Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider is a 1996 computer game, which has been followed by a series of sequels. The star of the games is Lara Croft[?], a pixillated, buxom female Indiana Jones.

Initially released on the Sony PlayStation and the PC, the first game was largely responsible for the large market share of the Sony console.

The game presents a world in 3D[?], a series of tombs, and other locations, through which the player must guide Lara, killing dangerous animals and other creatures, while collecting objects and solving puzzles along the way.

The game is a third-person shooter, since Lara is always visible. The player's "camera" follows her, usually over her shoulder or from behind.

Each version of the game has introduced new weapons and moves; by the fourth version Lara can backflip whilst sliding down a rope, turn around in mid-air and grab onto a ledge behind her. All this while shooting her pistols!

This is an earlier example of the 3D genre, characterised by the cubic nature of the world in which Lara inhabits. Every ledge, wall and ceiling sit at 90 degrees to each other, although the game designers used some clever tricks to make this less obvious.

A rather unsavoury development in Lara Croft's history is the so-called "Nude Raider" patch. This program, when added to an existing Tomb Raider game, causes Lara to appear naked, unsurprisingly popular among a certain population of teenage boys.

Most recently, the idea of Tomb Raider has been extended beyond being just a video game, including the 2001 Tomb Raider movie.

External Links

• www.tombraider.com - Official site (http://www.tombraider.com/)