tomb-raider posts

Tomb Raider co-creator leaves Eidos . . . again

by John Callaham Sep 15th 2009 @ 1:00PM

One of the co-creators of Eidos' Tomb Raider franchise, Toby Gard, has left the company's development team at Crystal Dynamics. According to Develop, Gard would not comment on why he has left the company, saying only that " I've started up my own consultancy business."

Gard was one of the main designers behind the original Tomb Raider at developer Core Design in 1995. He left Core after Tomb Raider's release to form Cofounding Factor, a development team that spent seven years creating a game, Galleon, that was finally released for the original Xbox in 2004 to poor reviews and sales. Eidos later brought Gard in as a consultant on Tomb Raider Legend and Gard ended up as the co-writer of the game's storyline along with other duties on the game. He also co-wrote and performed other duties on the next game in the series Tomb Raider Underworld. He was supposedly leading a group at Crystal Dynamics on a new project which most people believed would be the next Tomb Raider game.

Filed under: Biz, Action

Rumor: Tomb Raider reboot details leaked? [Update]

by John Callaham Jul 11th 2009 @ 7:00PM

[Update: We received an email from Nielsen Entertainment asking us to remove the image and we've done so as a courtesy. So instead, why not enjoy this pic of the latest Lara Croft model?]

We do love our rumors and this new one on the details of the next Tomb Raider game from Eidos (oh, excuse us . . Square Enix) seems to lean on the side of legit (for now anyway). A web site called fourplayercoop.com claims to have a mole inside the development team that took some pictures of a monitor displaying some info on the latest Lara Croft adventure.

The alleged info shows off some concept artwork and details of the type of game that developer Crystal Dynamics is making. Supposedly the game will have Lara engage in an open-world style of action game on an island. The story is also supposed to reboot Lara's origins because this game will be set early in her life and will show how she grew to be the hard-as-nails adventure babe.

[Image credit]

Filed under: Action

GameTap to add Hotel Giant 2 to premium service

by John Callaham Jul 9th 2009 @ 9:00AM

Thursday has come around again which means new updates to the GameTap subscription game download service. This week folks who pay the big bucks for the premimum service will have Hotel Giant 2 added to their library of titles. This is a new title from developer Enlight Software that will put the player in full charge of a high rise and high class hotel establishment. Yes, you can get your inner Trump on with this game.

For you freeloaders out there (most of you) GameTap is offering Tomb Raider Anniversary, the graphical remake of Lara Croft's first game adventure, in their free game selection for the next week.

Filed under: Downloads, Action, Simulation

Expect lots of sequels from Eidos in the near future

by John Callaham May 10th 2009 @ 11:00AM

With Eidos now a part of Square Enix, the UK-based publisher is apparently all about cranking out sequels to games that have worked well in the past. The GamingIndians.com web site has posted up a new chat with Ian Livingstone who was recently named "Life President" at Eidos where he revealed that lots of their franchises are getting new entries.

Of course you can expect a new Tomb Raider game which Livingstone states, " . . . will surprise a lot of people and reinvigorate the franchise." Yep, there's also a new Hitman game planned as well as a new Kane and Lynch entry; both will be handled by Io Interactive. Deus Ex 3 is already announced and when ask if a new Thefi game was in the works, Livingstone states, "Well, we did some research on all our franchises and the one that was most wanted was Thief. So you might want to draw your own conclusions, but I cannot confirm that." We suspect he will be able to on Monday.

Filed under: Biz, Action

Feature: Turning Games Into Comics - Part 1

by John Callaham Feb 9th 2009 @ 3:00PM

With the huge success that the New York Comic Con had this past weekend, it's clear that comic books and games have lots of links and a shared audience. We have posted up a feature about comic books that we think should be turned into games but the truth is more and more games are being adapted and expanded in comic book form.

Various publishers have released game-based comics over the years and today in the first part of a two part series Big Download looks at just some of the attempts to turn games into four-color entertainments. Stay tuned as we will have even more examples on Tuesday. Update: The second part of the feature is now up.

