Crystal Dynamics is pushing back the release date of its upcoming Tomb Raider reboot to ensure your next adventure with Lara Croft is perhaps the best one yet.

One of the most common reasons companies delay the launch of their games is for quality purposes. It’s no surprise then, that Darrell Gallagher, Head of Crystal Dynamics, told fans on the Crystal Dynamics forums that their reasoning behind the delay is to ensure they “fully deliver the very highest quality game.”

“When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about,” wrote Gallagher. “The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers. The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of.

“We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. ”

Gallagher also gave us a sneak peek at what we might see at E3 with the inclusion of the above image titled “The Reach.” Last year’s demo showed Lara navigating some underground caverns, so perhaps this year’s playthrough will take her out into the wilderness.

Soure: Crystal Dynamics

The recently announced non-Tomb Radier game, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, has a new First Look at Gamespot. In addition to this subtle re-branding with the game’s name, the upcoming download-only title for XBLA, PSN, and PC will feature a top-down, fixed camera, rather than the 3rd person camera that was the standard for the Tomb Raider series.

The new screens look really amazing and I can only imagine that the elevated camera position will lend itself to some very acrobatic platforming fun – but, you know, with guns and stuff.  Lara has no release date yet, but we will certainly let you know when she gets one.  Catch all 6 screens and the full preview over at Gamespot.

Square Enix of Europe today laid speculation to rest today and officially announced Kane & Lynch: Dog Days, a sequel to the original, with an interestingly different visual approach.

After the wild and bizarre viral teaser video that surfaced last week, we kind of almost saw this coming, and now that it’s official, our assumptions are validated and we’re about as ancy as you are to get our hands on it.

The game will release under the Eidos brand and will feature “a new visual experience … inspired by documentary filmmakers and the user-generated era.”

Look for Dog Days on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 sometime in 2010.

Source: Joystiq and Kotaku

Oftentimes, licensed games get the shaft, as they are rushed out to release alongside a movie or to coincide with a popular television shows run. That isn’t the case of Batman: Arkham Asylum–Batman is one of the most popular characters in all of comics, regardless of whether a movie has come out recently or not. Eidos passed along a villains trailer for our viewing pleasure, as we count down the time until we get to kick baddies in the face and throw baterangs at them. Let’s hope this game turns out more like those licensed titles that come out because the series is awesome, and not like the ones that release alongside a related product.

The Joker, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn and Bane all make an appearance in this trailer, so if you’ve been waiting for another look at them–or just want to hear The Joker’s maniacal laugh or Poison Ivy’s sultry voice one more time–then make sure to watch.

There are a lot of bad kid’s games on the Wii, with even more to come during this holiday season, so we here at Blast are going to tell you about one of the better, younger skewing titles to invest your money into this winter. Backbone Entertainment’s “Monster Lab” is a game that will surely fly under the radar, but it’s worthy of more than that sad fate.

You play as a mad scientist in training who plans to join the Mad Science Alliance. Your initial contact to that organization is Dr. Fuseless, as the others have scattered due to poor leadership in the group. You will create, customize and fight in order to save the Uncanny Valley and restore the Mad Science Alliance. Yes, the plot is somewhat flimsy and disposable, but this is not a game you play because you are looking for story.

Creation is where it is at in “Monster Lab,” and you will have plenty of options to keep you busy. You find ingredients lying around, or have them given to you, or earn them by completing various mini-games and puzzles. You then use those to make parts, which you can then fuse together in order to build monsters from scratch or improve upon existing models, of which you can hold up to ten at a time.

While customization and creation are slow at first, you eventually unlock more and more items to create new parts that will keep all of your monsters from being the same. You will need different kinds of monsters too, as the game has a rock-paper-scissors quality to it, with mechanical parts doing more damage to biological parts, biological doing more damage to alchemical, and alchemical harming mechanical the most.

One thing that may irk some, though, is the fact that experimentation is forced upon you. You never know what you are making unless you have made it previously, and the values for the item-such as hit points, attack power, etc.-are not shown until after you have already completed building the part. While I understand wanting to make people experiment in a game based around building monsters in a laboratory, it adversely affects the rock-paper-scissors battle strategy, since it makes building specific parts for specific tasks more difficult.

