Lara Croft
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Tomb Raider's Lara Croft joins Call of Duty's war effort
The Call of Duty franchise continues its Fortnite-ification by announcing the latest playable character will be ‘Tomb Raider’ star Lara Croft. The fictional grave robber will appear in ‘Call of Duty: Warzone’ and ‘Modern Warfare II’, joining recent real-life playable characters like Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg and Kevin Durant, among many others.
Fortnite’s next crossover character is Aloy from ‘Horizon Zero Dawn’
Epic Games is teaming her up with Lara Croft for a limited-time event.
Deals with Gold: All Lara Croft, all week
Microsoft's current Deals with Gold lineup spotlights adventurer Lara Croft, offering discounts on many of her recent releases on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Xbox One owners get a deal on Tomb Raider Definitive Edition this week, while the non-definitive 2013 Xbox 360 version and all DLC also see a series of steep price drops. Other featured Xbox 360 Games on Demand releases include Tomb Raider Underworld, Tomb Raider Anniversary, Tomb Raider Legend, and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. From Software's Armored Core Verdict Day and Ninja Theory's Enslaved round out this week's discounted offerings for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. All listed deals are available through November 24. [Image: Square Enix]
Tomb Raider novel trots the globe in October
With not one but two new Tomb Raider games announced during E3 this year, Lara Croft is already awfully busy, but not so busy that she can't star in a new novel. Coming from DK Publishing and written by Dan Abnett and Nik Vincent, Tomb Raider: The Ten Thousand Immortals will arrive in October. The novel takes place immediately following 2013's Tomb Raider, and it sees Lara dealing with the aftermath of her ordeal on Yamatai. More pressingly, Lara is "plunged into a frantic race to save her best friend Sam from a toxic overdose," which she hopes to cure with an ancient artifact instead of, you know, medicine. As a bonus, the artifact could "possibly help explain the supernatural events she witnessed on Yamatai." Naturally, Lara isn't the only one after the artifact – she'll also have to deal with "a nefarious magnate, a shadow society, and lethal henchmen." What's the deal with archaeologists and nefarious magnates, anyway? As for the meaning behind the subtitle, The Ten Thousand Immortals, the announcement offers no hints. Something to do with China's famous Terracotta Army, perhaps?
Lara seeks professional help in Rise of the Tomb Raider reveal
If you finished the (quite excellent) reboot of Tomb Raider, you know that Lady Croft has some post-traumatic issues to work out. Apparently, so does the audience in their interpretation of the issues presented in the new Tomb Raider.
Lara Croft: More than just an action figure
It's difficult to think of Lara Croft as ordinary. She's the Tomb Raider, after all, a gun-slinging, cliff-climbing, insouciant stealer of artifacts and slayer of mercenaries. But she wasn't always like that. As the recent reboot illustrated, she started off as something else entirely - just a girl with a penchant for myths and histories, more comfortable trying to puzzle out ancient mysteries than hanging out with her peers. Still not ordinary, really - she's an extremely well-educated and wealthy woman, someone who's had the best opportunities in life - but not the larger-than-life action figure we've known from previous games. The reboot showed a different Lara, a more relatable Lara. One who was frightened and calling for help, but who rose to the challenge when she realized help wasn't coming. In those moments of strife, one does what one must, but what happens when those moments are over? How do you go back to the normalcy of life once you've gone so far outside of it? That's a question raised by the trailer for Rise of the Tomb Raider, as we see Lara in a psychiatrist's office, foot bouncing with anxious energy as a therapist uses his most soothing voice to help try and guide her focus toward making sense of the turmoil in her mind.
Rise of the Tomb Raider exploring holiday 2015
Lara saved her band of friends from the Tomb Raider reboot, but she'll face a new batch of danger in Rise of the Tomb Raider, due for holiday 2015. Rise of the Tomb Raider's debut trailer puts Lara back in hazardous wilderness, teasing glimpses of a temperamental bear and a frosted cave as an older man talks over Lara's hike: "People become who they are meant to be."
