220°

Tomb Raider Needs to Reinvent Itself for Next Generation

The rebooted Tomb Raider series seems to be on a hiatus since its underwhelming 2018 installment, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Since gamers likely won't be seeing another Tomb Raider until the next generation of consoles, here are some suggestions for how Crystal Dynamics can reinvent the franchise.

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cogconnected.com
UltraNova1859d ago

TR needs a long break, then a full re-invention. That said, I'd bet they are going to be making more of them to take advantage of the 3rd person action-adventure spot left by Uncharted.

solideagle1858d ago (Edited 1858d ago )

I don't understand why? Tomb raider sales are great I think

Tomb Raider (2013): 11 million ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
Rise of TR (2015): 7 million ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
Shadow of TR (2019): 4 million ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

I think the above numbers are great. Many Games cannot even reach these sales in their lifetime

bouzebbal1858d ago

Shadow was a great game.. I think they need to work more on the characters depth.. I think her sidekicks are shallow and useless..

SyntheticForm1858d ago (Edited 1858d ago )

@bouze

And her sidekicks are usually annoying stereotypes. The big boy (yet surprisingly not too thirsty) Jonah. The admiring friend, yet confidence lacking Sam. The wise, middle-aged, father-figure-y Roth.

I wish she'd go on an adventure by herself for a change. Just a lonely, dark, gritty, harrowing adventure that pushes her beyond even 'her' current limits.

This includes canning the Trinity/Shoreline type organized bad guys - get the hell rid of those please.

scofios1858d ago

Bouzebbal

I agree with you , but i think she needs also some charismatic enemys,those are always forgettable characters.

UltraNova1858d ago

Solid,

The massive drop in sales from sequel to sequel should be clear as to why this series arc/reboot is done.

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SyntheticForm1858d ago

Agreed.

I'd love a re-invention at this point.

I didn't even like the systems in Shadow; I thought they were largely pointless and just included for the illusion of depth. The perception plants and all that stuff I just didn't think were necessary. Maybe on the hardest difficulty, I don't know.

The status quo is just getting dry and it's time for a revamp à la God of War.

UltraNova1858d ago

I've tried pushing my self to play Shadow but I stopped 3-4 hrs in; I rarely give up on games I purchase but this one felt...meh. I'll finish it at some point but now Doom Eternal and Warzone is all I can squeeze in my free time.

-Foxtrot1858d ago

Just stop this new rebooted timeline

Remake the original PS1 games like what Activision did for Crash Bandicoot

Then do a new game in the original timeline

KTF261858d ago

They already remade the 1st one and it is the worst selling in the series
in fact the total number of sales of the 1st game (7 million) + Anniversary (1.3 million) is far less than the Tomb Raider 2013 (11 million)

SyntheticForm1858d ago

It isn't you, it's just the game isn't all that great. I could easily see putting it down and not being excited enough to get back in.

Also, to anyone reading, when I said like God of War I didn't mean to the letter; I wasn't suggesting we do a single over-the-shoulder camera shot of Lara and all the rest of it. But God of War has now become synonymous with solid re-invention for me, so I use it as an example because it was so well done.

I'd like to see a much more violent, quiet, personal, and visceral Tomb Raider game where Lara just gets taken through the mill in almost every way someone could. No more Indiana Jones kiddie stuff. That idea combined with next-gen tools sounds great to me.

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SegaGamer1858d ago

Maybe it's just run it's course. Not every game series needs to keep going forever.

RosweeSon1858d ago

Agreed but tomb raider is a good/great series I’d rather this continue than some of the yearly dribble we get each and every year.

jaymacx1858d ago

I’m usually excited to see a new TR released. They just need better support characters. As long as they keep the quality high, they can keep these games coming. I know it may never happen but it would be nice to get a crossover game with Lara & Drake teaming up for a treasure hunt.

L7CHAPEL1858d ago

I don't think that's so much, yet I think they tried doing the same thing three times in a row, and the third time was with a different developer that (as I stated above) just didn't have a feel for what they were doing. they took all of the same core elements/ mechanics everything else, but it just doesn't have a cohesive center to it.
there's no real feeling to the game, you(at least I) don't feel like you're on an adventure, it just doesn't have that to it.
it's not at all engaging...

Xb1ps41858d ago

I’d rather see uncharted go before tomb raider... just my opinion..

Destiny10801858d ago (Edited 1858d ago )

just make it so her journey starts and ends on a boat

going from area to area along the river fighting rapids diving for treasure/Caves, fighting crocodiles/piranha, repairing your boat hunting/fishing/hostile tribes/falling rocks/boat chases/Tank Battles and some Sweeping Plane Action and some under water vehicle action and a balloon Ride and a giant octopus, add in some skiing and parachuting and replace her guns with uzis

L7CHAPEL1858d ago

in the third game I'm finding the tombs to be boring.
there's no real feeling of accomplishment or payout for it.

-Foxtrot1858d ago

Because they didn’t put in any effort into them

The tombs are there for show, so they can say “we have tombs, like the old TR games, see guys we’re listening”

But it’s shallow

Father__Merrin1858d ago

quite enjoyed the trilogy reboot but it needs to go back to mostly exploration and tomb raiding etc.

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80°

New Proton Experimental Update Fixes Low FPS For Final Fantasy 16 and More

Proton Experimental got a new update yesterday that improves Final Fantasy 16, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and more.

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steamdeckhq.com
Lexreborn2253d ago

So much hassle people had for FF16 performance on PS5 to hit PC and still be barely playable. FF16 is hitting the crysis “can it run it” for PCs.

