It wasn't until after the release of Crystal Dynamic's version of Tomb Raider Anniversary that I found out that Core was working on their own version of Anniversary as well. Well I did some internet sleuthing and found a pretty good section on http://www.planetlara.com that has covered a lot of details on the game Core was working on. What I really found interesting was a post over on the forums that claims to be a Core programmer that worked on the game. Has this so called 80% complete version for the PC ever see the light of day? Perhaps just gibberish spouted by an angry fan but still kind of leaves a little hope to see what Core was cooking up before Eidos pulled the plug and had Crystal Dynamics take over. Here you will find some trailers, animated and cut scene archives of the version of Anniversary that Core was working on before being canceled by Eidos. http://www.planetlara.com/trae/
Looks an intresting game, Wouldn't mind playing it. Shame about how Edios played the dev's like a tool though.
I remember watching the videos for this on youtube a while back and being pretty astonished that this was being developed in parallel, and then cut. It does look very impressive in terms of graphics for a PSP version. There's quite a few videos of various tech demos from the game, such as an attack by a giant spider and development seems to be at an advanced stage. You can't argue that Legend isn't a good game though, and was the reboot the series needed after Core's Angel Of Darkness mess. It makes me wonder whether they're bragging about doing more work than they had done, after all to say they started from scratch on a new engine is a little weak, as it was a modified version of their free running game which started it all off. Contractually though I think Eidos messed up to have development like this.
This thread inspired me to play through through anniversary. I'd played the original back on the saturn many years ago. I've already played Legend and Underworld and found them to be fun, although they felt a more commercial-almost touch of arcade style of Tomb Raider. A friend got me anniversary as a gift, and it's sat there for a couple of months as I cleared my backlog of games. Finally played it, it's ok, but what have they done to the t-rex moment. That defined one of my gaming memories, running through Lost Valley and then the large bang as the saturn struggled to draw the t-rex running towards you. It was great, hiding away in the corner as this beast ran around the level... maybe I'm glorifying it in my mind, but the version in anniversary sucks. It's just a standard boss level like every other game. A load of cack. Oh well. Sorry for interupting this convo... Would love to try the core version to see if that's better. Please leak! ^_^
I wasn't aware that Core had been developing their own version of this game, but I have to say, it really doesn't look much different than the Crystal Dynamics version. The only element I noticed that made me somewhat envious was that Lara holds her guns like in the old games.
It's certainly interesting. I suppose I would have preferred that Core develop the remake of the original, because I still hold their series in much higher regard than the Crystal Dynamics one. I feel that Anniversary didn't stay true to everything that made the original so great. It certainly wasn't a bad game, but Tomb Raider was truly a one of a kind experience. I just felt that, in terms of art direction and all that, the trailer for Core's version doesn't look significantly unique, but I did actually recognize some of the locations as being updated versions of areas from the original, which is more than I can say for CD's game.
I certainly am. I have always loved the Tomb Raider series and although I did enjoy the Crystal Dynamics retail version of Tomb Raider: Anniversary, would definitely like to have this more "faithful" one a try.
