Tomb Raider I-III Remastered from Aspyr - for real this time

[Great Deceiver]

There was definitely shit hardware back then, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as now. Anyway, the shitty hardware is no excuse, it just masks the root cause.

I think as with everything else, there's a crisis of competence. Sound mastering is probably done by dangerhair quota hires - which is why I said everything is compressed to shit.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

I liked Rise of the Tomb Raider because it felt like a well made Rambo simulator. Until they make one of those games starring the man himself nu Lara will have to do.

I occasionally get the urge to play a female-starring action-adventure with modern graphics and install one of the new Tomb Raider games. Within two minutes of playing, five tops, I remember everything I dislike about them and uninstall again in despair.

They're a hell of a lot better than the other modern AAA action adventure games. I'll take them over Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, Gears of War, etc. any day.

I would rather play Uncharted, but low bar.

Setpieces that come off as less conspicuous/obvious and scripted. Not so game-like and stupid in their presentation.

No weapon upgrades that force you to go into tedious menus and read descriptions and shoot bullet sponges if you refuse. The pickups drive mobility in the gunfights. When you have no more ammo, you need to run for another gun.

More verticality in the gunfights, a melee attack that's quick and doesn't bog you down or disrupt the shooting.

No automatic crouch like in Tomb Raider. Sadly, no crouch at all. But if I have to choose between not being able to crouch and crouching through the whole gunfight, give me the former.

I tried to use little to no cover. Works best in Uncharted 4 and The Lost Legacy, but those games unfortunately have plenty of linear action sequences that force popamole. It sucks that you can only swap shoulders while aiming (since that was how I used cover without actually sticking to it) and that the field of view is so crammed while aiming.

Nathan Drake and Chloe Frasier as protagonists are more confident than nuLara. They enjoy what they do and don't ever break down into tears. I prefer their voices.

As platformers and exploration games, they are both shitty. But I find the collect-a-thon nature of new Tomb Raider where the maps are littered with so much shit for experience points that you redeem for perks and weapon customization in cumbersome menus more insipid.

Uncharted has better art direction and music than Tomb Raider.

Only Uncharted 4 has the incredibly stupid journals that all the new Tomb Raider games are crammed with. Notes left in the elements for two hundred years and somehow legible, people documenting everything for seemingly no one.

Uncharted
Uncharted 2
Uncharted 3
Uncharted 4
The Lost Legacy

Tomb Raider 2013
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider

I'll spare the long diatribe but I feel the opposite about most of that. I despise the Uncharted games. To this very day I still consider Uncharted 1 to be one of the worst games ever made. I don't think much more highly of it's sequels. They stole the concept of RE4 and made a shitty Indiana Jones knockoff. I much prefer the nu Boob Raiders. You have nice things to look at and the combat feels far more varied. I used the word Rambo simulator earlier. I think that describes the nu Boob Raiders perfectly. Maybe not the 2013 game. I think that was mostly forced encounters like Uncharted and Gears.

Also I don't want to sound like I'm shitting on the original Gears of War. That was a game made by men, for men. It's one of the best post-RE4 shooters and I feel guilty and ashamed for using it in the same sentence as Uncharted. Gears 1 doesn't deserve to be grouped with feces.

 

[flyingjohn]

What's wrong? That's incline. Not everything in games needs to be highlighted obvious handholdy crap.

Basic game design 101:
You want important items to stand out.
Important items blending because of busy graphics is a modern thing. There are also worse examples in later levels where it blends even more with the environment. At the same time keycards and some keys have no such problem and are exaggerated even more then the originals, so it inconsistent as well.

 

[flyingjohn]

I think this picture shows how meaningless the modern graphics are. The player model clashes with everything, jpeg leaves and the weird cutoff point in the wall is much more pronounced then the original.
It is like playing one of those ai upscaled hd mods on a emulator, everything feels off.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

This seems like one of the bigger pilots so far for "games" made almost entirely by AI. Buckle your seat belts, this ride is only starting.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Another nerf

Y'all are fuckin queers. Here I am enjoying these lovely updated tiddies and swimsuits that just barely cover the b-hole and here comes the retard brigade crying about a missplaced pixel here, or a random thing that nothing else in the universe would even imagine let alone notice. I want you all to die in a fire. The remakes are frabjous and your childish whining is only drowned out by the sound of your mom dumping your shit/piss bucket out back. Crawl into a hole and die. And fester. Seriously.

What's wrong? That's incline. Not everything in games needs to be highlighted obvious handholdy crap.

I'm always against handholding but this is borderling invisible
Important item with the same color as the ground? That's evil design that's later mocked by future devs and players when talking about old gaming

 

[Lacrymas]

I'm not saying this is what the new remaster should've looked like, just a different take I stumbled upon.

 

[Semiurge]

The sound quality in TR2 takes a massive nosedive. Weird when the original game was quite alright.

Many mods add A.I processed sound files that are cleaner than the originals, AutomatedFix is one of those. Are you sure those weren't the ones you remember?

