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Roar Uthaug's 'Tomb Raider' Should Have Stayed Entombed

Roar Uthaug's insistence upon combining faux gravitas with action results in countless scenes of unintentional hilarity.

Film

Good Hair Is Wasted on Humans

High tech hair in video games always looks unrealistic, well, except on monsters.

Games

Where Did All the (Action Figure) Girls Go?

The scarcity of the Black Widow action figure on toy shelves has me thinking about what we think we know about gender identity in play, be that play with toys or play in video games.

Games

Big Breasts and Badasses: The Dividing Line of Gender Representation in Gaming

In which the author suggests that the new Lara Croft might be the best example of androgyny in gaming.

Games

Some Worlds Are Best Seen From Outside Your Own Eyes

I don't have a problem if you want to play Grand Theft Auto from a first person perspective. Knock yourself out. But I won't be doing so anytime soon.

Games

A Good Menu Sets the Mood: Part 4

Fez and Tomb Raider deserve special mention for the aesthetics of their main menu screens.

Games

Sadism Is Fine As Long As It’s Short

With all the horrible ways to die presented in Tomb Raider, why are the impalings singled out as gratuitous or exploitative? I think that it has less to do with their content and more to do with their context.

Games

Playing to Suffer, Suffering to Play

I have found myself struck with admiration recently by games that I have played that have put me in less than empowering positions, games that celebrate difficulty and hardship, struggling and deprivation, rather than empowerment and excess.

Games

Survival as Facade in 'Tomb Raider'

The new Tomb Raider chronicles the birth of a survivor, but it's a story that is easier to see than it is to feel.

Games

The Horror of 'Tomb Raider'

The game opens with a prologue straight out of a hillbilly cannibal horror flick.

Games

Bringing "It" Out in Lara Croft

That intangible, violent “it” is burgeoning in Lara, but it’s also being contextualized so that I still feel bad when she gets shot in the head with an arrow.

Games

With Great Vulnerability, Comes Great Brutality: The Evisceration of Lara Croft

Amid a hail of gunfire, the player-character crumples to the ground, defeated, that is, before a loading screen pops to revive her. At least, that's how most action games represent death. In Tomb Raider, I've seen Lara Croft stabbed through the neck, had her head split open on a coral reef, seen her torn apart by wolves.

Games

Touchy Feely: 'Tomb Raider' and Haptic Design

As much as the mud on her face or the gorgeous environments, the physical animations of Tomb Raider recreate a more adventurous, realistic, and compelling Lara Croft.

Games

Where the Heart Is: The Use of Home in Video Games

Home is where we see characters in a state of normalcy. We get to know what the protagonist does between adventures, and for a medium that depends so much on empathizing with the lead character, seeing who they are at home, away from it all, is a significant experience that more developers should consider investigating.

Games

Why Is She So Feminine?

“She's all, 'ah,' 'eek,' 'oooh' all the time,” my daughter said, referring to the noises that Lara Croft makes when wounded in the new Tomb Raider. “Lara Croft is supposed to be tough.”

Games

Pop Ten

The 25 Best Classic Progressive Rock Albums

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 1: 100 - 81

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 5: 20 - 1

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 4: 40 - 21

The 10 Best Indie Pop Albums of 2009

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 3: 60 - 41

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Roar Uthaug's insistence upon combining faux gravitas with action results in countless scenes of unintentional hilarity.

Henry isn't the only surrogate for gamer identity in Hardcore Henry.

High tech hair in video games always looks unrealistic, well, except on monsters.

The scarcity of the Black Widow action figure on toy shelves has me thinking about what we think we know about gender identity in play, be that play with toys or play in video games.

In which the author suggests that the new Lara Croft might be the best example of androgyny in gaming.

I don't have a problem if you want to play Grand Theft Auto from a first person perspective. Knock yourself out. But I won't be doing so anytime soon.

Fez and Tomb Raider deserve special mention for the aesthetics of their main menu screens.

With all the horrible ways to die presented in Tomb Raider, why are the impalings singled out as gratuitous or exploitative? I think that it has less to do with their content and more to do with their context.

I have found myself struck with admiration recently by games that I have played that have put me in less than empowering positions, games that celebrate difficulty and hardship, struggling and deprivation, rather than empowerment and excess.

The new Tomb Raider chronicles the birth of a survivor, but it's a story that is easier to see than it is to feel.

The game opens with a prologue straight out of a hillbilly cannibal horror flick.

That intangible, violent “it” is burgeoning in Lara, but it’s also being contextualized so that I still feel bad when she gets shot in the head with an arrow.

As much as the mud on her face or the gorgeous environments, the physical animations of Tomb Raider recreate a more adventurous, realistic, and compelling Lara Croft.

“She's all, 'ah,' 'eek,' 'oooh' all the time,” my daughter said, referring to the noises that Lara Croft makes when wounded in the new Tomb Raider. “Lara Croft is supposed to be tough.”