Signed, Sealed And Dated

So it falls upon me to divulge a bunch of new dates for multiple games, packs, and so on. Thankfully this was a great week for finding out some high profile release dates, as well as some that people have been itching to get their hands on. But we might as well as start off with the release we've got the most deets on; Tomb Raider: Underworld for the PS2.

Europe

UK, Italy, BeNeLux - 23rd January
Scandinavia - 26th January
France, Germany, Spain - 30th January

US

Everywhere - Early March (we'll update you guys when we know more.)

But that's not where all this Tomb Raidery goodness stops, oh no, we've got something more. You know the two new chapters that's coming up for the Xbox 360 as DLC, Beneath the Ashes and Lara's Shadow? Well, here's a sneak preview of what they're working on, deduce from it what you will!


The release date for the first chapter, Beneath the Ashes is February 10th, and alongside it comes six new outfits and 125 points worth of achievements. The next chapter, Lara's Shadow, will come a month later on March 10th. Warning: both will bring new awesome places to raid, (possibly tombs.)

Now as you may have known, other dates have cropped up over the Internet, but here's the ones that we'll be keeping our eye on (coz they're for Europe!).

Flower (PSN) - February 12th 2009
[Edit (Octopus)] Nobi Nobi Boy - February 19th 2009
Killzone 2 (PS3) - February 27th 2009
Red Alert (PS3) - March 2009
Fat Princess (PSN) - March 2009
I Am Alive (PS3) - April 2009

Jeez. I'm going to love the next two months.

-AW

Eurogamer Expo: Tomb Raider Underworld

It’s been five years now since the disastrous Angel of Darkness completely ruined the Tomb Raider franchise. Since then, the series was wrenched from the cold dead hands of Core Design and handed over to new studio Crystal Dynamics for Tom Raider: Legend. After a back-tracking interlude in the form of Anniversary (a remake of the very first game in the series), Crystal Dynamics is back with the follow-up to Legend, Underworld, which sees Lara jetsetting around the world to do the normal saving-the-world thing.

 

Although I didn’t get spend much time with the newest entry in the series, I was able to get a bit of a feel for the game. My playtime began with Lara jumping off a boat into some sea somewhere, at which point I decided it would be fun to try out the new underwater elements. The underwater shooting is a bit strange, as the game appears to have no concept of tides, and therefore there is no noticeable difference between normal and underwater shooting other than the fact that you’re mostly on your front, not your feet. Also, the new twin-aim system takes a bit of time to get used to.*

 

 

Luckily, the climbing, jumping and acrobatics are as amazing as ever. After climbing up a sheer cliff-face, making ridiculous stretches from one rock to another, then shimmying along a ledge and jumping about a bit, I realised that Lara is too late. A year too late, in fact. Because, you see, bar the camera that seems to always pick the best angle to show off Lara’s derriere whilst climbing, this is all very much what we saw in last year’s Uncharted.

I’m not going to review Uncharted here (that’s for the Wanderer to do in a bit), but there are definite and absolute similarities that range from the increased importance of gunplay, to the new much greener setting. Having said that, taking Underworld as a game by itself and it looks to be a successful continuation of the series that Legend rebooted, and here’s hoping for a demo before the game’s release on November 21st.