Crystal Dynamics has been working on the highly anticipated Tomb Raider Legend for the Xbox 360 and other platforms. They have created a totally new graphics system to exploit the power available on the Xbox 360, with support for real-time per pixel lighting, shadows and normal-mapping. These graphical enhancements make the game very photo-realistic and lifelike: environments feel more organic and detailed, and are even part of the gameplay as many puzzles are physics-based. In addition to Lara’s new photo-realistic body and hair, she has intricately animated expressions and fluid movement. Alot of attention has been paid to her hair, as it sways and reacts to her movements.
Eidos Interactive: one of the world’s leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, announced that Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend is in development for both the Xbox 360 and Xbox consoles. Lara returns to her tomb-raiding roots in this upcoming installment, as she explores dank caves and ancient trap-laden stone structures.
Lara now packs a magnetic grappling device, binoculars, frag grenades, personal lighting device and communications equipment. What’s more, a new on-screen inventory allows you to quickly pick items rather than fumble around in her backpack. Lara also seems to be able to better survive falls without a grusome crunching of bones.
I made some observations while looking at some of the sample gameplay. Some of the sequences appear similar to “Dragon’s Lair”, where the hero must navigate through a perilous series of scripted events by reacting to prompts by the computer. As a trapped floor begins to rumble underneath our busted heroine, a controller button is flashed on the screen. If the user reacts in time, then Lara escapes the trap.
One thing also strikes me as particularly odd: the abolute lack of breast physics. Lara Croft was one of the original digital sex-objects, and paved the way for other silicone vixens since her debut. All this detail has been paid to Lara’s hair, skin and face, (and the developers have no shame in providing crotch and chest closeups in the previews) but have neglected the one killer feature that fans of the series have wanted the most: an engine that jiggles the heroine’s unique assets.
Tomb Raider was originally created by Crystal Dynamics with senior deisnger Toby Gard and is scheduled for release in spring of 2006. Matt Gorman, senior brand manager for Tomb Raider Legend comments on the upcoming game with this quote:
“Xbox 360 is the perfect partner to the ultimate video gaming heroine, Lara Croft,” said Matt Gorman, senior brand manager for Tomb Raider: Legend. It enables us to make the Tomb Raider experience realistic and immersive in next generation, high-definition worlds like never before.”
Toby Gard, senior designer at Crystal Dynamics and original creater of Lara Croft had this to say about the new graphcis engine:
“My original vision for Lara can nearly be realized with the muscle of the Xbox 360. The stunning graphics and scope of how Lara can move and interact with her surroundings will be astounding.”
OCmodshop’s preview of Tom Raider: Legend provides a glimpse of the gaming goddess in all her pixellated glory. The new model for Lara features more polygons, realistic skin and hair, and even facial expressions. Lara’s motion is more fluid and acrobatic. The environement is also highly detailed with bump maps, per-pixel shading and other next-gen rendering techniques.
This video also shows how Lara has evolved, while gameplay has retained much of the puzzle-driven platforming that made the previous games instant hits.
Toby Gard also talks about the new improvements to Lara which make her even more appealing, from her new highly-detailed model to her smooth movements and reaction to the environment. Toby also covers the allure of Lara, and what controlling a powerful female character mean in games.
Tomb Raider Legend will be released in 2006 for PC, Xbox and PS2
Download the preview video
5 minutes 9 seconds
720×480 2MBit WMV
89 MB