Generation 2 has arrived for Pokémon Go

It’s here!

Generation 2 has arrived for the Pokémon Go smartphone game and already players are going about catching the 80 new Pokémon that are available. Generation 2 showcase the Pokémon from the Johto region in the Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver games and Niantic Games is putting in a few other things for good measure.

The update includes gender-specific variations of the new Pokémon; 2 new types of berries; new hats, shirts, pants, and other items for avatars; as well as Evolution items that are available at PokéStops as some of the Pokémon need these items for evolutions. It’s a big update and I had already seen a Bayleef on a PokéStop.

I’m already behind the curve so why am I still here typing away? See everyone out there! 

ARK: Pokemon

I’m not a fan of survival games. I’m also not a big fan of mods. Yes, I can see why some gamers out there love survival games and why a lot of people spend hours going through numerous mods for fun. I get all that; I’m just not a fan.

However some modders for the game ARK: Survival Evolved really caught my eye when they changed the game with a mod that made perfect sense and actually looked very fun. In ARK: Survival Evolved, you play a man or woman stranded naked, freezing and starving on the shores of a mysterious island called ARK. Then you must hunt, harvest resources, craft items, grow food and even tame dinosaurs. Yes, the island called ARK is one that time had forgotten and ruled by wild dinosaurs.

In a mod called Pokemon Evolved however, a mod team replaced ARK's dinosaurs with…you guessed it; Pokémon! Not only that, there’s actually another mod called ARKMon that does the same thing! In both mods players can tame, fight and in some case even ride the Pokemon.

So for those gamers looking for more Pokemon to catch, ARK: Survival Evolved is a game you might want to check out. Just make sure to add the mods for some extra Pokemon fun.

Standing Stone Games

The biggest MMORPG news that came out over the past few days was the bomb Turbine dropped on players that they had decided to move their flagship game, Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), to a new studio. Turbine is going to spins LOTRO and DDO (Dungeons & Dragons Online) to new studio, Standing Stone Games, and not only that, the publisher will now be Daybreak.

This news came out of the blue. No one, not even long-time players, saw it coming. Already, the forums are filled with worries from players as they wonder about the long-term health of the game. Not helping things is the news that Turbine will no longer be involved in the development of LOTRO and DDO. They will continue on the development of their own products instead. I assumed this means Turbine will concentrate on their recently launched mobile game, Batman: Arkham Underworld.

But guess what; I say let's give Standing Stone Games a chance. I have been playing LOTRO on-and-off for years and while I have no problem with Turbine, if Turbine would rather concentrate on their own products instead of LOTRO and DDO, then it might be a bad thing for LOTRO to be under the development of a new studio.

Already, Standing Stone Games is trying to pacify fans and players by saying that new character model revamps could be coming along with a new (Mordor) expansion of the game. Honestly, I don't really care much about character models but this is a good first step. Let's give the studio a chance and see what happens. Who knows; this might turn out for the best.

Now if only someone could tell me what do I do with all the Turbine points I have?

How NOT To Spend Loot!

What would you do if you managed to steal US$5 million? Buy a house? Buy a car? Bury it somewhere for a rainy day? All possibility I would say. Spent US$1 million on a free-to-play mobile game? No way!

Well, someone did. In a story that’s stranger than fiction, a man in the US plead guilty to embezzling $4.8 million from his employer between 2008 and 2015, and then spending about a fifth of the ill-gotten loot on the mobile F2P title Game of War. I am amazed by this story and I will admit, when I first read it, I thought it was a hoax. I mean…spending one million dollars on a F2P game? That just ridiculous! However, the story does seem to be true. Every site I went to ran the story and almost all of them expressed amazement at it. One even went as far to say, the story is so bad it has to be true. 

Sadly, that's right. How could a guy smart enough to steal US$5 million be so stupid to spend 20% of it on a game he could have played for free? The story has to be true.  

Not Dead Yet

Who says Pokėmon Go is on the wane? Niantic Labs sure didn’t and they got the stats to prove it. Recently, Niantic Labs held their first Pokėmon Go event for Halloween and it was a huge success.

Niantic Labs said that during the 5 days event, players caught 1.3 billion Pokémon with the ghost Pokémon, Gastly, being caught the most. However, most players don’t do the event for the Pokėmon. Most players, like me, were there for the candies!

The event increased Pokémon Candy payouts for every Pokémon caught and even the Professor got into the act, giving Trainers two Candies instead of one for every Pokémon transferred to him. Some players even say the best part of the event was the Buddy Pokémon which award four candies instead of the usual one.

With such rewards, players responded.  So don’t believe the rumours. The death of Pokémon Go has been greatly exaggerated.

More Pokémon On The Way

Of all the Pokémon Go websites out there, the most famous is arguably The Silph Road. With the latest update of Pokémon Go, the people running The Silph Road proves once again why that is the case.  introduces new incentives for playing - and may hint at the arrival of 100 more Pokémon to the game in the near future.

While the latest update was to add in a new rewards system, but has got everyone’s attention is the news that the people from The Silph Road has found a hidden code in the game that appears to be placeholders for the next generation of Pokémon. That’s right; the 100 Pokémon that were introduced to the game in Pokémon Gold and Silver are now on their way to Pokémon Go.

More Pokémon means more walking; more catching; and more fun to be had. In short, more Pokémon is always a good thing. 

Why The Wait?

Ever heard of Batman: Arkham Underworld? No? Well, I’m not surprised. It’s a new mobile game where you aim to become the next criminal mastermind of Gotham. Since this is the city of Batman, you need to recruit various Gotham supervillains to aid you in your conquest.

Sound like a great game right? Well, there’s a problem. I can’t find the game!

Though developer Turbine says the game is available for iOS and Android, I couldn’t find the game on the Android app store. After some serious Googling, I finally found the reason why. Batman: Arkham Underworld is NOT yet available on Android!

It seems the Android release is scheduled only in March 2017 though the game is on iOS for at least 4 months already. This is not the first time this happened. Pokemon Go for example was on Android well before going on iOS. Why is that? 

I know they are different but I always wondered why game companies almost always released a game on one format or console first before releasing it on another. To me, it just never made any sense as you would want as big of a launch as possible right?

Well, I now have to wait 5 months before I can play Batman: Arkham Underworld. Hopefully the game is worth the wait. Better yet, hopefully I can still remember the game exist in 5 months time! Who knows what new hot game would have been released before then. By then, I may just forget the game even existed. 

So What If It's A Rip-Off?

Anyone with Steam will know that game developer Hi-Rez has a new game coming up. The upcoming free-to-play game Paladins is officially in "Open Beta" on Steam and already many gamers are screaming "rip-off"! 

Guess what? They are right. Paladins is a team-based shooter which falls under the sub-genre of "hero-shooters" and is an obvious rip-of of Overwatch. But you know what; who cares? Yes, although I played Overwatch a lot, to me it's to be expected that after the success of Overwatch, other developers would want to jump on the bandwagon. Besides, it could be argued that Overwatch itself was a rip-off of Team Fortress 2. Honestly, I haven't tried Paladin and I may not. If I'm already playing Overwatch, it doesn't make sense for me to play 2 different hero shooter at the same time right? 

Besides, I'm kind of hoping that Paladins fail. If it does, maybe Hi-Rez can finally get back to making Global Agenda 2. Where is my Global Agenda 2? There was to be a Global Agenda 2 and it's still not here yet! 

Pokemon GO

After getting a new HP last week, I’m finally joining the monster mobile named Pokémon Go. After playing it for a few days, I will say this of the game. It’s fun, it’s addictive, but I doubt it’s going to have a long shelf life.

Using a player’s smartphone camera and GPS signal, the game put players in the shoes of Pokémon trainers. Going around the real world, players now can enjoy their childhood dreams of being Pokémon trainer and to become the next Pokémon Champion.

In many ways, Pokémon Go is great. I know many people worry about going to places to catch the Pokémon but I don’t see as a problem here in Singapore. Everyone know where to go and at certain places, there’s no shortage of the little monsters. I started the game at Vivocity, walked to Sentosa, took the tram to Siloso Beach, walked to Fort Silso, U-turn back, and took the tram back to Vivo. By then I was level 8 and my bags was full.

It took me about 2 and a half hours but it’s not that difficult. It’s just a walk. The walking aspect is really the highlight of the game. The world aspect of the game is superb. On Sentosa, I was walking to the tram when I saw 2 girls running across me with HPs in hand. I then checked and noticed a Lapras in the area. I followed the girls to the waterfront and 8-10 Pokéballs later, I got my Lapras. Without those girls, I would probably still be missing the Pokémon.

In many ways, Pokémon Go is the first true mobile MMO where many players play together. No one playing alone in your room. This is a true MMO where you will see players of all ages playing. However after a few days of the game, I could see some problems with the game.

Simply put; there’s not much to do. Take away the walking and catching, there’s really nothing more to the game. The Gym battles is simple and, if you are the attacker, easy. The catching of the Pokémons isn’t that difficult, and well, that’s all there is to the game.

Even for a mobile game, the gameplay is really very sparse. I think the game need a lot more to hold on to the players it currently has. If the game can do that, then the future looks bright. If not, then it will get into problems very quickly. In all, what Pokemon Go lacks in polish and depth, it makes up for with a fascinating social experience. It’s a fun game. Let’s all of us see if it has legs. 

Too Late to The Party?

Embarrassingly, I have to admit I had never really played World of Warcraft (WoW). I know, I know; WoW is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 and had 6 expansions since then. How can I say I never played it?

Well, I played the starter edition before which means my characters are all at the max of level 20 but I never had been a subscriber. It’s a good game but I never had the urge to sub to the game before because I never thought of it as a great one. The latest expansion, Legion, has me seriously reconsidering that.

From what I see online and read almost everywhere, Blizzard seems to have scored big with Legion. Fans loved it and watching clips of the expansion on Youtube, I can see why. However it is a 12 year old game with 6 expansions. The max level is 110!

So, am I too late? Is it too late to get into the game now? What do you think? 

The Pokemon Go Job Opening

I thought it was a joke. When reports came out yesterday that a company, Funzing Singapore, had advertised for the job of a Pokemon Master on its Facebook page, I seriously thought the company was joking.

If it was, it’s a joke a lot of people are taking seriously. The company has been swamped with more than 1,000 applications from all around the world for the job. People from Singapore, Indonesia, The Philippines, Israel, Turkey, Sweden and Brazil had applied for the job which according to Funzing Singapore will involve organizing activities around the game like Pokemon Hunts or Pokemon Walking Tours. The “Master” is also supposed to give tips and bring players to “the next level” of Pokemon Go.

Of course I have to question how that’s possible when the game had only been out for a month worldwide and in Singapore for only a week. Then again it’s a job to play a game, so what’s there not to like? Too bad my HP can’t play the game… 

Pokemon Go Player Finds A Body...In Singapore

Okay, that didn't take long. Pokemon Go was just released in Singapore on Saturday and on Sunday morning, a Pokemon GO player is already in the news. According to reports, Azmi Suarez discovered a body floating near the Woodlands Waterfront Jetty while out playing the mobile game on Sunday (7 August) morning. 

Much like the case in America where a female teenager found a dead body while hunting Pokemon, this was what player Azmi Suarez was doing when he found a female body. The Singapore Police has classified this case as "unnatural case" which in Singapore means the woman could have been murdered. With the game requiring players to go to far out places, I think it's safe to say it is going to be harder and harder for murderers to hide dead bodies in the future. 

All jokes aside, I do hope the Singapore Police find the murderer. 

Studying Thin Air

Pokemon Go hasn’t even been released in Singapore yet and already there has been calls to ban the game in the country. A few days ago, a woman wrote to The Strait Times newspaper asking the Singaporean government to ban the game.

She was widely laughed at.

Then things took a surreal turn when the Singapore Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim told reporters at an event that the government will “study very, very carefully whatever that is brought into Singapore” and "ensure that the game will not harm lifestyles here".

I have to ask; what’s there to study? 

They are trying to study a problem that does not exist. The game hasn’t been released here yet so how can there be a problem for something that does not exist yet! Not only that, it’s not even a potential problem. This game has over 21 million players throughout the world and they want to setup a study on the rare occurrences of people getting hurt playing the game. That is just stupid.

I mean seriously; the game hasn’t even been released yet and they want to study the effects of the game in Singapore? What’s there to study? Thin air? 

Pokémon Go Hell!

Good god, this is getting out of hand.

By now we all know Pokémon Go is a social gaming phenomenon. The game demands players to go to real-life locations to catch Pokémon and going through social media, you can clearly see how much people are into in. Hell, there's a guy in New Zeland who quit his job to go Pokémon Go hunting.

However, it's not till you read the celerity pages that you can have a good idea about how big the game is. It seems famous people are not excluded from the Pokémon Go hype. Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean, Big Aoki, John Mayer and Justin Bieber are all into the game. Hell, John Mayer even share a photo of him (proudly) spending US$99.95 dollars on 14,500 PokéCoins.

So hell; when is this stupid game coming to Singapore?

