Keeley Hawes Appearing At SFX Weekender

24th January 2011

Thanks to Nicole for the infomation

Keeley Hawes will be appearing at SFX Weekender (Convention) at Pointin's Holiday Park in Camber Sands on 4th-5th February 2011. She will be signing as well as doing a talk where you can ask her questions. The price of the autograph will depend on what tickets you purchase, CLICK HERE for the tickets.

Keeley is the most recent voice of Lara, as well as the longest running. She has been the voice of Lara since the Crystal Dynamics switch back in 2006, and since then she has been in Tomb Raider Legend, Anniversary, Underworld (as well as the two expansion packs for XBOX360) and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. She has also narrated Gametap's Tomb Raider Documentary which celebrated ten years of Tomb Raider.

Also, because I have to work that weekend, if any of you guys are going and doesn't mind writing a guest article for the site about it afterwards, it would be really awesome. It would be really cool to see what happens there.   

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Article - Personal Desires Of TR9 Promotions and Merchandise

21st January 2010

Over the years we've had Larazade, albums, trading cards, novels and a series of comics all promoting Tomb Raider. Lara has appeared on more promotional material than we can actually ever fully collect, and we've loved it. So the question is what will the next era of the series bring? ...Ok we don't know for certain, but what we do know is that it's going to be pretty exciting. So the other day I was thinking what kind of promotions can the series do and what type of merchandise might be available. Now I must warn you, I haven't done a course in finance or marketing or anything like this, it's more going to be a list of what I find awesome.

Trailer

So first one that I want to mention is something that I talked about on the Eidos forum for Tomb Raider Underworld...3D Trailer!Now I'm not a fan of 3D shows or movies, but I did find a Eidos related video on YouTube a few months back which blew my mind. For those who have played Batman: Arkham Asylum you will know this part and for those who have not... Seriously go buy it, it's awesome. The scene is where Batman walks down a really long corridor and it transforms. The video isn't really an official trailer, and it's merely just someone playing with the 3D option on YouTube but it looks so cool. Just imagine seeing the scene where the guy chases Lara with a knife that we have seen in the screenshots or when she falls onto the bones, that would look so epic in 3D!

Collectible Merchandise
I'm also thinking perhaps some t-shirts with Lara Croft kicking some major ass. Figurines are a definite yes, but they need to be really high quality but won't cost as much as the Slideshow collectables and Tonner ones. And posters! Preferably with the Game Informer image, I want Lara's eyes to appear to creepily follow the people around the room no matter where you go.

Lara Statues

I'm also thinking about a life sized Lara Croft model mainly because the new Lara is so beautiful and awesome. The last time there was full model was for Tomb Raider Legend, and as epic as though she was, it's a brand new Croft now! Plus the fact that it's incredibly hard to find one that isn't a)broken or b) Pick up only and is being sold too far away.

TRADING CARDS!
I got a box of the old Tomb Raider trading cards called “Into the Caves Quest Deck” and I've absolutely fallen in love with these things. For those who don't know it's a little box and there's a set of cards, plus a booster pack, a small figure of Lara and some material to play a game. They are actually so awesome that I have been searching online constantly for more packs for the past month. I would absolutely love to have a similar Tomb Raider 9 set.

Comics

About two or three years back I was at Collectormania which is a science fiction convention, and that’s where I first picked up my first Tomb Raider comic called Chasing Shangri-la. The comics were made by Top Cow, and has still got to be my favourite comic series ever! The art was beautiful, there were some really awesome stories (the end of Chasing Shangri-La actually made me cry, which doesn't actually happen often to me and books/comics) and they featured Lara Croft...You can't really get any better. I really hope that they begin talks with Top Cow again...And that they also give away posters as a new series celebration.

What do you want to see? Post in the comments below if you have something in mind.

There's an awesome new game coming out with looks of really cool merchandise coming. We will just have to wait and see. I'll keep you all up to date about what's coming out because I'm just as excited as you are!

Have a great weekend!

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Article - This Is Why Tomb Raider Is Going To Be Terrifying

 13th January 2011

I've always been intrigued by horror in video games. Get the right balance and it can be more terrifying than the best work written by famous authors. What makes the genre so captivating in video games is the player's experiences. With a book, let's take for example “The Red Room” by H.G.Wells, the majority of the book is asking “What is in the room, and why is it so important?” it relies on tension and this engulfs the reader to want to learn more and to read on. You are no longer reading the work of fiction, you're truly there for each step the protagonist takes up the stairs and to the room, you're there for his stay in the room. This is what video games do, just in a slightly altered version. Instead of relying on your imagination to see what's in the room you can see it right there in front of you. This could have a major draw back in games, because if you are told for example that you enter a room and there's a monkey skull on the table. Your head might picture a skull with maggots and decaying flesh. Whereas in the game you might get a toy monkey head, which has a less effect. But then again in games you're no longer a part of a linear story, in books you have no choice in what you do since you're not really controlling the character and this is precisely why video games are able to capture horror so well...Freedom.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent on Steam

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a game by the developers of the Penumbra series. You play a character called Daniel and you're in a castle...This is actually all you know. There's voices and things moving but you can't really see them at first. You play the game completely without weapons, which normally puts gamers off playing but it works really well in the game since you're going to be in such a state that if you were to be given a weapon you'll probably hit the menu button and duck in fear instead. It's one of my favourite games of 2010 and if you haven't already bought a copy. I highly recommend doing so. What I love especially is how the game progresses, there's many games that have a character arcs, but so few do it as well as this one. The lack of weapons adds to the atmosphere, there will be several times when you're playing and you turn a corner to face a creature who can kill the protagonist in one strike, and since they're random encounters you can't really rely on walkthroughs.

