Tomb Raider

[purbeast0]

PC with 360 controller

oh ok. just wondering cause ps3 controls feel loose in general to me, especially uncharted. tomb raider had really tight controls on the 360, not sure bout pc.

 

[coldmeat]

I'm playing on the pc with a 360 controller, and I like the controls. I'm not sure if they feel "tight" or not, but it's rare for me to not have at least one thing that irritates me about the controls in a game.

I wish it didn't stutter so much though, and the fps didn't drop so much in certain areas.

 

[Geosurface]

I sat down with the game again last night and put in a good chunk of hours, and I'm really enjoying it a lot. I must amend my earlier statement.

It isn't the controls which I found a bit jerky, it's actually the camera. Though its not awful by any means.

It's really a great game I must say. I like that Zelda feel of oh now I can access this area because I got this upgrade. Cool stuff.

I am actually still playing it, it's quite addictive

 

[agness]

It looks impressive! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYB8VrW538k Gameplay, graphics and generally everything! And it has great reviews.

 

[Doppel]

Finished it last night. I skipped over most of the side stuff, so was only 67% complete at end of main story. It was a rental, so this is fine. Was a good game. I HIGHLY recommend not playing on Normal, as I did. The fights were fun, but far too easy. I hardly ever died.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

Didn't realize this was coming out until it was released & began seeing videos spam my YT feed.
Would like to play it. Looks good. Tight on cash at the moment so unless I'm doing a trade, I'll be waiting a bit.

 

[Doppel]

Didn't realize this was coming out until it was released & began seeing videos spam my YT feed.
Would like to play it. Looks good. Tight on cash at the moment so unless I'm doing a trade, I'll be waiting a bit.

/redbox

 

[purbeast0]

http://slickdeals.net/f/5930244-Tomb-Raider-Xbox-360-or-PS3-42-Free-Shipping

pretty good deal if you are on the fence about purchasing it still.

 

[Bateluer]

It looks impressive! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYB8VrW538k Gameplay, graphics and generally everything! And it has great reviews.

TR on the PC is the best looking game out today, but the drop in quality on the Xbox360/PS3 is staggering. :/

 

[cmdrdredd]

TR on the PC is the best looking game out today, but the drop in quality on the Xbox360/PS3 is staggering. :/

Crysis 3 still wins. Tomb Raider looks good but there are more details in crysis 3 that just go unmatched.

 

[Bateluer]

Crysis 3 still wins. Tomb Raider looks good but there are more details in crysis 3 that just go unmatched.

This isn't a relevant conversation for the PS3 versions.

 

[RedRooster]

Finally picked this game up, man is it good!
Basically played all afternoon Sunday and most of the day yesterday and am at the very last fast travel campsite, so I'm about to beat the game.
Its the type of game that makes you want to go back and find all the secret things though, the completionist in me has been awoken for the first time since Far Cry 3 and Red Dead.
Seriously in contention for my game of the year.

If you haven't played it yet, you definitely need to give it a try before the end of this generation. I'm just grabbing all the really good sounding games lately trying to finish off this gen with a bang!

 

[purbeast0]

Finally picked this game up, man is it good!
Basically played all afternoon Sunday and most of the day yesterday and am at the very last fast travel campsite, so I'm about to beat the game.
Its the type of game that makes you want to go back and find all the secret things though, the completionist in me has been awoken for the first time since Far Cry 3 and Red Dead.
Seriously in contention for my game of the year.

If you haven't played it yet, you definitely need to give it a try before the end of this generation. I'm just grabbing all the really good sounding games lately trying to finish off this gen with a bang!

yeah i rented it from redbox and like 1/2 into it i thought "man i wish i bought this so i could find everything" but i ended up just returning it after i beat it. it definitely would be fun/rewarding to explore and find everything on the past levels that you don't have the tools for when you first pass through the areas.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Just finished. Wow, surprise game of the year anyone? This game was awesome. Not sure I would put it ahead of Uncharted 3 but it's definitely up there.

