Uncharted 4: Tomb Raider

[demi]

It means just as it says. It's the same DRM as Final Fight Double Impact did. Enjoy your PS3

[Himu]

Mixed on getting this for pc or 360. I wish they put out a demo so I could see how my computer runs it. Fuck CD.

[brob]

:yarr

[Stoney Mason]

http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/06/tomb-raider-guardian-of-light-series-wont-return-taking-new-lara-forward-is-the-focus-for-next-gen/

 :'(

[Don Flamenco]

Should also note that the 'puzzles' in Lego Batman are far more sophisticated than anything we've seen in Arkham so far.

Not everything should be Ninja Gaiden but that plus playing some old-school Quake last night really made me think about how pussified and dull AAA games have become in terms of gameplay

I don't mind 'experiemce' games. Not every has to be ninja gaiden. There are good 'experience ' games (Uncharted 2) and bad ones (Shenmue...wait).

great minds

I didn't read your post. I just replied after reading Don's discussion.

I wasn't looking for Ninja Gaiden, I was looking for something more like Dark Souls Meets Lost Meets Debbie Does Dallas.

Maybe I was hoping for elements of traditional tomb raider to remain...for all this game's atmosphere and clamoring for believability, there was less tension in 4 hours than in 10 minutes of Tomb Raider 1. 

edit: but yeah, if you see me complaining to high hell about a game like this, it's because of the experience over game play thing and if you like that style of game, I wouldn't give my review that much weight. 

[Himu]

No problem don. At least you aren't a hypocrite!

[cool breeze]

http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/06/tomb-raider-guardian-of-light-series-wont-return-taking-new-lara-forward-is-the-focus-for-next-gen/

 :'(

What a shame.  Guardian of Light is one of the best downloadable/smaller games in the past couple years.

They should just drop the Lara Croft connection and made a new series based around the gameplay.  Throw in some Final Fantasy shit to drive up the marketability.

[G The Resurrected]

Mixed on getting this for pc or 360. I wish they put out a demo so I could see how my computer runs it. Fuck CD.

Whats your setup? Neogaf's thread is full of people's spec's which might be similar to yours.

I've got a i7 2600k, 16gb 2000mhz DDR3, 1gb 570ti. I'm getting between 30-60fps on ultra settings at 1080p resolution.

[tiesto]

That's a real shame about Guardian of Light, probably my favorite TR-related thing ever. Appreciate the impressions for this, the "Hollywood Gaming" stuff just doesn't do it for me anymore so I will be staying away. Ahh well.

[Himu]

Mixed on getting this for pc or 360. I wish they put out a demo so I could see how my computer runs it. Fuck CD.

Whats your setup? Neogaf's thread is full of people's spec's which might be similar to yours.

I've got a i7 2600k, 16gb 2000mhz DDR3, 1gb 570ti. I'm getting between 30-60fps on ultra settings at 1080p resolution.

2.00 ghz ddr3 ram intel core 2 duo cpu, 4 gb ram, geforce 260m, ASUS. Very outdated.

[Great Rumbler]

You should be able to run it okay on the lower settings. From my own experience, Tomb Raider is optimized really well.

[bork]

This game is awesome.  Totally shits all over Uncharted 3's campaign, although I don't know if the multiplayer is as good.

The only problem I have with the story is how they initially present Lara as this innocent, scared girl who has to force herself to survive, but within 30-40 minutes she is expertly killing people with bows/arrows, a pistol, and her bare hands and salvaging parts to strengthen her weapons.       

[bork]

That's a real shame about Guardian of Light, probably my favorite TR-related thing ever. Appreciate the impressions for this, the "Hollywood Gaming" stuff just doesn't do it for me anymore so I will be staying away. Ahh well.

You should give it a rent.  The cut scenes/QTE stuff is integrated pretty well.

[Himu]

Looking at the requirements I should be able to run it on medium.

[Don Flamenco]

This game is awesome.  Totally shits all over Uncharted 3's campaign, although I don't know if the multiplayer is as good.

The only problem I have with the story is how they initially present Lara as this innocent, scared girl who has to force herself to survive, but within 30-40 minutes she is expertly killing people with bows/arrows, a pistol, and her bare hands and salvaging parts to strengthen her weapons.       

Get the camera on her, hit reload.  She's got this absolutely terrified look on her face, blood everywhere, but she's just killed 10 dudes and she can reload a gun absolutely flawlessly without looking.   

they needed a touch of realism to make me give a shit about vulnerable Lara (outside of getting messed up in cutscenes)

[demi]

r u mad that this game is gonna sell 3-4x more than your shoddy action games? i'm detecting mad sodium over here.

[Stoney Mason]

I just took it as videogame stories being videogame stories. This cognitive dissonance stuff about videogames never really bothers me.

