Finished Lara Croft and Plants vs. Zombies. PvZ was way better than I thought it was going to be, since every PopCap game I've played prior to it has been kinda meh, but the game was really fun. It's a little too easy, but I still enjoyed it. I only finished the main adventure though, still got the puzzle mode to play and whatever else.
Lara Croft on the other hand, is amazing. It's an absolutely excellent game, and by far the best Tomb Raider ever. The combat is just really well done. It's designed in such a way, that if you're good enough, you can beat the entire game without getting hit (hell, that alone makes it a pretty great game). The power up meter adds a lot too, since if you kill many enemies in a row and fill up the meter, your guns will get a big boost in damage and you'll earn more points for each enemy you kill. If you get hit though, your meter is reset to nothing, so you really need to pay attention and dodge all of the enemy patterns. So the combat is basically as good as it's ever going to get for a Tomb Raider game. Add in some great level design, creative puzzles, tons of unlockables, and great replay value, and it's basically an A+ game. It does have a couple weak points, but everything else is so good it more than makes up for it.
If this is what Crystal Dynamics is capable of when they go from big budget, hollywood console games to an arcadey, gameplay-comes-first game, I'd rather have them abandon Tomb Raider for good and continue making Lara Croft sequels.
