Tomb Rider (2012)

[fragger]

Hey Fiach, I was wondering where you'd gotten to :) Thought maybe all these FC3 obsessives might have scared you off :-()

I might see if I can score a copy of TR tomorrow, since it seems likely that the new SimCity would probably make me blow a gasket if I tried to play it ::)

[PZ]

Good to see you back, Fiach  :-X

I'm assuming that TR does not require an online connection...  ????

[Jim di Griz]

Same as me then, only playing for one day in three at the mo' and taking my time about it. I should have added that just before closing the game down last time, I went back to look for some stuff at the second level...and that's where I'll be resuming tonight  :)

Old favourites are always good to play - it's a necessity sometimes when things are too busy. Have fun.

[fragger]

Damn, didn't get out today due to visiting relatives. Have to wait until Monday now.

[JRD]

Downloading now... but just like some of you guys, real life is taking its toll on me lately so I probably won't have too much time to play it  :-\\

[Fiach]

Cheers Fragger :)

JRD I play the 360 version, I dont know if the PC version needs online.

I was talking to a mate of mine about SimCity and he said there was alot of server problems with it, due to its popularity, I wouldnt buy a single player game that insisted on an online connection apart from the initial activation.

TR on PC, just a heads up....

I know somebody that hates it on PC as he cant handle the mouse/keyboard controls, so if you find yourself in that position, I would suggest getting a 360 controller as the controls are spot on for the 360.

Just a fyi, some places dont stock 360 "wired" controllers, so make sure you are getting the right controller for your system (ie. wireless for a 360, wired for a PC, so you can plug into the usb).

[JRD]

Thanks for the heads up Fiach!  :-X

Upon install I was promted to provide an email to log on to a Square Enix account but I saw the small "skip" option there and no activation whatsoever was made... mind you I'm playing a STEAM version so it probably was done automatically anyway  ????

I have a wired controller with me but when it comes to shooting stuff I'm always a mouse/keyboard kind of guy.

Actually the controls are pretty friendly. I'm about 8% into the game, on that burning temple full of bad guys and I'm enjoying it a  lot!  8)

Having played the first few original TR games since 1996 and actually owning the most recent titles without trying it (yet!) I feel that playing a young Lara giving her first steps into becoming the dreadfull archaeologist I'm familiar with is a great reboot!!!!!

Linear as it is the game delivers a lot of satisfaction. If any of you guys read "open world" on a TR review... forget it, this is a linear 3rd person, adventure, platforming, puzzle solving game... and a good one I may add!

Yes, there are a lot of similarities with FC3 - the bow, the island/jungle setting, hunting, relics but with 2 1/2 hours of game play I believe this is a close to FC3 as it gets. There's no exploration beyond the very limited areas or side missions to break from the main story line and Lara is always moving forward. There is a fast travel option since the temple part but unless there is a mission that requires you to go back there wont be any reason for you to do so. But it is not a boring corridor shooter at all... the game is very well made and several hours will pass unnoticed!!

The QTE's so far were quite easy except one when Lara is caught trying to escape and a sequence of fast actions are required to survive. The quick events are quick indeed and I died on this particluar one so many times I was annoyed with the same voice acting over and over till I finally kill the ba$t@rd and move on. Apart from that specific point the QTE's are ok... even after being eaten by wolves a couple times!   ;D

Anyway... sunday is around the corner and I'll put a few more hours into the game!

Pictures to come!!

[Fiach]

You do actually need to go back to previous camps mate, alot of the story is related through audio diaries (that are really very good!) and you will find weapon parts needed to make better gear, eg. You have a bow, after finding two bow parts, you will then be able to make a Recurve Bow.

But you wont be able to access the places where these are located, until you have the skills to do so, eg. if you see a door with alot of white rope banded to it, you will need "rope arrows" to fire at it, then pull it open with the rope.

Glad you're enjoying it :)

[JRD]

Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics invested on a simple formula: reboot a worn out hero and give players what they want but do not try to reinvent the wheel!

Lara saw so many iteractions in the past 15 years (including lame movies) that the character lost its appeal.

TR does not bring anything new to the gaming world and this is a good thing. You can use pretty much the same kind of weapons found on any game nowadays (the bow is a recurrent feature on most games today), the linear nature doesn't necessarily means "bounded" or "constrained" but rather "make it simple and fun" and yet there is a great pace in the game that lets you explore after rewards and upgrades and a skill tree to help you build a relationship with your (already charismatic) character!