Tomb Raider on PC, XBOX360 and PS3

Now this is exactly why I'm looking forward to the next Tomb Raider game. Not only is it survival horror but there's also an emphasis on freedom. You can explore, but doing so has it's dangers. The game also relies on an element that the F.E.A.R and Silent Hill relies on. Lara Croft will be the youngest she has ever been for the full game, at just the age of twenty one. At this age she will still hold an innocent view of the world, and placed into a situation where she is stranded on a mysterious island with creatures trying to kill you, might slightly effect her innocent view on the world near the end of the game. The game will also be open world, however the player will have to improve Lara's strength to get past certain areas. And although Lara will be armed, she can't really escape from a plane on fire heading for her face or escaping from a crazy killer who charges after you pretending to help you, so be prepared for adrenaline filled moments. And the music certainly contributes to the feel of isolation and tension...And if I'm too afraid to leave the house, we all know who to blame.

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New Community Researcher

13th January 2011

So you may have been aware if you've checked the Eidos Forums recently that we have a new Community Researcher,Scott Fernandez, that's going to be talking with the fans and who will be working with the dev team.

Welcome to the Tomb Raider community Scott!


For those fans who hasn't read the email at the Eidos Forums, you can click the read more at the bottom of this post to read it : )

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All LCGOL DLC for PC is available

8th January 2011

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Game Informer Threatened To Sue RPS Over Tomb Raider

7th January 2011

I can't say that I'm that surprised by a news piece like this. Give an exclusive announcement about a popular video game series and there will be other gaming sites also reporting on the it. As TR fans we can sort of get away with it after all we're Game Informer's target audience at the moment, if you're a gaming website things get a little more tricky.

Recently Game Informer has threatened to take legal action against Rock, Paper, Shotgun for using their exclusive Tomb Raider screenshots cropped so the words "Game Informer" isn't shown on the image. This follows a twitter message telling a RPS to remove the images' from the site saying:

 "Please remove those images or we'll seek legal action."

Rock, Paper, Shotgun took down the photos and wrote an article about the threat afterwards.

Personally I understand where Game Informer was coming from but I don't think having screenshots without the watermark is that much of an issue. If the readers of the blog see the photos, they are going to look for more information that will lead then back to Game Informer. Taking legal action is a little over the top, the screenshots are great, the game is looking awesome, Game Informer was releasing all the exclusive news at that point, I think they should have left the screenshots to advertise both the game and their website. Plus at that point the images were already up on the official Tomb Raider site with the Tomb Raider watermark instead of the Game Informer watermark.

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New Information on the PS3 Boxset

7th January 2011

EDIT: 22nd March 2011 is the release date

A few weeks ago it was revealed that a new trilogy box set for PS3 which features Tomb Raider Legend, Anniversary and Underworld will be released on Blue ray. We've got some new information  about this as well as two photos, one of the boxart and the other is of some of the features PS3 owners can expect.

First of all there was a rumour about the boxset having Beneath the Ashes and Lara's Shadow. Unfortunately this isn't true, the games are and always will be XBOX360's exclusive.

So on with the photos!

Box art

Avatars and Menu

Also does anyone else have the Firefly "Big Damn Trilogy" song in their head?

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Making of the Game Informer TR Cover

7th January 2011

If you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes to make a truly awesome Lara Croft render, well now is your chance to find out. For Game Informer Tomb Raider Hub's last update on TR9 they have a really cool video with Karl Stewart (Global Brand Director) and Brenoch Adams (Concept Artist) talking through the process of what it took to make the Game Informer Cover from the original planning to adding the dirt features. It's really cool, so if you haven't already checked it out I highly recommend doing so.

CLICK HERE for the video.

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Article: Music In Tomb Raider

2nd January 2011

This is less "an article" more of a trip down memory lane, and why not? since we're going to be celebrating 15 years of Tomb Raider later this year.

One of the levels that I always think of whenever Tomb Raider One is mentioned is the T-Rex moment, and for many others it is the same. There's something about that section of the game which is so memorable. It could be that the creature was the first thing in the game which was an actual threat to the protagonist, it could also be that the T-Rex was sudden and unexpected, for me it was all of that plus one more thing. Once the T-Rex is killed and the player can explore the area, one of my favourite music pieces from the game begins.

The series started off with one of the most iconic songs for gaming. The tune was simple but at the same time beautiful. Over the years the iconic start to the song has been kept, and although in Crystal's versions the tune might not be as obvious compared to the original games, they're still there. 


Music by Nathan McCree. Also check out his website HERE

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