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[Aquamarine]

If Square Enix had offered me a bribe in exchange for a positive review, I would be so happy right now, because my career would be made. There'd be way more long-term value in blowing the whistle on that than actually taking the fabled cash.

As it stands, nothing to blow the whistle on so far.

Liked your review the most, Jim. Great job.

 

[KingKong]

Yeah of course they paid 50+ magazines and websites from a different number of countries must be it how cant we see it!!! Same thing happened to Ocarina of Time 15 years ago and every company had an allience to pay gaming websites to give Resident Evil 6 a low score!!!

They don't have to be paid off when they've been conditioned to give any decent game 8+. You can't possibly read the Eurogamer review and think it deserves the 8 they gave it.

 

[Salaadin]

Just saw. The CAGROCKS promotional credit is still in effect. 33 bucks on PC in Amazon. Steam activated. Not bad...

Holy crap. Thanks so much.

 

[Ran rp]

All hail Lara. Haters can suck the muzzle. Aw yeah!

That seems, unnecessarily brutal. I've never really played Tomb Raider before but, is Lara supposed to be a cold-blooded killer?

 

[G-Fex]

I was ready to say I don't buy into these but , what I read seems to fit with what I've seen earlier.

Though that's not to say that some of these reviews are just hideous.

 

[Sephzilla]

Suggesting it is one thing. The guilty until proven innocent attitude is another.

Especially when you can't point to a single documented instance of money being exchanged for a review.

I guess I should clarify and say that I don't share this mentality, but I'm not going to frown upon people who do.

 

[CTLance]

So, it looks like it's a decent by-the-numbers shootbang game, but certainly nowhere near a Tomb Raider game. This, being a reboot, was kind of expected, but it still hurts.

BRB, fondling gog copies of TR1-3 while weeping gently.

 

[VeryGooster]

Kudos, VG247.

:lol damn

 

[Always-honest]

Oeee, i was wrong about this one it seems. I alwasy thought it looked decent, but i never expected it to be that good.
Nice scores!

Any slim chance on a WiiU version?

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Rev3 games video review

Very good review. Nicely balanced and foes a good job of succinctly explaining all the pros and cons.

 

[acm2000]

That seems, unnecessarily brutal. I've never really played Tomb Raider before but, is Lara supposed to be a cold-blooded killer?

kill or be killed, and she has clearly lost control of the weapon in that gif as an inexperienced gun shoterer/people killer

 

[params7]

Did people expect bad reviews? That's relegated for the bottom of the heap like Aliens or for games that don't polish away every bit of eccentricity they may have in order to present the reviewer with a neat and glossy package of familiar conventions. The sad truth is that games like this are made for metacritic, not for fans. But by all means continue to reward mediocrity with sales, preorders, and season passes. If we're lucky every game will offer the exact same experience next gen just with different characters.

Pretty much.

 

[grimshawish]

That seems, unnecessarily brutal. I've never really played Tomb Raider before but, is Lara supposed to be a cold-blooded killer?

She is a bit. Which is why it was silly to start the narrative as they did. Beyond this it sounds good though.

 

[pargonta]

That seems, unnecessarily brutal. I've never really played Tomb Raider before but, is Lara supposed to be a cold-blooded killer?

yes. or at least, think of rambo.

 

[Knux-Future]

I don't get why people who have no interest in a game spend so much time in threads associated with them.

Good to see it is at least a solid game.
Wonder how it will sell. DMC bombed (IIRC) despite good reviews (and being a pretty good game but opinions and all that) so lets see if this backlash is just as strong or not.

I will try to rent this or ask for it for my birthday, lol.

 

[Paul Alexander]

I guess I should clarify and say that I don't share this mentality, but I'm not going to frown upon people who do.

Why not? Lending credence to people making unjustified claims with zero evidence to back it up derails and undermines genuine discourse about the reviews process.

There's genuine ethics issues involved in game reviews but paid off reviewers isn't one of them.

 

[kuroshiki]

and BAM.

Suck it, fundamentalist, haters, and elitists.

 

[Lime]

Never understood the hate. One of the few games that will get my money this year.