 

[zerocool84]

I'm having a hard time getting into it. Just picked it up for cheap and it just feels like a watered down version of Uncharted. It's not bad but I'm just trying to get through it as everyone says it's real good.

 

[mikeymikec]

Hopefully no-one has a problem with me posting to an old thread like this, but I didn't want to de-rail the active TR thread (which seems more about the quality of PC versions of games).

I picked up this game cheaply on Steam. My expectations weren't high because I've experienced the poor control system for Tomb Raider Legend (same game dev), hence I waited to pick it up cheaply.

While the control system has improved significantly (but still not as good as TR 1-5), and the game is now playable without making me want to poke myself in the eye repeatedly, the rest of the game seems to be the problem, at least for me.

My reasons:

1) The most important one by far - the other thread includes people accusing others of being elitist by saying the game has been dumbed down, but I am stating a fact rather than an opinion - this game has been dumbed down (compared to TR 1 - 5). A Tomb Raider game that includes a "Batman-esque 'Detective Mode'" which SHOWS YOU THE WAY TO GO... this seems like a misnomer as obvious as a first person shooter where the computer does the shooting for you. My character is an explorer, therefore I'm meant to be exploring. Please don't show me the way to go. This hasn't happened in TR 1 - 5 except maybe in a tutorial level (and even then I don't think so).

2 - Kinda related to point one - I've been playing the game for about 90 minutes so far and I have to ask, where's the Tomb Raider element? The largest area I've had to explore so far would take less than 5 minutes. A level in TR2 called 'The Ship' would take about 25 minutes or so to run around the outer edge of (as in, ignore everything and find the level's boundaries), and probably an hour or so to have a thorough look round, and a few hours at least for a newbie to complete and exit the level. This is what I mean by 'explore'.

3 - Drama. Sorry, that was incorrectly spelt. The appropriate spelling is DRAMA!!!11!.
This game (so far) is like a mix between 'The Perils of Penelope Pitstop' and watching a Tomb Raider origin movie. It's starting to get on my tits. When she's not

Spoiler

drowning

, she gets a brief pause for breath before

Spoiler

she's strung up

, then immediately

Spoiler

impaled

, then immediately after that she's

Spoiler

nearly crushed by a boulder

, while nearly being grabbed by a bad guy, briefly enjoys a run around outside for maybe twenty minutes, then she's

Spoiler

caught in a bear trap

, then immediately after that

Spoiler

while caught in the trap, she takes out some wolves in some slo-mo-to-make-it-easier-action

...

4 - Related to point 3 - Cut scene, cut scene, cut scene. I'm all for breaking up gameplay (which might be getting monotonous in its length), with some cut scene work in order to bring in some plot, but I think the maximum length of time I've been playing without a cut scene being triggered is maybe 5-10 minutes. Twenty at most? I had the game running for 90 minutes last night.

5 - More dumbing down - I don't think TR 1 - 5 ever said "press this", "do that", (except on a tutorial level), let alone "mash the keyboard randomly now". It feels like those old "choose your own adventure" books (which I also found quite irritating). I would much prefer it if the "interactive cut scenes" simply weren't interactive at all because I don't feel like I've achieved anything / escaped a tight spot purely because I pressed the correct key when the game told me to press it.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Nope...you are wrong. Just like people who throw the phrase "dumbing down" are wrong. Gaming wasn't a bed of roses back in the day and in fact the first few tomb raider games had some of the absolute worst controls ever in a 3rd person game. Tank walking was really terrible.

I also think you missed the whole point of the story. This is before Laura became the tomb raider...this is about how she became the tough relic hunter. So there aren't really many moments of raiding tombs and such because that isn't what the game is about.

As for QTEs people really complain too much about them. You would rather people whine that they don't know what's going on in the game because they didn't pay attention to that cutscene than to have to press a button while watching the action? It really isn't that hard to pay attention and hit the right button. It also adds an element of suspense to what is happening to the character in the game.

