The Lara Croft Redesign

[HellbirdIV]

Boobs are too small. There, I said it D:

Looks kinda like Zoey from L4D, to be honest. So I dunno.

 

[DaMullet]

Hmm, I never played much Lara Croft to be honest, but... to me this look like Lara Croft who took a few punches to the face - I don't quite get what the 'zomg! redesign!' thing is about.

Aside from the busted lips/nose/forehead... what exactly is so different from the 'old' Lara Croft? Is the fact that she's anatomically correct and not wearing short-shorts that big of a deal?

If you put all the different Lara's in a line, this new design would the one that doesn't look anything like the others.

She has no ass.

She has no chest.

She barely has any hips.

If it weren't for the lips, you'd have a hard time telling it was a woman and not just a very lean man.

She has no self-confidence. She doesn't look determined or prepared or in charge of anything, much less being a hot, smart, ass-kicker. She looks like she's just ready to go back and cry in her dorm room over a cup of express-o , not like she's ready to goo retrieve the most valuable treasures the world has ever known.

Hell, though we obviously don't have the game yet, I'd put this up there with the level of character destruction that went on in Metroid: Other M.

At least Samus still looked like a woman.

I mean, what kind of message are the giving to women? In order to be a hero you need to look like/be a guy?

Hey, while we're on this track let's do some other 'realistic' improvements to some characters.

Take the shades off of Duke Nukem, because no one where shades in dark areas
Cut Dante's hair and dye it black because guys don't want old grey hair!
Have Mario suffer a concussion every time he hits a block

Ugh....

Seriously... if I wanted realism I would GO OUT SIDE!! Plenty of 'realism' there!

 

[Vrex360]

I like this look, it's tough and strong and she looks notably female and feminine without being exaggerated. I think it's good, much more mature I think.
That said, I think Extra Credits have a point, Lara has been gaming's biggest sex symbol for so long, it seems kind of strange to try to change her looks now at such a late stage. But still, in this instance, I definetly prefer 'New Lara' to 'Lara Classic' as these things go.

That said, I've never actually played any Tomb Raider games, so my opinion on this whole matter could be invalid anyway, who knows.

 

[Helios_(DEL)]

So many of you may know my opinion on the new Lara Croft "design". Which for those still unaware, goes a little something like this......

While re-reading my Tomb Raider issue of Game Informer today, I a though occured to me. My mother loves Tomb Raider - she has beaten every single one multiple times, except for the ones on the 360 (because I own the only 360 in the house). She still plays some of the older ones on PC to this day. And I wondered what she, a long time Tomb Raider and Lara Croft fan would think of the design.

So I took my magazine and showed her the cover with the mug-shot of Lara on it (which has no Tomb Raider related give-aways on it) and asked her what she thought of it, and who she thought it was.

She didn't know. I then turned and flipped to the full-body shot in the magazine, taking care to cover her name and the paragraph title. I asked again. She still didn't know. Then I showed her the the title of the article, and that is was Lara Croft she had been looking at.
man it looks like a more realistic take of lara and a downsize in boobage it looks fine
Her first response was "That doesn't look anything like Lara Croft at all. It looks like a completely different character from a completely different game."

Her next response was "Why does she look like that?" to which I gave the gave the answer of the game is supposed to be a sort of re-start for the series, and that they wanted to make her look more "grounded" and "realistic".

"But she isn't supposed to be "realistic". She is supposed to be a fearless, beautiful treasure hunter who goes anywhere and does pretty much anything. This Lara looks like a random, average college student who looks like she'd shit herself at the sight of a large dog, much less having to fight a pack of wolves moments into her first adventure. If they're trying to "fix" the series, why would they mess with the part that really never had anything "wrong" with it?"

I shrugged; I don't have an answer to that. Of course the point was driven even further home when after I shrugged she added "And I'm not going to lie; from that mugshot, if it wasn't for the lips, you wouldn't be able to tell if that was a man or a woman. Lara always had way more feminine features than that."

Its just one example, but I think it makes the point pretty clearly; when someone who loves the games and has played pretty much on releases ever since they came out cannot recognize the main character on sight, but rather has to be told and shown who it is, you've gone too far. For all intents on purposes, it might as well be a different character.

And they don't even have the same out that the new Devil May Cry Dante does, in that the "new" Dante will wind up looking more like the "old" Dante by the end of the new game, since its supposed to explain how he wound up like that.

