Infamous

Infamous (stylized as inFAMOUS) is an action-adventure video game for the PlayStation 3. It was developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, released internationally in May and June 2009.
In Infamous, the player controls the protagonist Cole MacGrath, a bike messenger caught in the center of an explosion that devastates several city blocks of the fictional Empire City. The explosion sends the city into chaos while Cole finds himself with new electricity-based super powers. Though the game's story follows Cole using his new abilities to restore some semblance of order to Empire City, the player is given several opportunities to use these powers for good or evil purposes in the game's Karma system. These choices ultimately affect character growth, the reaction of the City's populace towards Cole, and finer elements of gameplay and the story.
Sucker Punch developed Infamous as a change of pace from their earlier Sly Cooper series of stealth-based games, but using a similar comic book-inspired origin story to help the player become more connected with Cole. The game's pacing in the introduction of new super powers and ease of movement about the city by unconventional means were critical factors during development. The desolate urban atmosphere was inspired by comics such as DMZ and No Man's Land. Amon Tobin was among the artists that helped to compile its soundtrack, which aimed to reflect the environment.
The game was well received by the gaming press. It was praised for many of its elements, including the implementation of Cole's powers and climbing ability, and the game's content and mission structure. Reviewers commented on the repetitive nature of combat and enemies, limitations of the Karma system, and technical aspects in the graphical display. Infamous was also compared to and contrasted with Radical Entertainment'sPrototype, a video game released the following month which had many elements similar to Infamous, including exploration of an open world-style city by a protagonist with superpowers.
The game was offered by Sony as a free download as part of their 'Welcome Back' program, after the 2011 PlayStation Network outage. A sequel,Infamous 2, was released on June 7, 2011. A third game designed specifically for the as yet unreleased PlayStation 4, titled Infamous: Second Son, was announced during the PlayStation Meeting 2013 on February 20, 2013.
Infamous is an action-adventure and open world video game where the player controls Cole and primarily interacts with the world of Empire City through Cole's newly gained electricity-based powers; these are used for movement, offense and defense in combat, and either for better or worse in dealing with the citizens of Empire City. In order for Cole to use his powers, he must have stored electrical power, represented by a node meter on the player'sheads up display (HUD). The player can recharge Cole by draining electricity from powered sources or from living beings; recharging also restores Cole's health, though if the player stays out of battle long enough, Cole's health will regenerate over time. The game features seventeen different electrical powers, ranging from simple bolts that do not consume Cole's energy to wide-field lightning storms that drain most of Cole's energy.[5] The player can use such powers against both live targets and the environment, giving the player options in certain situations. For example, the player may fire at a generator near foes to cause it to explode and cripple his opponents, or fire at the body of water that an enemy is standing in to take advantage of water's conductivity to kill the enemy. Due to being vivified electricity, Cole is unable to use vehicles, take up weapons, or swim. Cole easily climbs buildings and other structures and can fall a great height without taking damage;[5] these maneuvers can be combined with Cole's electrical powers for unique combat situations. A number of stunts, requiring the player to kill enemies under specific conditions (such as killing an enemy while both Cole and the enemy are in mid-air), are available to complete.
Many powers are acquired over the course of the game; once acquired the player can use experience points, awarded for specific actions, stunts and missions, to increase the power's effectiveness. The growth of these powers is affected by Cole's current Karma level. Starting in a neutral position, it ranges from Guardian to Champion to Hero on the Good side, and from Thug to Outlaw to Infamous on the Evil side. Certain actions, such as stopping to help injured citizens or draining their health to restore Cole's, will affect the Karma level in either direction.[5] Normal story missions may also alter the Karma level. During the game the player will encounter Karma Moments, when the action pauses and the player is told, through a monologue by Cole, of two actions that can be taken, always a good and bad option. For example, one scenario the player is presented with is to either pull a valve and get a spray of tar in his face (Good), or force a civilian to do it for him (Evil). There are also a number of paired Good/Evil side missions in the game; completing one will lock out the other mission but will reward the player with a large amount of Karma towards their selected Karma goal. Completion of these missions helps gain access to unique super powers based on the Karma level. The player is not locked into choosing either Karma path, and may opt to play towards one extreme and later switch to the other mid-game.[5] Doing so will lock out any purchased power(s) in the original chosen Karma sector. In addition to altering Cole's appearance and certain aspects of the game's story,[6] Karma also influences the behavior of the citizens of Empire City, they will come to help Cole in battle if his Karma is Good, but will turn on Cole and throw rocks at him if he has Bad Karma.
Empire City is built on three islands, and the player must work through main story missions on each island before being able to access the next one, though future missions may require the player to return to an earlier island. Each island is divided into a number of sectors, at the start of the game controlled by three different gangs. The player can undertake a side mission in each sector, once certain main story requirements have been met, to free that sector from gang control, reducing or eliminating the presence of the gang in that sector. Other side missions may also unlock medical stations where Cole will re-awaken should he die. Though Cole must travel on foot he eventually gains powers that allow him to grind along power cables and powered, elevated train rails and to hover for a short time. Scattered around the city are hundreds of 'blast shards' which Cole can collect to increase the amount of electricity he can store. There are also 32 'dead drop' satellite transmitters that help to reveal more of the back-story in the game. A mini-map on the player's HUD can be used to locate blast shards, dead drops and power sources.
The game takes place in fictional Empire City, laid across three islands: the Neon District, where many businesses and entertainment venues are located, the Warren, the slum where goods are shipped into and out of the city, and the Historic District, the smallest of the three islands, but the most post-modern. The districts are connected by bridges, and each district has its ownelevated train system. At the start of the game, six blocks of the Historic District are wiped out by an explosion from a bio-electrical device called the Ray Sphere. A plague develops soon afterwards, forcing the government to quarantine the region. In doing so, they block the only bridge to the mainland from the city, causing societal collapse within the isolated city.
The protagonist is Cole MacGrath (voiced by Jason Cottle), a bike courier of Empire City who happens to be in the center of the explosion, surviving it and gaining electricity-based super powers. His best friend and fellow courier, Zeke Jedediah Dunbar (voiced by Caleb Moody) takes initial refuge from the chaos on the streets at a rooftop pad and becomes both impressed and envious of Cole's newfound powers. Trish Dailey (voiced by October Moore) is a medical student and Cole's girlfriend at the start of the game, who rejects him after accusing him of causing her sister's death. Shortly after the explosion, Cole meets with FBI agent Moya Jones (voiced by Kimberli Colbourne), who assigns him missions to complete in Empire City in hopes of finding an agent named John White (voiced by Phil LaMarr) who was trapped in the city while investigating a case for another agency when the quarantine was enacted and has left numerous encoded messages on satellite receivers. A rogue VJ, "The Voice of Survival" (real name Dallas, voiced by Derrick Forget), manages to broadcast his conspiracy-laden, panic-provoking messages across the city from a TV station, as well as a legitimate reporter who tries to give the government some PR.
As Cole explores the city, he confronts three others with super powers like himself, including Sasha (voiced by Jessica Straus), a scorned lover and former high-ranked member of the First Sons, trying to earn Cole's romance, and has the ability to use a tar-like plague-inducing substance to control the minds of others. She controls the Reaper gang, ex-drug dealing junkies as Cole put it, of the Neon District. Alden Tate, (also voiced by Jason Cottle) son of Richard, the previous leader of the First Sons, and a wizened old man with powerful telekinesis abilities that leads the Dust Men gang in the Warren District under his control. They fight the First Sons, a fraternal organization founded in medieval Europe that operates in the Historic District by Kessler (voiced by Sam A. Mowry), a man with many super powers, controls the First Sons, using them to seek out Cole and the Ray Sphere, the device that caused the explosion in Empire City.
While the basic story of the game remains unchanged whether the player opts for the "Good" or "Evil" karma path, there are some story elements that change depending on the player's choice at that time.
