June 18, 2015

Tomb Raider E3 2015 Roundup

This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo has come to a close. Rise of the Tomb Raider and Lara Croft GO both received some nice press coverage, including several best-of-show awards for Rise.

Here are links to videos of various live presentations and developer interviews, plus reports from a few of the Tomb Raider E3 community ambassadors, so those of us who weren't able to attend can stay in the loop.

RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER LARA CROFT GO LARA CROFT RELIC RUN E3 COMMUNITY AMBASSADORS UPDATE 7/30/15: E3 Ambassadors Share Rise of the Tomb Raider Interviews and Impressions

I'd love to hear what you think about the upcoming games, the franchise's showing at E3, or whatever's on your mind Tomb Raider-wise. Please leave a comment below or get in touch by email or social media.

Rise of the Tomb Raider - Find light in darkness

16 comments:

  1. Great stuff here Stella, thanks.
    Looks like Lara will be doing some actual tomb raiding, at least there's a hint of that anyway.
    I'll stick my neck out and predict a March 2016 release for PC lol.

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    1. It seems most of the really epic puzzles will be in the optional challenge tombs, but at least that's something. I understand their not wanting to deter casual players from moving forward, but I wish they'd put more puzzles front and center rather than emphasizing the combat so much. Just my 2 cents of course. Clearly I'm not part of whatever focus groups they've been using. ;)

      I'm still fuming about the exclusive, but I hope it's not more than a few months before PS4 and PC releases.

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    2. I am with you about the leaning towards more combat/shooter. Contrary to game makers misguided bent, everyone is not a shooter gamer. Tomb Raider is the only game I have encountered in the last 4_5 years to tempt me from Skyrim

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    3. I am with you about the leaning towards more combat/shooter. Contrary to game makers misguided bent, everyone is not a shooter gamer. Tomb Raider is the only game I have encountered in the last 4_5 years to tempt me from Skyrim

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  2. I'm very excited for Lara Croft Go! About Rise of the Tomb Raider, I had very big fears, because I hated Tomb Raider 2013 and also got extremely disappointed with Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. I was fearing that Crystal Dynamics has absolutely lost it. But now, after all I've seen and heard, I have faith that Rise of the Tomb Raider can turn out awesome! I can't say I'm satisfied with the gameplay demo. At it's core, all we got to see in the demo was some cinematics with quick-time events and a little bit of walking on narrow paths. Very disappointing demo! But the trailer was great and judging by the developer interviews, it seams like the game definitely has potential to reach the awesomeness of the franchise's glorious past again. I hope the best from the bottom of my heart! It's just too bad I will have to wait much longer until it comes to PC. :( But at least, until then, I got the extremely awesome Tomb Raider custom levels to play! :)

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    1. Me too! Lara Croft GO looks really great! I'm also trying to remain optimistic about Rise. I was disappointed in TR 2013 as well, and as I mentioned in my comment to Marc above, I still haven't quite gotten over the Xbox exclusive business, but each time I see new info about Rise, it seems to suggest the devs are paying attention to the fans and trying to incorporate more of the aspects we enjoy. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

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    2. Thank you for your reply, Stella! Yeah, the exclusivity really hurts. Let's hope Crystal Dynamics will never do that again. At these dark times, staying optimistic is all we can do. :P

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    3. Have you seen the Siberian Wilderness demo yet? It shows off the new crafting system, combat, and a bit of storyline, and is much better than the Avlance demo.

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    4. Oops, I meant Avalanche.

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    5. Really?! No! Where can I find it?!

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    6. It's on a bunch of different YouTube channels, including the official TR one and mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYoexwI7I4A

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    7. Thank you for the link. It was far from what I hoped to see, but I'll try to stay optimistic, mainly because the trailer shows some potential. I will wait for the next time we'll get to see a demo of the game. Hopefully, we will see some interesting exploration areas with good use of vertical space, isolated from enemies, with thoughtful puzzles and environmental challenges.

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  3. I'd put money on an earlier than expected PC and PS4 release when MS and CD quickly realise that their cunning plan for an Xbox exclusive didn't work out as expected.
    You don't have to be a genius to do the maths, especially when TR 2013 sold a million copies in 48 hours across all main platforms, which, a year later had reached 6 million copies.
    Not wishing to go all schadenfreude here, but do they really expect that level of Xbox One sales at launch?

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    1. Let's hope so. I suspect the duration of the exclusive was built into the original contract, but maybe not. And I can't imagine what they were thinking to get into that deal in the first place. It still makes my head spin. :(

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    2. Well, not only did it give Crystal Dynamics a lot of money to develop the game, it also gave them loads of publicity. Think about it - Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the star games that Microsoft shoed off at E3. If you have a look at the Xbox website, Rise is heavily featured. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix would have had none of that if Rise wasn't an exclusive.
      That being said, the exclusivity deal can't last too long, or Tomb Raider will come crashing down. I'd say anywhere from two to six months is an accurate estimate of when Rise will come to other platforms.

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  4. Stella, they weren't thinking ... they went for the cash grab! Avarice rarely serves anyone well. JM

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