Tomb Raider team gets the sack.

[Helegad]

Yes, I know. I'm not a big fan of TR games, but have played (and beaten) most of them; TR:AoD was the only one that threw me away after mere 30 minutes - horrendous controls, fugly graphics with lots of bugs (although I've heard that the game has its moments later on) and the stupid "RPG" leveling - "Oohh, I'm not strong enough to move this crate."... What have they thinking when they implemented that.

But, from what I've heard, the game was rushed too. There were lots of elements that were cut from the game (and that could be accessed through some hacking/codes/bugs).

My point was, and still is, there's no need to release a new Tomb Raider every single year (ok, Eidos needs this because they need money). Give the team a little time to think about fresh ideas, to fix problems found in previous games, to polish the game, to make it perfect and THEN release it.

A rushed game or a game made on a conveyer belt is a bad game.

And really, why do CD need to make only TR games. Why doesn't Eidos let them do a new IP, or revive another old IP (*cough* Soul Reaver *cough*)?

Angel Of Darkness was essentially still a beta. It was COMPLETELY unfinished.

[atlier00]

What's going to happen to my Underworld DLC now? ;_;

The first part, Beneath the Ashes, is supposed to come out this month probably near the end.


Anyways, its sad to hear that Eidos thinks the problem lies within the game developers and not the actual publisher. If they managed their money better they wouldn't be in this mess. Its a sad day when a company says a game only selling 1.5 million is a failure........Considering when that franchise is considered a joke among many gamers in the world(which is annoying, since I'm still a big TR fan). It gets annoying to hear the same comments; "People only play TR for Lara's boobs" or "Tomb Raider is the same thing over and over". I mean, she's never used her sexuality to get the upper hand in a situation(though that dress in TR:Legend did not help her case, even though I secretly loved it ha), and the TR games after AOD were a major improvement and was hardly anything like the others. And can I get at least one reviewer at a popular game site to NOT make a joke or pun about her boobs in a review or preview......AT LEAST ONCE!

Eidos needs to let Crystal Dynamics work on the combat, AI, and camera as first priority when they make the next game. Despite how many TR fans feel about having combat over puzzles, the game will not do well unless they fix those three elements. The AI was pretty good for the creatures in Tomb Raider Underworld, but the human characters were dumb as rocks. Eidos also needs to just let Tomb Raider go into the M rating territory, and I don't mean that for them to show off more of Lara's body........ despite what others may want. They need to bring back those awesome deaths from the first game(breaking all the bones in her body, getting blown up, being impaled on spikes, breaking her neck from a swan dive, and being eaten by a T-Rex!), re add the gore present in the first few games, and make a generally more adult game(with a completely evil psycho bastard villian).

[Mr_Zombie]

It gets annoying to hear the same comments; "People only play TR for Lara's boobs"

Yeah, that's stupid, especially considering that nowadays lots of female protagonists are sexy doll faces with big boobs, and no one is complaining about that.

The AI was pretty good for the creatures in Tomb Raider Underworld, but the human characters were dumb as rocks.

One solution - get rid of human enemies completely. That's what I love in TR: Anniversary, there's no human enemies that you fight with (aside from QTE, and even then Lara mostly just defence herself); that, and that Lara felt guilty after she killed Larson. That was IMO one of the best things they have done to her character; she was supposed to be an archaeology, not a mass murderer like she was in TR2, 3, 4, 5, Legend and Underworld.

[Helegad]

Eidos also needs to just let Tomb Raider go into the M rating territory, and I don't mean that for them to show off more of Lara's body........ despite what others may want. They need to bring back those awesome deaths from the first game(breaking all the bones in her body, getting blown up, being impaled on spikes, breaking her neck from a swan dive, and being eaten by a T-Rex!), re add the gore present in the first few games, and make a generally more adult game(with a completely evil psycho bastard villian).

Remember that TR 1-5 were also rated T for Teen ;)

[The Dude]

... and you DO know you might go to hell for considering that, right?

Oh yeah, but it was soooooooooo worth it

I thought Too Human was a terrible game, and Dyack's hype campaigns were what sold the game, not the quality of the product.

[Rombie]

Eidos also needs to just let Tomb Raider go into the M rating territory, and I don't mean that for them to show off more of Lara's body........ despite what others may want. They need to bring back those awesome deaths from the first game(breaking all the bones in her body, getting blown up, being impaled on spikes, breaking her neck from a swan dive, and being eaten by a T-Rex!), re add the gore present in the first few games, and make a generally more adult game(with a completely evil psycho bastard villian).

^ This I totally agree with. Toby Gard, one of the original creators, actually discusses this on the in-level commentary on Anniversary - regarding the fact that they could impale Lara in the original Tomb Raider yet these days they're not even allowed to do that for the same classification level.

I also don't understand Eidos. You rush a project out without all the checks, tweaks, and allowing the developers to make it to the best they can do and then fire them for putting out a project that doesn't sell well because of it's shortcomings from your set upon release date.

[Mr_Zombie]

Why there's no blood in new TR games anyway? It can't be because of T-rating, because for example Uncharted, also a T-rated title, has blood.
The lack of blood is especially stupid in Anniversary, when Lara kills Larson. In that scene she looks at her hands with terror and starts to wipe them. It's obvious that there should be Larson's blood on her hands, but there is none.

[James]

Wasn't most of the work on Anniversary done by Buzz Monkey anyway? In that case, CD have been working for quite some time on Underworld.

[Rombie]

No, the project was supposed to be outsourced but Eidos gave it to CD and told them they needed to work on it. There is an early build video around online that is different than the finished project that wasn't the CD edition (I'm not sure who worked on it, but it would make sense) where as the final version is credited to Dynamics.

[Helegad]

Core Design started to make "Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition", and Crystal Dynamics were also making "Tomb Raider: Anniversary". Eidos only revealed to Core Design that Crystal Dynamics were doing a very similar project after a good deal of work had been done, and Eidos forced Core to scrap the work they had completed. Needless to say, Core were pissed, and an employee leaked a trailer onto the internet. You can find the leaked trailer on my YouTube profile if you want to see it

Personally, I'm glad that Crystal took over. In the trailer you see Lara pushing a block one bit at a time, like in the old games. That alone has put me on Crystal's side. Like, I don't mind it when PLAYING the older games, but there's no need for that kinda shit now with all this new technology. I should probably mention that Anniversary bored the shit out of me anyway. As soon as I finished it, it got the big uninstall button pushed.

Mr Zombie, I'm sure that there WAS blood on Lara's hands. From what I can remember, it was just a small, imaginary splatter. Maybe you got a censored version or something?

[Mr_Zombie]

There was blood? I haven't played Anniversary for a long time now, but from what I remember there was no blood. Will have to play the game again.

I haven't even realised that Core Design was making the first version of Anniversary. I saw that trailer, but when I saw that the game was looking differently in later trailers I just thought it was because the game went from "PSP exclusive" to "releasing it on everything that's playing video games" and not because Eidos have changed the developer.

[Henry Spencer]

Tomb Raider is to Eidos what Sonic is to Sega. Rush, rush, rush the game out, make one pretty much every year and things have turned sour because of that.

[Helegad]

But Sonic was always the same thing.

[James]

Comparing Sonic to Tomb Raider is extremely offensive. At least the Tomb Raider games are still fun but nothing new. Sonic isn't even fun =/

[Drake]

Eh, maybe now Eidos will concentrate on The Legacy of Kain Series, don't get me wrong Lara had a Good run but she's lost her glory.

~Drake