Novedades TR Underworld: 07-01-08 (Thanks to TRChronicles)

 

2007 might have been the year of Drake and Altair, but 2008 is Lara’s year. Level 21 is the first Nordic magazine to unveil Tomb Raider Underworld – and we’re very proud of it.

Lara Croft looks bloodthirsty. She squints, lower her eyebrows, she’s so fierce her own jaw starts to shake. She attacks, with two powerful steps and basically throws herself and does two flips in mid-air – this scene is without a doubt inspired by the unveiling of Lara from the 1996 debut game. Crystal dynamics are not like other game developers, they have to work hard keeping the franchise fresh and interesting while trying to keep this iconic game franchise close to its roots. While doing her flips, Lara pulls out her loaded dual guns and manages to fire them five times within two seconds. A dying animal lies right in front of her on the ground; it certainly didn’t get its prey this time.
Tomb Raider Underworld is not your regular game, and it does not have a predictable story, even if Lara has been through 7 adventures (+the 2007 remake “Anniversary”)

This interview did not take place in the game developers head quarters; we had to go all the way to Merida, Mexico (this is where the unveiling of TRU took place). Why the game is being called Underworld was unclear to us – Until we got to see the game…..it really does live up to its name!

The new Lara croft has kept her naturally beautiful physique from Legend, but her image is much darker. She’s got a hint of black eyeliner, a fierce look in her eyes, and reminds us of Lara from The angel of darkness (the game that practically ruined the franchise just about 4 years ago).
What we’re showcasing today is definitively a lot darker compared to Legend. When you’ll play the game, and get to understand how big of a turn the storyline will take, you’ll understand why Lara has got a darker look.

She’s going to go through something tragic , and we wanted that to show off in her image. – Rob Pavey (head programmer)

When we first got a glimpse of the new Lara, the camera was circulation around her showing off her new style and the way the water drops ran down her body. When he later lets her climb a stone monument you can see the mud from the ground on her skin, clothes and boots. Even if details like that are just part of the “next gen” development, it still contributes to the atmosphere and makes the adventure a lot more realistic.

Detail is one of the keywords when developing TRU- Eric Lindstrom.

The team wants to really get into ever single detail of the game rather than making a light-hearted adventure. During the development of the game we constantly asked ourselves: “What could Lara do?” (WCLD). The Tomb raider fans already have a certain idea of how Lara is, for example, she can swing on a pole like an Olympic gymnast, therefore she should be able to balance on the pole as well. And if she’s balancing on the pole, doing nothing with her hand, why can’t she take out her guns and fight while doing it? We thought about these things, and these are things the gamers expect from Lara but never really got a chance to do it in-game. And we’ve certainly improved the game on that point, we’ve removed all those rules and boundaries games have. Lara can just about do anything you want her to do!

Two minutes after the gameplay demo has started, Lara gets attacked by two huge panthers. Lara jumps, takes turns and does everything in her powers to kill the two cats without getting eaten. She looks like a deadly ballerina jumping and spinning around while shooting the two animals at the same time using dual aiming. The huge auto-aiming-circles floating around in midair kind of kill the atmosphere and realism about the fight, but her moves are still very impressive. Unlike many other game developers, Crystal are using “motion capturing”, this makes Lara’s moves amazingly fluid and watching her doing her moves is like watching a real life Lara doing it. Polygons are not enough; this is the future of gaming!

It’s not all about making things look more realistic and atmospheric, it’s about emotions and making the gamers really feel this game. – Eric Lindstrom
 

The Tomb Raider games have always been about exploring, and “exploration” is probably the most important keyword for TRU. We want to make the gamers feel like they are the first ones who explore these untouched places. The pouring rain doesn’t just fill this level with atmosphere, but it affects the gameplay, Lara can as an example slip while climbing a ledge.

