Now, I dig Tomb Raider. But after Zero Punctuation’s brutal review of Underworld, I’m started to feel mighty uncomfortable about all the animals Ms Croft knocks off on her way to steal valuable stuff from dead people. In all seriousness, I actually apologised to the virtual panthers I shot up during my own review of Underworld. Because I’m a huge softie. And a cat owner. And maybe a little crazy after 10 straight hours of gameplay on deadline.

Enjoy the artwork, from the over-sexed to the over-manga’d. This image comes from Joe Jusko.

40 Various Styles Artworks of Lara Croft [The Design Inspiration]

Just in time for the PlayStation 3 version to become a £19.99 Platinum Hit in the UK, Eidos has announced that a patch to add trophy support to Tomb Raider: Underworld will be released on May28th. The announcement was delivered via the Eidos forums by community manager Keir Edmonds.

I am pleased to be able to announce that the PS3 Trophy Patch for Tomb Raider: Underworld has a confirmed worldwide release date of Thursday the 28th of May. Huzzah! Sorry for the delay and thank you very much to those who were able to wait patiently, it’s really appreciated and I hope you get some great Raiding out of it.

Keir gets extra points for using the word “huzzah”, a favourite on mine since my days as a renaissance fair frequenter.

PS3 Trophy Patch announcement [Eidos forums via 1UP]

The Tomb Raider Underworld: Lara’s Shadow downloadable content is now available on Xbox Live, giving players a chance to play as Lara Croft’s harder, better, faster, and stronger doppleganger.

In an interesting twist on Underworld’s main story, Lara’s Shadow gives us a chance to see what Miss Croft’s cleverly crafted copy would do if she were in control of here own actions. From the launch trailer, it looks like it would do exactly what Lara was doing anyway, only much, much better.

Lara’s Shadow is now available via Xbox Live for 800 Microsoft points.

The Lara’s Shadow downloadable content for Tomb Raider: Underworld puts players in control of the doppleganger – a faster, stronger version of Lara Croft with the power to slow time.

The Lara Croft doppleganger first appeared during the main story of Tomb Raider: Underworld, created to best Lara at her own game. Of course the creature fails, but what if it didn’t? Apparently we’d be playing a Prince of Persia game. The doppleganger is a melee fighting machine, running, jumping, and beating the hell out of everything in her path. It certainly looks a lot more entertaining than standard Tomb Raider fare, mainly because they’ve taken Lara’s model, swapped abilities, and created a whole new way to play the game.

The Xbox 360-exclusive Lara’s Shadow downloadable content is currently scheduled for a March 10th release.

Tomb Raider publisher Eidos saw its sales jump a respectable 26% during the first half, thanks to solid sales of Tomb Raider: Underworld. To celebrate, we’ve uploaded a picture of Lara in a wetsuit.

While Eidos may feel that Lara Croft’s Tomb Raider franchise is in need of an overhaul and the company says Underworld’s performance hasn’t met expectations, sales were decent enough to reduce the publisher’s losses to just 1 million pounds ($1.43 million USD).

That’s potentially good news for Square Enix, currently doing its damnedest to snatch up the European publisher.

Good work, Lara! And good luck speargunning those sharks!

Due to an “unexpected technical issue,” the first batch of downloadable goodies for Tomb Raider: Underworld will not make its planned February 10th launch date. This is the bonus level’s second delay.

Previously planned for a December launch, the two new downloadable levels from Eidos and Crystal Dynamics will give Tomb Raider: Underworld fans new areas to explore, new skin tight outfits and extra Achievements. What they won’t provide is a sense of stability.

Eidos doesn’t have new date for Lara’s next mini-outing, but we’ll operate under the assumption that the second batch, dubbed “Lara’s Shadow,” may not make its March 10th release date either. Just to keep from breaking down into tears again.

The first of two new chapters in the Lara Croft saga comes exclusively Xbox 360 next month, as Eidos announces a February 10th release date for the Tomb Raider: Chronicles Beneath the Ashes DLC.

Two apparently disgruntled former Crystal Dynamics employees have confirmed the rumoured lay-offs at the studio and dished a little inside information about the development of Tomb Raider Underworld, including how the DLC came to be.

A poster who says he is Eric Lindstrom, the creative director for the game, said that the downloadable content coming exclusively to the Xbox 360 was in fact a level removed from the original game.

“The content of DLC was absolutely not held back from Underworld for the purpose of selling later down the road.”

“I needed to find a way to cut enough days from the schedule in a manner that would not rip a hole in the game that would take time to sew up.”

“Even if I was told on that day that we would never ever make a downloabable level, I still would have had to cut it.”

Lindstrom went on to say that he doesn’t know if the deal will ever expire to allow Eidos to bring the content to the PS3 or Wii.

Another, anonymous, former Crystal Dynamics employee posting in the forums claims that the decision to cut the content was made specifically to use it later in DLC.

“Ask anyone who is part of it and if they are honest they will tell you around 40% of the DLC was meant to be in the game itself, originally. But it was decided later on to take out those parts because they were expecting most sales on the 360 and the DLC the way it looked at the time was looking to be a bit ‘thin’. So we were asked to cut some parts out to be used in the DLC.”

Other tidbits include the fact that Lindstrom says the team probably could have used more time to polish the game, but that he’s still proud of it.

Lindstrom also went through a number of questioned asked of him in the growing thread, including talking about why some features were left out, where Croft may be headed and how previous games effected design decisions.

Early on in the thread Lindstrom says that the forum administrator can vouch for him, and while I could never find a comment doing so, the administrator was in there discussing the post with everyone else, so it seems likely this is legitimate.

