Posts by The Poet

After a month I managed to find the time to play the Blood Ties DLC. Better late than never!

The DLC ran quite smoothly despite my doubts, my trusty lappy had enough power to run the game. Even with low graphics settings I did manage to enjoy the eerie athmosphere and also find the necessary pick ups. The game did not need zombies to be scary!
Providing more background information to reboot-Lara and her family was a nice addition and there were quite many "hints" to earlier TR games, which felt like a good gesture towards long-time fans. I also liked the way the Croft Manor was presented, it felt familiar but there also were completely "new" places.

I did have to take a look at a walktrough to be able to complete the DLC, I didn't pay enough attention to all the clues and items to be able to solve the puzzles myself! I just kept going back and forth around the manor and just taking a look at every possible corner.

I'm seriously thinking about being brave enough to play the Lara's Nightmare DLC... I hope there'd be the twin pistols with unlimited ammo and medipacks scattered everywhere. With those I might be able to complete it!

Wandering around the "reboot-mansion" left me with a very positive feeling and I also got a tiny bit of an idea out of it. It would be so cool if some day there was a new TR game with these excellent graphics and athmosphere where we got to play through a home invasion type of scenario!
Like in the style of the first TR movie and TRII... :chin

I haven't even purchased Blood Ties yet, because I was a bit sad with my laptop's poor-ish performance with RoTR. But now I'll re-consider buying Blood Ties - thanks for the info! Let's hope for the best that my laptop would manage to run Blood Ties with less issues than with RoTR.

And I will defnitely not play the zombie mode! Basic RoTR was enough to give me the creeps every now and then.

Wow, so much DLC and other cool things have appeared since I last checked. Baba Yaga, Blood Ties, 20 years celebration etc.

Too bad my laggy laptop doesn't really increase my excitement. I haven't even played RoTR since my very first playthrough since the game lags so much even with the lowest graphics settings... The smaller environments are alright, but don't get me started with the Soviet Installation.
I'd like to explore the eerie-looking Croft Manor in Blood Ties, but then again, my dear and poor laptop... I must watch some playthroughs then on YouTube and let others have the fun...

Hello again!

So, I managed to complete RoTR - even though at times it felt impossible.

I must say the game is quite awesome, and completing it left a nice feeling of eagerness towards the possible upcoming games and adventures. However, I do feel that 100% completion might be too much for me to achieve. The vast surroundings with all the hidden caches, relics and documents... Not to even mention the challenges!

The hidden optional tombs were quite nice and there was a nice number of them. Sometimes I needed some advice from walkthroughs on how to complete them, but there were nice puzzles and completing the tombs was always a great reward.

I'm not sure about how I feel about the new version of skills, weapons and equipment crafting. I liked how the new weapon replaced the old one in TR (2013) - not "too much" to upgrade then. There are quite a lot of skills to upgrade and equipment too. It was sort of good that the more advanced equipment and weapons upgrades required new tools to be obtained first. But then, sometimes it felt quite annoying. Also, despite having done equipment upgrades, I still felt like Lara isn't able to collect as much resources as I'd like - pockets were always full of something.

I wish there were news on another new TR game already...

Hooray! I found a way tp play RoTR at least somehow.

My sister's laptop with Nvidia drivers runs the game - with the lowest graphic settings, but it runs. There still are some laggy bits, but I've managed to play the game quite a lot. I haven't been able to update my own laptop's drivers correctly and I'm not nerdy enough to understand why...

My some of thoughts so far:

Hello, and sorry for replying to my own post!

So, I was so eager to play the new RoTR that I pre-purchased the standard edition on Steam. Full of excitement, I started to play the long-waited game on the 28th of January.

I switched all the graphics and display settings to the lowest ones, as I knew the game would probably be too much for my poor laptop. I even turned off my bigger screen, and played the game on my laptop's screen. After some more settings tweaking, I managed to get the game to run fairly smoothly, with the amazing resolution of 800x600. Despite all that, the first moments of the game were really enjoyable. I was on an actual adventure! Carefully looking for coin caches, learning new actions, hunting and looking for materials for crafting...

But unfortunately my joy and excitement didn't last long.

After that I quit the game, as I have also other stuff to do than play all day. Before starting to play RoTR again, I got some advice to update my display drivers - perhaps that would help the game to run more smoothly.

Not being the most "nerdy" I do so, and update my AMD and Intel drivers. Then I encounter a horrible technical issue: RoTR will not start when I click "Play" on its launch menu!

I've been trying to solve the issue with the most common advice found on the world wide web without any success. These include the following:

• re-dowloading the game on Steam
• verifying the game's Steam files
• creating another Windows user account and running the game with it
• running vcredist_x64.exe

I've even re-installed the display drivers. Currently I'm waiting some e-mail from Square Enix's Technical Support... There are recommendations for installing AMD driver 16.1.1 "which should be released shortly". (found for example on Square Enix's Tech Support forum) But that driver hasn't even been released yet... And I doubt my issue is due to display drivers, as I have managed to play the game for a while.

