What are the two best things in the world? That's right, dogs and gaming. So nothing could excite me more than a custom Tomb Raider console being sold for an animal charity.
The ebay auction is a collaboration between Xbox and Square Enix to raise money for charity Best Friends. The organisation works to end the killing of animals in American rescue shelters - a noble cause Lara would surely support, judging by the recent "Cute Raider" trailer.
The console itself looks incredible - with Mayan patterns, vines and a Shadow of the Tomb raider glowing moon, it feels like it's been plucked straight out of the jungle. It's a 1TB model and comes complete with a custom controller and digital download version of Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
I didn’t much like the first in the most recent trilogy of Tomb Raider games, named with such originality and aplomb, Tomb Raider. (Square Enix’s arrogance in reappropriating the original name of a series has never been a helpful move – see also Thief and Hitman, and I’d be willing to bet a fair wad of cash we’ll be seeing “Final Fantasy” in the next few years.) It was a nasty, badly written torture sim which very occasionally let you do some running, jumping and shooting. Infamous for its repulsive early scene invoking sexual assault, it also made a mockery of Lara’s former independence by making her subservient to a father figure, Conrad Roth, and then had a dumb-ass story packed with insulting stereotypes. But more than anything else, it absolutely resented ever letting you actually play.
Good gravy, don’t Nvidia’s Turing RTX 2080 cards look nice, eh? Yes, they’re just a teensy bit hideously expensive, but make no mistake. All three cards announced this evening, from the RTX 2070 right up to the RTX 2080Ti, have all been described to me as 4K, 60fps+ pixel pushers that are almost certainly going to be massive overkill for anyone still playing games at 1920×1080 or 2560×1440.
But enough about the graphics cards – there’s a whole article for you to read about those if you haven’t already. Here, I’m talking games>. Specifically, every game confirmed so far that will be benefiting from Nvidia’s oh-so-lovely ray-tracing tech that will hopefully make your RTX 20-series card feel like a worthwhile purchase. Here we go!
The latest trailer for Shadow of the Tomb Raider is subtitled 'Know Your Enemy' and its 40 seconds depict the varieties of bad guy you'll be fighting in the new game. There are Trinity troops who pronounce Lara in the American way, tribal warriors, and of course a variety of animals who will dismember her in brutal close-ups: eels, piranhas, and a jaguar.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is due on September 14. Our James Davenport had a play of the early hours, and he says its custom difficulty settings are its best feature.