Lindstrom on cut or missing features:

Replay level: “You all know (I hope) by now that the 360 works in such a way that you get something BETTER than level replay, you have Chapter Replay (via the autosaves) which gives you more options than just level replay. This was supposed to be how the PS3 and PC worked as well, and the reason they don’t is just a mistake.”

Replay cinematic: “This feature was always supposed to be in, but in the end it just couldn’t happen, and here’s why. All the cut scenes happen in-game, and the state of levels change.” “We jammed everything onto the disc we could for the game itself and there was no room for movies. It was a sad day for me, but what else could we do?”

Cheats: “No cheats in Underworld because even cheats take development time, and it was clear in the final months that we needed to spend all out time on the up front game. We had some pretty cool things we could see, but couldn’t afford even a half-day to put them in. I hesitate to say this because people will be jealous, but one of our animatorss put different models on Lara’s rig and it was hilarious! He put the Med Sea shark on Lara’s rig, so you could play the game in what looked like lara wearing a shark costume. He also made one that was tomatoes, a big one for a body and a small one each for lara’s arms and legs. God, we wanted to put that on the disk, but couldn’t.”

Multiplayer:
“I’ve said Multiplayer has always come up and we do diligent work on how to do it properly for Tomb Raider, and this is true. It’s just really hard, technically, creatively, and for Lara Croft. Maybe someday.”

The last Lara overhaul (from Core):
“To be brutally honest, we didn’t know anyone was as bonded to the original backstory as it turned out. That said, we probably would have made the changes anyway, and this is common. The Batman’s backstory changes all the time, for instance.”

“It was also believed that the braid would not behave properly with the new level of realism and our physics and collision, I recall. Same on Underworld, and we had established the pony tail. I don’t know if people will like or hate me for this, but I specifically made sure that the doppelganger had a braid as a nod to this debate among the fans. “

The next Lara overhaul:
“As for the female friendly makeover, huh…I don’t know where that came from. I feel that even though Lara has attributes that appeal to males, the games doesn’t pander to a male audience. Look at all the other games out there with female heroes, and look at their bustlines and what they are (barely) wearing. My Lead Designer Harley (a woman) agrees that Tomb Raider is not a gender specific game, and research shows that it appeals to female gamers very well.”

Croft Manor:
“If I understand your question correctly, no, we never intended there to be a Croft Manor hub in Underworld. I knew from early on that the game was going to start with a flash forward of Croft Manor exploding, and that made the Croft Manor hub to complicated to deal with. But the reason we started talking about Lara having three manors back in Legend was for this eventuality.”

Angel of Darkness:
“As to the AoD storyline, from what I heard, even Core Design only had a few notes as to where they were going to go with it, and we of course saw none of that. Obviously I can not say what storylines will pursued in the future, but in all honesty, when i was in charge of the Tomb Raider storyline, I wasn’t interested in the AoD thread, personally. I didn’t care for it when I played AoD, didn’t really get it, and to pursue it I would have had to make up a bunch of stuff about what it all meant and what the Cheribum’s were and all that. And it was all too mystical for me. I don’t believe there is true magic in TR, just stuff that Atlantean tech can do that we don’t yet understand…and I didn’t get enough of what the real truth behind the myths of AoD was to interest me. There, I’ve said too much…”

Tomb Raider versus Uncharted:
“I think Underworld was a much better tomb raider experience than Uncharted, but Uncharted succeeded very well at what they were trying to do. The games were just very different with only a slight connection in their high concept.”

If you want a chance to ask Lindstrom a question it sounds like he’ll be present in the forums today as well.

Ask Eric and I’m one of the 30 who got fired by Eidos, ask away [BIG thanks to Phillip for all of the forum surfing and tip-off)

Sacking 30 from the studio responsible for a disappointing Tomb Raider: Underworld apparently is not enough; Eidos’ Robert Brent says a complete remake of the Lara Croft character is necessary.

In The Times of London, Brent is quoted as modelling the Croft overhaul after the one the cinematic Batman went through — from yet another sequel to a new, more critically acclaimed, and profitable franchise.

“We need to look at everything, as we develop the next game,” Brent said. “Look at how Batman changed successfully, from the rather sad character of the Michael Keaton era to the noir style of The Dark Knight.”

The revision might make her a more female-friendly character, the Times speculates (it also calls her a “pneumatic archaeologist,” I suppose in reference to her impossible dimensions.) Gloomy sales numbers for Tomb Raider: Underworld helped knock 30 percent off Eidos’ share price this week. It’s not expected to sell more than 2.5 million copies, whereas the previous game, Tomb Raider: Legend, sold 3 million. It indicates gamers might be getting tired of the character in her current state.

Lara Croft has appeared in eight games since her 1996 debut. If the comparison to a film character is apt, she’s long overdue for an update. James Bond may be more than half a century old in film and novel, but each new Bond actor rejuvenates the franchise, and Casino Royale with Daniel Craig was a total makeover (its working title was even “Bond Begins,” a nod to Batman.) A canonical do-over that minimises the Lara Croft stereotypes and shortcomings may be just what the doctor ordered.

Lara Croft Faces Female-Friendly Makeover After Poor Sales in US Bring Profit Warning from Eidos [The Times of London, via Develop, thanks josh1122]

Crystal Dynamics laid off 30 people this morning in the wake of underperforming Tomb Raider Underworld sales, reliable sources tell Kotaku.

The cuts were made across the board, we’re told, to eliminate redundancy and give the studio tighter focus moving forward.

Earlier this week, UK publisher Eidos said that sales of the latest Tomb Raider title were below forecasts because of the U.S. economy.

The company put full year revenue forecast at somewhere between £180m and £200m, but the 2008 revenue results will actually fall between £160m and £180m. Eidos said it might have to discuss debt repayments with its lenders.