Take Lara Croft To Work Day

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Spong.com article discussing publisher Eidos naming this Friday, 4th July, as 'Take Lara Croft To Work Day' in the UK. According to the official site, "The 'Take Lara To Work Day' initiative was devised following a recent report from the London School of Economics on how creating a happy working environment stimulates the workforce", and the publicity stunt even has an 'Email Your Boss' link so you can beg him to let you play Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness in work hours. Unfortunately, any companies that do this may not actually be making their employees happy.

Happy? Think again...

[Jouni]

Now, if the game was any good [gamespot.com] they would have a better chance of making this work. Unfortunately, Angel of Darkness has been murdered in the first reviews.

And I really, really wanted to like this one.

Jouni

Re:Happy? Think again...

[PainKilleR-CE]

heh, I had to get down to the UK part to realize why this made any sense at all. Of course, while a good number of us in the US don't have to work at all on that day, Eidos has decided to torture those in the UK by asking them to play the damned game they rushed out the door to push up their numbers for the fiscal year. I think we all saw those reviews coming when we read this article:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?si d =03/06/18/ 067235&mode=thread&tid=127&tid=186&tid=206&tid=212

Re:Happy? Think again...

[Jouni]

After taking the time to read some of the links of the post, it seems my comments were in line with others who waited for this one. Mod parent down as redundant if necessary. :-)

To stay somewhat on topic, Japan declared a law back in the day to stop Dragon Quest games from being released on any other day than a Sunday or a holiday [rpgamer.com].

While the Tomb Raider phenomenon is huge, I can't see many skipping work to spend the afternoon with Lara instead this summer.

Wonder what happens when Half-Life 2 comes out, though? Or EverQuest 2?

Jouni

Re:Happy? Think again...

[Baikala]

I don't think that, whenever Everquest 2 is launched, it wouldn't be any different as other MMORPG's lunches. It's gona be full of bugs, half of the servers would be down, the lag would be horrid, etc. I don't think any one would be able to play without serius problems the whole afternoon on day 1.

MMORGPs luches are some kind of masive multipleyer beta testing at "production conditions" in wich you have to pay to participate.

Good link.

[Violet Null]

Just another blah blah games.slashdot.org story about another stupid advertising trick for another stupid game...but including that gametabs.com link was classic. Finally an editorial comment I can agree with.

Just my luck....

[tha_mink]

I don't have to work on July 4th.

Eidos? Sounds more like Acclaim

[lightspawn]

But fortunately, we know better [metacritic.com] than to play it anywhere.

Re:Eidos? Sounds more like Acclaim

[scot4875]

Take out that incredibly stupid Maxim score of 100, and the game ends up with a solid score of 46.

The truly saddening thing is, I bet it'll still fly off the shelves.

--Jeremy

Take Lara Croft to work?

[Jodrell]

I think I'd make myself much happier taking Lara Croft [google.com] home, thanks all the same. I'd need a bit of privacy for what I have in mind.

movie tie up!!!

[andrewleung]

ok, i don't know WHO the marketting wizards at Eidos are but they REALLY REALLY SUCK ASS.

They can make up for the delayed game WITHOUT resorting to BS marketting tricks like this. Re-name the game to fit with the upcoming Tomb Raider Movie, The Cradle of Life [apple.com] and release it WITH the movie... save cash on marketting the game as the movie will have FAR FAR better marketting (i.e. real boobies) than we can currently generate on any system... everyone will be so tied up with either: [1] Tomb Raider movie [2

Re:movie tie up!!!

[CheeseMonkey]

the movie will have FAR FAR better marketting (i.e. real boobies)

Actually, I don't think the movie had real boobies, either. Jolie is big, but she's not that big...

Core is creatively bankrupt

[jvmatthe]

Tomb Raider, the original, was brilliant.

Tomb Raider 2 was pretty ok, but I was a bit confused to find Lara swimming around Venice shooting thugs.

Tomb Raider 3 had Lara gunning down aboriginals in their own village. It also had a hideous savegame bug that required a complete game restart to fix.

I don't understand what happened at Core, but it looks like they didn't really comprehend what was good about the first one and fell into the trap of pumping out subpar material annually, just in time for the Xmas season. So, we end up with Lara the Murderer [curmudgeongamer.com] and (just recently) a a boring GBA game [curmudgeongamer.com].

I'm getting ready to play TR: Angel of Darkness, but I have to admit I'm not expecting much, given Core's record. When I heard they were including Kurtis (or whatever the new guy's name is) I immediately thought of Poochie's appearance on Itchy & Scratchy (or Roy's appearance at the Simpsons' dinnertable)...a lame addition to a show that's run out of ideas.

Re:Core is creatively bankrupt

[gmhowell]

I'm getting ready to play TR: Angel of Darkness, but I have to admit I'm not expecting much

Doesn't much matter: by buying the game, you've rewarded their earlier incompetence. Good job.

Re:Core is creatively bankrupt

[GTRacer]

>>I'm getting ready to play TR: Angel of Darkness, but I have to admit I'm not expecting much

>>>> Doesn't much matter: by buying the game, you've rewarded their earlier incompetence. Good job.

Where do you live that you do not have a games rental store nearby? I listen to a handful of reviewers (some journos, someGameFAQs posters [go Wolf Feather!])) and if I don't get a good vibe from them I'll rent first, or wait for a larger "review base", or wait for it to hit the bargain bin.

GTRa

July 4th?

[Crockerboy]

But don't the English already have off for Independence day????

Re:July 4th?

[Chris Brewer]

Don't forget what Patrick Stewart once said...

"How would we celebrate it? 'Who cares, we didn't want that continent anyway?'"

Mad Office Skillz

[beders]

Good Idea, but:

1) How many wpm?

2) Can she write VB Excel macros?

3) Does she put the water or milk in first when making a cup of tea?

long-time Tomb-Raider fan checking in

[dh003i]

But I might have to skip this one.

As far as game-play goes, I basically want more of the same, which is what Eidos is giving, with better graphics and better scenery.

But, having read about the slow-downs and what-not, I don't think it's for me until I get a better graphics card. And I'm not going to spend $250 to get the latest GeForce 5 or Radeon 9600 Pro just to play Tomb Raider. Once I can get the upgrade needed to play it for around $50, I'll probably do it (at that point, the game will probably be ar

American workers won't accept this

[2muchcoffeeman]

This may go over well in the UK, but I'm afraid that here in the States it won't be supported by people going to work on Friday.

Work

[smellyone]

My boss says i can take lara croft to the unemployment office then sell my copy to feed the kids

Um... they screwed up..

[Guppy06]

"The 'Take Lara To Work Day' initiative was devised following a recent report from the London School of Economics on how creating a happy working environment stimulates the workforce"

So what does a happy envrionment have to do with Tomb Raider again?

And is it just coincidence when this idea is on the same date that commemorates another spectacular British failure? :)

Acclaim?

[Rellik66]

Sounds like Acclaim is behind this.