"We are so sorry that we made Lara heroic, competent, *and sexy*. We realize that modern audiences are only able to handle two at any given time as long as it's not the third one."
"yes we realize now that your insecurities,are now the worlds problem and we should all know exactly who you are and what you want without having a clue who you are, (bending knee to brown nose anyone)"
@@TheFinnishTechie I was going to say it was Taco Bell, but apparently it was actually changed to Pizza Hut for the European version. I had no idea. I guess Taco Bell isn't very popular over there. It leads to some probably unintentional memory conflict like this. So in the US, the joke was they were getting pizza at Taco Bell. I guess is Europe that line didn't stand out. Funny enough, we started getting Taco Bell/Pizza Hut combo stores around that time.
@@TheDalisama Actually, I didn’t know about that either. Taco Bell actually didn’t exist here in Finland in the 90s and still barely even has a presence now, with just 10 stores as of writing this (first one opened in 2017). But the funny thing is, Pizza Hut didn’t exist here back then either, with the first restaurant opening in 2017 as well, with just 20 locations, so I suppose the change wasn’t necessarily made for us.
It is a sure sign that Crystal Dynamics won't be able to make any true TR game and that the series ended at the Core Design ones. It's also very discreet and I never paid attention to it before I was told about it.
Yeah Core design never get the recognition they deserve for they created the game and character. I guess Eidos owned everything they made and now Crystal dynamics owns the rights to it.
As a quick note, I too also bitched about those damn keys in the Cistern. Good news though, there has a patch that makes those keys much mor visible in the new graphics, so that's not an issue anymore.
This is one of those franchises that was hard to play as a kid. Now that I'm older and played tons of games in my life I have the skills to tackle it now.
A lot of the challenges in tomb raider don’t really take skill at all. Just sometimes getting lucky you clicked on the thing you were supposed to interact with
@@passyourielts same, I’m stuck in Aldwych trying to find one of the secrets, to get the bonus level at the end of the game ‘all hallows’. Aldwych is genuinely one of if not my favourite level in the game but I gotta admit the design isn’t great
The level is in multiple pieces, and you've got no idea in which order you need to complete anything. That red box room needs visiting 3 times with absolutely no telegraphing.@@stevenmcburney8167
The original trilogy (and IMHO this might be said for the other three Core Design era installments as well) had balls to leave the player on their own, trusting that they are smart and patient enough to figure out where to go, what to do and how to achieve each level's goal. The grid-based design of the game made all the in-game rules absolute, with no exception. The developers had courage to present a unique female protagonist, who was both sexy, determined and set on her goals. I played these games with no walkthroughs or strategy guides and I admit, there were moments when I felt lost and clueless. But in the end, completing each game gave me quite the pleasant feeling of achievement. And then again, when (after multiple replays) I could find all the secrets in each. Quite the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. This remake's strength lies in the updated graphics and updates to Lara's movement, especially in regards to the first game - and I appreciate, that the expansions are there too, as now it really feels like a complete trilogy.
The thing I've noticed, is a lot of gamers are actually really stupid. Just look at the achievement percentages of games you buy. Most players don't even get past the first few hours of every game. The attention span of players has seriously dwindled to toddler levels.
@@dadou193 I'd like to have that too, but only after all the patches & fixes are out and tested - yeah it's a sad fact, that we're no longer getting finished products like back in the day, when there was no internet - and also a few reasonable gameplay updates, like making the saving & loading user-manageable (I'd really love to see standard, separate, locally stored savefiles be brought back again), adding NewGame+ mode for the expansions as well as removing the double or triple hitpoints for enemies for this mode (or making it an option only), as it makes that particular gameplay mode either boring & tedious or (close to) impossible and just not fun. A man can always dream.. 🙂
@@Crazy_Gamer_OG My feelings & my thoughts exactly.. In this particular franchise, I think the LAU trilogy was the first to target such an audience, as when I played through these games, I noticed that I needed a maximum of one, two and four replays (respectively) to get all the extra-collectibles and even finish the time trials. Here I considered two options - either the devs could read the audience so well that they "dumbed down and sped up" those games to speak to as many modern gamers as possible - or they were just so dumb and shallow themselves, that such a gameplay style was the best they could come up with. And here I have to say, that since listening to audio commentary in the Anniversary game, I strongly lean towards the latter. BTW also all the complaints about tank controls just piss me off. To me, it's a plain admission of one's over-reliance on modern control schemes, where the game does a lot of things for the player, not requiring the level of 3D thinking and precision the tank controls do. And I have a strong feeling, that the "ADHD gameplay" and "only modern controls" groups of gamers are actually one and the same, for the most part. Quite a coincidence, isn't it? 🙂
The Tomb Raider I-III Remaster trilogy is phenomenal! I've seriously enjoyed replaying these games. It maintains the atmosphere and aesthetics of the late 90's! Bring on The Last Revelation & Chronicles!!! The best Lara!!!!!
I've completely givin up on seeing the REAL ICON Lara Croft again so you wouldn't believe how I almost cry in several moments when playing this lovely remasters. I hope we'll get TR the last revelation and TR chronicles some day. In the meantime, I"ll keep modding and replaying these three perfect games.
Played through all three remastered games, and was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I was having. They hold up really well, and I wish these types of platforming games would make a comeback.
I agree. I love how methodical and lethal the platforming is. You mess up, you die. It makes being up high genuinely mean something. Rather than your character spidermaning automatically to every surface. It feels like actually climbing.
I'd recommend checking out Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. It's basically a Tomb Raider clone with the story and cast of the 90's LucasArts games.
In terms of platforming, I hope they bring the Prince of Persia trilogy to modern consoles. Ubisoft has a lot of great games pre Assassin's Creed. I'm surprised they don't remaster them. Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Brothers in Arms, and King Kong. The best game based on movie.