Building parts can be fun though, as the mini-games that go along with this are entertaining, and the kind that you can improve upon in order to build even better parts. You do a lot of welding early on, which is essentially playing “trace the line” but it moves at odd angles and directions while giving you random spots to fill in along the way, meaning you will need to do well at this and pay attention in order to build powerful parts.

The turn-based battles are also fun, as there is a lot of strategy involved in them. You pick an attack, which uses a set amount of power, and you target a specific area, such as heads, arms, legs, or torso. You then carry out the attack in the hopes of knocking off a part that your opponent will no longer be able to use. You also need to recharge your battery though, which is done in two ways: you can recharge fully and leave yourself open to enemy attacks, or you can recharge one-third of your battery life and dodge your opponent’s advances.

Battles like this show you why it’s important to have a solid array of monsters from all three classes available to you, and to keep them up to speed with the most advanced parts you can make. You can heal in between battles on the world map, and you will need to, but this is gimmicky and gets annoying after a few times, as it is a tacked on waggle mechanic for the Wii version, and brings up a loading screen as well.

“Monster Lab” for Wii also boasts an online mode, but you cannot play against strangers, so unless a friend of yours (or your children’s friends) also own a copy, battling online is going to be disappointing. That is a letdown, as battling monsters against someone more intelligent than the AI is promising and adds greatly to the experience.

The presentation for the game is above-average, and light years ahead of what you expect from most titles that shoot for a younger audience. There is voice acting for many of the lines-though it’s occasionally so campy and over-the-top it is painful-and there are short, animated cutscenes that convey important moments of the story. The graphics themselves are quality, and if you dig the Tim Burton style of art, they are appealing as well, especially in the lab, which is designed for easy navigation as a hub world.

There are two areas where the presentation fall short though, and that is in the individual locations you travel to and in the way you see the game itself. The areas you travel to look somewhat like a game board, and not like the locations they are supposed to be at all, which is an aesthetic turn off, and looks out of place given the quality of the presentation elsewhere in “Monster Lab.”

As for the latter issue, you “view” the monster’s activity through a series of cameras, which means that battles and the aforementioned locations have a somewhat grainy and dingy look to them, compared to the colorful and bright cartoony world the game actually takes place in. This may not be a problem for all, but it is somewhat disappointing, given the look of the game elsewhere.

Not all of the mini-games you play are fun either, though you could do worse for a kid’s game on the Wii. Some of them are a bit repetitive, or a bit too long-or the opposite problem, where you have a fun one that is short-and others rely a little too much on waggling as fast or often as you can in order to advance. They do control well though, and there are plenty of them, which is more than you can say for a lot of less polished titles.

“Monster Lab” is surprisingly well put-together and polished, and it has plenty to offer as a title with replay value, due to the sheer number of different parts and monsters you can create. If the game sells better than expected, the online mode should also improve upon the experience. If you are looking for one game that skews younger this holiday season for your younger Wii-owning relatives or children, “Monster Lab” is a worthy entry into that discussion.

Hot off the heals of the mega-successful blockbuster The Dark Knight, comes word that Rocksteady Studios and Eidos are hard at work on a brand new Batman title. But don’t expect “Batman: Arkham Asylum”. due on shelves sometime in 2009 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC to have much in common with Christopher Nolan’s recent film — due to legal limitations, (EA holds the video game rights to the Batman films) Asylum will take it’s story cues from the Batman comics.

In a story written by Paul Dini, Asylum will take place in and around the it’s namesake — Arkahm Asylum; the home for Gotham’s worst of the worst, which has been taken over by the Joker. Game Informer Magazine describes the game’s action as similar to that of BioShock or original Xbox sleeper hit The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay in the sense that the action takes place in one consistent location, rather than numerous sprawling areas.

