I completed this on Friday, even though there are a bunch of treasures I still need to collect and some alternate paths I remember not taking on my first run through. I’ll probably go back for these at some point, but the main story is done. Overall I’d say it’s a good addition to the series, hampered by what can sometimes be a dodgy camera (like when you’re hanging precariously - it’s a bitch trying to see where to jump for a hand-hold and you end up leaping blindly to your death). Also, the first few levels breeze by, with Thailand holding the first real challenge in the lizard room. It does get quite a bit trickier when you reach Mexico however, and the bike is a nice addition and along with Natla as the game’s primary antagonist, reclaims some of the original Tomb Raider atmosphere. Lara’s token motorbike never feels overused but is used enough to be satisfying (spinning and hitting giant spiders with the wheels was a personal favourite!). Also, speeding through an ancient temple is both exhilarating and nicely rebellious. Another nice addition is Lara’s yacht - while always stationary, it gives you the feeling that you are in fact globe-trotting without compromising the level-based system prevalent through all the Tomb Raiders to date. There’s nothing cooler than taking a swan-dive into the med in the first level and scouring submerged ruins with a torch (again, adding to the atmosphere) and the fact that it’s the first Tomb Raider where you can actually enjoy underwater environments without having to worry about drowning. Some of the locations are huge and memorable, like the vast entrance to the underground Mexico section flanked by massive fire-breathing pillars and the underwater sections with gargantuan Thor statues. Some of the single room puzzles can take a while and are pretty clever, harking back to similar locations in the original games. Combat appears to take a backseat, and although shooting two enemies at once and shooting off walls when climbing is pretty cool, it is gravely underused. Many of the cool moves from Legend (where combat was awesome) seem to have been removed which is a shame, because Lara’s motion capture makes her really fluid. Being a Crystal Dynamics game the combat in Legend was very reminiscent of Legacy of Kain: Defiance, which was no bad thing because that was immensely fun to play. Also much of the destructible scenery used to squash or electrocute enemies is gone. Lack of decent combat aside, the exploration and atmosphere are awesome and you feel like a real tomb raider. A problem plagued by Crystal Dynamics games are the lack of boss fights so memorable in their first Legacy of Kain game (and in my opinion, still the best) - Soul Reaver. I wanted more ancient monsters to step out of ruins, I wanted to kick the crap out of Thor and a serpent or two, but no such luck. Another similarity with the original is the fact that there are very few human opponents in the game, which was OK, but a rival explorer who you actually see (and get to fight without mashing one or two buttons like in Anniversary) would have held the story together better with a constant threat of death on your hands. Like I said, it’s a cool game and you should definitely play it if you’re a Tomb Raider fan, but if Dynamics can look back to Tomb Raider Legend for the combat, the original Tomb Raider for the rival explorers, stick some extra boss battles in and keep the great exploration and atmosphere of this game, the next one should be the definitive Tomb Raider.

The reason I made no blog/s yesterday was because I’d gone out to do a spot of Christmas shopping (which was more than a spot, really) and for a bit of retail therapy by buying myself an X box 360. We’d had a look in Game’s window on Friday night as we walked past and spotted the 60gb hard drive premium model with Far Cry 2 and Gears of War 1 & 2 for £189 but I thought I’d better have a shop around to make sure there wasn’t anything cheaper. There wasn’t - as it turns out this is a really cool deal and the best (so far as I can see) on the high street right now. I’d heard these games were pretty good, my only reservation was that I really wanted Tomb Raider, which if you’ve read this previous post, you’ll know is the reason I’ve decided to go next gen. I forked out an extra 40 quid for this as the guy in Game told me they wouldn’t negotiate on the games that come with the X Box as per head office’s command. Fair enough. They’re all bloody good games from what I’ve played so far! I’ll probably put some detailed reviews on each in the next week or two, so I’ll keep you posted. Here are my initial thoughts:

Tomb Raider Underworld

Tomb Raider Underworld was the first game I loaded up on the console. Lara Croft games will always have a special place in my heart (that sounded corny!) since I’ve played them all so far and enjoyed every one. Underworld starts pretty abruptly and throws you straight in at the deep end. Unfortunately at first I had to wrestle with the camera (as with most Tomb Raider games to begin with) but now I’ve got the hang of it again I’ve been fine. It was a little difficult trying to give myself a refresher while the building I was standing in was burning though! Basically the controls feel similar, if not the same as Tomb Raider Legend and she’s retained all her cool moves with some new additions like the “chimney jump” (I think that’s what it’s called) where you can jump up between vertical pillars (reminds me of this hard-to-execute jump from Super Metroid, the name of which eludes me). What is cool about this game - without giving too much away, is the fact that you want to find out why you start where you start and how the situation came to be, but you’re kept guessing. Rewind a week and you find yourself on a yacht in the Med, a scene which is awesome because you feel so isolated as the only boat in an endless sea. You feel like a Tomb Raider! Diving down and reaching ruins is even cooler with the use of a torch and muddying yourself as you crawl through tight tunnels is a nice effect. Details like this make the game a joy to play. I’m only three levels in so far (now a lush Thailand level) but it’s been really cool so far. What’s nice too is that you keep your yacht with you, but the game still revolves around levels/large areas rather than being hub-based, which is in-keeping with the rest of the series. Already there have been a couple of things in this which I haven’t seen in other games and the second level is superb.

Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 begins with an excellent jeep-ride through a fictional African state, giving you glimpses of the vast scenery you’ll be able to jog and drive through in the game proper. As a mercenary you’ll shoot, kill and ally yourself with characters in game. You’ll even need to syringe yourself to stop the effects of malaria. Attention to detail is superb - enemy guns picked off corpses are unreliable and jam during battle, your flamethrower (yes, a freakin’ flamethrower!) burns grass and trees and spreads until it burns itself out. You claim safe houses by killing their guards and you can choose whether to be seen as a bastard (and basically have everyone on your back) or joining forces with other characters.

Gears of War 1 & 2

Apparently the first one was a record-breaker. I’ve sort of been out of the loop with games but I remember the adverts and recognising how cool it looked. Everything about these games reeks style and it is the ease of use that makes them a joy to play. One button can have you hiding behind a wall, press it again and you can vault over and find a new place to hide, forcing the alien buggers back. Two-player is awesome, and once I set up X box Live I’m gonna get myself shot to death in online multiplayer.

One thing I’ve been thinking about is that I enjoy this whole blogging malarkey but I realise I’m not all that focussed on what I want to achieve with it. Or rather I am, but the title of this blog is misleading and a bit too broad. I love writing and I think I’m all right at it (story writing I mean) but I don’t feel I can give much insight into the writing world, I’d rather talk about movies and games and leave the writing part alone for the time being. This is why I’ll probably slightly tweak this blog come New Year and label it as pure entertainment related, minus the celebrity gossip, which won’t really affect the content one bit. There might be the odd couple of writing blogs and links to any short stories I post on my website, but apart from that it’ll probably be kept to a minimum. I read somewhere about a “blogosphere” where people post multiple blogs with different focus points/themes, e.g. one on writing, one on movies etc. I don’t feel I have the time or energy to maintain more than one right now.
I’m off to save the world. Oh, if anyone knows what buttons I need to press to cure myself of the episodic malaria in Far Cry 2 that’d be a great help. I’m pretty sure it told me when it first happened but I can’t seem to get it to work now?! Perhaps I’m just being dense. EDIT it’s LB apparently (hey, I’m not used to this yet!)

Caught the end credits of Time Bandits yesterday when I got home from shopping. This movie is an old favourite in our family and the first we ever recorded (apparently). Here’s a chirpy George Harrison song from the credits: