By John Walker on January 11th, 2011 at 11:44 pm.
Yes! You heard right. These are the only images from the forthcoming Tomb Raider reboot to be posted here on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, today. Never before seen in full on our website, you won’t see us posting these images anywhere else. If we do, we’ll sue us.
What a difference a week makes.
They’re a pretty gloomy, if fine looking bunch. Crank up your brightness, click on them for the full size versions, and squint at the following:
11/01/2011 at 23:46 Sky says:
That will show us!
11/01/2011 at 23:48 Starky says:
Nice bullshots there.
12/01/2011 at 10:47 BAReFOOt says:
The inside of the elbow is the last but one* image… not so nice though. Looks like a bug.
11/01/2011 at 23:50 The Hammer says:
I’m calling you out, John; I’m going to post your images again, in your comments thread! Ha!
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/11/jan/tr1b.jpg
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/11/jan/tr2.jpg
11/01/2011 at 23:51 John Walker says:
You are in SO much trouble.
12/01/2011 at 00:04 The Hammer says:
I’ve totally made you lose your reader share now.
12/01/2011 at 01:02 HexagonalBolts says:
haha, I can so imagine John saying that with one hand on hip, a wagging right hand finger in time with the words, and a stern scowl on his face.
12/01/2011 at 01:27 Samuelson says:
Press X to not die Hammer, press X to not die…
11/01/2011 at 23:50 Isometric says:
RPS Exclusive!
11/01/2011 at 23:51 qeloqoo says:
Hey, where are GI watermarks? :D
11/01/2011 at 23:53 John Walker says:
Oddly enough, Squenix sent them to us with two versions of each image, one watermarked with the name of the game. It felt like a test.
11/01/2011 at 23:58 Auspex says:
No more screenshots for RPS then :(
11/01/2011 at 23:52 Peter Radiator Full Pig says:
Blame Kieron for anything that goes wrong.
He is legally responsible for this site? Sue him for every penny!
Just the pennies, not the punds and such, though.
11/01/2011 at 23:55 Lewie Procter says:
I only just noticed the QTE. Bloody sick of them.
12/01/2011 at 00:03 Giant, fussy whingebag says:
Don’t worry, it’s a completely non-interactive, overly long cutscene instead!
12/01/2011 at 00:06 The Hammer says:
Wait. I can’t play this game.
My keyboard doesn’t have an LT OR an RT button!
Doomed.
12/01/2011 at 00:12 Lewie Procter says:
Yeah, on the PC you have to press two buttons for those commands.
12/01/2011 at 00:22 Magrippinho says:
Don’t worry folks, it’s actually a “Typing of the Dead” section of the game and not a QTE at all!
12/01/2011 at 00:49 Lilliput King says:
Gah, reply fail.
12/01/2011 at 02:53 Bhazor says:
Looks very Heavy Rain to me.
12/01/2011 at 04:12 jonfitt says:
That’s exactly what I thought.
Perhaps typing L, T, L, T, L, T, L, T, rapidly will make it more like Daley Thompson’s Decathlon and less like an interactive cut- scene.
12/01/2011 at 09:21 adonf says:
You can do that on any game with non-interactive cutscenes if you have a spare, unplugged keyboard. It works with DVDs too (I have not tested this on Blue-Ray discs)
14/01/2011 at 09:21 RegisteredUser says:
No worries.
The industry has read your feedback and come up with a great solution that will help all.
It has been confirmed to me that any game coming out on consoles in 2011 forward will now only require you to simply press “Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start” to open doors, reload your weapon or interact with either your environment or NPCs in any way.
As you can see, the future is natural, seamless and immersive.
11/01/2011 at 23:59 Text_Fish says:
Looks reminiscent of The Descent! Most interesting.
13/01/2011 at 00:31 ArtyFishal says:
Awesome comment! I was not interested in this the least until you said that. Great horror flick! The Descent is perfect for this type of game!
12/01/2011 at 00:05 phenom_x8 says:
hah, not gonna miss the news this time!
John, can I ask you something??
Did G.I have actually sue RPS and make it lost million pounds because of it?
If its true where is the courts settled? I’m gonna make sure to held a protest as your supporter in front of it!
Anyone else dare to join me?? :)
12/01/2011 at 00:07 John Walker says:
No, not at all. We complied with the request, matter settled.
12/01/2011 at 00:33 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
John Walker: Weak. I thought RPS had backbone. Specifically, the Infinite Backbone of Horace.
12/01/2011 at 02:28 Chris D says:
Horace’s backbone is indeed infinite.
….and therefore needs to be very, very flexible.