Lara moves slowly, coming out of the jungle when she sees the H U G E maya-temple. The rain is pouring while thunder and lightning lights up the sky atmospherically while showing off the inscription filled walls of the temple. There’s a huge area behind the temple, where the Mayans played some sort of violent and cruel ballgame. See how the water is pouring down the middle of the area? That’s because there’s a hole in the ground! – Eric Lindstrom

Lara steps on the fragile hole in the ground, but realizes she needs something very heavy to break it. There’s a huge stone above the area, and it’s practically impossible for Lara to get it down. A new addition to TRU is the improved grapple, it can attach to any kind of material. The team has worked hard on making the areas as interactive as possible, and with TRU players will be able to interact with the environments more than ever. Lara throws away her grapple, making the huge stone above her fall to the ground breaking the fragile area. Lara starts climbing down to the Underworld, she’s able to use any kind of decoration that stands out, for climbing (only a few of them visible).
Her movements while climbing the walls look life-like and remind us of the way Altair climbs in Assassins Creed. She finishes it off with a parkour-ish kind of jump off the wall.
 

After the advanced climbing, Lara finally finds the golden skull she’s been looking for. She climbs out again and runs through the temple ruins back into the jungle; we start to sense the demo is almost over. This is where Crystal Dynamics got to show what she’s really there for. Lara turns around facing an amazingly huge area with stone pillars and altars surrounding it. She climbs up one of the altars and starts moving around rings around the area, that from the high point Lara is at, looks like an ancient calendar. The Mayans invented a lot including the calendar, but their year had 360 days. Beside those days, there’s five days dedicated to the dead. During these five days the door to the kingdom of death opened up and people could walk in and out.
After some working on the calendar, Lara notices that the ground starts to shake beneath her. The large stone monument in the middle starts spinning around, and all the plants around it get destroyed. A staircase to the underworld is unveiled far beneath Lara (who’s climbed up on a huge altar). She looks down and realizes that a jump like that would kill her…….Lara starts to hear ticking, the opening it timed. She needs to act fast. Lara turns around and heads towards her futuristic looking motorcycle in the jungle. The monuments starts spinning again, and the opening is about to close. Lara gets on the bike and starts driving towards the opening, she gets through it in the last second holding the edge. Lara falls into the underworld and the ground closes.


Tomb Raider Legend was a huge hit recovering the franchise, and Toby Gard got a lot of credit for Lara’s new appearance. Is he still a part of the team?
- He’s still a part of the team, but he’s not as involved as he was in Legend and Anniversary. He’s the one directing the cutscenes of TRU, but he also worked on some parts of the storyline with us.

[b]2007 has been an amazing year for the adventure genre. Assassins Creed and Uncharted were both amazing games that really impressed the players. What do you think of these new competitors?[/B

- Plagiarism is probably the finest form of flattering, isn’t it? Haha, nah, joking we’re just happy to see more games of this kind are getting popular again. But bear in mind that Uncharted is very different from Tomb Raider. They make action games with a kind of cartoony comic book-ish feel to it, while we’re making a game that’s far more detailed and realistic. Uncharted is so different from TR, that its even kind of hard for us to compare them. The only thing that it might have in common with TR is the jungle and temple environments – and that is just a shallow likeness to TR. Uncharted is practically Gears Of War taking place the jungle, while Tomb Raider is far from that. I’ve heard people comparing Assasins Creed to TR, and I’ve personally haven’t gotten the chance to play it yet but I’ve heard from others that the environments are not interactive as they promised.

Most modern games are getting a lot bigger and not as linear as before. They let the players chose their own path and make their own gaming experience. But the TR games are still rather linear. Have you thought about changing this or do you intend to leave things as they are?

- We’ve thought a lot about it, and its possibly something we’ll take advantage of for coming TR games. But there are some things that are essential for a TR game that just wouldn’t work out in such environments. We’d like to work on making one amazing TR experience, rather than making something that just isn’t living up to people expectations when playing it. But we’ve found a great balance of both linearity and free roaming for TRU, giving the player huge environments with lots of opportunity while still forcing them to experience every bit of it to the fullest.

-"Tomb Raider Underworld is going to make other game developers cry with envy"

The Tomb Raider franchise is still a very popular one. Legend sold about 2 million copies within the first month. But during the release people were questioning Lara, and wondering if she still has something give. What do you have to say about that?

- Lara Croft is an amazingly strong character, and the gaming world is lacking characters like her at the moment not to mention female ones. Lara has something the rest of them lack, she’s still unique and she’s still got a lot to give, Lara has changed through the years. We want to show off this re-birth of the TR franchise, and I can promise you that Tomb Raider Underworld is going to make other game developers cry with envy.