It's not like this is a choice based game where I can pick my actions.

[Shaka Khan]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=49203129&postcount=264

DRM Issue not an issue anymore it seems. Buying this digitally.

[Great Rumbler]

Nude mod:



http://www.nudecreator.org/page2/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=966&sid=565dec7feaa5eaa2beed22967264a6b4&mode=view

False advertising, not interested.

[Don Flamenco]

it looks like she's wearing a shirt with a female body print on it

[bork]

it looks like she's wearing a shirt with a female body print on it

[pilonv1]

Get shitty performance with my 670, mainly due to the hair physics and tesselation causes crashing. Still pretty good but it's incredibly stop/start

[Powerslave]

wow, you guys really fell for this?   Does it suddenly not become typical AAA bullshit after 4 hours?   Cause as patronizing and easy this game is, I'd be shocked if it got any better, gameplay wise.

This is progress quest bullshit.  It gives you EPIC SETPIECE, you run around and shoot 10/10 hidden objects for XP, you do some risk-free platforming (with lots of grunts and canned animations to make you feel like you're not just pressing the analog stick forward), and kill some dudes.   The puzzles are not puzzles, they're just running from point A to point B and flicking a switch or doing some simple physics task. 

Every time I think I have to put some thought into survival, the game does everything for me.  I'm backing out of a cave full of wolves because I know they're in there.  Instead of getting attacked by the wolves and having to defend myself, I get a cut scene where Lara is walking dum-de-dum facing forward out the cave as if nothing was going to happen and then I'm jumped by a wolf and its EPIC MASHING QTE TIME!!!!  Mash A to survive!  Actually it wasn't even that, it was a segmented QTE fight scene that required a couple timed presses.  And before I got to the cave, she was talking about a pack of wolves.  I was going into the fucking wolf den.  I heard them howling and I was a bit nervous...it sounded like a pack as well.  And then there's one dumb wolf there who you take out in a cut scene. 

Even the forest animals you hunt just come running up to you so you can shoot them in the head.  The real mystery of this island is why there are so many dumb animals.  And how this endangered girl got rebar through the gut, didn't patch it or clean it, and survived, going on to make bounding inhuman jumps a minute later.

There's no actual freedom, aside from going up and down on the "technically not a hallway, but feels like it in practice" trajectory of the game.  You can go back and complete fractions for XP to unlock all kinds of skills for a game that isn't even balanced around them.  You don't need extra firepower or anything when you get the jump on every pack of guys and can just stealth kill them with your raw bow.  These are just little conveniences they're gonna trickle out and make this already brainless game easier. 

Not to mention a fucking EXP meter pops up on screen every 10 second to congratulate me on walking 10 steps without getting lost.  And before I turned off button hints, the game reminded me every 5 seconds to use Lara's super power of gold highlight vision, which basically flays open the level design for you, killing any sense of exploration.  I'm purposely not using it just to make this game's navigation half way interesting.  You come to a cool patch of forest, the path is unclear, and you're unsure what's ahead...are you excited or do you hit LB just to make it easier?   The answer depends on whether you're a lazy douche bag that's killing gaming or not. 

The "platforming" requires you to hit the A button at a ledge and thank fucking god for that.  It makes you wonder why they didn't just automate it, since everything else is.  I have yet to find a height that she can't survive from.  I assume she dies when it's obviously too high, but the platforming only puts you high up every once in a while.  Otherwise, failing platforming just means your progress is set back a second.

Tomb Raider just tantalizes with all these promising RPG elements, hints of dangerous survivalist adventure, and beautifully designed set pieces, only to neuter them with brain dead game design that renders everything a challenge-less and meaningless grind. 

They aimed for the largest mainstream demographic and they'll hit it.  This is a game made for reviewers on the big media sites and average bro who might be turned off from the game by the female protagonist, until he sees how much shit she kills.

It'll have its place in my collection and I'll get in the mood to play it at some point, but this is not a good game at all.  It couldn't be more run of the mill.   Tomb Raider: Escape From AAA Island

But yeah fucking awesome game dudes

Respect.

[Stoney Mason]

I would guess I'm about halfway through it right now. I think its a good game so far but not a great game meaning like goty contender or anything. There are definitely some things I don't like about it but I'll save my overall impressions until I finish it. Still a good enjoyable game though which is always nice.

[Van Cruncheon]

fuck this qte bullshit

[pilonv1]

fuck this qte bullshit

The first hour is fucking intolerable. I don't think there's more than 30 seconds in a row where you get to control Lara. Luckily it improves but god it's annoying.

[G The Resurrected]

Nothing spoilery but I thought this was amazing. I turned on TressFX and it's amazing!




another picture of just the crazy settings of this game. SO MUCH DETAIL!!!

