PLAY magazine scores Tomb Raider: Underworld world exclusi..

PLAY magazine has scored the exclusive unveiling of Tomb Raider: Underworld,
Lara Croft's third adventure under development by U.S. game developer
Crystal Dynamics.

The January 2008 issue features a world-exclusive including screenshots and
an interview with Eric Lindstrom and can be purchased online and downloaded
directly.

According to PLAY, "Lara's adventure takes place after the events of Tomb
Raider: Legend. Her adventure will be a thrill ride for anyone new to the
franchise. The emphasis is on bringing Lara's world to life, a lush, vast
interactive world that reacts and remembers. It's pure woman versus wild."

Commenting on one of Lara's locations, PLAY says, "In the level where Lara
explores Southern Mexico, she leaves footprints in the mud, but it's raining
so they wash away. The bodies she leaves behind in combat encounters will
stay, however, as will the debris from any destruction she causes."

On an immersive and epic environment and weather system, Eric Lindstrom
says, "We developed a hybrid lighting model that combines dynamic lights
with carefully created light maps to make our world look stunning in ways
that none of the available methods could achieve alone."

Crystal Dynamics have also given Lara full motion capture "to bring a more
natural fluidity to her movements, with proper weight and secondary motion."
Moreover, when Lara kneels on a muddy outcrop, only her knee will be covered
in dirt and this will gradually dissipate as she continues on her journey.

Tomb Raider: Underworld (Tomb Raider has been targeted for a 2008 release
and is expected to be released on Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation3 and
Windows PC. More information to come in the near future.

Source: www.tombnews.com | newspage:
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