Tag Archives: Tomb Raider

NEWS – Welcome Back to the Working Week and New Games

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome back, people. Welcome back, myself. Thanks 🙂

On to business, as there’s quite a bit of news to catch up on, but . . . new games:

Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones (PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox One) – The initial game was first available on Steam called Stealth Bastard, and re-released on the PS3 and Vita titled Stealth Inc. The sequel was released last year on the WiiU and has now come to the PS3, PS4, PC, and Xbox One.

Bastion (PS4) – Originally released in 2011, Bastion has been re-released on the PS4.

Dark Soul II: Scholar of the First Sin (Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4) – An updated version of Dark Souls II has been released. This is a compilation of the original game and the DLC. The PS4 and Xbox One versions have also recieved an enhanced version, with upgraded graphics, among other fixes.

I see you Dragon Age, and raise you The Witcher III

I see your Dragon Age, and raise you The Witcher III

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved – Dimensions Evolved is a free title update for Geometry Wars 3 and includes 40 new levels.

Sunset Overdrive: Dawn of the Rise of the Fallen Machines – New, and final DLC for Sunset Overdrive. Definitely a fun game filled with platforming and mayhem. The game recently received a permanent price drop, and hopefully it’ll receive a sale, so that I can pick it up.

What else is new?

The Next Gears of War Game Won’t Come to Xbox 360

Black Tusk Studios has announced that the next Gears of War game will not be available on the Xbox 360, but on the Xbox One. I have no problem with this, as there were 4 Gears games on the 360. Time for this-gen.

Battlefield Hardline Patch

Battlefield Hardline will be receiving a patch to nerf the Kill Couch (not remove it, which I’d previously assumed). Available in Dust Bowl, the couch was the fastest and strongest vehicle. However, the patch will make the strength and life of the couch very small, as it was meant for one-off use only. Killing the American Dream, bro.

Quantum Break Delayed Again

Microsoft has announced that Quantum Break will not be released before next year, due to the holiday rush of Microsoft Exclusives already being released around year end, including Rise of the Tomb Raider, Forza 6, and Halo 5 Guardians.

Tomb Raider has Sold 8.5 million copies

Speaking of Tomb Raider, Square Enix has announced that the Tomb Raider reboot has sold 8.5 million copies, which makes it the best selling Tomb Raider game. There’s a lot of hype for their follow-up later this year. Hopefully new info comes out around E3. You can find my review here: sorry, here.

tombraider

Xbox’s Deals With Gold

This week, on the Xbox One, Forza Horizons 2 is on sale, in all its versions, as well as the Car Pass DLC. Coincidentally just in time for the free Fast and Furious 7 Stand-Alone demo, which encourages you to buy the full version. My review for Forza Horizons 2 and the Fast and Furious Stand Alone.

There’s a slew of games also on sale on the Xbox 360 front: Serious Sam HD, Double D XXL, 3, and DLC. F1 2014, Metal Slug 3, and some of the King of Fighters games are also on sale.

Dues EX: Mankind Divided

The sequel to the awesome 2011 Dues Ex: Human Revolution was leaked, and has been confirmed, and it’s called Dues Ex: Mankind Divided. It’s a sequel to Adam Jensen’s story, 2 years after the events of the previous game. Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Unfortunately no release window yet.

Colour me excited. I may have to replay Human Revolution. Where’s the re-mastered versions now . . .?

I’ve also added some new screenshots to Forza Horizons 2, and I started playing the updated version of Half-Life 2,so I’ve added some screen shots from that, with some more coming.

Still playing Far Cry 4 (really wanting the Upload app to get updated), and over the weekend I finally got into Call of Duty: Ghosts, which is another game I’ve been sitting on due to hard-drive space. Expect a little more of an insight tomorrow.

-iRogan
“Yeah, RIP.”

E3 2014 – Microsoft Press Conference

Posted on by
Reply

Alright, here we go. E3 2014 is here.

E3 Microsoft

We start today off with the Microsoft Press Conference, where they’re promising 90 minutes of games. And they delivered.

We started off with a huge gameplay reveal for Call of Duty Advanced Warfighter. The game looked incredible. Very futuristic, kind of sci-fi. Very good looking and cinematic.Truly next gen looking, but with the same gameplay that we can expect from the franchise.

Next up we have the Forza guys from Turn 10 announcing the Nurburbring for Forza 5, free DLC, and then they brought out Playground Games to do a full reveal of Forza Horizons 2. 200+ cars, dynamic/ dramatic weather, and the Forza Drivatar tech is coming over. More open-world and seamless multiplayer.

Next up is a quick trailer for Evolve. More info released for it – a 2nd monster revealed: Kraken, 2nd group of hunters too. The game comes out later this year with 3 monsters and 12 hunters, and over a dozen maps. Always liked L4D, so this has my attention. #Excited.

