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This announcement somehow slipped me! I played the very first Tomb Raider game on the very first playstation back in 1996 (spoke like a true veteran!  ::) ) and kept playing through TR II, TR III and TR: The last revelations, where, if I'm not mistaken, Lara Croft dies in the end  :D

From there on, the developers and publishers changed and they kind of lost it. A series of chronicles and games based on her memories came out, trying to repeat the success of the original franchise but with no success imo. Recently another TR game was released (Underworld) with a different view... the 3rd person view was replaced by an adventure game-like view.

If you are not familiar with Tomb Raider, the games follow the adventures of British archaelogist Lara Croft as she roams through the world searching for misterious artifacts, kind of an Indiana Jones with sexy legs...  :angel: . It was one of the first games with open world levels (or as popen as an 1996 engine could render ::) ) I ever played and it kept me coming back time and time again for the great action. Lara was usually fighting animals and eventually bad guys, solving puzzles and doing some serious platforming.  8)

On June 6th, 2011, developer Crystal Dynamics announced a new installment of Tomb Rider due to fall 2012 having Square Enix (JC2) as publisher. It is going to be a reboot game, telling the story of how Lara became the fearless archaelogist from the first games! A new series on the horizon? Time will tell, but I'm definitely marking this game on my radar!  8)

I'm a big TR fan myself, I'm not quite sure what you mean about the Underworld controls though. Have you played legend? Thats quite a good game.

There is also another one TR Guardian of Light, it has a kind of isometric viewpoint, but its VERY good.

The 2012 game is supposed to be a kind of survival horror type game, i've seen some stuff on it and it looks really cool. I get the impression that you will have to forage for stuff etc.

Anyway, nice to see another fan of TR here :)

Yes, guardian of Light, not Underworld... sorry for the confusion. That's the one with isometric view (also thanks for the term, I didn't know waht that view type was called  ::) )... I personally didn't like the change, but that's just me.

I considered buying Underworld some time ago but gave up after several bad reviews, don't know if you played it but I'd like to read an OWG member about his impression of the more recent games.... I never played any game since the fourth game where she dies in the end.

I didn't know about the survival horror thingy either... gotta check my sources more carefully next time  ::) ... It would be great to see a reboot bringing back the good old Lara back rather than trying to reach a zombie oriented audience though. She used to deal with supernatural stuff but nothing full of blood and gore... I'll keep my eyes peeled for any news regarding this game and cross my fingers... it can be a great release for 2012!

Here's another big TR fan :-X I too was an avid player of nos. I, II, III and IV (Revelations). Then I lost interest in the fifth one (I think it was TR Chronicles) when they mucked around with the familiar control format and managed to introduce a split-second delay between hitting a button and seeing the result - just enough of a delay to be off-putting. Plus they made some other changes which I felt detracted from the original TR concept. Maybe I should check out some of the more recent titles then.

The first games were lots of fun. There were some cool puzzles, and I liked how they introduced new moves for Lara with each game, like being able to climb up and down ropes and swing on them Tarzan-style, and being able to climb across ceiling structures monkey-bar fashion. They did well with vehicles too, managing to get the right sort of feel for each type. Over the course of the first 4 games she got to operate a speedboat, a kayak, a Land Rover, a ski-mobile, a motorcycle, and a bunch of others that I just can't recall right now. On top of all that, it was refreshing to have a female lead for a change (at that time) and I liked the way she evolved graphically throughout the successive games - a dynamic animated ponytail, outfit changes, and more realistic rendering, i.e. curvier - like the way her breasts developed from sharp, pointy cones in TR1 (ouch!) to proper oomphy singlet-stretchers later on.

I once discovered a trick move that Lara could do which they never mentioned in the manual. Normally if she was hanging from a ledge and you made her pull herself up, she'd pull up with her arms, get one knee on top of the ledge then stand herself up. But if you held down Shift while pressing the "up" control, she would haul herself all the way up into a handstand on the edge, arch her back right over and get one heel down on the floor behind her head, then swing the rest of her body upright. I would have loved to have had a girlfriend who could've done that ;D

I see JRD got in just ahead of me - mate, the only post-Revelations game I played was Chronicles (see above) but I didn't get very far into it before I went off it. Sounds like Fiach may be the go-to guy for the later TR games info, unless someone else here has played them.

Thanks for the heads-up about the new one btw, I'll keep that in mind. It would be nice if the devs could recapture the spirit of the earlier TR games. I kind of miss Lara...

Hahahahahaha.... I remember finding about that move accidentaly!! Me and the rest of the guys - we used to play all night long when I was in college swaping the controller and solving the puzzles with all guys concentrating on the solutions and cheering for the guy holding the control as one of us used to try to pull the stunts you had to pull to proceed in the game! - were completely amazed with that and kept repeating the move over and over just for the style of it 8) ;D

Quote from: fragger on December 18, 2011, 03:12:38 PM
I see JRD got in just ahead of me - mate, the only post-Revelations game I played was Chronicles (see above) but I didn't get very far into it before I went off it. Sounds like Fiach may be the go-to guy for the later TR games info, unless someone else here has played them.

Thanks for the heads-up about the new one btw, I'll keep that in mind. It would be nice if the devs could recapture the spirit of the earlier TR games. I kind of miss Lara...

Hahahaha... and you just slipped a post before me this time around!  :laugh:  :-X

I'm crossing my fingers so they can recapture the spirit... I miss Lara too!  8)

 :-D

Well if you like/loved TR, then just go and buy Legend and then Underworld, I cant put it more simply than that guys :) Toby Garde  (sp?) the lead designer on TR1 was dumped after that, but he was brought back to helm Legend, it was incredibly successful, hence TR Underworld.

Legend rebooted the series, its great looking and has some really cool action sequences, its like TRI, but totally refreshed. Underworld is all about "scale", there are some levels that you do not realise how big they are until you are halfway through, then look up and see the size of a statue and realise that you have been climbing down something so immense.

I dont recall Legend having DLC, but Underworld does have 2 iirc. While I only played Beneath the Ashes, it was disappointingly short, but it was VERY interesting from a "lore" prespective as it takes place beneath the ruins of Croft Manor. I forget the name of the other one, but you play as Laras doppleganger (evil Lara?)

The earlier releases are now available in HD I think, but I know for certain that Anniversary would be an essential purchase for a fan, its great to recapture the earlier memories, but it does also bring some of the difficulty back to the table, Legend and Underworld are more "user friendly", but if you played and loved the earlier games, you will (hopefully) love Anniversary, but definately get Legend and Underworld.

Underworld Trailer
Tomb Raider Underworld Launch Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJzsTg-uRO4#ws)

Doppleganger
Lara Croft vs. The Doppelganger - Confrontation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTkuK0-sdY8#ws)

Legend
Lara Croft Tomb Raider Legend - Trailer 2 - Xbox360.mov (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUP05ZhIxNE#ws)

Anniversary
Lara Croft Tomb Raider Anniversary - Trailer - Xbox360/PS3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkLD9-HlfPU#ws)

Beneath the Ashes
Tomb Raider: Underworld - Beneath The Ashes Trailer in HD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_QsVg6oZuk#ws)

Thanks muchly for all that, Fiach :) I'm having some net issues at the moment which are hampering my ability to watch the clips so I'll have to try later, but cheers for the rundown on Legend, Underworld and Anniversary :-X I think I'll go and track them down once Silly Season is over.

