Tomb Raider (Series)

[Kyng]

The only game in this series that I've ever played is The Last Revelation. It was one of a number of games that I inherited, when one of my cousins moved to Canada, and he gave me his Dreamcast and his collection of games (which he couldn't take with him).

I quite enjoyed it - although, I don't think I got anywhere close to completing it .

[Moonface]

TLR is the only game I've not completed as well as Angel of Darkness. Latter was just constantly soft locking me in progressing, and the former was just dull compared to the games before it.

[Pinky]

TLR had way too many puzzles but still enjoyed it.

[Moonface]

TLR had way too many puzzles but still enjoyed it.

That and a huge lack of direction I think. A lot of levels involved traveling between areas which made it hard to tell what direction you were meant to be going in.

[Moonface]

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Announced
The original Tomb Raider trilogy is returning with remastered visuals and all of the level expansions in 2024! You'll be able to switch freely between the original polygonal visuals and the new remastered ones.



Tomb Raider I-III Remastered will be released on February 14, 2024.

[Moonface]

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered | New Details
Since its announcement last September, there hasn't been anything shared about what the remasters of Tomb Raider's I-III will entail besides new visuals. With less than a month to go until release though, new details have finally been shared, including a breakdown of what the new control scheme will be like, which has been a point of interest considering the original games were built with tank controls and a grid based level design in mind.

• Toggleable Visuals - Players will be able to swap between the old and new graphical style at any time. It is unknown if this is a menu option or if it'll be a live toggle such as that seen in Halo Anniversary.
  
• Original Source Code - The games use the original source code and engine, ensuring that it feels exactly as if you were playing the original games.
  
• Modern Control Option - The Modern Control option is inspired by the Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld era of Tomb Raider. These changes are felt mostly in the way Lara moves – the right stick has full camera control and Lara moves directionally based on camera position.
  
• QoL Options - Whether you choose the Classic or Modern control scheme, there are also other QoL options which include the following: Walk to Action, Action Indicators, Vibration, Dead Zone, Sensitivity, and Horizontal/Vertical Inversion.
  
• Boss Health Bars - In the original games, you never knew how close a boss was to dying, which could make it tough to know whether it would be a waste or not to use one of your weapons that have limited ammunition. The remasters will feature a health bar for all boss fights, and whether this is optional was not disclosed.
  
• 3D Items Replace Sprites - While the inventory menu used full 3D models for all pickups and collectibles, their in-game versions were all 2D sprites. These have all been changed to 3D models for better consistency.
  
• Over 200 Trophies - With three games, there's a lot of potential for trophies/achievements, and so there will be a total of more than 200 available. Yes, one of them does involve locking the butler in the freezer.
  
• Photo Mode - The environments of the original Tomb Raider trilogy were full of incredible vistas and scenic views packed with edge of your seat platforming and thrilling action. You can now capture any of this in all new ways with the new Photo Mode, which allows you to pose Lara, choose her outfit, freeze gameplay, toggle between classic and modern graphics, and showcase these environments.
  
• Baked and real-time lighting effects – These changes add to the immersion and mood of the environment.
  
• New model for Lara Croft – Her original outfits are stunning. Her silhouette—iconic. Need I say more?
  

There are multiple screenshots and comparison visuals alongside all this information, which is best seen by just going to the PlayStation Blog post that originally shared all these new details.

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Dang they really outdid themselves with this! I would have liked to see the modern controls in action just to see how it actually works because even though I have played the LAU trilogy I still can't fully picture how the new control scheme works in practice. I'll give it a try when I get these games though to see how it feels, probably in Lara's Mansion, and see whether or not I want to stick to the original controls or not.
I also love how her new model looks! I hope these remasters sell well so we get more games in the old style of Tomb Raider or at least with the older character of Lara Croft instead of that intolerable new version of Lara Croft that was in the Survivor trilogy. Give me back the take-no-shit badass that Lara Croft was instead of a girl with daddy issues and zero confidence.

[Moonface]

Tomb Raider IV - VI Remastered Announced
Continue the adventures of Lara Croft when Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider V: Chronicles, and Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness return in a new remastered collection.



