Lara Croft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_Croft
But everyone knows her. Her voice, from the original game and her likeness, in Angelina or Alison Caroll, aka her Yumminess
I find it odd that they'd (Crystal Dynamix, Eidos, Square Enix) drop TombRaider from the title of the game.
What does that make Lara now? just an Adventurer?
Anyway, I found myself rummaging my Abby Winters folder when I happened across a video from '08 where one of their models, Christina, in a Lara Croft costume, runs around the forest dodging a police woman, escaping, strips and takes a swim in a river.
It is always something fun to watch.. for the action (not the video, but the action sequence, with a lull).. But it occurs to me that playing those games (TombRaider) always bored me to tears, reminder.. finish the damn 360 game.. >.>
But again, it's more fun to watch the action in TombRaider than to play.
It makes me wonder a couple of things.
Shouldn't a game like this with such a strong character... play itself? If she's so smart and the levels are fairly open enough to have her running around.. why isn't that a mode in the game? Autonomous play where Lady Croft completes the missions on her own, only calling on you when necessary.
Also, given her estate.. can't you bring animals home and have a mini wild life preserve on the grounds of Croft Manor (yes it's cinders and rubble but I don't give a crap for the newer games). It would be cool for part of the game to center around what animals you can bring home and have to care for, what food do they eat, are they nocturnal or diurnal etc. Goes as much for plants as animals.
If I cared at all I'd say it would apply to Uncharted and Half Life (or games in that world if there were more of them). However I doubt anyone wants to play house with Alyx (or whoever) and Gordon, if anyone else but me. It adds volume to the world, to the characters personal space in the game world.
I mean it appears that developers are after games that are in a new style, different from everything else.. fine.. you have Lady Croft who's an incredibly powerful character.. meaning more training time in Croft manor between outings to keep herself fit and you have the worlds she plays in, also very powerful and huge in terms of awesomeness and wow factor for anyone walking through it. It is a pity Lady Croft doesn't react to it more. But then you have mediocre to very weak game play. At least for me the games are nary unplayable. At times the game is ruined because the controls are so weak. I would like to consider a game where Lady Croft had an extensive contextual move catalog which she could pull out when trying to do certain things that would otherwise put a players fingers in knots.
Whatever the AI knows Lady Croft can do, she just does it instead of the player having to remember every move. It would also be impressive to watch her constantly showing off. And beading off sweat with the effort.
I'd like to know if the campaign is of a given length (in cinematic chapters you can play through in a sitting since game play is less about death due to crappy controls and more about exploring everything), and you have so many random places you can take Lara, and so many ways you can complete the game.. if the game could play itself. With your role as the player, to be the director.
And it isn't like death would be impossible. Obviously if you tell Lady Croft to now use weapons and she comes up against a tiger.. she's gonna die. Role Credits.. and restart the chapter. But the less you know about a given level, the more you die until you figure it out anyway. If you are at the bottom of a level for example, and you tell lady croft to start climbing, you could direct her AS she climbs. Stuff might fall and she might die. It happens.
She can climb and it takes a certain amount of time to do it. She can swim and can take a certain amount of time underwater before needing air, and she can swim, etc. Why do you need to control every tiny aspect?
I'd love to watch Lara, as an AI character, play the game herself. Make it more like a movie. Taking direct control only when totally necessary. Imagine the battery life savings on game controllers.
Otherwise, depending on her stress level, HAD the more of a focus on talking to people like a normal Adventure RPG, then her reactions would change.
Like she could have any of a dozen possible responses to people and animals and even puzzles depending on how she was feeling. She could get tired and need to rest. If she couldn't ward off an animal with her words and gestures, or was forced to put it down because she couldn't be bothering to try.. she'd feel and react to things differently, which is taking Heavy Rain's influence further. Again the more people she'd have to react to during her adventure, the more likely the outcomes would be different, thus the entire adventure would be unique the more things turned out differently.
You might actually be interested in pushing her to her limits so that she reacts differently in certain parts of the game. Or so that she is more or less prepared for some encounters with people animals or puzzles.
Like, in Mass Effect you can choose to play the game virtually identically every time. As much as Bioware intended for the play-throughs to be unique.. nothing encourages it, demands it, forces it. It is a very limited, narrow experience.
In most of the games she's little more than a robot.