The folks at Rocksteady are aiming to make the game deeper than most recent superhero games by focusing on more than just combat. In true Batman fashion, players will be presented with detective-like puzzles and investigative work.That’s not to say that combat won’t be used at all though, as the developers are putting a heacy emphasis on stealth and speed, using a control scheme that utilizes only three buttons (attack, stun and throw) — a fine departure from the hack and slash style of recent games.

Recently, a set of in-game images were released to the net, showcasing a new, dark, yet realistic art style by the Team at Wildstorm comics. These images were promptly removed. Be sure to stay with us for more information on Asylum as it becomes available, same Blast Time, same Blast channel.

Eidos Interactive has announced that they would release the classic coin-op, handheld and early console classic RPG Gauntlet to the Nintendo DS this summer.

“Eidos is proud to revitalize the iconic Gauntlet franchise from Midway by offering a totally revamped iteration of the classic multiplayer action RPG to the Nintendo DS,” said Robert A. Lindsey, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Eidos.  ”Gauntlet pushes the technology behind the DS by introducing VoIP as well as offering gamers an in-depth competitive multiplayer experience never before explored in the Gauntlet universe.”

Gauntlet will be one of the first VoIP-enabled DS games, which allows communication through the Nintendo DS microphone.

Gauntlet offers fast-paced, retro RPG gameplay in addition to the in-depth multiplayer features including cooperative play, and competitive multiplayer. The co-op story mode campaign features 40 maps across three realms, allowing players to experience Gauntlet with up to three friends, banding together with their powers to defeat swarms of demons and skeletons and clear a path to victory.  The arcade style competitive multiplayer feature strengthens the addictive Gauntlet experience by introducing ranked multiplayer games like Death Match, Team Death Match and Treasure Hoard game modes across 16 unique maps. Co-op and competitive multiplayer can be hosted locally over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Gauntlet is set in a fantasy-themed universe where evil cloaks the world from the high clouds of Ascendia to the depths of the lava-ridden Abyss. Players can choose from the four classic heroes, Elf, Warrior, Wizard, and Valkyrie, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and special abilities. Throughout the journey, the heroes will slash their way through demonic foes and gain up to four power move abilities to aid them in their battle with evil.

The game will be developed by Backbone Entertainment, a division of Foundation 9 Entertainment.

Click here for Blast’s other review.

On February, 12 2007, Variety reported that Lions Gate Studios had purchased the movie rights to Eidos’ upcoming shooter; “Kane and Lynch: Dead Men.” The deal — the first time a game has ever been optioned before its release — should prove to be a smart choice by Lions Gate as Dead Men’s story is fast paced, and intriguing, just like a Hollywood blockbuster.

Unfortunately, as an interactive experience Dead Men is more of a mixed bag. Sure, there’s some solid action, but the title is so fundamentally flawed that it’s hard to even enjoy the game’s brightest spots.

At the start of Dead Men, we find our two heroes (in the loosest sense of the word), Kane and Lynch en route to Death row. When things are at their bleakest, a mysterious outfit known only as The 7 interrupts the trip. We learn that Kane is a former member of The 7, and owes them a hefty amount. They give Kane an ultimatum, return the loot or they off his wife and daughter. They have Lynch, a pill-popping, psychopath, keep tabs on him.

Without spoiling anything, Dead Men features twists, turns and some of the best character development seen in this console generation. What it also features is some of the most mature content ever.

Right from the start you’ll kill police officers, drop f-bombs and shoot innocent hostages with no remorse or recoil. In the past, some games have featured these same actions, but they’ve come off almost as cheap, shock tactics. This is not an issue in Dead Men. It would feel awkward if these two anti-heroes didn’t do these things, and the mature content gives it almost an edgy independent movie feel. (Tarantino?)

Aiding in that feeling is the game’s pitch perfect presentation. Minus a few camera glitches, the action unfolds very cinematically, with little to no interruption. Rather than interrupt the title’s flow with cut-scene after cut-scene, most of the story takes place in game (save for the traditional post-level cut-scenes). Kane and Lynch argue, and nitpick at each other, almost like a murderous odd-couple.

