Tomb Raider 2012

[.A²]

Anyone for yet another Tomb Raider relaunch? Not confident enough in their abilities to make an entirely new franchise with a new character, Crystal Dynamics (and by extension Eidos and therefore Square Enix) are exploring Lara's backstory in the next Tomb Raider game, which will feature heavily (10 pages) in January's Game Informer. Voici le cover:

Spoiler: New Lara 

"Forget everything you knew about TOMB RAIDER," said Darrell Gallagher, Head of Studio, Crystal Dynamics. "This is an origins story that creates Lara Croft and takes her on a character defining journey like no other."

The game, they say, will feature the first adventure for a young and inexperienced Lara Croft in a story which "charts the journey of an ordinary woman who finds out just how far she must go in order to stay alive."

'After a brutal storm destroys the boat she was travelling on, a frightened young woman is left washed ashore on an unknown beach. On her own but not alone she has only one goal, to survive'

So it's basically the survival horror TR that leaked to the internet months ago and that we all decided we didn't want in this thread.

Here's a link to the official site, which doesn't show anything much at the moment, but looks like Lara has a bow (as she did in the leaked stories from before)

[KoFF]

I saw a leaked screen from a trailer a few days ago which was similar to the background on the official site, which SE naturally filed for without further notice... Which kinda just helped confirm the first leaked images and info many months ago was real. But this is just... Wow. At least now they aren't hiding it anymore. I was stunned by the animation when I first clicked the close-up of her face. I got to see her hair as the first thing and it's really quite mind-blowing imo. Even her skin and face is amazing. They gave her a set of eyes-shapes only found in games though, but that's part of her charm here, eh xD.
The young version here looks like a mix between Lara Croft and Mila Jovovich. I still almost can't believe the animation x_X. Guess there's no reason to be surprised though, with SE owning Eidos/TR now. I'd like to know who's behind the animation, because although SE are the leaders in that field (imo), Eidos has really become quite skilled with making graphics that look good up close.

[Iron Man]

Never been a fan of Tomb Raider, or cared much about the franchise. But this is probably a smart move for them in order to try and interest new people.

I know I'll be keeping my eyes on the progress. Not judging anything before I've seen in what direction its going.

[Nemesis]

So wait she isn't any more an upper class snob whose plane crash landed and only became interested in the whole buzz because of how she survived then?

Her Back story is seemingly retconned more than a star wars film gets a makeover.

[.A²]

Maybe this comes after the plane crash. She didn't trust aerial transport any more so shifted to boats. Looks like that didn't work out for her either.

[.A²]

Details :

- Lara is 21 in this game
- It's not only a reboot of the franchise but a reboot of the entire brand. As a result there will be no "real" Lara model this time.
- They're doing performance capturing with this game
- There are brutal deaths in the game this time. One is described as a deranged man stabbing Lara in the chest and then closing her eyes after she's dead. Another includes a boulder falling on her leg to trap her before another falls and crushes her head.
- CD won't talk specifics on weapons but concept art shows a bow, shotgun and pistol
- The lock on targeting system is gone and it now has a free aim system. CD says that it can compete with any of their competitors.
- "I think that the major difference between this game and the old is the concept of smoke and mirrors," begins Darrell Gallagher, the studio head at Crystal Dynamics. "There was an illusion of freedom because of streaming and loading that would pop you out in a different location, but this is absolutely real. You can literally go any direction that you see and carve your own way to the finish line instead of being guide."
- "It was important in the game to not only deliver the character arc of Lara Croft emotionally, but to deliver it in gameplay as well so the player gets to grow into a hardened survivor," says experienced director Noah Hughes. As the game unfolds, Lara will scavenge new tools and gear that augment her abilities. Lara's athletic prowess will also evolve. Some areas begin inaccessible due to physical limitations or scarce supplies. With the right skills and gear, however, the island is Lara's for the taking.
- There are base camps in the game. Here you can combine items to create something new and access a skill system to upgrade Lara's abilities. You'll also be able to use base camps to fast travel to different locations to minimize backtracking.
- You'll need to gather food and water in order to survive
- There are humans in the game, including some of the crew members from the shipwreck off the coast of the island.

[KoFF]

It really will be quite different from the old TR's, huh... It really sounds very interesting. I'm starting to look forward to it.
But I guess that the reboot is complete if the story isn't even taken into consideration, which it sounds like with the new reboot details. It doesn't really fit as being her first big adventure anyway, since she is around 16 on Black Isle in Chronicles and in Cambodia in The Last Revalation. And then there's the plane crash thing, lol... But If we look away from it being "the first adventure", things COULD make sense. She would have led an incredibly stressed year at 21 then though, since she did a lot of other things at that age too, lol.

[Iron Man]

Brutal deaths, eh?
I doubt they will be as brutal as in Resident Evil 4.

I'm going to follow this project as I said though. Seems somewhat interesting.

[.A²]

Scans

[KoFF]

The link didn't work for me. Posting another one in case it isn't just my problem, assuming the scans you are talking about are these?;

Click

EDIT: Okay, finished reading it now. That was probably the longest TR related text I've read in one sit. Despite the rather heavy spoilers on the whole beginning, it was very interesting to read. Gave a much better idea of what the game will be like. It's so different... And brutal. And the animation on the cover wasn't just a false lure. The ingame graphics and cutscenes are very well made too. Although the old games had really great graphics too - especially environments in the later titles - but it looks like they are giving Lara a more realistic look this time which probably is needed if they want to portray all this emotion and the connection they want us to feel.
I wish I could play it right away. With the growth system though, I wondered if they intentionally left out saying that they had a system like that in Angel of Darkness when they talked about how new it was, since AoD was a fiasco for the company and they might not wanna associate their new game with it :P... Or any old TR games, I guess, based on what they said. But I'm glad they still kept a good portion of the basic elements in the game and character of Lara Croft even with such a massive turn.
Sweet sweet sweet.

Oh, and PS3, perfect.