Conan O'Brien Loses It Over Lara

[FEichinger]

Okay, the first few he did I found really distasteful and annoying ... But now he's getting actually ... funny, you know?

 

[RobDaBank]

I'm not quite sure what I just read.

Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone. I honestly thought the article would have given us some actual information, and if you need the video to understand it, then why bother writing anything and let the video say it all for you.

I'm not trying to get on at anybody, but this has been the biggest let down since I joined the escapist...

 

[grey_space]

'The uploader has not made this video available in your country'


Arragghh!

What's your problem with Ireland youtube!!!!????

 

[synobal]

Some of the deaths in this game seem a bit I dunno like torture porn.

 

[Chris Batson]

Conan, Andrew, and the audience basically had the same reaction as me when I saw that "spike through the head" death a couple of weeks ago. Almost TOO brutal for my tastes.

Yeah, I usually don't care at all about game violence, but that seemed unnecessary. Like, things in ultra-violent games like MadWorld, Manhunt, Postal, etc. aren't an issue for me, yet that made me uncomfortable. I really have to wonder who thought that was a good idea and why the rest of the dev team listened to them.

Exactly! The aesthetic of those environments makes me feel that the graphic violence is justified, if not necessarily "easy" to watch. In this instance though, it just seems - like you said - unnecessary and out of tone with the rest of the game.

I know from the promotional material that the development team wanted to make the world of Tomb Raider more realistic with an emphasis on danger, but this looks downright exploitative. I mean they have her struggle for a few seconds after she gets impaled! Too harsh of a "punishment" for an inexperienced college student.

 

[Chris Batson]

Conan, Andrew, and the audience basically had the same reaction as me when I saw that "spike through the head" death a couple of weeks ago. Almost TOO brutal for my tastes.

Yeah, I usually don't care at all about game violence, but that seemed unnecessary. Like, things in ultra-violent games like MadWorld, Manhunt, Postal, etc. aren't an issue for me, yet that made me uncomfortable. I really have to wonder who thought that was a good idea and why the rest of the dev team listened to them.

Mr. let's have it look like Lara is about to get raped had a more violent but less rapey brother on the dev team?

You know what? I hadn't thought of that before, but it makes a certain amount of sense.

 

[JeanLuc761]

Conan, Andrew, and the audience basically had the same reaction as me when I saw that "spike through the head" death a couple of weeks ago. Almost TOO brutal for my tastes.

Yeah, I usually don't care at all about game violence, but that seemed unnecessary. Like, things in ultra-violent games like MadWorld, Manhunt, Postal, etc. aren't an issue for me, yet that made me uncomfortable. I really have to wonder who thought that was a good idea and why the rest of the dev team listened to them.

Exactly! The aesthetic of those environments makes me feel that the graphic violence is justified, if not necessarily "easy" to watch. In this instance though, it just seems - like you said - unnecessary and out of tone with the rest of the game.

I know from the promotional material that the development team wanted to make the world of Tomb Raider more realistic with an emphasis on danger, but this looks downright exploitative. I mean they have her struggle for a few seconds after she gets impaled! Too harsh of a "punishment" for an inexperienced college student.

Well, one could make the argument that the phenomenally brutal deaths in the Dead Space series is too harsh of a punishment for an engineer, but I don't remember there being much of a backlash to those.

 

[drisky]

Conan, Andrew, and the audience basically had the same reaction as me when I saw that "spike through the head" death a couple of weeks ago. Almost TOO brutal for my tastes.

It's certainly disturbing but I think that is to its advantige. The gore is happening to your character rather than being given out by you like in say god of war, so its a punishment rather then a reward. I remember in Resident Evil 4 the only thing that kept the tension was knowing that if I lost I would have to watch a really gorey death. Its a more effective punishment then all most any thing else and puts the fear of death in me I don't get form other games. I don't like that kind of violence but that is exactly the point, thats at least how I see it.

 

[Jack Rascal]

Damn, that was pretty funny! I've seen a few of these, but I think this was the best. I wonder why I had no issues watching the video, being Europe and all that.

"look at this, she found a handbag and now she's distracted" I laughed a little too much at that.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Looks like Lara isn't ridding herself of the view that she's nothing but a shallow sex symbol any time soon. Not in Conan's eyes at any rate.

You Americans sound really awkward when you say Lara. Conan's pronunciation of La-Ra seems to be the problem, he should try Lar-Rar.

 

[Woodsey]

No, her name is Lara.

You crazy Americans and your naming conventions.