Tomb Raider creator forms new studio with former Yaiba dev team
Toby Gard, creator of Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider franchise, has formed Tangentlemen, a new development studio focused on experiential game design. The studio's team met while developing Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, which Gard served as director of, and includes Yaiba's lead designer, producer and art director. Tangentlemen is currently in concept phase of their first project, a horror game currently being referred to as "Daedalus." In Greek mythology, Daedalus is the creator the Minotaur's labyrinth and Icarus' wings, so you know what that means: it means ... um, well let's see, the labyrinth could be ... uh ... okay, no, we have no idea what that means yet. [Image: Eidos]
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition more definitive on PS4, says Digital Foundry
Now that Tomb Raider has made its way to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the techie aesthetics experts at Digital Foundry have used their bag of tools to compare the graphics found in these new versions of the game. End result: The PlayStation 4 release pulls ahead ever so slightly. Though it's been known that the PlayStation 4's Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition can reach 60 frames per second (though not at all times) while the Xbox One game runs slower, Digital Foundry has also discovered that certain cutscenes in the Xbox One game are reduced to 900p resolution. Oddly, this resolution change only applies to those select vignettes, while the game itself maintains its high-definition 1080p visuals. Further, Digital Foundry finds certain graphical bells and whistles lacking in the Xbox One game, saying "alpha-based effects in certain areas give the appearance of rendering at half resolution - though other examples do look much cleaner. We also see a lower-quality depth of field in cut-scenes, and reduced levels of anisotropic filtering on artwork during gameplay. Curiously, there are also a few lower-resolution textures in places on Xbox One, but this seems to be down to a bug (perhaps on level of detail transitions) as opposed to a conscious downgrade." While Digital Foundry ranks the PlayStation 4 game above the Xbox One version for pure graphical splendor, the comparison also notes that neither of the next-generation games runs as well as the original, 2013 release of Tomb Raider on a modern gaming PC. Both of the console games, however, feature more built-in content and an improved 3D model for Lara Croft.
Watch Mario destroy Master Chief, Connor and Lara Croft
With all the advances in video game technology, it's easy to forget simpler times. Mario never needed guns or knives or a cybernetic super suit. Sometimes, as this video proves, all you need is a pair of overalls, some sturdy boots and one mighty impressive keister. A fortuitous Piranha Plant doesn't hurt either.
Lara Croft: Reflections card game launches on iOS for New Zealand, Australia
Square Enix recently launched a Tomb Raider-based card game on iOS. Dubbed Lara Croft: Reflections, the free-to-play game has players dueling one another in real-time card battles, combining weapon cards to upgrade and evolve them and protecting their artifacts from thieving opponents. Reflections also includes group battles in which players work to defeat special event bosses. Lara Croft: Reflections is currently only available in New Zealand and Australia. The game is compatible with iPhone 4 and iPad 2 devices or better and requires a network connection to play. It launched just a few days after the original Tomb Raider's iOS port.
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition coming to PS4 and Xbox One January 28th, but you can pre-order now
Lara Croft is making her way to Sony's and Microsoft's latest gaming consoles next month. At Spike's VGX show, we got our first glimpse of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, which will be available for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 28th. The game, which is a collaboration effort between Crystal Dynamics, Nixxes and United Front Games, is essentially a new version of the 2013 game built specifically for the next-gen consoles, and is already up for pre-order on Amazon for $60. You'll get enhanced visuals, such as TressFX, and all of the game's previously released DLC for multiplayer. We've included the trailer below for your viewing enjoyment.
Tomb Raider sequel for next-gen confirmed by Square CEO
Square Enix CEO for the Americas and Europe Phil Rogers has confirmed a sequel to the acclaimed Tomb Raider reboot is "well into development." The overall concept that a sequel was in the works leaked a couple weeks back with the announcement of a comic book that would bridge the gap between games. Writer Gail Simone, who is working with publisher Dark Horse on the comic, said, "In continuity, it will be Tomb Raider canon, and lead DIRECTLY into the sequel." Darrell Gallagher, former Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics' studio head, now head of product development and studios at Square Enix, added today, "It's still early days, so I'm afraid I can't provide any further details for now save my assurance that we're not resting on our laurels and acclaim from Tomb Raider's recent successes, but working hard to raise the bar even higher and re-affirm the faith you've shown." The Tomb Raider reboot was a critical and retail hit, no matter what Square Enix political machinations caused the publisher to say on the subject.
