Ms.Croft

Well, I was in town today and my local video game store was advertising the PS2 version of Tomb Raider: Underworld as released today! Eidos kept it fairly quiet if you ask me, which is odd, but I'm glad you PS2 users can finally get the game! I don't know if it's universal, but it's definitely released in England today, so I assume it'll be near you Americans/Europeans/Australians...etc, if it's not already soon. MsC

I know...it wouldn't surprise me if they just made Vista rubbish on purpose so everyone would buy the new amazing Windows 7! *Sigh* Ah well, hope it won't be too expensive. MsC

Is this something I'm gonna have to pay £300 odd for when it's released? I'm rather pleased it's better than Vista in the performance and reliability area, but I would like them to focus on making Vista better so I don't have to spend hundreds of pounds on a new one until I get a new computer. I don't mind Vista that much, either, but it is a resource hog. I know I can turn off Aero but it looks dull without it turned on and I quite like the visuals of Aero. MsC

I do that purposely so I can listen to the fight music 'cause I like it so much. Mr Foelmann, you are my music God! MsC

It doesn't necessarily mean they're completely disregarding CrystalDs TR story, just that they're going to revamp Lara Croft herself, like how James Bond became less 'style' and more 'grit', so they'll probably change some of the Tomb Raider esque qualities, like improving combat so that Lara can hide behind walls, disarm enemies, etc, etc...make her more real. Since the 'Legend trilogy' has ended, though, it doesn't matter where they go from here to me. They don't have to reference it at all because as far as I'm concerned, it's finished. I don't require any answers, and to be honest, I'd be more interested in a new plot not involving her mother, Natla, Amanda, etc. MsC

Remember to respect other's opinions. In AoD it was never stated that they were in love or even had feelings for one another, so it's all conjecture and up to the player what feelings they had for each other. I personally don't think she had feelings for him, because it's not Lara's style. MsC

Hi there, Could you maybe be a bit more specific? There's about 3 Thor rooms in underworld I can think of. The one in the med, the one in Thailand, and the one in Mexico, which one do you mean? MsC

It won't be the levels/outfits the XBox 360 users have. I very much doubt PS3/PC users will get extra levels, but they may get outfits in the future. MsC

Because Microsoft approached CrystalDynamics/Eidos and paid them to give exclusive levels on the 360. It wasn't a choice CD made with no incentive, and to be honest, they'd be crazy not to after getting paid a lot of money to do it. However, Eidos haven't completely ruled out DLC for PS3/PC, it just won't be the exclusive levels/outfits. MsC

Plenty of games on the 360 and PS3 get updated with patches all the time. They've fixed bugs in GTA4 via patches for PS3 and 360, and implemented new features into lots of games, so it is very possible. I agree that on PS2 it's not available but they should fix those bugs before it is released. MsC

I wonder if they'll release one for the console versions, as that would be nice. Still, glad to see they're creating patches for it! MsC

Depends on your beliefs. He went to wherever you believe people go (or don't go) when they die. As for Amanda, I think she looks better in Underworld. She looked odd in Legend to me, like they hadn't quite focused enough polygons on her. I quite like her look in Underworld. The only person I think has dramatically changed is Natla. She's not so thin in the face in Underworld, or in the body. She just looks like an extremely tall human instead of Atlantean God. Don't really know about the travel network light colour. I think it was meant to be white, but the surroundings of the Dais were green so they looked similar. Depends on the colour surrounding it, I guess. MsC

I didn't know that either I started at the bottom and got the pillar rotating, then made my way up; I guess I went the hard way then MsC

He died... He says "See you in Avalon" because to Lara and her team, Avalon is a place where the dead are and where they believe her mother to be, but what they don't know at that time is that Avalon is in Helheim. It's known as a place for the dead since you become 'animated dead' who protect Thor's artefacts when poisoned in the eitr (blue goo). You can only get there using Thor's hammer or the Swords (as far as we know). Hope that helps! MsC

I used the pixel shader as an example, it could be some other feature that was implemented into the 6800, I don't know like more dedicated memory, perhaps 6800 is 256mb, and the ones before are 128mb. I've installed an external graphics card with an integrated card before. All you have to do is remove the drivers of the integrated card and install the drivers of the new card (With the new card attached to your motherboard). The resolution goes wacko and it all looks a bit odd when you have no graphic drivers but it'll be fine after the new ones are installed. You need to look at the requirements for the graphics card on the box before you buy it to see if it's compatible with your motherboard like AGP, PSI, etc, and if your computer has the required RAM, Ghz, etc. However, I don't know a lot about installing graphics cards on Laptops, but I think they're all integrated and there's no slot for a non-integrated one, but double-check that. MsC

It's the sword her mother pulled out when she got sent to 'Avalon'. There are 3 swords as far as I can tell as there were 3 dais (Though there are possibly more, which means more swords.) in Legend. MsC