Simple... and it works fine.  8)

Ok, Im still quite early on the game and it can change later on, but there's something on this game that makes me want to come back to it all the time!  :-X

[PZ]

Looking forward to your pics, JRD  :-X

I was thinking that it eventually become a time where I buy games dependent on whether or not it requires a mandatory online connection.  This EA requirement for SimCity is absurd, and they can only lose money because of it.  Fortunately I have plenty of other games to play when I cannot get online, and TR may just become one of them.

[Jim di Griz]

...If any of you guys read "open world" on a TR review... forget it, this is a linear 3rd person, adventure, platforming, puzzle solving game... and a good one I may add!

Yup, I meant to add a clarification to my initial post. CD say it's open world but you get a load screen between levels - so that does not make it an open world game in my book.

Still very good though  :)

[JRD]

TR may just become one of them.

PZ, a piece of advise: QTEs and button mashing may be an issue!

There are plenty of them but most can be done easily. For instance, when you jump on a ledge one of Lara's hands slips and you are promted to press E (on PC, of course), to get a grip on the ledge or you will fall... not a big problem as mostly you won't die and even if you do there is a checkpoint nearby.

On two occasions I found myself stuck though

Spoiler

Lara is captured and is trying to escape. She is found by one of her enemies and he will grab her by the neck and strangle her. To get rid of him you have to  1) hit F precisely when an on screen indicator turns red and Lara kick him in the nuts, 2) as he fights back and grab her again you have to do the same action again to bite his ear, 3) he grabs her by the ankle as she tries to reach his pistol on the ground so you have to mash A and D (left and right) to free her legs and immediately mash E to force his hand holding the gun and shoot him in the head. Fail on any of those QTE/button mashing prompts and you have to do it again  :-\\

Spoiler

Lara enters a wolf den to retrieve a pack with medicine and a radio beacon. It's a small cave with only one exit. As you try to leave the place the wolf will attack you. You can't see him before you trigger the attack so you can't shoot him. Again A and D mash to free her legs, then F at the precise moment to shove him, then mash E to stab the beast

Those particular two points gave me a lot of trouble but apart from that, no major problems with it!

I never played any Uncharted game as they are PS exclusive but for what I've seen TR is quite like it with better graphics  8)

You do actually need to go back to previous camps mate, alot of the story is related through audio diaries (that are really very good!) and you will find weapon parts needed to make better gear, eg. You have a bow, after finding two bow parts, you will then be able to make a Recurve Bow.

You're right, I just went back a couple camps after the radio tower to rescue the pilot in the blue smoke. There are a few areas that are only accessible once you have enough skills and upgrades. I actually went back to the very first camp to try and reach 100% completion. Unfortunately the areas are desert and all that is left is hunting and searching for colletcibles and salvage crates...

Still very good though  :)

True... great fun... I'm enjoying it a lot!  :) :-X

[PZ]

Thanks for the heads-up, JRD; while I really dislike button mashing, I am becoming somewhat accustomed to a few of these in FC3 and some of the AC games.  I wonder why the developers think that kind of thing is fun - to mindlessly mash buttons while watching for a prompt indicating the next button to mash is just plain stupid.  For me that is as much fun as having to watch your cell phone for a prompt: "Left foot... right foot... left foot..."  "Ausitin!, you're walking!"

[Art Blade]

 :-D

[JRD]

The QTEs in AC3 are quite nice imo... I see it as a way of having to act quicly on a wild life attack. The timing allows for a reasonable window to read the controls and act accordingly and the fact that you never really know which button to hit (not mash) next adds some unpredictability to the attack, which I like!  :-X

Well... actually you always start with E then is either SPACE or LMB or Q and in the end it's not unpredictable at all!  ::)

But in TR the window is sometimes too short even for reading which button to mash and I feel pretty dumb hiting A+D as fast as I can to get rid of something....... but not a game breaker so far. Hope it stays like that.

