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Lara Croft's Big Comeback

Posted by Zonk on Wed Mar 01, 2006 01:21 PM
from the work-it-lady dept.
Entertainment Games
Next Generation has a piece talking to Eidos marketing chief Bob Lindsey about the restoration of Lara Croft's good name. From the article: "Lindsey says the negative associations surrounding Lara will be swept away with a single decent iteration, arguing that Lara, far from being a one-decade wonder, has legs. 'Eidos has learned in spades that just because we make it, does not means they will come,' he says. 'Users are very discerning about what is a good experience and what is not. If you create a big franchise like Tomb Raider, one that has sold more than 30 million units globally, you can't afford to burn it with something that does not deliver.'"
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[+] Lara Croft As The Final Girl 181 comments
Clive Thompson, over at Wired, takes a look at the appeal of playing as Lara Croft ... and doesn't focus on her physical assets. From the article: "The Final Girl theory emerged in 1985, when Carol Clover -- a medievalist and feminist film critic -- was dared by a friend to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Back then, most feminist theorists loathed slasher films, and regarded them as classic examples of male misogyny. It wasn't hard to figure out why: Thousands of young men were trooping into theaters to cheer wildly as masked psychos hacked apart screaming young women. That really didn't look good. But as Clover sat in the theaters, she noticed something curious. Sure, the young men would laugh and cheer as the villain hunted down his female prey. But eventually the movie would whittle down the victims to one last terrified woman -- the Final Girl, as Clover called her. Suddenly, the young men in the audience would switch their allegiance -- and begin cheering just as madly for the Final Girl as she attacked and killed the psycho."
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  • those screenshots look amazing, however screenshots almost ALWAYS lok better than grafix... Now lots hope that the gameplay is as good as the OG and it should be a hugh sucess.
    • those screenshots look amazing, however screenshots almost ALWAYS lok better than grafix...

      Yeah, what kind of hardware do you need to get that kind of resolution? I have seen similar screen shots from other games, but never live. I want build a gaming machine and I want it cheap, fast, and reliable and I want all three. :)
    • I've only played 2 games where the gameplay actually looked as good as the screenshots.

      Guild Wars, and F.E.A.R.

      Mind you, the latter runs like a slideshow on my system, but BOY is it pretty. And creepy.

  • My Firm Belief (Score:5, Funny)

    by American AC in Paris (230456) * on Wednesday March 01 2006, @01:25PM (#14827873) Homepage
    I find this prediction of a big bounce for Lara Croft a little inflated, personally.

    Perky, uplifting statements from the director of marketing tend to arouse my suspicion. It seems to me he's just attempting to implant totally artificial marketingspeak in our heads.

    ...

    ...

    (Boobies! *snrk*)

  • Shifting focus to her other attributes? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Animaether (411575) on Wednesday March 01 2006, @01:27PM (#14827902) Journal
    Lindsey says the negative associations surrounding Lara will be swept away with a single decent iteration, arguing that Lara, far from being a one-decade wonder, has legs

    Well, I suppose after all those Chest Reductions [kotaku.com], somebody at Eidos was bound to notice eventually ;)
  • I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of bringing back Tomb Raider, but Eidos has to deliver. They spun a similar web before the release of the last Tomb Raider game - one that sucked horribly. I would hope that Eidos would have learned from that mistake, but I'm going to remain skeptical.

    Additionally, I don't necissarily agree with their idea regarding canning huge franchises. Sometimes you just have to know when to put Ol' Yeller down - I would hope that Eidos realizes when that time comes for Tomb Raider

  • I don't think Lara will be. . . (Score:3, Funny)

    by smooth wombat (796938) on Wednesday March 01 2006, @01:31PM (#14827948) Homepage Journal
    making a comeback [aol.com] anytime in the near future.

    Oh, wait. You meant the character Lara Croft.

    Never mind.

  • TR1 came out back in the day where 3d games were sparse, if non existant on consoles, especially adventure 3d games. This is one of the main reasons it sold well. Very few people praise its level design or music, for example. TR2 had a far better level design and story to it, yet it was not deamed as well as the first solely on the fact that by that time, more 3d adventure games were coming out and people realised that there wasn't much to the TR series. Since TR1 was the first of its kind for most of u
    • ### TR1 came out back in the day where 3d games were sparse, if non existant on consoles, especially adventure 3d games. This is one of the main reasons it sold well.