My first impressions of RoTR are limited to four amazing hours of playing it. I hope there'd be a solution or a patch soon...

Wile E. Coyote wrote:

That's interesting news! I hope that the PC version is coming soon so that more gamers can actually play this game! In my opinion there are far too few people playing it, it is by far the best Tomb Raider for a long time and I hope that the will do another sequel if the sales are good...

I hope for a PC release soon, too - and a sequel. I think it's a bit weird that there apparently hasn't been any official announcement for example in the Official Tomb Raider blog or any news on the system requirements.

I've tried to google how RoTR's sales have been, but I'm a bit puzzled. It seems that it has sold at least okay-ish? But I bet the Xbox-exclusiveness has definitely hurt its sales...

Perhaps it's too early to tell wishes for a sequel, but I really hope that the rebooted series could continue and there'd be another sequel. After replaying TR (2013) and looking some RoTR playthroughs, I'm starting to feel that everything falls apart around Lara way too often! Like, in TR (2013) there are way too many occasions of running and jumping through a linear pathway with collapsing/exploding surroundings - it's getting quite repetitive. Also, the setting of Lara being stranded in the wilderness and having to build shelter and get gear is alright on two games. But if the very same setting is yet again in a possible seque for the third timel, meh, been there, done that...

So, perhaps in the next possible sequel there should be more solid environments for exploring and not everyhing has to collapse. And maybe Lara's adventure shouldn't have to have such a disastrous start with her yet again being in the wilderness, her gear being lost in some natural disaster. Just adventruing well-equipped right from the start.

I'd like for a desert-setting, because

Here are some of my other wishes as a list, in no particular order:

• a "modern", different type of setting, like the Louvre in AoD or VCI in Chronicles
• vehicle or horse-riding (other type of transport), the more lenghty motorcycle rides in Legend were nice
• scuba diving setting, exploring nice underwater places without the fear of running out of oxygen
• a genuine option to choose a strategy against enemies: no "forced" choices for straightforward attacking or being stealthy (or at least more opportunities to genuinely choose how to approach)
• no exessive gore, like the whole Geothermal Caverns section in TR (2013)

Wile E. Coyote wrote:

As for interactive sequences, there are some scenes in the game where you have to push some button to survive, but it is mostly during the learning phase in the beginning. Like, "press X now to use the axe or else you will fall down the mountain!" It is not as bad as it was in 2013.

Oh, sounds alright! I've had a few rage-quit moments with TR (2013) scenes...

Sorry for replying to my own post with these big news!

But Rise of the Tomb Raider has appeared to Steam, and the Steam's page says the game will be available in "January 2016". Some googling revealed me some rumours about the exact date being January 26th, but those shall be just rumours.

I'm so happy and excited right now!

But at the same time I'm also a bit worried about the system requirements and also about how the many interactions with the in-game world have been turned into keyboard controls. Will everything be done by smashing E/Interact button? Like, everything:

Oh, by the way! Does RoTR have those QTE's/Interactive cutscenes with commands like "smash E to survive!" and to succeed you also have to have the right timing?
Because I'm not really fond of those, I kept dying again like 10 times in TR (2013) when in the wolf's den retrieving Roth's pack or whatever the objective was... I hope RoTR doesn't have those!

Played a bit of the 2013 Tomb Raider, and wow, I can't believe I have managed to complete it. It's quite scary: piles of corpses, blood, more piles of corpses. Geothermal Caverns is one of the most horrible locations in the 2013 game...

But I also watched some walktroughs of RoTR on Youtube, and I must say it indeed is atmospheric and not as scary as 2013 TR. There seems to be quite much to do and interact and the areas are so large... I must say I'm in love with RoTR. RoTR seems to have more of an adventurous feel to it, TR 2013 was more about survival horror...

The game looks so awesome, it will definitely demand a lot from my poor laptop. I won't get the Xbox One though, I hardly can think of any other games that I'd play on it... I guess I'll have to wait for more info about the system requirements, and think about buying a new laptop or more efficient parts for my current one. :chin

Hmmm... Perhaps releasing RoTR on other platforms could be a good time for another TR-hype, or at least trying to create one...? I haven't been following much on what's going on in the game-releasing schedules, if there'd be some tough competition in "early 2016".

LC Go was a really nice surprise, a whole new world and a great game for the little gray cells. Both LC Go and Relic Run are a good way to pass time even in the evenings because they're not scary at all.
Both of them run super smoothly on my very first smartphone, which I got relatively late compared to the "rest of the world" - in last June. I'm hoping for more LC Go leves in the future too!

Is RoTR scary? Or otherwise very "atmospheric"?

Hello there!

Waaah, RoTR looks so cool - I can hardly wait until it's released on PC! I'm totally spoiling myself by reading walkthroughs and watching videos on Youtube.

...And I bet the game is actually as awesome as it looks and seems!

In order to ease my eagerness to play RoTR at least a tiny bit, I've gotten myself the mobile games Relic Run and Lara Croft Go. They're quite nice and fun actually, a nice way to spend time waiting for the PC RoTR.

