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Toby Gard Joins 'Tomb Raider' Developers Crystal Dynamics

Posted by Judy on Thursday, August 05 @ 16:14:04 PDT

Eidos has sent out a small update regarding Tomb Raider : "I wanted to give you all the heads up that Toby Gard has joined Crystal Dynamics as one of the senior designers on the Tomb Raider team. Toby will complement the existing talented team creating the next Tomb Raider title. As the creator of the Lara Croft character, he brings a unique perspective to the development process. The Tomb Raider team is drawing upon a great deal of research, consumer and editorial feedback, and game development talent to build a title they'll be proud of...and one you'll want to play."

 

[Santo]

Let's face it, even with the creator of the original there's no hope for the series with soo many better adventure games out there.

 

[demon]

 

[BuddyC]

You weak, weak man.

 

[Ranger X]

He the guy behind the PS1's Tomb Raider? --- he didn't manage to save the serie after a couple of installment so.... WTF HE'S DOING THERE FOR THE NEXT TR?????????????????


Guys, create a Tomb Raider installment with controls ala Prince of Persia SOT and give me big fat large environnements to explore until death and you're in for me.

 

[BuddyC]

He the guy behind the PS1's Tomb Raider? --- he didn't manage to save the serie after a couple of installment so.... WTF HE'S DOING THERE FOR THE NEXT TR?????????????????

Becuase he left after Tomb Raider 1. He didn't want to rush Tomb Raider 2 along like the stockholders demanded, so he up and left.

 

[Ranger X]

tks for the info dude.


Well, Tomb Raider had gone bad at the third installment to me. Second was the best.
I hope Crystal Dynamics can revive this game somehow.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

If they can make a Tomb Raider 1/2 as good as Prince of Persia, I'll burn every video game I own.

 

[MassiveAttack]

I expect Toby was getting a little tired of living off beans, toast and tea for the last 7 years and finally decided it was time to earn a living.

He's a nice, odd little guy and I wish him the best. CD needs all the help it can possibly get.

 

[belgurdo]

Fix the controls, make the level design better, and for God's sakes, update Lara's character design. Why does she still look like an in-battle FFVII character?

 

[johnjohnson]

This are great news! If TR7 becomes something like Galleon with modern tecnics the game is going to rule in its genre.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Fix the controls, make the level design better, and for God's sakes, update Lara's character design. Why does she still look like an in-battle FFVII character?

I thought Lara's AoD model was pretty good:

 

[john tv]

Does this really mean anything? Sounds like a publicity stunt more than anything else. As if one person is going to make that much of a difference on a game that's already been in development for ages.

That said, I am excited to see what CD can do with Tomb Raider after all these years of it sucking total ass at the hands of Core. Should be interesting. Would be even more interesting to see how it would benefit from an EA buyout of Eidos, though if EA keeps buying everyone up, there's not going to be any competition left and the industry's gonna crash and burn...

OK, I'm just rambling now!

 

[Prince of Space]

She did NOT look that good in the final game.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Her cutscene model did, her in game model looked pretty similar:

 

[Ranger X]

If the next Tomb Raider sucks again, Crystal Dynamic is better be at making me a new grwat installment of Gex or try to do another good Kain and/or Raziel game like Soul Reaver was...

 

[Alcibiades]

is that the PC or PS2 version, the jaggies don't seem too bad on her arms, but they are really obvious in her hair...

edit: was talking about the first pic (i guess it's a cutscene or something)...

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

I really believe that AoD's character look was inteded to keep in form of the previous games. Lara had always been a "digital diva" and they wanted her to remain so. I think that's the main reason why she doesn't look any more human than the old CG renders.

And while they're stealing everything else from Prince for this new TR, as they should, they'll likely take heart that Prince had a stylized character design too.

 

[SolidSnakex]

And while they're stealing everything else from Prince for this new TR, as they should, they'll likely take heart that Prince had a stylized character design too.

Well they had to change his design to make him more appealing. Lara's the most famous female videogame character ever so her design really doesn't need to be changed. You recognize it right away for better or worse. I wouldn't mind them making her look a bit more realistic facially though.

