MicheleMouse

from L’Histoire de Tomb Raider by Alexander Serel. (via positivelyamazonian)

This is a must read for every TR fan, no matter if Core or Crystal supporter. These quotes are a perfect proof it has never been Core Design who sexualized Lara. It was always Eidos. Greedy, impatient, self-seeking Eidos. Wish everybody would open their eyes and start to think. Eidos had always wanted to make a slut from her. To destroy everything that made her unique, they wanted to break her spirit like with any other female character. I am starting to get a feel they just waited for Core to screw up something so that they could give TR to someone who would be willing to dance accordiing to their whistle. There is nothing wrong with making a female character sexy. But in a tasteful way. Crystal promoted the whole sexualization to a whole new level when implementing it right into the game. Yet I keep finding comments it was always Core who wanted a sex doll from her, not precious Eidos or Crystal. They just saved Lara. BULLSHIT.

Thank you, Ana, for sharing these quotes. This needs to be spread.

(via luluvonv)

Preach. You can’t imagine how gross I felt after reading this. I liked those SEAT commercials, now I can’t watching them anymore. It’s not enough that part was mostly censored. It should have never existed. Male public wanted Lara to be a slut, “a piece of fuckmeat” as some wannabe classic fan has claimed, and because that was never delivered on the games, it had to be done in ads and commercials. It was no good to have a strong sexy character, she needed to be slutty to be more attractive. Thanks Eidos for allowing it.

And then comes this mass of Crystal pseudo-feminists and Rhianna worshipers giving us lessons about women liberation, dragging the real Lara Croft through the mud just because some fuckers crossed the line, and worse, blame Core Design for that - the only ones who always refused that kind of marketing!

I thank Serel for being so honest to expose this issue on the book. This needs an English version now, so no one can shield behind their ignorance to keep spreading utter bullshit.

They waste so much money on embarrassing “community events” made of cosplays cosplays cosplays and nothing else, but a fucking soundtrack that never came out back in the days no, that’s not worthy of their money.

They can go suck as many dicks as possible before I decide to buy one of their crappy TR games again, I stopped with Rise and I am so proud of myself for doing that.

They don’t give a shit. They don’t give a shit about the fandom needs, they can’t even acknowledge that this fandom is split in several parts and one of these is being left out since 2003. They don’t give a shit, but want our money nonetheless. Well, GOOD LUCK WITH THAT.

In fact I think this kickstarter is for the better. Neither Crystal nor Square will have a pinch of the funds, is all for Nathan and the project. So, yeah, better. Then can count with me for that.

And I’m not starting to rant about how shitty and unprofessional is Crystal/Square right now because I will be repeating myself again - not the first time this happens. I particularly don’t buy a TR game since year 2003. TRAOD was the last game I paid for. I have not spent a single euro into any Crystal game, so as much as they don’t owe me nothing, I don’t owe nothing to them.

Don’t make me talk about cosplayers events. I respect the cosplayers, but doing cosplayers events while not funding the recording of the remasterization of the original classics soundtrack should be punished by law.

This franchise has lost the north. Forgot and betrayed its origins. It’s now just a game for newbies and casual gamers.

Another exclusive Angel of Darkness document from Murti Schofield, the writer of the game. The document reveals more details about Morgau Vasiley, one of the planned characters from the game.

MORGAU’S PHYSICAL MAKE UP – A SUMMARY.

What Morgau has become defies easy summation. It is certainly something other than human – possibly the name Lilith would have been appropriate after all. [in Game II someone makes the mistake of taunting Morgau with this name and pays the price.]

Her skin is albino pale. Her body slender. Her eyes milky blue, until something triggers her latent psychic powers when they become translucent. This is the time to beware as it is also the time when her tendency to erupt into frenzied Hulk-like violence is nearest the surface. 

Physically Morgau is a mass of contradictions. It is almost as if her body is at war with itself, attempting to tear itself apart. Though immensely strong and fast she is at the same time incredibly vulnerable being dependent on the specialised elixirs that keep her functioning at such a high peak. Her torso is encased in an armoured corselet or cuirass, not entirely dissimilar to that worn by Eckhardt. Whereas the Black Alchemist’s chest plates and metallo-mesh bodice is to hold his physical form together after the ravages of his centuries long confinement Morgau’s is there to deliver the alchemically derived elixirs and bio-essences that maintain her life. 

[Interview] Eric Loren - Behind the Voice of Kurtis Trent

Eric Loren is a UK-based American actor and musician. He played Mr Diagoras and the Dalek Sec in Doctor Who. He also played Kurtis Trent in Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness and Lieutenant in Saving Private Ryan. Eric also has appeared in 2011 Video Game, Battlefield 3, as Sergeant Steve Campo.

