Tomb Raider

No need to avoid pc version I turned off tesselation and it works fine. I haven't noticed any performance issues but I've got 680's in sli and 4.7 ghz i7.

Even if you can't run the hair thing it's no big deal. Hair looks fine without it and it only works on Lara's hair anyway.

The game looks great and plays great with M&K but also has controller support if you want to go that route.

The game does have a lot of cut scenes and QTE's, so if you loathe them this game isn't for you. Plays like a good mix between uncharted, farcry 3 and assassins creed 3.

3 hrs in the story is good and makes you really care about Lara.( at least it made me care). Game opens up after the intro and you can hunt and explore in larger areas. Not skyrim like though much smaller.

Combat is satisfying with bow and stealth but again with QTE's mixed in.

If you like story driven games ala uncharted ( but more open) and can see past the QTE's I say it's worth a purchase.
 
Any concerns I had about the PS3 versions graphics have been completely smashed by the end of my first hour of gameplay - the game is visually stunning, it's truly beautiful work of computer graphical art.

Now those first couple hours are loaded with a lot of cutscene and fiddling around w/ simple QTE's as they set the whole affair in motion, and overall that's fine as that starts to taper off. I still think it's bizarre how the games industry is either completely clueless to how much everyone hates QTEs, or just simply doesnt care and is willing to ram them down our throats because they are easy to design. Nobody fucking likes them, all people do is complain about them, stop it already. Just have straight out gameplay, make the game slow down a little when the boulder comes crashing towards the player, any gamer worth his salt will move out of the way in time. That moaning out of the way, they arent that bad and have not hindered the game to any significant degree. Again, i just find it bizarre, like a restaurant that insists on tossing a fly in every bowl of soup they serve, just because.

Lara is jumping and climbing like old times, and the game's setting is totally awesome. That's what I'm looking for, and so far I'm happy. I like shooting things w/ the bow too, i think it works well and is smooth. Aiming w/ the console stick can be troublesome in a lot of games, but TR seems to have a nice smooth feel to it and I'm hitting home fairly consistently.

I was actually a tiny bit put off by the "rpg elements" inherent in the game, as I am agonizing what points to drop in where as I spec out Lara to be a better 'survivor' or 'hunter'. I cant believe i feel this way, i'm an rpg geek at heart but still - I just dont want it in this game. I sit and agonize about this shit far more than I should while I should be playing the game instead, and I dont want to be doing that in a TR game. I want to be moving forward, taking part in action, exploring stuff, figuring out puzzles, and platforming. Not trying to build Lara one way or another, just not interested in that aspect being present in this style of game.

They also have their little "hint mode" you can use, like Lara's magic binoculars from her other games where it'll light up clues. Not a fan of that, i dont use it, but its there if you do. That's a major part of the game, figuring out how to get things done, I dont know why somone would want to use what's essentially a cheat mode to direct them.
 
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I.hate.checkpoint.saving.
PERIODDDD!!!!!

In a way its good i guess, because it keeps me progressing no matter if I want to be anal or not and do every area perfect. Theres a lot of content here, every area has a ton of hidden stuff, im torn between being completionist and making progress. From what ive read, players can travel back to past areas to clean up, supposedly even after the main campaign is over. So thats good.

There are different paths to solve the same area, which is good, makes it not as linear as past TR games in a way. There's upgrade system for your weapons, as you find materials and loot, you can choose which weapons to upgrade via a primitive crafting system. You also get some RPG elements in the form of character skill upgrades as I was saying earlier, and they have a little flair to the game I guess.

I'm about six hours in, the game is great, but the QTEs suck and i hate them. Not a whole lot else to say about them besides hoping that devs one day just stop using them.
The combat took a lot of getting used to, aiming with a stick has really had me questioning my choice of PS3 over PC. But im getting used to it.

It goes without saying but I'll say it anyway, the game is a technical marvel, it's beautiful look at and play. My wife has been having fun watching me play it, she says it's the best looking video hame she's ever seen, i think its definitely up there for me.
 
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I preorder both Tomb Raider and SimCity and they were both released on same day. Since I had such difficulty with even playing SC, I've been playing some TR instead. According to steam I've played for 9 hours and have been completionist clearing every area I've reached. (Currently at major area after the parachute puzzle).

