Tomb Raider

[tgr]

That is interestingly sad.

[Nayr]

What's your point? Are you saying that having any hint of abuse towards a female hero is bad?

Hell no. Don't get me wrong. Shit happens IRL, and realism is good in fiction.

I think having a protagonist overcome a trauma or adversity that people actually go through in real life makes them inspirational.

One particular example I learned when watching one of the Full Metal Alchemist movies, I was watching the commentary and Vic Mignogna(Edward Elric) was on, he talked about how he met a girl who said she was like Edward and watching FMA helped her. Vic said he thought she wasn't making any sense until she started crying and showed him that she had a prosthetic leg. She had lost her leg in an accident and watching a show with a main character who overcame the same handicap as her helped her.

The way Tomb Raider spun it is more like Hollywood drama. She's taken captive by a group of criminals, one guy kills her friend, acts a little skeevy, she kills him in self defense, and suddenly she's dropping bodies like the frickin' Terminator.

[UnSub]

And what makes that require any more press coverage or attention than the times men have been put in a vaguely similar position in videogames?

When has a male lead character been promoted as almost getting raped in his game? And that in order to make him strong and relateable as a character, the game narrative focuses on building him up just to break him down again?

Actually, apparently there was a male on male rape in far cry 3, and one of the endings in far cry 3 involves Citra drugging the player, tying the player up and fucking the player. And then killing the player. vOv

But Far Cry 3 didn't count because it was a male character being put in that position and therefore it didn't merit a blogstorm.  Therefore there are no examples of male characters being put in that position, since only examples which are notable by virtue of having generated blogstorms are worth discussing.   Therefore video games are sexist.  QED.

Not really - as Sjofn pointed out, the Far Cry male rape bit is quite a while into the game and it wasn't used as a promotional tool to show how adult FC3 was. It also didn't happen to the player character, but the threat was made.

A number of people did post articles about it, but it was part of the game that fell into spoilers territory, not trailers territory like it did for Tomb Raider. If FC3 had more widely promoted that part of the game, I'm sure there would have been a bigger reaction.

[tgr]

A number of people did post articles about it, but it was part of the game that fell into spoilers territory, not trailers territory like it did for Tomb Raider. If FC3 had more widely promoted that part of the game, I'm sure there would have been a bigger reaction.

I'd postulate that would happen just because it's sex, with actual uncovered, uncensored and moving boobs, and not because the player got drugged beforehand or killed right afterwards.

[Sjofn]

I covered that a bit in my spoiler.  

I can expand on it, though!  


Basically, if you're going to get annoyed at anyone for the kerfuffle, get annoyed at their marketing department. Oh, and that douche who was like "sexual assault is awesome because it will make you want to protect the female lead you could not possibly otherwise identify with." He definitely did not help at all.

(I'm done, I promise.)

[Ironwood]

 

Yes.  Please.

[Venkman]

It's not much of a game, but it's a really spectacular interactive movie. Like, really. Even on hard it's really rather easy and the platforming doesn't require much dexterity. The cover-based shooting is meh and formulaic, almost entirely comprised of arena-type encounters. The QTEs are aggravating (as you noticed ) in the early game but disappear almost entirely to be replaced by either combat or actual platforming sequences.

I have to say Luddington did a really good job as Lara. I didn't groan and try to skip past every time she opened her mouth, as is par for game voice-over. But boy, recording must have been harsh on her throat with all that screaming.

I'm a fan of this game play. The combat is of course unrealistic, from going schoolgirl-to-Rambo is very short order, to the amount of damage you release being way more than them, to none of them getting anywhere near the headshots you can. But it's not really about just the combat either. It mixes halfway decent combat with the halfway decent puzzle-y stuff with gorgeous scenery. It pulls off "reboot" so well I hope we see more of it. I'm as surprised by it as I was Dishonored. Kinda thought both would be meh.

And I agree she's very well acted. I actually find all the performances pretty good, though they coulda used an hour or more extra thug dialog

Also (and yes, worth an edit): explosive tipped arrows. That is all.

[rk47]

Man, all this talk about rape and it's not even breakfast yet.

[Job601]

I'm a fan of this game play. The combat is of course unrealistic, from going schoolgirl-to-Rambo is very short order, to the amount of damage you release being way more than them, to none of them getting anywhere near the headshots you can. But it's not really about just the combat either. It mixes halfway decent combat with the halfway decent puzzle-y stuff with gorgeous scenery. It pulls off "reboot" so well I hope we see more of it. I'm as surprised by it as I was Dishonored. Kinda thought both would be meh.

And I agree she's very well acted. I actually find all the performances pretty good, though they coulda used an hour or more extra thug dialog

Also (and yes, worth an edit): explosive tipped arrows. That is all.

I agree with all of this.  It's hard to overstate how easy this is, but it's still fun, mostly because the storytelling is so good, not so much because of the plot, but because of the combination of the voice-acting, animations, and pacing.  This version of Lara is also a really likeable character.  This game has a clear vision and executes it.

[Tarami]

I'm a fan of this game play. The combat is of course unrealistic, from going schoolgirl-to-Rambo is very short order, to the amount of damage you release being way more than them, to none of them getting anywhere near the headshots you can. But it's not really about just the combat either. It mixes halfway decent combat with the halfway decent puzzle-y stuff with gorgeous scenery. It pulls off "reboot" so well I hope we see more of it. I'm as surprised by it as I was Dishonored. Kinda thought both would be meh.

