Lara Croft's new image...

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Let's just pray that she doesn't turn into a badass action girl, and that they tailor her as a human being.
Besides, now she looks like a person, and(again) lets not hope that this doesn't turn into Kane & Lara 3

 

[Anarchemitis]

If someone put that on their demoreel, I would not hire them.

 

[Piction Froject]

Looks kinda like Jessica Alba.

Looks kinda like Mariska Hargitay.

Kinda looks like badass I'd say!!! GO Lara kick some ass Girl. Lets bring back some T-Rexs from the first game they were so fulfilling to kill!!!

 

[Imp Poster]

Looks like Laura lost weight. I was thinking more Hilary Swank, but upon further inspection, no, she does not.

 

[TheHecatomb]

Rebooting the Tomb Raider franchise through an origin story wasn?t so much a choice as an act of necessity, according to Crystal Dynamics. Drastic measures were needed. To build an entirely fresh Lara ? a culturally relevant hero worth of the attention that once came so effortlessly ? they must break her first.

I was kind of relieved when I read this. It's good to know they've given the matter some thought, and that they seem to be acting on it.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Seems like just what she needs. A new story and origin, much like Ubisoft attempted (badly, IMO) with the Prince.

What do you guys think? Is there life in the old girl yet? And is this new model to your, um... taste?

Gee, didn't they do the exact same thing 4 years ago with Tomb Raider Legend?

Also, it's not like the latest Tomb Raider have sucked, in fact I thought they were quite good in my opinion!

Wasn't Legend a continuation of her story though? As far as I remember, it was just that, with some flashbacks to her youth.

This is supposedly a whole new Lara with a different origin to the one we know.

 

[lacktheknack]

She now looks like one girl I knew a couple years back...

What this means is that her face looks REALISTIC and INTERESTING. Which is a good thing.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

The PoP reboot was actually not that bad. Ubisoft just didn't market it to the right audience.

I feel they could have just had the same mechanics and look but made it new IP. Then people wouldn't have been mad at it.

Oh, and they should fire whoever came up with the combat in it.

 

[MrhalfAwake]

Looks kinda like they missed the point.

The problem wasn't that she was overtly busty or hot. The problem was that instead of being marketed as the female Indy she is she was marketed as a sex symbol. So many adds had her in skimpy clothes or laying around seductively. All they had to do was cut down on that and it would have been fine.

 

[theriddlen]

Aww, how could anyone destroy her pretty face?

 

[Irridium]

The PoP reboot was actually not that bad. Ubisoft just didn't market it to the right audience.

I feel they could have just had the same mechanics and look but made it new IP. Then people wouldn't have been mad at it.

Oh, and they should fire whoever came up with the combat in it.

Ah, but if they made it a new IP, people may not have bought it.
I actually liked the combat. It was simple, easy to get used to, and was fun.

The game seems like it was made for the more casual crowd. The crowd that wants to experience a fantastical, adult world but not go through all the insane difficulty that usually keeps new players away. Most of the time they have to choose between completely unforgiving game mechanics on top of learning the layout of a controller(which is much harder then most think), or just play kids games.

So yeah, in short, it seems it was made for those types of people, but was marketed to the core audience.

 

[revolutionaification]

Meh. Personally I don't think they should bother with the reboot. It's time to retire this franchise and leave me with the fond childhood memories I have of it. Instead of finding ways to rewrite her well-known back story and alter her image (whilst still keeping her recognisable) just use the time to create a whole nother character.

Perhaps because I spent my childhood familiarising myself with her as a character I just don't want to see her rewritten but genuinely, this just seems a bit of a pointless exercise.

That being said, it's only my opinion, this could be the greatest thing to happen to the series and be just what it needs to revitalise itself.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Meh.

This is a perfect example of Yahtzee's observation that in gaming today making a game look "gritty" pretty much involves presenting it like you've smeared feces on the lens of a camera.

Also, why does Lara's boobs keep getting smaller every release? Do they still believe that somehow the size of her boobs was anything but a lure for more sales? My prediction: In 2 more sequels Laura's strange reverse puberty will reach it's climax and she'll become a 12 year old boy.