Links:

Eric’s album on iTunes

Eric’s album on Google Play

Take a look at official Tomb Raider fansite Raiding the Globe’s awesome project, Tomb Raider 4: The Last Revelation HD, a remaster of this classic game featuring sharper textures, higher quality objects, brand new effects and much more!

NATLA’S MINES

Maya screenshots of Natla’s Mines, a level from the cancelled Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition.

Submitted anonymously.

Hi anon! Well, I agree with you more than you think. That’s the reason why I don’t like remakes and I’m not excited for any remake project in general. I like the actual thing, I like the original, I like to keep and cherish what made me feel good. I’m not playing a game just because it looks pretty or good, so that I need the game remastered to keep enjoying it.

Rather I want the original thing, its spirit. That’s why, precisely, I was never impressed by an improvement on Lara’s looks or TR graphics in Crystal Dynamics games… because they were missing the most important thing in the first place: the real Lara, the real TR spirit.

I wasn’t enthusiastic about Nicobass’ project in the first place because it was a remake and he was using Legend’s controls and UnLela as a model - I don’t like that model. I don’t like any Crystal Lara model. The real Lara Croft is Classic Lara AND TRAOD Lara, end of story.

While UE4 is fantastic as an engine, I don’t like Legend’s controls. I like my classic tank controls that Crystal staff has mocked non-stop. And I don’t like her looking like UnLela. If you ask me, I prefer a thousand of times more a remaster of the original title in all its purity than a remake.

But we also need to be realistic and understand than, even if the franchise will be still at Core Design’s hands, the graphics and Lara herself would have been also improved and updated. Look TR 10th Anniversary Edition, the cancelled game by Core. It was already looking like TR Legend, tho it’s true because they were forced to do it that way.

In the end, while I’m not a fan of remakes and I prefer my tank controls, my classic/TRAOD Lara and not any kind of remake, I think we should support Nicobass and his project. He’s a fan who’s doing all that alone and without accepting donations - Crystal Dynamics wouldn’t allow him to do so otherwise. 

As you say, I appreciate the craftmanship, but also when a fan works hard to provide a project we the fandom can play and enjoy. That’s it. And I’ve no shame in supporting him even if I don’t like remakes, Unlelas and Legend controls, and I’d have preferred a remaster instead of a remake. But this is it.

I was also enthusiastic with Freak Raider’s TRAOD 1.5 project once and he kinda lost me when he decided to change the original TRAOD Lara

Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition Maya video clips

Phil Chapman, the animator for Tomb Raider games, sent us a DVD with some incredible renders, screenshots and videos. These clips are from the cancelled Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition

Various screenshots from the AnimEdit

Further details on the Angel of Darkness universe from Murti Schofield, the writer of the game.  

1954 - Kurtis’ grandfather Gerhardt Heissturm, is hunted down and killed by Eckhardt and the Cabal. [Gerhardt was present as a young man at the ‘accidental’ release of Eckhardt by Allied bombers in 1945.]

Kurtis’ father Konstantin, age 21, inherits his father’s Lux Veritatis role as Adept as well a number of talismanic items such as the Periapt Shards and various other arcane LV weapons & artefacts of immense potency. Only a properly trained Adept can make use of these items effectively.

From this point on Konstantin is a target for the Cabal’s murderous attacks trying to totally eradicate the Lux Veritatis, regain the Shards and capture the LV artefacts. There are only a few surviving Lux Veritatis Adepts and these wage a constant war with Eckhardt and the Cabal. The world at large knows nothing of this ‘Shadow War’ fought in the dark corners of history.

1966 - Konstantin, age 33, meets an American Navajo Indian, Marie Cornel. She is a specialist on Shamanism and the Way of the Warrior and is on a lecture tour of Europe. She gets caught in the crossfire of a Cabal assault against Konstantin but proves to have unexpected innate powers that enable the attack to be defeated. As the couple exchange details about their unusual family histories they come to realise that they have a surprising amount in common due to their atypical upbringings. After a whirlwind romance she returns to the States…for now.

NB. Marie Cornel’s father, Jefferson Cornel, was one of the U.S. Marine officers who worked as a Navajo Code Talker during WW II, which goes some way to explaining her roots and possibly her unusual ‘abilities’. From her earliest years she had shown a specialist interest in the mysterious Shadow Walkers, the Watchers or Grigori of the Chumash and Tongva Indians and had experiences which triggered a limited telekinesis and the ability to ‘farsee’.

TOMB RAIDER THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Phil Chapman, the animator for Tomb Raider games, sent us a DVD with some incredible renders and screenshots

We continue to publish exclusive Angel of Darkness documents from Murti Schofield, the writer of the game. This one reveals more details about Kurtis Trent. It is an updated version of some of the already known moments.

