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i'm just wondering peoples thoughs on Angel of Darkness ... no doubt a few of you have got to play it now, and most of you oftenly are extra opinionated.

personally i think it is by far the best in the series and really from my point of view is game of the year. It is truely what Core promised a next generation incarnation of Tomb Raider.
It has the looks, it has the puzzles, it has the action and it has the story.
Lara is more flexible than ever, capable of more combat than ever, has the most immersive worlds which require going through them several time to find all of the little things placed in them as well as being totally interactive. A good example is being able to climb around the roof of St Aicards Church or just too many non-essential areas to the Luvre or Bioresearch centre.
The fact that Lara finally goes back to some classic Tomb Raiding in the Hall of Seasons ... but also has soem state of the art espionage and such in the Bioresearch Centre!
and it is has some of the most thought provoking puzzles in years since point'n'click adventures died.
Personally i think that Angel of Darkness is Tomb Raider reinvented, but is still very very true to its roots.

No doubt some will disagree, but i'm wondering if thats actual opinions on the game or frustrations with bugs and niggles (which is Eidos had not pissed Core about for the last 6months of development no doubt would've been gone)

also any opinions you guys have on the fact that Paramount blame Angel of Darkness for Cradle of Life's poor box office earnings (yeah even before it was released worldwide), and how Eidos have currently put Core Design on Hiatas with the possibility to let them go, a strong possibility at that. Also about the fact that they've taken Lara Croft & Tomb Raider away from Core and awarded the next title to Crystal Dynamics.

personally i've had alot of strong words to say about all of this, but in a nutshell i have a feeling that Eidos has fallen in its own poop but come out smelling like roses.

Firstly I'll say that I've only played the PS2 version of Angel of Darkness so far, although once the PC version goes budget I'll get that too

Five good things about the game
1) Its actually done something different for a change.
2) Large, beautiful, varied locations
3) The graphics and general atmosphere are far improved.
4) More emphasis on plot and character development
5) It feels as if the series has finally evolved spiritually as well as asthetically

Five bad things about the game:
1) Very buggy. My PS2 crashed numerous times
2) Loading times are too long and too frequent - in the middle of a level? Grr
3) Character interaction feels flimsy, doesn't really add much to the game or change the plot dramatically
4) Lara sometimes looks like a fish out of water - where's the Tombs man?
5) They made her boobs smaller

The first three bad points don't means its a bad game, they mean its a rushed game

Personally I think the whole Eidos taking Lara away from Core thing is majorly f**ked up - Core invented the character and game in the first place as far as I am aware. Taking TombRaider away from Core means taking at least 80% of their company's float value, and thats going to be hard to recover from.

That said, I used to get real mad at Core for simply riding the Lara cash cow and spewing out identikit games. Although they have re-adressed the balance somewhat with this last game, I can certainly understand why the brand as a whole has dwindled in popularity. Plus the last game was victim to SERIOUS over hyping.

I like the new game, it kept me interested plot-wise, the levels were expansive, varied and interesting, and the new control system, although initially hard to get used to allows for more realistic levels and precise skill in controlling the game. Probably felt the freshest game since the first, which is a very good thing

...but personally I think for a major release to have so many bugs as this on CONSOLE (and therefore non-patchable) format is unnacceptable. You have to save every few minutes in case you need to Reset away from a BSOD lol

Oh and the whole second movie being a flop thing, I would hazzard a guess that wasn't down to the game, more down to the fact it was a generic and ultimately samey sequel to an ok film with a weak plotline and overused staple token Hollywood pre-set effects. No where near dark or edgy enough. And anyway, the only reason most people went to see the first movie was to see Angelina Jolie in the suit - and they've already seen that, over and over on their slow-mo replays on DVD

i`v have not played it yet i`l say that to start with.

in PCZone i whas skocked to find that Angel of Darkness has only 68% socre. so i start thinking about this why has a Tomb Raider got low a socre if it baset on the eley one. then i figerd that thay have to have do`n someing real bad to **** evey one off about.

what it looks like to me is that thay push it out full off bug so thay can make some money of it quick. like macrosoft do`s. you now the shock of Eidos go`s up when a Tomb Raider comes out!

as for the movie well can any one tell me any good movie baset on a game

--Dr 0--

I loved the first Tomb Raider, after that they went down hill, I doubt they will ever have a decent Tomb Raider game again.