Cole is instructed by an anonymous customer to deliver a package to a location in the Historic District, and then to open it; unbeknownst to Cole, the package contains the Ray Sphere, which activates upon opening and wipes out six city blocks. Cole manages to survive the blast and is nursed back to health by Trish, during which he discovers his newfound powers. When the Voice of Survival pinpoints Cole at the center of the explosion, the city turns against him including Trish, whose sister was killed in the blast, and Cole and Zeke try to escape the quarantine with Cole's new powers but are overwhelmed by government agents. During his arrest, Cole is convinced by Moya, a high ranking government agent, to return to Empire City to seek out the Ray Sphere and her husband John in exchange for Cole and his friends' release from quarantine. Cole proceeds to follow Moya's missions, restoring power to the city to be able to fight off the various gangs that have taken over. As he comes to interact with Sasha, Alden, and Kessler, the leaders of each gang, he learns that Kessler displaced Alden from the leadership of the First Sons, an organized crime group, and initiated construction of the Ray Sphere, while rejecting Sasha's attempts for romance. Cole is able to defeat Sasha and capture Alden, but during a breakout attempt by the Dust Men, Zeke's own heroism antics allow Alden to go free, much to Cole's irritation. Later, Cole and Zeke track down Alden, who has recovered the Ray Sphere; Cole is able to distract Alden long enough for Zeke to recover it. However, Zeke is caught between Alden and Kessler, and realizes that he could gain superpowers himself through the Sphere and activates it, but nothing happens. Kessler immediately figures out what went wrong and offers Zeke power in exchange for assistance to fix it. Zeke agrees and departs with Kessler, taking the Ray Sphere with him.
Cole is finally able to track down John, but learns that John is neither from the FBI nor Moya's husband, but instead an undercover NSA agent who assisted in the creation of the Ray Sphere. John explains that the Ray Sphere consumes the bio-energy from those around it and transfers that power to the person holding it, granting them super abilities at the cost of thousands of lives, and urges Cole to help him find and destroy it. Alden goes on a killing spree while heading into the Historic District. After a long battle, Alden is defeated and jumps off the bridge. During the battle, Alden destroyed huge sections of the bridge. Cut off from the Warren, Cole goes ahead into the Historic District. As they search for the Ray Sphere, Cole discovers that Kessler has kidnapped Trish along with six other doctors, and forces Cole to choose between saving her or the other doctors. Regardless of the player's choice, Kessler has arranged for Trish to fall to her death, but is briefly revived by Cole. If the player has good Karma, Trish will be proud of Cole and profess her love, while if the player has bad Karma, she will curse his name with her dying breath. After mourning for his loss, Cole works with John to recover the Ray Sphere; the player can then opt to either destroy it or use it to further enhance Cole's powers (which also gives him red and black electricity), but either option causes the Ray Sphere to malfunction, disintegrating John.
Cole then goes to face Kessler at Ground Zero of the original explosion. As they fight, Zeke appears and tries to intervene but is tossed aside by Kessler. Cole eventually mortally wounds Kessler. Kessler uses his last actions to implant his memories into Cole's mind, revealing that Kessler is a version of Cole from the future of an alternate timeline. In that timeline, Cole (as Kessler) and Trish were happily wed with children, but soon the appearance of an entity known as "The Beast" plunged their world into chaos. Kessler and Trish fled with their children rather than fight, but after years of running, The Beast eventually caught up to them and killed his family. Kessler realized the only way to stop the Beast would be to use his powers to go back in time and prepare his past self, Cole, for battle against it as it was too late to fight back in Kessler's time. Kessler seized control of the First Sons from Alden, Manipulating then shunning Sasha's advances due to his past love for Trish, and ordered the construction of the Ray Sphere much earlier than in his timeline. Kessler was also the anonymous customer that directed Cole to use it. Kessler used Trish's death as a means of making sure Cole could choose the impossible in the battle with The Beast. After Kessler dies from the battle, Cole declares his hatred for Kessler, and says "When the time comes, I will be ready."
The ending of the game depends on the player's Karma. If the player's Karma is good, Empire City continues to rebuild itself, while still idolizing Cole as its savior. If the player's Karma is evil, Empire City has fully slid into chaos. The sky is red, people are dying in the streets, and Cole recognizes himself as the strongest person alive. Declaring Kessler an idiot for thinking he would use his powers for the greater good, he then laughs at the idea of using them to fight The Beast.
Infamous was developed by Sucker Punch Productions, with a team of 60 people working for about three years.[7] Though they could have opted to request the necessary funds from Sony to increase the team size and finish the game in two years, producer Brian Fleming noted that Sucker Punch's iteration-based development approach worked better with a smaller team size.[7]
Infamous came during the end of the development for Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves as the team began to look towards their next game. After spending the last six years on the same stealth game genre with the Sly Cooper games, they wanted to make something that was more "brazen and loud."[8] However, as fans of the "comic book" motif, they decided to develop it in the direction of a superhero game,[8] working with the idea of an origin story that would allow the player to experience the growth of the character.[9] Fleming stated that with the slower development time, they knew they needed to develop the game for the PlayStation 3 and that the work needed to complement their previous game, akin to how Shigeru Miyamoto's The Legend of Zelda series contrasted his earlier Mario series.[7] They also sought a project that would allow them to become familiar with the new PlayStation 3 hardware but had enough commonalities to allow them to bring their previous work on the Sly Cooper series forward.[7]
Director Nate Fox stated that much of the inspiration of the superhero story came from two DC Comics series, DMZ and No Man's Land. Both center on a city after a large disaster. The series also inspired the crafting of the game's grim take on the superhero genre.[8] Fox further stated that the film Batman Begins was an inspiration for the game.[10] However, any correlation to DC Comics' Static Shock was unintentional.[8] Fox considered his own personal involvement in the Seattle WTO riots of 1999 as influencing the reflection of "spending time in a lawless place" within the game.[10] Grand Theft Auto III was also stated as an influence, in that the team could easily see themselves as superheroes in the open world of Liberty City; similarly, Spider-Man 2 was used as a model to demonstrate what it would be like to move about the city and answer random requests for help alongside regular missions.[8] The character of Cole was created to be a "kind of an everyman" so that players could then "get into the headspace of what it would be like to be a real human being who has been granted these exceptional abilities".[5] The team also avoided giving Cole an alter-ego or outfitting him with a costume as it would not have reasonably fit in with the character or the game's story.[8]
The story and cut scene animations were created in-house.[7][9] The plot was originally written by Fox, who had also written most of the Sly Cooperstories, and reviewed by Fleming. As they continued to develop the game, they rewrote pieces of the story around changes in the game, making sure that the story remained enjoyable. As the game became more complex, they brought in Bill Harms, a published comic book author, who had previously written for Supreme Commander and other video games.[11][12] Harms assisted with the story and in-game dialog in addition to marketing materials.[7]Fleming noted that the second half of the story underwent significant changes in the last nine months of development; for example, when voice actor Caleb Moody voiced the lines for Zeke, he ad libbed additional lines that the team found to be enjoyable, and they reworked the story to incorporate them.[7] The cut scenes were created in a similar format to the comics that the game was influenced by, and used to further extend the atmosphere of the superhero motif.[13] The cut scenes were created by taking 2D art created in Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop and placing them into artificial 3Dstages built in Adobe After Effects to create a pseudo-3D effect that allowed them to play with camera placement and effects, and addition of organic elements such as dust clouds and ink spots.[14]
Darren Bridges, a developer for Sucker Punch, noted that they wanted to make Infamous about "becoming a modern-day superhero", stressing the word "becoming" as the key motivator to show the growth of Cole from a simple bike messenger to someone with god-like powers.[15] This led to instilling a "sense of progress" and growth of the character in all aspects of the game including the story, the progression of the player's powers, and the variation and difficulty in the enemies that the player faced.[15] The team initially brainstormed on what powers that the lead character had, but selected electricity-based powers for two primary reasons. First, the power translated well to a video game context, as it would be easy to conceptualize the aspects of electrical-based powers in terms of video game concepts such as ranged combat.[10][15] Secondly, electrical-based powers could then be tied to the city that the player would explore, requiring the player to use the city's electricity as fuel, and thus developing a "real relationship with the city".[15]