 

[purbeast0]

calling the control in TR1 better than this?

also a major reason the original TR games felt harder is DUE to the piss poor controls. it was a false sense of being difficult. like parts where you had to outrun a boulder or something, and you would get crushed simply because the controls sucked and you couldn't move out of the way in time.

also, you said you are 30 minutes into the game. the beginning has a lot of cutscenes and hand holding to get the game going. play more than 30 minutes and there won't be as many cutscenes with more exploration and less hand holding.

but overall i do agree that it doesn't feel like the traditional tomb raider game. it felt more like tomb raider trying to be like uncharted, which was okay with me and i thought it still held it's own and was a fantastic game. i would have liked to see more tomb raiding and exploration with wild animals, but it is still one of the best games of the year last year for sure. i play games for fun and entertainment, not to complain about what i wish they would be or should have been.

games are always evolving. to expect something like TR1 with this game was a fault of your own, especially since it's been out for so long and you should have known this by now. just look at the tomb raider evolution in general. you keep saying TR1 - TR5. part 5 was nothing like the original.

 

[mikeymikec]

Nope...you are wrong. Just like people who throw the phrase "dumbing down" are wrong. Gaming wasn't a bed of roses back in the day and in fact the first few tomb raider games had some of the absolute worst controls ever in a 3rd person game.

What has "dumbing down" have to do with the control system? Furthermore, I said that I'm fine with the control system in this game. Furthermore, you offer no reasoning to say why I am wrong about "dumbing down".

Tank walking was really terrible.

What does this mean? I tried googling it but I seem to get results regarding walking tanks.

I also think you missed the whole point of the story. This is before Laura became the tomb raider...this is about how she became the tough relic hunter. So there aren't really many moments of raiding tombs and such because that isn't what the game is about.

The Tomb Raider series has already had a few "before she became the Tomb Raider" levels / game sections already, and the dynamic of the game remained largely unaltered (no guns obviously though). TR4 has her accompanying an explorer as a child (early teen perhaps), TR5 has her as an early teen again. I wasn't talking about "raiding tombs" as such either, I said exploration, an element that IMO has been sadly lacking in this game so far.

As for QTEs people really complain too much about them. You would rather people whine that they don't know what's going on in the game because they didn't pay attention to that cutscene than to have to press a button while watching the action? It really isn't that hard to pay attention and hit the right button. It also adds an element of suspense to what is happening to the character in the game.

I'm not talking about other peoples' opinions, I'm talking about mine. I said I don't find this "interactive cut scene" style entertaining at all. It's not about whether it's difficult or hard in my view; I find them about as tolerable as I would to have in-game advertising banners.

calling the control in TR1 better than this?

also a major reason the original TR games felt harder is DUE to the piss poor controls. it was a false sense of being difficult. like parts where you had to outrun a boulder or something, and you would get crushed simply because the controls sucked and you couldn't move out of the way in time.

I can't say I ever had any difficulty with them. In TR4 I can jump over a gap while doing a 180 degree turn in mid-air and shooting someone behind me. That is fun. I don't remember any frustration or long learning curve learning the controls in TR 1-5. Having said this, I haven't actually complained about the controls in this game!

also, you said you are 30 minutes into the game. the beginning has a lot of cutscenes and hand holding to get the game going. play more than 30 minutes and there won't be as many cutscenes with more exploration and less hand holding.

I altered my post because I had been playing the game for 90 minutes in total. You can get an idea for how far I'm into the game by the spoiler tags. I'll play it for a while longer yet unless the bits of the game that piss me off increase in frequency.

but overall i do agree that it doesn't feel like the traditional tomb raider game. it felt more like tomb raider trying to be like uncharted which was okay with me and i thought it still held it's own and was a fantastic game. i would have liked to see more tomb raiding and exploration with wild animals, but it is still one of the best games of the year last year for sure. i play games for fun and entertainment, not to complain about what i wish they would be or should have been.

Does the exploration element improve at some point in the game?

games are always evolving. to expect something like TR1 with this game was a fault of your own, especially since it's been out for so long and you should have known this by now. just look at the tomb raider evolution in general. you keep saying TR1 - TR5. part 5 was nothing like the original.

