The Lara Relationship

It was February of 1997, my Pentium PC had a CD-ROM drive installed for over a year now and it's been itching to try out new games, CD games were expensive at the time and hard to find, we were still trading games on floppy discs but occasionally you get some friends that will lend you their CD games, so to quench my thirst; I saved up for an issue of PC Gamer magazine every couple of months or so which came with a glorious demo disc of the latest games in the market, each disc usually had around 5 or 6 games which kept me busy till I managed to save some more money to get myself another issue 2 months later. 

It was this particular disc that attracted my attention, I have read an article on this game and have already seen a couple of screen shots, it looked fascinating and unlike anything I have seen at the time, especially that the disc cover had this bad-ass looking girl packing shotguns and Uzis, what's not to love?

The cover image and and the in-game screen shots did not do this game any justice. My mind was blown by the way this game looked and felt, how it played, the combat, the movements, the level design, and the protagonist with a name that I will always remember.. Lara Croft. 

I can't remember the number of times I have played that demo over and over again, it consisted of 2 levels, and I played them enough times to memorize every nook and cranny, where every enemy was, all the hidden items and the secret room locations. What I kept wondering was; if the demo had 2 huge levels, how big is the actual game? 
Once again I was not prepared for how huge this game was, the demo was nothing compared to the design and complexity of the later stages of the game (Looking at you St. Francis Folly). 

The original Tomb Raider game has a special place in my heart, and I am sure it is the case for a lot of players that grew up in the 90's, it was an adventure like no other, starring one of the first digital crushes any boy would have at the time. We weren't really used to play as female characters, that generation was mainly about choosing the biggest, baddest, meanest looking dude as your main video game starring role, not some skinny girl in shorts and a pony tail. Beat em' ups and fighting games were on the rise and they all had the option to play as female characters, not that anybody chose to play as them, but they were there regardless. 

There was something definitely different about Lara, she was a unique character, strong, bad ass, sexy, nothing can get in her way, she will elegantly somersault in the air while putting a bullet in between a grizzly bear's eyes, and will make that moment beautiful. 

The franchise was a phenomenal hit, yearly sequels were being put out and fans were multiplying, Lara was off to more exotic places, riding vehicles and fighting more terrifying and supernatural beings. We thought we had seen it all until the "Legend" game came out in 2006, it was the 2nd time they tried to reboot Lara (after the arguable Angel of Darkness), it wasn't a story reboot but more of a technical upgrade, a new graphical engine with smooth and easy to use controls, controlling Lara was never easier or this satisfying, it was a Lara suited for the new generation of gamers.  


























As much as they managed to blow my mind with Legend, I was not expecting

the best Lara entry yet, my absolute favorite til date, Tomb Raider Anniversary, they basically took the original Tomb Raider, with the same levels and everything, added a few areas in some levels (without taking anything out), restructured the Boss fights to make them more intense, and applied this whole package on the new Legend graphical engine. This was the Remake of dreams! This is how you Remake a game, if only other companies followed that example. 

I was never a fan of reboots, never was then and still, wither we are talking about a movie or a game, I am old fashioned and not easily accepting of change, if I like something a certain way I like to keep it that way. This being said, this was Lara we're talking about here, I've been with this girl for over 15 years, played and completed every single title til then, how can I pass on this "new" Lara they're introducing? 

It wasn't a terrible game, it wasn't the best either, they wanted to make a Lara that is more adapted to the new age, the new way of thinking, a female survivor that will fight her way out against an army of gun men. Actually all I remember was a weakling screaming and crying her way throughout the game, shooting arrows at rabbits while eating scraps off the floor. Apparently this was the Lara that SJWs and feminists wanted, as if Lara wasn't already the true symbol of feminism. Think about it, a bad ass female that: kicks everyone's ass, ventures alone, acrobatic, strong, athletic, intelligent, has charisma and good looking? So they ignored all that because they had a problem with her large cup size and short-shorts? 
I sometimes wonder what these feminists are aiming to achieve, they cry about freedom and how Muslim women are oppressed yet they oppress video game female characters and demand to have them censored? 