      I wouldn't say so. Sure, it might have had its faults, but it still has many aspects that even today are quite popular. For one there is the HUD-less screen, most of the time there is no HUD at all shown, only when an enemy aproaches you energie bar is shown, thus giving quite a cinematic experience. Then the gameplay, which is basically Prince
      • Having a female hero was also something new for the time, sure they overdid it quite a bit and turned her into a boob-monster, but still having a strong female lead isn't the worst thing you can do.

        What's interesting is that the massive bosom was supposedly a complete accident. According to the Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org], character designer Toby Gard was, "fudging around with the model when he accidentally blew up Lara's bosom to 150% of what he intended it to be." While he was correcting his mistake, the other desi
  • A decent third-person platformer with a wonky camera which is mainly trained on Lara's ample TnA assets needs to be made to "right" any wrongs that were made when whoring the franchise out for maximum dollars fell flat. I guess that will salvage Lara's prestigeous name... that and a nude hot coffee mod.

  • Well, do it then (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TheSkepticalOptimist (898384) on Wednesday March 01 2006, @01:40PM (#14828066)
    The last Tomb Raider game was simply marred by horrible controls that prevented you from doing anything properly in the game. I mean, I was stuck in the first alley way for a hour trying to carefully jump between platforms without falling and having to get myself back to that location. In a game all about precise jumping and timing, having poor game control simply ruined the experience.

    While Tomb Raider's original interface was novel at the time, the idea of specifically leaping up to ledges, swining on vines, leaping over platforms, all with a more manual approach to gameplay, ultimately what they need to do is adopt a more 3rd person style shooter system, where the character responds more quickly and some of the movements are automated to make the franchise shine. I don't want to play another version where I spend a hour falling off a platform because they keyboard and or gamepad doesn't respond quickly enough.

    Just, don't make another movie out of it, please!
  • Let's just hope that there is another naked patch for this game. What? I know I'm not the only one thinking that...
    • Let's just hope that there is another naked patch for this game. What? I know I'm not the only one thinking that...

      What I've been wondering is where are the nude patches for the movies?

      Angelina Jolie... *drool*

      Did anyone else get a stiffy watching her in Hackers? Smart chicks rule.

  • What a brilliant plan (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Scrameustache (459504) * on Wednesday March 01 2006, @02:05PM (#14828309) Homepage Journal
    Lindsey says Lara will mark the comeback for Eidos, a company which has, in recent years, lost its reputation for innovation.

    I'm sure that releasing the nth sequel of a tired franchise will bring back their reputation for innovation.
    • ### I'm sure that releasing the nth sequel of a tired franchise will bring back their reputation for innovation.

      There is nothing wrong with a sequel if its actually good and new enough in terms of gameplay. And as far as I can remember there hasn't been a decent TombRaider on the current generation of consoles, Angle of Darkness wasn't any good and the rest seems to be for PSone and friends, so doing a good sequel now would be quite ok. The annoying part with sequels is only if they recycle the same engine
  • We'd rather the Duke of Nukem' was Eidos' comeback. Lara has stared in too many crappy games over the last 10 years or so. The Duke always delivers. (even in "A Time to Kill").
  • Lara's prominently displayed "Big Comebacks" indeed.

  • Eidos has learned in spades that just because we make it, does not means they will come.

    Isn't this the problem with the videogaming industry as a whole? Isn't virtually every publisher counting on the name and the packaging to sell the game instead of bothering with a good game? It's only been said a few thousand times on Slashdot now.

    I would think a game review site that isn't a payola machine or an outright front controlled by the publisher would be welcome, but maybe there's so much crap floating

    • There are game sites that don't give a game a good review just because - but they are few and far between.

      I generally read penny arcade - and while not a traditional review site, I've found their insights keen. They recently did a strip about a reviewer (maybe an editor?) at a big mag that actually wrote what he thought about a game - I would suggest trolling the archives to find his name and paying attention to his mag in the future.
      • You're right, and this means early reviews may never be trustworthy.

        I almost never pre-order games anyway, so I don't care if a review is written after the game is on the shelves. Even after release, a trustworthy review would be pretty valuable. Personally I'd rather wait an additional month and know more about what I'd be getting.

  • ...Lara, far from being a one-decade wonder, has legs.

    Oh yeah, and they go all the way up! ;-)

  • .. by merging it with the Bloodrayne franchise. That way you can have a game with double the boobies - and if that's not enough to ensure the game will sell, how about tacking on a Hot Coffee style end sequence were Ms Croft and Ms Rayne make out. Heck, Majesco could sure use the money.

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