Tomb Raider IV - VI Remastered will be released February 14, 2025.

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Not surprised to see another remaster following the success of the previous one, but I am a little surprised to see AoD included. Folks had been wondering if it would be part of a follow-up remaster to the OG trilogy because while it carries on the story of IV and V, it's notoriously a broken mess of a game that needs way more work done to it than just a visual upgrade. 

No word currently on what exactly is going to be done about AoD's state from the developers, but I'm very curious to see how that game gets tackled. It's already going to require more work than the other two games in this trilogy because it doesn't use the same engine or visual style at all, unless the developers are going to be using the fan project for AoD that has been fixing that game up a lot already.

[Maniakkid25]

Ha, you think they are gonna do anything to fix that game? That's cute. Yeah, no, that's exactly what Bioware promised with the Mass Effect Legendary Edition: they'd redo Pinnacle Station (even though they LOST THE SOURCE CODE). And you know what they did? FUCK ALL, THAT'S WHAT! Legendary Edition is still Pinnacle-less, and I'm still pissed at the former friend for trying to argue with me that they were going to actually do it! The only thing I wish I could do is rub it in his face one last time, the self-righteous fuck!

...What were we talking about again? Right, AoD. Yeah, I'd be shocked if they actually did pick up the fan patch for the game, but it technically wouldn't be the first time. That honor would go to Ubisoft for stealing the pirated No-CD crack for their own game. No, this will never not be funny.

[Moonface]

Ha, you think they are gonna do anything to fix that game? That's cute. Yeah, no, that's exactly what Bioware promised with the Mass Effect Legendary Edition: they'd redo Pinnacle Station (even though they LOST THE SOURCE CODE). And you know what they did? FUCK ALL, THAT'S WHAT! Legendary Edition is still Pinnacle-less, and I'm still pissed at the former friend for trying to argue with me that they were going to actually do it! The only thing I wish I could do is rub it in his face one last time, the self-righteous fuck!

...What were we talking about again? Right, AoD. Yeah, I'd be shocked if they actually did pick up the fan patch for the game, but it technically wouldn't be the first time. That honor would go to Ubisoft for stealing the pirated No-CD crack for their own game. No, this will never not be funny.

I'd believe that Asper the developer would do it because that team is made up of people who were remastering the OG trilogy as a fan project and were hired on to do the official remaster, thus I'd expect they would want to rework AoD to address issues it has. However, I wouldn't expect their publisher to want to spend time and money on them doing that and just have it slapped with a new coat of paint and shipped out the door, which is fine for everyone who knows what AoD is like going into it and expecting nothing to be fixed, but for newcomers it could be as damaging to their perception of Tomb Raider as AoD was to fans back when it originally released.

The Ubisoft thing has me conflicted. I don't know if it's fair to use the word "stealing" when the source they obtained the fix from was using a stolen copy of their game in the first place. Usually I'd want the person who created the fix to get credit but at the same time the only reason someone made that fix was because of wanting a pirated version of the game that doesn't need a disc.

[Maniakkid25]

The reason I call it "stealing" is because they didn't even TRY to hide it. If you read the article, people found out by checking the code and finding the ASCII tag made by the developer of the crack. They didn't even edit that out; they just slapped their game with it, said "we fixed it", and released it on digital storefronts as-is! It's actually impressive how terrible they were at their own job.

[Moonface]

The reason I call it "stealing" is because they didn't even TRY to hide it. If you read the article, people found out by checking the code and finding the ASCII tag made by the developer of the crack. They didn't even edit that out; they just slapped their game with it, said "we fixed it", and released it on digital storefronts as-is! It's actually impressive how terrible they were at their own job.

The article says nothing about the code taken containing an ASCII tag or other identifying content, so I figured the only way it got noticed was just the codes matching 1:1 which I wouldn't expect Ubisoft to edit.

[Maniakkid25]

Ah, I picked a bad article, then. Here's another one with that information in it. It's very funny.

But yeah, point is that if they do do anything to AoD, I think they'd probably end up stealing that fan patch and calling it a day. I truly doubt anyone would spend any time or money trying to actually reprogram the game into a state that was meant to be played.