Ubisoft and Assassin’s Creed Unity showcasing the co-op function. 4 player co-op missions. Not much said about whether this is throughout the whole campaign, or is this separate multiplayer focused missions. Assassins Creed 3 killed a lot of my love for the franchise. Hopefully my play through of IV reinvigorates me for when Unity comes out. Showed large outside environments which seamlessly transition into indoor smaller compact environments.

Moving along at a quick pace. 90 Minutes goes by quick when its all games… Bioware up next with Dragon Age Inquisition. Look Co-op too? Looks similar to an Oblivion. If it is indeed co-op I’d be down. But it is most likely like KotOR, where you can switch between characters in your party.

Next up, Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive which is incredible looking, and looks very fun to play. Very colourful. Breaking the 4th wall right off the bat. Insomniac knows what they’re doing, and what they’re good at. Starts off making fun of other games. Insomniac has always been known for their creative weapons, and we’ve seen a few to date: record launcher, dynamite teddy bear. Today we saw the Propane Tank launcher. Game showcases some very fast traversal, and announced an 8-player co-op mode. I believe separate from the actual campaign. Oct 28th, 2014 release. XBOX1 Exclusive.

Announcement of a 4 player arcade edition of Dead Rising 3, as DLC, $10. Looks crazy, super fast and competitive. Hyper stylized, and has a crazy name: Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha Prime.

Dance Central announce Spotlight and Disney Fantasia. Moving On.

Fable Legends is up next with a 4 player co-op D&D style game.  5th player can have a top down view and play as the villain, similar to a Dungeon Master. Unreal 4 Engine. Weird.

Microsoft’s creative game, Project Spark, looks.. creative. Announced a Conker pack, essentially saying we’re not gonna make another Conker game, go make one yourself.

Finally, past the mid point, wrapping up the announcements for 2014, getting ready for 2015, bring out Teh Halozz!.

Halo: Master Chief Collection announced Nov 11, 2014 release. Includes Halo 1-4. 100 Multiplayer maps, 4000 Gamerscore, all on one disc. Halo 2 gets the anniversary treatment with the original and classic engine, and all the original MP maps, with 6 re-created.

Also announced is Halo Nightfall, which is a digital series that leads up to Halo 5 Guardian. Halo 5 Beta multiplayer beta coming this Holiday. #RedvsBlue

From AAA to Indy. ID@2015, independent developers working hard with Xbox getting their games out. Ability to self publish. Lots of cool, quaint, stylized games coming our way. Ori and Blind Forrest stood out, and a Limbo-esq game called Inside. Quick montage showing lots of titles.

Next up, an actual genuine surprise, The Rise of the Tomb Raider. Just a quick trailer showing Lara in therapy discussing the events of the first game spliced with footage of her in the wilderness again, running from a bear and launching herself off a cliff wielding her rock climbing spike.

Witcher 3 is next up. Showing gameplay of an actual hunt. Our hero tracking a Griffon and the skills that are needed for tracking. Gameplay shows combat and how organic story elements get can be integrated, as the protagonist Geralt comes across a camp of baddies harassing a female herbalist. We’re shown some pretty gory gameplay. Tracking the Griffon shows some of the terrain and we’re told that any view-able location is traversable.

Microsoft has been blazing through this conference, no breaks, no breathers. No dancing in front of the Kinect, no stats, no hardware announcements, no Apps.

Tom Clancy’s the Division is up, nearing the end of the conference. The game is gorgeous, showing some of the new HUD overlays, GPS maps and highlighting enemies behind cover. Level design is so heavily detailed as we see the characters traverse the New York tunnel system. Game looks very much like The Last Of Us, as in we get the real impression this is post apocalyptic survival. Gun play gameplay shows some fantastic damage. Really impressed, but the game is still a ways out.

Almost last up, Scalebound. a Monster Hunter style game by the guys who made Vanquish. Very Japanese. Character can armor up as he’s in the middle of a monster battle. Puts his headphones on to rock out! Probably Presented by Beats By Dre.

Last but not least. Crackdown 3! Or Crackdown rebooted? Agency Co-op returns as we seen a couple agents trying to take down a baddie who is barricaded up at the top of his fortress tower. We see some new interesting destruction. Utilizing explosive to take down a couple buildings in domino effect as another agent drives a tanker truck wrapped in explosives up the side of the felled building into the fortress headquarters. Very cool, would be awesome if this turns out to be true gameplay possibilities.

That’s it, that’s all. Final montage shows what we’ve seen, whats to come. No big shocking closer, no Halo 5 cinematic, or news on Destiny, or Gears. But everything that we saw is next-gen, and looks great.

EA Press conference is up next. Stay Tuned

iReview – TOMB RAIDER

Posted on by
5

I’ve always followed the Tomb Raider games, playing them at friend’s or at school during my lunch hours in grades 7-8 (’97 – ’98), back in their PC origin days with grid-by-grid movements, an emphasis of timing to avoid Indiana Jones style rolling boulder traps, and a female explorer that somehow had the core muscles to do a handstand dismount while pulling herself out of a pool (probably before yoga was even invented), in Lara Croft.

