Tomb Raider

[melmer]

little video preview/interview from polygon

http://www.polygon.com/2013/2/13/3978016/tomb-raider-interview-darrell-gallagher-crystal-dynamics-video

They say in this video that there's large hub areas with explorations, and i think i remember reading about there being bonfires as safe haven areas... so i'd imagine the game world is probably going to work somewhat like dark souls. Whether all the levels in the game will interconnect in the end? i'm not sure.

[melmer]

The review are out. It's good   I'll be picking this up a launch

 

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=515720

 

Sounds like they've evolved the third person cover mechanic:
 

Battle is as big a part of Tomb Raider as navigation, and
that's a surprisingly good thing, because Crystal Dynamics has been able
to create a most elegant combat system. When enemies are near, Lara
transitions into a crouching stance, and will automatically take cover
near convenient walls and boxes. While most game characters take cover
with obtrusive -- and often unwanted -- snaps, Croft manages to flow
naturally and simply from cover to combat to regular movement, in a way
that never seems obnoxious or unnecessary. The game's contextual
animation is superb, and seems know exactly the correct thing to do in
any given situation. 

Read more at http://www.destructoid.com/review-tomb-raider-246503.phtml#3B0ZHoHAsiZeG91g.99

[youmeyou]

Conan's review (one of his best yet):

 

[ThunderPeel2001]

That was very funny.

[elmuerte]

Sorry, but that game looks awful.

[Lu]

"Sorry, but that game looks awful." -- Elmuerte.com

[Gormongous]

Hah, wow. I've kinda hated some of his other reviews for being all about what a hapless gaming chump he is, but this one was great, calling out all the unnecessary eye candy.

[Irishjohn]

Love the Conan review. He's taking the piss obviously but he knows what he's doing with the perv jokes. What a pathetic display.

 

The game also seems very unimaginative from what they show here. The first two segments they showed were identical in gameplay terms, and that same death shot (though very funny) shows the game up, really.

[youmeyou]

It's also great at calling to attention things like ultra-gruesome deaths that barely register to many gamers and seem to be de rigueur even in games that are attempting to be taken seriously as pieces of drama.

[Lu]

What do you base that on though, that it barely registers to many gamers? I feel like I'm used to a lot of game violence, but the head through spike thing still made me wince.

 

Hah, wow. I've kinda hated some of his other reviews for being all about what a hapless gaming chump he is, but this one was great, calling out all the unnecessary eye candy.

 

What exactly did he call out, because to me the perv jokes seemed to be "I'm a guy and she's an attractive woman, look how hot she is, haha,"

[ThunderPeel2001]

It's also great at calling to attention things like ultra-gruesome deaths that barely register to many gamers and seem to be de rigueur even in games that are attempting to be taken seriously as pieces of drama.

 

Definitely! Or just games in general. Game developers don't know restraint.

[Gormongous]

What exactly did he call out, because to me the perv jokes seemed to be "I'm a guy and she's an attractive woman, look how hot she is, haha,"

 

It seemed to me that most of the perv comments were framed as "This game is great! The developers have given me so many opportunities to look at an attractive young woman in compromising positions!"

 

I mean, yeah, the jokes about the handbag and trying to look thin were just dumb sexism, but I thought Conan did a pretty good job of implicitly damning this game about a supposedly strong female character for being all about the male gaze.

[Argobot]

I really wanted to buy and enjoy this game, but ugh, that Conan preview is destroying the goodwill that I was feeling towards this game.

[youmeyou]

What do you base that on though, that it barely registers to many gamers? I feel like I'm used to a lot of game violence, but the head through spike thing still made me wince.