Sadly, Dead Men falters in almost every other aspect. When initially announced, Eidos promised that gamers would be able to choose their own style of play — whether it be old school run and gun or commanding Kane, Lynch and the squad of miscreants you encounter throughout the game similar to the style of the Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six franchises. Unfortunately, the squad-based controls seem rather useless, and besides a few key moments in the game where you are almost forced to use them, you’ll more than likely forget that they’re even in the game. Sure, it’s nice to have your guys cover certain exits, or attack a group of enemies, but it just becomes more of a hassle when you’re constantly running over to heal them, and you end up doing the work you sent them to do as a result of the horrible AI.

Luckily, the enemy AI is just as bad, and most enemies jump right out of their cover — seemingly happy to let your bullets hit them.

The cover system is another major disappointment. 90 percent of Dead Men is gun fights, and as a result the game’s faulty cover system makes it much more frustrating than it should be, and you’ll be stuck crossing your fingers hoping one of your squad members is close enough to give you an adrenaline shot and boost your health. Unlike the intuitive cover system of games like Gears of War, Dead Man requires no button presses to go into cover — as your character will find cover automatically when in close enough proximity to a wall, counter etc. While this may sound easier, far too frequently, you’ll be sticking to surfaces you don’t want to, causing yourself to become vulnerable to incoming fire, rather than being able to pick your best point in the aforementioned games.

Perhaps what bugs me the most about Dead Men is its problems with cheap gameplay. In many shooter games, the opening levels are used to set-up the game’s basics and rules, allowing players to seamlessly build upon them in the later levels. This seems nearly impossible when those rules are broken quickly after they’re established. Take for instance the level early on just after escaping from a bank where you must shoot cop cars trailing your getaway van from the back. Throwing grenades underneath the cars will sometimes do them in, but others it will merely result in an acme like cloud of dust billowing up around the car. It must also be noted that it’s in levels like this that it becomes apparent that the backgrounds and NPC’s (non-playing characters) have literally no personality. Case in point, the same level mentioned above, while shooting at the cop cars makes them swerve, other people on the road, just keep driving along, unaware of the bullets flying around, even when they’re the target!

Dead Men’s visuals are like the rest of the title: some are great, and some are just plain old horrible. Wide-shots, like that of downtown Tokyo as seen repelling down the side of a high rise are nothing short of breathtaking. But shots up close, especially player models, are downright bad — reminiscent of many games from the early part of this generation.

The developers must be commended on Dead Men’s online mode: Fragile Alliance. Rather than bank on the tried and true Deathmatch mode, Fragile Alliance uses the squad based gameplay to create an original and compelling experience. One team plays as bank robbers, while the other as cops. You can guess what each team’s objectives are, but what makes Fragile Alliance truly unique is that anyone on the team controlling the bank robbers can choose to risk it all, and screw over their teammates, taking the loot for themselves.

I’m sure Kane and Lynch: Dead Men will make a great movie, but as a game — it’s a forgettable and lackluster run-of-the-mill shooter with some deep, fundamental problems. If you’re looking for a distraction from some of last year’s AAA titles, it might be worth it to give the title a rent, it may take some of the frustration out.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Eidos
Developer: Io Interactive
Platform: Xbox 360 (reviewed), Playstation 3, PC
Genre: Action, Third-person shooter
Players: 1-2 (local) up to 8 online,

Playability: 3 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 3 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Click here for Blast’s other review.

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men is a very solid game with an excellent story, good graphics and original multiplayer. It’s also easy to learn the controls and basics.

The game’s storyline puts you in the position of one of two men, Kane, the former mercenary, or Lynch who is a drug-up psychopath babysitting Kane. The two men go through various stages of heists and committing other kinds of crimes. They interact so realistically; it’s one of the strongest points int he game.

Not only during cut scenes, but during the actual gameplay you can see the two men showing their pleasure or displeasure towards each other and the current heist. The storyline is even better in cooperative mode with a friend, where one of you takes the role of Kane, and the other, Lynch.

