Tomb Raider

[ThunderPeel2001]

Yes. It just seems that they're so far behind how they treat women, and it's such a male-dominated industry, that right now, they probably need to worker harder just to make a balance.

[Geremy Tibbles]

I'm seriously tired of games that play up the gore porn like Dead Space.

There's this super gross vibe of "OH MAN IT'S SO BRUTAL AND HORRIFYING, BUT YOU LOVE IT, YEAHHH IT'S FUCKING RAD."

[Patrick R]

Just in general, the way a television segment like that works is that Conan doesn't go in blind. It seems likely that his constant pervyness was at least partially joke at the developer's expense (though the actual execution of it left a lot to be desired) because he'd be prepped beforehand on what the core tenants of the Tomb Raider franchise (Lara's beauty being one of the chief selling points). The problem is that Conan is, to an extent, a character. The actual Conan O'Brien is a well-educated and intelligent man, but his character has to tone that down, and as a result we get the easier "pervy" jokes, instead of out-and-out condemnation.

 

But, to be perfectly honest, this is most likely branded content. Which means that Square-Enix pays the show to review their game (because even if Conan mocks the games to an extent, getting an easily impressed and very popular talk show host to play your game on his show for 7 minutes is damned good advertising), so it's possible that any number of his talking points were actually coached by Square-Enix. That would certainly explain why the conclusion Conan comes to ("This game makes you fall in love with Lara and then it takes her away from you.") is shockingly similar to what Ron Rosenberg was pitching.

 

Still a really funny video, especially with the impalement stuff at the end.

[Argobot]

I saw that Chris Remo had linked to this on Twitter, but I think it's worth reposting: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/02/tomb-raider-review-multi-platform.html

 

It's the best, most reflective review I've seen for this game, and it really made me reconsider a lot of the opinions and conceptions that I had about this game in the lead up to its release.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Damn, that's a great review. I really have a sense of how they succeeded, and how they failed. They really wanted the player to care about her, and it seems they managed to do that, but then they undercut their aims shoving the camera behind her ass, or down her top. What a shame!

 

The whole review is great, but these are a few of my favourite bits:

 

"I don’t want to see the camera behind her backside as she crawls through tunnels. I want to look ahead of her, through the tunnel. I don’t need to see down the front of her shirt as she falls from high places or drowns. Worse than that, I don’t want to see the camera linger for a long while on Lara’s death scenes. I can relate to Lara Croft in this game enough that I want her to pick up a coat when she shivers or rips her shirt."

 

"This reboot ofTomb Raider, with its experimental juxtapositions of different kinds of play, as well as its attempts to redefine Lara as a human being rather than a caricature of a sexual femininity, feels like the first step on a shaky path towards a better franchise. It feels shaky because Lara still retains much of the trappings of her old self; she still seems to be performing, except this time, her brand of femininity is more Virgin than Whore, and it could use a bit more nuance than that dichotomy affords."

 

I can't believe they apparently did such a great job with the character, only to needlessly sexualize her. It's like when I started watching Buffy -- I've never found Sarah Michelle Gellar particularly attractive, but I sure fell in love with her character. Which is it say that I wanted her to be safe, and I didn't want her to be needlessly sexualized (which, thankfully, she wasn't). Maybe some sort of "camera and coat" patch could sort things out. If it did, I'd definitely want to play this.

[youmeyou]

Played about an hour so far. It's gorgeous, and putting my PC through its paces. Damned if I'm going to turn off the fancy hair effects even though it chugs the cutscenes!

The introduction is a mess of quicktime events, which is really unfortunate. When will developers realize this is not an interesting or empowering method of player interaction. It is dragons layer, extrapolated. And because they decided to go with universal icons instead of having to specify button inputs, I've been having a hell of a time figuring out what buttons to press. Got shot in the head 4 times trying to not get raped. Video games.

Only experienced a little of the combat toward the end but it seems very well executed. Uncharted style sneaking around with a nicely implemented auto cover behavior. Arrowing fools is as satisfying as you'd expect. Fighting wolves is pretty interesting too, you're given an Alan Wake style dodge mechanic to get out of the way of their attacks.