Pokémon Go

Few games, if any, has threaten the sanity of humans like Pokémon Go. The free app has only been released in 3 countries thus far and already, it is taking the world by storm. Just look on Youtube if you don’t believe me.

The game is basically a real-life version of Pokémon with players needing to walk around in real-life to get to locations where the Pokémon, Pokémon stops and Pokémon Gyms are. Only at these real-life locations would you be able to play the game with the app. 

To the surprise of even game developer Niantic and Nintendo, the game has been downloaded and played so many times, the planned global rollout has been delayed till further notice due to massive demand. So right now the game is only available in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. Not a good thing for an Australian working in Singapore!

Australian gamer Sonny Truyen was so distressed at not being able to play Pokémon Go in Singapore, he went on Facebook to make a viral rant against the country. Once it made the news, his boss fired him. Yes, a guy in Singapore lost his job because of a game that isn’t even available yet in the country.

Imagine what it will be like once the game is actually available! Time to get a new phone! 

Overwatch

I generally do not play shooters. Yes, I had played some of them before. I have the first 2 Borderlands; I have Spec Ops: The Line; I had played some Counter-Strike, but that’s about it. I’m generally a RPG gamer.

However Overwatch isn’t so much a game but an event. Blizzard had delivered the PR campaign of the year to hype up the game and yes, I had been sucked into it. I don’t mind. I don’t mind at all. I don’t mind because Overwatch is a great game. Not just a great first-person shooter, but a great game period!

On the surface, Overwatch seems pretty much like any other shooter out there. It has a simple formula of two teams of six each trying to win a match. Victory conditions change according to the map; escort missions, control of objective points, or capture of positions. However what make Overwatch different are the heroes.

Overwatch has 21 characters called heroes and they are the heart and soul of the game. They are very different from each other. There is the giant gorilla Winston who has high hit points and can put up a circular shield to defend an area. There’s the dwarf engineer Torbjörn who can build an upgradeable defensive turret that shoot any enemy that comes into range. There's Hanzo who is a sniper and has an ultimate basically kill everyone in its path. There's Tracer who can blink from place to place and even reverse her actions to correct mistakes she made seconds earlier.

Now all the 21 heroes are categorized into 4 different areas; attack, defense, tank and support, the trick Blizzard pulls is this; several of the heroes overlap into different areas. Mercy is a strict support character, a healer who can resurrect fallen allies. Zenyatta is also a support character. He can heal but his main ability is actually a debuff that lowers the defense of enemies. He also has long range attacks to take advantage of the debuffs he put on enemies. So you have 2 supports with 2 very different play-styles. Now times that by 21 and you can imagine the sheer number of combinations this game supports.

Not only that, the game is also very charming. The world Overwatch is set in is filled with load of background info and trying to find these Easter Eggs is part of the fun for a lot of fans. The game's highly detailed character design is nothing short of superb. No two characters look alike and many times you can see the intended role of the character just by looking at it.

The gameplay of Overwatch is a hydra that is very impressive. In fact calling it “very impressive” is an understatement as the way the characters, maps and gameplay interact with each other is a lot more than that. No two matches of Overwatch are the same as players can switch characters mid-match according to the ebb and flow of the match. In fact, switching characters is almost necessary, especially in Competitive Mode, to be successful. This actually helps keep the game fresh as players faced situations that can change in a hurry. Simply put; there’s no one single way to play Overwatch. There are many ways to play the game, sometimes even in a single match.

Overwatch is also a very fast-paced game. When I first saw the demo, I was surprised by just how fast it is. I was a little worried at the pace at first but after playing awhile I think the pace might be a good thing for the game. Matches can be quite fast and it is a game I can see players logging in for 30 minutes of fun before logging out. Also Overwatch has been such a phenomenon there will be no shortage of players in the foreseeable future so no problems on that front.

Of course, there are some problems with Overwatch. For the life of me, I can’t understand why there’s no story mode. I can understand no one play a shooter for the story (look at the lack of success of Spec Ops: The Line if you disagree), but the characters and world are just begging for a story mode. The game is literally filled with them, and Blizzard clearly put a lot of effort in the lore of the world, so why not a story mode? That makes no sense to me.

Also, how much you enjoy the game will depend a lot on the players that are on your team. I lost count of the number of matches I lost because certain players on my team went chasing after the enemy for a kill instead of playing the objective. Defending a control point is especially bad when you have such players on your team. They will chase the enemy outnumbered 2vs6, get killed, and then the enemy will roll over the rest of the team 6 on 4. It just pissed me off sometimes.

