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Tomb Raider: Underworld demo released - download now!

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I can't wait to download the demo.

I was staring at this picture and was imagining the day when a game like this is truly open-world and you could eventually trek to those far mountains. That'd be epic.
 
I'd forgotten about Underworld until I saw it on the 1up Show, and now we have a spectacular-looking demo. Consider it back on my radar in a big way.
 
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The game is quite pretty, and the music suits it a lot. Now, the camera sometimes is a pain in the ass, there are some jumps that you'll have to play a lot with the camera to see where you have to land or see the next ledge you have to jump to. Fighting tigers is not that easy, and camera doesn't help either, they get out of your sight quite easily sometimes, and having to fight two or even three at the same time doesn't help.

oh, and it runs at 30fps.
 
Downloaded, played, completed.

Impressions are the graphics are great (atleast on a par with Uncharted as the comparisons will come) but that is surpassed by the animations, there fluidity and the way it makes the game feel and play.

At first I was completely lost didn't know what I was doing but once I got into my old Tomb Raider mind frame it was fine (tho still hard).

The climbing is so good and its back to the great puzzle format of working out where to go and what to do, the combat seemed fine but nothing special (I kept dying tho).

One of the bad things was the camera, sometimes it felt like I was doing some leaps of faith (thank god for the checkpoints) but after a few play throughs of a climbing puzzle you can look pretty slick pulling the gymnastics off. But I still felt like I was fighting with the camera too much.

Also it felt a little glitchy, maybe its the animation system but at one part I felt like I got stuck in the surroundings and just bounced my way through.


All in all the demo was great tho, I havn't stepped back into a Tomb Raider game for a long time but after the demo they have done this time I'll be picking it up at release for sure.
 
KeioSquad2 said:
This is bull man, I wanna try this on ps3. Someone needs to tell eidos that their "No soup for you" policy just aint cutting it!!!
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Maybe they had limited resources and budget for a demo and that went to polishing the 360 version? Who knows, but I'm sure Eidos' plan doesn't entail pissing off prospective PS3 buyers so much that they won't buy the game.

At least there's A demo out there to judge. Most of the big name games this fall won't even give us that!
 
dammitmattt said:
Maybe they had limited resources and budget for a demo and that went to polishing the 360 version? Who knows, but I'm sure Eidos' plan doesn't entail pissing off prospective PS3 buyers so much that they won't buy the game.

At least there's A demo out there to judge. Most of the big name games this fall won't even give us that!
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Yea but Eidos isn't EA(Never thought I'd be saying some thing like that, but after Dead Space) and system parity might be harder for them. So if CD couldn't get the fram rate smooth on 360, or controls or whatever, then you can just imagine the travisty that is the ps3 version.
 
Game looks absolutely stunning, but that's about the only positive thing I have to say. The camera is terrible in close platforming situations (standing on bars, hanging and swinging) and the controls in general feel slippery as fuck.
Combat feels weird too: dodging tigers never worked for me and I had to use a med kit after each of the 2 encounters. Or I just suck. They maul you pretty quickly.

I feel that the game fails in the most crucial aspect: controls and camera. Those are not issues I can ignore in a platform heavy game. Disappointed.
 
pswii60 said:
I think you need to fix your aspect ratio.
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Think about what my aspect ratio would have to be to stretch a widescreen image like that.

It's at an angle!

The demo is fuck amazing.
 
Just beat the demo...

Gorgeous game - love the water, lighting, shadows - very fluid (30fps), blur is so smooth with the animations too...

Music is perfect for the game, with the lovely jungle sounds and the birds around you squawking and flying away when you get close...

Love the little touches like when she pushes bushes out of the way while running through them, and when she gets wet/dirty like in TR: Legends...

Speaking of Legends, I enjoyed the game as a TR fan but it was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too short - on the other hand, this demo had areas that made you think more than you had to in Legends, it felt like this was a true sequel to the old-school TRs...

My only minor qualms were the camera - thankfully as any TR pro would know, if you're hanging on a ledge and you nudge in the direction of the way you wanna jump and Lara doesn't budge, there is a extremely high chance that you're not supposed to jump that way, and you CAN get the camera to face the way you want it to, you just gonna fight with it for a second - nothing major though...

Tiger fights were tough because they knock you down when close almost every time, and you actually have to be close to do the headshot-matrix move - I didn't die because health packs give you plenty health, and you can survive a few knockdowns without dying...

Checkpoints are a-plenty, so don't worry trial & error people, you get one at every new area, and you respawn quickly...

