Also super sad that Rhona Mitra didn’t get the role in the movies having played the live action model for years. I’m sure they needed the star power of Angelina Jolie to sell the movie but her English accent was painful.
Tomb Raider
101–110 of 121 posts
Re: Tomb Raider
#102Any discussion of classic Tomb Raider is incomplete without mentioning that the first Tomb Raider games are essentially exact copies of the original Prince of Persia game, translated to 3D. Not the level layout or story, but the control scheme – very distinct and not used by any other games – is identical . Also the standard traps are replicated, like collapsing tiles and spikes emerging from tiles. Tomb Raider does…
Whenever someone mentions Prince of Persia, I think about my first "hack" that was to edit the binary to add (I forgot what, immortality?). This was one of the many pebbles that paved my way to IT and dev. Thank you.
Reminder that the source code to Prince of Persia is available for research purposes.
Re: Tomb Raider
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Duke Nukem is a good example. He also had somewhat exaggerated proportions, but it suited him, because his face didn't look realistic either. Just like Lara, who also had a slight comic-like look. It's absurd to imply (like Michelle Goulet in the article) that having female characters with exaggerated proportions automatically means "disrespecting" woman. She also says that designers may "throw in all the sexuality y…
> Anyway, the meme that boys at the time commonly viewed Lara Croft as "sex object" is absurd. We did not. You may not have, but everyone else did. Designer Toby Gard literally designed her to appeal sexually to male gamers in order to offset the fear that they otherwise wouldn't want to play a female main character. Early Lara Croft had ridiculous proportions. Her outfit is a t-shirt and booty shorts, for goodness'…
The article has quotes from Toby Gard, who did nothing of the sort and resented the publisher turning her into a sex appeal thing.
Re: Tomb Raider
#104For those who played Tomb Raider when it was released, you know it was a hit because the game was great, movement was smooth and the sense of freedom felt amazing. Lara as a sex symbol was the cherry on top and free marketing for the game, all the media talked about the game and made more or less obvious jokes about Lara's chest (90s jokes, you know).
I disagree that it was a good game. I agree with the author that it was unnecessarily difficult.
To most players it was basically a tech demo. I spend most of my play time in the mansion, wishing there where levels that were reasonable to play.
Re: Tomb Raider
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Anyway, the meme that boys at the time commonly viewed Lara Croft as "sex object" is absurd. We did not. You may not have, but everyone else did. Designer Toby Gard literally designed her to appeal sexually to male gamers in order to offset the fear that they otherwise wouldn't want to play a female main character. Early Lara Croft had ridiculous proportions. Her outfit is a t-shirt and booty shorts, for goodness'…
The article has quotes from Toby Gard, who did nothing of the sort and resented the publisher turning her into a sex appeal thing.
I believe that's regret speaking. He created Lara Croft as a sexual caricature then got upset when she was also marketed that way.
> In a 1997 interview with culture and fashion magazine The Face, [Toby Gard] was audaciously asked about Lara’s 'unfeasibly large knockers'. […] "Slip of the mouse. I wanted to expand them fifty percent and then — whoops, one-hundred and fifty percent. Darn."
https://www.thegamer.com/tomb-raider-lara-croft-design-bug-m...
> The Face: "Is Lara a feminist icon or a sexist fantasy?" Toby Gard: "Neither and a bit of both. Lara was designed to be a tough, self-reliant, intelligent woman. She confounds all the sexist cliches apart from the fact that she’s got an unbelievable figure."
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254239896_Gender_an...
Re: Tomb Raider
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article has quotes from Toby Gard, who did nothing of the sort and resented the publisher turning her into a sex appeal thing.
I believe that's regret speaking. He created Lara Croft as a sexual caricature then got upset when she was also marketed that way. > In a 1997 interview with culture and fashion magazine The Face , [Toby Gard] was audaciously asked about Lara’s 'unfeasibly large knockers'. […] "Slip of the mouse. I wanted to expand them fifty percent and then — whoops, one-hundred and fifty percent. Darn." https://www.thegamer.com/to…
Those are some nice sources!
Re: Tomb Raider
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nowadays there are more women in gaming, but when Lara Croft first appeared, it would have been odd to expect anything but a male gaze from a popluation of nearly 100% male developers and customers.
And "male gaze" wasn't a deciding factor anyway. Lara Croft wasn't even viewed as a sex object like some singers or actresses.
Did you not see the Maxim "photoshoot"? Lara and Aki Ross from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within were both covergirls of Maxim, rendered in underwear or swimwear. Or, perhaps you disregard the fact that the most persistent rumor about Tomb Raider 1 & 2 was the "nude code"?
Lara Croft was the nerd equivalent of Marilyn Monroe and Madonna, at the same time. She was the gaming sex symbol.
Re: Tomb Raider
#108For those who played Tomb Raider when it was released, you know it was a hit because the game was great, movement was smooth and the sense of freedom felt amazing. Lara as a sex symbol was the cherry on top and free marketing for the game, all the media talked about the game and made more or less obvious jokes about Lara's chest (90s jokes, you know).
I can’t really agree about the controls. Tank controls suck, especially for an acrobatic character. Remember Tomb Raider came out just after Super Mario 64 which essentially redefined how 3D games should be controlled. Even Resident Evil eventually relented on tank controls.
The tank controls in Tomb Raider were more acceptable then in Resident Evil, since the camera was generally behind Lara. So turning to the right on the screen meant pressing right, since this would turn Lara to the right both from her perspective (tank controls) and from the camera perspective (because it was behind her). Of course she still "stears" like a car.
Re: Tomb Raider
#109The quote from Charles Ardai bugs me. The original was a fun game. Women in video games were at that time (and still are? I don't play anymore) consistently over-sexualized, but it was never why I played a game, and I really don't think most gamers buy games just because because of the size of the main character's chest. Yes, the main character has to be cool and interesting, and Lara Croft is. They gave her an inter…
I had a poster of Lara Croft in my childhood room. First the original, later Angelina Jolie. I never had another video game character on my wall. I was 10 when the first game came out.
As did many others, to say sex doesn't sell in the age of the internet and OF is complete blasphemy.
Re: Tomb Raider
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bond had to be recasted, there was no physical way around it. But recasting Lara Croft is as unnecessary as recasting Homer Simpson.
The character is mo-capped, you can't really maintain that consistency (which tbh, which I'm not sure existed to begin with) if you want to minimise jank in the character's facial animations.
Lara has always been a weirdly uncanny valley character who existed in the coming of 3D graphics but is less realistic than say, Cloud and other Final Fantasy characters who actually have 2D renderings with realistic proportions. Just her face is sort of oval and unreal.