On the whole however, this is one game I have to recommend. I mean I’m not a shooter guy and I can get into the game so you can just imagine how fun it is. Buy Overwatch; you own it to yourself to play this game! 

Batman Kills!

In an article in IGN, it is stated that Ben Affleck's Batman in the recent Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice had a kill count of 21 which makes it the movie where Batman kills the most.

Every time I read about this, I feel like slapping my forehead with my hand. Guys, get this in your head; Batman kills! Not only that, Batman kills a lot and kills pretty often. In movie, in comics, in video games; Batman killed before.

Guess what people, when you shoot a missile from the Bat-mobile and the car Batman was aiming at explodes...the guy inside will die. That's the normal way of things and most of Batman's villains are ordinary thugs and criminals. Also guess what, Batman is suppose to kill people. When Batman first came out, he carried a gun and just outright shoot the criminals.

So stop making a big deal of Batman killing people. The original version of Batman is much more trigger-happy than any water-down version of Batman we currently have and yes, that includes Ben Affleck's Batman.

Valkyria Chronicles

First developed and published by Sega for the PlayStation 3 in 2008, Valkyria Chronicles made the jump to the PC last year (Nov 2014 to be exact) and after playing it, I have to say it is every bit as good as critics says. Valkyria Chronicles is a turn-based strategy game that’s set in an alternate-reality World War II. However calling it just a turn-based strategy game is to do it a disservice. Valkyria Chronicles also incorporate JRPG and third-person real-time shooter in it.

The campaign is presented in a book format with each new chapter showing a significant moment of the war, and each chapter (bar one) has at least one battle you need to fight through. At the start of the battle, you see a top-down map and you need to deploy your forces. After the deployment phase, the game starts and you are given a fixed number of command points per turn from the perspective of the map. You use a command point to select a unit, and the camera will zoom you in over the shoulder of the unit you selected. You move the unit and there’s a bar at the bottom of the scene showing your movement points. You can’t move once the bar reached zero and enemies will also shoot at you if you get too close. When you aim, enemies stop attacking and you are shown a circle cross-hair to line up. Once the shot is done, you can move if the unit still has some movement points left. Then you use another command point to select another unit. Once out of command points the enemy takes their turn.

If this sounds a little confusing, that’s because it is. It took me awhile to get used to it but once I did, I found the gameplay to have a lot of depth. The unique combat system forces me to learn strategies on a few different levels. The map view makes me a commander, having to constantly think of the movement and positioning of my units. Zooming into a soldier offered a different perspective, a more personal one that shows the danger the unit is it.

The gameplay does not only involve the battles. Outside the battles, you can train and equip your squad members at your Headquarters. You will also need to select the members of your squad. There are about 50 to choose from and each member has his/her personality, including which characters they prefer to work along. Each of them also has a full page of back story that is only revealed as they fight.

However what made the squad system works is the threat of permadeath. If a downed character can’t be evacuated in three turns, they are gone for good. So as the battles piled up, the thoughts of keeping the members of your squad alive becomes paramount. You become attached to them. The developers obviously know this because one of the achievements available is for the permadeath of one of your experienced squad member. Those bastards!

The game is also pretty long (coming in at around 40 hours) and difficult. More than a few of the battles require smart deployment of your squad and smooth movement of them. It is challenging and very satisfying when you beat it.

The story is also very good. The entire game is contained within a fictitious book entitled "On the Gallian Front" by Irene Koller and revolves around Welkin Gunther, son of a war hero. Upon returning to his home town of Bruhl, Welkin's life was soon swept away by the invasion of Gallia from its’ eastern neighbor. Gallia has a policy of Universal Conscription and partly due to his father’s past war heroics, Welkin was drafted and given command of Squad 7 of the Gallian Militia. Serving as a tank commander, Welkin and Squad 7 began their campaign to fight the Imperial advance into Gallia.

It’s a story of war and all the heroics and ugliness that comes with it. You see story characters die in the midst of war, fighting the good fight. Characters who comprised their principals in the name of the greater good. Characters who managed to find love and become better people in the ugliness that surrounds them. I will admit the story is melodramatic and heavy-handed at times, but it does works.

Of course no game is perfect but I can only think of one for Valkyria Chronicles. The control for tanks can be a little twitchy at times.  Moving the camera around sometimes means the tank would turn as well and I could never understand why. However outside that, I can’t really think of anything to complain about.