And finally... Tomb Raider games stink. Hell, Batman: Arkham Asylum did Tomb Raider way better than Tomb Raider ever has if you catch my drift. In a way, yes, the series itself is seminal, but games that came after it like B:AA and Uncharted are just so flat out superior in game play that if they brought Tomb Raider up to those standards, it would almost seem like it was aping the former games instead of being the property that contributed to/inspired them.

Fixed, sorry. I'm in a pedantic mood.

OT: I can see how this might bring TR back to its former glory, but I really doubt it.

 

[ExileNZ]

Honestly, they already did that with Legends. Okay, so they retconned Anniversary to fit in better with it, but SHE'S ALREADY HAD AN IMAGE CHANGE.

More importantly, Legends got rid of the clunky old control system and turned it into something practical and, God forbid, actually fun to play.

Not sure what the hell went wrong with Underworld, I still haven't played it yet.

 

[Souplex]

"Redesign" means another breast reduction doesn't it?

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Ah, but if they made it a new IP, people may not have bought it.
I actually liked the combat. It was simple, easy to get used to, and was fun.

The game seems like it was made for the more casual crowd. The crowd that wants to experience a fantastical, adult world but not go through all the insane difficulty that usually keeps new players away. Most of the time they have to choose between completely unforgiving game mechanics on top of learning the layout of a controller(which is much harder then most think), or just play kids games.

So yeah, in short, it seems it was made for those types of people, but was marketed to the core audience.

Funny thing is, I agree with most of what you're saying.

But for a game that was marketed at casual gamers, my guess is that the combat would have turned a lot of them off it. The timing windows for the QTES were very small and I can't imagine new gamers getting through those bossfights without some frustration... hell I finished all 3 SOT games (two of which were rather difficult) and none of them made me as mad as fighting the concubine 5 times!

 

[Shaegor]

Looks like Justin Bieber with longer hair and a meaner look on it's face.
(I'm serious, that's what I'm seeing there)

 

[Irridium]

Ah, but if they made it a new IP, people may not have bought it.
I actually liked the combat. It was simple, easy to get used to, and was fun.

The game seems like it was made for the more casual crowd. The crowd that wants to experience a fantastical, adult world but not go through all the insane difficulty that usually keeps new players away. Most of the time they have to choose between completely unforgiving game mechanics on top of learning the layout of a controller(which is much harder then most think), or just play kids games.

So yeah, in short, it seems it was made for those types of people, but was marketed to the core audience.

Funny thing is, I agree with most of what you're saying.

But for a game that was marketed at casual gamers, my guess is that the combat would have turned a lot of them off it. The timing windows for the QTES were very small and I can't imagine new gamers getting through those bossfights without some frustration... hell I finished all 3 SOT games (two of which were rather difficult) and none of them made me as mad as fighting the concubine 5 times!

That is true. But its easier to handle when you factor in the fact that you can't die. In other games, if you failed at a boss battle, you'd have to restart at the beginning of the fight, no matter how much health you took from him. Could be anything from half to him having a sliver left. You'd still have to do everything over again. So the player could keep trying until he gets it without starting everything over every time he dies.

But with PoP, if you died, you'd just be brought back right then and there, ready to try again from where you originally were. No going through the level again, no whittling down the boss's health again, none of the normal stuff thats in most games. You mentioned the Concubine, imagine having to fight her from the beginning each time you died.

 

[MarsProbe]

So old Lara is getting a makeover courtesy of Squeenix:

Here's a look at her new image, which to me looks pretty cool apart from the fact that she appears to have been taking a dip in a septic tank:

What do you guys think? Is there life in the old girl yet? And is this new model to your, um... taste?

Just a guess, but maybe she is meant to be sporting that "just climbed out of a shipwreck" look. I don't know though, is that what people who have just emerged from a shipwreck tend to look like?

Anyway, as much as I can tell from this, this redesign is alright (through from what I can see, it's not exactly the most radical of changes). I like this better that Dantes new look anyway. Though if they were following that route, Lara may well have come out (no pun intended) looking like an incredibly homosexual man.