Recent reviews by C_

Like many in the recent generation of players, I got this as my first Tomb Raider game back in March 2020, during a 3-day free-to-keep promotion from Square Enix which ended up in the game hitting just shy of 90,000 concurrent players - the most it had ever recorded on Steam, and likely on PC overall. What a decision it was for them to do that, given that player numbers for Rise and Shadow saw equal peaks in the following days and weeks as players found 10 hours or so to set aside and experience a playthrough of modern Tomb Raider.

I look back on it now and I couldn't be more thankful that I grabbed this game on the last day it was free those 4 years ago. After I completed this game it left me with this pit-of-despair feeling that can only be expressed as my sub-conscious blaring:

"God, I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ WISH there was more of whatever THAT was."

I haven't been able to pinpoint why I have such a strong psychological and emotional bond with this game over all others I've played, but in my latest bout of video game excitement droughts that I experience with more frequency than ever nowadays, I installed this game after 4 years and gave it another playthrough, this time 100%'ing the map (all collectibles and challenges). And what an experience it was to play this game again. So, what is it about this game that cements it with a special place in my heart over the subsequent releases in the Survivor trilogy? Well, I think I've finally cracked what sets this one above the rest.


One of the biggest gripes that I've realised I always had with Rise and Shadow compared to TR2013, was that those games delved a lot more into the sort of conventional open-world elements you see in modern games, which are present in the vast, expansive levels that pop up throughout the game, typically in the form of a large settlement such as the Soviet Installation in Rise, or Paititi in Shadow. The issue with these in the last two games, is that it pulls them away from what I think was a fundamental element to the "feeling" of playing through TR2013. Isolation.

Crystal Dynamics said they wanted a far more bleak, grim and gritty setting for the reboot and Yamatai feels like a perfect encapsulation of what they set out to achieve. Because beyond the intentionally bland colour palette that brings a sense of dread and despair, you don't really speak to anybody outside your friends and crew aboard the Endurance when you reunite with them in a one-on-one engagement or a group reunion, and it's pretty much only cutscenes save for a couple instances later in the game. There's no NPC's with side quests, nobody to talk to for "lore" and no alliances with other NPC's in missions. This game is lonely, and I feel like that couldn't be more perfect - especially considering Lara is known to prefer working alone.

On top of the loneliness and isolation that Yamatai presents, it's also incredibly unforgiving. Some of you may be aware of the brutal death scenes in this game where you can get crushed by a pair of boulders in the beginning, or impaled on a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ branch, sliced by an aircraft propeller, executed by bow & arrow or being drawn up on a pike by a Stormguard. This may have been a touch menacing even for a Tomb Raider game, but I believe that they serve an ultimate purpose. It's to remind you that Yamatai is CURSED, and EVERYTHING wants to KILL YOU. There is nobody and nothing you can trust on this island except for your friends from your crew, and even then some of them have ulterior motives, deluded by ambition. After all, this island isn't present on modern maps ingame. It isn't supposed to even exist, a myth of an island cursed by an immortal queen, blinded by wrath.

Also,
The environments are so masterfully crafted and fitting for this game too. It's got that certain look to it that fits in really well with the grimey aesthetic of all the structures and geography of the island. Yamatai is meant to be a lost island, forgotten in time and its only legacy is as a myth known by only archaeologists, so it makes perfect sense that every environment is a dilapidated, neglected and borderline abandoned setting (i say borderline since Mathias and his followers inhabit the island, presumably being responsible for the Shantytown), it really helps seal the setting that outside of cutscenes with your crew, you are all alone out here on your quest to ultimately save as many of your friends as you can, and get the hell off the island whatever it takes.

All of the environments are so blatant, so instantly recognisable as "forgotten" or "lost to time" by the eye, whereas the last two games don't have this going for them, but I think this is mainly because of what I feel is the increased focus on conventional open world elements, as said before, it doesn't make sense for everything to be rotting away if there is a clear human presence dedicated to upholding their little piece of civilisation and their culture. Mathias' people have no care to settle, and would avoid committing as much as possible. You can often hear them talk about finally escaping the island if the "new queen" is accepted in the ritual, and how it'll probably be another cooked chick to presumably throw to the dungeon dwelling cannibals.

The actual design of elements such as the weapons didn't strike me as much as the environments did however. There's nothing wrong with them in particular, the guns themselves make sense and the upgrades fit right into the design of the game like a glove, but I think another thing that does contribute to my preference towards this game in the Survivor trilogy over the others, is the design of Lara herself.


Because of this, Lara looks FAR younger in TR2013 and for me it's less that it makes sense for this point in the timeline, but more for the fact that it plays into the theme that Lara has to endure the trials that Yamatai throws at her to become the character we know she is today, and that obviously means she's younger, more naive, less battle-scarred/hardened. She's canonically straight out of university in this game, and Camilla's stellar performance absolutely adds to the isolation factor that I mentioned earlier. (However, some of you ♥♥♥♥♥ tend to appreciate her acting for different reasons.)