Cool mate, I would get Legend first, its a handy way to get back in the saddle, you should get them all for less than a tenner each at this stage :)

Just purchased Legend, Anniversary and Underworld for US$10  8)

No idea when I'll give it a try though...  ::)

Was that from a shop or online, JRD?

Online... STEAM. Due to absurd taxes over games and electronic goods in general in Brazil, the prices of any retail version is, at least, three or four times what one would pay in US and Europe and end-of-the-year sales are not on the menu either  :-(

Thats a shame mate, but its a great price all the same. :)

I would hate to play TR without a controller like the 360, dunno what it would be like with a Mouse/KB combination, one of the best purchases I ever made was a 360 controller for my PC.

STEAM is the only viable way of buying games for me... it's either that or pirate games for the same price so it's a no brainer  ;)

I bought a dual shock analogic controller to play Wings of Prey and if I can have it selected in TR then it should be fine. I don't mind playing with mouse/KB though, I'm quite used to it!

Cool, I seem to remember some awkward jumps in Anniversary, I wouldnt like them using a keyboard. A quick glance at the purchase tab on Steam should tell if they are controller enabled.... although this means bugger all on some games which are not optimized for controllers and thus are probably even more difficult to play.....Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil are two games that come to mind.

Thanks JRD :)

I might try and get the games elsewhere first. I understand how Steam is a good thing for you but it always bites me in the butt :-() That'll be the last resort if I can't get the TR games anywhere else.

Gamersgate for the three games (only seperate prices though so more expensive).

TR Guardian of Light :

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-LCGOL/lara-croft-and-the-guardian-of-light (http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-LCGOL/lara-croft-and-the-guardian-of-light)

Check out videos and screenshots, its not the normal TR style, but its great all the same and quite cheap I think I paid  about 12 quid for it on XBOX LIVE, its short but sweet :)

Believe me, I'd rather have the disc sitting on a shelf by my gaming PC but it's just impossible!  :-\\

I'd still seize the chance to buy games during sales as the prices of not so old games are just great!  ;D

Cheers Fiach :-X

Had a look at GamersGate, they have TR Legend at 40% off for one more day. I nearly bought it on the spot but decided to check out ebay Oz first and found one there from a discount store in Sydney for AU$13.80 (with free postage). The one at GG was normally priced at $14.95 ($8.97 with the discount, I think in US dollars) but of course it's a download-only version, so I thought I'd spend the extra bucks and get a physical disk from the Sydney shop. The few dollars I'd save buying from GG would probably just end up going on DL allocation anyway, might even end up costing me more than the full price. Anyway, $13.80 is pretty darned cheap for a PC game in Aus, even for an older title, so I'm happy. For a brand-new release, one could easily pay around a hundred dollars depending on how hot a title it is.

Should be raiding tombs in a few days :-X I'll start with Legend and see if I like it enough to go for some of the other titles.

 :) :-X

Nice  :-X

Keep us posted!

Its a great game mate, I'm sure you will enjoy it :)

Underworld €7.49 st green man gaming. Dunno if thats a good price, but it would appear to be.

http://www.greenmangaming.co.uk/#link6 (http://www.greenmangaming.co.uk/#link6)

Here's a couple of links to info about TR 2012 - it looks like an awesome game! This site provides a rundown on what the game will be about, plus a trailer:

http://tombraiders.net/stella/tomb9.html (http://tombraiders.net/stella/tomb9.html)

This page has a 2011 E3 interview with a couple of devs and features a look at the game itself. It looks amazing, especially the fire effects (the second vid on the page is the E3 one):

http://tombraiders.net/stella/images/TR9/tomb-raider-media.html (http://tombraiders.net/stella/images/TR9/tomb-raider-media.html)

It seems that the game will be mainly aimed at the console market, but it will also be available for PC and the devs have elsewhere claimed that they are making sure the game will be fully keyboard and mouse supported. I hope so - I'm finding that I'm not the only one who thinks the PC controls for Legend aren't quite up to what the game demands and in fact this is one of the biggest criticisms of the PC version. Phew, it's not just me then...

I'm looking forward to TR 2012, which apparently is going to be titled simply "Tomb Raider".

Quote from: fragger on January 16, 2012, 02:35:31 PMwhich apparently is going to be titled simply "Tomb Raider".

Until they change that to "Rage2."  :-D

Don't say that...

:)

I was just re-reading JRD's initial post in this topic about how after TR4 the devs made changes to the next game and lost the plot with it (and a great chunk of their fan base, including me). I hope the people behind the new game are not going to make the same mistake. The new TR looks to be a significant departure in game concept and in how Lara is depicted, and if they're not careful they'll blow it again. I hope they learned from their predecessors' mistakes. As Frasier once said: "It may be an unwise man who doesn't learn from his mistakes, but it's an absolute idiot that doesn't learn from other people's!" :-()

I noticed one of the guys being interviewed at E3 said something very roughly like "The Tomb Raider series is getting a bit stale, we need to inject new life into it". Maybe so, but the last time they tried to do that they killed it.

We'll see I guess.

"Rage3," then?  :-D

Geez, it's getting worse... :-()

I need to amend my previous post - it was TR6, "Angel of Darkness", that went down with fans like a pork chop at a bar mitzvah, not TR5, "Chronicles", which actually wasn't bad at all.

Well, the game should be here today, postman willing...anyone else getting it?

I hear "delayed" until Spring 2026



:-D

Aaargh - I must have been asleep for fourteen years then! It's already here... ^-^

I'd better not look outside just in case it's an apocalypic wasteland full of roaming Morgoth tribes...no, wait, that's normal for Southampton  ;)

 :laugh:

 :laugh:

2026!? I'll be old by then! Oh, wait... too late.

I'll probably get that one Jim, being a big Lara fan. Or should I say, a big fan of Lara :-()

Careful how you word things, fragger  :angel:

I was not planning to get the game, but am interested to read of your adventures and impressions.  I played one of the original Tomb Raider games when it was on PC and found it entertaining.

Oh, it's quite different from the original games, not only by dint of such fine visuals, the game is also open world.

So far a lot of style-similarites with FC3 - not just due to the location as it has been raining lots more than FC3 (there again I suspect that fans need to see Lara wet...) be warned that there is some button-prompt gameplay, though not too much.

Gameplay sees pretty smooth with intuitive controls for most actions, though some of the dodge actions seem a bit out of keeping with the rest, too swift really. Other times, doging a wolf's leap for example works well.

Plenty to explore and shoot at plus familair element from other games.

More to follow.

What a beautifull, visual game this is turning out to be. No surprise I suppose considering all the stuff we've seen over the past age. If you liked Uncharted then you'll love the visuals in TR - mostly because they are very similar indeed to 1 and 2.

You become very easily absorbed in the flow of it. You are being hounded a bit from quite early on and the gameplay is nicely suited to this.

Although I mentioned it's open world, there are limitations but plenty to explore and find. I had to force myself to stop just now - definitely unusual for me to do so much at the first sitting. There is also fast travel between camps, so don't panic when a route back gets blocked or collapses.