12/01/2011 at 03:58 JohnnyMaverik says:
It’s cool man, I trolled the G.I. editor who made those threats on Twitter, justice served me thinks ^_^
12/01/2011 at 00:10 Ricc says:
Look at the screenshots where Lara is holding a torch. Is it just me, or do her neck and torso just not fit together? The dirt on her skin stops exactly above the necklace… This drove me mad in Dragon Age Origins, but I can’t understand it in a game with a single playable character.
12/01/2011 at 00:15 The Hammer says:
For added weirdness, look at the tip of her belt in the penultimate picture.
Not too sure I like the graphics of the new Tomb Raider. I’m liking the design itself, but I’m not impressed with the quality of, for example, the water. Too many of the textures look smudged too.
I suppose it’ll all improve closer to release, tho.
12/01/2011 at 00:18 rei says:
Nevermind the belt, what happened to her insides? There’s no way that sunken abdomen can hold all the vital parts.
12/01/2011 at 00:21 The Hammer says:
And what the hell is going on with her left arm?
12/01/2011 at 00:51 Lilliput King says:
I was gonna say, yeah. Lara Croft and the Cavernous Armpit.
12/01/2011 at 00:11 outoffeelinsobad says:
Someone gonna come in here with an AoD joke? Because I don’t think I could do it justice.
12/01/2011 at 00:15 rei says:
She sure is having a rough time.
You should’ve taken the opportunity to plaster your watermarks all over those pics. Like so!
http://i53.tinypic.com/24mht7p.jpg
12/01/2011 at 00:19 Bhazor says:
Watch-out! Shes reaching for the Shotgun!
12/01/2011 at 00:21 Colthor says:
Ooh, so it’s a romantic comedy then?
12/01/2011 at 00:27 Bhazor says:
Anyone else already missing the knockabout silliness of the old games?
I don’t know this just looks off to me, maybe it’s just that playing as a woman and getting her horribly injured makes me feel a little uncomfortable especially when it’s going down the realism route.
12/01/2011 at 01:36 Basilicus says:
Yet we don’t feel bad about playing as a man and getting him injured in realistic games. Because women are weak and need our protection, right?
12/01/2011 at 01:56 stahlwerk says:
I hope hope hope that these are just PR selected to look as distinct from the previous games as possible, otherwise I’m a bit worried as well, Bhazor. The most unsettling is the second one, both for taste and execution. Is this supposed to be some kind of Seven-style-serial-killer cave? Why is there a picture of a antique-world lemming on the wall? Who keeps the candles burning? Who ties up anatomy-lesson skeletons?
As for the new look, thinking back to TR1 / Anniversary, the atlantean beasts and environments had a lot of gore/vore aesthetics going on, which may count as a bit of a precedent in regards to the “edgy, strange, serious == blood, flesh, helplessness” design depicted in some of these screens. In short, I’m no fan of this here material (yet, perhaps), but I’ll see what the future holds for Young Lara v2.0 before mourning the franchise (yet again).
12/01/2011 at 01:57 Bhazor says:
@Basilicus
No.
In videogames women are almost universally sexualized, just look at every previous Tomb Raider game. Now she’s gone into a gorey horror game moving it uncomfortably close to the torture porn films that are so in vogue since the film industry was taken over by fans of 80s B-movies.
And yes seeing a woman in pain, even if it’s a book film or game, makes me uncomfortable. So I guess that makes me the bad guy here then.
12/01/2011 at 02:21 stahlwerk says:
I know this is all very subjective, but I’d like to add that seeing anyone being inflicted pain (if depicted realistically or with enough cheap tricks to create empathy), be it woman, man, child or beast is not my definition of a good time. A good friend of mine has a thing for slasher/splatter flicks, and even when he abridges their stories it makes me lose my appetite for the rest of the day. A recent example was a certain french film, which on his retelling sounded so unbelievably cruel that I had to look it up on imdb to prove to myself that it even existed. Well, some of these screenshots remind me of stills from that movie.
Edit: so what I wanted to say is that if they’re really aiming for this aesthetic in their game, they might do so at least proudly and aim for the AO/18+ rating. But don’t expect me to enjoy playing that game then.
12/01/2011 at 02:23 jaheira says:
@stahlwerk
Hmm … “Martyrs” by any chance?
12/01/2011 at 02:31 stahlwerk says:
No, but close (that’s one he told me about as well :-D) and I won’t say the title, lest someone google it. Don’t want anyone to lose a good nights sleep by curiosity.
Let’s just say it involves scissors.
12/01/2011 at 02:51 Bhazor says:
Is it the one with Charlotte Gainsbourg in it?
It’s not that I’m squeamish of the effects it’s more the constant idea that someone somewhere is getting off to it.