Tomb Raider comic book announced, may bridge to next game
Comic book veteran Gail Simone is working with publisher Dark Horse on a continuation of the Tomb Raider reboot. Kotaku reports Simone expects the series' narrative will pick up mere weeks after the first game's events and may lead directly into a sequel of this year's well-received game. "In continuity, it will be Tomb Raider canon, and lead DIRECTLY into the sequel," Simone said. "This is what got me excited; we get to be part of Lara Croft history." Simone, a long-time fan of the Lara Croft franchise, says the core difference between her series and the reboot will lie in Lara's surroundings. "The storytelling in the game hooked me instantly," Simone said. "The biggest difference is, the game told a claustrophobic story in an isolated setting. We are going globetrotting." Although Simone was a fan of the action-oriented character portrayed in the original Tomb Raider games, she's still fond of the character's new-found depth.
Square Enix dishes some Tomb Raider stats
Square Enix recently shared some interesting stats it gathered on the way gamers are playing Tomb Raider. As of the developer's posting, players have killed 5,294,879 deer and 1,417,750 crabs.Lara Croft has narrowly avoided death 13,742,891 times and has dodged the attacks of 11,067,764 enemies, killing 147,675,058 enemies with a bow. Roughly 13.95 percent of those kills were with fire arrows (20,601,083 to be exact). Keeping with the game's namesake, Croft has also raided 3,570,956 tombs in total. That's a lot of tombs.
Lara goes camping in first episode of Tomb Raider's 'Guide to Survival'
A video series focused on Tomb Raider will dive deeper into the mechanics and story of Crystal Dynamics' reboot. Guide to Survival's first episode focuses on Basecamps, which Lara uses to apply skill points to upgrade her skills and equipment. She also uses fire to survive because tank top.
Surviving and learning to fight back as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider
A lot can happen in the span of two hours. In Tomb Raider, I witnessed a young Lara Croft change from unsure archaeologist assistant to a survivor, willing to do whatever it takes to save her friends and protect herself.Tomb Raider is a reboot of the iconic series and heroine therein, and the story of a world-class explorer coming into her own. After being stranded on an island seemingly lost to the world since World War II, the naive youngster grows into the confident and strong Lara Croft we've known all along.%Gallery-172529%
Lara Croft won't be swimming in next year's Tomb Raider
Global Brand Director for Crystal Dynamics, Karl Stewart, did a quick Q&A session on the official Tomb Raider twitter account this morning, and revealed an interesting design decision that will affect fans of aquatic exploration. The Tomb Raider reboot won't have any underwater shenanigans during gameplay – though not because the new Lara Croft has forgotten how to swim, thankfully.Video game characters often have issues with the backstroke; Grand Theft Auto: Vice City protagonist Tommy Vercetti could famously survive gunshots, but wouldn't last more than a second in waist-deep water. In contrast, some of our fondest memories of Lara Croft involve diving through secret, watery passages.Stewart said we'll see more about the game's other traversal gameplay soon, leading up to Tomb Raider's release in March next year.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light gets Chrome'd out this fall
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light continues its long and storied tradition of being ported to unexpected platforms this fall, when the Crystal Dynamics XBLA adventure makes its way to Google's Chrome browser.Previously, LCATGOL has made its way to PSN, Steam, iOS, OnLive and the Blackberry Playbook; a list that makes less sense the longer you read it. The game will be powered by Google's open source Native Client framework and will run in-browser, similar to other XBLA-to-Chrome converts like Bastion and From Dust. No word yet on pricing or availability beyond the fall release window.
Tomb Raider delayed until Q1 2013
The younger, dirtier and unvarnished version of Lara Croft still needs some polish, according to Crystal Dynamics. The developer is pushing back the release date of the next Tomb Raider, from Fall 2012 into the first quarter of 2013. (Yes, the same quarter that now hosts another one of 2012's former heavy hitters, Bioshock Infinite.)"Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game," Crystal Dynamics Head Darrell Gallagher wrote. In a missive posted on the game's official forums, Gallagher shared the studio's push to make Tomb Raider "the best game of our careers." The delay will boost quality up to "a level that you deserve," he said.The shift in release date has also given us an unexpected sense of optimism. If enough promising games get pushed into next year, we might actually start rooting for the world's continued existence beyond 2012.