This is my Lara. This is the suave, sexy, badass that I fell in love with as opposed to that whimpering, snivelling one legged puppy of an atrocity in the 'modern' games. I wish the lighting was better in the remaster though. 80% of the time I cannot see anything and have to revert to the original graphics. Same problem with the analog stick. I'm actually playing with the d-pad after two decades.
Analog sticks never feel right with tank controls. Gladly, I also have a PS4 controller for my PC. Using the d-pad on the Xbox controller would be rough.
@@PetrisonRocha Absolutely. Realized that in 2 minute. Sigh. Playing with the d-pad wasnt as problematic as I feared it to be , thanlfully. Thumb is still getting sore though.
Offense is taken and never given. The apology when starting up the game is a perfect example of this. Did the developers really think at the time when these games were made that audiences 25 to 30 years later might be offended? It wasn't offensive back then and it isn't now.
Besides wtf is even offensive? A tribe of black cannibals? Chinese characters with Chinese accents and Italian characters with Italian accents? Like holy crap
I think it's way more likely to have iv and v. As much as I'd love Angel of Darkness to get a nice treatment, to the controls at least, I highly doubt they will ever touch it.
As much s I hate getting older, one thing I am very grateful for is growing up in the 90's, from both a film and especially a gaming perspetive. Experiencing VR games, after growing up with the like of N64/PS1 has been an increidble experience. A group called Team Beef even made a VR mod for the orginal Tomb Raider with motion controls. It's such an amazing nostalgia trip!
These game are fantastic and also include the DLC which wasn’t available to consoles. There is so much content here- I’ve just played through TR2 and I’ve spent 35 hours with it (I know you can complete it faster) so 3 x TR games is a lot to play!
They did what Halo MC Collection did with the new and old graphics. You can swap between OG and New graphics in all of those games. I think Remastered games should do this all the time, because the enhacements overall work perfectly with the old graphics, and makes it feel like a Perfect port instead of a Lazy port with almost no changes (Star Wars BF Collection)
Every time you see one of these features though it's lying to you. They always make the "old" graphics look worse than they actually were. For e.g. Tomb Raider 1 has the option, on PC anyway, to play with bilinear texture filtering, which effectively smooths out the rough pixels. It's subjective whether you prefer the blurrier look or the rough pixelated look, but I don't think you get to make that choice on the Remaster version. Dark Forces did a similar thing. Their "old graphics" mode is a lot worse than what the original game actually looks like.
I played the original in 1996. I remember it came in that weird shaped box on PC. I guess it was supposed to look like an old fashion coffin. My mind was blown by the 3D environments at the time. Good memories.
God, I love those boxes! Always stared at them hardcore every time we passed in the store. You know, back when they had demos and actual consoles to play in stores. The fun times 😮💨🫂🕹️🎮🏪💯
This is probably the best remaster I've ever played. Absolutely loved the graphical overhall of it and the way you can switch it to the PS1 graphics and back with the push of a button is Absolutely fantastic!!
The 90's was the best era of gaming. It was the birth of tons of classics, women were still women, gaming journos just wrote about gaming, no microtransactions or DLC, and no updates, patches or anything like that unless you had a PC in the last half. Modern gaming is a hollow, dead shell of what it used to be.
That's true for most console games, but even they had patches. For example: Pokemon Red and Blue were patched versions compared to the originals. The Tomb Raider had a few differences on the Japanese version, and PC games had plenty of patches. It was very common for expansion packs (the precursor to DLC) to include patches, even on console games. FWIW, all three TR games in this video had patches, revisions, and expansion packs. The expansions were PC exclusive.
This is why I've always treated the Xbox as an invasive species. American corporate greed very nearly killed video games in 1983. Things were better with the Japanese in charge.
The lead dev/technical director is XProger, the guy behind OpenLara. Imagine rebuilding the classic TR engine for years, and you get hired for the official remaster and given the original's source code _and_ the opportunity to hire your own team of devs for it. What a dream.
As of their most recent patch (1.2), they have apparently censored some of the game post release. Particularly in the “Sleepinging with the fishes” level where in the updated graphics they removed some posters of Lara that were above some lockers. In another part of the game, on the back of one of the character’s jacket they censored a woman in both the new and old graphics. Kinda sucks that they are tampering with such a cool game even after it’s recent success. Edit: Apparently it’s been fixed and they apologized for the inconvenience.
I cannot wait to play this, Tomb Raider was my first PS1 game. Love the original CORE design, at this point with the state of gaming, I’m just happy at least we still get good remasters and remakes like RE4
Loved these games so much. I'll never forget the real horror I felt first time I ran into that giant T-Rex...man I just turned around and ran for my life! Great review Drinker👍
Still have yet to see any video review of the game with the March patch installed :>. Some things have changed since then. The lighting has improved in many areas. The keys are now visible. The wavy mud effect in TR3 has returned. For new players, modern controls have been fixed. Those really good ceiling aesthetics introduced in St. Francis Folly and Palace Midas from the Epic Games version that were removed before were added back in. I've got to agree with Small Medipack though: my favorite entry, TR2, still didn't receive as much love as 1 and 3. If there'll be another patch that will fix those textures in TR2, I'd love to see that happen.
a game where the player have to think? wow! what a new idea! LOL Good review Drinker! It made me think back to the time when I played the game on PC when it came out!
"When did game companies get so humourless and self important?" Unironically, When we let women strong arm their way into the field and overpower the creative, silly nerds that actually loved gaming.
We should clarify that said women are all insufferable activist types. There were plenty of women in gaming before this that had genuine passion for what they were doing (such as Amy Hennig, Dona Bailey, and Carol Shaw)
Speaking of, the writer of the trilogy and one of the ppl who helped conceive the Lara Croft we know and love was a woman, Vicky Arnold. Not sure why she's not credited as a co-creator. I wonder what she thinks about Crystal rewriting her backstories of the trilogy in the Evercade re-release.
Hmmm, somehow they used to be able to make strong female characters without turning them into *strong female character*. As a little boy I found Lara very cool. She was competent and cool, not someone obsessed with their gender and how capable they are...