It's Craig! Pronounced 'Crayg', not 'Creg'

[HEADING=1]RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE![/HEADING]

Ironically, she was named Lara instead of Laura because Americans had trouble (or the original designers figured Americans had trouble) pronouncing Laura as Laura, and not Lara.

And yeah, the Craig/Creg thing drives me fucking insane. For the longest time watching South Park I figured it was a different name that hadn't picked up over here.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Conan, Andrew, and the audience basically had the same reaction as me when I saw that "spike through the head" death a couple of weeks ago. Almost TOO brutal for my tastes.

Yeah, I usually don't care at all about game violence, but that seemed unnecessary. Like, things in ultra-violent games like MadWorld, Manhunt, Postal, etc. aren't an issue for me, yet that made me uncomfortable. I really have to wonder who thought that was a good idea and why the rest of the dev team listened to them.

Exactly! The aesthetic of those environments makes me feel that the graphic violence is justified, if not necessarily "easy" to watch. In this instance though, it just seems - like you said - unnecessary and out of tone with the rest of the game.

I know from the promotional material that the development team wanted to make the world of Tomb Raider more realistic with an emphasis on danger, but this looks downright exploitative. I mean they have her struggle for a few seconds after she gets impaled! Too harsh of a "punishment" for an inexperienced college student.

As opposed to saying Isaac's many, many, many, brutal and horrible deaths are too harsh of a 'punishment' for an Engineer?

I don't understand. This sort of brutal quote-unquote "unnecessary" approach to dying in games has been done for ages anyway. So why start complaining about it now? Is it because that was 'out-of-place'? I didn't think it was.

 

[Lieju]

Although somehow I already hear people will complain about how for some reason Lara dying is going to be offensive and should be removed. I'm sorry but I remember that people wanted their games and women to be as realistic as possible and ya know what? People die in very gruesome ways and you don't get to complain when a developer gives you a realistic character and makes said character die the same way as you see extras die in movies where you don't even bat an eye or how you kill enemies in video games for the past decade.

Only if they wouldn't be disturbed if she was a man.
I personally don't care for the violent death-animations, it just doesn't interest me, and often they just look silly.
Unless they're very stylisized and over-the-top, and there's a lot of variety.
But in a game like this? I don't much care for them. At their worst they might look silly.

Well, one could make the argument that the phenomenally brutal deaths in the Dead Space series is too harsh of a punishment for an engineer, but I don't remember there being much of a backlash to those.

Undoubtedly that Isaac is a man is a part of it, but there's also the fact that Tomb Raider is an established franchise, so people already know Lara. While Dead Space established from the start that it was a game with a lot of gore, and people who bought it were prepared for it.

As for violence against women in video-games, violence against female characters is fine.

UNLESS it's exploitative and sexualised. That was the main complaint against the Hitman nuns,
and the fears for the Tomb Raider-thing (especially after the comments about 'protecting ' Lara). I haven't played the latter yet, but it seems those fears were unfounded.

I'm sure some people feel uncomfortable because they aren't as used to seeing violence like this towards women, but maybe this is a good opportunity to reflect on why you aren't as disturbed seeing such things happen to men, and how used you are to violence in media.

 

[m19]

Looks like Lara isn't ridding herself of the view that she's nothing but a shallow sex symbol any time soon. Not in Conan's eyes at any rate.

You realize he is joking and exaggerating everything?

But there is nothing wrong with being a sex symbol in a tasteful manner.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Looks like Lara isn't ridding herself of the view that she's nothing but a shallow sex symbol any time soon. Not in Conan's eyes at any rate.

You realize he is joking and exaggerating everything?

But there is nothing wrong with being a sex symbol in a tasteful manner.

Don't worry, I was being sarcastic. It's not like I'd trust a Conan O'Brien "review" of a game!

 

[Lieju]

Looks like Lara isn't ridding herself of the view that she's nothing but a shallow sex symbol any time soon. Not in Conan's eyes at any rate.

You realize he is joking and exaggerating everything?

And making fun of the men's reactions to her.

 

[Stu35]

It's Craig! Pronounced 'Crayg', not 'Creg'

I don't think that this gets enough attention. I'm not 100% sure WHY it angers me so much that Americans insist on pronouncing it wrong, but it makes me want to punch them all in the face.


Oh, and on topic I suppose... Not played a Tomb Raider since 2. Probably not going to start up again now. I got bored of the 2nd one many many years ago because I sucked at it and struggled to get past, like, the 4th level, kinda got me off the whole 3D platforming/puzzling genre to be honest.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Now what I remember from the Original Tomb Raider... apart from killing a T-Rex with pistols?

Jumping from a great height and breaking Lara's neck.
This is nothing new.