crystal-dynamics posts

LucasArts is still interested in internal game development, at least according to its hiring moves. This week the publisher announced that it has hired Tim Longo to join LucasArts to work on an unannounced game. Longo previously worked at Crystal Dynamics as the creative head of the developer's Tomb Raider game franchise. Longo previously worked at LucasArts as well including the creative director of Star Wars: Republic Commando.

LucasArts previously had two periods of mass layoffs in 2010, one in September and another in November. At the moment the only announced game on the publisher's plate is the long awaited MMO Star Wars The Old Republic which it is co-publishing with Electronic Arts.

Redwood City, California-based game developer Crystal Dynamics is getting prepped to work on an all-original game after working exclusively as the makers of the last few games in the Tomb Raider series. Gamasutra reports that the studio has hired a new executive producer, Scot Amos, that will lead the new game IP team.

Amos comes from Electronic Arts' Visceral Studios where he helped to develop the team's Dead Space games. Currently Crystal Dynamics is working on the reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise for publisher Square Enix that's due out late in 2011. This new game will be the first all original title from the studio since the sci-fi first person shooter Project Snowblind which was released in 2006.

Fans of the PC version of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light have been waiting patiently for the game's promised DLC content to be released for our version Today the wait is over as the downloadable third person co-op action-adventure game from developer Crystal Dynamics now has some cool extras to check out via Steam.

One extra has been released for free as players can now play the games as Kane and Lynch from the game series of the same name. For $3.49 players can also download the Legacy of Kain character pack where you can control Kain and Raziel from that now dormant game franchise. There are also three new challenge map packs (All The Trappings, Things That Go Boom and Hazardous Reunion). Each adds four new maps to the game and each pack costs $3.49.

The other character DLC was revealed in a "tweet" from Crystal Dynamics announcing that Kane and Lynch of the game series of the same name would also be included in a Lara Croft DLC pack. In fact the developer is asking its fans which pack (Kane and Lynch or Kain and Raziel) should be released first. We should get a (legal) download of the character packs before the end of the year. In the meantime you can check out the Kain and Raziel YouTube video after the jump:

[Via Joystiq]

Lara Croft And The Guardian of Light has been available to download and play for PC owners for close to two months now but the top down action-adventure game from developer Crystal Dynamics has finally gotten its first patch update. It's a pretty major one as the patch enabled online two-player co-op support for the game,

The patch is now available for automatic download via Steam. It also has some performance and stability improvements along with more audio and graphics polish to the game. The patch also has some unnamed improvements to the game's controls for both keyboard-mouse set-ups and gamepads.

Lara Croft's fans were helped out with this year's release of the downloadable top down game Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. However it was also under understood that there would be a full blown retail game in the long running action-adventure game series at some point.

Now some are speculating that a teaser ad and web site are giving us a hint that the next game would be officially revealed in Game Informer magazine. A two page spread from the current issue scanned over at NeoGaf shows a wrecked ship and the words "A Survivor Is Born" with a cover reveal scheduled for December 6. There also a web site, asurvivorisborn.com, with the same info minus the ship. All of this might hint about not just the next Tomb Raider game but that it will also be a Batman Begins-style reboot for the series.

[Via Eurogamer]

It's always important for icons to reinvent themselves, and few video game characters are as recognizable as the ever agile Lara Croft. Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light is a spin-off from the Tomb Raider series and offers a new perspective to the treasure hunting and puzzle solving formula. The downloadable game looks downward onto the main characters using an isometric view camera, making it possible to see more of the environment to figure out puzzles and dodge hazards... that is, when she's not shooting at dangerous creatures. That's not the only change, since Lara can be joined by a warrior named Totec (the Guardian of Light mentioned in the title) to combine skills and overcome obstacles together. The game diverges from the traditional Tomb Raider formula on a number of different levels, but in this case, that's a good thing.

Check out all Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light downloads

It's time to see Lara Croft's latest adventure, Guardian of Light, for ourselves. The game was released on Steam this week, and to commemorate it, Square Enix has released a launch trailer. It is what you would expect from a launch trailer: it shows off some gameplay, gives a list of quotes from publications that gave the game a favorable rating, and lists where the player can get it. Most of the gameplay shown in this trailer is of the co-operative "kill everything" kind, though, which is a sharp departure from Lara's roots in 3D platforming.

It looks like one of the big features for the upcoming downloadable action game Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light won't be made available when the PC version of the game is released on September 28. The game from developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix won't have any online co-op features at first.

While there will still be offline co-op play through the single player campaign for you and a friend who happens to be sitting next to you, the online co-op features will be added "at a later date" . Players can also expect to download additional content for the game over the next few months including new areas and puzzles to explore and new character packs.

[Via email press release]

Earlier this year we reported that the PC port of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light would be released a few weeks after its launch on the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade. Today we received word that the downloadable action-adventure game from developer Crystal Dynamics will be released on the PC via Steam on September 28 for $14.99.

Even after the release of the game. Crystal Dynamics plans to offer several downloadable expansions for the title from October to December. Three of these expansions will give the heroine of the Tomb Raider series new areas to explore with more puzzles and combat. The other two expansions are character packs which will let players play the game with unnamed but "other well-known videogame characters..."

[via email press release]