This borderline rant is getting quite long, and if you've stumbled across my review and said "i ain't readin allat" then that's fair enough but I can't write a TL;DR because it will be another paragraph. So I'll just conclude this bollocks instead.

To sum up my feelings, Tomb Raider 2013 is a very special kind of game to me, because it's one that I actually think about a lot afterwards. Not many games can do that for me at all, and the last game to do that for me was Devil May Cry 5. But TR2013 is beyond that personally. It's one that would drive me to move heaven and earth to experience it for the first time again, and that's why even thinking about this game always leaves me with bittersweet embodied as an emotion, because I don't think any game will make me feel that way ever again.

So this must be how it feels to walk around Brixton.

Like Metal Gear Rising with planes.

This game is not free to play.
This game is free to install.

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Stared out of a window as the JPEG dog from AC7 and some guy comes up to me and says he was eating turkey bacon. Ended up talking for 2 hours straight about his redneck neighbourhood and a time when he went hunting and the deer he shot got up on all fours and ran halfway up a mountain. 10/10, wish i could have more opportunities like that.

As punishing as this game is, there is a way to find enjoyment in such an endeavour as 'trying to get good at DiRT Rally 2.0'.


As wild as it seems, perfection should not be your goal in this game. Perfection in such a sport like rally is practically unachievable, no matter how much you try. You won't have the absolute perfect rally of your life, where you were spacegliding around every corner and didn't hit a single obstacle or go off the track once. You will do one of those things, and one reason of being bad at this game is being unable to accept that perfection is impossible.

Rally is, in a way, about making mistakes, much like life. You will keep on failing until you learn one day, that when the mysterious man next to you announces "don't cut" you should stay away from the inside of that corner otherwise you'll end up like these fine gentlemen.
Obviously, you will learn from your mistakes over time, but once you do you strive for something more, i.e perfection. A perfect life of no misery, a perfect drive of no damage. But life can not offer that, nor can rally, and being humbled to the fact that you can not achieve that, will turn you into a better driver.


Mistakes is something you will make, as i said before. But it's these mistakes which teach you in your early days of rally driving that really make the impact. Learning that handbrake isn't always the way, that you should never flat out a RWD car, and that when the man next to you, named Phil, says "don't cut", DON'T CUT!
But later on in your driving experience, you'll make smaller mistakes. In the haste of your anxiety-fuelled steering, you quickly forget about whatever you just did that slightly affected your time, and at the end of the stage you suddenly remember what happened. You think for a second about why you even made that mistake, and what you could have done to avoid such as mishap in the future, even if it is for just a few hundred milliseconds off your time.

But, your time is your time, unless you were truly unhappy with the result, being content with what you placed allows you to recognise mistakes and fix them for the forseeable future, until you make another mistake and the cycle repeats. While it may seem tedious and irritating, it's the best thing for a game like DiRT Rally. By messing up, even slightly, you keep yourself learning about the game, it keeps you striving to be a better driver than you were in that one stage. You obsess over cutting every corner you can, digging into the corners and practically making a mineshaft, and speeding through the straights like a bat out of hell. But somewhere along that way, a bump, a nick, a scratch. Anything to make you question "Why did i even do that? How did that happen?", which you carry with you until the end of the race.


The way to be content with your results, to truly be happy with a run, is not to be perfect, but it's to be as perfect as you can be. As perfect as you can allow yourself to be. Knowing your limits, and understanding that that is your best result, and that you should be proud of that. Keeping this principle in mind through every stage, every event, every championship is what makes the good drivers, good.

Take your time, you're only as fast as you want yourself to be. And remember, you are not just a rally driver, you are an artist, and you will never, ever stop improving your work.

i blame the danish

Hectic, yet hilarious concept for a game. Cant wait for the new episodes to come out, as this looks to be a very promising indie title that brings a new challenge to the table, and not the one most would expect. Those who give this game a negative review are mostly people who don't understand the concept of 'early access', but you should be aware that there are (as of 10/04/20) 3 playable broadcasts, with the rest of the story in multiple-choice style on the side for a total of about 1-2 hours of gameplay (so far), that doesn't mean it will go fast, however.

Managing camera shots (a green light under the screen is a hint as to what shot you should be on), timing adverts so you don't accidentally broadcast Jeremy having makeup being put on while spitting profanities of some sort, or managing that damned interference, this game kept me on my toes for the whole 2.1 hours i've played so far.

Pick this game up if you are okay with it in it's current state, and would like to see how you fair in the seat of a broadcaster, i'd recommend it to anybody willing to try a new type of challenge.

4 races into career mode, Verstappen had to retire out of 2 of those. 10/10