The vehicles are pretty cool and some of the stage layouts are nice, but overall TRII was much better. I think it's about time Lara retired Besides, this third installment has one too many examples of cheap deaths. If you're a fan of Tomb Raider you'll appreciate the size and variety of the levels, and the new additions both to the gameplay and graphics.
Overall, check it out but be on your guard. With the barely contained excitement inspired by the likes of Zelda and Metal Gear Solid this holiday season, it's easy to forget that there are a number of other big games ready for release too.
Most promising in the Christmas rush is young Lara Croft and her third adventure. A notable chart topper every year since the PlayStation was launched, it would be safe to assume that Tomb Raider 3 stands a pretty good chance of being up there at the top for just as tong as Solid Snake and his cigarettesmoking, box-hiding antics.
As we've mentioned before, you'd be forgiven for initially feeling that things were getting out of hand with this particular franchise. After all, all the Tomb Raiders are starting to look the same, right? Well, in this case--no. While the format is the same First the graphics. As we reported in our exclusive feature back in issue , the engine in Tomb 3 has been completely overhauled. Now making use of particle effects for smoke, flames and wispy bits of mist along with some fancy-schmancy colored lighting, the game looks better than ever.
It doesn't end there however, the thing also runs in a higher resolution than before, lending it a sharper, more defined look. Most importantly though, the new team at Core revised the polygon engine to construct everything out of triangles. Now this may not sound like much, but what it means is that much more organic and natural-looking shapes can be made in the environments. Take a look at the screenshots and ysDu'II notice a curvier, somewhat more believable look to the environments.
On the structure front, the new Tomb isn't the linear affair it was before. While the action begins in a single location India , once this is completed you can choose your path through the game. There are 15 levels in all, broken down into five distinct areas. Having completed India, and learned the clues revealed there, you can choose the order you wish to take London, Area 51 in Nevada and the South Pacific Islands, before finishing up in Antarctica for the final showdown.
The order in which you take the central meat of the game will affect the challenge you face in later levels, as each area provides different items and weapons that can be taken on to later stages.
The guts of the gameplay is still your classic Tomb Raider stuff. But, as you'd expect, things have been tweaked and gently fondled to provide a more rewarding experience.
The levels are bigger and more "explorer-friendly" than Tomb 2, and while there are more weapons available and a cool Dual Shock aiming system that utilizes both sticks the game is much less of a combat-fest than Tomb 2.
The vehicles are back too Jots of particle engine-driven water effects. Whether Lara will remain the PlayStation's "number one for Christmas" game girl remains to be seen, but believe us when we say Tomb 3 really is a dramatic improvement over its predecessors. We've had some help from Sony and we're making more efficient use of the PlayStation itself. We wanted to really ramp up all of the ambient stuff so that the levels are more interesting.
We've also gone back and looked at Tomb a again to look at level structure. We've gone more, er We've wanted to try and make the thing less linear. You don't just walk into a room and see one exit; there are going to be multiple routes through levels where each way offers different kinds of challenges. We've basically changed a lot with the game to accommodate the new ideas.
Late last year, when we interviewed the Tomb 2 team for our official Ultimate Guide to Tomb Raider book, they told us that "making Tomb 3 really different is what's most important.
We probably won't have the thing ready until maybe Christmas Did you want to do Tomb 3 this soon? To be honest we didn't. But, to be honest, the reason that we did do it is because there is consumer demand for it. We can take you and show you thousands of letters asking for another game. We originally wanted to wait and do something completely new They're all off doing research and working on new ways of doing things. By bringing in a new team to work on this project, though, we managed to bring in a lot of fresh ideas.
Martin Gibbins, the lead programmer, had been working on Blam! Then he went on to do some research before coming to this.
Chris, the second programmer, is new and he's only been with us for a few months. Everyone came together simply by us sitting down and deciding to do the new game, and then deciding where we were going to take people from. Actually Martin was working on a game for about four months that used a new character, but using the Tomb Raider engine. What game was that? Is it still something we may see? But we decided to hold off on that. We may still produce it, but not for a while.
We'll maybe wait and do it on a new system in the future. Martin had already built a lot of the ideas that are being used in Tomb 3 for this other game, so when we started putting this project together, a lot of the work was already done.
From what was on show at this very early stage of development this additional work to the engine seems more than worthwhile. For starters the game looks far slicker than the previous incarnations. To help explain how different Tomb 3 really is, lead programmer Martin Gibbins and level designer Richard Morton pick up the story. This was originally going to be called 'The Further Adventures of Lara Croft,' but as we progressed through we realized that we'd actually done one hell of a lot to the game with the lighting, and more importantly we developed the triangular floor blocks so we can make more complex polygonal objects.
By the time this all came together the question had to be asked: Why not make it Tomb Raider 3? Now we've got new vehicles, different costumes and lots of cosmetic stuff, but at a fundamental level there's also a completely different level structure. Gibbins elaborates, "To be honest we weren't happy with the way Tomb 2 looked. It was a bit limited, especially with some of the effects that you could do. The lighting was limited to individual floor blocks, so we made the whole thing more dynamic and added colored filters to the lighting at the same time.
The same with Tomb Raider 2. The palette there was restricted by the need to make use of an 8-Bit palette--even when thinking about the lighting--but Tomb 3 is being developed specifically for the PlayStation. The PC version will have a bit colour screen instead of a , so it'll have all the transparency effects - even without a 3D card. Fascinating, but we weren't really listening; we'd just realised that Richard's voice sounds exactly like someone we went to college with.