[bork]

Unchartits

[brob]

tits > ted

[Great Rumbler]

fuck this qte bullshit

There are more QTEs in the first ten minutes than in the next four hours.

[demi]

I love love love the font used for all the graphics (the back, the popups for XP, Rewards, etc.) What font is that?

[Great Rumbler]

I love love love the font used for all the graphics (the back, the popups for XP, Rewards, etc.) What font is that?

Seems like it's this one:

http://ufonts.com/fonts/gotham-ultra.html

[demi]

Not that font, the other one. That's used on practically everything in the game.

[Stoney Mason]

Pretty close to the end now. It gets better as it goes on. Certainly a better game than Uncharted 3 was.

[Stoney Mason]

Beat it tonight. It's very good.

I liked it more and more as I played. It probably will be one of the best games I play this year. Which is interesting because its not like it suddenly improved in some innovative way half way through or something. I just started liking it more and realized I was enjoying it a great deal. It's like a very good modern mainstream hollywood gaming game. It's never frustrating. You never get stuck. It paces itself very well. And you feel powerful and want to play it until you beat it. 

As far as my thoughts well it's so influenced by Uncharted that you absolutely have to compare the two because this game couldn't exist without uncharted sort of paving the way. I think the storytelling and characters are better in uncharted and as I think about it, that's really the appeal of uncharted more than anything. You like the characters in Uncharted so you play the game to see what they do and say and what spectacles it throws them in. The story of those games aren't great or original (I actively think the story in Uncharted 3 is fucking awful) but you like the characters so that's what matters. In Tomb Raider that part is just average. It's not bad or anything. It's the typical stuff of any videogame but you don't really care about the characters that much. It's not like I'll buy the next Tomb Raider to see what happens and watch these characters pop up again or anything.


But the part where you actually play the game. I certainly found it a lot more fun than Uncharted 3 and probably uncharted 2 if I'm being honest. The combat is fun and very visceral. You're way overpowered at least on the default difficulty but I think that's the right call for a game like this. There were some annoying combat sequences especially in Uncharted 3 where I thought this fucking sucks. Why is this part so difficult and frustrating in a game like this. I just want to get to the next bit here. And in Tomb Raider that is never an issue. I toyed with the enemies and played around in every combat situation which made it fun instead of frustrating. I would stealth my way for some of it and then when the shit hit the fan I would play around with the weapons. Use bows and shit. Just because I knew I could and because I wanted to have fun and the game lets you have fun.

The platforming is the same style of auto-platforming that Uncharted has but I liked it better here for some reason. Maybe because it was this island environment or something but I felt like I was actually navigating from place to place especially in some of the larger environments on the island. Uncharted never really feels that way. It feels like these very videogame created set pieces. I never get a sense in uncharted that its actually a place. Just some videogame funhouse to connect the set pieces. I just really liked playing the game whereas in Uncharted there are parts where I'd rather watch someone else play it just so I can hear the dialogue and see the crazy shit happen. 

As far as the bad stuff well there is a ton of collect-athon stuff to pursue but at least it never overly forces you to do that stuff. Anything I saw I grabbed but I didn't go out of my way to find any of it except for the Tombs which are fun. There is a lot of combat in the second half of the game so I could see some people being turned off by that although I personally liked it because of the reasons I mentioned. I think the optional tombs should be more integrated into the actual game play because they are fun and I can imagine some people not finding some of them. But overall I really liked it. Generally if I beat a game very quickly it tends to mean I enjoyed myself a lot more than the typical game. 

[cool breeze]

I'm only ~3 hours into it but so far I'm really liking this.

Previews and work of mouth painted it as more Uncharted than it actually is.  A couple minutes ago was the first proper shootout (ending was Lara yelling "YES SHE'S STILL ALIVE!" ) followed by one of the few set piece moments.  Maybe that all picks up as you continue.

[Stoney Mason]

I'm only ~3 hours into it but so far I'm really liking this.

Previews and work of mouth painted it as more Uncharted than it actually is.  A couple minutes ago was the first proper shootout (ending was Lara yelling "YES SHE'S STILL ALIVE!" ) followed by one of the few set piece moments.  Maybe that all picks up as you continue.

The Uncharted bits pick up as you continue to play. Not a big deal or anything and sometimes it puts a little spin on it.

One difference is that uncharted tends to combine its platforming and combat sections especially in uncharted 3. I didn't care for that. Tomb Raider keeps them separate which I prefer. I mean you can maneuver around in combat if you want but it's your choice and its almost never forced on you while you are in the middle of platforming.

[Cerveza mas fina]

How is the PC performance of this?

[Stoney Mason]

It starts off great but it hits some snags when you get into some of the larger areas. There is a shanty town level for instance where it drops down into the 30's. There is also a beach area that is larger that will drop it.

