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'Tomb Raider' writer Rhianna Pratchett says goodbye to Lara Croft
Rhianna Pratchett is a veteran video game writer who most recently penned the scripts for Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider, but today on Twitter she announced her amicable departure from the series. Pratchett helped usher Lara Croft, the franchise's legendary protagonist, into the modern era when Crystal Dynamics rebooted the series in 2013.
4K gaming has a video service to do it justice
The problem with this Ultra HD future we're moving toward is that we're in a weird in-between spot where the most convenient media delivery method (streaming) can't hold a candle to the quality of the source material. The tech-minded folks at at Digital Foundry are acutely aware of this. As such, rather than relying on YouTube's lossy and compressed method of hosting videos, DF has struck out on its own for offering source-quality downloads for its game-tech analysis videos.
'Rise of the Tomb Raider' comes to the PS4 on October 11th
Rise of the Tomb Raider has spent much of the last year as one of the best Xbox One exclusives out there, but soon PlayStation 4 owners will get in on the fun. As part of a 20-year Tomb Raider celebration, it was just announced that Lara Croft's latest adventure will come to Sony's console on October 11th. As is often the case with delayed releases like this, the game will feature a bunch of extra content to help make up for the wait.
'Tomb Raider' and 'Witcher 3' snag Writers Guild nominations
The Writers Guild of America has nominated Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Pillars of Eternity, Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in its Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing category for 2015. (Yes, the Writers Guild still spells "video game" as one word). If these choices feel a tad mainstream, that's because the organization only honors writers who are also members of the WGA Videogame Writers Caucus, which limits its reach. The WGA will present its awards during simultaneous events in Los Angeles and New York on February 13th.
'Rise of the Tomb Raider' officially hits PCs this month
The latest Lara Croft game, Rise of the Tomb Raider, launches on Steam, the Windows store and other retailers on January 28th, Square Enix announced today. Rise of the Tomb Raider popped up on Steam last month with a vague promise to hit PC sometime in January. It wasn't the most complicated clue to figure out, but at least it turned out to be accurate.
'Rise of the Tomb Raider' hits PC in January, Steam says
The PC version of Rise of the Tomb Raider is due in January, according to the game's Steam listing. Square Enix has yet to confirm a date for the desktop launch of its latest Tomb Raider installment, though in July it announced the PC and Windows 10 editions would drop in "early 2016." The PS4 version should release in late 2016. We've reached out to Square Enix for clarification on the Steam listing.
Playdate: Giving away a 'Rise of the Tomb Raider' Xbox One bundle
So you want to play the new timed-exclusive Tomb Raider game, but you don't have an Xbox One. We might be able to help with that: today on Engadget Playdate, we're streaming Rise of the Tomb Raider and giving one lucky viewer a chance to win a 1TB Xbox One (with the game, of course). Want in? Simply hit the contest widget after the break. Want to see what we're giving out? Join us on Twitch.tv/Joystiq, the Engadget Gaming homepage or right here in this post starting at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific. Good luck! Winner: Congratulations to Angelina W. of Chandler, AZ!
Control the weather via Twitch and torture these poor souls in London
You read that correctly. It's called Survival Billboard, and to be clear, it's a marketing campaign for Rise of the Tomb Raider's launch in the UK -- but it's so strange (and slightly sadistic) that it's worth a mention. Eight people volunteered to stand on a billboard in London and be subjected to a series of extreme weather conditions, as chosen by people voting online. So far, the contestants have endured snow, wind, rain and heat, and they've been up there for just a few hours. One contestant has already been eliminated, meaning seven remain at time of publication. The last person standing wins a trip to exotic locations around the world. If you tune in (and vote to torture these people, you monster), be warned that the ad breaks (aside from the giant billboard) are lengthy and full of Tomb Raider cutscenes. That may be a small price to pay to be a digital weather god for a little while.
Twitch rewards you for watching 'Tomb Raider' on the Xbox One app
Live-streaming platform Twitch is handing out in-game points to people who watch Rise of the Tomb Raider via the Xbox One app. Plus, viewers on any platform have the ability to mess with their favorite Tomb Raider streams when the game is in Expedition Mode: Once prompted, people in chat can vote to activate one of two cards, which alter gameplay in specific ways. Some cards remove health regeneration, add armor to enemies, grant players more melee damage or enable "Big Head Mode," for example. Voting rounds appear every six minutes or so, and this only works if the streamer uses the Xbox One Twitch app to broadcast the game. Now, let's talk about those rewards.
18 ways to (nearly) die with Lara Croft, Tomb Raider
Lara Croft is basically a superhero. She leaps with the power of someone bitten by a radioactive kangaroo, climbs sheer rock faces like her hands are coated in glue and spontaneously zip-lines down hundreds of ancient, convenient ropes like she's strolling down to Starbucks on a Monday morning. In Rise of the Tomb Raider, players will most certainly die a few times, whether in firefights with hordes of gunmen, while running across a rapidly crumbling sheet of ice or jumping across gigantic crevasses. What's incredible (and absurd) is all of the times Lara Croft survives.
'Rise of the Tomb Raider' is more of the same, and that's okay
Crystal Dynamics' 2013 Tomb Raider reboot pulled off a tough task: It successfully brought life back to an aging, muddled franchise and provided heroine Lara Croft with an excellent origin story. Now that Croft has made her transition from a terrified shipwreck survivor to adventuring (but still vulnerable) badass, what does she do for an encore? Rise of the Tomb Raider (coming to the Xbox One and 360 as a timed exclusive on November 10th) answers that by tightening up and refining the first game's core experience while throwing players into an entirely new environment. The world is bigger, there are more skills to improve, more secrets to find and, yes, more tombs to raid. It isn't wildly different than the last game, but that's not a knock: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Crystal Dynamics is putting the 'tomb' back in 'Tomb Raider'
2013's Tomb Raider was a reboot of a game that defined the 3rd-person adventure genre. It represented a change in direction for the series, one that took cues from successful titles like Uncharted to breathe fresh life into what had become a tired franchise. But while critics rightfully praised the game's many strengths, the core of the original's gameplay -- tomb raiding -- was pushed to one side, with most of the game consisting of stealth, combat, and survival. For the timed Xbox exclusive Rise of the Tomb Raider, developer Crystal Dynamics is bringing back tombs in a big way, and making some intelligent design decisions to update the old gameplay for the modern era.
'Rise of the Tomb Raider' hits PlayStation 4 and PC in 2016
When Square Enix announced Rise of the Tomb Raider at Gamescom last year, it dropped a bomb: The game would be exclusive to Xbox platforms, meaning PlayStation 4 and PC players wouldn't get to touch it. At least, not for a certain amount of time. Square Enix today confirmed that Rise of the Tomb Raider will indeed hit PC and PS4 after a period of Xbox exclusivity: It will launch on Windows 10 and Steam in early 2016, and PS4 in late 2016. Rise of the Tomb Raider is slated to hit Xbox One and Xbox 360 this year on November 10th.
'Rise of the Tomb Raider' hits Xbox One this November
Sorry, Sony, but the next installment in Lara Croft's tomb-raiding adventures is slated to hit Xbox One as an exclusive on November 10th. As Microsoft's Xbox head Phil Spencer announced at Gamescom last summer, the upcoming Rise of the Tomb Raider will be a platform exclusive, meaning gamers that don't own an Xbox One will be locked out of the party. From the gameplay trailer shown off at Microsoft's E3 presser, it seems this sequel will deliver more of the dodging, leaping, sliding, grappling and... tomb raiding developer Crystal Dynamics treated fans to with 2013's critically acclaimed reboot.