I envy your childhood, mighty drinker. You had The lord Of The Ring, Revenge Of The Sith, and cool male action heroes. I got Rey Palpatine, and weak losers dominated by Mary Sues.
Cannot wait to play these when they release physically. Which, I think is still set for this September. TR was my first game on PS1 when i was a little girl. As an 11 year old I found the game challenging and fun! If I got frustrated and couldnt figure out where I was supposed to go next I would come back to it the next day and more often than not discover the solution right away.I STILL remember my favorite levels. St Francis Folly and the one I replayed ( hey remember when you could replay levels and save anywhere and not have to go through the whole bloody game again to replay your favorite section?) the most, Barkang Monastery from TR2.
I remember watching your streaming this (I was the guy talking about still using Voodoo3 on a Win98 pc in the chat), and I really dig this channel you've created here. And its so true how modern games holds your hand through the whole process ...I hope its a trend that will stop at some point! Anyway - Keep up the good work! :)
I'm not a gamer, but I always enjoy your entertainment reviews so I thought I would give this a try. Nice to hear a positive review! Even nicer to know that there are still competent people working in any facet of the entertainment industry. "Cistern level" 😂 Just wondering if there are any people who are outraged that the remaster wasn't woked up?
Nah just people complaining that there's an easily missed and skippable message when you launch saying some parts haven't aged that well but they didn't wanna alter it and sanitise it.
I loved the temple sounds in this. Used to drift off into a state of meditation. Usually after my heart had slowed down again after a nr death experience!
I am still in shock how this trilogy is so well done and remastered where as the Battlefront games didn't get the same treatment considering it's done by the very same people..Aspyr.
Love these games. Huge fan since 1996. I love how the hud is empty and the game makes you think and explore on your own. I think 1 is the best of the 3, but 3 has india/pacific and ❤ those a lot
I actually prefer the modern controls. I’ve grew up playing the tank controls and after playing around modern controls, you realize it feels way better. Not only the freedom of 360 movement, you can make better jumps and if you hold the action button while running off a ledge you can save yourself cuz Lara will turn around and grab onto the ledge. Its the best.
i love the ability to swap graphics on the fly! the original was my first 3-D game & few since have outdone the feeling of exploring some of those levels.
A small note. I really like all the subtitles as now I can follow what the characters are saying to eachother. Would have been a good touch to include them in the 90's too
I waited for the patch before buying this on PS4 ( on sale as well!) The Cistern is still confusing, even though I've played through it before,but the keys do show up now. I'm thoroughly enjoying TR1 again.
6:47 that's what I like of old games (and some modern ones), they are not afraid of you missing something or gettingost for a bit. Exploring and finding my way around a level is always going to be more rewarding than following a marker on a screen or some yellow paint scatter all over the walls and ledges
im playing them with modern controls and doing fine. im so used to controlling both analogue sticks that it never becomes an issue - so far at least. at the age of 35 i expirience these games for the first time and enjoy them so much
Look up cringe in the dictionary and you'll see an image of that Crystal Dynamics "apology". So I guess PETA should get involved for all the dinosaurs harmed in these games?
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that pathetic popup said it was "harmful". Nobody was harmed by these games and that whole popup thing is asinine.
For some reason, people these days cannot wrap their heads around an anti hero protagonist. Classic Lara is the epitome of chaotic good, and they totally butchered her with modern survivor Lara, who doesn't even raid tombs anymore. I want the old Lara back for new games. I want confident, intelligent, sexy, elegant Lara. That Lara was just bad ass and as a little girl she was my heroine. But hey, we're getting tr4-6 in February, so I'm happy!
I already spent over a 100 hours in these remasters. Mostly because I was hunting achievements on Steam. A wonderful remaster, truly. Hopefully they'll do the same for TR4, 5 and even 6. Altough for 6 it might be better to do a remake or a sequel instead. EDIT: The key issue has been fixed in the first patch for the remasters.
It was funny giving my son a go on this game, he was like "where do i go, what do i do"? Getting frustrated by how hard it was but that makes the pay off some much better, the satisfaction of figuring something out or completing a challenging section. He did like it and it wasnt long before he got the hang of it. He said there's something about it that made him want to keep going, and i said thats because the game isn't holding your hand like modern games
Nice review. As an old man and retro gamer I of course prefer the original but I am playing on an CRT television and thus don’t get the pixel mess you get on cinema sized screens of today.
6:50 - Actually, Lara's pigtail moves. Usually pointing in a general direction of were you need to go. But the 1st Lara game were actually they don't give you ANY idea were you need to go, is The Last Revelation. The cutscenes were barely audible, and didn't give you a hint of what is your/her goal wherever she went.
I did not mind the Tomb Raider Trilogy from late 2000 i still remember diving into the water for the first time at the start of Underworld and Lara looking smoking doing so. Crystal Dynamics just had to put their fingerprints on the remasters even though they did not make it and hate the OG Lara.
This is the type of remaster that I would like to see for Final Fantasy VII. The current remakes of FFVII are good, but I want to play the original with marginally improved graphics.
Thanks! glad to hear a proper review of this. I'm glad they built it to keep the feel of the old games. Modern gamers have it too easy already. leave this one for us old school folk.
Oddly enough, I disagree with the open-air change. The black void and the feeling of being underground adds to the often-overlooked scare factor of the game. It reminds you how isolated from the rest of the world you are and turns the game into more of a survival horror than your average adventure game.
Still an absolute gem! Shame the series went so downhill over the years. Is bad enough we can’t seem to have male heroes anymore, we can’t have female heroes anymore either, apparently!
I got to experience gaming back in the late 90s and 2000s. I only wish that I was a little bit older so I could afford, experience and partake in even more games at the time. Luckily both Steam but especially GOG are doing great work in making older PC games accessible and playable on modern systems. And I started to collect PS2 games before retro gaming became ridiculously expensive. But all of this is still just a droplet of what I missed and I don't have as much time for endless gaming sessions anymore as I would have if I was just a little bit older in the early 2000s:P
They're jealous. These games were produced by Core Designs and remastered by Aspyr, and they know fans love them much more than the cringe-fest Crystal Dynamics themselves produced in recent years.