Gameplay is for the most very easy, with intuitive button choices and plenty of moves. The AI are pretty stupid and slow unfortunately, at least they are on normal difficulty. For those who hate button prompts, then be ready as this has quite a few and there are some with very tight timing, meaning you'll die several times in a row...and end up all annoyed.

The customisation and skill upgrade menus are very nice indeed, as is the map. You can see each section of the island unfold and scan back over the areas already visited. Some you will not get all of the relics or loot straight off as certain skills need to be unlocked first.

Storylines never seem popular with the vocal minority of gamers but this one seems to have a pure TR style story behind it and is unfolding nicely so far.

I was a little concerned that this might well turn out being another FC3 and not just because of the similar locale. Like I said though, it is a lot closer to Uncharted 2, which fits the story better. Doubtless there will be all kinds of commentary about that on the web but for me it fits well, almost like a kind of thank you to ND for what they made from the same source material.

Quite a few puzzles in the game so far and these are closer to the Portal style of doing it, where you need to do one thing in another chamber to let you do what is needed in the main one - you'll see what I mean when you play it.

So, I'm apparently at about 14% in now and approaching the radio tower. It's been pretty much terrible weather all the way up the mountain all to keep her wet I suspect, and that's something they have made superbly - the weather that is  ^-^

I'm sure there's lots more I've forgotten to mention but there is also a lot going on. I hope those who are getting this enjoy it as much as I am.

Quote from: PZ on March 05, 2013, 09:08:44 AM
Careful how you word things, fragger  :angel:

Oh, believe me mate, I try to be :-D

Thanks Jim for the rundown thus far. An open-world type approach sounds like quite a major departure from previous TR titles.

I may go shopping tomorrow 8) Please tell me I don't have to be online to play it...

Not sure about the PC version but we currently cannot connect to PSN due to the ISP having issues with a local exchange, and I played the game fine without - so no connection required  :)

You've got me interested with the open world nature, and the look of the Uncharted series, which I loved playing despite their linear nature.  I'd probably like an open world Uncharted-like game  ^-^

Be aware that it's closer to Uncharted 2's style of open world. The difference is you can go back to areas previously visited. I think they slightly misappropriated the label 'open world' as it's only open in that aspect.

I'm only a short way in and like I said, there are things you can't do until later on - so maybe parts of the maps will open up further once the relevant skills have been applied. For instance, there are three routes out of one of the first areas, only blocked by dried shrubbery. I'm sure that'll open up if I can only upgrade to fire arrows...maybe not though.

I'll keep you posted but it'll be a few days before I can play again - damn ten hour shifts...

Quote from: Jim di Griz on March 06, 2013, 11:35:21 AM
I'll keep you posted but it'll be a few days before I can play again - damn ten hour shifts...

w@&k sure does get in the way sometimes!  My luck is that I'm usually the most busy when the greatest number of interesting games have been released.

Quote from: Jim di Griz on March 06, 2013, 11:35:21 AM
Be aware that it's closer to Uncharted 2's style of open world. The difference is you can go back to areas previously visited. I think they slightly misappropriated the label 'open world' as it's only open in that aspect.

I'm only a short way in and like I said, there are things you can't do until later on - so maybe parts of the maps will open up further once the relevant skills have been applied. For instance, there are three routes out of one of the first areas, only blocked by dried shrubbery. I'm sure that'll open up if I can only upgrade to fire arrows...maybe not though.

I'll keep you posted but it'll be a few days before I can play again - damn ten hour shifts...

You get Fire arrows after you do the parachute trip Jimi, this is accessed from one of the areas near where you go to rescue the pilot, you will recognise it as the sort of valley area where you can create alot of ziplines criss- crossing each other as you decend.

The game is very good, it's kind of ironic, Uncharted ripped off and refined Tomb Raider, then Tomb Raider ripped off and refined uncharted.


*walks off humming "The Circle of life" and kicks Simba in the a$$.

 :-D

Quote from: Fiach on March 06, 2013, 12:22:11 PM
The game is very good, it's kind of ironic, Uncharted ripped off and refined Tomb Raider, then Tomb Raider ripped off and refined uncharted.

:laugh:  I call that justice

Cheers Fiach - I thought there'd be something along those lines soon as fire arrows is one of the upgrades for the bow - as are napalm arrows.

How are you keeping by the way? Long time no hear from.

I still maintain that the adapting of each others' w@&k is a purposeful nod by both parties. They seem to approve of what the other has done with their idea - like I paraphrased (possibly somewhere else) immitation is indeed the highest form of flattery.

Quote from: Jim di Griz on March 07, 2013, 02:13:30 AM
Cheers Fiach - I thought there'd be something along those lines soon as fire arrows is one of the upgrades for the bow - as are napalm arrows.

How are you keeping by the way? Long time no hear from.

I still maintain that the adapting of each others' w@&k is a purposeful nod by both parties. They seem to approve of what the other has done with their idea - like I paraphrased (possibly somewhere else) immitation is indeed the highest form of flattery.

I'm good mate, thanks for asking :)

Been real busy and havent been playing anything worth posting about, old school RPG's like Baldurs Gate series on the old Infinity Engine.

I'm halfway through TR (had it on pre-order for ages), but I have been playing it slowly and savouring it, exploring every nook and cranny, backtracking as I get new skills etc. Makes a change compared to other games, running from one action set-piece to another :)

Didnt know about the Naplam arrows, Thanks for the heads up! Currently I'm doing a Rambo impersonation, covered in blood, in an area called The Pit. :)

Hey Fiach, I was wondering where you'd gotten to :) Thought maybe all these FC3 obsessives might have scared you off :-()

I might see if I can score a copy of TR tomorrow, since it seems likely that the new SimCity would probably make me blow a gasket if I tried to play it ::)

Good to see you back, Fiach  :-X

I'm assuming that TR does not require an online connection...  ????

Same as me then, only playing for one day in three at the mo' and taking my time about it. I should have added that just before closing the game down last time, I went back to look for some stuff at the second level...and that's where I'll be resuming tonight  :)

Old favourites are always good to play - it's a necessity sometimes when things are too busy. Have fun.

Damn, didn't get out today due to visiting relatives. Have to wait until Monday now.

Downloading now... but just like some of you guys, real life is taking its toll on me lately so I probably won't have too much time to play it  :-\\

Cheers Fragger :)

JRD I play the 360 version, I dont know if the PC version needs online.

I was talking to a mate of mine about SimCity and he said there was alot of server problems with it, due to its popularity, I wouldnt buy a single player game that insisted on an online connection apart from the initial activation.

TR on PC, just a heads up....

I know somebody that hates it on PC as he cant handle the mouse/keyboard controls, so if you find yourself in that position, I would suggest getting a 360 controller as the controls are spot on for the 360.

Just a fyi, some places dont stock 360 "wired" controllers, so make sure you are getting the right controller for your system (ie. wireless for a 360, wired for a PC, so you can plug into the usb).

Thanks for the heads up Fiach!  :-X

Upon install I was promted to provide an email to log on to a Square Enix account but I saw the small "skip" option there and no activation whatsoever was made... mind you I'm playing a STEAM version so it probably was done automatically anyway  ????

I have a wired controller with me but when it comes to shooting stuff I'm always a mouse/keyboard kind of guy.