The latest entry entitled "Rise of the Tomb Raider" promised to take us straight into the action, a continuation of the previous "Origin" entry with actual tombs to raid this time around, well they weren't wrong, the game starts off with an amazing drop into a beautifully designed tomb, Lara is wearing a blue tank top, which is a homage to the classic Lara uniform, and it just felt amazingly nostalgic. The opening prologue was a work of art, this was the moment I have been waiting to see for years, Lara is back raiding tombs and kicking ass... 

It was a great feeling until the short prologue ended and you were dumped in a snowy field looking for scraps and shooting arrows at rabbits... 
NOT THIS S**T  AGAIN GODDAMMIT!  

      
Maybe it's about time I gave up on Lara... 

Or I'll just go play some Anniversary instead. 

A game of Souls...

My first experience of the Souls franchise was not a very pleasant one, I'm sure that is how most people say their first time was, but I wish it was like that, it was off-putting due to a coincidental negative perspective of the game on my first viewing... Allow me to explain.

A friend of mine was very much into Demons Souls when it first came out, I remember him being all excited and went on demonstrating the game on the PS3 at one of our weekly gatherings, I saw the gameplay and it did not attract me; it was mainly due to the fact that as soon as he started playing the game he got invaded by another player and died within seconds... Not really the best demonstration now is that? Especially considering how much I hate PvP in general, I was always more PvE focused when it comes to RPGs, so with that, I did not even give it a second glance..

Years pass, and Dark Souls comes out, the same friend is hyped yet again, trying to get other people hyped over it, I ask what game is that, and he mentions that it's an indirect sequel to demons souls.. Trying to remember what game that was, then I remembered the awful demonstration and again was not interested, not in the slightest.. 

Weeks pass and my friend is back and trying to get us all on board the Dark Souls hype train, he decided to give us a demonstration of the game by letting another friend play a section of the game. Now, I did not know which part of the game it was at the time but now I remember it very well, It was Sen's Fortress. So picture this- if you are already familiar with Dark Souls- imagine a newbie getting thrown into Sen's fun house (a trapped filled tight spaced hell of a castle level)..

Yes, you guessed it...The "You Died" screen got imprinted into the Plasma... 

Not even an exaggeration here, this is basically ALL I remember from that god awful demonstration, and with some miracle, they even managed to get to the Iron Golem boss, well you can imagine how well that fight went. Another horrible viewing of another Souls game. 

Years later, and it was around the time Dark Souls 2 was first announced, with a teaser coming out and people on social media losing their minds, I got a bit curious and started asking around. luckily there was a very convincing person -whom I just met at the time- that got me excited for the 1st time about any souls game, I still had that awful taste in my mouth from the first time I laid eyes on Dark Souls, but this guy was so passionate about Souls he somehow managed to convince me to get over my fears and try out the game myself, he even provided excellent beginner tips and gave me the best advice and the key to overcoming the challenge of Souls... Patience. 

Such a simple advice, yet it IS the main thing you need to have when getting into these games, you need ALOT of patience, this is not the type of game that holds your hands, it is challenging, yet it is fair, the only reason you get defeated is because you have made a mistake, so you need to learn from them. This was the exact way we used to play games, the majority of NES games which we grew up playing were tough as nails, yet we had all the time in the world so we didn't care, whenever a game over screen came out you needed to play the game from the very beginning! But we pressed Start with a big smile and a heart full of determination, knowing exactly how and when we failed, and learning from that, just to progress a little further each time. 

I am still to this day very grateful that I was pushed into this, to embark on a journey which was playing Dark Souls for the first time, it was an experience like no other, a journey into the depth of hell , the suffering, the agony, and the despair, and yet returning from that journey as a survivor, a conqueror, a human.  
I spent months on that game and nothing else, I lived and breathed Dark souls, I was thinking about it when I wasn't playing, and that was something I haven't experienced in a long time, as games got stale over the years, to finally find a  game that got me excited when talking or thinking about it; it was a great feeling to have back. 

From the frustration of being constantly defeated by the Asylum Demon, to achieving Platinum on Bloodborne, I sure have come a long way, and now, with Dark Souls 3 in just days away, it's good to be back and feel that delicious pain once more, as my body started experiencing some withdrawal syndromes...  

Souls, one hell of a drug...