Tomb Raider series is a great and iconic part of gaming history but there are a few parts that haven't aged well. What's the big deal about acknowledging that?
It’s finally here there were a few bugs but overall it’s great I’m liking this game. I first bought them back in 97 with my brother for the PlayStation this brings back a lot of memories for me. I’m gonna be taking my time with this so I can fully enjoy it.
Gaming in the 90’s and early 00’s was great. I was 16 or 17 in ‘96 when I brought tomb raider home. Loved this game immediately. Same feeling when I played the Halo demo and blew shit up with a plasma grenade or when I unboxed GTA 3, stole a car, flipped and it exploded. Damn good memory’s.
The developer worked on OpenLara & was given the original (mac) source code to make it as authentic as possible. He didn’t change any of the internal game systems, only opting for graphical upgrades & extra features, which is why it’s as good as it is.
Great review! I remember that I bought tomb raider initially after my friend won at bingo.. he shared his winnings with me and I bought tomb raider with it. Also I gotta say... Angelina Jolie will always and forever be Laura Croft! .. I know, as a person perhaps she is questionable... but her portrayal of Laura... was spot on.. and um hubba hubba 😮
It was an awesome set of games. The title themes to BOTH TR1 and TR2 are also absolutely gorgeous. Just perfect pieces that fit the mood super well. The only thing I disliked about the originals is that there was no music during actual gameplay. Such a shame.
You know before this game released I was in a crisis with gaming and thought I have overgrew the media by not having fun with a single modern game but nowadays playing this in my late 30s made me realize it was not me, it is modern gaming that sucks. Hope for the Last Revelation remaster!
The issue with modern gaming is precisely that people are stuck in the past and willing to pay money to re-buy the same old games all over again instead of demanding new experiences.
Remasters that make old games look halfway decent graphically to today's gamers without ruining what made the game fun to start with are not easy to find. Good to know that Tomb Raider got one. Being able to save progress whenever you want is one of the best things that modern games have and is sometimes all we need to update an old game. I always stunk at Tomb Raider games because I'm not very fast and can't time jumps to save my life, but I still liked the idea of the games and knew a lot of kids who were pretty good at it, so I've always kinda liked it despite myself. Sort of like Mega Man games.
Too bad that only the 1-3 games were remastered, because my favorite is the 4rt one (the last revelation). I hope the last 2 of the classic saga/era will be remastered too.
"We are so sorry that we made Lara heroic, competent, *and sexy*. We realize that modern audiences are only able to handle two at any given time as long as it's not the third one."
"yes we realize now that your insecurities,are now the worlds problem and we should all know exactly who you are and what you want without having a clue who you are, (bending knee to brown nose anyone)"
I mean, she wasn't neccesarily heroic, but that was part of why i like her.
True, and they censored a pin-up girl in the villain's jacket, the remastered version has bikini.
They were able to keep all three qualities in Tifa of FF7 remake
That’s basically the tagline for todays generations …..
The apology at the start is a clear sign that our society is becoming the one in The Demolition Man.
With the housing prices we’d probably be in the sewers begging for pizza hut in a few years too 😂
@@TheFinnishTechie I was going to say it was Taco Bell, but apparently it was actually changed to Pizza Hut for the European version. I had no idea. I guess Taco Bell isn't very popular over there. It leads to some probably unintentional memory conflict like this.
So in the US, the joke was they were getting pizza at Taco Bell. I guess is Europe that line didn't stand out.
Funny enough, we started getting Taco Bell/Pizza Hut combo stores around that time.
@@TheDalisama Actually, I didn’t know about that either. Taco Bell actually didn’t exist here in Finland in the 90s and still barely even has a presence now, with just 10 stores as of writing this (first one opened in 2017).
But the funny thing is, Pizza Hut didn’t exist here back then either, with the first restaurant opening in 2017 as well, with just 20 locations, so I suppose the change wasn’t necessarily made for us.
I am so sick of woke rubbish! How do we fight back???
It is a sure sign that Crystal Dynamics won't be able to make any true TR game and that the series ended at the Core Design ones.
It's also very discreet and I never paid attention to it before I was told about it.
Fun fact: Lara Croft and those first six games were made in my hometown. We even have a street named after her.
Nice, I've always wanted to live on Big Tits Close.
What town is that?
@@philipsheppard4815 Derby, middle England.
1 thing derby done right
Yeah Core design never get the recognition they deserve for they created the game and character. I guess Eidos owned everything they made and now Crystal dynamics owns the rights to it.
As a quick note, I too also bitched about those damn keys in the Cistern.
Good news though, there has a patch that makes those keys much mor visible in the new graphics, so that's not an issue anymore.
This is one of those franchises that was hard to play as a kid. Now that I'm older and played tons of games in my life I have the skills to tackle it now.
Proud of you for growing up, hope you remember to do your taxes big guy
A lot of the challenges in tomb raider don’t really take skill at all. Just sometimes getting lucky you clicked on the thing you were supposed to interact with
I thought the same till I hit Tomb Raider 3. I've gotten hopelessly stuck close to 10 times now. The London levels design genuinely sucks.
@@passyourielts same, I’m stuck in Aldwych trying to find one of the secrets, to get the bonus level at the end of the game ‘all hallows’. Aldwych is genuinely one of if not my favourite level in the game but I gotta admit the design isn’t great
The level is in multiple pieces, and you've got no idea in which order you need to complete anything. That red box room needs visiting 3 times with absolutely no telegraphing.@@stevenmcburney8167
They actually updated the pickup visibility recently. Great remaster.
The original trilogy (and IMHO this might be said for the other three Core Design era installments as well) had balls to leave the player on their own, trusting that they are smart and patient enough to figure out where to go, what to do and how to achieve each level's goal. The grid-based design of the game made all the in-game rules absolute, with no exception. The developers had courage to present a unique female protagonist, who was both sexy, determined and set on her goals.
