Good Ol’ Lara

I’m sincerely happy about the fact that the Tomb Raider series got ripped from the hands of the increasingly out of touch Core–a shame, since they were the original developer–and put in the hands of Crystal Dynamics, who had the good sense to bring back Toby Gard as a “consultant.” Toby Gard, for those of you that don’t follow the gaming industry is the original creator of Tomb Raider, but he left the series after the first game because he felt that Core and Eidos’ increasing insistence that Lara’s sex appeal and titillating aspects be emphasized over gameplay caused a falling out. Five failed sequels later, they finally realized he was right, and brought him back as an adviser for Tomb Raider: Legend, as well as the aforementioned dumping of the original development house. I imagine that certain old guard members of Eidos must have been full of hate and loathing, being forced to take him back with a smile on their face while mouthing his take on Lara and pretending that their own horribly failed agendas were never their idea.

Whatever the behind the scenes story is, his vision once again proved invaluable to bringing back that old spark to Lara that had been missing for several years. For Tomb Raider: Anniversary, they made him the lead designer and I guess that’s only fitting, since TRA is essentially a remake of the original game. Now with Gard back in charge, this game has that same sense of exploration and wonder that was touched on in Legend, but here, as a repackaging of the original game, the nostalgia is positively lethal. Except that in many cases, it’s actually better. Check out this video that makes a comparison between pre and post-millennial Lara Croft:

The biggest improvement is in the controls, which at the dawn of 3D gaming in 1996, were a marvel simply because they worked at all. Time however, has not been kind and those clunky, archaic controls, problematic camera, and the “invisible grid” that Lara walked on all tended to limit what was supposed to be a lithe, athletic woman. The controls introduced in Legend are still at work here, tweaked with a few extra abilities such as Lara’s super-cool-but-totally-unrealistic ability to jump on poles and balance on these points would give a troupe of dancing angels trouble. Of course the graphics are also vastly improved and just seeing the videos of the old game makes me wince now, thinking that I ever found it impressive. If I ever needed proof that nostalgia can really do a number on one’s memory of an object or experience, that is it. I went into TRA thinking it was a slight improvement over the original graphics but seeing actual comparisons is shocking in the extreme.

But where I think the is true gem is the fact that it manages to retain the same sense of wonder as the first game, and even makes you feel that nostalgia by letting you feel like something is the same, even though it’s drastically different. For example, it’s not much of a spoiler to say that in the first Tomb Raider, one of the big setpieces was a fight against a T-Rex. It was a mindblowing experience in 1996, but going back and seeing the original fight in the original game, it looks small and unimpressive. Playing it again in TRA makes you feel the way you did in 1996, and it looks the way your 1996 mind must have remembered it, because it captures the essence of that moment, even though it doesn’t have to resort to covering half the viewable screen in darkness to hide rendering limitations, or reduce the dinosaurs to blocky things that vaguely resemble dinosaurs with a lot of imagination. In each instance, when I go back to certain levels in the game, I think to myself, “Oh yeah, this part was huge and beautiful…” And it still is. And it still makes me open my mouth and go “Oh wow,” and have that exact same feeling of awe that the original game can no longer give me.

With two good games in a row, and Toby Gard on board, I now have more faith in the Tomb Raider series than I have in years. I’m actually looking forward to them again, rather than experiencing that morbid curiosity that made me think “How are they going to degrade and corrupt it further this time?” I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing how the rest of the series will unfold since it seems pretty obvious they have a big, ongoing story now in mind, and this remake of the first game ties the series even more closely to the events portrayed in Tomb Raider: Legend. It’s good to care again about what happens to Lara, rather than just looking forward to seeing her run around in a catsuit. Although to be fair, I don’t object to that entirely either…

Semi-Uneventful Monday

Aside from watching the stairs leading up to our building get torn up and replaced with new ones–concrete, still drying even as I write–the only things we really did were go shopping, eat at the excellent, folksy Grapefruit Moon restaurant in the neighborhood, finish up the Relic & Artifact hunting for Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and some work.

Yes, I know I’m not exciting.

No, I don’t have a problem with that.

Tomb Raiding Sunday

The review has been written and finished, but since Tomb Raider is actually also a favorite of the Wife’s from her teenage days, we’re still going at it, looking for all them nifty extras…

And Done

And it was a hell of a fun game too. My geek review will come up soon, though my formal review for GameAxis comes first.

Now to just let loose with the ol’ obsessive/compulsive disorder and find all the remaining artifacts, relics and complete the time trials.