Let me see.

First game name: "Tomb Raider"

Current game name: "Tomb Raider"

I can't imagine where that expectation could have come from.

IMO, the TR series has gone to pot since 5. Legend was a nails-on-chalkboard experience (with a truly awful control system), the Underworld demo and Anniversary looked like exactly the same thing, and I thought I'd try this one as I picked it up cheaply and it purported to be something new (and I hoped that Eidos might have stopped supporting bad sequels). It is something new in a few respects. I'm still trying to figure out why you would claim that my expectation for it to be like the original games is unrealistic.

How was Tomb Raider Chronicles nothing like the original? The graphics engine was updated to work in Windows with Direct3D (TR2), the control system was identical but with a few additions, the gameplay was identical but with a few new environment elements (breakable panels, tightrope walking, shimmying around ledge corners, etc), combat was the same but with more weapons. The evolution of the series was pretty steady.

 

[foghorn67]

First game name: "Tomb Raider"

Current game name: "Tomb Raider"

I'm not sure how to explain this if you don't get it. I think there is a part of you missing not to get this. I'm not trying to insult intelligence, but perhaps your emotions are besting you.

Pretty much all of the Tomb Raiders show Croft as comic super hero type that came shooting out of the womb with a holsters on and satchels full of ammo.

This is one shows how a not so ordinary girl (heiress to estate, highly educated and in shape) yet grounded in the normal world you and I know. This story is how she learned those skills in a crucible fight or flight situation. Also the setting is the first to show Lara the possibilities on how discovering relics by raiding tombs may not be the normal real world archaeological things she and the audience are used to.
Tomb Raider is much like Nolans' Batman films. Except with Tomb Raider, this has even less canon. The parents story shift back and forth is one example.
So this reboot had more leverage. Making Croft vulnerable and afraid at times, is the best thing to happen to this series.
Before I thought all previous Tomb Raider stories were crap. Really an un-believable character with no empathy. The platforming aspect was okay for a while, but got old fast, and didn't stand the test of time well. Want to bet on that? Pop in the OG Tomb Raider to your PS1 and then play Mario64.

 

[Topweasel]

All that skips over the fact that the game is over a year old and the user had ample time to research the product.

Everyone knew it was a reboot and re-imaging of Tomb Raider to be more inline with the current atmosphere of gaming. Instead of stretching the old late 90's plays style without really advancing it. Also he should know by now that Classic TR is being kept alive with the spin off "Lara Croft and xxxx" games. They even use the same voice actress that did Lara Croft for the last few classic TR games.

How people can spend money on something without the simplest research astounds me.

 

[cmdrdredd]

What has "dumbing down" have to do with the control system? Furthermore, I said that I'm fine with the control system in this game. Furthermore, you offer no reasoning to say why I am wrong about "dumbing down".

What does this mean? I tried googling it but I seem to get results regarding walking tanks.

The Tomb Raider series has already had a few "before she became the Tomb Raider" levels / game sections already, and the dynamic of the game remained largely unaltered (no guns obviously though). TR4 has her accompanying an explorer as a child (early teen perhaps), TR5 has her as an early teen again. I wasn't talking about "raiding tombs" as such either, I said exploration, an element that IMO has been sadly lacking in this game so far.

I'm not talking about other peoples' opinions, I'm talking about mine. I said I don't find this "interactive cut scene" style entertaining at all. It's not about whether it's difficult or hard in my view; I find them about as tolerable as I would to have in-game advertising banners.



I can't say I ever had any difficulty with them. In TR4 I can jump over a gap while doing a 180 degree turn in mid-air and shooting someone behind me. That is fun. I don't remember any frustration or long learning curve learning the controls in TR 1-5. Having said this, I haven't actually complained about the controls in this game!



I altered my post because I had been playing the game for 90 minutes in total. You can get an idea for how far I'm into the game by the spoiler tags. I'll play it for a while longer yet unless the bits of the game that piss me off increase in frequency.