12/01/2011 at 03:17 stahlwerk says:
So, any bets who’s attacking who in that last picture? I have a hard time parsing it.
12/01/2011 at 03:19 Basilicus says:
Yes, but we don’t know if this is torture porn pain or if it’s enjoying-watching-Harrison-Ford-gruff-it-out-as-Indiana-Jones pain. To me, it smacks of the latter. She seems to be exploring or committing some kind of heroic action in every photo but the one in which she’s hanging upside down. I’ve long wanted a female hero who can take a bit of action, wipe the blood from her lip, and continue to get the job done.
I mean, it’s like saying Alias was Jennifer Garner torture porn, because she gets tortured in the show. It’d be like saying what’s OK for Tom Cruise or Pierce Brosnan as larger-than-life spies isn’t OK for her. It would be ignoring 95% of everything else she does, but it wouldn’t be a very good action show unless she got the snot beat out of her from time to time, as I expect to happen to all action heroes – male or female.
Then again, this may be a cultural thing. I’m American. I like my action heroes scrappy and up against horrendous odds. You all seem to like action heroes with more panache and charm. There’s nothing wrong with either mold, but that’s my point. There’s nothing wrong with either mold, and we hardly know the setting of this scene, how it takes place, or what happens to whom therein.
12/01/2011 at 06:41 Tom Camfield says:
@ Bhazor
It’ll be the one with Gainsbourg if it has a scene with scissors. It’s a really cool film, anyone who likes the old Cronenberg body horror films should enjoy it.
I was wondering – why would you worry that someone somewhere was getting off to it? Are you worried that someone somewhere is enjoying throwing lego Indy off a bridge? (I don’t mean that to be utterly facetious, I’m interested because I watch an epic amount of horror so your reaction is alien to me.)
Kudos to the developers for making Lara’s boobs smaller and her waist wider, she looks a little more realistic now, albeit it’s still the equivalent of a pretty actress playing a scientist in a Hollywood film, just not someone like Angelina Jolie now.
12/01/2011 at 11:18 skinlo says:
Theres a light hearted comedy called ‘A Serbian Film’. I suggest you watch it.
12/01/2011 at 11:29 Teddy Leach says:
What Bhazor said. And keeps saying. I do utterly agree with every word.
12/01/2011 at 17:09 Urthman says:
Are there other games that so lovingly depict every scratch and wound and trickle of blood on the almost-shirtless sexy torso of the male protagonist?
Because I would be equally disgusted with that as well.
Yuck. Do not want.
13/01/2011 at 00:45 ArtyFishal says:
The movie mentioned by stahlwerk is Inside: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0856288/ a masterpiece of suspense and one of the best examples of the New French Extremity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_French_Extremity . Martyrs has been mentioned before and that is also amazing:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029234/ . These movies should be seen by any horror aficionado. I fully support this type of movie.
12/01/2011 at 00:52 Jimbo says:
Is she slipping on a bunch of banana skins in the… *sigh*
12/01/2011 at 00:57 Mistabashi says:
Modestly-sized chesticles! Truly this is evidence of gaming’s new era of maturity.
In all seriousness, I really don’t think this is a good route to take the franchise, if you want to make a gritty dark survival adventure then I’m all for that, but tying it to the Lara Croft franchise seems to undermine that premise given the previous games. This looks more like Silent Hill than Lara Croft, bring back the ridiculously-proportioned, theiving, a-moral posh bird we all know or just resign her to the bin of “characters that are no longer valid” along with Duke Nukem et al and create a new franchise free from any baggage.
Of course, we all know that’s not how the games industry works, it being largely based around the flogging of horses (be they dead or alive).
12/01/2011 at 01:07 Xercies says:
No and I really hate arguing this because it always goes on death ears, its about knowing that a traditional IP will sell and then doing some creative with it and then knowing it won’t sell and losing that money(and recognition with it because well RPS is in a bubble)
12/01/2011 at 06:13 thebigJ_A says:
It’s “FALLS on deaF ears”. But I think I like your version better. ;)
12/01/2011 at 00:58 deanbmmv says:
So I won’t get threatened with legal action should I tweet about these ones then?
:P
12/01/2011 at 09:56 rei says:
Check out the alt text on the top one!
12/01/2011 at 01:01 Zwebbie says:
When you’ve got blood splatters everywhere, that seems to me like a good time to have unique UV space for each arm. Asymmetrical arms aren’t exactly crazy future tech.
12/01/2011 at 02:10 stahlwerk says:
Ouch, good eyes on that one. But it may simply be an issue with both arms having the same “dirt-state” and they just didn’t get around to implement randomized decals, yet.
