positive or negative I urge you to check out an interview with Toby Gard on a 1up show in anticipation of the release of Legend back in the day. Specific points of interest are:
    -Boobs were big (not as big now) because it was pretty much the only way to have a character clearly female with so few polygons.
    -The then completely sex focused media thing was then driven by Eidos and pretty much the reason the character's creator (Toby) got annoyed enough with to then leave.
    -So that wasn't exactly intentional. Yes, a certain sex appeal, but no, not an appeal of this sort. Lara in the game is most definatly not the sort of character, personality, you see on the magazine covers back in the day.
    -Also, he didn't want yet another game where the player murdered humans. He admits he probably should've thought that one through a bit more.

    Chtulie on
  • NuzakNuzak Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    The_Scarab wrote: »
    When I think of Prince of Persia I think of WHY THE FUCK CAN'T I WALLCLIMB UP THERE I'VE TRIED IT FIVE TIMES FUCK YOU FUCKING VULTURES FUCK OFF OH GOD I HATE BATS FUCKING BATS

    oh goddddd

    i'm coming doooowwwwwnnn

    Nuzak on
  • LockedOnTargetLockedOnTarget Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I for one, have no issues with Lara's hawtness being on full display.

    I don't really see how putting a female character in revealing clothing just devalues all the strong points of her character. Hell, I think it's GOOD that we have a "bombshell" character who has a lot going for her on top of her look and her outfits.

    LockedOnTarget on
  • RookRook Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    The fact that they have a female as a strong leading role is completely undermined by the company mercilessly modeling her as a sex object. I'd love to see them move more in the direction of Jade from Beyond Good and Evil and have her attractive but not gratuitous.

    I can't help but think this sentence speaks volumes.

    To say that she needs to be more demure in her clothing or looks isn't really any better than wanting her to be sexier. Either way you're just trying to fit her into your ideal of what she should be which is objectification of the worst kind.

    I don't think she's really marketed as a sex object. She is a fantasy, she's smart, she's fit, she's courageous and stunning, and honestly that's more a fantasy for women than it is for men. There's nothing wrong with having a character like that.

    Rook on
  • NorfairNorfair Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I'm just sad that it sounds like the game has problems.

    Guess this is one to wait on, then.

    Norfair on
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited November 2008
    I quite like it so far, but yeah, there are problems. Haven't noticed the camera being too bad but combat seems a bit iffy and the way you have to get some of the achievements seems dumb (swan diving off all three high points in the same playthrough for three cumulative achievements means that if you only dive off the last one you won't know if you hit the first one until you hit the second next time through - dur).

    It does seem like a small step backwards from both Legend and Anniversary, but admittedly I've only just started the second area (Thailand).

    Bogart on
  • KnobKnob TURN THE BEAT BACK InternetModerator mod
    edited November 2008
    the demo of this gave me cancer

    what a staggeringly awful game

    Knob on
  • DisDis Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Every Tomb Raider game must come with a NUDE PATCH.
    Still they should have just left LARA dead when they killed her.

    Dis on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    edited November 2008
    If they'd have left her dead we wouldn't have Legend and Anniversary, which are great.

    Bogart on
  • bongibongi regular
    edited November 2008
    I finished this last night. It was a lot of fun. I preferred the level design to Legend and Anniversary, but oddly the host of control and camera issues that they introduced in Anniversary are still present here, though I don't remember them being anywhere near as bad in Legend.

    For me it's up there with Legend, with Anniversary trailing a little. I really enjoyed the levels, like I said, though the plot was kind of odd:
    I really liked the Norse mythology thing, but I thought that Natla and Amanda felt tacked on and extraneous.

    bongi on
  • LlyLly Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    This game has given me more "Oh wow!" moments than any other game recently. Sure the combat is clunky at best, and the camera has issues in places, but really the graphics and some of the level designs are just superb.
    That puzzle room with 4 corridors off to the sides and the dais in the middle surrounded by statues on thrones? When i got to the highest level and looked down i just had to stop for a while to soak in the view. Fucking beautiful. Also stomping on undead things after shotgunning them in the face feels GREAT!

    Lly on
Sign In or Register to comment.