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| May 25, 2012 |
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X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE Uncaged Edition Xbox 360 Review
Brandon says the game is far more gleefully gruesome, and far, far more fun than the movie
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Capcom E3 2009 Preview
Brandon plays Lost Planet 2, Dark Void, Monster Hunter, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Fate, as well as newcomer Spyborgs
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Videogame Review: THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK – ASSAULT ON DARK ATHENA
Matt thinks it's a good value but you may want to hold off on purchasing it
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NINJA BLADE Xbox 360 Review
Brett says if you’re looking for some decent sword mayhem, you may enjoy this game
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GUITAR HERO: Metallica Nintendo Wii Review
Monika says thankfully, Guitar Hero Metallica improves on the mediocre Aerosmith installation
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Collider Goes to Activision for a Preview of the new WOLVERINE Video Game
Brandon says it’s going to make Wolverine fans pretty happy
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Shot Who in the What Now?
A review of STORMRISE for the PS3
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Pinky Ring Wearers of the World, Unite!
A review of GODFATHER II for the PS3
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Not So Super Saiyan
A review of DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION for the PSP
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Videogame Trailers: TERMINATOR SALVATION and GI JOE – THE RISE OF COBRA
One looks passable, the other…not so much.
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| ARCHIVE -
VIDEO GAMES REVIEWS
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Video Game Review – ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - Legend’ (Xbox 360)
4/17/2006
Posted by Frosty
Review by Ben Estaville
Since the popularity of the movie Tomb Raider The Cradle of Life featuring Angelina Jolie and the last Tomb Raider game The Angel of Darkness (both released in 2003), dedicated and newfound fans alike have been scanning the horizon for a playable version of the daring and nimble Ms. Croft, Countess of Abbingdon. Satisfaction with The Angel of Darkness was less than most had hoped. Will this new installment in the Tomb Raider series satisfy your craving for adventure and exploration?
Ever been really stumped by a puzzle? If you have and then figured it out, this game will offer large rewards for your ingenuity and persistence. If puzzles are not your friend, this game has new somewhat merciful features to help point you in the right direction. Much more so than the previous games of the series. The heart of this single player adventure game is puzzle solving and exploration, interwoven with a compelling story and spiced up with a little action.
Once again Lara is in search of high adventure and hidden treasure. Artifacts and long dead cultures draw her in like a moth to a flame. However, she is not the only one who has an appreciation for these fascinating trinkets or the ghosts of the past. Who is it that has gotten ahead of her on the trail of another powerful relic and what are their plans? Yet another puzzle! Through the game you will meet Lara’s friends and foes, solve puzzles, dig up a lot of history, and overcome perilous traps in a life and death race to win a artifact fit for a king and in the process put Lara’s troubled past to rest. With some new gadgets and help from her team, Lara is ready for any challenge.
Explore and be rewarded. Literally! Several reward tokens are hidden through this game, which unlock upgrades and bonus content. The landscape in which these rewards are tucked is lush and highly textured. The first level contains dark and primitive ruins carved from huge mountain in the vast and vibrant Bolivia jungle. Exotic bird songs and carefree fireflies fill the humid air. Flowing water rushes down an ancient mountain river way to fill a small tranquil pool. Visually magnificent! The audio bristles as vocals, special effects, music and regional background sounds are top notch and synch perfectly and with Lara’s every move. The graphics and audio have personality and so does Lara. She looks around, blinks her eyes and even scratches her head when not directed for a few moments. When she goes for a swim, she comes out of it wet and leaves a trail of watery footprints. When trudging around amongst filthy ruins, she even gets a thin coating in dirt from head to toe. This is her most realistic appearance to date.