Geeking Out

Hung out with neighbors, played Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Reunion

The submission package is probably on the plane to New York by now, so there’s not much else to do with regards to DC.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a review I need to write for a recently released game. This involves meeting up with a special little lady to relive the old days. I am, of course, talking about Lara Croft and the excellent updated to the 1996 original, dubbed Tomb Raider: Anniversary. For anyone that missed it the first time around, I can say–at least so far–that you’re better off playing this rather than going back to the original. This is one of those rare occasions when the remake supersedes the original.

And also, she’s a LOT easier to look at 10 years later than the massive amounts of pubescent imagination required to make her blocky, 1996 incarnation sexy…

Wednesday Is DC Day

Today, aside from the continuing heat that can officially be considered Days of Summer, it was really about one thing; writing up the submission materials for DC. We’re going to be sending the submission by FedEx tomorrow to the DC office on Broadway, New York. Man, never thought I’d be writing that sentence, but there ya’ go.

Anyway, back to tweaking that. But in the meantime, here’s more Guitar Hero 80′s related stuff. Check out these two videos showing two songs being played in their entirety on Expert.

The first already has “first tier introductory” song written all over it, and I suspect this is the GH 80′s equivalent to I Love Rock & Roll. It is also the one almost universally being panned by the Guitar Hero community for either being a) too easy to be worthy of the game, or b) too cheesy for inclusion. Either way, vast majority of GH players seem to hate it.

This other is simply flat out SCARY. I thought Hanger 18 was giving me trouble… Good God, this one is going to keep me busy until the next US Presidential administration takes power. LOOK AT HOW CRAZY THIS IS…

Slow Hot Tuesday

Today was one of those hot days that–in an apartment with no air conditioning–made it kind of an effort to even sit at the computer and write. Still, work got done and the 12th script for the kid’s comic is done. Guitar Hero II completion continues to elude me (although I got about 90% into Hanger 18 before crashing out) and I need to start setting my sights on a couple of other things. There are more new GameAxis articles owing soon, and I have to work on that submission for Shelley Bond the DC editor.

Busy little bee. And a damn hot one, too…

Monday Means Back To Work

Kind’a. Sort’a.

We still took it easy for today, and just got back into the routine of shopping for stuff and visiting our favorite shops. Before we left though we met the new neighbor who’s moved into the apartment upstairs. She’s an Uber Nerd that does things so complicated with computers that she needs six of them for her work. I still don’t completely understand it, but she suddenly seems like a viable Go To Gal when our own PCs are acting irrationally, which is about 60% of the time. She’s also a bit of a night owl, so it looks like we’re all going to get along just fine working until the sun comes up and going comatose when the rest of the world is getting up to go to work. Having said our “Hi’s” we took off for Bloor to do our shopping.

One sad visit in particular is the excellent cheese shop we discovered when we first arrived, which is now closing. It was a little difficult since it seemed like the woman who ran the shop didn’t really want to do it, but didn’t have much a choice. We didn’t ask, but we bought a bunch of stuff and she thanked us for coming in supporting the place while it was up and running.

We also found a new store, although apparently it had been sitting there for the last 5 weeks and we simply hadn’t noticed. It’s a Geek Shop specializing in comic/manga artbooks, as well as anime and manga, so it’s not quite in competition with Beguiling, although there’s a little bit of overlap. They’re also apparently heavy into promoting local artists and were immediately interested in talking more with the Wife about her stuff. Man, it’s freaky how much more approval her work gets here than in Singapore…

The Old Friend also came around for a visit in the afternoon to hang out, socialize, and plug herself into Guitar Hero. I make converts wherever I can, and it would seem that after really getting into the Butthole Surfer’s Who Was In My Room Last Night, her verdict was, “I think I have to get a PS2 now.”

Good on you, girl.

And in other Guitar Hero news, a fresh spate of tracks has been released for the upcoming Encore: Rocks the 80′s and holy CRAP is this ever getting me excited. Witness, the current list with updates in bold:

• “I Wanna Rock” (by Twisted Sister)
• “I Ran” (by Flock of Seagulls)
• “Round and Round” (as made famous by Ratt)
• “I Want Candy” (as made famous by Bow Wow Wow)
• “Metal Health” (as made famous by Quiet Riot)
• “Holy Diver” (as made famous by Dio)
• “Heat of the Moment” (as made famous by Asia)
• “18 and Life” (as made famous by Skid Row)
• “Bathroom Wall” (as made famous by Faster Pussycat)
• “Lonely is the Night” (as made famous by Billy Squier)
• “Nothing But a Good Time” (as made famous by Poison)
• “Play With Me” (as made famous by Extreme)
• “Shaken” (as made famous by Eddie Money)
• “Synchronicity II” (as made famous by Police)
• “The Warrior” (??? by Scandal) (I’m betting this is a master track myself, it sounds dead on)
• “Only A Lad” (??? by Oingo Boingo)
• “Balls To The Wall” (??? by famous by Accept)
• “We Got the Beat” (??? by the Go Gos)
• “Caught In A Mosh” (as made famous by Anthrax)
• “Wrathchild” (as made famous by Iron Maiden)
• “Hold On Loosely” (as made famous by .38 Special)
• “Radar Love” (as made famous by White Lion)
• “No One Like You” (as made famous by Scorpions)
• “Turning Japanese” (as made famous by The Vapors)
• “Seventeen” (as made famous by Winger)

I TOTALLY called both I Wanna Rock and Turning Japanese so I’m thrilled beyond all reason that those songs are going to be there. The Vapors song in particular has me really excited because it’s just about one of the most fun guitar songs to come out of the 80′s, especially when it starts imitating Japanese riffs. The other one that’s a pleasant surprise and hadn’t occurred to me is Hold On Loosely. It’s a simple, but thick, meaty, catchy 80′s tune which, while maybe not the most technically complex song in the world, is still firmly in the “fun to play” category. Radar Love as played by White Lion has some scary solos in it if they go for the full on version, so that might be one to watch, as does some of the bits towards the end for No One Like You. Seventeen on the other hand, seems like the new Cherry Pie in that it’s kind of an embarrassing song, but one you secretly enjoy playing. Admittedly, the guitar solos are nothing to sneeze at here either, but man those lyrics…

Now I really should get around to writing that landmark 12th installment of the kid’s comic (geez, have I been at this thing for entire year already?!), but in celebration of the Most Triumphant return of The Vapors, enjoy the following video…

Back To Normal

And now things settle down once more.

The In Laws came over one last time in the morning to say goodbye before hopping in the car and driving back to Maine. It’s been a pretty interesting last few days. I get the distinct impression that they are a little homesick for urban life in a city with more than a million people. Then again, being only the second of two Asian families in an American town with a population of 3000 (and falling) will do that to ya’.

The Wife and I have also had the opportunity to not just revisit our favorite haunts but see some new ones. For example on Saturday, at the request of our friend Sonny Liew in Singapore, we tracked down a book he’d been looking for that he located in a Toronto bookshop dealing in rare books. If it hadn’t been for his request, we never would have tracked down this neat little place (with its ultra friendly black cat) on our own, and it’s now definitely the kind of shop that bears repeat visits. On the way (because we walked there from Eaton Centre) we also found an army surplus store that sold everything from current standard issue forest and winter gear for the Canadian army to pressurized pilot helmets worn by MiG pilots of the former U.S.S.R. complete with neat-o breathing masks. The Wife ended up getting a cap for herself with a red star on it and now looks like the People’s Artist. The evening was spent with the Wife’s aunt for a bit of a family reunion, since the Aunt hadn’t met up with the In Laws in something like 25 years, so there was merry making and wine and conversation all around. Mostly I stood around and talked and occasionally smoked while everyone else did that family thing. The food was prepared Singapore style, meaning that I didn’t eat most of it (too spicy) and had a glass of milk on hand for the inevitable accidental consumption of something too hot for me to handle. Which brings us to today.

Today’s Big News

Today, after the In Laws left was our excuse to take the street car down to a part of the city we hadn’t yet seen, Exhibition Place. I’d viewed parts of it from a distance, namely the classical statues and the big turbine, which I didn’t know were part of the grounds. I hadn’t realized however, that this was actually the site of the biggest exhibition floor in the country, or that a lot of major national tradeshows and other events happened here.

The reason we came down was because there was yet another comic book convention running. I had no idea when we arrived that Toronto was such a comic town, but it seems like we’ve inadvertently picked ou the perfect city in Canada for us to hang out in with our particular interests. Although we missed the start of the Paradise Comic-Con, which was yesterday, we made the effort to stop by today. Sunday, however had a special going, in that anyone that showed up in costume would be allowed free admission. So the total body count–at least as from what I could see–was:

1 Next Generation era Starfleet Officer, engineering and operations division.
1 Darth Vader, Episode IV era
1 Snowtrooper
1 Scout Trooper
1 Imperial Crimson Guard (the guys that stood by the elevators guarding the Emperor in Return of the Jedi)
1 Batman
1 Superman
1 Spiderman (child)
1 Robin (child)
1 Baroness (the female villain from G.I. Joe)
1 Power Girl
1 Ms. Marvel (
2 Hogwarts Students, 1 Slytherin, 1 Gryffindor

That aside, the real reason we came down was because the Con was having a special section devoted to Women Of Comics. A lot of female artists were on hand, many of whom I recognized (at least in name), and though we missed her, big names like Gail Simone were also on hand. Of particular interest to the Wife was the fact that DC had some editors sent down. One of them was Shelley Bond, the editor for a new line of books aimed at female readers called MINX. Our friend Sonny Liew is one of the artist that is helping to launch this line with his book, written by Mike Carey, called The Regifters.

