Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - Legend

1001 Video Games

The Xbox 360 version of Tomb Raider Legend appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Controversy

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend got its own Nipplegate scandal when someone ripped textures from the game prior to the US release, unveiling a complete nipple. It was used as a texture for some female dancers in the Tokyo level, as initially the animators use a naked model to drape dresses around them later. In fact, the texture is not even mapped to any points in the meshes, meaning that it is impossible to see it in-game. However, Eidos wanted to avoid a Hot Coffee scandal, so it has been removed from the US release, and on the day of the European release, a Windows patch was released with a replacement texture, even though that is not mentioned in the patch notes.

Next Gen mode

Although the Next Gen mode for the PC version makes Lara and the environment look much better, it omits a few effects seen in the normal mode. For example when Lara gets out of the water in the latter mode, her skin is wet and water is dripping from it. In Next Gen mode however, this effect is missing. Also in certain levels (e.g. Japan) some of the Neon Lights are disabled in Next Gen mode. Several of these issues were fixed in later patches.

References

The guys at Crystal Dynamics seem to have fond memories of their Legacy of Kain series: out of the gazillion possible secrets to unlock in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend, there is the possibility to wield Kain's legendary Soul Reaver. All time trials should be beaten to get it though, and it's not that good a weapon either.

Awards

• GameSpy
  • 2006 – Best Rise from the Ashes of the Year (PS2)(
• PC Powerplay (Germany)
  • Issue 02/2007 – Best Comeback in 2006 (after the disappointing previous installments)

Information also contributed by Dr. M. "Schadenfreude" Von Katze and Karthik KANE.