On the other hand the jungle is a random place. Animals should pop out at any time and in any number. Lady Croft only has so much ammo. The less of it that is available the better because it would mean more stealth, cunning and hand to hand encounters. If you decide to not let her use guns and ammo, and gadgets, she'd have to try other things and would end up reacting differently.. and have to live with the outcome. It is the ultimate game for it since she has so many worlds to play in and so many people to interact with during her adventures.
Some animals might be easily warded off, some not. While at the same time you might want to kill one, skin it, and wear the pelt to take home or sell.. maybe this isn't that game, but that would be cool. At least with artifacts and gems you might get loaded down or need to make a cache somewhere so that you can some back later, or some someone back to collect your prizes.
It almost doesn't matter what you choose to have her do as much as what she can do and how the outcomes affect her psychology. As in it isn't the player that matters, this is Lady Croft's adventure and psychology.
From the Abby video I also wonder about Lara's character in that she manages to keep a level head most of the time, in highly stressful situations. How? If she has a stress meter she'd obviously have to do things to calm down and collect herself.
Imagine taking a break to do some yoga moves?.. hhhhotttt
Without it she might be to stressed or not recovered/limber enough to ascend the next ancient monument.
A couple of things might be taking a time out, hiding in the shadows while her heart rate slowed down. I mean if the character was taking to such a level that you could see extreme vasodilation, hyperventilation, or exhaustion and other physiological signs of her being amped if you don't let her rest.. so you'd want her to settle and take a rest. And not just be the classical busty femme attakbot I've grown tired of.
The other thing being she's a chick.. der.. I doubt she wants to feel crummy and grungy during her adventuring.. But without taking it to extremes they could handle a more feminine character by at least allowing her to wash now and then.
On a certain level I appreciated the dunks as being opportunities to rid herself of funk. Almost to the point where after fights and acrobatics she should be so repugnant and odorous that she'd have those the Sims green stink trails wafting off her bod. A dunk could clear that up
But how about killing two birds with one stone?
As pools and dunks, rivers, lakes, pools, waterfalls are so prevalent.. she could strip off and take a relaxing dunk. While at the same time she could swim around and locate artifacts.. but the point would be to relax.. drain that stress bar down.
While I'm not suggesting such a thing purely to have her running around naked, it would be a return to the old game a bit. She'd refuse to walk too far away from her close.. or simply would put them on when leaving the water, or have the camera turn away so that you can't see anything. Whatever pleases the masses. >.>
But yeah.. imagine while luxuriating in an idyllic pool some daft merc spies our lady Croft.
You kinda have two options at that point. dash for the clothes, or gun more importantly... or play coy and lure him in (then kill him later anyway).
It's an aspect of Jolie'n Lady Croft that isn't explored in the games to my satisfaction. If anything lady croft needs human interaction now and then in order to keep her head on, as much as anything else to relax no?
And then these days the platforms on which the game is developed can afford more random and very detailed creatures. I'm sure Lady Croft doesn't get freaked out by just any creature, but there have to be benign creatures which can relax her by playing Jane Goodall to them, as well as the ferocious beasties. Others that are deadly which she'd pull the guns on and put down without a moment's hesitation or remorse. But is there are cubs behind that mother tiger that couldn't be warded off, Lady Croft should have some kind of reaction. That as well as encountering a pack of trophy hunters with piles of slaughtered animals. She could go postal. Or if you know about it, you can direct her around it.
I figure as a stress thing, the more people and animals she's forced to put down if she didn't have to the more it would affect her.
And the more time she spends in the jungle the more she'd need to forage for food or game. This as an added game play element would allow an autonomous Lady Croft to stop now and then to hunt or forage and eat. Not to mention educate you on what you can eat, hunting techniques, killing first as necessary, cleaning, cooking etc. So while the first time it might be interesting to watch Lady Croft make camp and eat.. you could skip to her cleaning up a few hours later. That and marking the spot of the camp, and cache on GPS so you can return to it. Meaning larger accessibility to the forest/jungle.
As for the puzzles.. they'll always be more and more intricate given the used of actual physics. That's great and all, but should an autonomous Lady Croft solve them all on her own? As long as you can highlight the stuff she should be paying attention to, the job gets down.. minus the busy work of controlling her every movement. Giving you more time to just watch.. taking it all in, instead of driving her body around like a truck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_Croft
But everyone knows her. Her voice, from the original game and her likeness, in Angelina or Alison Caroll, aka her Yumminess
I find it odd that they'd (Crystal Dynamix, Eidos, Square Enix) drop TombRaider from the title of the game.