If you minded the over-saturation of AAA shootbang games with lots of violence and scripted sequences, simple platforming, superficial puzzles, sexist portrayal, and incompetent writing then you would understand the criticisms.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

You're focusing too much on score, which no one expected would be bad. Reading the content in most of these big reviews and I'm seeing that most of them are either ignoring the gameplay or confirming most of the problems we raised.

^

Kudos, VG247.

I'd like to believe this, as this would at least make the game more tolerable for me than Uncharted.

and BAM.

Suck it, fundamentalist, haters, and elitists.

And then I read shit like this and wonder if I should even bother putting in any effort into giving my impressions for this at all.

 

[dreamfall]

I'm really confused.

I'm hearing Uncharted "platforming" from some, and "precisely timed platforming" here.

Yeah, this is indeed strange. Many reviewers' comments regarding exploration/platforming (while being mostly positive) seem to contradict each other.

 

[toastyToast]

Whoa, Tara Long really dissects the optional Tombs.

She states that tombs feel "incredibly over simplified. They rarely, if ever, extend beyond a single room and even with some of the more involved puzzles, the challenge seems to come more from precisely timed platforming than critical problem solving."

I always like her opinions, and this sounds a little bit disheartening. Still excited about the good press.

I'm confused

Combat remains the dominant component as the game progresses but thankfully, it improves in other areas. The tide of blood and gore subsides and Lara stops shrieking. There are some excellent exploration sections complete with satisfying routes, beautiful vistas and atmospheric tombs. The latter are mostly found by diverging from the main path, and solving the puzzles contained within them is voluntary.

This is a smart idea. Many of the puzzles are as tough as those in the old games, but the option to walk away means there's no risk of getting stuck and frustrated for six hours, like that time in Tomb Raider 3 with the key and the dead monkey. Also every other time in Tomb Raider 3.

That seems, unnecessarily brutal. I've never really played Tomb Raider before but, is Lara supposed to be a cold-blooded killer?

Yes

Yes she is

 

[x-Lundz-x]

Never understood the hate. One of the few games that will get my money this year.

The hate comes from people stuck in the 90's who want outdated game design. I knew this game was going to be amazing the moment the first game play was shown. March 5th can't get here soon enough.

 

[madmackem]

That seems, unnecessarily brutal. I've never really played Tomb Raider before but, is Lara supposed to be a cold-blooded killer?

Yes she is the og nathan killer drake.

 

[OwlyKnees]

Again, I'd like argue the idea that we should put the names of the reviewers along with the web sites when we post reviews/scores. We all should know the difference between "Giant Bomb" giving DmC a 5/5 and Metal Gear Rising a 4/5, and that "Brad from Giant Bomb" gave DmC a 5/5 while "Jeff from Giant Bomb" gave Metal Gear Rising a 4/5.

It is an important distinction.

Anyway, surprisingly high reviews so far. Hooray.

Disagree. I'm more inclined to reviewers such as Edge, who withhold such information. Yes, it's nice to know an individuals taste and if your own matches up, but it should be irrelevant. If a company is operating as a whole, as they should, then there should be no need to distinguish reviewers. Professional reviewers should be objectively critical in their reviews, personal subjective comments have no place and therefore knowing the reviewer makes no difference.

Whether reviewers do such, however, is another matter.

 

[KefkaPalazzo]

I'm getting GTAIV vibes from this one.

Oh Jesus Christ. It's not getting any perfect scores or over the top comments about it's quality.

It seems to be a good game...and if people chooses not to accept that...that's their loss...

 

[Sephzilla]

I'm still going to wait until the game is actually out and hear some word of mouth about the game before actually playing it. Just in case this is another DmC that's clearly not as good as the accolades made it out to be.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

Damn just watched GT's review. They tears the game a new one yet gave it a 8.5 :lol

Fantastic, and you trying to tell me there was not $$$ involved? yeah sure.

 

[FrankT]

The hate comes from people stuck in the 90's who want outdated game design. I knew this game was going to be amazing the moment the first game play was shown. March 5th can't get here soon enough.

It's funny because I was one of those dudes playing the original and loving it in the 90s.

 

[strafer]

GT

http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/7zar52/tomb-raider-review

 

[Soi-Fong]

Holy crap. Thanks so much.

I might just get it... Looks soo good.

 

[sleepykyo]

Just saw. The CAGROCKS promotional credit is still in effect. 33 bucks on PC in Amazon. Steam activated. Not bad...

