Another Tomb Raider: Underworld developer video has surfaced, and in it, the game’s Creative Director and Lead Animator delve into the plethora of new animations and capabilities they hope will make the latest iteration of Lara Croft the best one yet.

The ability to fire at multiple targets and other new additions to the gameplay are discussed, but Lara’s wetsuit (if you want to call it that), combined with what seems to be a revamped “we’ll focus on your ass while you do whatever it is that you do” camera angle steal the show.

Also, it appears that the Creative Director’s segment was shot on whatever floor the 26 former Silicon Knights employees used to work on. Holy crap, could they have found a better location to shoot his spot??

Hit the jump to watch the video and see exactly what I mean.

So, having watched the video, it’s clear that the main question developers asked themselves while making the new Lara was “what limitations does she have that it doesn’t make sense for her to have?” I’m going to go with pants as my final answer.

New Lara Croft Gallery

15 Photos

 

Eidos Interactive has announced today that the Xbox 360 console version of Tomb Raider: Underworld will be benefiting from nearly 6 hours of additional gameplay time in the form of two additional chapters titled “Beneath the Ashes” and “Lara’s Shadow”.

The DLC will be available via the Xbox Live Marketplace, with the first chapter (Beneath the Ashes) expected to hit this Christmas, and the second (Lara’s Shadow) unloading in early in 2009.

Eidos promises that both chapters will provide a unique experience, and Sean Vesce, General Manager for Crystal Dynamics, adds that the “retail release of any videogame is just the start of the player experience.”

It seems that Microsoft has bought into Sean’s philosophy, as they appear to be buying up exclusive content left and right. While it may be extend the life of a game, it remains to be seen whether or not it will drastically improve a console manufacturers bottom line.

You won’t have to hold your breath till December though, in addition to the DLC, it was also announced that a demo of the game will make its way on to XBL in October.

Full press release available after the jump.

EIDOS AND XBOX ANNOUNCE EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOADABLE CHAPTERS FOR TOMB RAIDER: UNDERWORLD

First New Chapter Rolls Out in Time for the Holidays with Game Demo Available in October

Redwood City, Calif. – October 6, 2008 – Eidos Interactive, creator of some of the world’s leading video game properties, today announces an agreement with Microsoft to release two brand new downloadable chapters in the continuing Tomb Raider adventures of Lara Croft. Containing up to six hours of new gameplay and content for Tomb Raider: Underworld™, the chapters will be available exclusively on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®. A demo for Tomb Raider: Underworld will also be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace in October.

Offering entirely new content specifically designed to extend the Tomb Raider: Underworld experience, Tomb Raider: Underworld – Beneath the Ashes and Tomb Raider: Underworld – Lara’s Shadow will deliver two very different single player gameplay experiences. Tomb Raider: Underworld – Beneath the Ashes takes place after the Underworld story has finished and will feature an incredible new environment to explore, additional secrets to unlock and different enemies to fight. Tomb Raider: Underworld – Lara’s Shadow will introduce players to a new kind of playable character and create a unique Tomb Raider experience.

The first new chapter, Tomb Raider: Underworld – Beneath the Ashes, will be available for download exclusively on Xbox LIVE Marketplace this Christmas. Tomb Raider: Underworld – Lara’s Shadow will follow in early 2009.

“We are constantly looking at ways to extend our franchises, whilst developing a deeper relationship with our players. The retail release of any videogame is just the start of the player experience, from there it all depends where you want to take the player in terms of ideas and innovation,” said Sean Vesce, General Manager for Crystal Dynamics. . “With these additional chapters and the online reach of Xbox LIVE, we are able to deliver exclusive content to millions of gamers worldwide.”

“We’re thrilled that Xbox owners will be able to extend their Lara Croft adventures with exclusive Tomb Raider: Underworld episodes,” said George Peckham, General Manager of Global Third Party Publishing for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. “We look forward to continue working closely with our great publishing partners to deliver the most robust gaming experiences, only on Xbox 360.”

Today, Eidos Interactive revealed the first gameplay footage, as well as some screenshots for the PS3/Xbox 360 versions of Tomb Raider: Underworld. They also announced a release date of November 18th of this year for the Xbox 360, PC, PS3, and PS2 versions of the game.

While the trailer is done as if for a movie, it’s great to see some footage of the game in action. I haven’t played a Tomb Raider title in a while, so I’m definitely going to be checking this one out. Plus, she encounters a giant freaking squid. Hit the jump for the gallery of screenshots.

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Attention nerds: Boobies.

Now that I have your attention, hit the jump to for some titillating pictures of Alison Carroll, the new face of real-life iconic adventurer Lara Croft.

Ok, now that we’re safely off the main page, take a gander at Alison Carroll, a 23 year-old gymnast and the new face of the Tomb Raider franchise.

Eidos is reinventing Lara Croft with a little more realism (in some places, anyway) by making her a more lithe, graceful gymnast type to match her personality as an adventuresome archeologist, so Carroll fits the bill.