And now I’m genuinely wondering is it because the devs failed to properly design the game or is it because it is over ambitious.

Hofstaderman253d ago (Edited 253d ago )

Too many variances in the PC ecosystem. They can attempt to optimize to a point but ultimately, as it is in most cases, individuals will have to tweak settings to get their rig to run the game at its subjective best. Me personally, I enjoy a no fuss console experience but must admit I'm getting into the simplistic steam deck tweaks.

Michiel1989253d ago

that's just nonsense, square is just bad at ports and have been for years. Japanese ports were notorious for it a good while, but it has gotten better but still nothing to write home about. Take FF7R pt1 for example, at launch on pc there were frequent random fps drops for no reason and a guy, a single guy got a patch out within 2 days that fixed it, if that doesn't say enough about their incompetency with pc ports then idk.

DustMan253d ago

I don't know how people are getting such poor performance. It ran well for me +60fps at 1440p dlss balanced, all high settings. I'm on a i7-8700, 32gb ram, and 3080, so a pretty old setup. I get very few stutters, and it's buttery smooth if i cut the shadows down to medium settings. cut scenes have been modded to run at 60fps.

It's sitting at "mostly positive reviews' on steam. With most of the complaints coming from those with said poor performance. By absolutely no means is this a perfect / great port, but it's not god awful. Seems like it's a hardware issue on the customers end, and issues with the port itself.

Inverno253d ago

This is talking about proton tho. It's expected for games to run poorly because they aren't natively running on Linux. I will agree however that Square has a history of putting out horribly running games on PC.

Hofstaderman253d ago

The game was optimized specifically for the PS5 and even so it makes that console creak....wonder how the Pro will handle it....

883253d ago

Hoping very much that it gets some "Pro Enhanced" attention.

100°

Shadow of the Tomb Raider turns six years old and remains an underrated treasure

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is worth revisiting as it turns six years old just before the launch of the upcoming Netflix anime series.

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videogamer.com
isarai277d ago

Underrated? If anything, the game is overrated in my opinion

TricksterArrow276d ago (Edited 276d ago )

Yeah. The "open hub" model with "quest givers" really did not work at all for me.

Gamehard276d ago

Agree. To me, it was the weakest of the reboot trilogy.

CrimsonWing69276d ago

I literally came in here to say this. It started off so good, too. Once you hit Peru or wherever, you smash into a brick wall with the pacing. Honestly, the first entry in the reboot was the best one of this trilogy. Also, I’ll never understand why they let you dual wield her classic pistols in the first reboot at the very end and then in the sequels they never gave you that again.

isarai276d ago

Even more insulting. They let you buy one of the two pistols in Shadow of the tomb raider but never the second one

SeTTriP276d ago

Or her command prompt acrobatics.

Lexreborn2276d ago

The first was cool, it had its flaws but it wasn’t a bad starter. The second was supposed to be something special and just did not live up to the promises. The 3rd I can’t even finish it’s just not fun and narratively still a huge issue for the character.

Laura is written so contradictory, trinity supposedly is so bad but her body count on innocence and villains alike is alarming.

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MeatyUrologist276d ago

It had its high points. Visuals are still some of the best I have ever seen. The areas were also gorgeous and fun to explore and the puzzles were actually good. That being siad the combat felt terrible, the hub area of paititi was boring, and nearly every aspect of the game felt a step backward from Rise. I still love the series and really forward to the next entry but hoping they make it mode similar to rise or even the original reboot.

MasterChief3624276d ago

I adored Rise of the Tomb Raider, but for some reason I had a harder time getting into Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Ravenkiss276d ago

Shadow of the Tomb Raider was a huge letdown compared to the series Reboot and Rise of the Tomb Raider...

mastershredder276d ago

You mean the game where they took out all the cool weapons? The locations were okay, a bit unoriginal and too much like the first Uncharted. 1 and 2 rocked. This one tried.

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230°

Amazon Prime members can get over 40 Steam Deck-compatible games for free right now

42 Steam Deck-compatible games that you can get for free right now, but you'll need an active Amazon Prime subscription for most of them.

Inverno276d ago

I've noticed when I was still paying for Prime that those supposed free games they give through Epic are just free games epic gives without the need of Prime. Rugrats is in the list in the article and it's available to get without Prime so that's pretty shady on Amazon's part, or maybe it's Epic being scummy.

TheNamelessOne276d ago

Tales from the Borderlands (the original, good one), Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Borderlands the pre-sequel, Borderlands 2, Loop Hero, Trek to Yomi, Greedfall, Shadow of Mordor, Hard West 2, Figment 2. Some great gets there.

__y2jb276d ago

Amazon never give steam codes away so the steam deck link here is silly unless you are modding and installing epic launcher.

Kyizen276d ago

Yeah I get a ton of free games on epic, It works but having to launch the Epic browser and games though it is pain vs just using the Steam deck OS. Once the game is running no issue though,

FinalFantasyFanatic276d ago

They give away quite a few GOG versions of games though, I suppose you can just slap those onto your Steam Deck (I've done this), although it's not always ideal.

__y2jb275d ago (Edited 275d ago )

You can but it’s a pain to launch them and doesn’t it require installing windows?

FinalFantasyFanatic274d ago

You don't need windows, personally, I just download it on PC, then transfer it to the Steamdeck via network sharing or USB stick. Then you add it to the Steamdeck as a "non-steam game" like you would if you were using a PC. The only downside is if you play the game on both PC and Steamdeck, you'll have to manually transfer save files.

Supposedly you can use Hero launcher or something, but I can't seem to get the games to work after download it via GOG on Steamdeck. So manually transfer it is for me.