Did one Tomb so far and she didn't even say she hated tombs (like in the commercials)! Its puzzle was the kind of rube goldbergian contraption you might expect from a game of this genre. Its solution was mostly about causing physics things to happen as opposed to pulling levers which felt a bit fresher than Tomb Raider puzzles of the past.

 

So far I haven't experienced any narrative that hasn't been shown in trailers, so I'm interested to see where the story develops. Especially if things get interesting toward the end as Brad Shoemaker mentioned on last week's show.

[Twig]

Really likin' this game. Especially the part where Ms. Croft gets goddamn brutalized every other scene. It's so... hot.

 

No, but seriously, what a gorgeous game. The environments, the set pieces are so well-crafted. Gameplay-wise, it's a bit rote, lots of QTEs, but I don't even care, and that's goddamn fantastic!

 

I've counted three down-the-shirt shots in the 86 minutes I've played. (I stopped last night when I unlocked fast travel.)

 

Dat. Hair.

[eot]

I saw that Chris Remo had linked to this on Twitter, but I think it's worth reposting: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/02/tomb-raider-review-multi-platform.html

 

It's the best, most reflective review I've seen for this game, and it really made me reconsider a lot of the opinions and conceptions that I had about this game in the lead up to its release.

 

 

That was one of the best reviews I've read in a long time, thanks for linking it

[youmeyou]

I'm hoping the QTEs dial down a lot and it was more a result of them going for a cinematic intro. Because the actual traversal is really well done, from the way you reach your arm out to stabilize against walls to the way you stumble if you drop from too high a ledge. And the forests are lush and really nicely designed. Running around finding salvage or random artifacts feels quite natural and not terribly forced (yet).

[Merus]

One thing I've noticed - the writing is good, but the game isn't afraid to be subtle in the cutscenes. The early story scenes say only as much as necessary, and if nothing's necessary it won't say anything. I enjoyed how Mathias was handled in the cutscene where you meet him, as well; what you realise is spelled out much more baldly later, but I appreciate that the game let me work it out beforehand. (Admittedly I'm constantly looking for The Character That Betrays You when playing a Video game because there is always one). I'm not exactly invested in the storyline, which is a problem a quarter through it, but I don't resent it either. (Can't remember the last time I got invested in a AAA storyline; happens a lot on portable titles, and usually happens on retro titles mostly because that's why I'm playing them.)

 

Not liking the QTEs, though. The approach where QTE success adds new animations is far more successful than the 'press X to not die' approach is. It's almost disappeared a quarter of the way through the game, though.

 

I'll take Arkham Asylum with better character design. That will Work For Me. I'm also happy to see gear gating and interconnected environments come out of the metroidvania sub-genre and become part of the generic action adventure game formula.

[melmer]

I must be nearing the end of this now, probably a few hours left. I'm enjoying it. It's very linear and very video gamey, which I quite like, im not wishing its any different. i think there's definitely a place for these big budget scripted games, where you're not 'having' an adventure your playing someones elses pre written adventure.

just had an entire hour of explosions which made my brain hurt so I had turn it off. I thought the game was going to give me dual pistols, which would have been amazing! But alas. No. it hinted at it slightly, it would have been such an awesome thing to do, the origin of the 'dual wield''

I'm spending most of the time playing this thinking about how awesome the sequel will be when we actually get to go raid some fucking tombs. And how incredible awesome a soul reaver reboot will be in this game engine.

Dark souls needs to take a very close look at this game, some of the environments and especially the weather effects would sit perfectly in that game.

[youmeyou]

Think I'm going to put my playtime on hold until both NVidia and Crystal Dynamics figure out performance issues

 

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/07/nvidia-apologises-for-crummy-tomb-raider-performance/

 

Kind of crazy how long it took CD to release code to NVidia, especially in regards to the brand new TressFx stuff AMD developed. Maybe it's to get back at NVidia for PhysX?

[melmer]

This game is really good. I'm In this ship graveyard area at the moment and its gaming bliss.

