Toby Gard leaves Tomb raider (again)

lot of news, let's refer to most reputable source

http://stellalune.blogspot.com/2009/09/tomb-raider-creator-toby-gard-leaves.html

Is he going to work on TR as a frelancer? Doesn't seem very likely...

here's an article with quotes from Toby himself, seems like his input
was too limited:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/gard-time-was-right-to-leave-tomb-raider_5

from the article, Toby Gard: ""The only real way that I can really
effect Lara Croft is to be in charge of a project. More and more as I
was working at Crystal, especially on Underworld where I was just doing
cinematic work, the reality is the control of the characters is in the
hands of the creative directors and the publisher."

erik

"Erik Steffl" wrote in message

> lot of news, let's refer to most reputable source
>
> http://stellalune.blogspot.com/2009/09/tomb-raider-creator-toby-gard-leaves.html
>
> Is he going to work on TR as a frelancer? Doesn't seem very likely...
>
> here's an article with quotes from Toby himself, seems like his input
> was too limited:
>
> http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/gard-time-was-right-to-leave-tomb-raider_5
>
> from the article, Toby Gard: ""The only real way that I can really
> effect Lara Croft is to be in charge of a project. More and more as I was
> working at Crystal, especially on Underworld where I was just doing
> cinematic work, the reality is the control of the characters is in the
> hands of the creative directors and the publisher."
>
> erik

Well, I think EIDOS wants to completely re-invent the franchise now.
Rather, whoever actually owns the franchise and controls it does. More
power to em. The TR classic games I enjoyed most are the end. We have
hoped for modernized TR's with the level of playability 1 thru 4 had. And
struggled to like every iteration of TR since. All fall short.
This isn't 1995. The vid games industry is gargantuan, the numbers of
players on the court is staggeringly huge. For a game to even survive and
recover its development costs, it has to compete in a melieu that simply did
not exist in 1995 when Tomb Raider was being developed. TR was fresh, edgy
and very different from then current fare. TR didn't just create a nitche,
it begat an entire genre of video games.
We hard core Tombies look at what TR is now and feel the changes made are
ridiculous overall. That factor is only going to get worse. What the
masses want to play is what the publisher is going to have created and push
it to the limit. And the masses are NOT hard core Tombies.
I've come to terms with this whole schmear. Lara Croft died in the cave in
at the end of TR4. Everything since is just speculative storytelling and
idle conjecture. But the Lara we know, is dead. May the Divine Ponytail
and Our Lady of Infinite Gunfire R.I.P.

(And if she DIDN'T die, then she ducked out of sight to escape the clutches
of EIDOS. )

McG.