Actually the controls are pretty friendly. I'm about 8% into the game, on that burning temple full of bad guys and I'm enjoying it a  lot!  8)

Having played the first few original TR games since 1996 and actually owning the most recent titles without trying it (yet!) I feel that playing a young Lara giving her first steps into becoming the dreadfull archaeologist I'm familiar with is a great reboot!!!!!

Linear as it is the game delivers a lot of satisfaction. If any of you guys read "open world" on a TR review... forget it, this is a linear 3rd person, adventure, platforming, puzzle solving game... and a good one I may add!

Yes, there are a lot of similarities with FC3 - the bow, the island/jungle setting, hunting, relics but with 2 1/2 hours of game play I believe this is a close to FC3 as it gets. There's no exploration beyond the very limited areas or side missions to break from the main story line and Lara is always moving forward. There is a fast travel option since the temple part but unless there is a mission that requires you to go back there wont be any reason for you to do so. But it is not a boring corridor shooter at all... the game is very well made and several hours will pass unnoticed!!

The QTE's so far were quite easy except one when Lara is caught trying to escape and a sequence of fast actions are required to survive. The quick events are quick indeed and I died on this particluar one so many times I was annoyed with the same voice acting over and over till I finally kill the ba$t@rd and move on. Apart from that specific point the QTE's are ok... even after being eaten by wolves a couple times!   ;D

Anyway... sunday is around the corner and I'll put a few more hours into the game!

Pictures to come!!

You do actually need to go back to previous camps mate, alot of the story is related through audio diaries (that are really very good!) and you will find weapon parts needed to make better gear, eg. You have a bow, after finding two bow parts, you will then be able to make a Recurve Bow.

But you wont be able to access the places where these are located, until you have the skills to do so, eg. if you see a door with alot of white rope banded to it, you will need "rope arrows" to fire at it, then pull it open with the rope.

Glad you're enjoying it :)

Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics invested on a simple formula: reboot a worn out hero and give players what they want but do not try to reinvent the wheel!

Lara saw so many iteractions in the past 15 years (including lame movies) that the character lost its appeal.

TR does not bring anything new to the gaming world and this is a good thing. You can use pretty much the same kind of weapons found on any game nowadays (the bow is a recurrent feature on most games today), the linear nature doesn't necessarily means "bounded" or "constrained" but rather "make it simple and fun" and yet there is a great pace in the game that lets you explore after rewards and upgrades and a skill tree to help you build a relationship with your (already charismatic) character!

Simple... and it works fine.  8)

Ok, Im still quite early on the game and it can change later on, but there's something on this game that makes me want to come back to it all the time!  :-X

Looking forward to your pics, JRD  :-X

I was thinking that it eventually become a time where I buy games dependent on whether or not it requires a mandatory online connection.  This EA requirement for SimCity is absurd, and they can only lose money because of it.  Fortunately I have plenty of other games to play when I cannot get online, and TR may just become one of them.

Quote from: JRD on March 09, 2013, 07:38:05 PM
...If any of you guys read "open world" on a TR review... forget it, this is a linear 3rd person, adventure, platforming, puzzle solving game... and a good one I may add!

Yup, I meant to add a clarification to my initial post. CD say it's open world but you get a load screen between levels - so that does not make it an open world game in my book.

Still very good though  :)

Quote from: PZ on March 10, 2013, 01:53:30 PM
TR may just become one of them.

PZ, a piece of advise: QTEs and button mashing may be an issue!

There are plenty of them but most can be done easily. For instance, when you jump on a ledge one of Lara's hands slips and you are promted to press E (on PC, of course), to get a grip on the ledge or you will fall... not a big problem as mostly you won't die and even if you do there is a checkpoint nearby.

On two occasions I found myself stuck though

Spoiler

Lara is captured and is trying to escape. She is found by one of her enemies and he will grab her by the neck and strangle her. To get rid of him you have to  1) hit F precisely when an on screen indicator turns red and Lara kick him in the nuts, 2) as he fights back and grab her again you have to do the same action again to bite his ear, 3) he grabs her by the ankle as she tries to reach his pistol on the ground so you have to mash A and D (left and right) to free her legs and immediately mash E to force his hand holding the gun and shoot him in the head. Fail on any of those QTE/button mashing prompts and you have to do it again  :-\\

Spoiler

Lara enters a wolf den to retrieve a pack with medicine and a radio beacon. It's a small cave with only one exit. As you try to leave the place the wolf will attack you. You can't see him before you trigger the attack so you can't shoot him. Again A and D mash to free her legs, then F at the precise moment to shove him, then mash E to stab the beast

Those particular two points gave me a lot of trouble but apart from that, no major problems with it!

I never played any Uncharted game as they are PS exclusive but for what I've seen TR is quite like it with better graphics  8)

Quote from: Fiach on March 10, 2013, 01:15:14 AM
You do actually need to go back to previous camps mate, alot of the story is related through audio diaries (that are really very good!) and you will find weapon parts needed to make better gear, eg. You have a bow, after finding two bow parts, you will then be able to make a Recurve Bow.

You're right, I just went back a couple camps after the radio tower to rescue the pilot in the blue smoke. There are a few areas that are only accessible once you have enough skills and upgrades. I actually went back to the very first camp to try and reach 100% completion. Unfortunately the areas are desert and all that is left is hunting and searching for colletcibles and salvage crates...

Quote from: Jim di Griz on March 11, 2013, 02:48:16 AM
Still very good though  :)

True... great fun... I'm enjoying it a lot!  :) :-X

Thanks for the heads-up, JRD; while I really dislike button mashing, I am becoming somewhat accustomed to a few of these in FC3 and some of the AC games.  I wonder why the developers think that kind of thing is fun - to mindlessly mash buttons while watching for a prompt indicating the next button to mash is just plain stupid.  For me that is as much fun as having to watch your cell phone for a prompt: "Left foot... right foot... left foot..."  "Ausitin!, you're walking!"

 :-D

The QTEs in AC3 are quite nice imo... I see it as a way of having to act quicly on a wild life attack. The timing allows for a reasonable window to read the controls and act accordingly and the fact that you never really know which button to hit (not mash) next adds some unpredictability to the attack, which I like!  :-X

Well... actually you always start with E then is either SPACE or LMB or Q and in the end it's not unpredictable at all!  ::)

But in TR the window is sometimes too short even for reading which button to mash and I feel pretty dumb hiting A+D as fast as I can to get rid of something....... but not a game breaker so far. Hope it stays like that.

Quote from: JRD on March 11, 2013, 05:16:24 AM
...On two occasions I found myself stuck though

Spoiler

Lara is captured and is trying to escape. She is found by one of her enemies and he will grab her by the neck and strangle her. To get rid of him you have to  1) hit F precisely when an on screen indicator turns red and Lara kick him in the nuts, 2) as he fights back and grab her again you have to do the same action again to bite his ear, 3) he grabs her by the ankle as she tries to reach his pistol on the ground so you have to mash A and D (left and right) to free her legs and immediately mash E to force his hand holding the gun and shoot him in the head. Fail on any of those QTE/button mashing prompts and you have to do it again  :-\\

Spoiler

Lara enters a wolf den to retrieve a pack with medicine and a radio beacon. It's a small cave with only one exit. As you try to leave the place the wolf will attack you. You can't see him before you trigger the attack so you can't shoot him. Again A and D mash to free her legs, then F at the precise moment to shove him, then mash E to stab the beast

...

