An article in the Metro newspaper today was quite interesting – it was about The Book of Cool which is a book and dvd set you can get telling you how to master all those ‘cool’ tricks such as spinning a pistol in your hand and swerving a ball in American pool – worth a look.
I’ve just finished watching tonight’s episode of Battlestar Galactica – it was GOOD! I love the tension. Seeing Commander Adama try to strangle the cylon Sharon (‘Boomer’)was quite funny, lol. It’ll be interesting to see how they get on later (she’s locked up in the brig because of what happened at the end of Season One – don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet!).
I’ve been trying to find out the exact differences between this BSG and the original version. It’s quite difficult as there’s not much plain info on the Battlestar Galactica website and alot of the original’s hardcore fans just post crap about how Starbuck was a guy in the original but now she’s a woman. Geez, get over it, Starbuck kicks ass, she’s one of my favourite characters (From left to right in the pic above it’s Cmdr Adama, ‘Apollo’, ‘Starbuck’ & ‘Boomer’).
I don’t think I watched much of the original but I recognise some of the characters and the basic story. Based on what i’ve seen I have to say I prefer the new version – I just can’t get past the cheesy look of the original, i’m sorry, my bad – but I’m pretty sure the new version is based on the same story, although probably not word for word.
I’ve started playing Tombraider: The Angel of Darkness again since I mentioned it the other day. I think the reason it was so badly received is because people don’t like change, least of all with such a well established icon. But some change is good – Lara looks alot better, much more smooth and rounded, rather than the blocky figure she used to be on PSX/PSOne.
The main difference, and I have to say I miss it too, is the lack of actual tomb-raiding. Alot of the environments are set in buildings and cities (France, Russia etc) so the exploration is a bit different. But they are gorgeous buildings though – the Hall of Seasons and the Louvre in Paris spring to mind.
One thing I noticed from the start that bugged me was the change in Lara’s weapons. Her unlimited ammo dual pistols are gone. Oh she has the pistols themselves, but you have to constantly pick up ammunition, and while this is more realistic, it forces you to avoid using weapons wherever possible. Did I mention the enemies are pretty tough? Shooting at first glimpse of Lara’s ponytail (and a nice realistically swinging ponytail it is too). Luckily Lara has stealth and hand-to-hand combat moves that work pretty well, but you have to get close enough first to use them properly – they look great though.
Lara still has all the same overall moves as before as well as new ones, but they all look so much better and some of the old ones have been enhanced. While crawling, for example, Lara can now lie flat on her belly and crawl like a marine too (aswell as crawling on all fours), this allows her to access even tighter crawl spaces. She can climb drainpipes aswell which looks believeable and does a nice step-off at the top. She can shimmy round corners on ledges too (I think this was introduced in an earlier game though, TR2 maybe?) but it’s still nice to see and helpful.
There’s also a nice upgrades system that’s been implemented – Lara will tell you if she isn’t strong enough to make that huge jump yet, but roaming elsewhere she will get some practice in to be able to make it. There’s also a grip meter which is more realistic – monkey swinging across a vaulted cavern ceiling is bound to be tiring surely!
I still like the puzzles, and this was the main thing I liked about the original (Tombraider 2 was a bit gun-heavy for my liking) so i’m pleased to see they haven’t dumbed them down much. Despite being an idiot I can still work them out and it’s nice to see it all come together at the end. I haven’t really been stumped yet which is good and bad. I like working at a problem (I once dreamed the answer to a puzzle in TR1 believe it or not!) but I also like to know where i’m going. I think that was the problem with alot of TR3 – it was too open for people to comprehend I think, and I still haven’t finished it myself – there’s lots of back tracking and getting lost and meeting tough enemies.
Another difference in this game, and I’ve just got to this bit, is that you get to control another character – Kurtis Trent. He’s like a rival to Lara, they seem to be after the same artefacts but what his reason is I don’t know yet. I’ve only done some jumps with him so far at the start of the Sanitorium level (Yes, it is spooky – I can hear the wails…) so I’m not sure how he handles himself or how long we have to control him for – i’m hoping we get back to controlling Lara again (please!).
Kurtis walks like a chimpanzee and he’s quite slow to pull himself up from a hanging grab. He’s certainly not as lithe as Lara, but he has a customised pistol hanging from a shoulder harness (It looks cool just to whip it out and to put it back again) and also his trademark weapon, The Glaive, which is sort of a razor-sharp frisbee (Think Xena Warrior Princess only more stylish than a plain halo shape). I haven’t used it yet however. I think he also has a bit of telekinetic ability too so i’m keen to see how that works out.
Overall I like the game. It looks beautiful – nice lighting, shadows and fire effects – and it’s more interactive than before – you can talk to characters and choose which questions to ask/which answers to give to get different responses. It has it’s faults – trying to run away from an invincible skeleton and press a switch to open a trap door to escape I actually fell through the still closed trap door, and pressing the action button on the first Russia level saw me talking to the same character although he was on the other side of the square – but those aside it’s a pleasure to play. Lara has never looked better and I can see the care that has been put into the environments. It’s just sad that not everyone felt like I do and Core Design lost their pride and joy – but Crystal Dynamics seem to be doing a good job with the new game, Tombraider Legend, so watch this space.