 

 

What exactly did he call out, because to me the perv jokes seemed to be "I'm a guy and she's an attractive woman, look how hot she is, haha,"

 

Not to say it doesn't make us wince, it just doesn't incite the kind of reaction you see from Conan and his audience. I mean, he has to actually put the controller down. When was the last time something horrified you in a game to the extent that you had to put the controller down? My other issue is how jarring it is to see your character die awfully, then come back to life, then die horribly (admittedly this is because neither of them were playing and the game kept loading Lära upstream from the stabby branch, oh lawdy) in a game that in many other ways is a very linear cinematic experience. It was a problem with uncharted and doesn't seem to have been addressed here. (of course how can it be in a game that strives to be cinematic short of going full heavy rain and removing death)

[ThunderPeel2001]

What do you base that on though, that it barely registers to many gamers?

 

Conan was seriously affected -- I bet it's not mentioned in a single review.

[Frenetic Pony]

It's also great at calling to attention things like ultra-gruesome deaths that barely register to many gamers and seem to be de rigueur even in games that are attempting to be taken seriously as pieces of drama.

God's these are annoying, kind of worked in Fable with it's slightly monty-python esque stuff, and back in Fable 1 it was actually kinda original. But now

 

 

I remember there was a comic, I think it was about Dragon Age 2. Diagram of anatomy. It was just "Skin (outer layer) Blood (everything inside)". Ridiculous really, then again many video games have not an inkling in their design to ever, ever match their art to their setting unless it's a ridiculous, over the top setting. Bioware is particularly egregious at this, which is part of the reason I can't play their games anymore.

 

Ashley Williams, tough female space marine, or runway super model ready for her walk?

There are plenty of others, the latest Hitman and etc. But I guess Bioware was egregious enough to come to mind first.

[Argobot]

This has come up in other threads, but I think it's worth pointing out again that there's nothing inherently wrong with having attractive looking women in a game or any media--as long as their attractiveness isn't the only aspect of their character.

 

If you want to make Lara Croft a good-looking lady, fine. But there has to be some justification for why she's good-looking beyond--'we want to make the straight male players happy with what they're seeing.' That means when you're designing a female character, you have to pay more attention to her depiction than you would if you were making a male character. Is that fair? Well, no, but it's a constrain that people will have to be aware of and deal with until we start getting some better diversity in character design.

[Lu]

Conan was seriously affected -- I bet it's not mentioned in a single review.

 

A few reviews have mentioned it (Eurogamer, Polygon, Gametrailers), but they're probably in the minority. I think you were right when you said that a lot of developers lack restraint though.

 

Not to say it doesn't make us wince, it just doesn't incite the kind of reaction you see from Conan and his audience. I mean, he has to actually put the controller down. When was the last time something horrified you in a game to the extent that you had to put the controller down? My other issue is how jarring it is to see your character die awfully, then come back to life, then die horribly (admittedly this is because neither of them were playing and the game kept loading Lära upstream from the stabby branch, oh lawdy) in a game that in many other ways is a very linear cinematic experience. It was a problem with uncharted and doesn't seem to have been addressed here. (of course how can it be in a game that strives to be cinematic short of going full heavy rain and removing death)

 

I'm reasonably sure if I had a group of my friends in the same room together, would have the exact same reaction as the audience. I just don't buy the idea that this doesn't bother a lot of folk.

 

And I can't tell you the last time I needed to put a controller down, because as horrific as the spike-through-head scene is, it wouldn't stop me from trying again, getting past it and then continuing on. I can hardly judge the game on a few gratuitous out-of-context death scenes. I think it's a criticism worth making about the game. Were these really necessary? What was the reasoning for having them in the game? Whyyyyy?

 

A game that would horrify me to the point where I have to put the controller down is not a game I would actually be interested in playing to begin with.

 

I suppose my point is that I don't see Conan's video as proof of anything (the sexist jokes rubbed me the wrong way to the point where I couldn't really enjoy the video), and my problem was more with your generalizations. I'm not attributing this to you, but I sometimes sense some snobbery of the "us vs. them" variety (them being other gaming communities/gaming bro's/etc) and I have a bit of a problem with that.

[Irishjohn]

It seemed to me that most of the perv comments were framed as "This game is great! The developers have given me so many opportunities to look at an attractive young woman in compromising!"