At least on the PC you have fairly accessible keys to manipulate. On the DS3 (and I suspect the 360 controller too) you need to waggle the left stick left and right rapidly.

Spoiler

Now that becomes a problem as the stick goes in all directions and if it perceives that you are not going precisely left and right but at a slight angle instead, the QTE will fail your attempt. I found using my right hand afforded better control over that...because my left thumb due to proximity was making the stick go more diagonally; using my right hand meant I got the angle correct...until I needed to hit the triangle prompt on the right hand side...

I think perhaps L3 would have been better for breaking free. Luckily though this has only happened a few times.

No problems with the waggle the L Stick on the 360 controller. What I do is take my Left Hand from the grip and place it horizontally over the L Stck and move it from side to side, usually (always?) this is followed by the Y button, so you know whats coming next and are prepared.

Dunno if I would like the KB controls, I would changed them to different keys, but  nobody ever accused me of being normal :)

 :-D

Mashing A and D is not a problem but sometimes it seems the game doesn't like how fast (or slow) I am and I fail the QTE right on start! The annoying part is feeling like an idiot while doing so  ;D

I played the first three or four TR games on the PS1 (which one is the one Lara dies in the end?) and it featured an auto aim function which was both a blessing as a lot of shooting had to be made while jumping and dodging, and a curse as the auto aim quite often chooses the wrong target when you are surrounded.

On a sidenote... only now I realized there's a typo on the title of this thread  :-[  ::)



Oh man, look what I found

Tomb Raider 2 Venice Walkthrough (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r8RXQ3ZDME#)

The Venice Level... look at that! I clearly remember that part in TR2!! Think about AC2 in Venice or today's TR graphics!!!! And yet... Lara could swim... which Altair never could!  ^-^

 :) :-X

Quote from: JRD on March 11, 2013, 04:15:53 PM
...On a sidenote... only now I realized there's a typo on the title of this thread  :-[  ::)

We all do it  ^-^ Tomb Rider has an interesting ring to it  ;)

Quote from: Jim di Griz on March 12, 2013, 12:41:10 AM
We all do it  ^-^ Tomb Rider has an interesting ring to it  ;)

Probably a Freudian Slip....that's where you say one thing and mean a mother  :P

 :laugh:

That Venice level clip brings back memories :-X TR2 was the first TR game where Lara actually had a ponytail in-game, and it behaved like one - would sway in the wind if she was outdoors and would flop around accurately when she moved.. In TR1 her hair was in a bun in-game, which made her look kind of schoolmarm-ish, yet in the cut scenes her ponytail would be back. I guess they couldn't be bothered doing the extra programming required to give her a fractal ponytail, or they couldn't figure a way to do it.

Now that I think on it, TR2 was also the first game in the franchise to have outdoor areas.

The things that stick in your mind...

Yeah TR2 was a groundbreaking game. TR1 was great too but as it happens the sequel polishes what the original game attempted and introduces more ideas.

Lara's hair was a trademark and by keeping up to the tradition, AMD screwed up big time. In TR, her hair looks amazing like in no other game I've seen so far, but it comes with a price. AMD developed the the graphical part of the game and apparently only handed it to nVidia too late so they couldn't code it properly to make it w@&k on their GPUs... since nVidia owns 3/4 of the market... A LOT of PC customers are suffering from nasty frame rate drops and crashes... me included  :-\\

Read more here (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-07-nvidia-apologises-to-tomb-raider-pc-players-plagued-by-geforce-issues)

If you plan to get TR for PC... keep that in mind!!!!!! I can run it with the "High" settings but not in the "Ultra" ettings and the TressFX must be off too... the game looks amazing anyway (even her hair) but sometimes stuttering occurs, breaking a bit of the fun!

I think something similar happened in reverse (could be wrong as I'm not a PC buff), with PhysX (spelling?) I think its an Nvidia idea that fails miserably on ATI Radeon cards.

Thanks for the warning JRD :)

Still haven't gotten the game because I think I've caught Art's cold and I haven't felt up to going out :-()

Heh, entirely possible because it apparently left me (about time, too)  :-D

Damn, this post ruined my handsome "16.666" post count which I had prior to this one.

Just another 50k to reach 66.666... you should be there in a month or so!  :-D

 :-D

 :laugh:

I enjoy the working of our prolific writer!  :-X

I finished the game at exactly 90%, I missed a few GPS and maybe a couple of other things, didnt max all skills/weapons, I went back to try and pick up the missing items, but I just couldnt be bothered by then, I was getting bored with the mundane stuff like cairns/ghost things/lanterns etc. But I did like the artifacts, which bore no real relevence to the story, but they were interesting, the other stuff didnt appeal to me at all.

I would say that TR 2013 is one of the finest games I ever played tbh, great story and, great acting, Each level is so well designed, from your entry into the level and your escape from the level, the tools you get, the way they are incrementally improved, to allow you access to new areas in old places, is all very well done.

The graphics are very good, with a great sense of "verticality" in some levels, when you start on a ground level, it looks pretty cool, but when you eventually wind up at the top of the level, the vista is usually stunning, from a beach coastline, to a sprawling shanty town with lots of nooks and crannies to explore and then, when you get to the top and see a huge , partially destroyed ship, suspended from cranes, You begin to appreciate the sheer scale of the level. It's not open world, but it still packs ALOT of stuff into it.

The "tombs" aren't like the old games, usually just two rooms, one with a puzzle (simple one) to get to the second, I dont know if its better/worse, but it did streamline the story, without getting you too bogged down with puzzles, which were pretty simple and self contained, but enjoyable distractions.

Lots of shooty stuff, but not as bad as Uncharted, just enough to keep you on your toes.

I liked the QTE's they were simple (platform dependant) and allowed the combat to flow, with some nice cinematic effects for fatalities. It reminded me a bit of Resident Evil 6 in places, not a bad thing.

I didnt mind the skill tree's too much, but, many of the "skills" were crap, they were really dredging the bottom of the barrel with some of the rubbish you had to waste points on, to get to the next tier.

All in all, I really loved every minute I played in the game and I restarted it immediately, just to concentrate on the storyline, without going back to old areas and just use the bow and the shotgun, so I dont have to spend time looking for salvage, which I think dilutes the story progression.

Great game!

I think I just read a lavish praise. ??? who are you? and what did you do to Fiach?

(thanks JRD, for that line :-D )

Quote from: Art Blade on March 13, 2013, 01:19:04 PM
I think I just read a lavish praise. ??? who are you? and what did you do to Fiach?

