In one of the longest Series Slickers ever, the crew dives deep. Really deep. Join Ethan and Ricardo as they discover amazing things about Tomb Raider Underworld. How does an octopus get so big? How do men fly so far? Why is Ethan so bad at video games? These are just some of the answers we don’t even try to answer in this episode of Series Slickers.
In a beautiful moment in gaming, The Slickers Travel back to their roots and play the game that started it all, but now in higher definition. It’s an interesting way to make a remake by adding new mechanics, but keeping mostly the same level design. Some of it works, but some of it doesn’t.
It’s been tough getting game time in these last two weeks. I must have underestimated how busy I would be during the summer. Most of my time has been sucked up playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which as most know is basically unbeatable. But I did finish a game this week at least and made some progress.
Shame how Deathstroke just turned into the character for noobs.
Ricardo already posted a review on the site about Injustice, but I had a chance to play through it on my own. What a dumb, but fun, game. Besides the ho-hum character design, this is exactly what I wanted out of a superhero fighting game. Created by NetherRealm studios, the game is similar to the studio’s previous fighting game, Mortal Kombat, but differentiates itself enough to make the fighting mechanics interesting. What am I talking about? I never really play fighting games, but the DC Comics hook and a little peer pressure got me into playing this game.
One of the best parts of the game are the transitional stages. When a player throws a fighter against a wall, they sometimes will break through into another part of the stage in an absolutely ridiculous animation. It’s a joy to watch as much as finding out each character’s special attack, which are arguably crazier than the screen transitions. Actually, pretty much all of the game is off the wall, when considering that the main story arc is about two different dimensions and DC favorites jumping back and forth between them. It’s silly, but completely entertain and a blast to play.
I turned out to be partial to fast characters, like Flash and Nightwing, while still enjoying a few others such as Ares. Unfortunately, I could never win an online game, because people are just too good at fighting games. There is a lot of theory that I simply don’t know and my twitch reaction time isn’t always the best. Still I had fun with the single player and I could stomp down a few friends with a bit of effort. Well worth the price I paid for the game and for anyone who is either a fighting game or DC Comics fan.
Lara reacts with grief after killing a man, but 15 minutes later, she kills a dozen more.
One of the biggest games to be released this year was Lara Croft’s return adventure. It’s a gritty reboot, of course. I forgot that it was rated M until the first time Lara was violently impaled by a innocent branch. This game holds no punches and could almost be considered a bit torturous to the heroine. She gets her payback though, with out-of-place execution moves that would be nearly impossible to learn within eight hours of being on an island. At least they look cool!
The game is basically Batman: Arkham City mixed with Uncharted, which is not a knock to the game at all. It plays to the idea that every new item or weapon you get will unlock a previous area that was formerly inaccessible. It’s fun, and the game plays best when there is no combat involved. It’s not that combat is bad, it’s just dry when compared to how much fun exploring and collecting is. Maybe I want a game that plays like a modern Donkey Kong 64.
Going to continue plowing through it. My goal is to get this game done this week.
Name them after your friends for twice the fun!
Organ Trail is simply Oregon Trail with zombies. You make a team of four ragtag survivors and attempt to travel to the other side of the country. Along the way, your station wagon gets attacked by zombies and some of your survivors can be bit. At some of the stops there is an option to kill an infected survivor in hopes of protecting the rest of the team. It really isn’t that much different from, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s still fun to play and I hope to get into it more. It also just dawned on me that this is kind of a rogue-like, which is a genre I have been missing on my phone for a while. Hope to put much more time into this in the coming weeks. If you’re interested, it might still be on sale on humblebundle.com and is playable on PC and Mac as well as Android.
Android Humble Bundle 6
The Witcher 2
Theme Hospital
In this episode of Series Slickers Tomb Raider is rebooted! For the first time players can see next generation of Lara Croft with new physics and climbing mechanics! But, does the game come together better than the originals?
