Ah ha! Tomb Raider Remastered

Fuck these fucking cogs.

Ha ha there was NO fucking chance I was going to find that passage under the entrance to the Tomb of Tihocan without a guide. I was swimming around in there for bloody hours!!! I swear I'm going to have to start crossing my eyes when I play this and hope the right route pops out in front of me like some kind of fucking magic eye image.

Runs fine! Buttery smooth in the remastered visuals.

Yup me, looks great and had no issues whatsoever

I finally started this today and it feels like I was playing just a few days ago. The controls are second nature. I’m remembering where all the secrets are (at least on the opening 3 levels). I’ve been teaching the other half how to use the roll to navigate quicker, as well as dodge attacks. This is great fun.

Part of me wants to play using the traditional graphics, but the camera does not behave very well. I guess that’s the point. Along with the choppy frame rate (which is hardly game breaking), I suppose it exists to show off just how improved these remasters are.

I do really wish I had gone for Switch as my platform of choice. I’ve just see the achievements on Xbox. 4200 points! Bloody hell…

Cistern and Tomb of Qualopec done. I definitely get why they condensed those into one level for anniversary. Qualopec is just a bit of a drag, very cramped etc.

Kinda like Swindon

I have to say, the main thing putting me off buying it is the weird freaky red-mouthed 'lion dog' thing in the promo images.
Looks like something out of Willow.

That's the level I'm on now. There's a giant pit, full of the bastards after doing a puzzle. Just leave me alone 

There's 2 of those in Cistern, both of them I only caught because of the pickup/interact indicator popping up. 

And yeah there's a fair few enemies. I'm half way through Egypt at the moment there's a lot of stuff to shoot. It's very obvious they expect you to be using the magnums by this point too, I have like 1000 rounds.

Finished the first game and it was wonderful rediscovering just how great it actually is outside of my childhood memories. Obviously a bunch of frustrations as well but that's always been part of the package. Tank control re-adjustment period was shorter than I expected, too.

As a remaster it's a net positive, but I still have a problem with the at times very obvious AI-generated textures, some of which look shockingly bad and which often look awkward on the geometry as pointed out on the previous page. Overall there's this harsh contrast between the things they obviously put effort into, like the character models and the altered environments, and the stuff that, whether due to budget or dev time or simple cynicism, feel so underbaked.

Has anyone encountered any bugs? Because I’ve had 4 pretty major ones. Twice I have teleported through a level. Once to a point high above where I was (sending me back through a level 5 minutes) and once sending me out of bounds and to instant death.

I then had an issue last night on the last Egyptian level in which putting in two keys into two locks opens a large door. However, after animating the door opening, it closed again, requiring me to reload a previous save (and in typical Dave fashion I forgot to save for a good 20 minutes).

And finally, I know the controls are tricky. It’s very easy to press forward before jump (or at the same time) and run off a ledge. I’ve done that a number of times, but I have had a few issues where I’ll be stationary and looking around and Lara will just start running (as if my finger has slipped off the look button). I even changed the controller I’d been using, as this has happened a few times, but today I had a clear and obvious ghost input. I’d put my controller down and started chatting with the other half about Gilmore Girls (which I unashamedly love) and after about a minute of nothing, Lara just runs forward. She falls off of two Seperate ledges before stopped on the ground below. I don’t take any damage, but the controller was on the table, not being touched by anyone.

Freaky stuff.

Anyway, I’m still loving the game, but I’m starting to think I might wait for a potential patch before jumping into the second game.

I’m up to Palace Midas and absolutely loving this. Had a couple of weird bugs where underwater pools have a painting ‘blocking’ them, so they look closed when it’s actually the progress path.
The enemies seem to do more damage this time, but I’m probably less mobile when it’s essential to get behind them.

That music is just perfect

Thought I would see what New Game + was all about and try to mop up a few of those really crazy achievements. First thing I notice? Everything has 3x as much health. No worries. I just need to keep my distance and remember where enemies ambush you .

Secondly, the save crystals from the PlayStation version! Awesome! Now I don’t need to worry about manually saving as I will have reminders in front of my face every 5 minutes. Very nostalgic.

Thirdly, no medikits. But everything has 3 times the amount of health! I managed to get through the opening 10 levels without using one, but required 10 of them on that last level alone.

Fudge that! Hahaha.