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Unless you need it now, it`s been frequently on sale lately at the usual places (Amazon) for as low as $25.

Also, I`m not entirely certain that the downloads of Tomb Raider sold on Origin aren`t in fact Steam versions. Kind of confusing that, but there seems to be evidence of this if you hunt around. See this thread

auxy wrote:

Well, I could write a whole huge blog entry about how stupid the beginning of the game is, but my real problem with the game is that the stupidity doesn't really ever stop. The melodrama goes on and on and at no point does the game ever give any hint that the player isn't supposed to take all of this seriously, at face value; at no point does the game ever relent in the assault on suspension of disbelief. Lara goes from simpering little teenaged girl to remorseless killing machine in the matter of a couple of cutscenes, and both sides of her personality are so overblown, so over-acted, that it's impossible to take either one seriously. She's a caricature of a character. If the game at any point had been tongue-in-cheek; if the game at any point had ever stopped to explain any of the impossible, nonsensical things that happen, I might have been a little okay with it. It never does though; it takes itself all too seriously, and that ended up being the downfall for me.

I got a chuckle out of this aspect of the game... it didn't ruin it for me, but yeah - there is a really huge disconnect between the vulnerable character they're trying to portray and the things she does throughout the course of the game.

I really wish they'd placed a lot more emphasis on puzzle solving and combat avoidance. Throw in a good stealth system. Make combat much more scarce, and when a fight has to happen, make it more about strategy. Put more emphasis on finding items to upgrade weapons - not just generic "salvage" but specific parts. You're absolutely right about the lack of a bandaging system... with so much effort put into showing her injuries, why not make treating those injuries part of the game? Hell, make her find a coat and some gloves before climbing that damn radio tower

I won't say it ruined the game - this sort of thing is pretty common in video gaming. Gordon Freeman is a scientist, and he takes on not only an alien invasion but an entire US marine division. Sure, they imply that he's an athlete and they give him a fancy powered suit, but still...

Overall I still dug the game quite a bit. But you're right, the disconnect between the character they want to portray, and the actions they make her take, is far more jarring than most games.

I went ahead and got it. Its downloading on Origin and at the rate its going it will be done some time tomorrow. I know my DSL is slow, 175 to 190 kb/s, but that isn't a factor when Origin limits the upload speed to around 75kb/s or less.

Khali wrote:

I went ahead and got it. Its downloading on Origin and at the rate its going it will be done some time tomorrow. I know my DSL is slow, 175 to 190 kb/s, but that isn't a factor when Origin limits the upload speed to around 75kb/s or less.

It just imports into Steam anyway so you'd be better off getting the key and inputting it to Steam directly. (I have the Origin version myself.)

Most other digital stores used to work this way (I don't know which still do) and everyone hated it so I hope Origin is going to change to a mini-installer too.

This is depressing. 75% completed after 21 hours of downloading. Origins has now slowed down to 40KB/sec, looks like the last 25% will take longer than the the first 75% did.

Khali wrote:

This is depressing. 75% completed after 21 hours of downloading. Origins has now slowed down to 40KB/sec, looks like the last 25% will take longer than the the first 75% did.

The fun part is since you went ahead with it anyway you get to redownload at least half of it in Steam I believe.