• 8Mar 09

  Going under with Lara

  I'm excited to be playing Lara Croft again. True, I haven't finished Tomb Raider Anniversary. I'm not a hardcore gamer, and I don't make time to play the games. But I couldn't wait to play Tomb Raider Underworld on my new PS2 to see how it differed from playing TRA on my PC.

  I'm still getting used to the controls, but I seemed to get through the first level okay. Of course, I cheated because I played TRU on my sister's Wii a while ago. Now I'm at the same point where I left off on the Wii. Then I realized something. Even though I was looking, I didn't notice any treasures or health packs to pick up. Just to be sure, I started a new game on the PS2 and went through the levels again. While playing on my sister's Wii, I had noticed a couple of glowing things when Lara first goes underwater, but I couldn't pick them up. This time when I saw them on PS2, I was able to; but they were just treasures. I figured out the underwater stone gate again, and resurfaced near the door to the Mist Realm (or something like that). I see a glowing thing on a platform above, but I'm having trouble getting to it.

  I'm not too ashamed to say that I started looking for a guide. But the guide I found listed on the PS2 version doesn't quite match up. The guide says that the glowing thing is a health pack, but the instructions to get to it are difficult to follow. Perhaps this is because the author wrote the guide for the PS3? Which made me think further if there are several major differences between the consoles. There were a couple of puzzles I had to figure out on the Wii that I didn't encounter on the PS2 version.

  I won't rate the game yet until I get further in (or maybe wait until I...gasp*...finish it?! That'll be a looong time). But I am having fun. When I purchased my PS2 a few months ago, I purchased a few different types of games: Hitman, Resident Evil, a Final Fantasy, etc. I haven't been too excited to play anything to tell the truth; I've just been waiting for Lara. I think this is because I'm already familiar with how Lara moves and so just learning how to use the PS2 controls to get her to do what I want comes relatively easily. However, I have to learn all new strategies and movements with the other game characters. But I'll get there, one day.

  • Posted Mar 8, 2009 1:35 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 25Oct 07

  PS3 versus PC

  Okay, I have to say it. I'm torn. PS3 or build a PC that can play games.

  My dilemma began with Bioshock. I couldn't play the PC game because my laptop's video card did not meet the minimum requirements. System Requirements Lab (http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest) became my friend. It would tell me what games I could and couldn't play. For many of the games I've checked recently, I pass the minimum requirements, but the video card is failing the recommended settings. A few times my processor was also deemed subpar, but mostly it's the video card that's bringing such pain into my life.

  Now I know if I buy a console, I won't have this problem because every game is designed to work for that console. With a PC, sooner or later, I'm going to have to upgrade the parts. In the end this will end up costing me more money. But I would really like to play some of the PC games coming out. Like The Witcher; SRL doesn't have a "Can You Run It?" test setup for that one, but I ran the test for Call of Duty 4 which has the same video card requirement. The result was as I feared.

  How do I choose between these two suitors? How do I chose between Heavenly Sword and Conan for P3, and The Witcher and Shadowrun for PC?

  • Posted Oct 25, 2007 7:16 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 7Oct 07

  Free at last!

  Finally, I'm out of my first cut-scene in Tomb Raider. The cut-scene told me how to escape the jaws of the T-Rex, but I didn't see the instructions because I always started pushing buttons. Thank you, GTA_Phreak for explaining this to me.

  Oh boy it's such a relief, as I've been stuck for months! Now I've gotta fight the T-Rex for real. Should be fun.

  • Posted Oct 7, 2007 9:28 am PT
  • Category: Games
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