What does that make Lara now? just an Adventurer?
Anyway, I found myself rummaging my Abby Winters folder when I happened across a video from '08 where one of their models, Christina, in a Lara Croft costume, runs around the forest dodging a police woman, escaping, strips and takes a swim in a river.
It is always something fun to watch.. for the action (not the video, but the action sequence, with a lull).. But it occurs to me that playing those games (TombRaider) always bored me to tears, reminder.. finish the damn 360 game.. >.>
But again, it's more fun to watch the action in TombRaider than to play.
It makes me wonder a couple of things.
Shouldn't a game like this with such a strong character... play itself? If she's so smart and the levels are fairly open enough to have her running around.. why isn't that a mode in the game? Autonomous play where Lady Croft completes the missions on her own, only calling on you when necessary.
Also, given her estate.. can't you bring animals home and have a mini wild life preserve on the grounds of Croft Manor (yes it's cinders and rubble but I don't give a crap for the newer games). It would be cool for part of the game to center around what animals you can bring home and have to care for, what food do they eat, are they nocturnal or diurnal etc. Goes as much for plants as animals.
If I cared at all I'd say it would apply to Uncharted and Half Life (or games in that world if there were more of them). However I doubt anyone wants to play house with Alyx (or whoever) and Gordon, if anyone else but me. It adds volume to the world, to the characters personal space in the game world.
I mean it appears that developers are after games that are in a new style, different from everything else.. fine.. you have Lady Croft who's an incredibly powerful character.. meaning more training time in Croft manor between outings to keep herself fit and you have the worlds she plays in, also very powerful and huge in terms of awesomeness and wow factor for anyone walking through it. It is a pity Lady Croft doesn't react to it more. But then you have mediocre to very weak game play. At least for me the games are nary unplayable. At times the game is ruined because the controls are so weak. I would like to consider a game where Lady Croft had an extensive contextual move catalog which she could pull out when trying to do certain things that would otherwise put a players fingers in knots.
Whatever the AI knows Lady Croft can do, she just does it instead of the player having to remember every move. It would also be impressive to watch her constantly showing off. And beading off sweat with the effort.
I'd like to know if the campaign is of a given length (in cinematic chapters you can play through in a sitting since game play is less about death due to crappy controls and more about exploring everything), and you have so many random places you can take Lara, and so many ways you can complete the game.. if the game could play itself. With your role as the player, to be the director.
And it isn't like death would be impossible. Obviously if you tell Lady Croft to now use weapons and she comes up against a tiger.. she's gonna die. Role Credits.. and restart the chapter. But the less you know about a given level, the more you die until you figure it out anyway. If you are at the bottom of a level for example, and you tell lady croft to start climbing, you could direct her AS she climbs. Stuff might fall and she might die. It happens.
She can climb and it takes a certain amount of time to do it. She can swim and can take a certain amount of time underwater before needing air, and she can swim, etc. Why do you need to control every tiny aspect?
I'd love to watch Lara, as an AI character, play the game herself. Make it more like a movie. Taking direct control only when totally necessary. Imagine the battery life savings on game controllers.
Otherwise, depending on her stress level, HAD the more of a focus on talking to people like a normal Adventure RPG, then her reactions would change.
Like she could have any of a dozen possible responses to people and animals and even puzzles depending on how she was feeling. She could get tired and need to rest. If she couldn't ward off an animal with her words and gestures, or was forced to put it down because she couldn't be bothering to try.. she'd feel and react to things differently, which is taking Heavy Rain's influence further. Again the more people she'd have to react to during her adventure, the more likely the outcomes would be different, thus the entire adventure would be unique the more things turned out differently.
You might actually be interested in pushing her to her limits so that she reacts differently in certain parts of the game. Or so that she is more or less prepared for some encounters with people animals or puzzles.
Like, in Mass Effect you can choose to play the game virtually identically every time. As much as Bioware intended for the play-throughs to be unique.. nothing encourages it, demands it, forces it. It is a very limited, narrow experience.
In most of the games she's little more than a robot.
On the other hand the jungle is a random place. Animals should pop out at any time and in any number. Lady Croft only has so much ammo. The less of it that is available the better because it would mean more stealth, cunning and hand to hand encounters. If you decide to not let her use guns and ammo, and gadgets, she'd have to try other things and would end up reacting differently.. and have to live with the outcome. It is the ultimate game for it since she has so many worlds to play in and so many people to interact with during her adventures.