TombRaider

I’ve been actively playing the TR series since The Angel of Darkness, 2003, when I had the PS2. Angel of Darkness was kind of a reboot unto of itself, moving the gameplay to a freer running mechanic, and darker city based story. This game also killed off the TR series in a lot of people’s eyes.

Enter Crystal Dynamics a couple years later, and TR is revitalized. Lara was back to her tomb raiding roots, and the new, energized, development team brought life into the series again, with TR: Legend, a second game, which was a throwback anniversary edition of the original game with the new engine, and a 3rd game in TR: Underworld. They tried new mechanics and built on the free running platform mechanics, introducing rope swings, and some quick time events. Crystal Dynamics also made an arcade-like TR game, TR and Guardian of the Light, which was a quality cooperative puzzle/action game. To sum it up, Crystal Dynamics has done will by the TR series in my eyes.

So in late 2010, when the game was announced as a reboot, all I needed was the one page cover concept art, and I was excited.

Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series with Nathan Drake took a lot of influence from the TR series of old, and gave us a look at what a really polished adventure/platforming game can be. It had the combat, the characters, the story, the action, and a cinematic style of presentation. And it had buckets of polish. It was perfected over the next two titles. And like Uncharted borrowed from TR, TR has now borrowed back. TR has taken everything that’s great about the Uncharted series and added the exploration element, and a lot more depth to the combat.

The game starts you off with a bow and arrow, which aside from its combat purposes, also acts as a rope bridge tool and long range fire starter. Unlike Uncharted, where you pick up weapons from enemies, in TR you find weapons and tools throughout the game, and they stay with you. You also find parts for your weapons and tools, allowing you to upgrade them, for combat and gameplay purposes alike. The game provides some large levels that require exploration, and like its predecessors, Lara can still run, jump, swing, and climb. You find a pick-axe that allows you scale walls, and the shotgun allows you access through troublesome walls. And if you so choose, you can go back to any part of the island you’ve previously been, to re-explore as you unlock new tools.

There are some elements that do require attention though. Uncharted introduced active set pieces and levels that literally get destroyed around you as you’re trying to escape, be that a moving train, an old mansion that is literally burning out from under your feet, or a flying cargo plane, that you’re desperately trying not to fall out of while its crashing. TR tries to emulate some of these set pieces that get destroyed around you, and they are great, but don’t quite hold up. That being said, TR had us trapped on an island, Uncharted had us spanning the globe, so story wise, they had a little more freedom. The foundation is there, and Crystal Dynamics can improve on it a lot if they plan to make more.

Secondly, for a game called Tomb Raider, the actual tomb raiding is an afterthought. Granted, you could consider the whole mystical island with its gods and supernatural aspects as a big tomb, but the island is really just made up of smaller shanty towns and villages, and a couple temples and shrines. The game does provide a few OPTIONAL mini tombs worth exploring, and worth mentioning, this is where you’ll also find the bulk of the puzzle aspects of the game, which is insufficient.

And finally, I’m not going to review the graphics, as the game looks great on the PC (especially with the hair physics), but I played on the aging Xbox360, which can’t hold up, so I can’t comment. I can comment on the animations, which are great, but not as good as they could be. For a game that was seemingly trying to build on what Uncharted had perfected over its past 3 games, they can’t compare. They tried and nearly got it right, but the Uncharted games used motion capture for A LOT, not just cut scenes, and you can’t compete using key frame animation. It’s a shame because Crystal Dynamics hired Camilla Luddington for the cut scene motion capture and voice-acting; why not use her for some of the gameplay animations. The game’s polish just can’t compete with Naughty Dog’s franchise, either due to time constraints, developer experience, or budget.

All that being said, Tomb Raider has its ace, its lead protagonist, its heroin. Lara Croft. You can’t go wrong. Lara’s story is retold through this reboot, her first adventure. She’s younger, and shes fit. She more realistic looking and handling. Starting as a naive explorer trying to follow the footsteps of her father, she joins an archaeology group on a boat. The boat crashes, she loses her friends along the way, and from then on she’s basically forced to react to everything the island can throw her way as she tries to find a way off. The island inhabitants are really in the same pickle, but Lara, her first kill out of the way, doesn’t really give them a lot of time to share their thoughts. She’s a ‘survivor’ and they are in her way. Losing her friends and companions left and right leaves her no real choice other than kill to survive. Starting innocent, she ends her journey scarred, burned, and with a different darkness to her eyes, knowing she’ll never return home the same person, if she ever does decide to go home.

The game is fantastic throughout, and understandably it was delayed to add additional polish, but maybe they should have scrapped the ill-thought multiplayer and delegated the time and resources to an additional coat.

-iRogan