I'm playing the PC and using XBox controller and am happy with it in this configuration. I've heard some people with NVidia hardware have problems but I don't and it has only crashed twice (during quicktime events no less where the controller was vibrating). All the models including LC looks really good in the game and animation is very fluid and plays well.

I'm playing on hard and combat hasn't really been that hard though I have died a few times in quick time events (sometimes just to see the death animations some of which have been gruesomely cool). Only recently had I started having regular trouble with enemies.

The game is a lot like Uncharted in that its an interactive movie with very smooth animation and transitions in and out of movie sequences. I miss little things like having LC do an acrobatic move when reaching the top of a ridge or even bigger thinks like swimming. I don't miss pushing blocks around though. While there are some open areas with freedom to do side missions, the game is still fairly linear (but not on rails) and I think it has to be to deliver this kind of experience and isn't unlike previous games. You can go back to complete previous areas once so if you lack proper equipment you can complete them.

Overall I think its fun experience though I would like more puzzles and variety and option to use her skills. I'm not done so perhaps that will change but I'm guessing this is a majority of this game. Verdict: Buy if you like TR series or Uncharted. You may want to wait for a sale in July or November if its too pricey but its a decent experience.
 
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Checkpoint saves - ugh. Unfortunately, they are common enough now that they are required. Quite a few younger gamers simply don't think about saving their game progress on their own and they'll rage-quit when they find out they've lost the past four hours because they haven't bothered to do a quick save.

What isn't required is making that the ONLY save system. (Do you hear me Borderlands 2 that makes me use checkpoints even though I'm playing solo!?!?)

My main worry with this game is really Lara's character. She simply seems far too timid in the cutscenes. Then she turns around and suddenly turns into a gruesome killer. Lara is supposed to be smart and acrobatic, getting around obstacles with brains and finesse!
 
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The game checkpoint saves every time you do anything interesting like pick up a hidden cache or get to a campfire so for the completionists its really not that bad. I haven't had any issues with it. I've gotten stuck after picking up a hard to reach item and kill myself accidentally and found that it saved it even though I didn't get back to a campfire.

The game also took a sharp change in difficulty after the point I was above. That is where I can see people rage quit or at least lower the difficulty. I've played on Hard and struggled with some of the encounters and have considered going back to Normal. Its these that long time TR fans would probably hate the most as they are the most FPS like.

I do wish there were more acrobatic clever puzzles and some secret tombs hint at it but usually not that complicated in the end.
 
Joined
Apr 23, 2010
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Checkpoint saves - ugh. Unfortunately, they are common enough now that they are required. Quite a few younger gamers simply don't think about saving their game progress on their own and they'll rage-quit when they find out they've lost the past four hours because they haven't bothered to do a quick save.

What isn't required is making that the ONLY save system. (Do you hear me Borderlands 2 that makes me use checkpoints even though I'm playing solo!?!?)

My main worry with this game is really Lara's character. She simply seems far too timid in the cutscenes. Then she turns around and suddenly turns into a gruesome killer. Lara is supposed to be smart and acrobatic, getting around obstacles with brains and finesse!

I don't have as much a problem with Lara turning in to a killer out of necessity it's the speed in which it happens. I think it would have come off better if they stretched it out longer and showed her having more of an internal struggle with it. Instead she goes from not knowing if she can do it to stabbing people in the head with arrows real quickly. It reminds me of farcry 3 where the main character is a wuss in the beginning but quickly develops a bloodlust.

It also would have been nice if you could use stealth more to avoid killing rather than a means to kill. It would have been more in character for Lara to try and avoid enemies rather than take them out like a ninja. I must admit though despite the kills seeming out of character for Lara they are quite satisfying.
 
How much of the game is combat compared to exploration and puzzles? It sounds like it's more action-oriented compared to the previous games.

So there's no swimming or underwater areas now?
 
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It is much more action oriented than previous games especially in the later stages and Lara cannot play as a pacifist though there are plenty of opportunities for stealth kills.

The puzzles are lacking and not nearly as sophisticated as previous games where you might have to chain 10-15 precision moves together to complete a puzzle but not here. I have not finished but no underwater or swimming yet. There had been a lot of wading though water but its just not the same.

Story is much better and pretty decent all in all but that is going to come down to individual taste for that. Also I've been playing for 19 hours according to steam (though with some idle time) and not done yet as I'm trying to complete all collection tasks. Would be much faster if going for story completion.
 
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