J-Novotny

Yeah, I'd like the sidestep to come back. <3 I hated the automatic grabs especially because every time I walked by a ladder she'd assume that I wanted her to climb it. So I got in the habit of avoiding ladders but there were times where I would have to be near the ladder and there would be the problem. Or if I wanted her to push something, she'd climb on top of it, and vice versa. Or when I wanted to make a running jump, she'd just randomly slide off the edge of the ledge and grab onto it to dangle. The whole randomly lowering herself from ledges was horribly horribly retarded. The inconvenience wasn't annoying enough to stop me from playing, but damned if I wasn't irked. And yeah, I know and understand that a lot of people didn't like the AOD game, I even have my complaints. But it doesn't really change that I'd like to see the plotline continued. It's got some cliches but I still like it for some reason. :B

If Kurtis Trent is put in another Tomb Raider game, he'd definitely have to be up to par with Lara's athletic abilities. I have to say though, I do like the animation they use when he pulls himself up from a ledge, it's just more realistic to me (Like how I loved Prince of Persia 3D). If AOD being completed means making Kurtis Trent's own game, then I'm for it. I honestly think that making AoD II a game where Lara's stardom switches off for Kurt to be in the spotlight of that series, and then AoD III being all Kurtis Trent (And Lara can be off in Legend Land), would be a good idea. I mean, it'd make total sense what with his Lux-Veritatis background, and the fans of TR who love the AoD storyline's complexities will likely be satisfied, and the fans of TR who prefer the usual plotline of "Lara get artefact, save world" can be happy to have Legend to themselves.

Wheee, let's see, i've rekindled my interests in Tomb Raider lately, and so what I want to see next is ... I haven't finished AoD yet (I bought it in '03, only to find that my computer would barely run it, and now that I have a new computer I'm working on it xD), and I haven't played/bought Legend yet, so if I mention something that's been done then A. forgive me and B. Good, all the more reason for me to buy Legend xD. Controls Mind you I'm speaking from a POV that only played Tombraider games on the computer. New moves ~I would like her to be able to draw a weapon in stealth mode. ~A sideways roll. I see it coming in handy in traps and situations where there were darts/blades you had to duck, bullets you had to dodge, or doors you had to dive under, or otherwise situations where you had to hug the ground and get out of the way, fast. Press duck, and hit sprint and hold left/right, and off she'd go! ~Hand to hand combat: I liked what I saw in AoD, honestly, because there's the obligatory "Lara is disarmed" level and it always irked me that Lara couldn't just smack someone up. In the spirit of previous Tomb Raider games, I would not suggest to seriously bone up on hand-to hand combat moves - I mean, while fighting games are a good market to invest in, we've always known Lara as a gun-toter, so keeping her punching and kicking to sequences of the 'action' button is what I'm totally for. However, I loved using the crowbar in Chronicles to smack the cook over the head, and I always did wish that Lara's faithful crowbar could be equipped as a weapon. Hell, program her to hold it like she holds shotguns when it's not in use so you just have to make a new animation for her when you hit action. KERBLAAAH! Moves I liked from previous games/want to see again The first thing that hit me in AoD is that when you pressed back, Lara wouldnt hop backwards like she did in all the other games. Granted, AOD was using a new system, so I understand them figuring that it's pretty useless to keep that 'hop back a block' function...And not having it isn't the end of the world, but I'd like to see its return. Also, I hope the games keep/bring back: ~Stealth mode and commando crawl ~Tucking Lara's legs up while hanging. (in a love-hate fashion, I also liked the timed grip bar, and had wanted one in play since about TRIII, simply because it would make it more realistic. Also, climbing in AOD was doubly awesome, the whole, diagonal climbing, climbing on fluctuating slopes, that was a huge highlight for me). ~The tightrope walk. (Yeah, I know, it was nerve-wracking as /hell/ in Chronicles to balance little Lara on that rope, but to me, a game of Tomb raider without you getting lost or experiencing total-ass frustration is not a game of Tombraider. I just feel like it'd add to the interactability of the game). What I never want to see again Lara will automatically grab the ledge~! I really, really disliked the whole "Lol automatic" schtick. I can deal with Lara automatically grabbing, climbing,...falling off things when she really needn't - and admittedly throughout AoD her automatic-ness either occured less because of that "Adapts to how you play" thing it says it does, or I just got desensitized. I read that Legend has 'automatic' doing too and that just doesn't go so well with me. From the first Tomb Raider to Chronicles, you told Lara what to do and she wouldn't do it until you told her to, and I want that back. Or perhaps creators of the game can put an option in controls where you can turn on or off the 'automatic' actions. That right there would probably be more difficult to program, but probably not insanely so, and would definitely be more marketable and thus worth it. I know that my brother doesn't want to play TR anymore because of the 'automatic' controls, so I know an option to turn it off would appeal. Centering the target on the screen and constantly facing it OH MY GOD I HATED THAT. Does Legend do that? Yeuch. I can deal with all the other "woes" of AOD, but I can't say I ever looked much forward to drawing a weapon because I knew that Lara/Kurtis would be strafing all over the damn place. Plotline Even though the Legend series opens a scope up for an entirely new kind of game of Tomb Raider, and I see marketing potential in it, it seriously does bother me that Angel of Darkness was left at its first game. I want to see the Nephilim stronghold, I want to see Turkey, I want to see what becomes of Kurtis Trent, I want to see Joachim open his mouth, and I just plain want to see the next installments. Maybe Tomb Raider could be split with Legend starring Lara and Angel of Darkness starring Kurtis. Which would be kind of cool actually, seeing as they were playing with the idea of giving Kurtis his own series, so game 2 could be a switch-off where Lara being featured cuts/fades off by the middle of the game, and voila, there's Kurtis, and game 3 is his own. If I were working with the Tombraider games I'd snatch up that proposal in a heartbeat, because there you're not only appealing to the old Tomb Raider audience, but you're opening up to potentially new audiences: You'd be satisfying AOD AND Legend fans by finishing the trilogy (AOD would be happy to know what happens, and Legend will be happy to be left alone), and you'd give Kurt his own game, opening opportunities to appeal to new buyers because you could make a new game series off of it. Locations Like I said, I wanna see Turkey, but mainly because I wanna see AoD II and III. I really don't care where Lara ends up as long as it's an adventure, but then again, I don't want her running around in cities much. TR III when she went into London was fine, but what I mean is like going around in very populated areas, because I feel like what with Tomb Raider being traditionally taking place in isolated or god forsaken places, putting her in cities just isn't very...Tomb Raider. The Paris and Prague settings in AoD were executed well enough, as you were still solving puzzles and snooping around and killing the occaisonal baddie ala Tomb Raider, and besides there was the Hall of seasons, and the screwed up biodome (Reminds me of good old TR 1) to give it that 'isolated, god forsaken' aspect I talked about. Miscellaneous The hand icon from AOD, and the notebook (though I hardly ever checked it simply out of not being used to having that advantage in previous games) were quite helpful but not so much that they made AoD too easy, which is good. Mainly the hand icon - sometimes things were so small I'd never have noticed they were there were it not for the hand. Also, you know how in AOD, you run up near something, and say, you're on a set of stairs - you turn so that you're going up the stairs at an angle, and you make her stand, and one foot comes up and the other sinks down so that the feet are level with what they're actually standing on? That is awesome. I love it, I love it, keep it. The whole "Choose what you say" thing in AoD also was a really cool option (And the lip synching, the lip synching) because manipulation of how you get to play is always, at least to me, a plus.