This is why I hate business. It's aparently easier to reinvent an existing/established franchise than to create a new one. Do the risks of creating a new name really outweigh the risks of alienating the existing fanbase?

They'll give her a penis, women love those

first they blame the economy for poor sales... now they blame the big boobs... hey dumbasses guess what... I didnt buy your game because it sucked... also I have other good games to buy...

If I want big boobs Ill watch porn... if I want good action adventure game... Ill buy Uncharted...

Two words: topless mode.

What?

They already made a lady-friendly Tomb Raider, but they called it Uncharted :p

Who the fuck are they kidding? This is just a shitty company clinging to their last semi-popular franchise.

Lara is supposed to be the cornerstone of their business, but it's not really helping that she's out of date and boring to be frank. Oooohh, she's hot. Who cares? She still does the same shit she did more than 10 years ago, and that's the real problem: Regardless of the technological advances we've made, people aren't stupid. Lara is still the same, and so are her games.

I know the newest game is pretty good, cause I own it. But it's nothing mind blowing, and in today's world of Gears of War and Halo, you need to be mind blowing. It's just the way it is.

They've already made a female friendly Lara Croft. It's Lara Croft. Girls like her, she was a symbol of feminine power in the mid 90's. I mean she's always been more of a strong, gun-wielding treasure hunter than a sex symbol. Except at the end of that training sequence when there was something about wet clothes. That was all about the sex. Damn right.

But yeah, the problem is the games haven't really been that good for a while now, and after Angel of Darkness really raped the franchise, Legend and the rest should have been the reimaginings that the company have now only just have realised they need a full three titles behind.

Underworld was certainly better than the previous three, its a decent, enjoyable game. What hurt the sales was the time it was released (busy busy) and the general feeling (caused by Angel of Darkness mostly) that Tomb Raider's had its day.

Tomb Raider is a dated series, Its the same game over and over again. The formula hasn't changed in over 10 years, maybe this revamp will help, but I have a feeling it'll be a more 'casual' kind of game. While I still want to play Tomb Raider: Underworld, it was not one of those games that I'm dieing to play. Ive lost most interest in this franchise and I think some people share my Point of View.

Touristic Tomb Visiter: Egyptian Fun

They really need to pick a better time to release videogames.

Call of Duty: WaW, Prince of Persia, NFS: Undercover, GoW 2, L4D, all within a month. People usually don't have tons of money to drop on games they want, so they pick one.

So Tomb Raider is coming to the Wii, eh?

@greenessbnam:

Fanboy troll FAIL.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary was already released on the Wii and got a B- from 1Up, which is nothing to smirk at.

I, as a female, would love something like "Jeffrey Steele: Booty Plunderer", featuring a rippling-muscled lad as the protagonist, cursed with a fantastic ass and a prominent bulge beneath his safari vest.

Get on it, Eidos.

put her in a track suit colour her hair blonde and give her a cigar and boom Jimmy Saville!

I thought her first makeover was good enough. It turned down the sluttiness she'd accumulated over the games and actually gave a bit of character to her appearance again.
0/10 for the 'HURR female friendly = feminist librarian' comments though.

a revamp won't help her. a restart won't help her. 5-6 years without a new tomb raider WILL help her if they just wait for us to anticipate a new game. this years next tomb raider won't change a thing about sales or reputation, but eidos won't have that and they HAVE to release a new game, why? they won't listen to us though, they'll only listen to themselves and because of that, no Gex the gecko or legacy of Kain games that would do a hundred times better than any new tomb raider.

if they would just stop making tomb raider for a few years i bet it would do great. but eidos just wants to spoon feed us crap and not listen to the gamers or the game itself. Lara needs a break, a long one.

Yes Qraze, another Gex would be awesome.

And Volomon, hopefully if you're an 'adult' as you say you are, you are actually attracted to you know, women that actually exist, not some computer graphics.

And if they are serious about a redesign, I think Eidos can learn a lot from Jade from Beyond Good & Evil. That game proved that it is possible to have a female character that appeals to all players. She isn't sexualized, but at the same time isn't some 'butch' feminist icon. She's just a normal, engaging character.

@sickNasty If any remote sense of what you are saying were true. Porn, Hustler, Virtual, and Artistical depiction of nudity from caveman paintings to Lara Croft wouldn't exist. Nor would their be an entire market deicated to advertising via sexual appeal. If you look at her gaming models in every reiteration her tits get larger.

So being an adult I am not retarded but realistic. Lara Croft has grown up through the ages of childish area that games are for kids.

Adulthood entails growing understanding. In adulthood I prefer to see my tits up front instead of sexual innuendos which maybe what your use to, but I am not. I will not play games which continue this tread nor will many other adults.

Lol. Eidos are muppets. I realised a while ago that I was not interested in the Tomb Raider games anymore. When the series moved to PS2, little changed from the three or four previous PS1 outings.

I think Crystal Dynamics overhall of the series was a positive move, but in truth Tomb Raider needed to change totally from the ground up, game design and everything, because like a DeLorean, its outta time, out of date. Gears and GRAW good introduced cover mechanics for fighting, but Lara is still stuck in that same Hong Kong twin gun thing from the 90s, but not other means of fighting, WTF!. Sorry Eidos, not all designs are timeless I think and this stands for Tomb Raider. The climbing stuff and acrobatics looked great, but the fighting is still the same shit.

If you are going to milk this series, what it needs is a serious rethink and reboot (possibly with a totally new name too), along with a damn good rest. Take a look at what Ubisoft did with PoP to reboot that, Eidos. PoP sales might not have been the best, but the twists an tweaks in its design still make it something I'd buy and play.

The sex appeal of Lara was a nice building block back then and sure has its place, however, we have newer more intelligent female characters now. In general, Lara will find it harder it the 21 century games market.

Tomb Raider you need to end, but Safe Raider (or something like that with an Oceans 11 style twist) I would definitely buy, if done well. Get back to the drawing board, Eidos.

How about they make a good game, frumpy or sexy character included, and we enjoy it?

If not, they should just cut out that whole division and say goodbye to Tomb Raider. If Clover Studios shut down, this studio sure as hell can too.

She (as in the Crystal Dynamics version) already is female friendly.

Now that she vaguely resembles a real human and is written a bit better what's the problem? We have idealized male heroes in plenty of games, of is she any worse for women than Kratos is for men?

here it is .... "imagine lara croft" where you get to choose her outfits and makeup and solve little puzzles and never go on missions.....

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

@Narishma

Yeah, and we get even more crappy endings too!