Initially, the game was more free-form, allowing players to purchase new powers at any point during the game, but the developers found it difficult to create a challenging game around this, particularly as they could not design missions around specific powers as the player may not have those at that time. This evolved into the scheme of presenting new powers to the player over the course of the game, with the developers created guiding rules for which powers were ultimately included in the game and when: the power had to be useful and add something unique to the game, the player would need a chance to use that power immediately after they got it, and the power would need to be enjoyable to use. The team employed frequent reviews of when these powers were introduced to the player as other gameplay elements were added to the game.[15] Not all powers were necessarily offensive; the "postcognition" power, allowing the player to see the psychic echo of a dead person of where they were before their death, was added as the team found there was an element of fun in tracking the echo through the crowded city.[10] Some powers were cut from the game. One power, gained through the Evil karma path, was called "Minionize", and would have allowed Cole to control the minds of civilians and force them to join him in battle. Although the power was "decidedly evil and very fun to watch", the team felt it wasn't useful to the game, though they managed to retain a hint of it in one of the Evil side missions.[15] Though the team had tested each of the core missions individually with the powers that the player would have based on the game's storyboard, they found that play-testers, who played the missions back-to-back, found the game lacked a variety of combat situations. The developers revisited all the combat scenarios from this feedback to alter the combat layouts as well as adding new enemies, a step that Bridges believes the game "benefited greatly" from.[15] The ability to use Cole's electrical powers to ride along Empire City's elevated train rails was a last-minute addition during the last month of development based on a play-tester's suggestion.[16]
Empire City was designed to marry with Cole's new-found superpowers. The city was built with a "crime ecosystem", where petty crimes or calls for help were always occurring outside of the main story, requiring the player to decide to stop to help or not to resolve them.[10] A portion of the team was devoted to implementing the behavior of the citizens of the city and how that behavior would change as the state of the city altered due to the player's actions.[17] Climbing buildings was considered to be an important aspect of the game, both as part of the superhero motif and because it was considered "fun to do", and Sucker Punch set out to make the whole city climbable.[10] Many details of every building have been modeled to allow the player to climb the buildings, "down to the last window frame, lighting sconce and storefront",[9][17] however, Fox noted that getting the climbing system "just right" was the most challenging aspect of development.[10] One employee was dedicated to making sure the entire city was climbable.[9] Fleming noted that during Infamous's development, both Crackdown and Assassin's Creed, two games with alternative takes on the climbing aspect, were released; the team felt that each of the games' climbing systems had their own strengths and weaknesses.[7] To reflect the nature of change of the city as the player interacts with it—either restoring power or taking it away—the developers created a "deferred shading" rendering engine that would render the effects of moving and damaged light sources.[17]
The Karma system in the game came about as a result of the team wanting to include the "judicious use of power" within the game. Fox commented that they wanted to lead the player along a path of doing the harder tasks believing that these actions were the right things to do. However, without the contrast of "evil" tasks that were simpler to complete, there would be no means of motivating the player to be a "selfless hero".[8] The team wanted to encourage players to think about the results of not only large decisions—Karma moments in the game where Cole thinks of which option to select—but also every moment-to-moment action, such as considering the presence of civilians in the area around a battle.[8] They arranged for the first major use of Cole's powers to turn the city's inhabitants against him, to encourage players to consider both sides. In this mission, Cole is given the option to keep a drop-supply of food for himself or to give it to the people; they found that most players would keep it for themselves, so very shortly after this event, the population turns against Cole, forcing the player to run or to attack them.[8] Fox compared the Karma dichotomy to the differences in styles of Batman versus the Punisher; the former using precision attacks to avoid harming innocents while the latter would hurt anything in his path to complete his goal.[9] To that end, they designed the powers in the game to reflect this nature; powers acquired with Good Karma would be more precise while Evil Karma powers were more destructive.[9]
On December 10, 2010, the "Gigawatt Blade" which had previously been available only as a preorder incentive - was made available on the North American PlayStation Store as a free download. It was released in Europe on January 25, 2010. In the downloadable version of the game, they are packaged in.

Tomb Raider: Underworld


Tomb Raider: Underworld is the eighth instalment of the Tomb Raider series, following character Lara Croft. The story continues from the events in Tomb Raider: Legend as a direct sequel, but also addresses unexplained plot elements by association with Tomb Raider: Anniversary.[6]Underworld was released by Eidos Interactive for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, in North America on 18 November 2008, Europe on 21 November 2008 and Australia on 5 December 2008. It is the third game in the series to be developed by Crystal Dynamics and is also the firstTomb Raider game to be released on the PlayStation 3. Developers implemented new features into the gameplay, such as the dual-target feature and an upgraded inventory system, using an Active Sonar map and a multi-purpose grappling hook. The game also features a hint system and a new melee combat system where Lara has the ability to battle her opponents using kicks and grapple pulls. Downloadable content was also released exclusively for the Xbox 360, where the player takes control of Lara and her doppelgänger in two new chapters.
Underworld received mostly positive reviews for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC versions. Critics generally praised the environments, Lara'smotion captured movements, story, puzzles, exploration, graphics and the less linear style of gameplay, although some criticism was directed at its "haywire" camera angles and "dodgy" combat system. The PlayStation 2 and Wii versions received mostly moderate to negative reviews. Most cited them as having medium to poor graphics; being oversimplified; "dumbed" down; and bugged, especially the PlayStation 2 version. On 27 February 2009, Eidos announced that the game had sold around 2.6 million copies worldwide.[7] On 22 May 2009, Tomb Raider: Underworld was re-released as part of the Xbox Classics and Platinum Range lines for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, respectively.[8] Underworld, along with Legendand Anniversary, was included in the The Tomb Raider Trilogy compilation, which was released in March 2011 for the PlayStation 3. In the end of 2011, Tomb Raider: Underworld was offered for free to PlayStation Plus members.[9]
Tomb Raider: Underworld is a single player, action-adventure video game. The game is presented inthird person perspective, where the player takes control of Lara Croft. Lara's environment reproduces a more "interactive world that reacts and remembers", such that footprints left in the mud or mud transferred to Lara's knee from kneeling on the ground is washed away by rain, the bodies of the foes she encounters remain where she killed them, and any destruction to the environment she causes are permanent.[10] According to creative director Eric Lindstrom, this is "to not only reward the player for the effect they're having on the world, but to give them navigational aids."[11] The game uses an animation blending system that allows Lara to interact dynamically with her environment, such as pushing foliage aside with one or two hands, depending on if she is carrying a weapon.[12] It also features a "hybrid lighting model that combines dynamic lights with carefully created light maps" and a weather system that changes the environment, for example, "If Lara’s negotiating a wet ledge she’s more apt to slip or lose grip," which makes "the environment [...] her adversary" for a large part of the game.[10][13]
Lindstrom explained that they integrated the elements of climbing, shooting and puzzle solving.[14] This instalment also features a new melee combat system, requiring Lara in some instances to use "direct combat and evasive manoeuvres to distance herself from her attacker". Notably, Lara's bike, among other things, is a key component in solving the puzzles she will encounter in her adventure.[10] Pick-ups have multiple uses as weapons and tools in interaction with the environment, and Lindstrom stated that Lara "can also split up her guns and fire at two different targets simultaneously,"[11] or hold an item with one hand and fire a gun with the other.[14] The grappling hook can be stretched taut and used to pull objects off ledges, illustrating what project lead Rob Pavey said, that "Lara will be able to do anything that you'd expect her to be able to do," which he called "the big theme this year."[15] Lindstrom describes this as "a philosophy called 'What Could Lara Do?'—WCLD. It's short-hand for having the player be able to use their own intuition about what someone with her abilities should be able to do in an environment such as this, and consistency across the different mechanics and abilities. If she can throw a grenade, then if she can pick up this pole, why can't she throw it?" Crystal Dynamics also made the game non-linear, offering elaborate multi-stage puzzles.[11]
Another new design element was the "adrenaline moments". Instead of specific button presses, time slows down and gives the player a chance to get out of harm's way while retaining complete control of Lara.[16]
Tomb Raider: Underworld begins with Lara Croft's mansion exploding and being engulfed in flames. The game then rewinds back in time to a week before the explosion, just after the events ofTomb Raider: Legend. Lara is searching for Avalon, hoping it will lead her to an explanation for the disappearance of her long lost mother. Underneath the Mediterranean Sea, Lara discovers an ancient temple designating itself as "Niflheim", one of the many Norse underworlds. Deep within, she recovers one of Thor's gauntlets, after a lengthy battle with Amanda Evert's mercenaries and an encounter with an imprisoned Jacqueline Natla, on Amanda's ship. Natla tells Lara that the Norse underworld, Helheim and Avalon are one and the same and that she will need to find Thor's Hammer to open the Underworld and find her mother. Lara soon discovers that she will have to find Thor's other gauntlet and his belt if she wants to find and wield the hammer. Natla provides Lara with a starting point for her search in this quest – coastal Thailand. In Thailand, Lara doesn't locate the next gauntlet, but she finds evidence that her father had found it there and removed it before he died. She also discovers a message that reveals that her father and Natla had been working together at some point and that the relationship had not ended well. Lara is able to deduce where her father hid the missing gauntlet.