The controls are easy to master. The game is a third-person shooter in which you use the Left Trigger to aim, and the Right Trigger to shoot. You are able to use the other buttons to control people that are helping you.

The graphics, while not the most impressive thing to hit the Xbox 360, are well-done. Each area is well-detailed and nice to look at. The people are well designed and so are the structures — interior and exterior.

Xbox Live multiplayer might be the best part of the game. It allows you and seven other companions to go on heists. You start by picking up jewelry and cash, trying to raise your total worth before the escape. However, players have the option of being a team player, or getting greedy and killing you for all of your loot.

The killed player gets respawned as a guard or police officer, and the killer will be marked as a traitor. Your former companions will come gunning for both of you.

Dead Men is the perfect way to fix that action-game craving. It’s not at all perfect, but there’s real “edge of your seat” action, exciting multiplayer, and a story that will suck you right in. It’s a definite rental, and if you aren’t turned off by the crude language, drug references, and bloody violence (F-bombs EVERYWHERE), this is one of those games you just buy by default.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Eidos
Developer: Io Interactive
Platform: Xbox 360 (reviewed), Playstation 3, PC
Genre: Action, Third-person shooter
Players: 1-2 (local) up to 8 online,

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

There once was a magazine called Launch.

Oh what a magazine it was. Launch was mainly a music publication, which offered a Macromedia-powered CD-ROM magazine in the 90s. It was an early form of convergence journalism, and we pay homage to them and their efforts.

Like just about every other good thing in the tech bubble years, it got bought out and bastardized, homogenized and repackaged. Today, Launch is unrecognizable as merely an Internet radio station incorporated into Yahoo! Music. Yahoo! paid $12 million for Launch in 2001.

But Launch CD-ROM did some great things back in the day, and one of the things they did pretty well was throw in video game reviews and game demos.

In Launch 11, which I believe was the February 1997 issue, they included a review and install program for a new action game called Tomb Raider.

To give you a sense of where we were back then, Launch 11 also offered an interview with Silverchair and reviews of cd’s from Bush, Branford Marsalis, Cardigans, Cake and Merril Bainbridge. Also featured, a review of the soundtrack from Romeo and Juliet (by the way, one of the best soundtracks ever made). They also reviewed Waverace 64, Grid Runner, Temptest 2000, Tobal No. 1, Mr. Bones and Drowned God.

The Tomb Raider review (read it here) is a classic early take on Tomb Raider.

Download the Tomb Raider Demo
Download the original readme

Anti-heroes bringing their mix of action and betrayal to a game created specifically for mobile devices, Eidos New Media announced Monday.

The mobile game was ported by Danish developer, Kiloo, with input from Io Interactive, the original development studio for the game.

Kane and Lynch has hit major consoles with mixed reviews lauding its original gameplay but questing its buggy controls and repetitive battle sequences.

Check with your wireless carrier for information of availability.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a cinematic crime drama that tells a raw and gritty tale of two anti-heroes – one a flawed mercenary, the other a medicated psychopath: Forced to embark on a violent and chaotic journey and hating each other every step of the way, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men features a gripping storyline and relentless third-person action.
Spanning 38 action-packed levels across five very different scenarios, Kane and Lynch mobile takes the form of a fast paced action game. Armed with a wealth of firearms, explosives, deadly booby traps and gadgets, the pair must blast a path through each heavily-guarded location, using simple yet effective menu systems to switch between shotguns and assault rifles with ease.

In video game journalism — like any other media industry — people come and go all the time, but an Internet rumor behind the recent departure of a Gamespot senior editor is sending a ripple through the industry.

Jeff Gerstmann had been with the popular gaming news site since 1996. He was let go after giving a negative review to Eidos’ new game, Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, which arrived on store shelves to mixed reviews recently.

The core element to the rumor is that Eidos had been pumping a large amount of money into advertising on Gamespot.com and CNET, the parent company buckled under the pressure and fired the veteran journalist.

Gamespot took down Gerstmann’s video review, but it has come back to life via YouTube. They are catching plenty of flack, whether the rumor is true or not.