I'm a bit worried whether my laptop will be able to run RoTR... :chin The last game, TOMB RAIDER, runs alright - but ToO is quite laggy...

Thank you for the links, those did help clarifying the concept of the Expedition Cards. I'm still a bit confused about those new and special game modes and why exactly are they in the game...

But as long as there is the regular game, I'm happy... I personally don't really care for other stuff than the normal gameplay.

There's still plenty of time to wait for the PC release in "early 2016", so I guess I'll just wait to see what's the game really like.

Hello,

Just read about the Microtransactions in Rise of the Tomb Raider and I'm a bit confused, really.

I don't really understand the concept of those Expedition Cards, perhaps I'm just having a bit of trouble translating that article in my head... Are the credits used to buy the Expedition Cards earned similarly like gaining XP or what? And are those cards replacing skills and weapon upgrades..?

Oh, and in that article there's a tiny bit of info about the multiplayer mode and the game's release on other platforms - not sure if they're new info or not...

That looks absolutely great and amazing!

Desert environment gives a nice, The Last Revelation-ish feeling. I personally prefer daytime levels, not as scary as dark forests etc. Dark caves and tombs are always scary...

Hello!

Thanks for all the info from E3.

tombraidergirl wrote:

The following questions have been asked by fans:

- Will there be a multiplayer mode? If so, will there be a co-op mode where Raiders fight the AI together?
- Will the events from the comics the novel be relevant in Rise?
- Will there be boss fights?
- Will there be a Croft Manor?
- Will there be DLC?
- How big a role will 'survival' play?
- How is the transition between levels / locations? (Base camp travel, walking possible...) and how can you reach missed side quests.
- Will we learn more about how Lara copes with what happened to her? In flashbacks, at the beginning of the game, or was it just a teaser in the trailer?
- Will Lara's choices influence the story or the outcome of the game.
- Will there be vehicles?
- Will there be swimming or diving?
- Twin Pistols?
- Gametime with and without side quests.

Display More

Did these questions get answered at the E3? I've seen the gameplay "trailer" (or what's it called) and it looked so cool... Swimming, lots of snow - wow!

Was there any talking about the Xbox exclusive deal and its duration?

Hello!

I maybe a little late with my "news", but Game Informer does have a Rise of the Tomb Raider Hub. There you can find Game Infromer's feature articles concerning the upcoming game. This is a similar regularly updated feature to the one Game Informer had about TOMB RAIDER reboot.

I'd so like to be all excited about Game Informer's hub, but all I can think of is "Oh right, the game won't be on PC right away..."

Sorry for replying to my own post!

But with the help of my more tech friend I managed to solve the graphics problem. The solution involved running the Tomb2 launcher through Windows 7's start up search bar with -setup attached to the path end:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Tomb Raider (II)\Tomb2 -setup

Using the above path on the start up menu's search bar opened the game's display setup. The path is default for Steam on my computer, so if you try it and you've got your Steam TRII located somewhere else on your computer, the path I used most likely won't work.

Here's a screenshot about the display settings that work on my computer. Please note, that my computer is a 64bit Windows 7.
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Hello, all!

So, I've gotten Tomb Raider II via Steam a while ago. The game runs smoothly, but there is an issue with the graphics. There is some colour mess going on, some pixels are bright blue, violet, red... many colours that should not be there.

But: the colour mess does not show at all on screenshots taken with Fraps! As if the game is trolling me, "Ha-ha! Try to prove this you dummy!" Also, using Print Screen results in the screenshot being very much darker than it actually is. So, it's pretty difficult for me to try to explain how my TRII really looks.

Anyhoo, below is a picture taken with Print Screen:

Like you may guess, it's taken in Venice. Note that pretty much all the black parts are actually white/lightly or brightly coloured.

I've tried to set the compatibility mode from Properties and running the TRII with 256 colours, but they haven't helped. I've also tried the Win7 multipatcher from Tomb Raider Chronicles site, but somehow it doesn't have an option for updating only TRII (see screenshot below)...

Somehow the setup with resolution settings for TRII refuses to open, so I haven't gotten the chance to try setting them differently. I've tried to open it through the Autorun program that can be found while looking through the file folders...

Any ideas?

What a lovely gif, Soul!

But yeah, people are indeed different in that sense. I'm no business expert, but if the freshness of the story, the excitement and all wear off during the wait for other platforms, it might affect the sales in a negative way. So in that sense the exclusiveness thing is plain stupid, even a temporary one.

Personally I don't mind the wait, I got the latest one way later than most, knew the story and all... But still I enjoyed the game. But I also undertand your point!

Meh... All the decisions that are made for money, just... Blergh...

Thank you very much, Flo! Now I'm not that disappointed anymore, at least not to the point where I'd want to type some nasty words.

Now if only the lenght of the duration would be announced... It would be nice to know whether the wait is months or years. Games mentioned in the article seem to have roughly about a year wait... I think I could handle that.

It would have been really horrible if the exclusiveness was permanent...