So I got 1000 achievement points on Tomb Raider Underworld last night. The game was a drastic improvement over the last 2 TR games. Not to say that the last 2 were bad, just that TRU improved upon them significantly. Lara's model is now motion captured, so now her movements don't look so damn artificial. Also, her model has been aesthetically improved upon the already impressive models from the last 2 games(I, admittedly, have a nonsensical crush on Lara Croft for a while now).
The puzzles in the game were a bit in the easy side though. Did people complain after Tomb Raider Anniversary's release that the puzzles were too hard or something? It definitely wasn't as rewarding in TRU to solve the puzzles as it was in both Legend and Anniversary. Although, gone are the annoying time trial achievements from the previous 2 games. Halle-fucking-lujah! Even the collectible-type achievements were easier to get this time around.
Story was well written, albeit short, and added more to the ongoing story that has been lingering in the last 2 installments. I guess you can say this is a trilogy of sorts since the ending of the "Lara's Shadow" DLC shows a definite conclusion to it.
It's really too bad that even with all the improvements Crystal Dynamics made, they still haven't improved upon some of the series' fundamental flaws such as a sometimes erratic camera and poor adjustment of the controls with said erratic camera. Often times, I found myself having Lara plunge to her death towards the opposite side of where I wanted her to jump because the controls had not adjusted quickly enough to the changing camera angles. Still, it's a small complaint that, if you've played previous TR games, you can work around.
Close but no cigar for TRU, but still fun nonetheless.
Kotaku reported that the Japanese website Akiba Blog ran a blogpost stating that Dragon Quest IX for the Nintendo DS was going to be released at midnight today. Today being April 1st.
Posts