(thanks JRD, for that line :-D )

A...Stepford Husband???? ....say it ain't so!!!!11  :o :angel:

:laugh:

Contrary to popular belief, I do actually like some games, but this is probably the only one that is played by other people on the forum :P

I would say that if you like TR 2013, then get Resident Evil 6, I loved the crap out of that game and it was very action orientated compared to previous RE games, which were more solitary, cerebral affairs, (Like the way TR 2013 changed the TR series from solitary tomb raiding), it rebooted the RE franchise, but I think the amount of QTE's would really annoy most people here, so there wouldn't be any point in posting about it (it got terrible reviews anyway..... so maybe it's just me :))

 ??? if indeed the one who wrote the post I was surprised by wasn't Fiach but an obedient willing husband, wouldn't that mean that Fiach was the complementary (perhaps Brentwood) housewife?

err.. OK: "it ain't so." :-D

 :laugh: :-D

 ;) :-()

Great review, Fiach. Makes me want to play the game right away!! :-X

"Appreciate the sheer scale of the levels" says it all! Level design is really good indeed... it has always been like that. This is probably why I always loved Lara's adventures... I really whish I could play Uncharted but unless I get a playstation it won't happen. Too bad I missed all TR games since TR4 even though I bought a bundle a while ago and actually own those last few games but never started any as I am afraid the old graphics would spoil the experience... I can always have them with me to play on my lap top in case I'm away from my gaming PC though!!!

Well....

 :laugh:

Great report Fiach +1  :-X ; I'm increasingly leaning toward purchasing the game as I read of the adventures you chaps are having.

Quote from: Fiach on March 13, 2013, 12:15:48 PM
...I would say that TR 2013 is one of the finest games I ever played tbh, great story and, great acting, Each level is so well designed...see a huge , partially destroyed ship, suspended from cranes, You begin to appreciate the sheer scale of the level...

Talk about a dry dock  ^-^ that was an impressive vista though and the gameplay revolving around that particular bit was great fun - glad you're enjoying it.

Last night when I went back to the shanty town to get the last of the 'laid to rest' challenge completed, I overheard this long dialogue between two of the Solarii (the cult of salvagers for those who haven't played it yet.) It was so funny as one kept on pestering the other for a book the other was going to trade and the other kept teasing him about how good it was - reminded me of FC2. I didn't have the heart to kill them after that...

Nice review and I can fully agree about the level design - they manage to keep it fresh throughout, even the area after the palace, which is fundamentally the same as the first area of the game, just a bit of mist and a full moon made the whole experience different. Same for the mountain village seen at night, during a storm and then during daylight - nicely done  :)

I'm dreading finishing this game.

I'm about 35% through on replay and I have to say, that, without the distractions of hunting for collectibles, the story is more enjoyable and focused, so I do recommend a replay of the game.

Has anyone encountered the Gollum character in the Geothermal caves yet?

I finished up a few days ago and have taken Fiach's advice, started afresh with just a mission playthrough on hard difficulty.

I also tried some MP but I don't think that'll be for me as the game throws you up against far higher level players, so they stay alive a lot longer due to whatever they've unlocked, or maybe it's the better weapons they have. I don't really see the fun in dying a heap of times just to get levelled up enough to compete.

Gameplay online was nowhere near as fluid either, a shame after the beauty of SP.

I'm in the Geo caves at the moment, I heard somebody talking and saying crazy stuff, but I didnt pay much attention to what was in the cages tbh. I think I only saw one enemy to kill that wasnt Solarii, but I havent really been looking, just playing the story really fast, want to replay Bioshock 1 n 2 before Infinite comes out next week.

There are a couple of crazy talkers in there, but if you take the first branch tunnel off on the left (the one before the tunnel with the sulphur gas venting) you'll hear him saying stuff like "Will she find him? She searches..." it was really quite good.

There are two or three outside of the cages that you'll meet, but Gollum keeps to his own tunnel.

Ah, OK, I heard that, but didnt see him.

"Ahem" guys, correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't it read "Tomb Raiders" instead of "Tomb Rider?"   
Just asking????

Quote from: nexor on March 20, 2013, 08:08:21 AM
"Ahem" guys, correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't it read "Tomb Raiders" instead of "Tomb Rider?"   
Just asking????

Been there, done that, we all have the t-shirts.....*looks nexor over*...'cept you...  >:D  :laugh:

lol, Fiach, you're mean  :)

nexor, what Fiach tried to hint at is this:

Quote from: JRD on March 11, 2013, 04:15:53 PMOn a sidenote... only now I realized there's a typo on the title of this thread  :-[  ::)

Quote from: Art Blade on March 20, 2013, 11:50:15 AM
lol, Fiach, you're mean  :)

I didnt intend to sound mean....better dressed, but never mean :)

On a side note, all DLC for TR will be for multiplayer only :(

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-20-tomb-raider-dlc-will-be-entirely-multiplayer-based?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-20-tomb-raider-dlc-will-be-entirely-multiplayer-based?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily)

Quote from: Fiach on March 20, 2013, 12:17:29 PM
...On a side note, all DLC for TR will be for multiplayer only...

That's a bit of a pain, there are all of those promising looking but blocked paths and tomb entrances.

There was a puzzle tomb DLC as pre order for Gamestop, but even though I pre ordered it, GS in Ireland didnt get the DLC codes (so I kinda got screwed over there as I coulda got the game a tenner cheaper in another shop), so maybe that DLC will be released generally.

On a side note, Gamestop is closing between 250 and 500 stores in 2013, so i guess my DLC is the least of their problems, to that end, I shifted my €40 deposit on The Last of Us over to Bioshock Infinite as TLoU wont be released until June 14th and I'm afraid GS will be gone by then and I dont want to lose my money...lots of people got shafted here when GAME and HMV went bust, losing their deposits and vouchers.

I liked the "better dressed" bit, Fiach  :-() :-X And good luck with your investment.

Quote from: Art Blade on March 21, 2013, 08:37:12 AM
I liked the "better dressed" bit, Fiach  :-() :-X And good luck with your investment.

Cheers mate, trying to blast through Bioshock 1 and 2 before getting it , but they are so good, I'm scouring every nook and cranny for stuff and savouring every minute, I definately wont be finished in time....and they are not particularly long games :(

well, savour and finish them in your own time before you start the new one with just a little bit of delay. You know, it's quite in fashion these days to relate "delay" to new games.

And, you wouldn't want to wear a brand new jacket, either, would you? I mean, just how nuveau rich would that look on you. Of course you'd  first have the butler wear it a bit for you. :-()

Quote from: Art Blade on March 22, 2013, 09:55:22 AM
well, savour and finish them in your own time before you start the new one with just a little bit of delay. You know, it's quite in fashion these days to relate "delay" to new games.

And, you wouldn't want to wear a brand new jacket, either, would you? I mean, just how nuveau rich would that look on you. Of course you'd  first have the butler wear it a bit for you. :-()

LOL, reminds me of this :

The Rich Couple was going out for the evening when the Lady of the House gave the Butler, Sheldon, the rest of the night off. She said that she and her husband would be home very late that evening and that Sheldon should enjoy the rest of evening.



Well, as it turned out the Wife wasn't having a good time at the party and came home early. As she walked into the house she sees Sheldon sitting in the dining room. She calls for him and tells him to follow her to the Master Bedroom. She closes it and locks the door, she looks at him and smiles ... then she says ...



Sheldon, "Take off my Dress" ...

He does it carefully ..



Sheldon, "Take off my Stockings and Garter" ...

He silently obeys her ...



Sheldon, "Remove my Bra and Panties" ...

As Sheldon does this the tension continues to mount.



She looks at him ... "Sheldon, If I ever catch you wearing my clothes again you're fired!" ...