12/01/2011 at 01:43 golden_worm says:
She is filthy.
12/01/2011 at 03:15 pupsikaso says:
Lies, I’ve seen some of those already!
12/01/2011 at 03:19 The Dude says:
So how long before somebody makes a nude patch for this after release, you guys!
I’m betting on less than three days.
12/01/2011 at 05:11 Sergey Galyonkin says:
Now send some legal letters to GI! Probably starting with “HA-HA!”
12/01/2011 at 07:05 ado says:
Oh wow, they’re going really dark with this one it seems. Too bad, I liked Tomb Raider’s pulpy nature, at least in those early games…
12/01/2011 at 07:32 GoodPatton says:
I don’t know why but this screams motion control to me, if that turns out to be true…I’m out…
12/01/2011 at 07:40 dadioflex says:
Cool. Lara visits a Sixth House cavern.
12/01/2011 at 08:20 Alabaster Crippens says:
So, I’m sure it’s unfashionable to still talk about body image issues in relation to Lara Croft, especially as she’s been rebootified and all that, but my GOSH are her arms a bit skinny. Particularly in that second to last screenshot.
If past performance indicates anything, shouldn’t she be spending half her time dangling from ledges? She tries it with those and she’ll be snapping.
(plus hyperbole and fretting about anorexia, skeletor and true life magazines etc)
I am very impressed with the poses she’s in though. Some potentially quite realistic movement by the look of it (except they are just selected images and it may look horrid when in actual motion)
12/01/2011 at 08:37 jefftron says:
Don’t worry, her new thunder thighs more than make up for her skinny arms.
12/01/2011 at 09:01 Stephen Roberts says:
The improportionality of character design and physical ability has been about for a while. I would wager you can sprint faster and longer than Commander Shepard. And jump higher than Gordon Freeman. And they both have tricked out upgrades, or something. I always thought Altair looked a little heavy for all the climbing he did as well. Then there’s Mirror’s Edges Faith, who could believably be quite light, but still no where near enough upperbody strength on display to do the tricks she does. Not to mention the original Lara. I don’t recall her being anything but ‘buxom’.
12/01/2011 at 08:21 Flaringo says:
every. fucking. mainstream. game. i dont want to mash buttons while watching cutscenes, i want to play a cool game :(
12/01/2011 at 09:46 Michael Hoss says:
Now THAT showed G.I. everything! Or somewhat. Something. Ah you know what I mean.
12/01/2011 at 10:41 HermitUK says:
Why is the bloke from Mystery of the Druids attacking her in the last screenshot, I wonder?
I do hope the entire game isn’t set inside the Cave of Browns and Greys.
12/01/2011 at 12:56 TomA says:
Button cutscenes really don’t annoy me that much as long as they’re not done excessively, but thats probrably because I loved shemnue so much.
12/01/2011 at 13:04 Initialised says:
Those boobs still aren’t PhysX enabled?
See how they don’t droop over her face in tr5.jpg
Deeply disappointed
12/01/2011 at 13:15 somnolentsurfer says:
When did Tomb Raider get so brown?
12/01/2011 at 17:15 TheTourist314 says:
Boobs not big enough.
12/01/2011 at 17:41 deimos says:
Love the look, but WTH’s going on with the gruffy-ness? I mean she could wipe that off in a level-load or two. :P
Anyhoo, if they’re showing this as ‘battle damage’ as you go thru the game does this have realistic/locational-damage?
12/01/2011 at 23:51 Urthman says:
$20 says the only wounds shown on her character model are the ones she gets in (unskippable) cutscenes.
13/01/2011 at 18:12 sneetch says:
Like the Prince of Persia’s deteriorating shirt in the excellent The Sands of Time?
Hope so, surprised she doesn’t just have a wash though. I mean there’s a lot of water around there.
13/01/2011 at 06:26 TitusCrow says:
I notice a fair few comments on the proportion of arms, body etc.. I thought I’d stumbled onto the forums at concept art. org :) Very heartening that you are all finding your inner Auguste Rodin. Lets hope that this game does not lead us to the gates of hell ( a sculptors jk )
In one other notable comment I must quote the redoubtable Basilicus -
“…but the one in which she’s hanging upside down. I’ve long wanted a female hero who can take a bit of action, wipe the blood from her lip, and continue to get the job done”
Was I the only one for who this evoked entirely the wrong sort of image of the game. I blame it on the websites that I err.. accidentally stumble upon from time to time. You are looking for a sim card before you know it you have accidentally added an ampersand, which is so near the I on a querty keyboard… I’m not on trial here!
The game looks interesting.