Does the exploration element improve at some point in the game?



Let me see.

First game name: "Tomb Raider"

Current game name: "Tomb Raider"

I can't imagine where that expectation could have come from.

IMO, the TR series has gone to pot since 5. Legend was a nails-on-chalkboard experience (with a truly awful control system), the Underworld demo and Anniversary looked like exactly the same thing, and I thought I'd try this one as I picked it up cheaply and it purported to be something new (and I hoped that Eidos might have stopped supporting bad sequels). It is something new in a few respects. I'm still trying to figure out why you would claim that my expectation for it to be like the original games is unrealistic.

How was Tomb Raider Chronicles nothing like the original? The graphics engine was updated to work in Windows with Direct3D (TR2), the control system was identical but with a few additions, the gameplay was identical but with a few new environment elements (breakable panels, tightrope walking, shimmying around ledge corners, etc), combat was the same but with more weapons. The evolution of the series was pretty steady.

Are you really a gamer at all? Tank walking is forward, down, left, right where you have to manually turn the character to move a different direction. Like many of the old resident evil games. That is how the old tomb raider played. You did say the first one controlled better when it doesn't.

Also I agree with topweasel. The game is over a year old and you had no clue about these things you hate?

As for your dumbing down comment...that is typical banter from the elitists who call themselves gamers because "back in the day we had to do this, and the game controlled like that". Gaming today is better than it has ever been. Quality has gone way, way up. Not just graphically but in terms of storylines, artwork, and voice acting. I have been playing video games for well over 25 years and I can say with no uncertainty that games have evolved for the better. I would much rather be made to pay attention to the action on screen and maneuver my character at the proper time and/or hit a button to interact with the scene being shown than to sit there twiddling my thumbs. I play games to interact with the action, and having to press X to dodge a punch and them hit Y to kick a guy is fine with me. In fact, it adds some suspense because I am alert and ready to see what the game expects of me before I get knocked out, bitten, or killed. It allows us cinematic interaction that isn't possible any other way.

 

[mikeymikec]

I'm not sure how to explain this if you don't get it. I think there is a part of you missing not to get this. I'm not trying to insult intelligence, but perhaps your emotions are besting you.

Pretty much all of the Tomb Raiders show Croft as comic super hero type that came shooting out of the womb with a holsters on and satchels full of ammo.

This is one shows how a not so ordinary girl (heiress to estate, highly educated and in shape) yet grounded in the normal world you and I know. This story is how she learned those skills in a crucible fight or flight situation.

I already addressed this point.

Also the setting is the first to show Lara the possibilities on how discovering relics by raiding tombs may not be the normal real world archaeological things she and the audience are used to.

Which I'm fine with, nor have I at any point said "I haven't seen any tombs in this game whatsoever! I want my money back!" etc.

Tomb Raider is much like Nolans' Batman films. Except with Tomb Raider, this has even less canon. The parents story shift back and forth is one example.
So this reboot had more leverage. Making Croft vulnerable and afraid at times, is the best thing to happen to this series.

Which I'm also fine with, and please note that I haven't actually complained about the plot.

Before I thought all previous Tomb Raider stories were crap.

Which pretty much invalidates your view as to whether this is a "Tomb Raider" game or not.

Are you really a gamer at all?

Yes, if you don't like someone's point of view, then some sort of ad hominem attack is totally appropriate. Go for it!

Tank walking is forward, down, left, right where you have to manually turn the character to move a different direction. Like many of the old resident evil games. That is how the old tomb raider played. You did say the first one controlled better when it doesn't.

Perhaps I should have elaborated further on that point (I started writing this post on another thread then abandoned it because I thought that it would be better off on a thread specifically about TR2013 rather than its quality as a PC version).

1) I have no complaints about TR2013's control system (I've said this multiple times now)

2) When I said that the control system was an improvement, I was referring to the massive changes in control system since TR5. TR1 - 5's control system was probably based on the same code with a few minor additions and alterations along the way.