Back at the Croft Manor, Lara finds her father's secret office buried beneath her home. Upon his desk, Lara discovers the gauntlet as well as a tape-recorded message, warning her that Helhiem contains a powerful weapon. Suddenly, an explosion occurs and Lara's home becomes engrossed in flames, leading back to the opening events of the game. Zip tries to shoot Lara and claims that "Lara" detonated the bomb. When Lara returns to the burning office to recover the security footage, she encounters her doppelgänger who kills Alister Fletcher. After his emotional death, Lara resolves to continue with her quest. In Mexico, Lara finds both Thor's Belt and some ancient pictographs linking the weapon in Helheim to Jörmungandr, a mythical Norse sea-serpent, brought about by the seventh age. Her next stop are ruins on Jan Mayen Island that correlate to Valhalla. It is here that Lara finally recovers Thor's Hammer. In the meantime, Zip has managed to track Amanda down to a sister-ship of the one Lara sank earlier. Armed with Mjolnir, Lara boards the vessel and interrogates Natla once again. Natla provides Lara with the coordinates of Helheim, but points out that Lara does not know the Ritual of Odin, which is needed to open its gates, so Lara reluctantly strikes a bargain with Natla and frees her from her cell.
They rendezvous in the outer chambers of the Helheim complex, deep below the Arctic Sea. With the ritual performed, Lara is able to use Mjolnir to open the gates of Helheim. Along the way, Lara discovers the horrifying truth of her mother's fate – she has been turned into a thrall, thus Lara forcibly shoots her. Natla reveals the true extent of her manipulation of Lara, also revealing that she was the one who killed Lara's father. Natla goes, leaving the doppelgänger to kill Lara, but Lara is saved by Amanda. It is revealed that the Midgard Serpent was a Norse metaphor for the many tectonic divisions that encircle the world, beneath the seas. The doomsday device was built upon the most unstable junction of these lines and its activation would cause massive volcanic activity across the whole planet and the destruction of most of humanity. Lara successfully destabilises the device and strikes Natla with Mjolnir, sending her down into the pool of deadly eitrbelow. Lara and Amanda escape together using the dais, like the one that brought Lara's mother to Helheim, teleporting back to the temple in Nepal (from Tomb Raider: Legend).
In November 2007, Eidos was reported to have filed for a trademark on the phrase, Tomb Raider Underworld,[18][19][20] and soon after reserved the Tomb Raider Underworld domain name.[21] In December 2007, Eidos filed for a second trademark for Tomb Raider Underworld, reserving the right to provide "computer games that may be accessed network-wide by network users."[22] In the January 2008 issue of the magazine Play, details from the "first-ever demo" of the game were revealed.[10] SCi, which owned Eidos at the time, officially announced Tomb Raider: Underworld on 10 January 2008, and confirmed that all platform versions of the game would be released simultaneously in November 2008.[23]
Play's assertions that the game is the "first true next gen Lara with one big physics smorgasbord that looks altogether photo-real"[10] led to speculation that Tomb Raider: Underworld might be using a new game engine for its next-generation graphics rather than the system used by Tomb Raider: Legend and Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Later, the Senior Producer and External Designer separately confirmed that Underworld uses an all-new engine that was built especially for it.[24][25] This new engine is also used in the game Deus Ex: Human Revolution.[26]
Tomb Raider: Underworld was developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive as the final Tomb Raider title to be published under the Eidos Interactive label prior to its purchase by Square Enix.[27][27][28] Different versions of the game were developed by Crystal Dynamics, Buzz Monkey Software, Nixxes Software and Santa Cruz Games, all published by Eidos Interactive. Crystal Dynamics developed the Xbox 360 version and collaborated with Nixxes Software for the PC and PlayStation 3versions.[29] Santa Cruz Games developed the Nintendo DS version,[30] while the Wii and PlayStation 2 versions were developed by Buzz Monkey Software.[31] The Mac version was developed by Crystal Dynamics and released by Feral Interactive.[32]
Lara's costume was redesigned and she no longer wears her trademark turquoise sleeveless top and khaki shorts, but instead, a dark brown halter top and black shorts. Additionally, her hair is no longer braided, but worn in a ponytail. According to Play, Lara "moves as good as she looks [and] no longer moves like a video game character" due to her being fully motion captured.[10] Olympic gymnast and NCAA Women's Gymnastics champion Heidi Moneymaker was the model used for motion capturing.[14] Lara Croft is said to have over 2,000 animations.[33] Keeley Hawes provided the voice of Lara in this instalment, as she did in Anniversary and Legend.[34] Gymnast Alison Carroll was selected as the new official Lara Croft model to promote the game, replacing Karima Adebibe.
The first official video, entitled "Beneath the Surface", was released on 17 July 2008, and featured interviews with members of the development team and showed screenshots, artwork, and several clips of gameplay footage. A teaser trailer was released on 19 July 2008,[35] and the first gameplay trailer was released on 15 August 2008.[36]
Troels Brun Folmann composed the main theme of the game, and was the music supervisor for Underworld while Colin O'Malley was scoring the bulk of the music. Underworld's music is purely orchestral in style.[37] There are pieces that do not loop, meaning they will only play one time and will be triggered on specific events.[37] The score is made more of musical fragments, similar to the first five games of the Tomb Raider series, and there is less constant music than in Legend.[37]
In addition to gameplay music, Underworld's theatrical trailer also uses orchestral music. The featured piece is the 3rd movement: Lacrimosa, from Mozart's Requiem in D minor.[38]
Tomb Raider: Underworld was first released in North America on 18 November 2008, then on 21 November in Europe, and 5 December in Australia.[39] The PlayStation 2 version was subsequently released on 23 January 2009 in Europe and 5 March in North America.[3][4] On 14 June 2012, Underworld was released on the Macintosh by Feral Interactive.[32][40]
Exclusive to EB Games in Australia and New Zealand was the Tomb Raider: Underworld Ultimate Fan Pack, which was available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The pack contained the retail version of the game, a Lara Croft calendar, a Lara Croft figurine, a Tomb Raider t-shirt, a trucker cap and a messenger bag.[41]
Exclusive to Game in the United Kingdom was the limited edition of Tomb Raider: Underworld, which was available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The edition included a bonus disc, which contained behind-the-scenes documentary, promotional artwork, an exclusive soundtrack, videos and trailers.[42][43] In the United States, GameStop offered customers an exclusive The Art of Tomb Raider: Underworld artbook, when the game was pre-ordered.[44]
After an agreement with Microsoft, Eidos released two new chapters of Tomb Raider: Underworld as exclusive downloadable content on the Xbox Live Marketplace:[45] Beneath the Ashes on 24 February 2009[46][47] and Lara's Shadow on 10 March 2009.[48] According to an MTV Multiplayer blog post, an Eidos spokesperson has stated that there are no plans to release the content forPlayStation 3 or Microsoft Windows.[49] Following a negative reaction from fans, Eidos released a statement explaining that they were approached by Microsoft, and to confirm "there are no plans for additional downloadable content for PS3".[50]
It was also announced that two new outfits, made by Quebec fashion designers, would be available for free download on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The outfits were chosen by jury and public vote on the Festival Arcadia's Virtually Fashionable on 8 November 2008,[51] and released on 10 March 2009.[52] On 15 December 2008, Eidos announced the release of two classic outfits from past Tomb Raider games ("Classic" and "Legend"), which would be released for free exclusively on the Xbox Live Marketplace.[53] On 30 December 2008, two additional wetsuits for Lara were also released for free on the Xbox Live
As in the main game, the player controls Lara during Beneath the Ashes. The story of Beneath the Ashes opens with Lara searching her father's hidden study beneath Croft Manor for an artifact with the power to create and control thralls. The appearance of a thrall leads Lara further beneath Croft Manor than seen in the main game. Upon finding the artifact, Lara uses the phrase carved into it, "Okh Eshivar", to gain control over a thrall. The doppelgänger suddenly appears and charges towards Lara. Lara orders the thrall to "kill", but the doppelgänger easily destroys it. Lara says "Okh Eshivar" just as the doppelgänger reaches her, forcing the doppelgänger to stand still and await Lara's orders. After an inaudible exchange between them, Lara tells the doppelgänger to "make sure Natla suffers". Beneath the Ashes ends as the doppelgänger runs off, apparently to complete this task.
