Road to Gamescomm 2018
We started our adventure to Cologne (Germany), and we were informing the community about all the Shadow of the Tomb Raider news. Thank you so much to Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix, for this amazing opportunity, they offered to pay our stay in the city, flights, travels and other needs. Besides, other official fansites, together with Croft Generation, we all took part of the gamescom ambassadors; even other spanish sites had the chance to assist; they were not just my adventure partners, but my friends too, Alejandro Cambronero and Daniel Guerrero from Alex TR Blog and Tomb Raider World.
Although Gamescom started on Monday, August 20th, I had to depart the day before towards Madrid and spend the night at my friend Dani’s home, we had to leave at 7:00 am on the next day, as I hadn’t enough time to travel from my city, Zaragoza, on the same day.
Bellow, you can watch the video blog, Road to Gamescom 2018, describing all the travel and stay at Cologne.
Day 1: Nvidia event
We arrived at Cologne, It was mainly first contact with other official ambassadors and just meet for the first time to Morrigan Johnen, second community manager of Crystal Dynamics. Everyone were super friendly, and the webmaster of Tomb Raider China (Zou Zhi) had a great detail with all of us, giving us a handmade parchment with an amazing drawing with a classic Lara, you can check on the next photo. Thanks a lot!
Nvidia Geforce Conference began at 6pm, on Monday, August 20th, it started with an explanation about the new lighting technology, shadows and reflections process in real time, which it was really interesting, especially with demonstrations to show these features, but sometimes it was too technical, anyway, all this changed when they showed this technology applied to the video games world.
The new RTX graphics cards’s models have three versions, the most economic is the RTX 2070, and the most complete are RTX 2080 and 2080 ti, which they are now available to preorder. The release date is September 20th, just few days after the Shadow of the Tomb Raider release.
Just after this presentation, this new technology was shown to our beloved game, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, where the PC version will be benefied. In first place, they were showing the differences between having them enabled or not, and I must say that the effect is very realistic.
Then, they showed an exclusive Gameplay Trailer for the PC version, just showing how these lights and shadows were masterfully used in every scene, from the flashlight focus pointed towards Lara, different type of shadows created by candles, holded by children, natural light, and other technology applied to the game, for example, the ambient occlusion HBAO +, high quality Anti-Aliasing, tessellation that enhanced geometric detail, CHS technology, which shows a realistic shadow fallff, HDR, which it is a high contrast and vivid colors, and the SSCS technology, which enhanced surface definition.
Below, you can see the trailer shown during this Conference, uploaded to the official Tomb Raider channel; try to set the 4K video resolution.
After the presentation finished, we were able to take a few snacks and drinks in the outside area, and finally, we had the opportunity to test the PC demo for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but this version was an old version from the E3, so all the new technology didn’t apply. In addition, they also presented the custom PC from Nvidia, with the game dagger on top.
That was all on our first day, time to rest at the hotel and recharge our internal batteries for the next day.
Day 2: Gamescom Press pass
We couldn’t be more excited, the press pass for the Gamescom arrived, Shadow of the Tomb Raider promotional pictures are all around us, we could feel the game has a deep impact in the convention. We had to take advantage of the press pass, since they were less people, and on the next day, the convention would be open to the public. As you imagine, we went straight to the Shadow of the Tomb Raider booth, in the Square Exnix area. We found the Shadow of the Tomb Raider Collector’s Edition (currently sold out), and for the very first time, the collector’s figure was officially presented in this Convention. You can see it on the below photo.
Private Demo impressions
We could visit more game booths during the day, but what we were most expected about is the private demo, it took place in the the Square Enix Bussiness area. We had the chance to see an exlclusive part, never seen before, where Lara has all the weapons unlocked.
The name of the level was “Mission of San Juan”, where Lara is hiding in the foliage, away from Trinity, in order to avoid their soliders, the ones searching for Lara. As we already know, most of the time, the player have the opportunity to avoid contact, kill enemies using stealth, or just start firing at the enemy. We saw all the possibilities, but at one point, when Lara is detected by an helicopter, there is no way to scape, and you have to start shooting at them.
This part, we could see the new weapons upgrade, now they have more variety, being able even to shoot like a flare gun, knock the enemy first by just shooting special bullets, so afterwards, we can finish them up with our knife.
After this part, a sequence with some spoilers inside, but I’m not going to describe it, just letting you know, that after shooting at the helicopter, we manage to take it down, causing one kind of earquake and mud moving everywhere, so Lara has to scape from there, being around chaos and dangers. Finally, she managed to be safe and jump into the watter.