More News

 

Manoeuvrability remains a key factor for Lara Croft in Tomb Raider Underworld, and players can expect a considerable upgrade in the way Lara moves within her environment. One such feature is the move away from grid-based ledge manipulation in favour of a more non-linear method of scaling walls and shimmying around corners.

Our feisty heroine can now slide around corners, rather than using the more traditional right angle system present in earlier games. While Crystal Dynamics are keen to point out that Lara's immersive world isn't free-roaming, a greater arsenal of moves adds a more non-linear veneer to the adventure.

It's not just Lara Croft who scores an update. Those dastardly arachnids scurrying after Lara Croft in the Mexico segment of the game are also more nimble, now sporting the ability to both scuttle along the floor and flick their black-legged carcases onto poles and walls in order to hinder a retreating Lara Croft. They bite too, hard, and Lara Croft must keep her wits about her if she wants to unlock the secrets of the Underworld in one piece.

Much has already been written on the immersive and awe-inspiring environments which will now become Lara's chief adversary. Just how visually stunning those environments are almost defies belief. A real-world weather system complete with blinding rain and lashing winds brings to life the foliage around Lara Croft.

As thunderbolt and lightning - very very frightening - illuminates the cloud-strewn skies, the vegetation below mimics the scene, creating for a split moment a landscape snapped by an x-ray machine. All the while, as the thunder and lightning resonate through Lara's world, the cackle and clarity of electrically-charged atmospheric effects sing wistfully around the player's ears.

It's this attention to minute detail that puts the player right next to Lara in a way never experienced before.

 

 

News TR Underworld: 02-01-08

 

Among a slew of new features being stencilled into Tomb Raider Underworld by developer Crystal Dynamics is a dynamic new game-save system whereby the position of debris and enemy corpses will be recorded to file, ensuring seamless game-play for those hanging up Lara's boots in favour of a quick brew.

Tomb Raider Underworld will mark a departure from earlier Lara Croft-helmed games with the introduction of fixed debris. Once Lara has dispensed with an enemy combatant or wild animal, the remnants will remain in game, no longer disappearing after a few seconds. This new feature will also be extended to game saves for when players record their progress.

Diving back into Tomb Raider Underworld after a time-out will yield a seamless pickup from a previous save point, complete with debris from earlier kills and encounters, adding a more realistic and entertaining facet to proceedings.

Eidos will once again mobilise operations on Wednesday January 2nd following their Christmas break and we anticipate an official announcement on Tomb Raider Underworld soon after. We'll also be publishing our monster preview from our Tomb Raider Underworld demo visit to Eidos in November 2007.

 

Locations

Southern Mexico
Lara explores ancient Mayan tombs.


Graphics Engine and Environments


Lara Croft Model
Lara's body reacts to the weather and environment - if it is hot, she will sweat. If it is raining, the water will trickle down her body. If it is muddy, dirt will cling to her and gradually wash off due to the rainfall. Her clothes will also react to changing environmental conditions. Lara interacts with environmental foliage, sweeping it away as she passes through it.
Crystal Dynamics have introduced motion capture for the first time in a Tomb Raider game. Motion capture brings increased realism and fluidity to Lara's movements.
Lara will have high quality facial animations and lip-synch.
Environments
TRU uses a realistic and dynamic weather system including torrential rainpour, thunderclouds and lightning.
An improved physics engine means that the whole world is reacts to Lara's presence and has memory. Lara leaves footprints in the mud. Debris and bodies will no longer vanish, providing valuable markers of where the player has been in the game world.
An innovative lighting system moves beyond simple dynamic lighting to create stunning and realistic environments.
The game is more open-ended than ever before, giving players the choice of how to tackle situations.
Crystal Dynamics travelled on location to photograph the Mayan tombs ensuring a realistic look to the ruins.
All cutscenes are made using the in-game engine.
Moveset, Acrobatics and Combat


Combat
Lara can now perform close quarters combat and melee moves. These moves are focused on repelling enemies so she can shoot them with less risk to herself.
Multiple targets can be shot, with one gun focusing on one target while the other gun focusses on another.
Weapons and Gear


Weapons
Dual Pistols
Grenades
Gear
Lara will have numerous costume changes throughout the game with more available as unlockables.
Environmental objects can be used in a variety of different ways, both as weapons and tools to aid climbing.
The grapple tool is back although it is unknown as to whether it is hooked or magnetic.
Vehicles
Lara's motorbike is the only confirmed vehicle in the game so far. It will have a greater role in puzzle solving.

