Tomb Raider Underworld: New Information

Thanks to Portuguese gaming site LusoPlay, we have some new information on Crystal Dynamics' upcoming Lara Croft title, Tomb Raider Underworld for the PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360. The new information is listed below.

- The events of Underworld take place after the previous game.

- According to Eric Lindstrom, the director of the Crystal Dynamics, Lara will go to have to fight against the nature and the wild world. Lara affects the enviornment and the enviornment affects Lara.

- The game is currently in pre-alpha stages. The shown levels are located in the State of Chiapas, in Mexico. History will go as deep cloth of the Mayan civilization.

- The game will recreate Xibalba, a local Mayan.

- Some of the enemies incldue leopards, bats, and "other humans", and the latter trying to reach Xilbalba.

- The envirornment is well done. Lara leaves footprints in the mud, dead bodies don't disappear.

- The light, animation, and sound physics are all excellent.

- Lara can climb any structure that has bumps.

- Lara's grappling hook can be used freely and in more situations.

- Lara can target a single target or several at once.

- Lara is more vulnerable in this game.

- Tomb Raider: Underworld is launching late this year.

[Via LusoPlay]

Tomb Raider: Underworld: 3 New Screenshots

Thanks to the guys/gals at Tomb Raider Chronicles, we have three new screenshots of the upcoming Tomb Raider title, Tomb Raider Underworld. This upcoming Tomb Raider title is set around the ancient Mayan Calendar. Enjoy your screens!

Tomb Raider Anniversary Developer Likes the PLAYSTATION Network: More Flexible Than Live

Crystal Dynamic's Riler cooper has told GamesIndustry that the PLAYSTATION Network should offer more flexibility than Xbox Live for delivering future titles. As you know, they just released Tomb Raider Anniversary on the Xbox Live Arcade.

Cooper, lead designer on Tomb Raider Anniversary, believes that the PLAYSTATION Network could prove to be the better service for developers looking to bypass retail and deliver full games to users, as it doesn't have as many constraints as Microsoft's service.

"I'm very, very interested in digital distribution and the potential it has," said Cooper, speaking during GDC Lyon last month. "PLAYSTATION Network is extremely interesting because it's a more flexible space."

"We made an in-road with Anniversary on 360, and it was a full game essentially, but Microsoft is only slowly increasing requirements and opening up the constraints of Xbox Live. It's been a slow process, whereas PSN hasn't been restricted by size, they've just done Warhawk for example."

Perhaps sooner or later, we will see Tomb Raider Anniversary pop up on the PLAYSTATION Store.

[Via GamesIndustry]

Tomb Raider Underworld to Be Revealed In Next Issue of PLAY

The next issue of PLAY will feature a little treat. The cookie? The unveiling of the Crystal Dynamics developed Tomb Raider Underworld. The issue features a world-exclusive including screenshots and an interview with Eric Lindstrom and can be purchased online and downloaded right now.

PLAY writes "Lara's adventure takes place after the events of Tomb Raider Legend. Her adventure will be a thrill ride for anyone new to the franchise. The emphasis is on bringing Lara's world to life, a lush, vast interactive world that reacts and remembers. It's pure woman versus wild."

Commenting on one of Lara's locations, PLAY says, "In the level where Lara explores Southern Mexico, she leaves footprints in the mud, but it's raining so they wash away. The bodies she leaves behind in combat encounters will stay, however, as will the debris from any destruction she causes."

On an immersive and epic environment and weather system, Eric Lindstrom says, "we developed a hybrid lighting model that combines dynamic lights with carefully created light maps to make our world look stunning in ways that none of the available methods could achieve alone."

Crystal Dynamics have also given Lara full motion capture "to bring a more natural fluidity to her movements, with proper weight and secondary motion." Moreover, when Lara kneels on a muddy outcrop, only her knee will be covered in dirt and this will gradually dissipate as she continues on her journey.

The game has been tentatively pencilled in for a 2008 release and is expected to court Xbox 360, Sony PS3 and Windows PC. Stay tuned for more info soon.

[Via TRC]