Anyway, the editor was in Toronto mostly to talk about and promote the MINX launch, and partly to scout out talent. She was dispensing advice to artist who lined up at her table and showed off samples of their work. This was one of those things the Wife initially thought was a gigantic waste of time because a) she sucks, b) people never get a break this way and c) she sucks hard. I more or less whined and kicked up a fuss saying that this was something she should do anyway, under the pretext that it would be a good experience for her and that she could at least say she’d done it. Miraculously, she went along with this, and so we showed up and took our place in line, which turned out to be very small, with only three people ahead of us.

We were the only “pair” there as the rest were either hopeful amateurs, or slightly more established artists who had web comics and a space in “the artist’s alley” (the area behind all the sales tables where individual artist can sell their work or take original commissions) and were angling for more work. Unsurprisingly, most of the people who were in line were male. Surprisingly, a lot of the work seemed to be the usual superhero stuff. That gave me pause for thought, since Shelley Bond was clearly the editor for a female readership line that was more focused on emotion and characterization than dynamic battle poses in tights, but hey, there ya’ go…

When the Wife’s turn came, they refused to let me stand and insisted on pulling out a chair from their table and letting me sit down. The Editor introduced herself, did all the usual handshaking and the Wife showed off her stuff. Obviously she had a few things going for her a) she’s talented, regardless of her constant denial, b) she’s a professional illustrator who’s already had work appear in Maxim and FHM, which she was able to show, and c) she even had a portfolio book on her which she uses as a promotional piece for
Art Directors in advertising agencies. In other words, she was already established as a professional with a polished body of work. There was that irrational surge of spousal pride that came from seeing the Editor praise her work for avoiding things she’d already gently criticized in others, such as a nice variety of panel numbers and sizes, good use of angles or interesting choice of two-shots. The Wife explained a little about herself and what she was working on, and, in the interests of adding in a little extra insurance, I named dropped.

Since Sonny Liew was one of the artists who had contributed to MINX’s launch, I not-so-discreetly mentioned that not only did we know him, we lived across the street from him for a few years and were contributing to his anthology. It turns out that not only was the Editor totally gushing with praise for Sonny, she was aware of the Liquid City anthology was pretty enthusiastic about its development. The Wife then went on to mention an aborted attempt to work with Serena Valentino (who does Gloom Cookie for Slave Labor Graphics) and these little associations seemed to helpfully cement her credibility with Shelley Bond.

At the end of the talk (which lasted far longer than the others and we actually put an end to it ourselves out of guilt) the Wife got the e-mail and snail mail address of the Editor with a request to see more work, any ideas for stories, as well as a question of whether she’d be willing to work with any writers besides me. Her response was, yes, she was willing, but her preference was still to work with me if at all possible.

This, of course, is insanely cool.

So now it turns out that an idea that we’ve been talking about for the last couple of weeks is incredibly well timed. The subject matter seems perfect for MINX and so I guess the next step is to write it out in proper submission format and then send it off to the DC offices in New York to see how it goes from there.

I have no idea why 2007 is turning out to be the Year Of The Comic for us, but man, I am SO not complaining.

After that we spent a leisurely afternoon wandering around on the Harbourfront, which is the downtown section of Toronto that overlooks Lake Ontario. I cannot believe how different it is from the closest Singapore equivalent, Boat Quay. Boat Quay is a riverside boulevard of sorts filled with restaurants and bars designed to cater to the flood of executives that come in from the nearby Central Business District. Harbourfront, on the other hand, seems more geared towards families and couples and people genuinely interested in having fun, rather than drinking to forget their loathsome occupation, or hungry, pretty young things looking for that potential golden ticket that means citizenship to another country. Where Boat Quay is claustrophobic and full of ambition, Harbourfront is spacious and relaxed. Where Boat Quay is about elitism and arrogance, Harbourfront is about being yourself and just having a good time.

Have I mentioned recently how incredibly happy I am to be back home? Well I am.