Legendary Lara Unveiled News

As the take-over wrangling continue unabated, Eidos has today pushed attention back towards videogames and released the first images for the forthcoming and much anticipated Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend; and what better images to start off with than two character models of the videogame heroine, Lara Croft.

Describing the decisions made over the previous year and a half at Crystal Dynamics, developers of Legend, Eidos depicts a team that has thoroughly researched every bit of information about Lara from playing every Tomb Raider title created, to reading reviews of the games, to trawling through stacks of consumer surveys. The result of which has left Eidos commenting that Legend will be â??â?¦built to challenge even the most accomplished serial adventurer.â? And if thatâ??s not throwing down the gauntlet, then we donâ??t know what is.

One of the cornerstones of Laraâ??s revival at Crystal Dynamics after the much-derided Angel of Darkness, has been the appointment of Toby Gard to Lead Character Designer. For Tomb Raider fans the man is to be considered the Father of Lara, being the man who designed her back at Core in the mid-1990s and was responsible for Laraâ??s various â??assetsâ?. Having had an arduous experience creating the heavily-delayed, but well worth it, Xbox title Galleon, Gardâ??s return to Tomb Raider can only be a good thing for the future of the shaken franchise.

Gard recalls, â??Even before the first title launched, Lara Croft had to fight her way into the Tomb Raider franchise, since at the time most game characters were muscle-bound blokesâ?¦The Lara Croft character is resilient and totally unstoppable. In Tomb Raider: Legend, we explore these core personality traits and reveal the Lara Croft gamers have been waiting to see.â?

It seems that Eidos are also looking at Legend as a re-invigorating chapter in the franchise as Chip Blundell, Vice President of Brand Marketing at Eidos describes, â??In setting the stage for the Tomb Raider franchise moving forward, we took ourselves back to Laraâ??s origins, asked ourselves the hard questions and challenged ourselves to think differentlyâ?¦Who is Lara Croft? What makes her tick? How is she relevant today? Only by answering these questions could we ensure that gamers get the experience they deserve with the character they love.â?

Although weâ??ll have to wait until E3 before Lara makes her true return to the stage, early details suggest a vastly expanded inventory of modern equipment to assist her during the adventure, including the likes of a magnetic grappling device, binoculars, frag grenades and personal lighting device/communications equipment. Hopefully these should result in a greatly expanded tomb raiding experience during the actual game, an element that became less and less apparent as the series progressed.

After the less then graceful control set-up and movement of Lara during Angel of Darkness, Tomb Raider: Legends promises to redefine the rulebook with poise and precision. Lara herself has also undergone a somewhat understated yet exquisite transformation, resulting in a more realistic yet just as alluring model for male gamers alike to drool over â?“ itâ??s been too long Lara, where ya been??? (You ok Jon? - Ed)

Despite making an impressive first return, the odds are still heavily stacked against Crystal Dynamics, Eidos and Lara; the disastrous memory of Angel of Darkness still lingers, while the incessant sequels have actually come back to haunt the franchise. However with the assistance of Gard and a clean board to work from, we have no doubts that the chesty heroine will surprise a few people when we catch her return at E3.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend appears to be definitely heading back to basics to kick the franchise back to where it belongs, and Eidos promise to keep Lara fans updated during the course of development on www.tombraider.com from April 12th 2005.

Weâ??ll have more soon