Unless Lara gets some serious plastic surgery, "new" ain't looking like "old" ever again.

 

[Firia]

Of course the point was driven even further home when after I shrugged she added "And I'm not going to lie; from that mugshot, if it wasn't for the lips, you wouldn't be able to tell if that was a man or a woman. Lara always had way more feminine features than that."

Its just one example, but I think it makes the point pretty clearly; when someone who loves the games and has played pretty much on releases ever since they came out cannot recognize the main character on sight, but rather has to be told and shown who it is, you've gone too far. For all intents on purposes, it might as well be a different character.


Unless Lara gets some serious plastic surgery, "new" ain't looking like "old" ever again.

I think looks are exactly why the redesign are going the way they are. The company knows the way Lara has been marketed, and how that marketing has effected the industry and women in and around that industry. They're going for an over haul of that image, and the first look we have is her physical features.

New Lara is not Old Lara. I support what the folks out at... Eideos I think it is, I support what they're trying to do. Even though Lara is supposed to be a brazen fearless woman that stands up to hidden dangers, past marketing has also turned her into a sex idol. This is a step away from that, and I can support that.

I'm a tomboy lesbian, and this new Lara is actually a character ~I~ feel excited about. I played Tomb Raider 1 and 2 on the ps1, and I was thrilled with the initial strong woman. But then her boobs kept getting bigger, and her sex getting louder (in a manner of speaking). Now, someone at Eideos noticed that, and realized that despite all intentions, she isn't those positive things. Just a play idol of the sex-side of gaming now.

I'm not going to berate the new features of the redesigned Lara. Honestly, if I knew a girl with that body, and fierce will she seems to have about her, I'd worship the lady. Old Lara? Never.

 

[DaMullet]

Lol Sheva?

I mean c'mon their nearly exact.

Yeah, they are exactly the same.... This is so stupid... I'm so angry right now.

Last time I checked, people don't come in cookie cutter configurations. Forcing this ideal, AGAIN, makes me sick. If you want to make a female lead who is """"REALISTIC"""" then that woman should be the average, which is 5'3" and 164lbs and wears a size 14. (-ish) I would LOVE to see a game make that character!

 

[The_ModeRazor]

The idea to give her more reasonable clothes and a slightly more plausible physique actually seems like a good one to me.
But... why did they change her face? I don't get it. They should correct that one, and I'm happy as shit.

 

[mr_pants66]

i really do like this redesign, for the first time in years i have wanted to play a Lara croft game. The new Lara is better than the old one in every way, i think more video game females should look more real like this.

 

[Stabby Joe]

Is she at least still British?

 

[northeast rower]

I thought she looked fairly good. Like, oddly sexy for concept art...

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I think whoever is making this game....should release a proper photo already! I'm sure a lot of people will warm up to the re-design if Lara could stop bleeding like a muddy mofo for just one second. Bleeding does not make you "more gritty".

 

[Moeez]

I asked my sister, and she got it right away. My mom was as flabbergasted as yours, though.

So, it seems for the mainstream non-gaming crowd, she doesn't look much like the typical Lara Croft image. But among gamers, you can notice a brunette with longish hair, boots, brown trousers, holsters, and sporting weapons would be Lara Croft.

 

[RelexCryo]

snip...

Never said it was more realistic. I am pointing out that the current design is not realistic either. The design looks more childlike than strong. How is that empowering?

Who the hell is saying anything about empowering?! Why are you fixating on this?

Though, in response; if you really see her body as "childlike", there is something deeply fucking wrong with you, and by all means, yes, the new Lara certainly would seem more "empowering" for women than the silicon filled, collagen injected, half-naked Lara of past.

You want a realistic design? Give her the body of the strength trainer she supposedly was/is. Give her strong, toned, muscles. Giant looking boobs would also inevitably go with this body, simply because that is realiistic.

She doesn't need to be strong. For fuck's sake, look at some female athletes (not body builders).

Spoiler

Lolo Jones

Nastia Liukin

Amanda Beard

Mia Hamm

All incredibly athletic and physically capable women, all of which match up pretty well with the new Lara. To give her more muscle mass would make her impractical for endurance and agility.

Eh, I thought about it, and I decided you are probably right- assuming they want to fundamentally change the gameplay to pure acrobatic parkour, her new design is probably better.

