Interesting.  Might be worth a look.  Thanks for the heads up.

I downloaded it and played most of it last night.  It's definately an improvement over previous iterations (not being on a grid is tremendously beneficial), but I'm still not sold on it.  I'll have to rent the full version for 360, as my video card is kinda crappy ATM.

My only real qualm with the demo at this point is that the camera is free roaming (rather than standard 3rd person that follows at a relatively set set angle and distance).  I like being able to turn the camera wherever I want, but because the commands are so contextual, if the camera is off just a little, the wrong action happens.  This is mostly taken care of by little animations that indicate what Lara is set to do, but I can see this being a major issue when speed is any kind of necessity.  I'm hoping the camera is modified from the demo to the full game, otherwise too many people will become frustrated and not give the game a chance.

What do you mean 'not being on a grid?'

I downloaded it but have yet to install it.  I've got the last tomb raider game (Angel of Darkness), but I hated how it felt to control her so I never really played it.  Think I got it for free with my sound card.

From the videos I saw it looks to be better.  We'll see.

That demo was acctualy a decent bit of fun.
The camera is very similar to the one in Beyond Good & Evil, which is a good thing.
It could create some problems but atleast for that one level, it didn't.
The graphics are pretty good. not jaw dropping or revolutionary but nicely detailed and imersive.
Lara herself, on the other hand, well, foregoing the whole "modesty" speech, I definatly found her face to be a decently ways toward the ugly side.
mostly for the HUGE dark rings around her eyes. I don't think I'll ever understnad why people find that attractive.
But also, something about her just doesn't seem right, maby the proportions, even knowing that they're a bit stylized, they seem a bit cartoony and just made me glad that the camera didn't get really close very often.

but, yeah, overall I was impressed.

So the camera is now like Splinter Cell, and the most recent POP game? That`s just the way I like it, and the way the new Hitman game will do it, makes playing so much easier.

I`ll get round to playing this tomorrow, hope it`s as good as it`s made out to be.

Quote (Agent007 @ April 01 2006, 3:52 pm)

What do you mean 'not being on a grid?'

In the previous TR games all movement was based on an invisible grid.  Boxes could only be pushed in straight lines, Lara's movements were severely limited, it was very confining.  Being off the grid system allows her to move in any direction the player wants, as well as manipulate objects in every direction.  In previous games a forward jump always landed you directly in front of where you were, while this one lets you jump diagonally.

And the camera is not quite POP.  That camera has the player character nearly always facing forward, unless the player chooses to move the camera manually.  This one doesn't have an orientation like that.  You have to move it manually or it will hardly move at all.  Makes for some slightly frustrating platforming, as I've said.

Quote (FaTaL eRrOr @ April 01 2006, 11:24 pm)

Quote (Agent007 @ April 01 2006, 3:52 pm) What do you mean 'not being on a grid?' In the previous TR games all movement was based on an invisible grid.  Boxes could only be pushed in straight lines, Lara's movements were severely limited, it was very confining.  Being off the grid system allows her to move in any direction the player wants, as well as manipulate objects in every direction.  In previous games a forward jump always landed you directly in front of where you were, while this one lets you jump diagonally. And the camera is not quite POP.  That camera has the player character nearly always facing forward, unless the player chooses to move the camera manually.  This one doesn't have an orientation like that.  You have to move it manually or it will hardly move at all.  Makes for some slightly frustrating platforming, as I've said.

Yup, that`s the same way as Splinter Cell, that`s the way I like it, the computer doesn`t try to decide what the best angle is, it just leaves it to you.

Quote (SteMot @ April 01 2006, 5:30 pm)

Yup, that`s the same way as Splinter Cell, that`s the way I like it, the computer doesn`t try to decide what the best angle is, it just leaves it to you.

It's not exactaly like SC, or atleast not Chaos theory, that's the only one of them that I have, but anyway, you have a bit less control over the camera than SC.
And the phisics are really quite neat, and decently well used.
pushing the boxes around was really very realistic.

Well, I`ve gone and done what I usually do, and downloaded the game before street date (don`t worry, it`ll get bought, they always do.)

Have to say, the camera is something that should have been included in the last 3 TR games, the level of control you have with it is great, although I will admit that using it for jumping from chains is a bit difficult (it appears to use the POP system of poles and chains, but messes with the jumping off a little bit, confusing sometimes).

Because I only have an FX5700LE card, I can`t activate Next-Gen mode, but to be honest the normal mode looks more than nice enough for me, and it runs without slowdown, which for me at least, makes a nice change.

The puzzles, while not overly difficult, still make you think for a few moments, and the gunplay, so far at least, has been given less time, and greater time given to the actual exploring of Tombs.

It appears that Eidos made the right decision to axe Core from the TR franchise.