TOMB RAIDER UNDERWORLD EXCLUSIVE
Copyright 2007 www.tombraiderchronicles.com

[ December 13th 2007 ]

PLAY magazine has scored an exclusive unveiling of Tomb Raider Underworld, Lara Croft's third adventure under the aegis of U.S. developer Crystal Dynamics. The issue features a world-exclusive including screenshots and an interview with Eric Lindstrom and can be purchased online and downloaded right now.

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.

The game has been tentatively pencilled in for a 2008 release and is expected to court Xbox 360, Sony PS3 and Windows PC. Stay tuned for more info and be sure to check out our Tomb Raider Underworld microsite.