Tomb Raider reboot

The thing is I had a HD 5770 and i5 750 and that was fine and my friend gave me his old HD 5870 which is like two 5770's taped together, and that's even more fine. My monitor is 1920 x 1080 so it's not massive or multiple.

For the controller, I already have a wired 360 controller for my PCs and the wireless controller would be super cumbersome, especially with laptops. That and it would be about $100 for controller and dongle.

At some point I may get my 360 back from my friend with a bunch of controllers, etc.

AMD video cards are so confusing these days. I was comparing my HD 5870 to the 7000s and it looks from reviews that only the 7900 models are better. There's probably more to it, but I was eyeing the 7000s and now I don't even know.

The 5870 remains a beast of a card. If you're at 1920x1200 or lower, there's not much reason to replace it, yet, as long as AMD keeps the drivers running well for what you're doing with it.

They pulled a slimy move in the 6XXX range... they renumbered all their cards to make them sound faster. You need a 69XX card to match a 58XX, while 68s were equivalent to the old 57s. They kept that in the 7-series, so a 78XX is intended for the market that was once served by 57XX cards. Really crappy and confusing.

If you feel you need to upgrade from a 5870, you'd probably want at least a 7950. A 7970 would be the current equivalent, basically the flagship card of the generation.

You may want to check benchmarks, though; NVidia is often much stronger in this generation for actual game performance. If you do compute work, and can deal with their more primitive software infrastructure, AMD cards offer hellacious bang per buck, but for actual game acceleration, NVidia wins a surprising amount of the time, and with chips that are using far fewer transistors. They really shouldn't be comparable.... yet, somehow, they are.

Oh wow, thanks for the info. I think I'm good with the card I have then. Every few years I look into getting another one and was surprised by the current state of the market.

To get back to Tomb Raider,

Do the specs mean that things like tessellation, depth of field, etc are actually in games these days? Is that something that we'll see a noticeable difference of in TR and other newer games?

PandaEskimo wrote:

Do the specs mean that things like tessellation, depth of field, etc are actually in games these days?

Yes. There's always some trailblazers like STALKER CoP in 2009.

PandaEskimo wrote:

Is that something that we'll see a noticeable difference of in TR and other newer games?

Noticeable is debatable. Things like tesselation are there for the small details, and rounding off edges (see comparison).

I think two things are important with regards these techs, firstly that something like tessellation allows designers to scale the complexity of their models better than manually making a different level of detail for different view ranges, and secondly with that in mind that it'll only really come into it's own when implemented at a base level in the game implementation. For games like TR, they've got to run on platforms without the capability, so I'm expecting a bit of 'like the DX9 version, but enhanced', but I'd love to see a game without pop-in or visible changes between detail levels when you get close to things.

Feeling okay about my preorder because of a single tweet from a Brian Altano, who seems to be reviewing the game:

Can't really talk about Tomb Raider until embargo is up but I will say this: it's EASILY one of my favorite games of this generation. Wow.

He doesn't review games often but we share views pretty often.

I'll be raked over some coals for this, but I never really got into the earlier 'classic' TR games, but from what I've seen of the new one I think there might be a fair bit I'll like. I wasn't going to buy it any time soon if it wasn't for the AMD bundle, so hopefully it's good (I'm sure there's some people at AMD/Squeenidos high-fiving themselves because of that). Talk is cheap though, I want to play it.

Scratched wrote:

I'll be raked over some coals for this, but I never really got into the earlier 'classic' TR games

The only TR game I've played is Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, which by all accounts is barely a TR game. This seems like a really good point to get into the series fresh.

Don't get me wrong, I've got a good handle on what they're about. I guess I'm pretty intrigued as to what they can do with a reboot, drawing a line to separate them and assuming they don't take any baggage from the earlier games. I ended up feeling the same about DE:HR, that there were a number of little things they were doing just because that's how the original game did them.