I played these games with no walkthroughs or strategy guides and I admit, there were moments when I felt lost and clueless. But in the end, completing each game gave me quite the pleasant feeling of achievement. And then again, when (after multiple replays) I could find all the secrets in each. Quite the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.
This remake's strength lies in the updated graphics and updates to Lara's movement, especially in regards to the first game - and I appreciate, that the expansions are there too, as now it really feels like a complete trilogy.
The thing I've noticed, is a lot of gamers are actually really stupid. Just look at the achievement percentages of games you buy. Most players don't even get past the first few hours of every game. The attention span of players has seriously dwindled to toddler levels.
Now let's just hope for a physical copy of especially for us fans it's more satisfying than a digital version 🙏
@@dadou193 I'd like to have that too, but only after all the patches & fixes are out and tested - yeah it's a sad fact, that we're no longer getting finished products like back in the day, when there was no internet - and also a few reasonable gameplay updates, like making the saving & loading user-manageable (I'd really love to see standard, separate, locally stored savefiles be brought back again), adding NewGame+ mode for the expansions as well as removing the double or triple hitpoints for enemies for this mode (or making it an option only), as it makes that particular gameplay mode either boring & tedious or (close to) impossible and just not fun.
A man can always dream.. 🙂
@@Crazy_Gamer_OG My feelings & my thoughts exactly.. In this particular franchise, I think the LAU trilogy was the first to target such an audience, as when I played through these games, I noticed that I needed a maximum of one, two and four replays (respectively) to get all the extra-collectibles and even finish the time trials. Here I considered two options - either the devs could read the audience so well that they "dumbed down and sped up" those games to speak to as many modern gamers as possible - or they were just so dumb and shallow themselves, that such a gameplay style was the best they could come up with. And here I have to say, that since listening to audio commentary in the Anniversary game, I strongly lean towards the latter.
BTW also all the complaints about tank controls just piss me off. To me, it's a plain admission of one's over-reliance on modern control schemes, where the game does a lot of things for the player, not requiring the level of 3D thinking and precision the tank controls do. And I have a strong feeling, that the "ADHD gameplay" and "only modern controls" groups of gamers are actually one and the same, for the most part. Quite a coincidence, isn't it? 🙂
The Tomb Raider I-III Remaster trilogy is phenomenal! I've seriously enjoyed replaying these games. It maintains the atmosphere and aesthetics of the late 90's! Bring on The Last Revelation & Chronicles!!! The best Lara!!!!!
I've completely givin up on seeing the REAL ICON Lara Croft again so you wouldn't believe how I almost cry in several moments when playing this lovely remasters. I hope we'll get TR the last revelation and TR chronicles some day. In the meantime, I"ll keep modding and replaying these three perfect games.
Tr 4=6 Remastered announced yesterday!
How have I not seen this channel until now man, this is like a dream come true
Now we pray for Legacy of Kain to get a similar treatment next.
HELL YEAH!
Hallelujah!!!
Tell me how that works out, mate.
Can't wait to spend four hours figuring out how to advance in that Mansion (Defiance) again 😂
Great shout
Played through all three remastered games, and was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I was having. They hold up really well, and I wish these types of platforming games would make a comeback.
I agree. I love how methodical and lethal the platforming is. You mess up, you die. It makes being up high genuinely mean something. Rather than your character spidermaning automatically to every surface. It feels like actually climbing.
I'd recommend checking out Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. It's basically a Tomb Raider clone with the story and cast of the 90's LucasArts games.
In terms of platforming, I hope they bring the Prince of Persia trilogy to modern consoles. Ubisoft has a lot of great games pre Assassin's Creed. I'm surprised they don't remaster them. Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Brothers in Arms, and King Kong. The best game based on movie.
@@hitmonkey4726 There was supposed to be a Sands of Time remake in the works for some time but it got cancelled.
@@TheDalisamathe issue is perma poison from snakes
This is my Lara. This is the suave, sexy, badass that I fell in love with as opposed to that whimpering, snivelling one legged puppy of an atrocity in the 'modern' games. I wish the lighting was better in the remaster though. 80% of the time I cannot see anything and have to revert to the original graphics. Same problem with the analog stick. I'm actually playing with the d-pad after two decades.
Analog sticks never feel right with tank controls. Gladly, I also have a PS4 controller for my PC. Using the d-pad on the Xbox controller would be rough.
@@PetrisonRocha Absolutely. Realized that in 2 minute. Sigh. Playing with the d-pad wasnt as problematic as I feared it to be , thanlfully. Thumb is still getting sore though.
Offense is taken and never given. The apology when starting up the game is a perfect example of this. Did the developers really think at the time when these games were made that audiences 25 to 30 years later might be offended? It wasn't offensive back then and it isn't now.
Besides wtf is even offensive? A tribe of black cannibals? Chinese characters with Chinese accents and Italian characters with Italian accents? Like holy crap
Well said CHamlin
I hope you realize that they just do that to avoid any lawsuits or people being offended etc. They don't believe it themselves.
@@LalaDepala_00 Crystal Dynamics absolutely do believe it themselves.
@@maxsommers6843 Nah. Just started the game up myself and in my country (Netherlands) the message is different. This tells me that it's a legal thing.
They even put the gold levels who are a Pc exclusive. It´s a nice remaster. Hope for a IV-V-VI in the future.
I think it's way more likely to have iv and v. As much as I'd love Angel of Darkness to get a nice treatment, to the controls at least, I highly doubt they will ever touch it.
@@__MPires__I think they will. They would probably use the “Definitive Edition“ that Reborninshadows is making
@__MPires__ Greeting friend. I'm from said future, and I have some good news 😊
You can't beat a classic, and Lara Croft is a crown gem of a game. Great review, drinker. 🎉
As much s I hate getting older, one thing I am very grateful for is growing up in the 90's, from both a film and especially a gaming perspetive. Experiencing VR games, after growing up with the like of N64/PS1 has been an increidble experience. A group called Team Beef even made a VR mod for the orginal Tomb Raider with motion controls. It's such an amazing nostalgia trip!