Alright. I'll bite at 33.74.

 

[XOMTOR]

You're focusing too much on score, which no one expected would be bad. Reading the content in most of these big reviews and I'm seeing that most of them are either ignoring the gameplay or confirming most of the problems we raised.

Agreed, there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the scores and the text of the reviews. Of course, how many will actually read the reviews as opposed to simply focusing on a single number?

Anyway, seems the game is made for Lara Croft fans and fans of other franchises and less so for Tomb Raider fans. Oh well, time to move on I guess. At least I can vote with my wallet and choose to pass on this game.

 

[Sid]

Positive scores! the game did look interesting,will try it out

This is going to be the first game that I'll have to issue a warning to the people in my house before I play.

"Just to clarify, what you're going to be hearing is NOT porn. Just...kind of ignore it if possible"

Just mute the voice over if that's the case.

 

[Leflus]

Not bad, not bad at all. I'll pick it up when it goes on sale.

 

[G-Fex]

Well Tricky and harlquin...I guess.


I GUESS NOTHING, I aint saying jack shit til I review the game myself.

you two can go climb a rock. Wait til I have my say.

 

[Lime]

@Jim Sterling:

When you review a game and the narrative clashes with the gameplay, why don't you dog it for more points? In the case of Tomb Raider you specifically mention the gameplay "more or less undermines the whole narrative about the impact of taking human life.", yet you fail to see it as a severe flaw with the game in terms of coherence? Personally I have a hard time understanding how or why such a flaw can be ignored in assessing the quality of a game emphasizing its narrative and characters within it.

I'm just curious.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

So do I go special edition? I have $40 Amazon credit and that Play Arts figure is nice...

 

[FalsettoVibe]

Glad I preordered. I knew this would be good.

 

[Kammie]

Well that score feels like it was chosen by the editors and not the reviewer. That review was *very* negative and then bam 8.5 out of nowhere.

Seriously.

This review made the game seem like shit to me. The fact they show what they're actually criticizing makes it hold more weight for me than any of these other 9-point written pieces. I've seen what I needed to see, and I don't care for it.

 

[mollipen]

Here's my review over on EGM. Interesting that some people seem to be saying that the first hour is the worst, when I thought the first hour was the most representative to what I had wanted from the game.

I'm confused

The tomb puzzles are extremely simple.

 

[AgentP]

I guess they pulled it off. That is of course unless gamers actually dislike the game (for good reason), like so many big budget hyped releases (*cough*AC3*cough*)

 

[Ran rp]

kill or be killed, and she has clearly lost control of the weapon in that gif as an inexperienced gun shoterer/people killer

Ah, okay that makes sense.

 

[OriginofHysteria]

Any word on campaign length? This will be the deciding factor for either day 1 or day 365 purchase

 

[Andrew.]

GAF GOTY 2013 confirmed.

 

[x-Lundz-x]

It's funny because I was one of those dudes playing the original and loving it in the 90s.

So was I, but those days are long gone. This is a reboot, it shouldn't be the same game we played in 1996 and I am sure as hell glad it's not. They got it right and certainly hope the sales of the game dictate that. Several people I know who are not hardcore people like we are here on GAF are really excited about it and they have been fans just as long as I have.

 

[lucius]

Positive reviews from press are not that surprising after E3 many press said this was game of the show giving it awards, right up there with Halo 4 and The Last of Us. On GAF it didn't get one first place vote so yeah many here were skeptical of the game, but the press always was very positive about it. I plan on getting it next week, if it wins GAF game of the year that would be surprising could easily finish in top 5 with a weak year overall besides a couple titles.

 

[Derrick01]

and BAM.

Suck it, fundamentalist, haters, and elitists.

It's so depressing to constantly see reactions like this just for scores. The sooner this industry can erase them and switch to the RPS, or even the Kotaku model, the sooner we can erase dumb shit like this.

 

[anddo0]

Any word on campaign length? This will be the deciding factor for either day 1 or day 365 purchase

12-15 per Rev3

 

[Bladenic]

Will get this when it's on sale. I have no attachment to the old TR games, just don't feel like spending 60 bucks right now.

 

[jimi_dini]

All hail Lara. Haters can suck the muzzle. Aw yeah!

Are there female enemies as well?