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Eidos to redesign Lara Croft
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 12th January 2009
Eidos has responded to disappointing sales by promising to redesign Lara's character somehow.
Speaking to The Times, Eidos CFO Robert Brent admitted that sales for Tomb Raider: Underworld had been below expectations and that the company was now looking at redesigning the Tomb Raider franchise.
“We need to look at everything, as we develop the next game," Brent said. "Look at how Batman changed succesfully, from the rather sad character of the Michael Keaton era to the noir style of The Dark Knight.”
Existing fans however might be a little disappointed if this redesign interferes with the current approach of the game as handled by Crystal Dynamics - and while the game may have undersold in Eidos' eye, Underworld still shipped a good two million copies.
Crystal Dynamics were handed the development responsibilities for Lara a few years ago, turning out the brief but well-receivedTomb Raider: Legend as a first effort. Since then Crystal has gone on to remake the first game, Anniversary, and finish the story it started with Legend in Underworld.
The question is then, is another redesign entirely what Lara needs as the character has already moved from buxom stereotype to driven archaeologist in recent memory courtesy of Crystal Dynamics? Is Eidos going to force us to sit through another Angel of Darkness-style failure?
For our part, we think it's perhaps time that Lara took a long deserved rest before bursting back on to computer screens and TVs with a radical new facelift - but if the reason you didn't buy Underworld is because you couldn't stand the current fact of the series then let us know in the forums.
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What else do Eidos make nowadays?
By that argument Lara should become a man, ripped with muscles wearing almost nothing while still remembering her birthday...
problem is the game is bad
anyone else find it amusing to see what excuses games companies come up with to explain away the fact that their **** game didnt sell well? :D
Another radical redesign isn't going to help the series. Just let Crystal Dynamics do their job. Give them more time to put out a slightly longer game and work out the kinks (e.g. the bad camera).
And to those who say the game is what needs a redesign not the character because the game is bad, I couldn't disagree more with you. Especially with the new ones where the controls are very easy now, Tomb Raider games are fantastic adventure/exploring games imo - if you love Uncharted for example, then you should at least like this.
BUT, the main problem lies with the character. She is far too unappealing for the people who would typically want to play this type of game, her back story is lame, and she tries to be taken seriously but fails at it. And therefore I think that a redesign of Lara Craft is overdue, but I just hope they do it right.
Too much choice and too small a wallet or time to play them all.
I'd welcome a fresh look at the game from the team but hope it doesn't result in a bog standard by the numbers release to please the uncaring general public.
You beat me to it.
I vote change it by making Lara a man
Oh, I don't know. That didn't work so well for Contract J.A.C.K.
How about more cowbell?
I liked the first Tomb Raider way back when on the original Playstation, and the second one was good too, but when the franchise became more about tits and ass than gameplay, I drifted off and found something more interesting to do.
If I want T&A, I'll DL a porn film thanks, at least they are real women I'm looking at.
That's not to say I don't like sexy or adult themed games/characters, I am male after all ;), but when it becomes the thing they use to sell something rather than an actual enjoyable gaming experience (Anyone remember Lula: The sexy empire? Or whatever it was called.), then I look for something else.
one ledge jump in the gods cave arrrrrgg- and I think I'm pretty good but that was ridiculous =] re-design, I'd say a bazooka wielding blond with metal armor.. I mean laura gets dirty in this game if you look at her skin after a tussle.. but swimming in a bikini under the artic is pushing it (yes that did happen in underworld) =]
http://images.bit-tech.net/news_images/2008/08/new-lara-croft-unveiled/sa.jpg
Anyway, as said before, her mansion has been burned down in Underworld, so there won't really be much going back on the redesign.
I've not picked up Underworld yet because by all acounts its still not very long and not as good as legends (I for one, really enjoyed the cross-talk from the team and felt it added a lot to the game and was said to hear it had gone in the sequel) I probably will still pick it up, but not till I see it at a decent price, considering.
Currently Lara has as much flavour as an Ice Cube movie, and it's upsetting to think that a character as well known as Lara is being shamelessly flogged for sales based on the size of her tits.
Oh, and for the love of god, take it away from Crystal Dynamics. And shoot them.
What direction the games should take is difficult to predict. Since the gfx-engine allready works great they can focus on building levels and improving gameplay. I just hope they start spending more time on each game, and release fewer, but more focused genre-games :)
The most memorable game-moments for me was in Tomb Raider III, when i first met the velociraptors, and climbing on rooftops in Hong Kong or wherever was also great.
I've always known the character as Lara. I'd say improve awareness of her name, for one.
And then give her a mahoosive pair of bazongas and have a scene where she's having a shower after she's come back really mucky after adventurin' an' that and gets all in a lather. But all you can see is a silhouette, which you could have fun with, like some humour from the tent scene in Austin Powers.
Does anyone remember carla in Captain Kremin ? she could end up the same way LOL
When I play Uncharted I want it a bit more like Tombraider. :?
I do enjoy both though.
I reckon there's a top notch game that could be had with a fusion of the two. The gun play to break up the platform adventuring wasn't that hot in TR neither was melee combat, the platform adventuring and puzzle side wasn't that great on Uncharted but gunplay, story/presentation was superior to TR.
There were some terrible collision detection issues on TR too some places where I'd jump to a pole and end up standing in mid air after the engine clipped me to the air as well as some camera issue, I don't recall such problems in Uncharted, Crystal Dynamics still have work to do on its engine which on PC didn't seem greatly improved over Legend, no what you expect 2 years on, I would of thought there would have been more progression.