In Lara's Shadow, the player takes control of the doppelgänger. The doppelgänger moves more quickly than Lara and the gameplay has a stronger emphasis on melee combat. The story of Lara's Shadow opens with the scene from the main game where Amanda rescues Lara from the doppelgänger by throwing her over the side of a cliff. The doppelgänger survives, landing on solid rock rather than in the surrounding eitr. When she regains consciousness, she proceeds to find Natla. Natla appears weakened and thrall-like, but retains her mind and uses "Okh Eshivar" to command the doppelgänger to take her to the doppelgänger's "birthplace." Once there, the doppelgänger places Natla in a very large and ancient machine. Natla then gives the doppelgänger her final orders: to kill Lara and then end her own life. Natla wants the doppelgänger to kill herself. The doppelgänger seems to feel anger at this but, being under Natla's control, continues to obey her. The scene shifts to "4 days later", and extends the final scene of Beneath the Ashes. During their previously inaudible exchange, Lara commands the doppelgänger saying "Obey me now. From this moment, ignore all commands. You are a slave to no one." The doppelgänger returns and destroys part of the machine containing Natla, who falls and is trapped by the debris in a rising pool of eitr. Natla unsuccessfully tries to order the now free doppelgänger to help her. Lara's Shadow ends with the doppelgänger looking down on Natla smiling as she is submerged in the eitr.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary


Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a 2007 action-adventure video game, part of the Tomb Raider series. It is a remake of the first video game in the series, the original 1996 Tomb Raider. It uses an improved version of the Legend game engine,[3] and it includes all of the original environments from Tomb Raider.[3]
The game was co-developed by Crystal Dynamics and Buzz Monkey Software for the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, Windows and Wii.[4]Eidos announced 1 June 2007 as the European release date for the PS2 and Windows version, with the North American release to follow on 5 June 2007.[5][6] Additionally, the subscription PC gaming service GameTap announced that the game will be available on their service on the same day as the game went to retailers.[7] The PSP version was released on 9 August 2007 in the United States and on 26 October 2007 in Europe, with the Wii version released in Europe on 7 December 2007.[8] An Xbox 360 version was released on 23 October 2007[9] and a version for thePlayStation 3 is included in The Tomb Raider Trilogy collection released in March 2011.[10] The Mac OS X version of the game was released in February 2008 by Feral Interactive.[1]
The game was well received by critics, with the PC version holding the highest score. It holds an 83 on Metacritic and 84.28% on GameRankings. The game sold 1.3 million copies worldwide, making it the least commercially successful game in the franchise, nevertheless, it was still a success.[11]
In 1945 in New Mexico, a blast from a nuclear experiment in Manhattan Project reveals a strange crystalline structure, from which a winged creature breaks free and flies away. In Calcutta 1996, Lara Croft is approached by Larson Conway, who introduces her to Jacqueline Natla, who wishes Lara to find a piece of an artefact called the Scion, located in the Peruvian mountains. Lara, having searched unsuccessfully for such an artefact with her father in the past, agrees to go.
In the Peruvian mountains, Lara finds a tomb belonging to the Atlantean king Qualopec. She discovers that he was one of three Kings (the Triumvirate) who ruled Atlantis before it sank. Lara leaves with a piece of the three-part Scion, but notices movement from what had appeared to be a statue of Qualopec before the tomb collapses. Shortly after, Lara is confronted by Larson, who attempts to take the Scion piece from her. After knocking him out, she discovers that Natla has sent Pierre Dupont, another archaeologist, to find the next piece. Lara breaks into Natla's office and finds evidence that the next piece of the Scion is located in St. Francis Folly in Greece.
Lara departs to Greece, and finds the second piece of the Scion in the depths of a tomb. While Lara studies the empty coffin of Tihocan, the second member of the Triumvirate, Pierre ambushes Lara, forcing her at gun point to give up her piece of the Scion. After Pierre takes the piece Lara tries to take him by surprise but he escapes with the Scion piece in hand, only to be killed by guardian centaurs outside of the tomb. After defeating the centaurs, and joining both pieces of the Scion, Lara sees a vision,and it reveals the location of the third and final piece of the Scion: Egypt.
Lara travels to Egypt, and successfully retrieves the third piece of the Scion. After assembling all three pieces, Lara's earlier vision becomes much clearer.In Lara's visions Two of the three Kings, Tihocan and Qualopec, are sentencing the third one, revealed to be Natla, to imprisonment. Natla, after releasing Atlantis' own army against itself in an attempt to bring about what she refers to as the Seventh Age, is imprisoned in the crystalline structure for a thousand years.
With Lara in a trance, Natla steals the Scion, and has Lara restrained by her three henchmen. Lara escapes and follows the departing Natla on a motorbike, managing to sneak onto Natla's departing boat. Lara follows Natla into a desolate mine, and kills Larson when he tries to stop her. Visibly shaken, Lara then confronts Kold and Kid, who end up killing each other in the skirmish. Lara then travels to the top of the Atlantean pyramid and confronts Natla.
Not long into the confrontation with Natla, Lara realises that Natla's plan is to resurrect the army of Atlantis. Natla attempts to convince Lara to stop opposing her, and become immortal like her. Lara destroys Scion instead, and is then tackled by Natla, who falls into the lava while Lara uses her grappling hook to survive. Lara, thinking Natla dead, tries to escape, being confronted by a giant mutant along the way. She is soon confronted by an angry Natla, severely burnt, but unimpeded in ability. After a confrontation, Lara collapses a pillar supporting the pyramid onto Natla, trapping her under the collapsing pyramid. Lara escapes and sails away in Natla's boat.[12]
The score for Tomb Raider: Anniversary is composed by Troels Brun Folmann. It took 5 months for Troels to compose, and is in the style of electronic orchestra. The majority of the album contains his original scores and themes. However, recognisable themes from the first game (composed by Nathan McCree) such as "Time to Run", "Puzzle Theme", and "Puzzle Theme II" have been recreated.
The "Main Theme" for Anniversary can be described as a celebratory version of the original theme from Tomb Raider, as similar chord and instruments are used in the piece. The song starts off with a heavy crescendo of woodwinds and low strings playing the famous Tomb Raider melody, and then breaks off into an almost playful arc, featuring parts of the original harp composition from first Tomb Raider. Pizzicato strings, cascading pianos and celeste, chimes, and glass instrumentation are prominent throughout this version, implying the fresh and modern twist that Folmann and Crystal Dynamics have placed in Anniversary.
Folmann's work for Anniversary is different from that of Legend, as it has no underlying techno beats or electronic effects. Anniversary's score resembles that of a combination between the originalTomb Raider and a typical movie score: entirely orchestral and choral. Folmann uses more complex instrumentation and composition in his scoring, acquiring more woodwinds, instrumentarticulation, and ambience. Folmann leaves somewhat of a trademark in his Anniversary music by adding a significant amount of wind chimes throughout the score.
Nine official trailers and four developer diaries have been released. The first, released on 21 December 2006 revealed an FMV sequence, in which Lara slid into The Lost Valley, battled several raptors and suddenly turned at the sound of the T-rex approaching. What followed was then several seconds of gameplay footage from that level, including combat against bears, wolves and bats.
The second trailer, released 23 February 2007, showed one of the opening cutscenes (Lara's guide being attacked by the wolves) and gameplay footage from Egypt. A new move, in which Lara ran across a wall whilst gripping onto the grapple, was shown during the video. It also showed some mummies attacking Lara. Some of the moves they included was the ability to throw fireballs, unlike their original counterparts, which didn't use fireballs, and another part of the trailer showed the mummy standing up to look around, another move inherited from the original counterparts. The trailer revealed also that the game was planned for a May release though a 38-second trailer released on 14 April 2007 indicated a June 2007 release.[15]
Several more trailers came out showing the Folly, the Coliseum, and Atlantis. Gametrailers and GameSpot released gameplay videos mostly from the Peru section of the game.