I think this picture shows how meaningless the modern graphics are. The player model clashes with everything, jpeg leaves and the weird cutoff point in the wall is much more pronounced then the original.
It is like playing one of those ai upscaled hd mods on a emulator, everything feels off.

They didn't have time to finish The Lost Artifact, it will get more foliage and shit eventually. If not from Aspyr, then from the mods.

 

[Zewp]

Many mods add A.I processed sound files that are cleaner than the originals, AutomatedFix is one of those. Are you sure those weren't the ones you remember?

No, I mean literally in this remastered collection. The sound quality in the first game was okay. Then I finished that one and started the second game and everything sounds very tinny and low quality. I checked but there doesn't seem to be any settings that could be causing it.

I'll take some time a bit later to see if I can find a sound mod for it.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

I'm not saying this is what the new remaster should've looked like, just a different take I stumbled upon.

 

[Melcar]

Another nerf

Y'all are fuckin queers. Here I am enjoying these lovely updated tiddies and swimsuits that just barely cover the b-hole and here comes the retard brigade crying about a missplaced pixel here, or a random thing that nothing else in the universe would even imagine let alone notice. I want you all to die in a fire. The remakes are frabjous and your childish whining is only drowned out by the sound of your mom dumping your shit/piss bucket out back. Crawl into a hole and die. And fester. Seriously.

What's wrong? That's incline. Not everything in games needs to be highlighted obvious handholdy crap.

I'm always against handholding but this is borderling invisible
Important item with the same color as the ground? That's evil design that's later mocked by future devs and players when talking about old gaming

That's most likely just an oversight from when they started to convert textures. Sloppiness rather than purposeful evil intent.

 

[kangaxx]

It looks like the graphic upgrade in the very first one is "better" than for the next two... which you'd expect. I haven't cracked open those yet because I'm playing in order. I don't mind the new textures etc., but the key thing has caught me out at least once (Greece levels).

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

Some users are finding hints in the game pointing out to a remaster of Tomb raider 4 and they started to theorize about another remaster pack with Chronicles and Angel of darkness. I think it's pretty obvious they will re-release these games too. I don't care about Chronicles, but Tomb raider 4 is probably the best game in the series and a properly finished Angel of darkness would be something interesting to see.

 

[Lacrymas]

They'd have to almost remake Angel of Darkness to get it to a good spot and I don't see that happening. AoD has a lot of problems and jank.

 

[kangaxx]

I really liked TRLR, fuck it I'd play a remaster.

 

[flyingjohn]

Nice lighting changes.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

Nice lighting changes.

That's the issue with having a lighting system, you need light sources. Seems like an oversight where they forgot to put a hole in ceiling.

 

[kangaxx]

Nice lighting changes.

That's the issue with having a lighting system, you need light sources. Seems like an oversight where they forgot to put a hole in ceiling.

That looks like the passages off the panther room in the CoK, but I might be wrong. A hole in the ceiling there wouldn't work, would have to be something else.

 

[kites]

Nice lighting changes.

That's the issue with having a lighting system, you need light sources. Seems like an oversight where they forgot to put a hole in ceiling.

Personally I really dislike they added holes in many ceilings and walls (even where it makes sense but feels weird such as in the coliseum); many are well placed, but in my mind some of these places were remote and deep underground so it shatters that illusion and the feelings of claustrophobia

 

[Lemming42]

They're going off Anniversary I think, which ended up having a ton of outside areas. It really does shatter the atmosphere; I think everyone who played TR1 assumed that you were descending deeper underground with each level, which was a huge part of the experience.

 

[Ezekiel]

If you were to make a modern Tomb Raider that was true to what the series is at its core, how would you solve this? An omnidirectional light on Lara's shoulder or some place on her body?

 

[kangaxx]

If you were to make a modern Tomb Raider that was true to what the series is at its core, how would you solve this? An omnidirectional light on Lara's shoulder or some place on her body?

Just have inexplicably lit braziers in the room. If there are live panthers trapped in small rooms with no apparent food source then there can be braziers.

 

[Ezekiel]

If you were to make a modern Tomb Raider that was true to what the series is at its core, how would you solve this? An omnidirectional light on Lara's shoulder or some place on her body?

Just have inexplicably lit braziers in the room. If there are live panthers trapped in small rooms with no apparent food source then there can be braziers.

Although I would put toon graphics and insane structures with a touch of surrealism in my solitary Tomb Raider, deep caves and structures would not have big cats, bears, dinosaurs, etc. Those would be outside, on your way to the tomb. Monsters, giant spiders that feed on the implied ecosystem of the darkness and stone creatures would be okay for deep caves/interiors.

 

[Lacrymas]

Lara would have a portable light source with spare batteries 100%, along with the flares. I just don't see how she can go spelunking in dark caves and underground structures without such things. But yeah, I always assumed the levels are underground, not just below the surface where a helicopter flying over would see everything. The bigger problem is how long forgotten ruins have ammo for modern weapons and contemporary health kits.

 

[Melcar]

Put headlights on her boobs.