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tomb raider new lara croft

Tomb Raider has never been a game about pushing the boundaries of the character. Lara Croft herself served as the main attraction, using her alluring sexuality to coerce fan boys into controlling her around through uninspired sequel after sequel. While the gameplay was a novel innovation back in the PS One days, Lara Croft – and Tomb Raider in particular – has been spinning her tires in a rut. Not one to let character die, Crystal Dynamics finally has decided to bring Lara in for rehabilitation.

What is it that drives the story of a game? Is it the action? Or perhaps it is the environment? Certainly these things matter, but what drives them is the character. Great stories are moved along by the characters. The old Lara Croft really had nothing going for her. She’s the trophy wife – a hot chick you married too quickly only to realize just how vapid she really is. Sure you raid tombs and look hot doing it, but why do you do it, Lara? Are you truly happy?

Ironically, Toby Gard designed the character of Lara Croft as a reaction against stereotypes. But look at Lara Croft today and she is the biggest ‘F’-you to female gamers everywhere. Saddening considering the character behind the double D’s is an intriguing one: a wealthy and well educated aristocrat searching for her own way in life.

Transforming Lara into a believable character that is both accessible and strong willed is no simple task. Global Brand Director Karl Stewart and Art Director Brian Horton had to strip down the old Lara Croft in order to birth a new, more authentic person in her place.

Click to continue reading Lara Croft gets reinvented for Tomb Raider reboot

Read More | Game Informer

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deus ex human revolution extended trailer

A new extended trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution has surfaced - and it. is. good. While no actual gameplay is seen throughout the entire five minutes, you probably won't really care because what is shown is pure awesomeness. Human Revolution is set for release early 2011 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Check out the extended trailer, which is over five minutes long, after the break.

Click to continue reading Deus Ex: Human Revolution extended trailer


uncharted 3 drakes deception

The PlayStation Blog has been updating new information and images for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception since Entertainment Weekly broke the news earlier today, producing new screenshots, the box art, and a teaser trailer. Also, Uncharted 3 will support stereoscopic 3D. Amazon lists Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception for a December 1, 2011 release date, but this is just a placeholder date, and will more likely see a 2012 release date. Hit the jump for the trailer.

Click to continue reading More Uncharted 3 details surface (and a trailer!)


black ops server hack

Quitting games on Call of Duty: Black Ops can get you penalized, but forcing other people to quit games can get you locked up. A UK teen is now well aware of this as he sits behind bars for using a program called "Phenom Booter" to kick players from Call of Duty servers in September. 

The Phenom Booter program attacks servers, denying specific users - or all users on the server - to be booted off the server. This hack was floating around on forums earlier in the year, and can be seen in demonstration with a quick YouTube search. E-cops eventually traced the attacks from the teen to the Greater Manchester area, charging the 17 year old with violating the U.K.'s Computer Misuse Act of 1990.

"Programs marketed in order to disrupt the online infrastructure not only affect individual players but have commercial and reputational consequences for the companies concerned," stated Detective Inspector Paul Hoare to BBC. "These games attract both children and young people to the online environment and this type of crime can often be the precursor to further offending in more traditional areas of online crime."

Read More | Gamasutra

uncharted 3 drakes deception

The third installment in the PS3 exclusive Uncharted series will hit stores sometime in 2011 - while a motion picture adaption featuring Mark Walhberg is shooting - and is shaping up to be the talk of the town.

Focusing around Drake's relationship with Sully, Uncharted 3 is looking to delve deep into personal issues of trust (among other issues) centered around a tasty theme of deception. Adventuring is still the meat of Uncharted, and expect it in spades while traversing throughout the Rub' al Khali Desert searching for a fabled city buried in the sandy terrain. Bringing the desert to life is a challenge that Naughty Dog is tackling head on. 

"When we first came up with the idea of sand, you see everyone's eyes light up here and go, 'Yeah, that's going to be really hard — let's do it!'" said the game's creative director Ann Henning. 

Additional features include giving Drake the ability to climb backward, as well as to fight multiple people simultaneously. Naughty Dog is also aggressively tweaking the multiplayer system to play a bigger role in the third Uncharted installment.

Read More | Kotaku via Pop Watch


Splosion Man is one of our favorite Xbox Live Arcade games of all time, both for single and multiplayer, and we're glad there's more on the way with the announcement of Ms. Splosion Man. The game isn't set for release until Fall 2011, which is a year away, but hey, good things take time, right?


onlive $9.99

Cloud-based gaming service OnLive announced today their intent to offer a Netflix-like package for gaming. Dubbed “PlayPack,” the $9.99/month flat-rate plan beta is immediately available to OnLive MicroConsole owners, and available to all OnLive subscribers on January 15, 2011.

The OnLive press release reads:

"OnLive's PlayPass and PlayPack plans give players maximum flexibility to try or buy video games. Top-tier titles are available as individual rentals and purchases, while everything else is available at a flat rate. With these programs, OnLive is effectively offering the equivalent of an iTunes/Netflix combo for gaming."

OnLive Game Systems began shipping today as well, and the PlayPack beta option is available today free of charge for MicroConsole owners. Though, after January 15th the PlayPack flat-rate plan of $9.99 takes effect. PlayPack’s library of games will grow steadily to house 40 games through January 15th, and much more in the future. The current PlayPack beta library includes:

  • Prince of Persia, Ubisoft
  • NBA 2K10, 2K Sports
  • Tomb Raider: Underworld, Square-Enix
  • F.E.A.R. 2, Warner Bros
  • Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., Ubisoft
  • Unreal Tournamentv3, Epic
  • Vin Diesel Wheelman, Ubisoft
  • LEGO® Batman, Warner Bros
  • Defense Grid Gold, Hidden Path
  • Saw, Konami
  • Puzzle Chronicles, Konami
  • King's Bounty: Armored Princess, Katauri Interactive
  • Ninja Blade, From Software

Dhalsim realistic character art

Putting the awful recent Street Fighter movie out of your mind, or even the so-terrible-it's-funny Street Fighter film with Van Damme, can you imagine what the cast of SFIV would look like if they were real? These images by Cazetta portraying some notable SF characters are so realistic looking that it's actually a little creepy. 

 

Click to continue reading Realistic Street Fighter character art

Read More | Live Door

Since Kinect came out there have been some pretty interesting hacks of the technology. The latest one is a retro reprogramming that allows “Yankeyan” to control NES classic Super Mario Bros. using his body as the controller.

“I programmed it to recognize my motions and passed the virtual button presses to the NES emulator," says Yankeyan. "I could have placed a simulated keypad right in front of me that I can press with my hands, but I thought full body gestures were more in the spirit of Kinect. Of course, Mario isn't designed to be played like this, so this is really really hard."

If you listen closely you can hear the sound of Shigeru Miyamoto’s Wii controller hitting the floor. 

Read More | Game Informer via Youtube


Sonic 4 Leaderboard reset

I've never seen the point in getting to number one on a leaderboard with a cheated score - especially when the score is so ridiculous it is obviously fake. Really? You beat the level in 0 seconds?

Because of these attention seeking hackers the entire Sonic 4 leaderboards will reset (and I will have to once again get my Splash Hill Act 2 score charted, argh!). Though, you might want to wait a while to get your time back up, as apparently there is no permanent fix to stop the hackers from doing it again, which they surely will. 

Read More | Sega Forums

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