Lara Craft might have huge boobs and a well-toned ass, but her games are good too! Actually, they are even better than her peppermint creams; like a Zelda game on crack, these puzzles just don't stop. Plenty of games had busty babes on the cover, and most didn't become cultural phenomenons (see: Lester the Unlikely, Wargasm
It's one of the greatest 3-D adventures of all time, and the original 3 games represent some of the bet the '90s had to offer.
Tomb Raider Gold was the very first CD-ROM game I ever bought with my own money. I played the hell out of that game, for years. It was an amazing game. But it has been about a decade, and what if my memory is contaminated with nostalgia? I am revisiting my past and re-completing this game live on twitch. The current plan is to play through the first three entries and the new (2013) prequel.
Having seen footage of the new game on twitch, it is certainly different, but still seemed admittedly epic. Nothing, however, can quite capture the sense of space that the early TR games have. You explore gigantic areas, performing life-and-death jumps over deadly falls in every single level. You will get a real sense of exploration and isolation as you adventure through the many ruins and temple.
Finally, you'll some great CGI cutscenes that show Lara kicking ass. It's another thing that people might forget; that the character in the games is a total badass and does all manner of superhuman crazy shit.
If you want to talk about objectification of women in video games, you'll have no shortage of material; but I don't think Lara really gets as much credit as she deserves. She is feminine without being a stereotypical "girly-girl" (pink guns?). There are (at least in the early games...) no stupid romance plots. She's not a "nice" person; she's tough. In an opening cutscene, her guide dies. She doesn't cry. She barely gives a shit, like an '80s action hero.
Her body has only gotta more realistic with time, and I honestly think that some of the earlier cartoon look was just stylized art to compensate for the technology. Early Lara looks more like the people in Toy Story (or an anime character, i.e. FFVII) than as a realistic representation of a person. The "2013 model" looks freakishly realistic and much better proportioned. Her waist and shoulders finally look the way a person looks, and not like a photoshopped supermodel.
I'll admit to ignoring the franchise for years after seeing all the movies. The movies weren't even bad, just sort of bland in the end. I just assumed that the games wouldn't be any good, but this was an assumption based upon franchises in general. With so many iterations, I'm sure there are some problems, but I'm looking forward to seeing what I've missed so far. The "reboot" sequel is supposed to be incoming next year.
Watch me play the game live on twitch.tv/Robot2600, or watch in the feed below.
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