 

[Gribbix]

Well the good news is that the controls have definately been changed. That was confirmed by Eidos' CEO in an interview around the same time that Eidos acquired Io Interactive. I haven't played a TR game since the second one but I'm going to give this one a try. Hopefully it won't dissapoint.

 

[D2M15]

Does this really mean anything?

Well, he's possibly the person who cares most about the game, and more importantly the character - and has been constantly, comprehensively horrified with how each successive sequel failed to realise almost all of the aspects that made the original such an important game. So yeah, I think he could make a difference, if Crystal Dynamics are prepared to let him make a difference.

Otherwise I expect it'll be CD's usual block puzzles by numbers*, which I suppose would at least be a different kind of insult to everything that made Tomb Raider matter.

* Whiplash, of course, excepted

 

[Teddman]

I think this is good news and that Gard's presence could make a difference, along with a new developer in Crystal Dynamics.

I believe he worked on both Tomb Raider 1 & 2, didn't he? The good ones in the series...

EDIT: Looks like he did leave after the first game.

 

[BenT]

Great news. Galleon turned out cool.

 

[evilromero]

On a related note: I hate how Lara Croft is still considered an "icon" of the video game world. This shit needs to be cleared up. I think I prefer icons from good games. When will the media realize Tomb Raider sucks some serious ass and discover gamers really don't enjoy the titles.

Also, I didn't play Tomb Raider till after I played through Mario 64, so any hope the game had with me was lost. I never understood why anyone could actually appreciate the semi-truck controls.

 

[SolidSnakex]

You can deny it all you want, but TR was and still is a great game. Lots of great exploration in that game. The series has never really recaptured that though, os hopefully Gard can bring it back since that's the only one he's worked on. I don't really see the big deal with Lara being considered a gaming icon either.

 

[Teddman]

Also, I didn't play Tomb Raider till after I played through Mario 64, so any hope the game had with me was lost. I never understood why anyone could actually appreciate the semi-truck controls.

I played TR after Mario 64 too, but after some initial trouble with the controls I adjusted and it slowly dawned on me what a great game it really was. Tomb Raider drew a lot of comparisons with Mario 64 back then, because they were both the first 3rd person fully 3D action games of their type on a console, but the feel and gameplay was very different.

I still think TR 1 & 2 are classic, and Lara Croft does somewhat deserve to be an icon because she was one of the first female protagonists of a video game, which started a trend (not counting Samus).

 

[Baron Aloha]

Good news IMO.

I enjoyed the first TR game.

IMO:

TR1 >>>> TR3 >> AOD >> TR4 >TR5 >>>>>>>>>>> TR2

 

[Lord Error]

She did NOT look that good in the final game.

She did look just like that. Whole game looked pretty damn great actually. That's one thing that was not it's problem.

 

[Deg]

Let's face it, even with the creator of the original there's no hope for the series with soo many better adventure games out there.

Its all over for this series. Amazing its had so many installments.

 

[Shiggy]

And what happens with his software studio, that Galleon developed?

 

[bishoptl]

Confounding Factor? They went belly up.

 

[dark10x]

She did look just like that. Whole game looked pretty damn great actually. That's one thing that was not it's problem.

Yep, most people haven't really played far enough in the game to realize that it is one of the best looking titles on the PS2. Very impressive visuals.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Yep, most people haven't really played far enough in the game to realize that it is one of the best looking titles on the PS2. Very impressive visuals.

I'd hope there'd be a way they can use the AoD engine with the new TR. Just clean up some of the bugs it had and it still looks good today. CD creates some nice engines, but they don't look as good as AoD.

 

[Ghost]

If he can bring some of the stuff he learned from galleon, and not take another 7 years to do it...Tomb Raider might get back ont he right track.

 

[User 406]

Considering I enjoyed all of the first four Tomb Raider games, Gard being involved doesn't really mean much as far as I'm concerned. However, there's one glimmer of hope in that usually when original development team members come back to revitalize an old series, they try to go back to its roots. So maybe this time we'll get more fucking TOMBS, and no more of this half-assed stealth through high tech compounds crap. And I also hope that the original feel of the puzzle platforming remains intact. Otherwise, forget it.