Same.
Speaking of, iirc, Team Beef is using the OpenLara engine. OpenLara's dev XProger happens to be the lead dev of this remaster.
These game are fantastic and also include the DLC which wasn’t available to consoles. There is so much content here- I’ve just played through TR2 and I’ve spent 35 hours with it (I know you can complete it faster) so 3 x TR games is a lot to play!
They did what Halo MC Collection did with the new and old graphics. You can swap between OG and New graphics in all of those games. I think Remastered games should do this all the time, because the enhacements overall work perfectly with the old graphics, and makes it feel like a Perfect port instead of a Lazy port with almost no changes (Star Wars BF Collection)
Every time you see one of these features though it's lying to you. They always make the "old" graphics look worse than they actually were. For e.g. Tomb Raider 1 has the option, on PC anyway, to play with bilinear texture filtering, which effectively smooths out the rough pixels. It's subjective whether you prefer the blurrier look or the rough pixelated look, but I don't think you get to make that choice on the Remaster version. Dark Forces did a similar thing. Their "old graphics" mode is a lot worse than what the original game actually looks like.
@@UnchainedEruptionyou are nitpicking
I played the original in 1996. I remember it came in that weird shaped box on PC. I guess it was supposed to look like an old fashion coffin. My mind was blown by the 3D environments at the time. Good memories.
God, I love those boxes! Always stared at them hardcore every time we passed in the store. You know, back when they had demos and actual consoles to play in stores. The fun times 😮💨🫂🕹️🎮🏪💯
This is probably the best remaster I've ever played. Absolutely loved the graphical overhall of it and the way you can switch it to the PS1 graphics and back with the push of a button is Absolutely fantastic!!
The 90's was the best era of gaming. It was the birth of tons of classics, women were still women, gaming journos just wrote about gaming, no microtransactions or DLC, and no updates, patches or anything like that unless you had a PC in the last half. Modern gaming is a hollow, dead shell of what it used to be.
That's true for most console games, but even they had patches. For example: Pokemon Red and Blue were patched versions compared to the originals. The Tomb Raider had a few differences on the Japanese version, and PC games had plenty of patches. It was very common for expansion packs (the precursor to DLC) to include patches, even on console games.
FWIW, all three TR games in this video had patches, revisions, and expansion packs. The expansions were PC exclusive.
This is why I've always treated the Xbox as an invasive species. American corporate greed very nearly killed video games in 1983. Things were better with the Japanese in charge.
@@blakecasimirit is , I saw it coming as soon as the suits entered the Industry . It has to go bust before it’s great again
Don’t forget the couch coop
Def not the best era.. absolutely not.. ps2-ps3
The lead dev/technical director is XProger, the guy behind OpenLara.
Imagine rebuilding the classic TR engine for years, and you get hired for the official remaster and given the original's source code _and_ the opportunity to hire your own team of devs for it. What a dream.
As of their most recent patch (1.2), they have apparently censored some of the game post release. Particularly in the “Sleepinging with the fishes” level where in the updated graphics they removed some posters of Lara that were above some lockers. In another part of the game, on the back of one of the character’s jacket they censored a woman in both the new and old graphics. Kinda sucks that they are tampering with such a cool game even after it’s recent success.
Edit: Apparently it’s been fixed and they apologized for the inconvenience.
I cannot wait to play this, Tomb Raider was my first PS1 game. Love the original CORE design, at this point with the state of gaming, I’m just happy at least we still get good remasters and remakes like RE4
Loved these games so much. I'll never forget the real horror I felt first time I ran into that giant T-Rex...man I just turned around and ran for my life! Great review Drinker👍
Still have yet to see any video review of the game with the March patch installed :>. Some things have changed since then. The lighting has improved in many areas. The keys are now visible. The wavy mud effect in TR3 has returned. For new players, modern controls have been fixed. Those really good ceiling aesthetics introduced in St. Francis Folly and Palace Midas from the Epic Games version that were removed before were added back in.
I've got to agree with Small Medipack though: my favorite entry, TR2, still didn't receive as much love as 1 and 3. If there'll be another patch that will fix those textures in TR2, I'd love to see that happen.
a game where the player have to think? wow! what a new idea! LOL
Good review Drinker! It made me think back to the time when I played the game on PC when it came out!
"When did game companies get so humourless and self important?"
Unironically, When we let women strong arm their way into the field and overpower the creative, silly nerds that actually loved gaming.
This was a long winded way of saying you’ve never given a woman an orgasm.
We should clarify that said women are all insufferable activist types. There were plenty of women in gaming before this that had genuine passion for what they were doing (such as Amy Hennig, Dona Bailey, and Carol Shaw)
@@gnarwhal7562 those women are cool but they were exceptions, there wasn’t “plenty”.
This goes back to the suffragettes. Mistakes were made by weak men DECADES ago. The power of the NO should always be exerted.
Speaking of, the writer of the trilogy and one of the ppl who helped conceive the Lara Croft we know and love was a woman, Vicky Arnold. Not sure why she's not credited as a co-creator.
I wonder what she thinks about Crystal rewriting her backstories of the trilogy in the Evercade re-release.
Love this collection. Hope they give TR IV and V the same treatment.
And VI. Why do you idiots forget about VI… that’s rude
Hmmm, somehow they used to be able to make strong female characters without turning them into *strong female character*. As a little boy I found Lara very cool. She was competent and cool, not someone obsessed with their gender and how capable they are...
Been watching Drinker for years. Never knew he had a gaming channel. Glad I found this. Love your content, Drinker!
I actually bought this having watched you stream it, really enjoying it 💪
I envy your childhood, mighty drinker. You had The lord Of The Ring, Revenge Of The Sith, and cool male action heroes. I got Rey Palpatine, and weak losers dominated by Mary Sues.
