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Post by Xeogred on Jul 9, 2023 12:19:51 GMT -5
Tomb Raider III Level 1 - 9:30 - 10:40 = 1h10m Level 2 - 2:40 - 4:30 = 1h50m Level 3 - 9:20 - 9:50 = 30m Level 4 - 9:50 - 10:15 = 15m Level 5 - 10:15 - 11:20 = 1h5m
After clearing the jungle arc of TR3, I was greeted with a bit of a world map and had three choices for the next arc. Nevada, London, and South Pacific Coast or something. Nevada sounded pretty cool for my next stop. I like how in TR2+ Lara starts getting different outfits per arc. Also skimmed the manual the other night to make sure I wasn't missing anything crucial with new mechanics or whatever. There's some suggestive Lara art in the binding in a lot of pages, hah. They were certainly leaning into the sex appeal by this point but TR3 continues to impress and at this rate, is even better than TR2 to me. There were human enemies in this first Nevada level but they didn't even have any weapons, they just run up on you and try to punch... hah. So easy doing backflips dodging them, or rolls, etc. The tricky enemy to TR3 so far are snakes. Whom are actually immobile and never move around, but if they bite you, you get poisoned. I still don't know if the poison ever stops but applying a med kit will stop it. Just sucks to have a lot of health and have to burn a med pack in something like that. In these old TR games, you have finite resources that carry over through the whole game, so you want to manage your health, ammo, etc accordingly in the whole run, not just per level.
Saving is interesting in TR3. You find Save Crystals along the levels that you can use to save anywhere. I'm just using save states to speed that up, since I think the PC versions of all these allowed quick saves. Beating TR1 legit on PSN though without save states, might always make that one extra memorable to me. Contrast to TR2 letting you save anywhere (even in the PSX version) or TR3 giving you these things you can use in your own spots, TR1 had very sparse set save points per level. You really couldn't mess around and death meant losing a lot of progress sometimes. Tough noodles.
TR1 is "Oops all Dungeons" basically so it's an aesthetic and style of level design that I freaking love. It'll be hard to beat, but maybe TR3 has a chance to take the throne. Loving it so far.
I love when this jingle pops up, it's SO classic John Williams.
This track was great:
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Post by Xeogred on Jul 10, 2023 21:22:31 GMT -5
That's right, just got done with Area 51 tonight. Normal Tomb Raider things.
Real time was almost 2 hours... could feel myself starting to go stir crazy.
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Post by Ex on Jul 11, 2023 0:12:45 GMT -5
Aliens in Tomb Raider not expected. Kinda interesting we're both playing 5th gen action-adventure games with female protagonists exploring old ruins. That was a large part of what I did in b.l.u.e. tonight, exploring underwater Egyptian ruins. Managed to make it to chapter 3, and got a pet plesiosaur of all things. After escaping a biomechanoid in a ship full of corpses, then fending off an ancient robot in an underwater temple. This game is crazy.
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Post by toei on Jul 11, 2023 0:37:47 GMT -5
Ex Interesting parallel. I know they play nothing alike, but it's funny to think of b.l.u.e. as Underwater Tomb Raider.
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Post by Xeogred on Jul 11, 2023 8:33:52 GMT -5
For some reason they were experimenting on baby whales in Area 51 too.
Because that Save Crystal pickup is there, must have been some way to get in there. But the secrets are always pretty dang tough to find in these games. I'm usually happy if I just find one or two.
There's a lot of swimming in these old TR games. But it's usually frantic stuff with you having to quickly find levers to open gates and stuff, or you drown. Always a "ohhh here we go" moment when I know there's a long water part ahead.
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Post by Ex on Jul 11, 2023 9:44:30 GMT -5
In b.l.u.e. the protagonist is a free diver (meaning no SCUBA tanks) but she can hold her breath for five minutes at a time. There are air pockets in the ruins (and that ship I explored) where the player can return to and refill their lungs. The air pockets also act as save points. But as soon as you leave an air pocket the lungs timer starts depleting, so one must always be mindful of that. You die instantly if you run out of air, as expected. Really the only thing stressful about diving ruins/vessels is the camera can be a real asshole at times. Not unexpected given the age of the game and the occasional tight quarters. So far I've got 4.5 hours invested.
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Post by Xeogred on Jul 11, 2023 21:58:29 GMT -5
Those dark city night levels MMM MMM MMMMMMM! I probably just missed Garrett and JC Denton.
This was the first of the London arc, which I've seen some people don't love. So far so good though, not a single bad level in TR3 to me yet.
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Post by Ex on Jul 13, 2023 0:55:00 GMT -5
Setting an underwater clock to open doors that match certain time signatures, yeah. Solving a cryptic weight puzzle involving gems and a weighing statue... that shoots death lasers if you get it wrong. Man is this game Japanese. Another 1.5 hours into b.l.u.e. this evening. Large submerged Egyptian ruins full of puzzles, and the puzzles are starting to become drawn out and asinine. I'm about halfway through chapter 3 out of 5 chapters now, and I've got 6 hours invested. HLTB says an average of 8 hours to beat. This tells me most people beat this game with a walkthrough (there is an English walkthrough on GameFAQs). I haven't been playing with a walkthrough, though. One puzzle I'm at now is tempting, but I'll sleep on it. That usually works.
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Post by Xeogred on Jul 13, 2023 9:50:12 GMT -5
See, these puzzles sound more involved and obnoxious than TR's.
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Post by Ex on Jul 13, 2023 10:03:33 GMT -5
See, these puzzles sound more involved and obnoxious than TR's. Duly noted. Yeah b.l.u.e. is basically 100% puzzles with a death timer.
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