 :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: +1  :-X brilliant  :-D

So here are a few pictures of TR. It's been a couple weeks since I had time to play but I should have more coming now.

Introducing Lara and the island! The game has really nice light effects



This is one of the first tombs Lara will find. It works like in AC. You have to solve a puzzle to get to a tomb and get a reward. Only here the puzzles are much more simple and the tombs can be completed quite fast. Haven't seen any time constrain either so you can take your time.



Climbing a tower... FC3 anyone? From up there you have a beautiful view, Just Cause 2 style... it's a Square Enix game after all!  ;)



More scenery... the areas where Lara is are not really big but you are not bounded with (visible) walls so it feels good to be outside!

Thanks for the pics JRD :-X :)

Looks good, the lighting and texturing appears to be quite a bit more advanced compared to earlier TR titles.

If you can find out who the distributors are, send 'em an e-mail about the DLC code. Someone I know did that for WRC3 as the codes didn't ship with the games - he got one mailed to him next day.

Might not w@&k, but there's no harm in trying.

I've been watching a let's play on youtube, and there are a lot of things I find similar to FC3, game play style. If it wasn't a 3rd person game, I might actually play it....

Nice pics, JRD  :-X

Fine picture indeed. I think they missed an opportunity here to allow consoles to use their screenshot functions. There have been some truly superb shots I really wish I could have taken.

As for the third person Dweller, this is nothing like most games that use this - it feels far more fluid and natural than any game I've played so far. It's certainly light-years ahead of the stilted Resident Evil or Dead Space II and III's third-person feel.

I think I was one of the four people that actually liked RE6, very cinematic, I thought about RE6 alot as I played TR2013, there were alot of mechanic similarities I felt..

True enough it's cinematic and the scope is far better than previous RE games, which had a sort of fixed peering over the should effect - that was what I really meant to say.

A few more screenies  :-()

The game keeps showing nice environments and never gives me the senasation of a linear corridor shooter


There's a nice playground there... the lines criss crossing the level can be used to move around... you can create some zip lines too


All this area is open for you to explore and fight


Another tomb to raid



The island was home of an ancient Japanese cult and there are some WWII elements here and there like old crashed planes, which keeps me thinking about FC3 all the time.

.

I'm having a great time playing TR. I was playing Max Payne 3 a while ago but dropped the game due to it's constricted and boring nature. This game, even though linear, is much more fun to play!  :-X

did you forget one pic? I found it when checking "unseen" media. It looks cool -- what did you do to her?  >:D

Spoiler

[smg id=5782]

LOL... I was saving it for later!  :laugh:

At some point Lara escapes from her certain death by jumping on a pool of blood. There is a scene where she emerges from that pool, all covered in blood... very cool!  >:D

For the rest of this level she is playing inside a maze of caves and she still covered in blood.

Actually Lara gets dirtier and her clothes ripped and thorn as the game progresses. Nice attention to details. When she goes down a river she emerges without all dirt on her but soon enough she will look as someone having a really bad day again... except her hair, Lara is NOT having a bad hair day.  ;D

ehehe :-()

I actually picked up TR a couple of weeks ago but haven't gotten around to installing it yet :-[ Will do so soon and let you guys know what I thunk. Sorry about the procrastination - between watching Battlestar Galactica and blowing away island trash I haven't had much spare time left over...

But Lara's in it so I should enjoy it ;)

have fun  :)

I finally got around to playing this, and I must say I'm quite impressed. Years ago they tried to jazz up the Tomb Raider series and made a hash of it (I think it was the fifth title in the series that they screwed up by trying to improve it) but they've done a considerably better job this time around, bringing Lara into the "modern" gaming era. This game is a prequel to all TR games, with Lara either a teenager or a very young woman who apparently hasn't received her title of Lady Croft as yet, judging by the fact that she utters the odd unladylike swear word from time to time (no effs though, only esses - so far, anyway).

After a half-hour install followed immediately by the customary three-hour update courtesy of my good mates at Steam, I got into the game. There's a cool intro sequence which doesn't go on for too long before you're in. I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but I can tell I'm going to get hooked. Lara looks fantastic, even bedraggled and covered in grime as she is. The way she is animated is terrific, evidently motion-captured, very fluid and natural. She still runs, walks, jumps and climbs like she did in earlier games and the transitions from one set of moves to another is very smooth and realistic. Idle animations are nice to watch and Lara's expressions are quite varied when you can see her face. Being a third-person game you're usually seeing the back of her while she's moving, but you can swing the "camera" view all around her once she's stationary.

Graphically it's far and away the best TR yet with excellent lighting and environmental effects, rich detail, and about the best fire and water effects I've seen in a game thus far. Frame rate is great with everything either on (except for anti-aliasing, which I always turn off) or set to "normal". TRs have always been pretty resource-friendly. I've yet to experiment with the higher settings, but at this stage it looks terrific in fullscreen mode @ 1920x1080 res and is silky smooth. All control keys are fully remappable (PC version, obviously) and the controls are quick and responsive.

All in all, it's quite an immersive escapade. Maybe it's just my innate male protectiveness gene kicking in, but I always find that I get quite attached to Lara in these games and feel a distinct pang when she meets some yucky demise because of my blundering - I almost feel like I've let her down. And there are some nasty things that can happen to her if you don't look after her. So far she's been crushed by a falling boulder and mauled to death by a wolf because I wasn't quick enough on the keys. Sorry about that, Lara...

You can skill up, upgrade weapons and do other stuff at "Base Camps" that you discover along the way. The TAB key will bring up various inventory and stat screens which you can cycle through, and which I discovered entirely by accident. I don't think it tells you about that in the options/controls section, but maybe I missed it. If you're stuck for ideas on where to go and how to proceed, while Lara is stationary you can hit an Examine Environment key (Q by default) which will make the scene go black and white except for things you can interact with, which will be highlighted. As long as Lara remains stationary you can pan the camera all around the scene to find these interactive objects and directional clues, then as soon as you start to move Lara the display goes back to normal. It's a neat tool.

Enough for now, I want to get back into the game and have some more adventures.

Here's a few screenies. For once, there is a built-in screenshot function <F12>. Bear in mind that the pics lose a lot in the resizing and compression process - ingame they look much nicer:

[smg id=6071 align=center width=600]

[smg id=6072 align=center width=600]

[smg id=6073 align=center width=600]

[smg id=6074 align=center width=600]

[smg id=6075 align=center width=600]

[smg id=6076 align=center width=600]

[smg id=6077 align=center width=600]

[smg id=6078 align=center width=600]

very nice post, fragger :)

Some time ago, one or two months perhaps, I watched half a playthrough on YT and I was impressed, too. She looks better in motion (as in, while gaming) than in stills, so screencaps don't do her justice. However, I have never been a TR fan but if they had started with this, I might have become one  :-()

Cheers Art :)

Overall I'm quite enjoying the game. It's not an open world game by any means, however there is some scope for exploration. The base camps that you discover along the way serve as fast travel points, so that you can jump back to areas you've already visited and find stuff you may have missed. Some of the earlier goodies can only be gotten later anyway as you need certain skills and/or upgrades to get to them. Generally speaking, you can't just walk from one area to another, and you can't go just anywhere you like as many areas are bounded by some kind of impassable barrier such as cliffs, crevasses and thick scrub, and the only way to get to or from them is by fast travelling in and out.