In this episode of Series Slickers, the Slickers face the final Tomb Raider game developed by Core, Angel of Darkness. It gets a bit dicey, Lara gets framed for murder after not actually being dead and there is absolutely no tomb raiding to be had. But is it a fun game? Only one way to find out. (Hint: don’t Google just watch)
A long day brings the Series Slickers to the last annualized Tomb Raider game. Discussion of the Mummy and if they should even continue with this game permeate this video.
Hard to believe this is the same person who was remorseful over killing a deer.
Boobs and sexual innuendos.
Those are the anchors that game developers Core and Crystal Dynamics have used to develop one of the few, and most popular, female protagonists in video games: Lara Croft. After nine major entries in the series and a slew of spin offs for mobile consoles, Lara has always remained scantily-clad and ever so flirtatious.
While this shallow character may have sold well against equally shallow characters of the ‘90s (ahem, Duke Nukem), video games have changed drastically since Lara’s PSOne debut. Now, games require budgets that rival movies and capture audiences that far surpass those of ‘90s.
More importantly, or at least I would like to think, we expect more than cleavage and sexuality from female characters. We want to see characters develop, their struggle and their eventual victory. When developers are too focused on refining boob physics and writing lines of sexy banter to create a deep character, the result is a flashy gimmick, not a protagonist.
There are so many opportunities that are missed by relegated females to supporting roles and making them objects to be saved. Leading ladies in movies like Zero Dark Thirty, Kill Bill, and the Alien series are groundbreaking and feature powerful characters that, I’d argue, are much more captivating than their male counterparts.
While there admittedly there are some standout roles in video games for female supporting characters, gamers are hard-pressed to find a strong female protagonist. Alyx Vance from the Half-Life series is beyond charming, but she’s still a sidekick. And yes, she subtly flirts with the silent Gordon Freeman throughout the game.
One of the only notable female stars is Samus Aran of the Metroid Prime series, was portrayed as a man throughout most of the original game (which is available in CoinLooting site) until she finally takes off her armor. The result is shock value, not a breakthrough in video game feminism.
After Tomb Raider was announced by the new publisher Square Enix, I was hopeful. Covered in blood and dirt, this new Lara seemed tougher yet fallible. Her movement and animation was poised but aggressive. She no longer had the showy flair of a gymnast as she scaled rock faces and slid down a mountain, dodging flaming debris from a crashing plane.
There was no sign of campy flirting or any slow tilts of the camera showing off Lara’s figure. And while the final product is not without character development flaws, it has delivered one of the finest female protagonists that I have seen in a game.
Sure, many have cited Lara’s abrupt transformation from innocent survivor to stone-cold killer as one of the game’s major flaws, but we should focus on what Crystal Dynamics did right: create a protagonist that can stand-up to the adventure game greats such as Nathan Drake and Lee Everett.
In the Tomb Raider reboot, Lara is captivating because she is human. The initial escape scene where she is impaled by a piece of rebar is harrowing and wince-inducing. Player’s feel for her as she cries out in pain, and cheer her on as she collects herself and manages to keep moving forward. At first she runs and hides from enemies. By the end of the game, she’s facing them head on, jeering and antagonizing them as thousands fall to her arrows, bullets and climbing axe.
A hero we can be proud of.
Not once does Crystal Dynamics portray Lara as an object of sexuality. She has no love interest in the game and no vampish dialogue. Her primary motivation is saving her platonic, female friend, Sam.
As players, we are attracted to Lara as a character because she is a badass, not because she can cartwheel while shooting dual pistols in a tight bathing suit. There is no sheen of overt sexuality that keeps us from appreciating the humanity of Lara.
While games have a long way to go in terms of improving the stories they tell and the characters that they develop, this new Lara is a step in the right direction. Because few developers have attempted to create strong female characters, there are so many opportunities to explore and so much potential.
I believe that by creating deeper characters, both male and female, video games can become more than a pastime of male twenty-somethings. It’s my hope that they will become narrative works of art, that can have as much of an impact on our society as films and literature.
And one of video game’s bustiest broads is spearheading the way. What beautiful irony.
Lara Croft can’t catch a break. We learn of her dark past in a not so great tutorial. Why is she the way she is? Find out in this episode of Series Slickers!