Eidos have revealed the first new official screenshots of the new Tomb Raider game, subtitled 'Legend'.
There is a new website online at tombraider.com which has some screenshots and some bizarrely huge '3D' animations of the newly-rendered heroine.
The new title is under development at Crystal Dynamics, who claim to have read every review of every Tomb Raider game, as well as playing through all the original games and listening to fan feedback to create the new title.
New technological features appear rife. The modelling now features a better skeletal system for fluid motion, ans well as detailed face features and reactive eyes, obviously taking a cue from the depth added to Half-Life 2 by the facial animation. Higher quality textures are also the order of the day, although with this being produced for Xbox and PS2 as well as PC, just how high quality these are going to be is perhaps debatable.
Polygon counts are also up, and Crystal Dynamics are including a new system to allow the seamless transition of animations, to allow Lara to perform different actions continuously, rather than stopping and starting.
We're dubious about whether the Tomb Raider franchise can ever reach the heady heights of its first incarnations, but it appears that this new development team have a better stab than most at it. At least they appear to be embracing some new technology, rather than just rehashing previous engines.
There is no news as to when Legends will debut, save for that it will be sometime later this year. We'd estimate it would have to be before the end of the Autumn, as Autumn onwards is all about Xbox 2 for games releases.
There is a new website online at tombraider.com which has some screenshots and some bizarrely huge '3D' animations of the newly-rendered heroine.
The new title is under development at Crystal Dynamics, who claim to have read every review of every Tomb Raider game, as well as playing through all the original games and listening to fan feedback to create the new title.
New technological features appear rife. The modelling now features a better skeletal system for fluid motion, ans well as detailed face features and reactive eyes, obviously taking a cue from the depth added to Half-Life 2 by the facial animation. Higher quality textures are also the order of the day, although with this being produced for Xbox and PS2 as well as PC, just how high quality these are going to be is perhaps debatable.
Polygon counts are also up, and Crystal Dynamics are including a new system to allow the seamless transition of animations, to allow Lara to perform different actions continuously, rather than stopping and starting.
We're dubious about whether the Tomb Raider franchise can ever reach the heady heights of its first incarnations, but it appears that this new development team have a better stab than most at it. At least they appear to be embracing some new technology, rather than just rehashing previous engines.
There is no news as to when Legends will debut, save for that it will be sometime later this year. We'd estimate it would have to be before the end of the Autumn, as Autumn onwards is all about Xbox 2 for games releases.
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