And I agree she's very well acted. I actually find all the performances pretty good, though they coulda used an hour or more extra thug dialog

I agree the mix works fairly well in theory, it's just that it feels a bit much like I'm round-robin'ing two or three seperate games. Since you brought up Dishonored, that game melded better and felt more like a single, cohesive game eventhough its constituent parts were largely the same. Dishonored used platforming as a tactical element and made positioning and initiative important to the outcome of combat. In TR, you reach a mark C, then X number of bad guys turn up (literally spawn in) over a period of T minutes and you alternate between the cover on the left and the cover on the right. All combat isn't like that, but a significant portion is. I think that, along with the overly arcadey boss sequences, is what makes the combat more out-of-character than it needs to be. Stealth, traps and other covert tactics seem like a much more fitting (and more fun) way of doing the combat in a game like Tomb Raider because obviously she wouldn't actually last even ten seconds against these people.

I'm not really looking for the exclusion of direct combat (like Thief more or less did), just that the combat could have been better integrated with the environments and the puzzle-oriented aspects of the game. I don't mind the murder, I mind how it's achieved, both from a storytelling perspective and a mechanics perspective.

[Venkman]

I agree with that. There are a couple of assassin-y moments here. But by and large it's a target shooter. To me it feels closer to ME in that regard.

Very curious how the DLC will go. I feel like Lara's character is rambo-like during the puzzle and combat sequences, whereas her likability as a fallible person coming of age is delivered through cut scenes and dialog. Will a DLC continue this balance, or will it do the more economical all-combat or all-puzzle thing?

[Tarami]

I wouldn't cling on to hopes of story DLC, those things never seem to materialize (again, Dishonored). More tombs, hopefully more extensive than the ones found in the game, I would expect on the other hand. I have no interest in those, though.

Honestly though I'd rather see they skipped half-hearted DLC and just got on with making the inevitable(horray!) sequel proper. Tomb Raider without a strong story arc now seems heartless and pointless.

Can't believe how I'm gushing over this game. I'm a little embarrassed of myself.

[Furiously]

No plans for anything other than multiplayer dlc is what I have read.

[Furiously]

As an aside, I finished my second play-through tonight with my son.  He would come home from school and or wake up and ask if we could play.

I recall some bad words, but reluctantly agree.

The first third of the game has a couple shits and a few other bad words. The second third is pretty tame maybe one F-bomb. Suddenly in the 3rd part of the game there is an F-bomb every 20 seconds. I might not be getting dad of the year for letting him watch/play with me. (Climbing the tower made him REALLY happy hitting the W-key.)

His remarks echo mine. "Can we play the next one now?"

[Engels]

Well, he's gonna end up being exposed to this (not to mention impaling and beheadings), anyway, so maybe its best he sees it with his dad, to take its power away.

[Venkman]

No plans for anything other than multiplayer dlc is what I have read.

Bleh. I'll hope you're wrong and leave it at that

[Lantyssa]

If it sells well, I'm sure they'll revise their plans.

[tgr]

Looks like there's some plan revising going on, alright. SE's CEO apparently just resigned, citing record deficits.

[Venkman]

Yea...

3.4mm units sold reportedly. And that doesn't include digital copies. I don't see how they thought they'd sell much more than that.

Thankfully, Square Enix isn't the first TR publishers nor their only option for future content/sequels.

Edit: Just saw this thread

[tgr]

The DLC is ... interesting. 13 euro for 19 different DLC items, 1 of which extends the gametime, 1 is a multiplayer map and the rest is just skins, weapons or skills.

Sigh.

[Furiously]

Where are the dlc shorts?

[Nayr]

Bought this game almost two weeks ago. Pretty good.

Also noticed that when I got all the GPS caches, some secret documents popped up talking about an organization called Trinity, who seemingly know about Himiko, Mathias, and something called the Star Phenomenon.

So it sounds like this is a hint to some over-arching plot that will span this new TR series.

Probably some Illuminati type group. Secret society that's existed over the course of history and shaped it to their liking.

Edit:

Also I just noticed something. Lara has the perfect opportunity to rescue Sam. Matias is standing still waiting for Whitman to get killed by the stormguard and Lara is hidden not ten feet away from him. She could easily blow his brains out with her pistol(something she can draw without a lot of movement and that fires with a silencer.) and let Sam run back to Reyes and Jonah.

[Ragnoros]

On sale for $13.60* at GMG. Decided to bite. Seemed well received around here.

http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/us/en/pc/games/action/tomb-raider/

*Use this coupon. GMG20-LLASD-D8WBQ

[Azazel]

I was umming and ahhing on this one since yesterday. Looks like I left it too long, as it's now gone...

[Azazel]

So Gamersgate have it on midweek sale now. Not quite as cheap as GoG had it last time, but still reasonable.


Is this worth playing with KB+M, or is it one you need to plug a 360 controller into your PC to play it properly?

[Tarami]

KB+M worked fine to me. IIRC the binds were a little awkward but nothing game breaking.

[Venkman]

KB+M are totally fine. I suppose it plays well with a controller. The only challenge I had with controller was the QTEs at first, but that was some jank thing where occasionally the key to press wouldn't appear on screen. Eventually they must have patched it or it was just an early-game edge case.

[Rokal]

Almost finished with this. It's like Uncharted with higher production values. I feel bizarre saying that given that it's a Tomb Raider game, but it's shockingly high quality.