Me too. The 90s and 2000s look awesome.
@@Soup-man That's the first time I ever heard someone say the 2000's looked awesome.
@ Yeah, I was too little to remember much of pop culture back then. But I've been going back to games and whatnot from that era anymore
Absolutely loved going through the remasters again. I recommend using a video walkthrough though as it is frustrating without it.
Playing with a video guide? You are no true Tomb Raider
@@LalaDepala_00 I never said I was.
crazy how it has the same disclaimer as a south park episode, all because of lara's curves and because foreign npcs aren't artificially elevated
Cannot wait to play these when they release physically. Which, I think is still set for this September. TR was my first game on PS1 when i was a little girl. As an 11 year old I found the game challenging and fun! If I got frustrated and couldnt figure out where I was supposed to go next I would come back to it the next day and more often than not discover the solution right away.I STILL remember my favorite levels. St Francis Folly and the one I replayed ( hey remember when you could replay levels and save anywhere and not have to go through the whole bloody game again to replay your favorite section?) the most, Barkang Monastery from TR2.
I remember watching your streaming this (I was the guy talking about still using Voodoo3 on a Win98 pc in the chat), and I really dig this channel you've created here.
And its so true how modern games holds your hand through the whole process ...I hope its a trend that will stop at some point!
Anyway - Keep up the good work! :)
If only battlefront was this well treated
I'm not a gamer, but I always enjoy your entertainment reviews so I thought I would give this a try. Nice to hear a positive review! Even nicer to know that there are still competent people working in any facet of the entertainment industry.
"Cistern level" 😂
Just wondering if there are any people who are outraged that the remaster wasn't woked up?
Nah just people complaining that there's an easily missed and skippable message when you launch saying some parts haven't aged that well but they didn't wanna alter it and sanitise it.
@@SanguinaryBlade thank you for letting me know!
Not a Tomb Raider player myself, but I'm glad to hear you guys got a good remaster!
I loved the temple sounds in this. Used to drift off into a state of meditation. Usually after my heart had slowed down again after a nr death experience!
I am still in shock how this trilogy is so well done and remastered where as the Battlefront games didn't get the same treatment considering it's done by the very same people..Aspyr.
Prolly cos they hired the right ppl for this remaster.
Love these games. Huge fan since 1996. I love how the hud is empty and the game makes you think and explore on your own. I think 1 is the best of the 3, but 3 has india/pacific and ❤ those a lot
I actually prefer the modern controls. I’ve grew up playing the tank controls and after playing around modern controls, you realize it feels way better. Not only the freedom of 360 movement, you can make better jumps and if you hold the action button while running off a ledge you can save yourself cuz Lara will turn around and grab onto the ledge. Its the best.
Had so much fun with TR first time and the remaster. Once I remembered how to use the Tank controls!
nice one
will you be reviewing Stellar Blade?
i love the ability to swap graphics on the fly! the original was my first 3-D game & few since have outdone the feeling of exploring some of those levels.
A small note. I really like all the subtitles as now I can follow what the characters are saying to eachother. Would have been a good touch to include them in the 90's too
Finally a review from someone who gets Tombraider. Wish there were at least some graphical options though
This is how a remaster should be done. Well done 👍
I waited for the patch before buying this on PS4 ( on sale as well!) The Cistern is still confusing, even though I've played through it before,but the keys do show up now. I'm thoroughly enjoying TR1 again.
Good looking remake, looking forward to trying it. Love your videos man, keep up the good work, cheers!
6:47 that's what I like of old games (and some modern ones), they are not afraid of you missing something or gettingost for a bit. Exploring and finding my way around a level is always going to be more rewarding than following a marker on a screen or some yellow paint scatter all over the walls and ledges
I'm loving it so far. I'm only at the beginning of the first game and it's as good as I hoped it would be.
im playing them with modern controls and doing fine. im so used to controlling both analogue sticks that it never becomes an issue - so far at least. at the age of 35 i expirience these games for the first time and enjoy them so much
Look up cringe in the dictionary and you'll see an image of that Crystal Dynamics "apology". So I guess PETA should get involved for all the dinosaurs harmed in these games?
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that pathetic popup said it was "harmful". Nobody was harmed by these games and that whole popup thing is asinine.
Loved Tomb Raider back in the day
This remaster trilogy has been a dream come true for me! I hope they do the last two PS1 entries.
For some reason, people these days cannot wrap their heads around an anti hero protagonist. Classic Lara is the epitome of chaotic good, and they totally butchered her with modern survivor Lara, who doesn't even raid tombs anymore. I want the old Lara back for new games. I want confident, intelligent, sexy, elegant Lara. That Lara was just bad ass and as a little girl she was my heroine.
But hey, we're getting tr4-6 in February, so I'm happy!
What a phenomenal review; I know all of these games intimately and share exactly your sentiment on every level!
I was on the fence about this, but you've convinced me to get it. Thank you!
The Critical Gamer, This is awesome! I subscribed because I want to see more!
Do not forget that Team Beef is working on the VR port of thr first game. Awesome!
Ahhh! Memories :)) Trial and error. Love to play it again but at my age I don't think my muscle memory goes back that far lol.
I already spent over a 100 hours in these remasters. Mostly because I was hunting achievements on Steam. A wonderful remaster, truly. Hopefully they'll do the same for TR4, 5 and even 6. Altough for 6 it might be better to do a remake or a sequel instead.
EDIT: The key issue has been fixed in the first patch for the remasters.
Yesss!!! Nostalgia. I love me some Tomb Raider.
It was funny giving my son a go on this game, he was like "where do i go, what do i do"? Getting frustrated by how hard it was but that makes the pay off some much better, the satisfaction of figuring something out or completing a challenging section. He did like it and it wasnt long before he got the hang of it. He said there's something about it that made him want to keep going, and i said thats because the game isn't holding your hand like modern games
Nice review. As an old man and retro gamer I of course prefer the original but I am playing on an CRT television and thus don’t get the pixel mess you get on cinema sized screens of today.