“Fuck Gamespot, you can’t trust them anymore,” wrote one YouTube user. “They rate games according to how much money they get from the company that makes it. You pay and you get a good review. Money talks bullshit walks.”

Gamespot admitted they let Gertsmann go in a recent press release but hasn’t said much to explain their actions.

“GameSpot takes its editorial integrity extremely seriously,” the release said. “For over a decade, GameSpot and the many members of its editorial team have produced thousands of unbiased reviews that have been a valuable resource for the gaming community. At CNET Networks, we stand behind the editorial content that our teams produce on a daily basis.”

After the story broke, the internet community quickly responded, with some going as far as to boycott any site owned by CNET and others protesting outside the company’s northern California headquarters — and it wasn’t just crazed gamers protesting either.

According to Joystiq, Ziff Davis’ 1UP staffers — Gamespot’s most fierce competitor — protested in support of their dismissed colleague.

One forum poster on Valleywag.com, a popular gaming portal, claimed to be an employee of CNET’s advertising team. The unidentified poster said Eidos was indeed furious at the review score, but doubts that alone caused Gertsmann to lose his job.

“The ads went up and the Eidos brouhaha was settled over two weeks ago. Jeff got fired yesterday. Furthermore, I’d heard a few people tell that he’d already been skating on thin ice for ‘unprofessional reviews and review practices,’” said the poster. “I don’t know much about that, though, so I can’t say one way or the other. My gut tells me that he got canned for larger reasons. Maybe the Eidos debacle was part of it — I don’t know. But I sincerely doubt that Eidos made Gamespot fire him. CNET doesn’t kowtow to its advertisers, and I’ve more than once seen the higher-ups turn away big advertising dollars for the sake of the company’s integrity. I think the whole thing is likely a combination of factors, the biggest being poor timing.”

The post has since been taken down.

Gamespot responded to the controversy again Tuesday with a front-page statement from the company’s management.

“Jeff [Gerstmann] was a central figure in the creation and evolution of GameSpot, having written hundreds of previews and reviews and anchoring much of our multimedia content,” said Ricardo Torres, editorial director of previews and events. “The award-winning editorial team he leaves behind wish him nothing but good luck in his future endeavors.”

Torres wouldn’t comment directly on Gerstmann’s departure but denied any wrongdoing.

"Due to legal constraints and the company policy of GameSpot parent CNET Networks, details of Gerstmann’s departure cannot be disclosed publicly. However, contrary to widespread and unproven reports, his exit was not a result of pressure from an advertiser.”

The sentiments were echoed by CNET.

“Neither CNET Networks nor GameSpot has ever allowed its advertising business to affect its editorial content,” said Greg Brannan, CNET Networks Entertainment’s vice president of programming. “The accusations in the media that it has done so are unsubstantiated and untrue. Jeff’s departure stemmed from internal reasons unrelated to any buyer of advertising on GameSpot.

Adding to the hilarity of it all, when the smoke cleared, Gamespot ending up staying with Gerstmann’s 6 review and a video promo is still active on the site. Penny Arcade also put together a comic about the situation

There is no smoking-gun proof that Gamespot let Gerstmann go because of a poor review to an advertiser’s marquee game, but the sheer fact that this kind of rumor persists shows the growing distrust consumers are showing towards video game reviews.

Case in point: Assassin’s Creed by Ubisoft. Blast and IGN gave the game a 7, while Gamespot gave it a 9 and Gamesradar gave it a 10. Ubisoft did in fact post massive amounts of advertising for “Creed” leading up to the game’s release.

Most of these websites, including Blast Magazine, rely almost completely on advertising for operating capital. This also applies to most traditional print magazines and print publications. The difference may be that most traditional newspapers have larger staffs and advertising departments that are completely separate from the editorial division.

In the end, the advertising isn’t going to go away, but online outlets need to do more to show their objectivity, and advertisers need to steer clear of any editorial conflicts.

With that take on things, we’d like to remind Ubisoft and Eidos that we have several leaderboard advertising spots open for January.

Blast Magazine staff writer John Guilfoil contributed to this report