I havnt rented the new one yet, but havnt heard anything good about. Which disappoints me, I had high hopes for it.

'as for the movie well can any one tell me any good movie baset on a game'

Tomb Raider...

Mortal Kombat very very good
Tomb Raider very good

mario bros. NOT lol

AoD.... to me one of the best games this quarter except....

controls (PS2 version)

It's like they don't notice that the movement controls are sh*t....they always have been.. and from the looks of it they always will be

Loading...
As k2 said....... in the middle of the level.. come on..



And thats all i see wrong with the PS2 version.

they've upped them from 34c to 38dd ... and they're pretty realistic size wise with the current model who the game model was based on.



also drives me nuts at times even on the PC version where the loading times are a matter of 10seconds, but that said each level is around 1,000,000 polygons w/o the 5,000 polygon models ... not even top notch PC hardware could easily handle that, and they don't appear to have put in a visibility routine. No doubt a planned feature that they weren't given time to develop.


actually i think the streets suit Lara's goth tude more, but guess thats just me. However if your wondering where the tombs are you must've closed your eyes for the whole Acheological Dig/Hall of Seasons or the entire Pruage affair
The sequel was suppose to have more like that actually because they actually end up in Africa, China & Egypt - but its not happening now so no point in crying over spilt polys.


100% Eidos' fault, first they hurry Core along about 1/4 way into rebuilding the entire engine to use Cg & DirectX9 so much of the engined ended up rushed, then they didn't bother to release but didn't tell Core for 3months who didn't know if they were to continue with the next game or start bug squishing ... which ended up with another rushed release date to get as many bugs squished as possible and also they ended up adding Havok physics engine because some exec at Eidos thought it would be good PR. (and this is why i think publishers have far too much say nowadays)

as for the controls, for the most part i think the controls are just a little updated really - no real major changes, until you get to the autoaim. Sorry but personally i think the entire Autoaim system is a bug and it make a section in the Hall of Seasons with the spirit almost impossible, especially considering for some reason this very low polygon area slows to a crawl of 8fps which the fps compensator can handle but the reaction are just so low that it makes it physically impossible. ended up getting Andy to complete it for me and send me back the savegame, it is totally annoying.

as for the films of games, the only decent one i can think of is Resident Evil - Final Fantasy was awesome as well, but wasn't really based on the game, but the idea of Gia.
Tomb Raider was pretty adverage, but Sam's right its far too hollywood ... a real TR film would be mostly Lara in a Tomb on an actual adventure, probably followed by someone like Pierre who she ends up killing.

I mean anyone who's played Chronicles and you know where Lara & Pierre are in that section with the drop, and she just walks away and lets him drop to his death - THATS Lara to a T ... evil, but in a way that make you think its cool

lol Yes I know there are tombs in it, just percentage wise there doin't seem enough to call it "Tomb Raider" anymore, its more like a Lara Croft adventure

And hmm I would have swarn her boobs got smaller but then I haven't recently played an early TR game, maybe I'm remembering them as I was in a teenage hormone driven state

It's always Eidos' fault. They killed Looking Glass and caused the Ion Storm debacle. Grrr, die Eidos....

I had to watch that this weekend! My brother rented it (hes 5) and i had to watch it with him.

Mario Bros, would have been ok if it was called Mario Bros. Just elimnate the mario element and it could have gotten that sequil.

"Angel of Darkness".. oh well.. rented it.. played it for like 40 minutes.. then got a refund on the rental.

guess I found the general gameplay to be very poor.