 

I mean, yeah, the jokes about the handbag and trying to look thin were just dumb sexism, but I thought Conan did a pretty good job of implicitly damning this game about a supposedly strong female character for being all about the male gaze.

 

Perhaps I'm giving Conan too much credit, but he's never been one for sexist humour. I think his jokes about the character's physical presentation and the "handbag" gags were pointedly taking the piss out of the developers for creating such an apparently one-dimensional character.

[youmeyou]

Oh, I'm not making a judgement call on the game off of his review, I just find his perspective interesting. It's very easy to become used to how the people around you see things and that's why I enjoy the Conan reviews because he sometimes calls to light aspects of a game that I didn't think much about because I'm already used to it. Even when it's something trite like his inability to spatially navigate in first person shooters.

 

Also I think his faux-pervert act was really smart humor and was a witty bite on the male gaze of the third person camera and just from trailers alone that seems to be a valid criticism.

 

I didn't mean it to come across as snobbish, I really just found it insightful especially when many reviews just talk about mechanics and graphics and take weird camera angles and neck stabbings for granted (with the exceptions you've noted)

[Lu]

Oh, I'm not making a judgement call on the game off of his review, I just find his perspective interesting. It's very easy to become used to how the people around you see things and that's why I enjoy the Conan reviews because he sometimes calls to light aspects of a game that I didn't think much about because I'm already used to it. Even when it's something trite like his inability to spatially navigate in first person shooters.

 

Yea, totally. That's what I enjoy the most about his reviews, for sure. That and his clever jabs.

 

Also I think his faux-pervert act was really smart humor and was a witty bite on the male gaze of the third person camera and just from trailers alone that seems to be a valid criticism.

 

I'm not overly familiar with Conan beyond a bunch of the sketches he has done for his show (and the reviews), so if that's the case, then this aspect simply went over my head. Gotta say I haven't seen any of the trailers and if that's the case, then absolutely.

 

I didn't mean it to come across as snobbish, I really just found it insightful especially when many reviews just talk about mechanics and graphics and take weird camera angles and neck stabbings for granted (with the exceptions you've noted)

 

Oh, I didn't think you were. It was more a separate point, related to some generalizations I've read on these yarr boards. I totally agree with you that it's insightful though.

[Nappi]

Perhaps I'm giving Conan too much credit, but he's never been one for sexist humour.

 

Heh. My view of Conan was kind of the opposite, and I was therefore expecting the review to be all about creepy jokes and drooling over Lara's ass. Fortunately, I was at least partially wrong.

 

Admittedly, I haven't watched the show in a long time, and my view of his humor might be completely inaccurate.

[lobotomy42]

Perhaps I'm giving Conan too much credit, but he's never been one for sexist humour. I think his jokes about the character's physical presentation and the "handbag" gags were pointedly taking the piss out of the developers for creating such an apparently one-dimensional character.

 

You are definitely giving Conan too much credit.

[ThunderPeel2001]

If you want to make Lara Croft a good-looking lady, fine. But there has to be some justification for why she's good-looking beyond--'we want to make the straight male players happy with what they're seeing.' That means when you're designing a female character, you have to pay more attention to her depiction than you would if you were making a male character. Is that fair? Well, no...

If game designers were better at catering for a broader audience, they wouldn't need to pay more attention to their female characters, so it seems very fair to me!

[Frenetic Pony]

If game designers were better at catering for a broader audience, they wouldn't need to pay more attention to their female characters, so it seems very fair to me!

I'm not sure you have to pay MORE attention to female characters, but as much would be nice. Nathan Drake LOOKS like an adventurer, sure he looks a bit of the male ideal, athletic and muscular and kind of ruggedly handsome. But then that's been around forever. He's still also obviously a character that fits with what he does. Lara and a lot of other female characters still are more obviously built towards being sexy without regard to what their character is supposed to be, if it's considered at all (mini stripper Cortana).