This game is really really good. All the context sensitive animations are amazing and work really well, where as drake in uncharted 3 just seemed a bit drunk, this game has surpassed uncharted for me in the action and set piece stakes, I can see the next uncharted game stealing a lot from Lara especially the auto cover. Everyone should play this game! This last third now that I'm all tooled up has been super smashing great.

Destructible cover! Great

The game isn't necessarily easy, I've died a few time during large enemy encounters. one thing the game does is if you die during a large enemy encounter they will half the enemies you have to fight. Which takes away the frustration of dying multiple times, but whenever I die I want to conquer the challenge that thwarted me. So in two minds about at the moment, This type of stuff should be customisable in the options.

[soggybagel]

There are very few QTE's throughout the game but am I the only one who finds them confusing. The way the outer circle dials in to the inner one I have fucked up a few times just because I still don't get the timing of them.

[Twig]

I'm playing on PC and I definitely had an issue (with a fucking wolf it must've killed me a dozen times FUCK THAT WOLF) where the "alternate left and right" QTE went babonkers if I did it too fast. That is, if I pressed left before I released right, and vice versa. Once I realized that was happening, the QTEs got easier.

 

I don't mind them so much, despite that, but I'm not a fan of them by any means.

[youmeyou]

The QTEs are horribly, HORRIBLY designed. I don't get it at all. They had hundreds of better examples to reference.

[soggybagel]

I also don't like the gameplay approach of QTE's in a lot of games where you get ambushed by a QTE and its early on in the game so you're confused about what to do so you die. The learning process is through death. Tomb Raider isn't the worst offender amongst a sea of games that do this but its annoying none the less.

This is a game I'm really enjoying though. It's jaw dropping in beauty as far as graphics even on the aging 360 and its just a fun romp. This is the type of "mindless" game I don't mind playing. It's fun, the combat feels tight, and its got great spectacle but its game systems are still deep enough that it doesn't always feel like a funnel pushing you towards massacre after massacre.

I think the story is a joke and not at all effecting but at least its trying to do something vaguely interesting.

[melmer]

So I finished this today. 100% with a little help from the ign guide

loved it! It plays like a greatest hits album of this generations action adventure games. It feels and looks amazing throughout. I can't really fault it. I feel that the sequel to this could be truly special. This game gets so much more right then the first uncharted game, they just have to expand on what they've done here and in a few years time when the sequel lands we'll all be crying uncharted 2 who?

[Twig]

Yeah I finished it over the weekend and I loved it. Easily my favorite heavily-scripted action game in a long, long while. And those moments when it lets you just roam an area, explore, and collect shit? Great. So great.

 

I won't say the game's perfect, though.

 

Still, the fact that this game made me love a Tomb Raider game, and, even more impressively, love Lara Croft... I've never liked a Tomb Raider game. I've actively disliked them. And I found Lara to be annoying and shallow and pointless. This one was great. SO. GREAT.

[youmeyou]

Looks like nVidia cards will be a bit more stable now: http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/11/tomb-raider-patch-provides-hair-care-for-nvidia-users/

 

So I'll probably end up finishing the game this week. What I've played so far has been mixed. The free roaming is excellent and recalls Dishonored's item hunts, but the beginning is absolutely laden with cutscenes and QTEs. So I'm very much hoping to move past that and find more gameplay in this game that's so far a bit too much like a film.

[Argobot]

 (with a fucking wolf it must've killed me a dozen times FUCK THAT WOLF)

 

The only thing I remember about playing the first Tomb Raider game as a kid is constantly being murdered by wolves. I know feel obligated to buy this game and be murdered by wolves so I can relive my childhood.

[youmeyou]

This is a really incredible looking game

 

[Gormongous]

Wow, that's the best that a game's done rain in my memory. How's it look in motion?

[TychoCelchuuu]

Well, that's the thing. It's just a static painting. Looks great in screenshots but not super convincing in-game. Kind of a bold aesthetic decision but, I think, ultimately unsatisfying.

[Twig]

It's pretty good, the rain.

 

They also do some things with wind later on that are just super rad. U:

 

The game is fucking beautiful.