5 ms·
I have absolute no interest in any of the new Tomb Raider games nor the franchise in general other than as a retro curio, but that decision seems little more co
by Apocryphon 3y ago
I have absolute no interest in any of the new Tomb Raider games nor the franchise in general other than as a retro curio, but that decision seems little more controversial than say, recasting James Bond.
It’s far from the only case of developers doubling down on a rebooted character redesign. Kratos didn’t get a physical image shift but isn’t he like a responsible dad now or something?
- cubefox 3y agoBond had to be recasted, there was no physical way around it. But recasting Lara Croft is as unnecessary as recasting Homer Simpson.
- neffo 3y agoThe character is mo-capped, you can't really maintain that consistency (which tbh, which I'm not sure existed to begin with) if you want to minimise jank in the character's facial animations.
- Apocryphon 3y agoLara has always been a weirdly uncanny valley character who existed in the coming of 3D graphics but is less realistic than say, Cloud and other Final Fantasy characters who actually have 2D renderings with realistic proportions. Just her face is sort of oval and unreal.
- cubefox 3y agoHer face has actually a rather simple comic style. See e.g. here: https://www.dsogaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Tomb-Raider-classic-1038x576.jpg https://www.dsogaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Tomb-Ra... I think actually using cell shading could suit her rather well. Similar to how it is done in recent Zelda games. The "unreal" look comes from combining her simple face with realistic lighting of a normal render.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoCompare how Homer looks now to how he looked in season 1.
- bboygravity 3y agoRecasting Lara Croft is more like recasting Duke Nukem into a skinny woke guy. Makes no sense IMO.
- Apocryphon 3y agoGiven how DNF has seemingly sank that franchise, don’t give them any ideas!
- pavlov 3y agoThe article touches on this topic. Why should Lara Croft be changed towards a more realistic female shape when pseudo-Schwarzeneggers abound in games? ’On the other hand, the same male gamers had for years been seeing images of almost equally unattainable masculine perfection on their screens, all bulging biceps and chiseled abs. How was this different? Many sensed that it was different, somehow, but few could articulate why. Michelle Goulet of the website Game Girlz perhaps said it best: Lara was “the man’s ideal image of a girl, not a girl’s ideal image of a girl.” The inverse was not true of all those warrior hunks: they were “based on the body image that is ideal to a lot of guys, not girls. They are nowhere near my ideal man.” The male gaze, that is to say, was the arbiter in both cases.’
- FredPret 3y agoNowadays there are more women in gaming, but when Lara Croft first appeared, it would have been odd to expect anything but a male gaze from a popluation of nearly 100% male developers and customers.