All in all, brilliant game, and easily the best recent TR game, a must-by for fans!
 
okay.. well.. love the music.. graphics are good enough, but i did experience some really annoying camera issues..

as hyped as i was.. this is not a buy for me. to compare with the obvious, i rather play Uncharted 2... although i do think the puzzles are FAR more interesting in Underworld (from what i've seen on 1-up).

edit: eh yeah.. lara looks great.. :)
 
Skilotonn said:
Just beat the demo...

Gorgeous game - love the water, lighting, shadows - very fluid (30fps), blur is so smooth with the animations too...

Music is perfect for the game, with the lovely jungle sounds and the birds around you squawking and flying away when you get close...

Love the little touches like when she pushes bushes out of the way while running through them, and when she gets wet/dirty like in TR: Legends...

Speaking of Legends, I enjoyed the game as a TR fan but it was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too short - on the other hand, this demo had areas that made you think more than you had to in Legends, it felt like this was a true sequel to the old-school TRs...

My only minor qualms were the camera - thankfully as any TR pro would know, if you're hanging on a ledge and you nudge in the direction of the way you wanna jump and Lara doesn't budge, there is a extremely high chance that you're not supposed to jump that way, and you CAN get the camera to face the way you want it to, you just gonna fight with it for a second - nothing major though...

Tiger fights were tough because they knock you down when close almost every time, and you actually have to be close to do the headshot-matrix move - I didn't die because health packs give you plenty health, and you can survive a few knockdowns without dying...

Checkpoints are a-plenty, so don't worry trial & error people, you get one at every new area, and you respawn quickly...

All in all, brilliant game, and easily the best recent TR game, a must-by for fans!
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Awesome.
 
Amir0x said:
Jesus Christ this game is RAD as hell. Amazing what next-gen power does to something like a Indiana Jones-with-tits concept... the architecture and ruins exudes age and weather, really compelling you to explore. The art is fantastic, the visuals are WOWtastic and the controls are much better than any past Tomb Raider game. Animation could use some work, and flipping around combat with matrix slowdown headshot mode is still the weaker end of the package, but it's still much better overall than past games.

WILL buy instantly day 1.
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Agree with everything you wrote hear. I didnt play but I watched the vids.
PS3 trophies please :D

Gowans007 said:
Downloaded, played, completed.

Impressions are the graphics are great (atleast on a par with Uncharted as the comparisons will come) but that is surpassed by the animations, there fluidity and the way it makes the game feel and play.
Click to expand...
Wait did you just say this has better animations than uncharted?? Or did I read that wrong?
 
Will play the demo later today,too busy with Guitar Hero World Tour,Viking,and Far Cry II at the moment. Based on some of these screens though the game looks fucking hot. Looks like it might top Gears of War and Uncharted (two of my favorite graphic whore games to bust a nut over)....we'll see. I love hearing that the focus is on puzzles and mucho platforming. Seems we don't get too many of these type games as we use to.

No Gameflying for this one,this is an instant purchase the day its released.
 
Big fan of Legend and Anniversary. Only had a few minutes to play it, but here are my impressions.

1) Graphics are much improved. It's night and day difference between Anniversary (was a ported PS2 game anyway), and big jump in detail from Legend.

2) Animation is a lot better. It doesn't feel like a bunch of canned animations anymore.

3) The climb controls feel really good. I mean really, really good. I'm not sure what they did to them (maybe the animation helps), but it doesn't feel like I'm fighting them like I was before.
 
mentalfloss said:
Suggestive themes...mmmarhaghaghh..

I like that she looks asian with her eyes closed.
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Fetish confirmed?:lol

Still haven't played the demo yet will save it till later this evening.

But i'm loving the pics and impressions.
 
Well... I don't know. The controls, the camera and the fighting is still as awful as in TR:L and TR:A. Not at all better IMO, and I beat TR:A for the second time only two weeks ago. I may skip this for the time being, I'm really disappointed that they didn't take this chance to improve something other than the graphics :(
 
KeioSquad2 said:
This is bull man, I wanna try this on ps3. Someone needs to tell eidos that their "No soup for you" policy just aint cutting it!!!
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It still pisses me off that they didn't offer a demo for PS3 owners. Won't even start with the DLC bull... The ultimate smack in the face would be that the PS3 version doesn't run as nicely to complete the Trifecta of fail for PS3 owners. I want this game to be good, which by a lot of impressions here it seems like it's going to be, but I want it to be good on the system I own...
 
fps fanatic said:
Trifecta of fail
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I spit soda on my keyboard laughing, now it's an awful mess. :lol

Reminds me of when my father talks about the Trifecta in football: sack, fumble, touchdown.

Unregistered007 said:
The game looks 10 times weaker than a year old Uncharted.
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Good that we have that sorted then.
 
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