The other thing I'm wondering about is assuming TR2013 is a success, where do they go after the origin story. Presumably they're heading in a vaguely similar direction (raiding tombs...), but what the differences will be. Setting the game in one sort-of open world would be a big change, assuming they can keep that location interesting through the game.

ugh... dating myself with this comment. I remember buying a voodooFX add-on card because of the TR game.

Scratched wrote:

I'll be raked over some coals for this, but I never really got into the earlier 'classic' TR games, but from what I've seen of the new one I think there might be a fair bit I'll like. I wasn't going to buy it any time soon if it wasn't for the AMD bundle, so hopefully it's good (I'm sure there's some people at AMD/Squeenidos high-fiving themselves because of that). Talk is cheap though, I want to play it.

I don't think the early games were all that great. The first one was solid fun, but they got progressively worse.

But starting with Tomb Raider: Legend, Crystal Dynamics started making some really good TR games. They also remade the original in the new engine. I think it is pretty cool that they are going to reboot the series now that they have reinvigorated it.

I'm really looking forward to this.

They really seem to have invested in the TR engine, it's the same one they used for DE:HR too.

Jayhawker wrote:
Scratched wrote:

I'll be raked over some coals for this, but I never really got into the earlier 'classic' TR games, but from what I've seen of the new one I think there might be a fair bit I'll like. I wasn't going to buy it any time soon if it wasn't for the AMD bundle, so hopefully it's good (I'm sure there's some people at AMD/Squeenidos high-fiving themselves because of that). Talk is cheap though, I want to play it.

I don't think the early games were all that great. The first one was solid fun, but they got progressively worse.

But starting with Tomb Raider: Legend, Crystal Dynamics started making some really good TR games. They also remade the original in the new engine. I think it is pretty cool that they are going to reboot the series now that they have reinvigorated it.

I'm really looking forward to this.

Ditto. The original original was good primarily because it was something new. The sequels tried to cash in on that originality, and didn't really manage it well. The CD-produced Tomb Raider games made things solid. My only complaint about them was the sometimes overly heavy use of QTEs--but even with those, there was a lot of good solid game in there.

This reboot is looking really excellent. I'm looking forward to next week.

Hypatian wrote:

This reboot is looking really excellent. I'm looking forward to next week.

Out on the 5th/6th March isn't it? Or do I have it confused with something else.

It's the Tuesday after next, yes.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Feeling okay about my preorder because of a single tweet from a Brian Altano, who seems to be reviewing the game:

Can't really talk about Tomb Raider until embargo is up but I will say this: it's EASILY one of my favorite games of this generation. Wow.

He doesn't review games often but we share views pretty often.

Yeah, there was an early review leaked over on neogaf, and they gave it a 90%.

http://gamingeverything.com/41144/to...

Also, the review embargo lifts tomorrow, so we'll get a full week of reviews before the game releases.

Oh, that's a great sign. Man, Square-Enix sure is knocking it out of the park as a publisher of Western games. WIsh they could get their internal development straightened out :/

Blind_Evil wrote:

Oh, that's a great sign. Man, Square-Enix sure is knocking it out of the park as a publisher of Western games. WIsh they could get their internal development straightened out :/

Please, wait for E3!

I am so annoyed that this game has multiplayer.

nel e nel wrote:

Also, the review embargo lifts tomorrow, so we'll get a full week of reviews before the game releases.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Oh, that's a great sign.

Can't disagree. A shame that reviews being available before a product launches is noteworthy though.

Malor wrote:
AMD video cards are so confusing these days. I was comparing my HD 5870 to the 7000s and it looks from reviews that only the 7900 models are better. There's probably more to it, but I was eyeing the 7000s and now I don't even know.

The 5870 remains a beast of a card. If you're at 1920x1200 or lower, there's not much reason to replace it, yet, as long as AMD keeps the drivers running well for what you're doing with it.

They pulled a slimy move in the 6XXX range... they renumbered all their cards to make them sound faster. You need a 69XX card to match a 58XX, while 68s were equivalent to the old 57s. They kept that in the 7-series, so a 78XX is intended for the market that was once served by 57XX cards. Really crappy and confusing.

