Tomb Raider, Playstation 1

[MistaFreeze]

So I've just beat the original Tomb Raider for Playstation 1 and it's a fantastic game! I can't believe the innovative puzzles that this game and the atmosphere is amazing as well. It's also very challenging. Brought back some great memories. Anybody else replay this recently? I'm starting the 2nd one tonight.

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

I wish the puzzles in the newest tomb raider would have been more difficult. Though I thought that game was very fun as well.

 

[Tweak155]

Dang you have some patience! Although I played quite a few hours of FFVII recently emulated on my PS3. The PS3 actually does a pretty dang good job on getting it to look good on LCD's.

 

[Via]

I've played through TR about 10 complete times, and started a game countless more. I still love it.

The care and artistic effort that went into designing and programming that game is staggering. I still remember feeling for the first time ever that I had stumbled across a world that existed on it's own terms. I love how certain levels would give you a glimpse of a later section that turned out to be barely out of reach, or would allow you to see something off in the distance that you were clearly a long way from reaching. When you'd finally get to those spots the sense of reward was immense.

The music is still among the best ever composed for a game. It does a great job of conveying the atmosphere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdQmWTorTsk

 

[Tweak155]

Dang... I remember playing it way back when and thought shooting the dogs (or whatever they were, don't remember) was annoying. Probably my biggest gripe.

 

[Via]

They were wolves.

the trick was to release the autoaim as soon as one was dead so it could lock on the the next one.

That, and a lot of jumping around and doing rolls as soon as you were surrounded. Those suckers took big chunks out of you.

The leopards were doubly annoying.

 

[smackababy]

The first 3 Tomb Raiders were amazing. I felt the series quality went down after that. Until the newest one, that is.

 

[zerocool84]

I loved it back then but anytime I've tried to play first gen platform 3D games today, the camera and controls always are very hard to get used to again.

 

[pw38]

I remember seeing the original TR back in the day and I couldn't believe how good it looked. What was better was that while there were enemies it was a somewhat sparse game and that only added to my enjoyment as it let me use my imagination to wonder just what was in all those areas I was going through. Such a great game.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Played Tomb Raider 3 a few times on my PS2 for speed runs. Some of those traps and boulders still give me a rush.

All Hallows is also as tough a level as ever.

 

[MistaFreeze]

I'm a few levels into the second one and my fiance loves watching me/helping me play. The graphical differences are very noticeable and the few extra moves you can do are cool. At first I thought it would be an easy game since you can save whenever you want but it's turning out to be just as hard as the first if not a tad harder.

 

[mikeymikec]

1, 2, and 4 are my favourites by far (PC, I heard that they messed up a few PS ports along the way). 5 was buggy, 6 (AOD) was an enormous step backwards (control system largely, though it had many other faults) and it has tailed off since. I might try a demo of the latest one, but I would be surprised if they managed to come up with as precise a system as the old games had because they're still using those stupid 'half cut-scene / press up now' segments.

With a less precise control system, much of the rest of the game has to be dumbed down (if they want to keep approximately the same mix of action and puzzles).

It'll be a sad day when I can no longer pay the original games.

 

[Sulaco]

I might try a demo of the latest one, but I would be surprised if they managed to come up with as precise a system as the old games had because they're still using those stupid 'half cut-scene / press up now' segments.
.

Ahhhhhhh...you mean "QTE" segments.

They have become the bane of this generation. They're tolerable in a very few, specific situations where cinematic impact is needed to tell a story, but they are SO overused in today's games it's disgusting.

I realize they look "totally sick yo" and make all the 12 year olds swoon, but once you get past the cinematic novelty of it, like in Call of Duty, you realize "Oh....the game is....kinda....playing itself..."

Fuck that.

Long story short, I hope it dies painfully in a fire.

 

[exdeath]

A freaking decade laboring over attempting to do 6 DOF and curved surfaces in real time computer graphics, and now that it's trivial, all we do is walk in straight lines and watch FMV.

I do remember how exciting it was having a 3DFx Voodoo and seeing Quake and Tomb Raider and having effortless frame rate and translucent water.

 

[exdeath]

Ahhhhhhh...you mean "QTE" segments.

They have become the bane of this generation. They're tolerable in a very few, specific situations where cinematic impact is needed to tell a story, but they are SO overused in today's games it's disgusting.

I realize they look "totally sick yo" and make all the 12 year olds swoon, but once you get past the cinematic novelty of it, like in Call of Duty, you realize "Oh....the game is....kinda....playing itself..."

Fuck that.

Long story short, I hope it dies painfully in a fire.