But since that's irrelevant we won't dwell on it. The Tomb Raider games have always represented great value for money. They're so big, and take so long to play through, it's a fair bet that many punters never get anywhere near the end. So is Tomb Raider Ill going to be as sprawling and massive as the other games?
Richard chuckles. It'll be bigger. At this point, it dawned on us that Richard's mannerisms are very similar to this college friend of ours. Perhaps the two are related. Anyway, the game. Let's nip back to May this year for a moment - back to the E3 trade show in Atlanta.
Because there wasn't a reaction. The overall consensus seemed to be: there's another Tomb Raider game - so what? Instead, most eyes were on Nell McAndrew gracing this issue's cover , the new Creal-life' Lara who was marching around the Eidos stand posing for publicity shots in a tight top and tiny shorts.
Sexually starved losers stood around gawping at her every curve. That's the pathetic reality of male-dominated trade shows: days of noise, lights, and women paraded like cattle; nights of laddism, weak beer, and masturbation back in the hotel room Speak for yourself - Ed. Still, with every developer in the world participating in the willywaving contest, Core can be forgiven for wanting to show off their latest baby.
Privately, they now concede that the game was shown too early, that it would have been more prudent to play their cards closer to their ample chest and reveal nothing -except Nell - at that moment in time. So why the muted public response? Well, as PC sees it, there are three major factors, which we will now discuss in a curt and efficient manner.
Behind a desk. With a suit on. After all the clones and lookalikes, it's hard to recall just how revolutionary the original Tomb Raider was. And it appeared a few months after the much vaunted Mario 64; a few months earlier and it would have seemed even more incredible. Forget the style mag hoo-hah about Lara, Tomb Raider was a success first and foremost because it was a good, solid play.
If it appeared out of the blue today it would still be remarkable. But it hasn't. It's been around for a couple of years. We're blase. We're familiar with the style. Nobody looks at it and goes Wow! Core may disagree, but the major differences between Tomb II and HI are technicalities - tweaks to the gameplay, upgrades to the engine.
There's no major stylistic change, no shocking new departure from the Tomb Raider norm. Because it works, and they'd be idiots to scrap the formula they've got. Sure, a few improvements are welcome, such as the wealth of new vehicles and movements, but any major changes to the gameplay would be as jarring as a light-hearted musical number in the middle of a Bond movie. Fact of life: Core wouldn't turn a profit on a PC version alone. The PC version looks much better, but the PlayStation release will make all the money.
Therefore every level, every animation, every ounce of gameplay must be developed with the PlayStation's comparatively meagre resources in mind. Don't be. So what is new, Richard? Well, the editing system for one. It's the same, but we've added lots of bells and whistles to the previous version. We've added triangles; before, you could only have squares. We've added the ability to manipulate individual points so you can create far more rounded backgrounds.
You can have domes and things like that in there. It may sound like a minor change, but it alters the architecture dramatically. Compared to the third instalment, the first two games look like they were built out of Lego. And there are other visual tweaks too. We can have coloured lights now, which adds a bit more realism. Just something simple, like an orange tinge, can add a lot of atmosphere.
And we've got proper explosions, proper smoke. The water's actually transparent now, too. Again, on paper these changes sound about as arresting as a 12,word thesis on the socio-economic structure of Holland. In practice, however, they're welcome additions.
By now Richard is demonstrating a level onscreen. This is the South Pacific, he says, guiding Lara through a gathering of small, straw-roofed huts, stopping before an almighty, ornate wooden gate. It's like King Kong, except there's something else behind the door -it's a dinosaur-infested island. The dinosaurs in Tomb I and II were popular, so we wanted to base a whole level around them.
And these dinos are cleverer than before: The enemy Al has been totally overhauled. They'll sneak around you. The T-Rex, for instance, is going to behave more like the one in Jurassic Park - if you stand still, he can't see you; light a flare and throw it and he'll chase after that. As ever, Lara Croft is supple. Very supple.
She could tie her thighs into a pretzel shape while balancing on her chin if she wanted. So what can she do this time round? There's quite a few new moves. She can jump up and grab hold of things in a way she couldn't before.
In Tomb II the obvious progression was to make her climb walls. In this one she can jump straight up and grab onto some ceilings, and monkeyswing along. Anything else? We've also given her a dash, so if you're running down a long corridor away from something, you've got a I stamina bar, and a limited amount of extra spurt, so to speak.
And we're thinking about turning the dive into a special move. But we've drifted off again. This page includes demos, patches and other downloads for Tomb Raider 2. Some of the files are hosted on this site. Others are hosted elsewhere, as indicated. Before downloading, please read the important warning below.
I try to make every effort to ensue that all of the linked files are safe and functional, but I cannot guarantee they'll work on all systems. The CD version of the full game can be patched to run without any problems in newer versions of Windows see below. Tomb Raider 3 includes one bonus level, "All Hallows," which can be unlocked by finding every secret in the game. The walkthrough has more information. Unlike Tomb Raiders 1 and 2, which were followed up by free downloadable bonus levels, Tomb Raider 3 has a short, stand-alone sequel: The Lost Artifact.
There is a demo for the first level, but if you want to play all six levels, you'll need to buy the game, which is only available on CD for PC and Macintosh. So far it has not come to Steam, GOG, etc.
So they will need a little tweaking to run smoothly on a computer with a newer version of Windows. The best and easiest fix is to first install the game as usual. These are part of the excellent tech support section at tombraiderchronicles. The GOG and Steam games are specificially designed for newer Windows systems, so you will not need the multi patch.
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Community Hub. Tomb Raider III. Core Design. Square Enix.
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