TR6 (Angel of Darkness) was a whole new game engine and I would be surprised if out of an audience of players, even 10% would say that it had a good control system. It was sluggish, Lara would do crazy things in armed combat mode like suddenly be pointing in the opposite direction, there was a horrible run/walk concept (she would start in a direction walking then start running after a few steps unless walking was explicitly chosen, which was no good for needing to do something quickly). Bear in mind I'm going from memory here, and after I completed it once, I haven't bothered playing it since because the game is BAD.

Some time later TR Legend was released. Probably more of an audience would say that it had a good control system but IMO it was also extremely flawed, and relied on interactive cut scenes in order for Lara to do anything movement-wise that was "impressive". It also had some horrible tendencies like altering the controls depending on the camera angle (ie. if I'm pressing "forward", I expect Lara to walk forward relative to the direction she's facing, not the direction the camera is facing - it didn't in TRL sometimes) which could result in Lara running in a very tight circle until the player realised what had happened. I completed TRL but I didn't bother playing it again.

TR Underworld had the same control system (I tried the demo). I assume TR Anniversary had the same control system too.

TR2013 came along and doesn't appear to have any of the issues I described with TRAOD or TRL, hence I referred to it as an improvement, but I still prefer TR 1 - 5. This is my opinion, like it or not.

With regard to my "dumbing down" comment, you're simply don't seem to be getting what I'm saying (or you don't want to get it because you might prefer to erect a straw man and talk to it instead of me). In TR 1 - 5, if the path you're walking along opens up into say a jungle setting, you then need to explore that area and figure out how to proceed. In TR2013, you get the "detective mode" up and it tells you where to go. This is what I call "dumbing down"; The TR games have always been a combination of exploration, puzzle solving and shooting baddies. In a general sense, the plot of TR2013 so far is ideal for a Tomb Raider game, except there's little (so far) to explore, what I've encountered so far is smaller than Croft Manor's grounds in the older TR games. This leaves me somewhat unimpressed. On the topic of exploration, the idea of exploration is completely thrown out the window if the game is telling the player where to go. It would be like a first person shooter that points you in the direction of where the "secrets" are.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Which pretty much invalidates your view as to whether this is a "Tomb Raider" game or not.

So you are one of those...

"You don't like the games I like and that includes previous games in the series. Therefore your opinion isn't valid."

It is OK to dislike something but I think you are being a little disingenuous. The fact that you call yourself a fan of Tomb Raider and say you have never heard of tank controls in 3rd person games just about proves it.

 

[mikeymikec]

"You don't like the games I like and that includes previous games in the series. Therefore your opinion isn't valid."

You missed the point.

I mostly was talking about things that make TR 2013 a poor TR sequel (IMO). Some guy comes along and says that my opinion is rubbish, his counts for a lot more, despite the fact that he thinks the other TR games are crap.

Does this make any sense to you? Let's say you're a fan of the Quake series. A new one has come out but you haven't bought it yet. You ask for opinions, someone pipes up with an opinion but adds that they thought all of the previous Quake games were rubbish. Does this extra fact make it likely that their opinion for what Quake should be like is going to resemble yours once you've tried the game?

I have no problems with a difference of opinion, in fact I love discussions, but so far I've been getting a lot of ad hominem attacks and "you don't know what you're talking about".

It is OK to dislike something but I think you are being a little disingenuous. The fact that you call yourself a fan of Tomb Raider and say you have never heard of tank controls in 3rd person games just about proves it.

I think you prefer to attack me rather than talk about my opinion.

As for the comments of "how can I not know these things before buying a game?", well, for starters I bought it at a bargain basement price because I didn't have high hopes for it, but me being a TR fan, I'm always going to be vaguely tempted if a new game comes out. Secondly, if I knew someone who had the same opinions as myself regarding the TR series (well, I do but he only plays the console versions and like me his enthusiasm for the series has waned in a similar fashion so I doubt he's tried TR2013), I would have consulted them.