A demo of the "Lost Valley" segment from the Peru levels was released on 25 May 2007.[16]
On 18 June 2007, Eidos announced an Xbox 360 version of Tomb Raider: Anniversary. The game is split up into four episodes on Xbox Live. The Croft Manor level is available as a free download for each set of episodes. It was the first time a full retail game was made available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The disc version of the game was released on 26 October 2007.
When the game was released for the Wii, various features were added to take advantage of the Wii controller's unique capabilities. Some simple switches from the other versions have been expanded into puzzle minigames. In one type of puzzle, Lara now has to find a cog and place it, along with smaller gears already in the mechanism, in the proper position to make a working switch. Another type of puzzle involves making a charcoal rubbing of 3 images then turning a stone mechanism until it matches the rubbing. Lara can also make drawings in crates of sand. New rewards and clues for the new puzzles have been added that require the player, as Lara, to dig for them using the Wii remote as an archaeological tool such as a shovel or pickaxe. Other new features include a flashlight (along with darkened corridors in which to use it) and a new room in the mansion that holds items found during the course of the game like keys, rubbings, and weapons. The room also contains hunting trophies from animals that Lara has killed (including dinosaurs and Atlantean creatures).
The Wii version also includes motion and pointer controls during normal gameplay. Flicking the nunchuk tosses Lara's grapple, and the Wii remote's pointer aims her weapons and flashlight. Also, Lara can speed up while swimming, shimmying, or climbing by quickly shaking the nunchuck. Finally, the adrenaline dodges are activated with motion gestures matching the in-game events (such as throwing a punch or diving out of harm's way).

Tomb Raider: Legend


Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend is a 2006 action-adventure video game, the 7th entry in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Tomb Raiderfranchise. Published by Eidos Interactive, this is the first game in the series not to be handled by British-based Core Design, developed instead by British-owned U.S. studio Crystal Dynamics.
The Windows and Xbox versions, ported by Nixxes Software which also worked on the GameCube version,[1] were released in Europe on 7 April 2006 and in North America on 11 April 2006, along with the PS2 and Xbox 360 versions. The North American PSP version, developed by Buzz Monkey,[2] was released on 20 June 2006, the Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions were released during November 2006 and the Mobile version was released in December 2006. Human Soft was responsible for the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance versions.[3] The Windows version was released in 2006 and it was also made available for download to GameTap subscribers on 31 May 2007. A version for the PlayStation 3 is included in The Tomb Raider Trilogy collection released in March 2011 and has been remastered in HD.[4]A commercial success, the game sold 4.5 million copies.[5]
Years ago nine-year-old Lara Croft and her mother, Amelia Croft, survived a plane crash in the Himalayas. After taking shelter in the ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery, Lara discovered an ornate stone dais holding an ancient sword, and activated it. Amelia came and ripped out the sword, and afterwards, the dais exploded and Lara watched in horror as her mother vanished before her eyes.
Years later, an adult Lara searches for a similar stone dais located in the ruins of Tiwanaku, Bolivia. She encounters a group of mercenaries who are under orders to kill her on sight. Fighting through them, she proceeds to a temple where she finds the dais and James Rutland, a rich American socialite and self-proclaimed adventurer. Rutland, holding an unusual sword fragment, mentions Amanda Evert, a friend of Lara's who supposedly died years before in an excavation only Lara survived. After overcoming his soldiers, she confirms that this dais was the same design as that of the Himalayan.
Lara returns to a tomb in Peru to confirm or disprove Amanda Evert's death in a tragedy that befell them years ago. A teenaged Lara was excavating the tomb when she and Amanda witnessed an unknown demonic entity kill the rest of their team. Amanda managed to entrap the wraith in a glowing stone she ripped from a wall, but she became trapped under falling rubble when escaping. While in the tomb, Lara discovers the artifact she is seeking may be linked to Excalibur – part of the King Arthur legends – and that Amanda survived the cave-in and is searching for the sword, which had reportedly been broken into four fragments that are now spread across the globe. Now knowing what she is looking for, Lara recalls that one piece was stolen by Yakuza Kumicho Shogo Takamoto, and arranges a meeting with him.
Lara attends an executive retreat in Tokyo, where she attempts to negotiate with Takamoto for his sword fragment. However, he refuses to surrender it and after being insulted by Lara, orders his men to kill her. Lara dispatches them and climbs his penthouse apartment. Takamoto uses the power of his fragment to fight Lara, but is killed. Lara escapes the scene in a helicopter. Having located Rutland in Ghana, Lara enters a temple site her parents had been to before she was born. Rutland mentions an artefact called the Ghalali Key, which can re-assemble Excalibur. After a fight where Rutland uses his fragment's powers, Lara steals his fragment and leaves him wounded. Zip and Alister, members of her crew, inform her that Amanda had raided Croft Manor looking for the Ghalali Key only moments ago, and is headed to an abandoned military base inKazahkstan to search for another fragment.
Lara assists the Kazahks in fighting against Rutland's men, and races against Amanda to the lab. The train crashes inside the base, although both Amanda and Lara survive. Lara discovers that the laboratory was the location of failed experiments conducted on a sword fragment by the KGB fifty years ago. Lara re-encounters Amanda, who is still bitter about being left to die. Amanda uses the wraith from Paraíso against Lara, although she defends against it and recovers the fragment and an eleventh-century knight's shield which will supposedly lead her to the next fragment.
Following a map on the back of the shield (which is supposedly Lancelot's), Lara's search brings her home to Cornwall, England. She discovers the real King Arthur's tomb hidden under a now-derelict tourist attraction, along with the final sword fragment. Inside the tomb, Lara discovers that after Arthur's death, four of his knights – Lancelot, Percival, Galahad and Bors – took fragments of the sword to locations around the world (inspiring the myth of the Grail Quest), while the final fragment was left with Arthur by Bedivere in the hope of resurrecting the Once and Future King. After escaping a sea serpent guarding the tomb, Lara returns to her home to figure out how to reforge Excalibur, and realizes that the Ghalali Key Rutland mentioned was in fact a pendant belonging to her mother, who had it with her in the plane crash. Lara returns to the crash site in Nepal and finds the Key. She then proceeds with a heavy heart to the temple where she last saw her mother and uses the Ghalali Key to restore Excalibur, then attempts but fails to reactivate the broken dais there, before escaping the collapsing temple.
Returning to the stone dais in Bolivia, Lara finds Amanda, Rutland and their mercenaries awaiting her. Using Excalibur, Lara eliminates all the mercenaries and Rutland. An outraged Amanda merges herself with the wraith and attacks Lara. With the power of Excalibur, Lara defeats the hybrid creature, destroys the entity, and separates it from Amanda. Lara uses Excalibur on the dais and is confronted with a vision of her mother from years ago. She realizes that the portal spans time and there is a chance she can save her mother. Amanda, however, destroys this chance and encourages Lara to remove the sword, letting her know it would explode soon, which transmits back in time to Amelia who believed the voice from the other side of the dais (Amanda) spoke to her. Amelia removes the sword. In the present time, Lara barely has time to run away from the explosion.
Lara grows furious at the realization that Amanda was responsible for the apparent causality loop that claimed her mother, and threatens to execute her if she doesn't explain her involvement. Amanda states that Lara's mother is alive and in Avalon, the mythical resting place of King Arthur, where Amanda herself wanted to go. Lara spares Amanda's life, but knocks her unconscious and remarks that "From this moment, your every breath is a gift from me". The game ends as Lara leaves Bolivia, giving orders to Zip and Alister as she begins the quest for her mother.