I touched on the pluses in my last post, here are some minuses.

There are a number of quick time events, and some of them can be tricky. Or rather, they consist of dying a lot until you learn their routine. For instance, there is a part where Lara finds herself sliding down a long natural white water chute. You have to make her slide to one side of the chute or the other to avoid getting her impaled on piles of debris on the way down. However, there are no prompts to help you know when or which way to dodge, it all happens very quickly and the view is bouncing around a bit so that you can't really make out these traps until you land on them, so it becomes a case of reloading and doing the sequence over and over until you learn when and where to dodge, essentially by painful trial and error. This, combined with the checkpoint saving system, meant that I had to do that sequence eight times before I got it right. There are quite a few of these sorts of things. Not a huge amount of fun.

The combat model is a bit clumsy, which is unfortunate because there is quite a lot of it. However, weapons and weapons skills can be upgraded as you progress by earning enough "salvage" money (by finding and breaking open crates, looting bodies, etc) which can actually help offset the slightly dodgy combat physics. I say dodgy because you need to aim first then shoot (no hip shooting), and when you aim, Lara slips to one side of the screen while an aiming reticule appears in the centre. This tends to throw you off a tad and as the control is quite sensitive it can be very easy to miss, especially when things get frenetic. All in all I never feel like I have the sort of control that I should have.  Lara can do stealth kills by sneaking up on bad guys and throttling them with her bow, which is quite satisfying, and she has some melee moves that you can skill up to, but they're not at all easy to pull off.

Puzzles are a bit of a letdown, mainly because there are so few of them. The only halfway decent ones are inside hidden tombs that you can find along the way, but these are not the main focus of the game, they're just a way to get extra goodies, basically. And they're not that difficult. One of the attractions of previous TR games for me were the puzzles, and some of the multi-level ones could require a good dollop of lateral thought to solve. The ones in this game are pretty lacklustre by comparison.

Despite all that, I'm still drawn to the game. Gone are the blocky-looking environments of previous TRs, the terrain in this one is very organic and natural-looking. There appears to be a day/night cycle but I won't know for sure until I've played the game a couple of times to compare (if I play it again, which I may). I've died a lot of times, almost always during one scripted sequence or another :D But there is a strong sense of satisfaction when you complete an objective and the game is clever in enough other ways to make up for the downers.

But sooner or later I just know there's going to be at least one boss fight, and you all know how I feel about those... :-\\

Quote from: fragger on July 09, 2013, 07:31:02 PM
But sooner or later I just know there's going to be at least one boss fight, and you all know how I feel about those... :-\\

Are you sure fragger?  I thought you fondly reminisced about the boss fight in FC3  :angel:

Spoiler

:laugh:   8-X sorry fragger, I just can't help myself

Hehehe :laugh: Oh yeah, I just love boss fights! Actually, I haven't run into any yet, but I think I will eventually.

The more I see of this game, the more I think it's actually one of the best-looking games I've seen - not just among TR games, but any games. The level and quality of detail is excellent. Animated sequences are terrific, whether you're trying to cross a crumbling bridge or escape from a burning palace that is literally collapsing around you. The physics of such things are truly impressive.

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fragger, there are also some sort of secret challenges. For example get a torch and light whatever it is (candle? oil lamp?) in the lap of Buddha statues; shoot lit round lampions; torch posters glued to walls. That sort of thing :)

 ???? How did you know that?

I've done some of those (there's quite a few different ones), I plan to go back after a bit and try and do what I haven't done yet. Cheers though :)

There are some cool things you can learn or upgrade too, such as upgrading you bow to shoot flaming arrows (sound familiar? :-()) and attach ropes to arrows to essentially make your own zip lines. Those are only allowed in certain places though, where there is a particular kind of surface to aim at (a little like the proper type of wall to aim at in Portal) and a nearby post to attach your end of the rope to.

There's quite a bit to keep one occupied outside of the story. I do miss the puzzle-solving though, I must admit. There's precious little of it in this, it's much more of an actioner than previous TRs.

I know that because I watched at least half a playthrough on YouTube and mentioned that earlier ;)

Of course :)

This game is actually bigger then I was expecting, I've been at it for a week or so and I'm about 70% through it. And that's not counting all the stuff that I can go back and look for if I want, and I've missed a fair bit. Replay value? Yeah, there is some. There are different ways you can go regarding skilling up and upgrading stuff, and there are three difficulty levels (which you can change mid-game). I could play through it again two or three more times, after a bit of a hiatus.

I gained a neat new skill today (one of many). If a bad guy gets too close, I can dodge him, throw a handful of dirt in his face and then sink my climbing axe into his neck while he's trying to get the dirt out of his eyes. Pretty cool. I can now also shoot arrows with explosive tips in addition to the flaming ones, just like that dude on Rook Island does ;) There are other weapons - an automatic pistol, a pump-action shottie and an assault rifle which can be fitted with a grenade launcher once you find it. All weps are upgradable once you find the parts and/or get the dough (compare the bow Lara's carrying in the first pic below to the primitive affair I started with). There are lots of upgrades.

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Quote from: fragger on July 15, 2013, 05:47:31 AM
...Had to happen - killed my first boss today...

I know how much you love the boss sequences fragger  :angel:

Even though I knew of the boss sequence in FC3, I still dreaded the moment that I arrived at the detestable point in the game.

 :)

The first time I saw that boss thing in FC3 I thought, "You've got to be kidding..." ::)

You got to that point in the game before I did, and at first I did not want to believe it was true.  After expecting an extension of the at least somewhat realistic game play FC2 to be evident in FC3, I did not want to see any kind of boss sequence.

Quote from: fragger on July 16, 2013, 05:07:26 PMThe first time I saw that boss thing in FC3 I thought, "You've got to be kidding..." ::)

I thought, "f@#k."

 :laugh:

That stupid boss reminded me of a ridiculous "B" rated movie called "Gargoyles (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068622/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2)" with Cornel Wilde.  The boss (gargoyle) is on the cover

I'm getting there, about 93% complete. I spent quite some time going back to try finding all the stuff I'd missed. I've got nearly all of it now, except for a redcap mushroom hidden somewhere in a forest (got 9 out of 10 of them), a mummified body hanging in a bag somewhere in a bunch of smelly caves which I have to find and set alight, and a little sun-shaped totem hidden somewhere in an abandoned Japanese research complex. Some of this stuff is really hard to locate, you need to look into every nook and cranny.

I think I'm almost at the end of the story, but at some point soon I think I'm going to have to deal with this badass boss who's built like Solomon Grundy on steroids but wears ancient Samurai armour and wields a heavy duty metal club which wouldn't look out of place hanging off the saddle of the Witch King of Angmar's ride. I've seen this dude a couple of times during the game but so far haven't been required to try kicking his armoured bum - which would be no mean feat considering it's higher off the ground than Lara's head.

Bosses. How I love them...

 :)
You'll manage eventually, fragger.. then rip off his self-inflated pighead and relieve yourself down his open neck. Just to put emphasis on how much you appreciated him. :-D

I think I'll do just that >:D