just finshed anniversary

[humbug]

I've just finshed the game and thought it was the best TR game since TR3, I thought legend was good but TRA beats it hands down. Legend had too many human enemy's and wasn't all that challenging, it didn't give you the feeling of a one woman struggle? Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, it could be the start of an excellent story. What does every one else think:confused:

[Spong]

Well done humbug, you are officially :cool: for finishing Anniversay!

Yup, I enjoyed it too. It was a little short 'n showy, but it could've been a whole lot worse. I agree with what you said about the enemies, Legend had too many people. Though it's not PC these days to say so, I prefer Lara when she's gunning down the more indigenous population.

[RitaG18]

Congrats! :D

I haven't finished legend yet (final boss left), but I agree that TRA does give you the feeling of being alone. I think that TRA is a very good game, although TRL comes close :)

[thecoolstinger]

congrats dont go for the time trials unless u want alot of frustration LOL!!!!! yeah this game was awesome

[moliketombdestroyer]

I luv TRL and TRA almost the same (TRL is my fav), probably the only reason that i like TRL more than TRA is the animal enemies, they give me heart attacks every single time because they tend to pop out of nowhere, unlike the human enemies in TRL which you could see before they attacked. I guess that would ruin it for sum ppl, but I liked it better, although TRA was pretty sweet (nice Tyrannosaur guys, still wondering how it survived all these years though!).

People keep saying that the tomb raider games are short, and they are for being tomb raider games, but for normal games they're pretty long (and where do ppl get these 2 1/2 hour times! It took me a freaking week to finish each!) But, no offense to them, they just have better skill than me!:lol:

[humbug]

I haven't attempted the time trials yet, thought I would have a go at legends time trials first- probably be a bit easier!

[Jezyk]

2,5h is just a run from the beginning to the end. True PLAYING takes much, much more time :)

[Tombstone2]

2,5h is just a run from the beginning to the end. True PLAYING takes much, much more time :)

Dead right it does...It took me 41.5 hrs to complete, made sure I got every artifact and relic tho...!!!

[Spong]

2,5h is just a run from the beginning to the end. True PLAYING takes much, much more time :)

Define 'true playing'.

[tombraider4]

I´m in St. Francis Folly level and can´t pass...
I read the journal who says " The constelation patterns might be important ", how can I open the door to put the ball down? Someone help me!!!!!!!!!
:mad2:

[Randy 54]

Be more specific.

[Jezyk]

Define 'true playing'.

Going through the game for the first time, when you don't have it memorized; admiring the graphics, views, architecture; looking for secrets, artifacts, relics etc.; playing/replaying the game just for fun of running around shooting at enemies and doing the acrobatics. And so on. Don't say you didn't know what I mean :nut:

[Spong]

So, does being able to complete the game quickly from beginning to end not fall under the category of 'true playing' then?
The list you stated seems more apt with the title 'getting enjoyment from Anniversary', and even then fast playthroughs are still a part of that.

[Jezyk]

Keep in mind that this note about 'true playing' was a replay to the moliketombdestroyer's post. Don't pull out these two words out of the whole discussion and comment as if they were single statement.
When people say things like 'the game can be beaten in 2,5 hours' etc. they lead others to believe that it's really so short and/or to think they are poor players because it took them 10 or more hours to beat it. And that's a lie cause these 'runners' don't say how much time it took them to first beat the game, to memorize the levels, shortcuts, get the cheats, how many replays of TT's they did and so on. And that's also what I meant by the true game taking much more time.

[Spong]

I think what it comes down to is; what you call true gameplay, I call a first playthrough.

Though I agree with you about people who use fast playthroughs after they've completed the game as a reason to complain. I can do Anniversary in a couple of hours easily, but that's because I want to.

[rabid metro]

"TRUE PLAYING" is, i think, probably a bit of a defensive reaction to members bragging about short playing times.

if you string together the maximum time trial intervals you get an estimate for the minimum time needed to complete the game.
no one can play the game in the minimum time (for various reasons), but if you've already beaten the game you can start a new game and rush through it pretty quickly (and close to the minimum time). some people enjoy this mindlessness.

i'm not saying that time trials aren't fun, i enjoy them immensely. (however, in one experience, with about 3 minutes to go, i found it outrageously cruel in the lost valley to climb the gears-ladder with the 3rd cog and hop aboard the first gear ride only to find that the next jump was out of sorts. while i patiently waited for a minute, the gears never aligned themselves. in frustration, when i attempted the impossible long jump, i died (crushed and eaten by wolves). after the restart, the gears were aligned and i probably would have beaten the time trial then but ... the game refused to let me jump on the rotating platform leading to the 3rd cog placement. i mean i completed the jump but then Lara started to dance in place and then sort of moonwalked backwards off the platform and ... needless to say the wolves were loving it. don't misunderstand me, i can routinely beat this time trial but usually failure is associated with the boss battles, not this crap).

BTW, some people would cite this as proof that "CD" is somewhow lacking (choose one: game design, play testing, general smarts, etc.), but to me this stuff is common to all games and to be expected, so its a pass. i'm rabid ... not grumpy ... maybe i should demand more ... :cool:

on first play through (true playing???), you die, you stumble, you stare in awe, you explore and your actual time spent in front of the game will be more than double the amount of time that the game says elapsed while you played. at least that's true for players who explore (mostly without spoilers). on a side note, i haven't finished the game yet. i've been playing off and on for 10 weeks and i'm only about 40% complete. don't worry about me, i'm not looking for spoilers or anything. i won't save a level if i haven't found all the artifacts/relics, so i play slowly and oftentimes repeatedly. also, i play critically: things have to make sense, be accessible from in-game sources, and so on (more on this much later). and another thing, after i get replay, i won't move on until i can beat the time trials routinely. i'm estimating that it'll be near december before i beat the entire game (yay!!! and then i get cheats and can play even more ruthlessly ... umm, i mean efficiently).

if you're collecting artifacts and relics then your times will be far greater than the minimum, at the least simply because these things oftentimes require you to backtrack and replay stretches of the game. if you add in the time spent exploring/analyzing then you are far above the minimum.
is this true playing?

in the end, there is no "true playing" since "real raiders" never ....
ewwww, i didn't like where that was going. oh well ...

in my experience, actual time spent playing with the game is as its always been with tomb raider games: extremely long. however i can replay legend and anniversary (so far) much quicker than the earlier games (mostly because, i think they are set up, in part, to enable swift time trials and because the Legend engine is like honey: sweetly fluid, for the most part). still, for me, the st. francis folly time trial is a bear ... (no spoilers, please)

the Legend time trials are very doable (i love them also), however that final boss battle has a steep learning curve (but then you get it) ...

finally congrats to humbug and all others that have recently completed the game. :thumbsup:
its a great game, well, so far for me (comparing it the originals is really pointless, but in any case, TRA is my favorite TR to date. thanks CD/Eidos).
if you haven't played yet, i'm wishing you good spirits for when you play ... since attitude matters!

[Jezyk]

Ok, I'm not a native english speaker so sorry for any misunderstandings ;-)