[cool breeze]

All in all I don't care about how this strays from old Tomb Raider games, because as much as I liked those, I like this for different reasons, but it's strange how they barely fit puzzles in this game.  That was one of the core ideas you'd associate with Tomb Raider, or at least I did.

also, I thought that Conan video where he repeatedly dies trying to pass one section was done for laughs.  I died four or five times there, more than anywhere else.  They really wanted you to see that gruesome animation.

[Stoney Mason]

All in all I don't care about how this strays from old Tomb Raider games, because as much as I liked those, I like this for different reasons, but it's strange how they barely fit puzzles in this game.  That was one of the core ideas you'd associate with Tomb Raider, or at least I did.

also, I thought that Conan video where he repeatedly dies trying to pass one section was done for laughs.  I died four or five times there, more than anywhere else.  They really wanted you to see that gruesome animation.

Yeah there are only a few puzzles in the game proper. Most of the puzzles are in the optional tombs.

[fistfulofmetal]

Finished the game. I rather enjoyed it. I think the best compliment toward the game is that there really aren't any bad aspects. The mechanics are tight and responsive. This gives the combat good momentum. It really moves as you dodge around and swap between various weapons. Platforming is just automatic enough to avoid annoyance but requires some adjusting and timing so you do feel like you're doing something.

I felt the pacing of the game is it's strongest aspect. I never felt any part really dragged. Every combat, puzzle, platforming section never overstayed it's welcome.

While it's not perfect, I enjoyed the arc for Lara. I appreciate the attempt though obviously they really can't expand on it going forward since she's completed her arc.

Sooo yeah. Had a lot of fun with it. It successfully does Uncharted with some twists.

[ManaByte]

The balance between exploration and combat is better than Uncharted.

[demi]

Just beat it. Absolutely loved it. Once they fix and build on some of the ideas and focus more on exploration and puzzles, the sequel will be so sick.

[demi]

Multi licks ballsack as expected. Fuck whoever decided to put this in.

Thankfully its easily boosted.

[G The Resurrected]

Multi licks ballsack as expected. Fuck whoever decided to put this in.

Thankfully its easily boosted.

Assistance in numbers please... Multi sucks dick.

[demi]

What?

[demi]

The old references were pretty great and made me pee.

- When collecting all the GPS, you hear the original "secret" sound
- Of course, the dual fuckin pistols

Not sure there were any others... lol

Also it seems to be the leverage for the sequel(s) -- Trinity and that "illuminati" organization from the GPS shards.

[Don Flamenco]

Don is aping GAF posts right, right?

No but his review id eerily similar to rock paper shotguns take.

This? 

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/06/wot-i-think-tomb-raider/#more-144521


we picked out some of the same stuff, sure, but I don't agree that the core gameplay is any good.  He's talking about how much control it takes from you, even pointing out how she does so much for herself in combat and movement (while being aided by generous chick tank top armor.)   So, he's a fan of just the "pointing the right stick" part of shooting, I guess.   Moving a reticule over a dude and hitting RT is satisfying gameplay even when nothing is there to back it up, now.   I piss in his plebeian cup.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Tressfx is kinda weird. The tech is really cool, but hair looks like it has no weight so it just flails around wildly.

[ManaByte]

The old references were pretty great and made me pee.

- When collecting all the GPS, you hear the original "secret" sound
- Of course, the dual fuckin pistols

Not sure there were any others... lol

Also it seems to be the leverage for the sequel(s) -- Trinity and that "illuminati" organization from the GPS shards.

Yea the dual pistols was fuck awesome.

[Huff]

Multi licks ballsack as expected. Fuck whoever decided to put this in.

Thankfully its easily boosted.

I think it was done by one of the eidos canada teams

[Joe Molotov]

Beat the game, got all the collectables, didn't do all the challenges because they were . I give it 10 HOLLYWOOD GAMING 's out of 10. This game made my balls drop.

[Cerveza mas fina]

How long till its half price on Steam :_(

[Joe Molotov]

Probably will be 50% off by the Summer Sale. Squeenix games tend to drop fast.

[Stoney Mason]

Instead of sticking in a mp nobody wants to play they should replace it with a guardian of light style co-op adventure.

[demi]

I would have been satisfied with a Horde. The combat is pretty fun. The game was unfortunately really easy on Hard mode.

[cool breeze]

I like that you only have four weapons and each has a clear purpose.  Feels very old fashioned.

That said, I almost exclusively use the bow.

[Stoney Mason]

I like that you only have four weapons and each has a clear purpose.  Feels very old fashioned.

That said, I almost exclusively use the bow.

Yep. I liked that also. And the pace at which they dole out the upgrades for them is good too. Game just felt like a very polished experience.

I also really liked the auto cover system. It gave you the benefits of cover without feeling locked down like how uncharted and gears feel.

[Human Snorenado]