This game pairs realistic looks with realistic game play and mechanics. Being that jumping is a major component of this game, I’m relieved that it was programmed so well. This and all Lara’s moves are performed with flawless execution. The animations flow smoothly and continuing pop up tutorials guide you on how accomplish her moves during the beginning of the game. She performs acrobatics with the grace of a jungle cat and has a few special attack moves too. The controls are intuitive and very easy to use. The (A) button is jump (B) button is release; use the left thumb stick to chose the direction you jump, swing, run, swim, etc. This game is big on puzzles, but with some regularity you will need to deliver a firestorm of hot lead into an “obstacle”. Whoever that poor soul is, may God have mercy on him, because Lara sure won’t! She can shoot in first or third person view and always has her trusty twin pistols at her side, but can also pick up other weapons along the way. You can lock on to a target by holding the left shoulder button and fire with the right trigger. Also, in certain situations you can shoot areas in the environment to drop some serious damage on your opposition. Most impressive is a special move where she jumps on to an opponent, jumps again and flips over them and while descending through the air, guns them down in slow motion!
The pacing of this puzzling adventure game is also well constructed. Between the puzzles and shootouts are some hot button mini-games. To get past some areas a special cut scene is played and you must quickly and correctly push the appropriate button in order to give Lara direction in her moment of need. Kind of like a high risk version of Simons says.
Speaking of direction, ever get really lost playing a game and run around frustrated without a map for what could be hours? Not to worry this game is very linier so getting lost is not an option. With the addition of Lara’s special Binoculars, you can scan the area and pick out which areas or items you can use to complete the current puzzle. For seasoned tomb raiders this increased level of assistance may not push your puzzling skills to the limit, but this is an option on the binoculars and you can also ratchet up the difficulty level if things get too easy for you. However, for the newcomers the level design, game format and helpful features should keep you from tearing your hair out.
Is one time around the track enough for this pony? If you are like me and mark your game time by the days and not the hours, you could finish this one in a weekend. At a leisurely pace I completed it in 16 hours. Once you finish the game you can trot this fun filly out to the track to replay the levels and try to find hidden rewards if you have missed them on your first pass. You can even replay the levels in a time trial mode. This thoughtful feature may rekindle your sense of exploration and does add some much needed replay value. After completing the first mission, you gain access to search Lara’s mansion for other reward tokens. This is a great way to extend the life of a game. However, for some of us, once you pass the final boss battle and complete the main mission, anything else is just beating a dead horse. (Attention P.E.T.A., no horses were beaten during the course of my review of this game, however Lara does get mauled by a few large cats and kills them in self defense. Bad kitty!!!)
Every treasure-hunting archeologist has a few skeletons in the closet. The first is that she does not look fantastic. Granted, she looks better than you have ever seen in any previous game, not plastic, or cartoonish but not gorgeous considering she is on Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which can run amazing graphics. While in game, she is well shaded, proportional, and realistic. One more puzzler for you is why she and other characters look worse in the pre-rendered cinematics, especially in that evening dress we all had hoped would be so sexy. My next bone of contention is the story could have been a little longer. The game may be too short for long time fans of the series, which have come to expect a long and very puzzling game, which might take weeks instead of hours to finish.
Happy Ending?
With a poor showing for past games the developers have revised the classic format with Legend, which makes it more palatable for a broader audience of gamers. With the addition of more combat, super easy controls and a very linear level design this is a departure from what Tomb Raider has been about (or suffered from) for so long now. For most of us this will be a welcomed change, but for some hardcore fans (masochists?), this not may be what they were waiting for, as the changes may have made the game too easy for them to complete.
The high points of this game are interesting puzzles, inventive level design, breathtaking locations, superb audio, and intuitive controls. If you are a casual gamer, I think this title would be great to visit when you have the time. For those of us who guzzle games like cool water on a hot day rather than sip them like the fine wine they are, this may prove to be a nice weekend rental. However, if you really like to see Lara in action, have a passion for replaying levels and won’t stop digging until the last treasure is found, then this wonderful purchase will prove to be worth it’s weight in digital gold.
Happy Gaming!
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