Anybody got the new Tomb Raider? I watched the missus playing it the other night and it looks fantastic. The graphics must be really stretching the Xbox now and the gameplay LOOKS great.
Good game, but certainly only a Tomb Raider game in name. You won't be backflipping with dual pistols merrily shooting dinosaurs anymore. As Unchartered 'appropriated' from the original TR, so TR has done now. The game plays a lot like an Unchartered game in terms of gameplay (running, climbing, general platforming elements). There are some big differences, and so far I think the story is a lot better than the standard Unchartered fare. Graphically, as you say, the game is very very nice. Sweeping vistas, driving rain, jungles and, (a few) tombs. It's all very pretty but I think thats my main gripe with the game. It's a little too streamlined, a little too easy. I liked the survival aspect they were bigging up before, but it turns out since the first mission I haven't been forced to hunt animals or anything to survive, you're just pushed to the next checkpoint. The environments are really fun to explore with Lara's climbing skills (all of which are pretty fluid and fairly easy too) but beyond the collectibles there's no reason to hang about or explore. Tombs are optional, and so far I haven't come across one that stumped me for long. Overall it could be a lot harder!
The bodycount is a lot higher than other TR games, with Lara's journey from eager but naive and innocent young woman to hardened killer not all that easy to believe when within 5 minutes of a dramatic and harrowing first kill, you're headshotting enemies one after the other. You can let them off that though because it's only down to the combat gameplay that you feel this way. Lara moves well and there are plenty of dodge/counter moves to pull off and it makes for very very fun fighting. (Climbing axe to the head, sir?)
Overall it's a highly polished adventure game with good combat, eye catching graphics and a good storyline to boot. So while it's far from revolutionary, it's a fun reboot of an aged franchise.
As for Bioshock Infinite, that looks like a GOTY contender to me. Haven't played it yet as I was (foolishly) hoping to be buying a new PC rig soon so I could play it on that, but it looks too good to wait that long for!
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