Heh... remember when FMV was all the craze when SegaCD/TurboGrafxCD came out?

 

[mikeymikec]

A freaking decade laboring over attempting to do 6 DOF and curved surfaces in real time computer graphics, and now that it's trivial, all we do is walk in straight lines and watch FMV.

I do remember how exciting it was having a 3DFx Voodoo and seeing Quake and Tomb Raider and having effortless frame rate and translucent water.

Probably because in the nineties a wall texture was probably about 16KB to load into memory and was used just about everywhere on the map. These days we expect better graphics so there would in theory be much more art work that needs doing per level... unless you simplify the level.

 

[exdeath]

Probably because in the nineties a wall texture was probably about 16KB to load into memory and was used just about everywhere on the map. These days we expect better graphics so there would in theory be much more art work that needs doing per level... unless you simplify the level.

Oh noes, then the game couldn't be made in less than a year and paying a few artists $50-100k a year for a whole extra year would cut a couple hundred K out of our billions of profits, couldn't have that.

Besides people will continue buying the substandard games by the millions regardless so why bother.

 

[HeXen]

A freaking decade laboring over attempting to do 6 DOF and curved surfaces in real time computer graphics, and now that it's trivial, all we do is walk in straight lines and watch FMV.

I do remember how exciting it was having a 3DFx Voodoo and seeing Quake and Tomb Raider and having effortless frame rate and translucent water.

Those intricate map designs were just empty boxes with enemies and that same pic is always used in these discussions over and over when it's only true for a very few specific games. I would much prefer a straight line map filled with detail and believable enviro than a map of boxes attached together.
Doing a highly detailed map like 1993", today seems retarded compared to just doing an open world sand box game but I guess it depends on what you are really trying to compare everything to exactly.

Besides people will continue buying the substandard games by the millions regardless so why bother.

When has there not been substandard games by the dozens? Every year from the 70's upward has been filled with dozens of piss poor quality games with only a few gems.

 

[mikeymikec]

Oh noes, then the game couldn't be made in less than a year and paying a few artists $50-100k a year for a whole extra year would cut a couple hundred K out of our billions of profits, couldn't have that.

It wasn't a defence of the games industry's behaviour, I'm just pointing out a complication.

 

[exdeath]

It wasn't a defence of the games industry's behaviour, I'm just pointing out a complication.

It's not really a complication.

They could if they wanted to, but then they wouldn't have any zero day DLC skins and texture packs to charge you for!

 

[Sulaco]

Heh... remember when FMV was all the craze when SegaCD/TurboGrafxCD came out?

Your post actually reminded me of something.

I got a Sega CD shortly after they were released, and the first (and only, for awhile) game I had was Sewer Shark. Yes. Sewer Shark. It was a pack-in with the unit.

"Mom! Dad! It's just like a movie! It's like playing a movie" my brother and I would shriek.

Then..........came the realization of what the game was. What the extent of it was.

And now, after thinking about it for a minute, it's startling and scary to see just HOW MUCH modern QTE segments have in common with utter abortion shit like Sewer Shark.

You push a button/direction within a second of being prompted, watch the game play itself. Push another button, watch the game play itself. Push another one, watch the game play itself.

We really have come full circle.

 

[mikeymikec]

It's not really a complication.

They could if they wanted to, but then they wouldn't have any zero day DLC skins and texture packs to charge you for!

The more time spent on artwork pre-release means increasing development time (therefore paying employees much more for a project that isn't earning *right now*) and from a graphical perspective a game becomes less special compared to the competition at the time, the longer the project drags out. Factor in the risk level of any such project being a flop.

I'm surprised the 'mission pack' concept didn't catch on a heck of a lot more than it did - build a solid game to begin with, then build more levels later. The risk level is less because the focus isn't innovating, it's continuing the same thing as before and giving fans what they want. It also provides more opportunity/reason to patch bugs on games post-release (something that XCOM: Enemy Unknown could really do with... enough shooting through walls and randomly appearing enemies in nonsensical places!).

Bringing my point a little more on topic, a good few of the early TR games followed this line of thinking, at least to some extent. TR3 - 5 had some minor graphical improvements but nothing major, and I don't think many people played those games for the "amazing graphics", I certainly didn't and I was in my teens until I think v5 came along.

 

[Via]

Minor improvements? Lara's boobs got way better over the first few games.

You call that minor?

 

[mikeymikec]

Please read what I wrote rather than obsessing over Lara's boobs I said TR2-5.

- edit - I actually wrote 3-5, I meant 2-5 I think.

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

obsessing over Lara's boobs

I thought that is why this game was made..?