Tomb Raider will sport “ambitious combat”

Tomb Raider will sport “ambitious combat”: "

Crystal Dynamics’ Karl Stewart has explained why gameplay footage of Tomb Raider has so far only shown quick-time event combat.

“If we’re going to re-imagine the franchise, we want to get people to digest why we are doing it and who she is first,” the Tomb Raider global brand director told Kotaku.

“Combat is very, very dear to our hearts. We have built an entirely new combat team at the studio to work on it. It is very competitive.

“Combat is ambitious. It was ambitious when I first saw it and now it just feels natural to the game.”

In all previous Tomb Raider games, combat began with an iconic pair of pistols, but players will have to work with Lara to reach the point where she’s willing, able and equipped to bear them.

“We’re not going to start the game and say, ‘Here are two pistols and lets tie her hair up in a braid’ because that doesn’t stand for anything,” Stewart explained.

“We hope to bring gravity to those items.”

To elevate the pistols to something beyond a nice bit of kit, Crystal Dynamics loads them with emotional meaning; at the beginning of the game, they’re borne by Lara’s mentor, Captain Conrad Roth.

“We use that in a very psychological way. She loves Roth. She’s known him since she was very young. She knows she has to save him,” Stewart said.

The journey of transformation that takes Lara Croft from a frightened teenager to an as-yet unrevealed new heroine, packing those pistols, will set the tone for the sequels that are sure to follow.

“When you start this game you will go off and be the Lara Croft that was defined here. It also defines the future of that franchise,” Stewart said.

Tomb Raider is due on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012, having wowed at E3 and even won over our own Nathan Grayson.

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Kitase: FFXIII-2 is a “completely different experience”

Kitase: FFXIII-2 is a “completely different experience”: "

Have a look at these new screens for Final Fantasy XIII-2, and judge for yourself if producer Yoshinori Kitase’s claims of it being a “completely different experience” are true.

“We made Final Fantasy XIII with the concept of a story driven game,” Kitase told Siliconera.

“So much so, some gamers were not very happy with it and criticised XIII and said the game progression was too linear and the world could be more populated.

“With Final Fantasy XIII-2, we wanted to present a completely different experience with this game. There is more exploration and elements in the environment to interact with.”

Final Fantasy XIII-2 features interactive dialogue and branching endings, It’s due on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in early 2012, with a Japanese release set for December.

Admire a few new screens below, courtesy of Andriasang. They shop off New Bodhum, the seaside settlement built after the events of FFXIII.

There’s also a couple more, one showing combat, available on Famistu.

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Ezio is taken outside of his element in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Ezio is taken outside of his element in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations: "

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations presentation director, Brent Ashe, has said that Ezio’s motivation in the game will be much different than it was in Assassin’s Creed 2 and Brotherhood.

Speaking with Shacknews at E3, Ashe said that Ezio will be taken outside of his element, and taken to the city of Masyaf which was a location in the first game.

“Ezio never set out to be a master assassin,” explained Ashe. “His motivation has primarily been revenge: Revenge against the death of his family; against the death of his uncle at the hands of Cesare [Borgia] in Brotherhood. So, in taking him on more of a pilgrimage–a personal journey now–it’s sort of leading him to discover the secrets left behind by Altair.

“There are these five keys that Altair has left behind that unlock the seal in Masyaf at the Assassin temple. And Ezio also discovers in the course of this, that the Templars are also in pursuit of these secrets. So we set up this really nice narrative, kind of a race against time, so it’s a different motivation for him this time. What that’s doing, like I said, is taking him outside of his element.

“You’re in these new cities, these new places, and you’re going to discover that the Assassin Network sort of expands beyond what we’ve seen in the previous games.”

Ashe goes on to explain that the new character Yusef, head of the Assassin’s Guild in Constantinople, will be teaching Ezio about a new weapon called the “hook-blade,” which will also allow Ezio to use the network of zip-lines across the city.

You can read the entire interview through the link.

Revelations is due on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in November.

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