Below is an article by Vicente Pardo, a web contributor who attended the XBOX Fan Fest event for the promotion of Rise of the Tomb Raider, along with other Spanish fans and webmasters. Thank you for your support.
We went to the exclusive Event on Microsoft: Xbox Fan Fest 2015 at Microsoft offices located in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid and we had the chance to play Rise of the Tomb Raider together with other webmasters, collaborators and more tomb raider spanish fans.
The event was attended by dubbing actress Guiomar Alburquerque, voice of Lara Croft in Spain since the reboot in 2013 and who participated in a conference on video game dubbing in Spain.
During the conference Guiomar told about how was her experience dubbing Lara Croft in Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider, she was very excited to know she had been chosen for the role. She told us she wasn’t involved in the video games word and know nothing about Lara Croft. She was surprised at how much this character and this saga could mean for video game fans and especially for fans.
Guiomar commented that Lara’s dubbing was one of the biggest challenges in her professional career, she was a difficult character because of all her expressions and gasps from the original English actress, Camilla Lugdintom. During the conference we could see a kind of “making off” where we saw Guiomar doubling the game. At CroftGeneration we think she has done an excellent job. Congratulations Guiomar.
After the conference Guiomar spent the time with us, and not just some moments, she spent almost an hour or more chatting with us. All the fans were able to take pictures with her, share opinions and signing the games, comics, posters and backpacks.
Guiomar was very nice to us and conveyed great affection to all of us, confessing that she never imagined there were so many fans behind her work.
Throughout the Xbox Fan Fest 2015 event there has been a room of 10 Xbox One consoles approx. to play the Rise of the Tomb Raider demo in English subtitled in Spanish. We had the chance to played it, and the experience was great. Graphics were quite realistic with impressive lights, no saw edges in the scenarios or characters and fluid and intuitive movements. Moving Lara Croft was a pleasure for the player mixed with a sound effect that immersed you in the tombs we explored, you felt inside the game. Although it was an introductory level at the beginning of the game, in Syria, the path was somewhat linear but when entering the tombs, you really feel the scenario is very wide and a lot of room for exploration, full of hidden secrets to find and puzzles to solve. We liked this very much because it makes us feel everything promissed is true and not a linear game as we move forward. We’ve spotted at all the details with a magnifying glass and it looks great.
In the evening, and thanks to Lidia Pitzalis, Manager and Xbox Public Relations, she gave us a gap between conference and conference, to hold the first official cosplay contest in Spain. With our friend Alejandro Cambronero as host and organizer of this event, six contestants in different outfits of Lara Croft. The winners were: Sandra Memma, with her Siberian cosplay (Rise of the Tomb Raider) and Hugo Pernas, classic and customized outfit (Tomb Raider: Anniversary). The winners received 2 limited edition lithographs from Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix.
Finally Lidia Pitzalis and Carlos Villasante had an incredible detail for the Spanish Tomb Raider community: We were allowed to play behind closed doors the final version of Rise of the Tomb Raider but this time with the voices totally in Spanish! From the beginning of the game!
We confirmed Guiomar’s great work with Lara’s dubbing and were able to hear other characters such as Jonah, Richard Croft and the new character, Anna. The polish of the game as we said before in the demo, was unbeatable.
If we can say something negative, the name of the organization we will face, Trinity, it was translated as “La Trinidad” in spanish. In our opinion they should have left it the same as in Tomb Raider (2013), Trinity, but you get use to anyway. We were also delighted with the dubbing work of Anna’s character, played by Margot Lago, fit perfectly, with the character of Richard Croft’s sentimental companion.
Carlos Villasante, also Xbox’s PR manager, show us the final edition of the game, sealed, just like in the stores. We made some kind of unboxing, showed in the above video.
(Alicia, cosplayer and Tomb Raider fan. Vicente, CroftGenration collaborator. Alejandro Tomb Raider World webmaster. Hugo, Lara Croft fan).
They also confirmed that there will be no tomb Raider-exclusive controller as there was in 2013, nor will there be a console decorated exclusively with Rise of the Tomb Raider details.
We can’t do a global review of Xbox Fan Fest 2015 because we’ve focused solely on Tomb Raider, but if we can say it’s been a very organized event where it was given the opportunity to try out all Xbox games around the world.
We want to congratulate the organization of the Xbox Fan Fest 2015 event, and especially Lidia Pitzalis. She has made us feel welcomed, she has treated us with such special care and affection. Thank you, Lydia.
I’m personally not a supporter of games exclusively, and even if I am annoyed, I must admit that Microsoft has treated Rise of the Tomb Raider carefully and has benefited it by getting it everywhere.
As Guiomar said: See you soon in the game!
Vicente Pardo. CroftGeneration.com collaborator