 

[Tarkand]

What really surprises me is how many people are saying that she has no feminine features or that she looks like a guy. The no breasts thing really throws me for a loop too... those are like c-cups [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6751443.stm], and there's really nothing wrong with that breast size.

I always though the stereotype that gamers were socially inept and were, for a lack of a better term, afraid of woman was wrong... but I guess it has some basis in the truth, because anybody who can't tell this drawing is of a woman (And an attractive, if dirty and rugged up, one too boot) obviously doesn't hang out with many real women.

Really surprising, dare I say shocking even. One can only hope they are using sarcasm to emphasis their point because they lack any real argument and that this isn't what they really think.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

Doing a quick examination, I give it my stamp of approval.

Body size: Realistic and not having tits that take up the entire screen (Check)
Appearance: Doesn't look perfectly clean and spotless after crawling through caves all day (Check)
Badass Trait: 10 out of 10, I can finally take her seriously instead of laughing at her (Check)
Personality and Story: Gonna have to find out (CHECK!)

 

[Del-Toro]

I'm just happy she isn't going to be one of those generic videogame action girls anymore. You know who I mean, the ones that utterly hostile to all the men around them and respond to any danger with contempt. Because apparently courage isn't the ability to carry on despite fear, no, a courageous woman has had the fear centre of the brain surgically removed, because no woman is a strong role model who finds an army of ruthless mercenaries out to kill her at all intimidating.

Ugh, Bayonetta makes me want to vomit.

Yes, I too find her grotesque. She's like a Barbie doll made real. You can tell she's supposed to be human (well, human-ish) but there's just something utterly wrong with her from a physical standpoint, like she has some kind bone disorder or like the lonely robotics expert who built her also draws anime girls (what I'm trying to say is that some them have legs that look disproportionately long, but it works sort of in 2D, wheras the transition to 3D is disasterous in this case) and his representation of the human form is distorted.

 

[TheDooD]

Okay to all those who are stupid. Women having over-sized breasts and emanating sexuality are not what we call empowered women, they are what we call hookers.

This Lara is a normal proportionate human. Female empowerment does not mean we should make all video game women have a pair of giant breast and a huge buttox on a stick body and then flaunt sexuality. That is why we have so many overly sexual teenage girls who are anorexic.

This is a SMART, ATHLETIC, NORMAL SIZED, (And fairly attractive, probably because of the last three things) woman in extroidenary circumstances being awesome.

Thing is, Bayonetta is right up with with (pre Other M) Samus, Zelda, etc.

She has almost all traits people ascribe to "good" characters, and even more, unlike the "famed" Alyx Vance, her personality and purpose do not completely collapse into a black hole of suck if you take away her support cast.

You want to know why that Is that those female characters are all like that? Because they are from the 80s/90s! It was the days of Duke Nukem and ridiculous characters that were just way too fictionalized.

I mean I know a bunch of women who are just appalled by how most games make women sticks with giant boobs and then put them in tiny clothes and put them in games. (My favorite quote personally is "They don't give all the men in the game giant penises.")

We are moving into an age where media character heroes are not all "Master Cheifs" or "John McClains", and this goes with "Lara Crofts" too. People are not interested in playing characters who aren't human, they smart, strong, invincible, emotionless, and really... boring. It's a time of "Nathan Drake's", "Nathan Hales", "Commander Shephards" and so on, and now too must female characters begin to turn into normal human characters, with human weaknesses and emotions, who still save the day. And you know what normal women don't have? GIANT BREASTS.

here's thing I overall don't care about a overly NORMAL, realistic, emotional character when there's aliens, monsters, and or zombies killing shit all over. Every game that has a human in it seriously don't need it because guess what all the need to be overly real is gonna get boring. You gotta achieve balance have the character have the "batman" mold. A normal human that's able to do insane, outlandish shit with some to no effort and or help. Yet at the same have the ability to show emotions when needed without boring people with whining. Or tack on a backstory that's never gonna get touched on again and or never progresses in a proper way that you feel the character has grown. The character also has serious confidence in oneself, yet at the same time knows and pushes his or her limits. In short like Batman.

 

[Woodsey]

Other than the slightly gender-less face, the redesign looks fine.

If you didn't say that was her I would still guess that it was.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Ah whatever, for me the franchise was dead for a long long time, the only recent good game is Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, and they did it by simply by not making a Tomb Raider game.

It may get a comeback with good games, but I highly doubt it.

 

[icame]

I think the redesign is fantastic.