 

News TR Underworld: 14-12-07 (Thanks to TRChronicles)

 

 

Eric Lindstrom has expanded on a new dynamic collision system which will play a huge part in the crafting of Tomb Raider Underworld. According to an interview with PLAY magazine, Lindstrom says players can expect far superior interactivity within environments, including the manipulation of objects to solve puzzles.

"Lara will have the ability to grab moving objects and architectural elements more than ever, and with our animation blending system, she will do so in a way that is more fluid than you've ever seen. We are also taking the new step of leaving large-scale debris in the world. No more vanishing rubble in Tomb Raider."

This courtesy of permanent debris also extends to enemies, once expired by gun-toting heroine Lara Croft. The expunging of combatants has also scored a major upgrade, with Lara Croft now able to target two enemies using her trademark pistols. But it doesn't stop there, says Lindstrom.

"Up on the surface, Lara will face real predatory animals that exist in the parts of the world she is exploring, but down in the Underworlds she discovers, she will find plenty of creatures you won't find in any zoo."

On an immersive and highly visual weather system, Eric Lindstrom says, "we developed a hybrid lighting model that combines dynamic lights with carefully created light maps to make our world look stunning in ways that none of the available methods could achieve alone."

The net result of this technology will allow finely tuned and realistic weather models "top side" which will hinder or help Lara as she progresses through her adventure.

Tomb Raider Underworld is yet to be officially announced by publisher Eidos plc, although we expect that minor point to be addressed next week. The game will court Sony Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC.
 

News TR Underworld: 14-12-07 (Thanks to Undertaker of TR Forums)

 

 
 
 
 
 

Zip
Zip is the tech guy of Lara's team, responsible for providing technical and logistical support for Lara's endeavors worldwide - he's the guy in the van or the server room at Lara's mansion, and Lara's constant remote companion via radio headset. A wisecracking guy who's part ultra-techno-geek and part street savvy. He used to be over-the-top, but a few years in prison toned him down a notch and increased his resentment toward all things established. A former computer hacker, he works with Lara for the challenge and the thrill of it. He's personally loyal to Lara, and it really is the most fun he can have without getting arrested.

Alister
Alister is Lara's research assistant, providing another mind filled with arcane historical information, someone to bounce ideas off of, and provide quick additional research while Lara's in the field. He's in this to test his theories, uncover secrets noone else can, and because it's the only place his eccentric knowledge is really useful. Alister is tense and takes himself much too seriously.

 

 
 
 

• Lara's body reacts to the weather and environment - if it is hot, she will sweat. If it is raining, the water will trickle down her body. If it is muddy, dirt will cling to her and gradually wash off due to the rainfall. Her clothes will also react to changing environmental conditions. Lara interacts with environmental foliage, sweeping it away as she passes through it.

• Crystal Dynamics have introduced motion capture for the first time in a Tomb Raider game. Motion capture brings increased realism and fluidity to Lara's movements.

• Lara will have high quality facial animations and lip-sytch.

• TRU uses a realistic and dynamic weather system including torrential rainpour, thunderclouds and lightning.

• An improved physics engine means that the whole world is reacts to Lara's presence and has memory. Lara leaves footprints in the mud. Debris and bodies will no longer vanish, providing valuable markers of where the player has been in the game world.

• An innovative lighting system moves beyond simple dynamic lighting to create stunning and realistic environments.

• The game is more open-ended than ever before, giving players the choice of how to tackle situations.

• Crystal Dynamics travelled on location to photograph the Mayan tombs ensuring a realistic look to the ruins.

 

• Lara can now perform close quarters combat and melee moves.

• Multiple targets can be shot, with one gun focusing on one target while the other gun focusses on another.

 

• Dual Pistols

• Grenades

• Lara will have numerous costume changes throughout the game with more available as unlockables.

• Environmental objects can be used in a variety of different ways, both as weapons and tools to aid climbing.

• Lara's motorbike is the only confirmed vehicle in the game so far. It will have a greater role in puzzle solving.