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

[Jvegi]

Magical light in dungeons is a suspension of disbelief thing that is integral to the design of games since their conception. If the remake tries to fix it, it's the uphill battle that can't and shouldn't be won.

The best post in the history of The Codex:

There is always some light because when the tunnel entrances collapsed some of the light couldn't get away and is trapped forever in the tunnels.

 

[Chippy]

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.

I was thinking of buying this at full price. Got kinda nostalgic at the title music menu. Apparently the publisher inserted some message at the start of the game: ""The games in this collection contain offensive depictions of people and cultures rooted in racial and ethnic prejudices. These stereotypes are deeply harmful, inexcusable, and do not align with our values at Crystal Dynamics".

And they censored boobs on the boss guy's jacket. But anyway, I've got fond momories of this game, and if it's playable I think I might get it.

But apparently in a GOG review (as seems to be the trend these days) you have to agree to a supposedly legally binding contract not to mod the game. They did that with the Middle Earth sequel, and there was hardly any mods for it. I expect the crystal dynamics people don't want this game to become popular with the original gaming, and Lara Croft boobs on Nexus.

But then I hear the woketards on the Nexus modding site are censoring mods as well.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Uh, did they add advanced jiggle physics to her tits and ass? I mean.... rounded is nice but jiggly might be nicer.

 

[Jvegi]

You hear a lot of things. They can or can not be true.

What is definitely true however is the fact that the new Lara's model is an ugly sims 2 caricature. I want an option to play with new textures and the old, superior model.

A question. Were Lara's foot steps sounds always so bad in tr2? I have the og tr1 installed and she doesn't sound like ironman stomping on concrete in that version.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

She put lead in her shoes to train her legs. That's why she can jump like a frog.

 

[lycanwarrior]

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Re: Updated graphics making essential items near-invisible. I tried to see if this thread mentioned it, but there's a setting (in the third game, at least) where an exclamation point appears above Lara's head if she's near an interactable item, like a switch on the wall or an item on the ground.

Since I played TR3 back in the day for all of five minutes, I can't tell whether that's an original feature or something added by the remasters.

But I think it's worth mentioning all the same.

 

[Zlaja]

I tried to see if this thread mentioned it, but there's a setting (in the third game, at least) where an exclamation point appears above Lara's head if she's near an interactable item, like a switch on the wall or an item on the ground.

This feature exists in all 3 games.

 

[kangaxx]

It's definitely a remaster thing though. I turned it off.

 

[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.

I was thinking of buying this at full price. Got kinda nostalgic at the title music menu. Apparently the publisher inserted some message at the start of the game: ""The games in this collection contain offensive depictions of people and cultures rooted in racial and ethnic prejudices. These stereotypes are deeply harmful, inexcusable, and do not align with our values at Crystal Dynamics".

And they censored boobs on the boss guy's jacket. But anyway, I've got fond momories of this game, and if it's playable I think I might get it.

But apparently in a GOG review (as seems to be the trend these days) you have to agree to a supposedly legally binding contract not to mod the game. They did that with the Middle Earth sequel, and there was hardly any mods for it. I expect the crystal dynamics people don't want this game to become popular with the original gaming, and Lara Croft boobs on Nexus.

But then I hear the woketards on the Nexus modding site are censoring mods as well.

There's already mods for these on the N*xus. Maybe these legal disclaimers are common these days but don't actually mean a thing if the devs and publishers don't bother to enforce their "rights"? Still who knows what hidden poison pills Crystal Dynamics has added into the legal mumbo jumbo, it would serve their interests if all efforts to breathe life into classic TR failed.

You hear a lot of things. They can or can not be true.

What is definitely true however is the fact that the new Lara's model is an ugly sims 2 caricature. I want an option to play with new textures and the old, superior model.

A question. Were Lara's foot steps sounds always so bad in tr2? I have the og tr1 installed and she doesn't sound like ironman stomping on concrete in that version.

TR2's sounds were always compressed-sounding and "special" in a way, TR1 sound design was more natural despite the dithering hiss present in all sound files. I don't know where the AutomatedFix and TRMain got their better quality audio for TR1, maybe from the PS1 disc. The PS1 version was supposedly more advanced compared to what PC got, and those mods insert all the missing stuff back for the PCs whilst improving the rest.

 

[Melcar]

I think the source mods and similar use the PS1 sound files from the CD. Usually they had much better quality.

 

[Jvegi]

Those brown switches on dark wooden walls in Venice are close to invisible. It clearly was playtested by someone who remembers it's there by heart. It's nothing like that in the original.

 

[Baron Dupek]

sometimes pendulum swings back

 

[Ezekiel]

That Angelina Jolie he has in the corner is so fucking stupid because of the obvious padded cups she wears in the (bad) film.

 

[Ezekiel]

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.

Maybe just have sconces/torches on the walls, lit magically without the player having to activate them. Or we could imply that the stone guardians, walking skeletons, walking armor sets or whatever that she occasionally encounters light them. Glowing plants. The occasional hole in the ceiling, but obviously not possible in every tomb. Having the light source on her light up the entire huge cavern wouldn't look right and throwing flares everywhere would just become annoying. Occasionally you could have a pitch black area like in Dark Souls, I guess.

Argh, someone should seriously just steal the original idea and character, change them on a superficial level, produce it with a smaller budget targeting a smaller audience and call it something else.

 

[Lacrymas]

Argh, someone should seriously just steal the original idea and character, change them on a superficial level, produce it with a smaller budget targeting a smaller audience and call it something else.

Technically, we have something like this already - Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. There's only one game in this style, though.

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

Adaptive night vision is already built into your eyes, just loiter a moment and your eyes can adjust to the dimmer surroundings, she has sunglasses so she wont go blind when stepping into a well lit room. Its not green googly eyes bump in the night specops vision, but its enough to get about with dim lighting, unrealistic in a tomb underground, but a girl running about the jungle in shorts and not having her legs sliced up and eaten by leeches ticks and mosquitos before begging off to go back to the resort to lie by the pool is unrealistic also.

 

[Semiurge]

Larson's head is actually smaller than Lara's. It's a universal fact that men have bigger heads 99% of the time. This makes him look even more like a tall woman in drag, those petite features are bad enough. Pierre is similar. On the other hand all other male characters look fine, like as if they were modelled by a different person. They don't look like Disney princes, and Willard's cutscene version looks appropriately unhinged even before he becomes Willard-thing. Must be the eyes. Sophia Leigh looks great, but Natla's cutscene model looks too similar. Still better than the monkey-faced thing from the FMVs though.

 

[911 Jumper]

Is that comparison image genuine? Interesting that they have changed her top to reveal more.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

sometimes pendulum swings back

Well achktually it's a reference to an artwork from the TRIII strategy guide

 

[std::namespace]

which is from a wallpaper from tr3 promo material

...maybe

 

[std::namespace]

i had this one

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

 

[DemonKing]

Not sure if having only 3,000 players yourself straight after launch is worth crowing about though...

 

[flyingjohn]

The more I remember tomb raider the more I despise Eidos:
-Butchered the original tomb raider games past 1
-Butchered AOD by forcing the studio to make two games instead of focusing on one
-Butchered Deus ex/Thief sequels because of console focus

If any other publisher was in charge, we could have decent to great Tomb/Deus ex games for another decade. Hell, even Ea would have done better.