“Tomb Raider: Underworld depicts Lara as we have never seen her before with movements and skills reminiscent of a highly skilled gymnast. Sharing Lara’s strength and grace, Alison is an experienced competitive gymnast who has performed and competed across the globe. Her more than 12 years of gymnastics training align perfectly with the game’s enhanced movement set.”

Plus, she has the “essential characteristics…” giggity!

“Featuring the essential characteristics at the core of Lara Croft’s personality — brawn, brains and beauty — Alison Carroll particularly compliments this iteration of Ms. Croft.”

I can just see the meeting where they wrote that press release:

PR Writer 1: Hey… um… what are the essential characteristics of Lara Croft?

PR Writer 2: Dur. Boobies man. Everyone knows that.

PR 1: No, I mean beyond that. We can’t just come out and say “ZOMG BOOBIES!!1!”

PR 2: Why not?

PR 1: … Good question.

PR 2: Ok, well lets see. She kicks ass, solves puzzles and is every nerd’s wet dream.

PR 1: So… brawn, brains and beauty?

PR 2: Perfect. Now let’s head down to that photo shoot. Bring your camera phone.

In addition to being completely and utterly sexy, Carroll is flexible, personable, has eyes you could lose yourself in, and to top it all off, a British accent. Check the video interview, but be wary, you may fall in love enough to actually buy the game.

DO WANT.

New Lara Croft Gallery

15 Photos

 

The new Lara is part of the marketing for Tomb Raider: Underworld, due out November of this year. You can read our preview of Tomb Raider: Underworld here.

Update: Another Alison Carroll video interview has surfaced. Click here to check it out.

E3 08 has had plenty of surprises so far, but far more reliable was the sexy spelunking of heroine Lara Croft in Tomb Raider: Underworld. The demo we played started on a boat in the middle of the Mediterranean, a scene about ten minutes into the beginning of the game.

Immediately Lara began her underwater descent to a sunken ruin, wearing SCUBA gear that meant she could swim at her leisure without having to find air pockets. Plus, she looked really good in that bikini.

At the bottom of the ocean, a garden of kelp grew around waterlogged tunnels, making it difficult to see which pathways were available. This gave us a good chance to try out Lara’s new sonar map, which sent out a ping to create a 3d map of the area around her. The sound actually bounced off of the stone to reveal a few hidden crags. Along the way, Lara was attacked by a few sharks, which could be disposed of with either dual pistols (which seemed to work fine underwater in this build), a harpoon gun, or sticky grenades.

After a typical Tomb Raider puzzle, which involved swimming to find two hidden keys and turn giant stone discs into place, our way was now clear. Lara moved out of the water and onto the slick rocks for some of the running, jumping, climbing, and swinging that have become her signature moves. Little flourishes like an extra twist when swinging on poles looked nice, but didn’t add much gameplay-wise.

For innovation, we instead have slow-motion “adrenaline moments” where Lara has a split second to make a jump, or face instant death. The cause of these dramatic incidents was a huge krakken, a tentacled creature that was so large, it blocked her from moving into the next chamber. The adrenaline moments are thankfully not quick-time button presses, but maintain the same controls and camera angle of the normal game, with only a slight screen blur and whooshing sound effect.

To get past the krakken, Lara had to move to two opposite sides of the chamber and use her grappling hook to position a large, spiked rock squarely above the beast. While we did this, we noticed a new move Lara had with her hook– she can now rappel down walls, but in actuality this doesn’t perform any differently from the walking move she had in the last game, Anniversary.

With the giant spiked stone in place, all that was left was send it crashing down. We shot the supporting chains (you could also use the sticky bombs here) and squished the krakken. With this puzzle solved, the demo was over.

So what did we learn from this encounter? It looks to me like Tomb Raider: Underworld is not going to try anything substantially different from what worked in Anniversary. The swimming mechanics were a bit clunky in this early build, and the platforming and puzzle solving didn’t use any new elements that grabbed my attention other than two brief adrenaline moments.

While I am interested to find out where Lara will go next, I can’t help but feel she’s just being led through more of the same. The krakken wasn’t a boss (shooting it does nothing), and it could have just as easily been replaced by a giant stone statue.

As an early part of the game, this section served its purpose in easing players back into the experience. However, I was hoping to be impressed with a bit more innovation and a genuine sense of discovery. Instead, Lara just seems to be going through the motions. And at this point in our twelve year relationship, she’s got to try harder than that.

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The official site for Tomb Raider: Underworld has been launched by Eidos this weekend, bringing with it conformation that the title will be released this November across all current-gen platforms as well as the PS2 and DS.

Packed with podcasts, forums, theme tunes and screen shots, the new site provides more Lara than even the keenest action-archaeologist could want. There is also a brief outline of the new quest you will be undertaking, which from what we can tell contains swimwear and the Norse underworld.

With E3 just around the corner and Eidos promising to let us have a look at the brand new title at the show, it looks like the hype wagon is slowly beginning its long journey into November.

Check out the new site here.