Grave Gamer News & Views — rise of the tomb raider

Hey, Herbians. This article was originally posted over at When Nerds Attack and marks my first gaming editorial for the site. There’s more to come, including an extended preview of Final Fantasy XV. Look for more down the line! That’s right! I took my thumb out of my ass and I’m writing again!

(In the preview Square Enix hosted, I played the beginning portion of Rise of the Tomb Raider’s Blood Ties...

First Peek at Rise of the Tomb Raider’s Combat

For whatever reason, tomb raiding has always come with a certain precariousness, and I don’t mean falling stalactites and booby trapped crypts. I mean burly men with flamethrowers. Like Frappy Happy Hour seems to draw in every short tempered housewife in the nearby cul-de-sac, tombs serve as a beacon for rifle swinging goons.

Luckily, Ms. Croft has honed her skills since her first outing, becoming something akin to a guerrilla fighter. A one woman army in a halter top.

Check out the game’s combat hereabouts. Rise of the Tomb Raider releases November 10th for Xbox One and Xbox 360. PC gets it early next year and PS4 (sigh) won’t be raiding anything until a full year after its competitor’s launch date.

Somebody must have tasked Phil Spencer with two missions yesterday when he took to E3’s stage in Los Angeles: 1) Avoid showing off anything regarding, related to, or even remotely reminiscent of TV apps and 2) Slowly strangle anyone who dares utter the word “Kinect” while staring into their eyes as their soul fades from their body like a light dimming.

I say this because Phil made damn sure the only thing that took center stage besides camera-shy, stammering game developers was the games themselves. What ensued was probably one of the better conferences held by the company in quite some time – Microsoft wasn’t going to let Sony blacken their eye again like at last year’s event.

Below, I’ve collected (almost) every title named at the Xbox presser. Be sure to click on each game’s name to peep an accompanying trailer.

See, don’t I take care of you guys?