Lara Croft Plastic Surgery

Tomb Rider : Definitive Edition

Synopsis

"Last year’s Tomb Raider reboot was a beautiful release for both PC and consoles. It stretched the ageing Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 to their limits, and also provided PC gamers with one of the year’s greatest spectacles.

It had some gripping set pieces and excellent combat that was completely at odds with how Tomb Raider was traditionally thought of. Sure, it’s the ultimate homage to the Uncharted series, but borrowing some of that franchises finer characteristics was hardly a one-way street. Now though, the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition has found its to PS4 and Xbox One, in an effort to plug that post-launch gap and attempt to get one of Lara’s finest adventures up to par with its PC brother. Let’s see how it fared…

Much of what can be said about Tomb Raider can be summed up in Stuart’s review. It’s an incredible looking rollercoaster ride through set-piece after set-piece, continuing to outdo itself with more bombast and over-the-top graphical wizardry. It was a feeling we’d never experienced before in a Tomb Raider game. Gone was Lara’s mansion. Gone was the majority of the tomb raiding. In its place was slick combat and a grittier, altogether more unsettling tale.

The move to PS4 is certainly an impressive one. In comparison to the PS3 version it’s leaps and bounds ahead of it. Playing in glorious 1080p resolution and usually moving at a slick 60 frames per second, it looks great. Whisper it quietly but it’s actually looking every bit as good as the PC version, right down to the demanding Tress FX for tricophiliacs, you strange bunch you. Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition uses the new Tress FX 2.0 that is much less demanding on the system, reducing the performance penalty and making it a possibility on PS4.

The PS4 is obviously capable of throwing around a lot more particle effects than console gamers have been used to, from embers whipping from your torch, to dust and wind effects. Everything about the game certainly looks better, even Lara herself has been given a makeover with an entirely new character model and voice actor. In comparison to the PS3 version there is just huge amounts more detail, including effects such as sweat and water dripping. The PS4 version is running FXAA, which while not as impressive as the PC Tomb Raider’s super-sharp antialiasing options, still looks pretty clear. The same can be said of the textures. The PS4 version can be guiltier of using lower quality textures sometimes but makes up for it with better environmental effects, such as authentically rolling fog and realistic smoke plumes from fires.

One aspect that is noticeable is the wider range of emotions evoked by Lara Croft thanks to her new model. Her face looks a fair bit more realistic and her eyes betray emotions that wasn’t seen in the PC version, easily letting you see whether she’s scared or confused.

Old look (left, new look (right)

In essence it keeps pace with the PC version at the highest settings, introducing some additional effects to help mask its shortcomings. Occasionally you do see a few chinks in the armour, such as a lowered frame rate during some of larger explosions, but these aspects are few and far between. Overall it’s a technical tour de force and demonstrates that, for the time being at least, the Playstation 4 is capable of outputting at PC quality. How long that remains the case is of course the issue for console gamers...

The move to PS4 for the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition as a full-priced released has got a few knickers in a twist in the gaming world. This bundled up release contains the original game and all of its released DLC, which is basically extra multiplayer maps and skins. To complain that it shouldn’t be full price I find kind of bizarre. It’s been out less than a year and with all its additional bells and whistles is well worth the asking price of the original title. Knocking the score down because it’s already been released on another console seems a tad nonsensical. This isn’t a package made for those who’ve already explored Yamatai, this is for those first setting foot into Lara’s adventure. For them it’s an essential purchase, for everyone else it really doesn’t matter."

source - Game-Debate