It's what the graphics card is capable of rather than the series. The 6800 may have pixel shader 3.0 and 6100 may not, or something like that. I agree with Shrensh, integrated cards are always worse than non-integrated ones. However, Underworld is having severe troubles with NVidia cards at the moment and not just the series. Series 7 upwards should be able to run it fine with some of the graphics turned low, but the drivers aren't agreeing with the game (most likely due to Underworld being developed for X360 which I thinkuses an ATI card, so it was probably badly ported). NVidia will either release a patch for it, or CrystalD should though they're blaming NVidia so I doubt it'll get resolved. I'd just wait for the PS2 version and save yourself the hassle. I know it's annoying having to wait when everyone else has it, but at least you know it'll definitely work. MsC

My God, I'm somewhat glad we don't do anything like that in England (Well, in the south west at least). We have late-night shopping, but not many of the shops are open at ridiculous hours, they tend to just stay open until 10pm or midnight, etc every week on Thursday night until after Christmas. I think it starts the second week of November, I can't quite remember, though the day may differ depending on the county. MsC

No, you shouldn't have... I'd double check and see that you've pulled out the ring with the grapple on the left side, and pulled the pole out of the wall on the right and do it again... If you still have no avail, it sounds like a game-stopping bug, and I've heard there are quite a couple of them on the Wii. They have released a patch for the Wii version, which I assume you download online (I don't have a wii), so try and download the patch and see if that works. Hope this helps! MsC

Yes, the extra content (or lack of) was rather disappointing, but I am willing to forgive them on this game considering they built the engine from scratch and it's their first Next-gen game. I know Legend had the features, but they could work on that for a considerable time instead of the yearly schedule they're forced to do by Eidos now....plus Underworld could have done with a couple of extra months really; some of the bugs and rather glitchy animations are there due to rushed work, but I blame Eidos for that, not Crystal...they can be absolute time demons when it comes to Tomb Raider. MsC

I thought the ending was extremely poetic...and it's definitely not the end. And yes, Amelia's face was intentionally half-thrall due to Hel. Hel is the woman who rules over Helheim and is a woman with half a face (You should have seen her picture when Natla was performing the ritual), and I think that's what Nalta meant by delicious irony as it's ironic on so many levels. As for the length..TR:U took me 10 hours to complete compared to 6 for Annivesary and 4 for Legend, so I guess it depends on what you do. And as for the actual ending...well...I dunno, it felt a bit contrived to me...a bit cheap. I wanted to see Natla definitely die, become vaporised, or whatever because in my mind, falling into that blue poison only means she could be still alive....which isn't good in my opinion. The Natla thing should be over now, though I do love how evil she is. As for Amanda, I'm rather happy what they did with her character. She's still angry at Lara even at the end of the game like it would be. No one would forgive someone that quickly, and I'm glad she still wants to kill her; that was a good move to me. This game, to me, felt like a wrap up of the mother plot line, which I think was signified by Lara picking up the paper she drew as a 10 year old at the end. She left it there as a 'Memorial' to her mother, and now that it's over, she can pick it up again and leave with it, as in leaving her mother behind. There's definitely more of Lara to come, and I'm glad it'll be a fresh story! MsC

Happy Thanksgiving Americans! I celebrated mine rather early (last month) as that was when I was with the American side of my family in California, plus I hadn't celebrated it since I was 10 years old so that was nice. Hope everyone has a great day! MsC

Let's face it though, CD really created Anniversary to aid them in making Underworld clearer (With the return of Natla). I don't really see them re-creating another TR unless it furthers the plot in either Legend/Underworld, or a future game. TR2 was my all time favourite, too, and I love it, but I fear a re-make in case they cut some parts which were the best or make it less detailed, like making Venice too short, or combining Bartoli's Hideout with the first level in Venice, the name of which, I cannot remember. Seeing those levels in Next-gen would be fantastic, I agree, but I dunno, it worries me. MsC

Not really, I agree with putting it out of its misery. If you read Lara's journal, she states that it has grown too large to escape from there, so at least its boring torment is over. And he attacked me...numerous times. Mostly when I was near the water though, he kept swiping at me when I was trying to jump over a hole...did anyone else though have a heart attack by accidentely landing in the water? I honestly thought Lara was about to die or get mauled or something....I'm glad he's blind. MsC EDIT: I remember feeling slightly guilty when I actually raised the spike-chandelier...I thought I'd just drop it from that height, but when I saw it go higher and higher...it really looked like it was going to hurt.

Lol! Like I've told BP, I would love to have bought it from you, but there's no way my Laptop will handle it or even probably play it remotely well at the lowest settings. It's a shame that the game isn't all that great, it looked good from videos but after reading what you've written (and what my PS3 mag wrote about it), it seems rather dull after an hour...I don't know yet if I'm prepared to pay the full £50 for it... MsC