My personal opinion about this demo is that I was more happy about the heliocpter part, when everything is collapsing, you can see with incredible detail, all the mud doing down the hill, it’s just impressive.
Developers Interview
We had the chance to get some answers from the level designer, Arne Oehme, and the game producer, Fleur Marty:
- Can we know the recommended and minimum requirements for the PC version?
- Arne Oehme: No podemos responder correctamente a esta pregunta, pero no os preocupéis, pronto daremos más detalles acerca de la versión de PC, en las próximas semanas.
- Is the cooperative mode present in the DLC tombs?
- Arne Oehme: Anunciaremos más detalles acerca del contenido DLC, pero la respuesta es que si, tendrá modo cooperativo.
- Will the Croft Manor be present in Shadow of the Tomb Raider?
- Fleur Marty: We can’t talk much about that. (while looking at each other and smiling).
- As we can see, classic elements are back, but, what about dual pistols? Any chance to see them back?
- Arne Oehme: We are aware about what fans like and want, but for sure, fans will get so many classic references.
After a long day, we return to rest at the hotel, we must be ready for the next day.
Day 3: Gamescom open to the public
This time, we arrived to the Convention, some time later, it was open to the public, and the queues for testing the demos were very long. Alex, Dani and me went to the Square Enix Products booth, taking with us the puzzle solution from the twitter competition, we really didn’t think any chance to win, as it was late, the trick was about using some photoshop filters into the Scion picture, in order to reveal a secret message inside. Just the first 5 persons with the solution had the chance to win a Play Arts Kay figure, from Rise of the Tomb Raider, and we managed, so we tell other ambassadors too, so they could get a chance to win another figure too, and so it was.
At 2pm in the afternoon, the Microsoft conference took place to present Shadow of the Tomb Raider by Daniel Bisson and Rich Briggs; they gave away some pins, present the official cosplayer for the gamescom, Mareike and they took a selfie with her and all the fans in the background; you can spot us on the first rows.
To finish the show, they showed an exclusive puzzle gameplay, and you can now watch it in high quality, the path of the eagle. Warning about spoilers, this video contains puzzle solving.
Tomb Raider Legends: The Board game
At 4:30pm, we had the opportunity to play Tomb Raider Legends: The Board game, it took place at the Square Enix Products booth. The maximum of players are 4, and the players were: Alex, Dani, myself, and Fabian, who works for Square Enix London, he helped us guiding us to learn how to play. Below you can see some photos and instructions. Note that the next instructions and photos are a prototype version, some things may change, and the look material is not a final version, which it will be release on Q1 2019.
This board game is up to 4 players; the most important is to use our strategies against other players and get the real artifact before leaving the temple, you can only leave if you are in possession of the real artefact, as it exists another two fake replicas, with these fake artefacts, you can’t leave the temple, but you can always steal the real one from other players and cross the goal.
There are a total of 7 action cards, each player must place a maximum of the cards at the same time in personal board. In each turn, an action card will be displayed in the established order by the player, and once all the cards were reveal, you must place them in the Exhausted area and place the new cards in the Action Card Slots. The cards are the following:
- Rush: Advance to the next tile and reduce its threat level by 1.
- Action: Reduce the threat level of the area you are in by 2. Besides, you can boost your action by decreasing your experience, so you can take a new raid card from the board.
- Rest: Increase your experience by 1 and heal 1 injury. Besides, you can boost your action by decreasing your experience, so you can heal all your injuries.
- Explore: You can take 1 raid cardfrom the board. Besides, you can boost your action by decreasing your experience, so you can take 2 raid cards.
- Steal: Choose a Lara in the same area than you and steal 1 raid card from her. Besides, you can boost your action by decreasing your experience, so you can steal two raid cards, instead of one.
- Assault: Advance to the next tile, and the rest of players staying in the previous tile will get 1 injury.
Each game is different, the tiled board is formed at the beginning of the game in a random way, just like a shuffled cards, when these tiles are discovered, they can contain traps and dangers, causing damage to the player. The danger level is shown on each tile with a color number shown at the bottom, in each turn, the danger level will be decrease by one.
At the top of your personal dashboard, there is an experience bar, which you will decrease when boosting your action cards. On the other hand, under the experience bar, there is also an injury table, the more damage you get, the less amount of hand size you will get, so less chance you have to get the real artifact. The maximum hand size is 6, and while getting damage, it will decrease by one, up to a hand size of 3, therefore, you have to discard your leftover cards at the time you get new ones from the center of the board, but you can’t discard the replica artefacts.
And that it was all of our experience at the Gamescom 2018, on the next day, we expected a long way back to our homes. I hope you liked the article and it was useful to get information about what is coming. Thank you very much for following us on the social media and website.