Some animals might be easily warded off, some not. While at the same time you might want to kill one, skin it, and wear the pelt to take home or sell.. maybe this isn't that game, but that would be cool. At least with artifacts and gems you might get loaded down or need to make a cache somewhere so that you can some back later, or some someone back to collect your prizes.
It almost doesn't matter what you choose to have her do as much as what she can do and how the outcomes affect her psychology. As in it isn't the player that matters, this is Lady Croft's adventure and psychology.
From the Abby video I also wonder about Lara's character in that she manages to keep a level head most of the time, in highly stressful situations. How? If she has a stress meter she'd obviously have to do things to calm down and collect herself.
Imagine taking a break to do some yoga moves?.. hhhhotttt
Without it she might be to stressed or not recovered/limber enough to ascend the next ancient monument.
A couple of things might be taking a time out, hiding in the shadows while her heart rate slowed down. I mean if the character was taking to such a level that you could see extreme vasodilation, hyperventilation, or exhaustion and other physiological signs of her being amped if you don't let her rest.. so you'd want her to settle and take a rest. And not just be the classical busty femme attakbot I've grown tired of.
The other thing being she's a chick.. der.. I doubt she wants to feel crummy and grungy during her adventuring.. But without taking it to extremes they could handle a more feminine character by at least allowing her to wash now and then.
On a certain level I appreciated the dunks as being opportunities to rid herself of funk. Almost to the point where after fights and acrobatics she should be so repugnant and odorous that she'd have those the Sims green stink trails wafting off her bod. A dunk could clear that up
But how about killing two birds with one stone?
As pools and dunks, rivers, lakes, pools, waterfalls are so prevalent.. she could strip off and take a relaxing dunk. While at the same time she could swim around and locate artifacts.. but the point would be to relax.. drain that stress bar down.
While I'm not suggesting such a thing purely to have her running around naked, it would be a return to the old game a bit. She'd refuse to walk too far away from her close.. or simply would put them on when leaving the water, or have the camera turn away so that you can't see anything. Whatever pleases the masses. >.>
But yeah.. imagine while luxuriating in an idyllic pool some daft merc spies our lady Croft.
You kinda have two options at that point. dash for the clothes, or gun more importantly... or play coy and lure him in (then kill him later anyway).
It's an aspect of Jolie'n Lady Croft that isn't explored in the games to my satisfaction. If anything lady croft needs human interaction now and then in order to keep her head on, as much as anything else to relax no?
And then these days the platforms on which the game is developed can afford more random and very detailed creatures. I'm sure Lady Croft doesn't get freaked out by just any creature, but there have to be benign creatures which can relax her by playing Jane Goodall to them, as well as the ferocious beasties. Others that are deadly which she'd pull the guns on and put down without a moment's hesitation or remorse. But is there are cubs behind that mother tiger that couldn't be warded off, Lady Croft should have some kind of reaction. That as well as encountering a pack of trophy hunters with piles of slaughtered animals. She could go postal. Or if you know about it, you can direct her around it.
I figure as a stress thing, the more people and animals she's forced to put down if she didn't have to the more it would affect her.
And the more time she spends in the jungle the more she'd need to forage for food or game. This as an added game play element would allow an autonomous Lady Croft to stop now and then to hunt or forage and eat. Not to mention educate you on what you can eat, hunting techniques, killing first as necessary, cleaning, cooking etc. So while the first time it might be interesting to watch Lady Croft make camp and eat.. you could skip to her cleaning up a few hours later. That and marking the spot of the camp, and cache on GPS so you can return to it. Meaning larger accessibility to the forest/jungle.
As for the puzzles.. they'll always be more and more intricate given the used of actual physics. That's great and all, but should an autonomous Lady Croft solve them all on her own? As long as you can highlight the stuff she should be paying attention to, the job gets down.. minus the busy work of controlling her every movement. Giving you more time to just watch.. taking it all in, instead of driving her body around like a truck.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
Yes, plants are multicellular organisms just like animals/humans, but they differ in that they contain cholorplasts in which their cell walls contain cellulose and have no locomotion so they do have "junk" DNA. There is research called genetic engineering of crops and plants that is conducted.
Carry on