If you feel you need to upgrade from a 5870, you'd probably want at least a 7950. A 7970 would be the current equivalent, basically the flagship card of the generation.

You may want to check benchmarks, though; NVidia is often much stronger in this generation for actual game performance. If you do compute work, and can deal with their more primitive software infrastructure, AMD cards offer hellacious bang per buck, but for actual game acceleration, NVidia wins a surprising amount of the time, and with chips that are using far fewer transistors. They really shouldn't be comparable.... yet, somehow, they are.

I actually upgraded from a 5870 to a 7870. The fan was dying on my card which is what prompted the upgrade. The 7870 is any where from 10 - 30% better than the 5870 depending on the game. One big improvement is tessellation as the 5000 series was not very good at it. From my research the 7850 on up are better than the 5870, starting from just barely with the 7850 to a lot better with the 7970. Had it not been for the 2 free games I probably would have just sought out a replacement fan but I looked at it from the stance I was getting 120 dollars worth of games I was getting anyways so I got a new video card that wasn't leaps and bounds better but good enough for the time being until the 8000 series comes out.

SallyNasty wrote:

I am so annoyed that this game has multiplayer.

Is that due to achievements that might require a mode you don't want to play?

I'm surprised it has multiplayer, as I don't think this franchise needs it, but I get why publishers like it. As long as multiplayer is not crucial to the single-player game, I don't think it will bother me.

Jayhawker wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:

I am so annoyed that this game has multiplayer.

Is that due to achievements that might require a mode you don't want to play?

I'm surprised it has multiplayer, as I don't think this franchise needs it, but I get why publishers like it. As long as multiplayer is not crucial to the single-player game, I don't think it will bother me.

Yah, it is the 15 out of 50 achievements that are mp only. Just seems so unnecessary.

I get that because is see it in sports games all of the time. There are often 2/3 of the achievements for modes I will never play.

So glad I don't wear those shackles

Your entire opposition to multi is based around the achievements?

Scratched wrote:

Your entire opposition to multi is based around the achievements?

Hi Scratched, I'd like you to meet SallyNasty. He might have a thing for achievements

This is looking pretty good. Glad to hear early reviews are positive.

I just wanted to be sure.

SallyNasty wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:

I am so annoyed that this game has multiplayer.

Is that due to achievements that might require a mode you don't want to play?

I'm surprised it has multiplayer, as I don't think this franchise needs it, but I get why publishers like it. As long as multiplayer is not crucial to the single-player game, I don't think it will bother me.

Yah, it is the 15 out of 50 achievements that are mp only. Just seems so unnecessary.

I've decided that if a game has MP-only xvs, I'll wait for the Steam version, even if they're not real achievements.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:

I am so annoyed that this game has multiplayer.

Is that due to achievements that might require a mode you don't want to play?

I'm surprised it has multiplayer, as I don't think this franchise needs it, but I get why publishers like it. As long as multiplayer is not crucial to the single-player game, I don't think it will bother me.

Yah, it is the 15 out of 50 achievements that are mp only. Just seems so unnecessary.

I've decided that if a game has MP-only xvs, I'll wait for the Steam version, even if they're not real achievements.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:

I am so annoyed that this game has multiplayer.

Is that due to achievements that might require a mode you don't want to play?

I'm surprised it has multiplayer, as I don't think this franchise needs it, but I get why publishers like it. As long as multiplayer is not crucial to the single-player game, I don't think it will bother me.

Yah, it is the 15 out of 50 achievements that are mp only. Just seems so unnecessary.

I've decided that if a game has MP-only xvs, I'll wait for the Steam version, even if they're not real achievements.

Yep, if they tack them on I give them a pass.

JC wrote:

ugh... dating myself with this comment. I remember buying a voodooFX add-on card because of the TR game.

Same here. I bought a Voodoo card and dragged my wife into the computer room to show her the difference. Truly a next generation moment.

Side note: a whole room dedicated to a computer? Yep - it must have been before I had kids.