Legend has the longest score of the series. It took nine months for Crystal Dynamics' in-house composer Troels Brun Folmann to finalize the composing process. Over three hours of raw material resulted, becoming four and a half hours of in-game music via a process called "micro-scoring", which is the idea of chopping your score down to very small components and triggering them in a way that compliments the game experience, including looping cues and individual accompaniments to cinematic scenes. All material is produced using software and Folmann's personal soundbanks.[6]
All levels in the game were scored individually. When Folmann began composing the soundtrack much time was spent investigating the native sounds and instruments of the different locations' environments and cultures. He wanted to have a specific musical timbre for every level, so he had to understand the musical influences of each individual part of the game. During the Tokyo level the player will hear roaring Taiko drums and the Japanese shakuhachi flute, while playing in Bolivia pan flutes are prominent, and Ghana presents a variety of African percussions. Use of Nepaleseinstruments in the first Tomb Raider film's soundtrack by Graeme Revell also influenced Folmann's music for the Nepal level[6]
All the cinematics are scored with a symphonic orchestra in a more classical fashion; however, instead of recreating the atmosphere of a real orchestra, Troels employs the use of echoes for the orchestral sounds applied to his rendered software instruments.[6]
Legend's title track starts off with the iconic Tomb Raider motif composed by Nathan McCree in 1996, played on an ancient middle-eastern ethnic flute known as the duduk. McCree's motif is incorporated frequently throughout the soundtrack. Following is a Celtic female voice, full choir and orchestra and a variety of different percussions.[6] The main theme female voice sings a Scottish Gaelic traditional folk song named Ailein duinn, mostly known by Capercaillie's lead singer interpretation for the Rob Roy movie.[6]
In 2006, Troels Folmann was awarded a BAFTA in the category 'Best original Score' as well as the GANG award, 'Music of the Year' for his work on Tomb Raider: Legend.[6]

7 tracks were released officially to the public in the Tomb Raider: Anniversary (Collector's Edition) Soundtrack. Besides this, the soundtrack to Tomb Raider: Legend is yet to have a commercial release and Eidos (now an asset of Square Enix) owns the licensing to the material.[7] In 2010, several pieces of Folmann's music for Legend were recycled in the downloadable spin-off title Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light[8]

Following the success of another third-party game, Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, on the Nintendo GameCube, Eidos announced their decision to port Tomb Raider: Legend to that platform, marking Lara Croft's first appearance on a home Nintendo console.[9] Legend was also the first game in the series available on a Microsoft console: Xbox (and later the Xbox 360).

The original Xbox version does not include the introduction movie with the opening titles. Comically this was due to the Mastering managers screen being too small. When creating the master image with the tool maximised there was 1 file left off the bottom of the screen, which went unnoticed. On his current monitor this wouldn't have been a problem. When the mistake was discovered, this would have meant a resubmission would have been needed. Due to time restrictions, Eidos chose to release the Xbox version without the intro movie.
PlayStation Portable players have received some exclusive extras. While the textures and polygon count were significantly reduced to run on the portable, some new gameplay modes were introduced: the Tomb Trials, three multiplayer modes and six additional outfits that were not available in any other version of Legend. The Tomb Trials put the player against a series of traps and acrobatics to be dealt with before the assigned time is over, based on locations of the regular levels.
The Nintendo GameCube version has had a couple of cuts; the rolling demos that would normally play if the game was left inactive while in the title screen have been removed, and the Unfortunate Mishaps video is also missing. The game runs at a slightly smoother framerate than the PlayStation 2 version, and it also loads faster. But at some specific points there are some noticeable frame rate drops (such as in the train chase, in Kazakhstan). The many filters used for explosions and motion blur are also gone, rendering the game with sharper textures but less remarkable explosions.
The Nintendo DS and GBA versions were also released on 14 November 2006. Despite following the same storyline and featuring all the levels and key moments from the bigger counterparts, the game is a sidescroller on the GBA. The levels have been broken down into several smaller segments, and feature a lot more platforming than the original versions. The progression of the storyline is told via comic-strips during key moments. The rewards are also present and they unlock minigames.
The PC and Xbox 360 version includes exclusive "next generation effects", which can be toggled on the PC version. When the next gen effects are off, the game is visually identical to the PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions of the game. In the PC version, players can save their progress anywhere but loading a game will take the player back to the last checkpoint.
The mobile version presents a compressed version of the story, featuring only three levels (Tokyo, Ghana and England) based on the original levels from the console versions, and has a far more limited gameplay style. It features, however, three gameplay modes: Corridor Combat, Room Combat and Platform Exploration.

Crysis 3


Crysis 3 is a multi-platform video game developed by the German game developer Crytek and is published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It was released in North America on February 19, 2013.[3] Officially announced April 14, 2012, it is the third main installment of the Crysis series, a sequel to the 2011 video game Crysis 2, and runs on the CryEngine 3 game engine. It was one of the most anticipated upcoming games of 2013.[5] Crysis 3 has won PC Gamer Most Valuable Game, Game Informer Best of Show and Electric Playground Best of E3 awards.[6]
Similar to other games in the series, Crysis 3 is a multi-platform futuristic video game set in in New York City with realistic rendering of NYC and manipulation of special abilities. Players can choose a gameplay style based on direct confrontation, or a more discreet and stealthy approach in order to deal with enemies.
Up to 16 players on the PC and 12 players on consoles are supported in each multiplayer match, which uses the Origin client and requires the user to have an existing user account or otherwise create a new one. It works with servers. There are 8 different modes and 6 modifiers, each with 12 available maps.
Players take on the role of Prophet as he returns to New York in 2047, 24 years after the events of Crysis 2. He discovers the city has been encased in a giant Nanodome created by the corrupt CELL corporation. The New York City Liberty Dome is a veritable urban rainforest teeming with overgrown trees, dense swamplands and raging rivers. Within the Liberty Dome, seven distinct and treacherous environments become known as the Seven Wonders. Prophet is said to be on a "revenge mission" after uncovering the truth behind CELL's motives for building the quarantined Nanodomes. The citizens were told that the giant citywide structures were erected to protect the population and to clean these metropolises of the remains of the Ceph forces. In reality, the Nanodomes are CELL's covert attempt at land and technology grab in their quest for global domination by means of debt enslavement.
24 years after the events of Crysis 2, Prophet's personality and memories stored in Nanosuit assimilates with Alcatraz's body along with Alcatraz's memories, replacing Alcatraz's consciousness 'like a spare part' in the process. Prophet now knows that he died by shooting himself and is now back from the memories stored in the Nanosuit. Joining with Psycho, his teammate from the first Crysis and a team of elite Nanosuit soldiers, he travels around the world looking for the Alpha Ceph, the ultimate Ceph leader, from the knowledge he gained about Ceph. One by one his teammates lose interest in the hunt believing that all Ceph are destroyed, until Prophet and Psycho finally trace the Alpha Ceph in Russia and imprison it. But, shortly afterwards, CELL, now in search for global domination of land and technology, disable Prophet using powerful EMP weapons in Siberia, captures all the remaining Nanosuit soldiers, and start skinning them of their suits so as to learn or recover the Ceph genetics stored in them. Everyone involved in the Nanosuit program were either recruited or detained by CELL, including Scientists Nathan Gould from Crysis 2 and Claire Fontanelli. However, CELL runs out of Nanosuit soldiers to skin for alien material that integrated with their suits, so they transfer Prophet to the facility as requested, to skin him. Locked in a storage device with powerful EMP shocks to keep him dormant, Prophet is transported to New York, now encased within a giant "Nanodome" by CELL.
However, Karl Ernst Rasch, using Ceph technology had extended his lifespan and comes to know about the corrupt intention of CELL. He resigns as the head of Hargreave-Rasch Biotechnologies, removes all the research done by him and Hargreave on Ceph technology to stop CELL from acquiring it and secretly releases a brief video of Prophet's where-abouts, describing the post scenario conditions after invasion of New York and the evolution of Ceph, thus requesting the local resistance (led by Claire) to free Prophet as he is the only Nanosuit holder left who can stop CELL and put an end to their corrupt motives. He then himself joins the resistance. Members of the resistance, including former Nanosuit soldiers Psycho, Lazy Dane and Bandit, infiltrate the dock area and are able to free Prophet from the transport ship, which has now docked at the New York nanodome.
Psycho explains to Prophet that during his 20 year absence, CELL used Ceph technology to generate unlimited free energy. Eventually, CELL became a mega corporation and gained a monopoly over the world's power supply, and so used it to drive everyone into debt. Those who could not pay for the energy were sent to "volunteer camps" (slavery). A resistance movement formed in response to this. The resistance eventually freed Psycho from the skinning labs, and he joined their ranks. Tara Strickland from Crysis 2 also helps the resistance politically as a senator, but is unable to do much due to CELL's political dominance. The source of CELL's power generation for the entire world, called System X, is also located in the abandoned and encased New York. Since the Nanodome was to keep the city empty and non-functional, NY has now grown into a jungle populated by wildlife and feral Ceph Stalkers, due to a lack of urbanization. Psycho wants System X destroyed to free the world from CELL. Prophet, though worried about his visions of the Alpha Ceph showing him the end of the world, agrees.