So don’t wait and get this game. With its’ unique gameplay, strong story and good art, Valkyria Chronicles is a game you need to try. Who knows? If sales are good, then maybe Sega will port Valkyria Chronicles II & III to the PC as well. Buy it! 

Standard & Wild

I have been playing Hearthstone for awhile now and have been having fun doing it. If you don't know what's Hearthstone, it's an online card game from gaming company "Blizzard" (creator of World of Warcraft).

The latest news from Blizzard is that Hearthstone will soon be spilt into get two format; Standard and Wild. The first will only allow players to use cards "released in the current and previous calendar year," as well as Basic and Classic cards which will never rotate out over time. Wild, on the other hand, can include every card ever virtually printed.

The idea for Standard is not new. Magic: The Gathering does the same thing. Banning older cards so that newer cards will see more playtime and to prevent power creep in the game. However I foresee a problem for Blizzard, and it's the same problem faced by Magic: The Gathering. How to keep players playing and buying when the cards they have will no longer be playable in one year? It's what took me away from Magic and now I have to ask myself the same question in Hearthstone. Why should I make the investment to buy cards that I can only play for 1 cycle/year? It just make no financial sense.

Already Blizzard is facing that problem as their website now state they are just "re-evaluating" and "making adjustments" on the older cards. Make all the "adjustments" you want but it still make me ask the same question; why should I buy any card from your online store if I can't use them in a year?

In case anyone is still wondering; yes, I think this is a bad bad idea.

Tomb Raider

I’m not a fan of Tomb Raider. In the long history of Lara Croft and Tomb Raider, I think I had played only 1 of the games (forgotten which one) and seen 1 of the movies (mainly due to the then young and still hot Angelina Jolie). So it’s fair to say I’m not a fan.

This game changed that.  

Tomb Raider is a 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise showing a young, green and inexperienced Lara Croft in her first adventure. For that reason, it has been dubbed Tomb Raider: Year 1 by many fans. In many ways, Tomb Raider: Year 1 is correct.

The game begins with Lara setting out on her first expedition aboard the ship Endurance, with the intention of finding the lost kingdom of Yamatai. Against the advice of others, she ordered the expedition to venture into the Dragon's Triangle, an area east of Japan known for its violent storms. The ship was struck by a violent storm and shipwrecked, leaving the survivors stranded on an isolated island.

Lara was one of the survivors and as she tried to locate the other survivors of her ship, she found evidence that the island was inhabited. Strange carvings, dead bodies, animal sacrifices, cultists all proved to her that the island had been inhabited for a long time and that the island she washed up on was the legendary island of Yamatai. Not only that, she became convinced that there was something mystical about the island.

However the story of Tomb Raider takes a backseat to the gameplay and the characterization of Lara. The game emphasized the origins of Lara, showing her development to become the character everyone knows and love. Many people say this was the highlight of the game and I fully agree on that. After playing the game, I finally get it. I finally understand why so many people love Lara Croft so much. Like I said earlier, this game made me a fan.

I especially liked the fact that this Lara Croft was one who bleeds and gets dirty. Good use of cut-scenes shows Lara hurt, injured and desperate. Even when you were in-game playing Lara, you could see the dirt on her and that by itself makes this game better than previous Tomb Raider games.  The game also made sure to show that Lara is no saint. She makes mistakes and has a tendency to believe she knows better than everyone, even when she acknowledges that others were more experience than she was.

Not only that, the gameplay was excellent. The visual of Yamatai was great and the game itself was exciting. Many times during combat, I found myself holding my breath. Some of the puzzles and hidden tomb locations were also very well done.

Of course the game was not perfect. The multiplayer was non-existent because…well, no one’s there. A lot of the achievements in the game are in the multiplayer so if you are one of those who aims for 100% completion; sorry but you’re out of luck.

Also, Lara Croft was emphasized so much in the game the rest of the cast became pretty forgettable. Most of them could be easily be put into generic tropes like dead mentor, insane bad-guy, lovelorn potential boyfriend etc. Tomb Raider was about Lara Croft, Lara is the Tomb Raider. Everyone else was a secondary character that weren't worth remembering.

Overall, Tomb Raider is a game I would highly recommend. It’s an exciting action-adventure game that would not only please old fans of Lara Croft but also bring new fans to the franchise. Bring forth the sequel; Rise of the Tomb Raider!