Click on the link above to continue reading From Comics to Games: Part 1

Gallery: From Games To Comics: Part 1

Filed under: Features

Eidos confirms "preliminary" buyout talks

by John Callaham Jan 15th 2009 @ 9:00PM

If it seems you have read this bit of news over and over again, well..you have. However today UK publisher Eidos did indeed confirm that some kind of buyout talks are in the works for the financially troubled company. Eidos's statement is so short about the matter we reproduce it here in full:

The Board of Eidos plc ("Eidos" or the "Company") notes today's share price rise.

The Board can announce that it has received a preliminary approach which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the Company. Eidos emphasises that discussions are at a very early stage and that there can be no assurance that an offer will be forthcoming.

Further statements will be issued in due course as appropriate.

That's all they are saying now. If you believe the rumors half the game industry wants to buy Eidos if only to get their hands on their popular IP like Tomb Raider and Hitman. Early in 2008, Eidos (then known as SCi) announced they had rejected an earlier buyout offer. That caused the stock price to crater and as a result the company's management team resigned.

Filed under: Biz

Rumor: SCi/Eidos being sought after by EA and Ubisoft

by John Callaham Dec 1st 2008 @ 6:00PM

Much like Midway, 2008 has not been the best financial year for UK publisher SCi, the parent company of Eidos. The company began the year by rejecting a takeover bid from an unnamed third party that caused a massive drop in its stocks. That price loss caused the management team to resign. Since then the new management team has cut 200 team members from its company, canceled a number of games and shut down its internal game developer Pivotal Studios.

Today the UK site the Daily Mail is reporting that both Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are making "early- stage" offers to SCi to purchase the publisher. Currently SCi/Eidos's total financial worth is only 50 million pounds. The story, which uses unnamed sources, claims that EA and Ubisoft are thinking about buying Eidos while it is cheap because of its high profile game franchises like Tomb Raider and Hitman.

Filed under: Biz

Special deals from Steam revealed

by John Callaham Nov 14th 2008 @ 1:00PM

Valve has yet to reveal their special Steam weekend sale yet but the game download service already has a couple of interesting deals that you can take a look at. First, anyone who pre-orders Eidos' upcoming action-adventure Tomb Raider Underworld via Steam will be able to download one of the previous games in the series, Tomb Raider Legend, for free immediately.

The second deal is that Valve has added their upcoming zombie co-op shooter, Left 4 Dead, to their Valve Complete Pack of games. We mentioned this in last week's Virtual Bargain Bin but at that time the collection did not include Left 4 Dead. The addition does not change the price of the Valve Complete Pack which means you will be getting a $45 game in Left 4 Dead and $55 for the other 22 games in the collection for a total of $100. Nice

Filed under: Downloads, Action, FPS, Left 4 Dead Series

Lara Croft tries to survive a sinking ship in latest trailer

by John Callaham Nov 10th 2008 @ 3:30PM

Did you ever get that sinking feeling? Lara Croft certainly has in this new clip from the upcoming action-adventure game Tomb Raider Underworld. Croft has to deal with shooting bad guys on a cargo ship and then has to deal with the ship itself blowing up and going down into the sea. Six new screenshots from the game from developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Eidos show off more of the ship gun battles.

Download the Tomb Raider Underworld Sinking Ship Trailer (30 MB)

Gallery: Tomb Raider: Underworld

Filed under: Action, Adventure, Screenshots, Trailers

New Tomb Raider: Underworld web site offers in-game items

by John Callaham Nov 10th 2008 @ 12:00PM

With Tomb Raider: Underworld due for release next week, the folks at publisher Eidos want you to have a leg-up on the rest of the world while playing the latest action-adventure game. They have launched what they are calling the Tomb Raider Experience web site which will offer up exclusive unlockable in-game items.

The web site does this by putting you through a series of browser based games such as hitting the right key at the right time to avoid a tentacle from a Kraken or balance main character Lara Croft on a balance beam. The more times you are successful, the more points you get and the more chances for unlockable items you can receive. Tomb Raider Underworld itself is due for release on Nov. 18.

Gallery: Tomb Raider: Underworld

Filed under: Action, Adventure, Browser

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