Psycho and Prophet enter the dome, fighting through CELL forces and some feral Ceph Stalkers living in the fields.They reach the resistance headquarters, where they meet Karl Ernst Rasch and Claire. Rasch tries to convince Claire that Prophet is what the resistance needs to finally overthrow CELL. Despite affirmations from Psycho, with whom she seems to have a special relationship, Claire is skeptical of Prophet because of the extensive modifications in his suit, the integration of Ceph genetic material, and the deep integration with his suit. Eventually, Claire agrees.
Psycho and Prophet's first target is the outer defenses of System X, a device with infinite power production capacity, but for some reason, CELL chose to generate power through a hydroelectric dam. Prophet hypothesizes that CELL does this because it fears something about System X. Prophet continues to have visions, but successfully destroys the dam and then disables System X 's power production core, Nexus facility. As it turns out, System X is the Alpha Ceph. A system protocol designed to contain the Alpha Ceph when required activates but fails, leading to the initiation of a secondary defense protocol, causing the whole power facility to self-destruct. The Alpha Ceph, free from containment, now enables a hidden Ceph structure inside the Nanodome to fire a beam into the atmosphere to open a wormhole to the Ceph home world in the M33 Galaxy. Through this wormhole, they plan to send an invasion force to invade Earth, revealing that invasion was their true motive for arriving on Earth millions of years ago. With the Alpha Ceph no longer dormant, the Ceph coordinator, or Hivemind, reactivates, and a coordinated Ceph attack ensues. Prophet decides to kill the Alpha Ceph and end the alien threat once and for all.
Prophet learns that he must unlock his suit to its full potential by removing some neural blocks in his head to defeat the Ceph. Prophet and Psycho head to the skinning laboratory to use the cradle to do this. At the facility, they see firsthand the atrocities visited upon the Nanosuit soldiers by CELL. Psycho uses the cradle to remove the neural blocks, and also the limitations of the nanites in the suit. Now, the nanites will be able to transform into anything as it has no limitations. Psycho does more digging into his past, despite orders from Claire. He discovers that it was Claire who had skinned him and the others at the behest of CELL, also explaining why she was skeptical of Prophet's suit. Upset, Psycho rebuffs efforts from Claire and Prophet to console him. Claire pleads that he was the reason she joined the resistance, and that she had no other choice. Prophet also claims that he had no other choice, and that he told him what he needed to know at the time of the Lingshan Incident. Psycho finds this unacceptable, as everyone has a choice. He hands Prophet the dogtags of the men that died under his command, Aztec and Jester during the original Crysis and during the Alpha Ceph hunting mission between Crysis 2 and 3, and leaves.
Prophet learns that because the Alpha Ceph is controlling the Ceph structure for creating a wormhole, CELL plans to use Archangel, a satellite-based energy distribution device that can draw power from the entire world's power grid, as a directed energy weapon to destroy all of New York and hopefully the Alpha Ceph. Unfortunately, firing it at the Alpha Ceph and New York would cause a chain reaction that would destroy Earth. To make matters worse, the Ceph attack Claire and the resistance. Prophet races to rescue them, but the situation is so dire that Claire tells him to leave them, as they are only holding him back. Psycho shows up with a VTOL and rescues the resistance. They proceed to the Archangel control facility where they shut off the weapon before it unleashes enough energy to fire. Rasch is recovered in the facility, but he is now under control of the Alpha Ceph since he used Ceph technology to expand his life. He disables Prophet and tries the same on Psycho, but Claire blocks his attack and Psycho shoots Rasch. No longer under control, Rasch implores the group to leave as the Alpha Ceph renews its attack. Prophet, Psycho, and the injured Claire board the VTOL and engage in a massive air battle with Ceph ships, eventually crashing. Claire, succumbing to her injuries, is forgiven by Psycho and dies. Psycho laments to Prophet that he is powerless because he does not possess a Nanosuit. Prophet fights with Psycho, revealing that Rasch was only able to incapacitate Prophet because as he was wearing the nanosuit, and that they only survived because of Psycho as he was not wearing a nanosuit. Psycho, now going by his human name Michael, resolves to do the slaughtering and finds another VTOL to take the battle and Prophet to the Ceph.
After taking down the Air Defense Battery Turrent, Michael and Prophet head towards the Alpha Ceph, but are bogged down by the Ceph Master Mind. Shortly after killing the Ceph Master Mind, the Ceph Wormhole structure gets stronger sucking everything around it while Prophet gets stuck underground due to debris. From there Prophet finds his way through hordes of Ceph Army and kills the Alpha Ceph with the help of Michael. Since Alpha Ceph controls every single Ceph, its death kills all other Ceph troopers in the area. As they only destroyed the Alpha Ceph and didn't have enough time to destroy the Ceph wormhole structure which is now fully functional, the beam powering the wormhole pulls Prophet into space. Now in orbit around Earth, Prophet sees a massive Ceph warship, similar to the one in the first Crysis, coming through the wormhole. His suit heavily damaged, Prophet almost gives up, but pushes on. Recalling Archangel's immense power, Prophet hacks into the satellite and uses it to destroy the Ceph warship. This collapses the wormhole and ends the threat of invasion. In the explosion, Prophet is knocked off by the debris and is pushed back into the earth's atmosphere. He impacts the waters near the Lingshan Islands where 27 years ago the Ceph were initially discovered.
When Prophet wakes up the next morning, he is in an abandoned hut in Lingshan. In the background, there is a news broadcast of Senator Tara Strickland who announces that the remaining assets of the CELL corporation have been frozen and seized as part of the global recovery effort. As the neural blocks are removed from the Nanosuit to destroy the Alpha Ceph, the nanites in the suit can now rearrange to anything imaginable, thus making the Nanosuit more symbiotic than ever. It changes its outer layer to reform Prophet's former physical body, technically resurrecting him. Prophet then grabs the dog-tags of his deceased squad members thinking how much he sacrificed his humanity and his own body in the quest for victory . He walks out to the beach and throws the tags into the water, and decides to use his actual name "Laurence Barnes" from now onwards. Barnes then walks back towards the hut, cloaks and says "My name is Laurence Barnes. They called me Prophet. Remember me."
In a post credits scene, two frightened CELL troopers and three frazzled men hurriedly retreat down a corridor. They are being attacked and pursued by an unknown enemy accompanied by strange sounds. It is revealed that the three men comprise the CELL board of directors. The CELL troopers turn around and are shot. The three nervous men turn to find Michael (Psycho) sitting at the desk. He claims to have had spent some time at one of their hospitals, and he wants to 'file a complaint'.
Crysis 3 was "accidentally" revealed by EA on its web store in April 2012.[8] Immediately it was removed from the store and was officially announced later the same month.
After Crysis 2 received some criticism from many PC gamers because of the apparent design sacrifices made due to the limitations of the older console hardware, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli stated that the PC version of Crysis 3 will figuratively "melt down PCs" due to its highest image quality system requirements.[9] The PC version of the game will require a DirectX 11 compatible video card and operating system.[10] Crysis 3 will utilize some of the newest features of CryEngine 3, such as displacement mapping, particle and volumetric fogshadows, improved dynamic cloth and vegetation, dynamic caustics, improved area lighting and diffuse shadows.[11] Some of these advanced features will only be seen in the PC version with the game's highest image quality settings enabled.
A closed multiplayer alpha version of the multiplayer was released to selected MyCrysis and Origin users on October 31, 2012. The map "Museum" and the game mode "Crash Site" were playable in the alpha version. The test began on November 2 and ended on November 9, 2012. A public multiplayer beta containing two maps ("Museum" and "Airport") and two game modes ("Crash Site" and "Hunter") was available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 console platforms, as well as for the PC through Origin.[12]
The beta was made available on January 29, 2013 and ended on February 12, 2013.[13] Crytek and EA announced that 3 million people participated in the beta.[14]
A Wii U version was cancelled after relations between Nintendo and EA became troubled.[15]