6:50 - Actually, Lara's pigtail moves. Usually pointing in a general direction of were you need to go. But the 1st Lara game were actually they don't give you ANY idea were you need to go, is The Last Revelation. The cutscenes were barely audible, and didn't give you a hint of what is your/her goal wherever she went.
FYI the key models have been updated in the patch so they are more visible
A fantastic tribute to these masterpieces.
I did not mind the Tomb Raider Trilogy from late 2000 i still remember diving into the water for the first time at the start of Underworld and Lara looking smoking doing so. Crystal Dynamics just had to put their fingerprints on the remasters even though they did not make it and hate the OG Lara.
This is the type of remaster that I would like to see for Final Fantasy VII. The current remakes of FFVII are good, but I want to play the original with marginally improved graphics.
I love this remake. Taking my time and enjoying it since day one. A few levels in on tr2
Thanks! glad to hear a proper review of this. I'm glad they built it to keep the feel of the old games. Modern gamers have it too easy already. leave this one for us old school folk.
Oddly enough, I disagree with the open-air change. The black void and the feeling of being underground adds to the often-overlooked scare factor of the game. It reminds you how isolated from the rest of the world you are and turns the game into more of a survival horror than your average adventure game.
Still an absolute gem! Shame the series went so downhill over the years. Is bad enough we can’t seem to have male heroes anymore, we can’t have female heroes anymore either, apparently!
I got to experience gaming back in the late 90s and 2000s. I only wish that I was a little bit older so I could afford, experience and partake in even more games at the time.
Luckily both Steam but especially GOG are doing great work in making older PC games accessible and playable on modern systems. And I started to collect PS2 games before retro gaming became ridiculously expensive. But all of this is still just a droplet of what I missed and I don't have as much time for endless gaming sessions anymore as I would have if I was just a little bit older in the early 2000s:P
I was on the fence and this review sold me. Got it for $22 on PS5.
I loved these remasters ive been having fun and being frustrated with some of the levels wondering how the fuck i passed them when i was a kid 😂.
Great review and sad that they had to apologize as if they were ashamed to be involved with this game.
They're jealous. These games were produced by Core Designs and remastered by Aspyr, and they know fans love them much more than the cringe-fest Crystal Dynamics themselves produced in recent years.
Tomb Raider series is a great and iconic part of gaming history but there are a few parts that haven't aged well. What's the big deal about acknowledging that?
@@AlexConnor_ there's nothing offensive on the original trilogy, nothing at all.
@@PetrisonRocha Not massively so but there's some pretty questionable voice acting/stereotypes in TR II and especially TR III.
Never played these games but treasure hunting was always one of my favorite genres so maybe I should give this a try
Also glad i grew up with the home PC got to play so many great games. Wish i kept all those old pcs n games
It’s finally here there were a few bugs but overall it’s great I’m liking this game. I first bought them back in 97 with my brother for the PlayStation this brings back a lot of memories for me. I’m gonna be taking my time with this so I can fully enjoy it.
this remaster is excellent, I can't recommend it enough and they've updated items like keys to make them much easier to spot. I love Lara
Tomb raider and resident evil absolute timeless classics 👌
Why would Crystal dynamics even care so much? They are behind Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Eternal Darkness
As soon as a physical version hits the shelves, I'm getting it.
Don't know about a real physical release, but you can get it from GOG.
Like said above, buying it on GOG is the only way to actually own the game
@@SSJ4Vegiito I'll wait for the physical version, thanks.
I never played Tomb Raider. I’m glad this was made the way it was so I can finally play it.
Gaming in the 90’s and early 00’s was great. I was 16 or 17 in ‘96 when I brought tomb raider home. Loved this game immediately. Same feeling when I played the Halo demo and blew shit up with a plasma grenade or when I unboxed GTA 3, stole a car, flipped and it exploded. Damn good memory’s.
I bought it when it came out and I agree with you, it fun and I have to admit that they make Lara as we all want her to be :)
The developer worked on OpenLara & was given the original (mac) source code to make it as authentic as possible. He didn’t change any of the internal game systems, only opting for graphical upgrades & extra features, which is why it’s as good as it is.
Great review! I remember that I bought tomb raider initially after my friend won at bingo.. he shared his winnings with me and I bought tomb raider with it. Also I gotta say... Angelina Jolie will always and forever be Laura Croft! .. I know, as a person perhaps she is questionable... but her portrayal of Laura... was spot on.. and um hubba hubba 😮
It was an awesome set of games. The title themes to BOTH TR1 and TR2 are also absolutely gorgeous. Just perfect pieces that fit the mood super well. The only thing I disliked about the originals is that there was no music during actual gameplay. Such a shame.
You know before this game released I was in a crisis with gaming and thought I have overgrew the media by not having fun with a single modern game but nowadays playing this in my late 30s made me realize it was not me, it is modern gaming that sucks.
Hope for the Last Revelation remaster!
The issue with modern gaming is precisely that people are stuck in the past and willing to pay money to re-buy the same old games all over again instead of demanding new experiences.
Remasters that make old games look halfway decent graphically to today's gamers without ruining what made the game fun to start with are not easy to find. Good to know that Tomb Raider got one. Being able to save progress whenever you want is one of the best things that modern games have and is sometimes all we need to update an old game. I always stunk at Tomb Raider games because I'm not very fast and can't time jumps to save my life, but I still liked the idea of the games and knew a lot of kids who were pretty good at it, so I've always kinda liked it despite myself. Sort of like Mega Man games.
I always assumed the dinosaur but was underground, gave it a lost world vibe
Yep this is what a remaster should be when it comes to PS1/Saturn/N64 titles. Just enhance what's already there.
Give me more of it!
Too bad that only the 1-3 games were remastered, because my favorite is the 4rt one (the last revelation). I hope the last 2 of the classic saga/era will be remastered too.
It's on the way