[Jim di Griz]

...On two occasions I found myself stuck though

Spoiler

Lara is captured and is trying to escape. She is found by one of her enemies and he will grab her by the neck and strangle her. To get rid of him you have to  1) hit F precisely when an on screen indicator turns red and Lara kick him in the nuts, 2) as he fights back and grab her again you have to do the same action again to bite his ear, 3) he grabs her by the ankle as she tries to reach his pistol on the ground so you have to mash A and D (left and right) to free her legs and immediately mash E to force his hand holding the gun and shoot him in the head. Fail on any of those QTE/button mashing prompts and you have to do it again  :-\\

Spoiler

Lara enters a wolf den to retrieve a pack with medicine and a radio beacon. It's a small cave with only one exit. As you try to leave the place the wolf will attack you. You can't see him before you trigger the attack so you can't shoot him. Again A and D mash to free her legs, then F at the precise moment to shove him, then mash E to stab the beast

...

At least on the PC you have fairly accessible keys to manipulate. On the DS3 (and I suspect the 360 controller too) you need to waggle the left stick left and right rapidly.

Spoiler

Now that becomes a problem as the stick goes in all directions and if it perceives that you are not going precisely left and right but at a slight angle instead, the QTE will fail your attempt. I found using my right hand afforded better control over that...because my left thumb due to proximity was making the stick go more diagonally; using my right hand meant I got the angle correct...until I needed to hit the triangle prompt on the right hand side...

I think perhaps L3 would have been better for breaking free. Luckily though this has only happened a few times.

[Fiach]

No problems with the waggle the L Stick on the 360 controller. What I do is take my Left Hand from the grip and place it horizontally over the L Stck and move it from side to side, usually (always?) this is followed by the Y button, so you know whats coming next and are prepared.

Dunno if I would like the KB controls, I would changed them to different keys, but  nobody ever accused me of being normal :)

[Art Blade]

 :-D

[JRD]

Mashing A and D is not a problem but sometimes it seems the game doesn't like how fast (or slow) I am and I fail the QTE right on start! The annoying part is feeling like an idiot while doing so  ;D

I played the first three or four TR games on the PS1 (which one is the one Lara dies in the end?) and it featured an auto aim function which was both a blessing as a lot of shooting had to be made while jumping and dodging, and a curse as the auto aim quite often chooses the wrong target when you are surrounded.

On a sidenote... only now I realized there's a typo on the title of this thread  :-[  ::)

********************EDIT*********************

Oh man, look what I found

Tomb Raider 2 Venice Walkthrough

The Venice Level... look at that! I clearly remember that part in TR2!! Think about AC2 in Venice or today's TR graphics!!!! And yet... Lara could swim... which Altair never could!  ^-^

[Art Blade]

 :) :-X

[Jim di Griz]

...On a sidenote... only now I realized there's a typo on the title of this thread  :-[  ::)

We all do it  ^-^ Tomb Rider has an interesting ring to it  ;)

[Fiach]

We all do it  ^-^ Tomb Rider has an interesting ring to it  ;)

Probably a Freudian Slip....that's where you say one thing and mean a mother  :P

[fragger]

 

That Venice level clip brings back memories :-X TR2 was the first TR game where Lara actually had a ponytail in-game, and it behaved like one - would sway in the wind if she was outdoors and would flop around accurately when she moved.. In TR1 her hair was in a bun in-game, which made her look kind of schoolmarm-ish, yet in the cut scenes her ponytail would be back. I guess they couldn't be bothered doing the extra programming required to give her a fractal ponytail, or they couldn't figure a way to do it.

Now that I think on it, TR2 was also the first game in the franchise to have outdoor areas.

The things that stick in your mind...

[JRD]

Yeah TR2 was a groundbreaking game. TR1 was great too but as it happens the sequel polishes what the original game attempted and introduces more ideas.

Lara's hair was a trademark and by keeping up to the tradition, AMD screwed up big time. In TR, her hair looks amazing like in no other game I've seen so far, but it comes with a price. AMD developed the the graphical part of the game and apparently only handed it to nVidia too late so they couldn't code it properly to make it w@&k on their GPUs... since nVidia owns 3/4 of the market... A LOT of PC customers are suffering from nasty frame rate drops and crashes... me included  :-\\

Read more here

If you plan to get TR for PC... keep that in mind!!!!!! I can run it with the "High" settings but not in the "Ultra" ettings and the TressFX must be off too... the game looks amazing anyway (even her hair) but sometimes stuttering occurs, breaking a bit of the fun!

[Fiach]

I think something similar happened in reverse (could be wrong as I'm not a PC buff), with PhysX (spelling?) I think its an Nvidia idea that fails miserably on ATI Radeon cards.