1954 - Kurtis’ grandfather Gerhardt Heissturm is hunted down and killed by

Eckhardt and the Cabal. Kurtis’ father Konstantin, age 21, inherits his father’s Lux Veritatis role as Adept. From this point on Konstantin is a target for the Cabal’s murderous attacks trying to totally eradicate the Lux Veritatis. There are only a few surviving Lux Veritatis Adepts and these wage a constant war with Eckhardt and the Cabal. The world at large knows nothing of this ‘Shadow War’ fought in the dark corners of history.

1966 - Konstantin, age 33, meets an American Navajo Indian specialist on Shamanism and the Way of the Warrior on a lecture tour of Europe, Marie Cornel. She gets caught in the crossfire of a Cabal assault against Konstantin but proves to have unexpected innate powers that enable the attack to be defeated. ‘Things’ happen between Konstantin and Marie Cornel (go on, guess – this is the 60’s). She returns to the States.

NB. Marie Cornel’s father was one of the U.S. Marines officers who worked with the Navajo Code Talkers during WW II, which explains her area of specialist interest and her tribal links to the Chumash and Tongva peoples of pre-European California. These tribes had an ancient understanding of the Watchers Of The Land.

1969 – On a Lux Veritatis mission against the Cabal’s forces Konstantin arrives in the US. He looks up Marie Cornel. Whilst visiting the Anasazi ruins of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico they get attacked and have to wipe out a contingent of Cabal agents. Shortly after that Konstantin and Marie get secretly married in a desert tribal ceremony. For the next few years they move back and forth between the States and Europe.

1972 – KURTIS IS BORN 26/06/72.

Konstantin takes Marie to a secure Lux Veritatis bolthole beneath the Utah Salt Flats and Kurtis is born. As soon as they can travel Kurtis and his mother go into hiding whilst Konstantin makes return trips to Europe to help in the ‘Shadow War’.

1975 – The whole family return to Europe. Kurtis is 3 years old. They move around a variety of Lux Veritatis safe houses in ancient stronghold sites throughout Europe and the Middle East. There are many close calls with forces of the Cabal and Kurtis begins to learn about life lived on the run from a dreadful pursuing darkness.  

1976 - Kurtis and his mother spend a year in Scotland in hiding whilst Konstantin fends off a particularly vicious campaign to wipe out the last elders of the Lux Veritatis. The battle centres on the underground cities of Anatolia in central Turkey where Eckhardt appears to be holed up. But it is an elaborate trap. Only six LV Adepts survive apart from Konstantin.

1988 - Kurtis age16 undergoes the most intense stages of his Lux Veritatis initiation under the remaining six Adepts. His father is absent for several years on covert missions for the Lux Veritatis.

1991 – At age 19 Kurtis rebels and runs away to join the Foreign Legion. He wants no part of the ‘Shadow War’ which has devastated so many lives and left only three of the Adepts besides his father alive – if his father is still alive.

He changes his family name and tries to stay hidden within the Legion for five years, just long enough to qualify for French citizenship. He is repeatedly assaulted by bizarre occult eruptions from the shadow worlds. Weirdness dogs him wherever he goes. He can’t shake the grim legacy of his family’s brutal history. He gets nicknamed ‘Demon Hunter’ within the Legion.

1996 - Kurtis leaves the Legion after too many inexplicable events that can never appear on official Legion records and usually involve grisly casualties. He begins freelancing with a variety of mercenary and semi-legal agencies. Word reaches him that his father is still alive but he is unable to reconcile the differences between them. He never sees his father alive again.

2001 – Konstantin is finally cornered and murdered by the Black Alchemist Pieter Van Eckhardt and members of his Cabal. Kurtis’ mother Marie is in the States at the time. Only through being betrayed and tricked into thinking that Marie was in danger was Konstantin separated from two talismans, the Periapt Shards that were his only real defence. Kurtis finally gets his wake up call on receiving these two talismanic items from his mother and he goes after Eckhardt on a vengeance mission.

Kurtis also inherits a Lux Veritatis Blade the Chirugai. This terrifying discus like weapon was forged generations ago from meteorite alloy and like most Lux Veritatis secrets can only be properly used and controlled by someone trained to it. Kurtis is now the only living LV initiate…as far as is known…

…“No, there is another” […to be read in the voice of Yoda.]

Morgau Vasiley is the daughter of Mathias Vasiley of Prague, but she doesn’t materialise until game II. She too has undergone LV initiate training and will emerge as a wild card protagonist in future games – possibly the spin off Kurtis game…to be decided.

2002 - Kurtis crosses paths with Lara Croft in Paris and they team up in Prague to combat the Cabal and Eckhardt.

TRAE BADDIES 

Three screenshots of the models of the enemies in Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition.