Wait...this was an... article?

What did you base that statement on? I'm really curious...I hope it's not simply because it sounds detailed.

Let me just mention two major points where this review fails:

- by not pointing out that after her first terrible experience of killing a human being, Lara rapidly starts executing tens of people and does ithis like it's second nature, within an hour of her first ever such experience,

- by praising the game as a great origin story despite the fact that it so obviously has very little to do with the original Tomb Raider games.

You can see too many of these seemingly well-composed and overly enthusiastic reviews like this nowadays, which, maybe because they try too hard to 'be perfect'(and in some cases because they are sponsored), fail to stay objective and point out the actual flaws of a game. Because of this, they are mostly worthless to me.

I recall the 'good old days' when people on major gaming sites such as Jeff Gerstman did not mistake reviews for essays or short films and provided their honest opinions on games, including the good and the bad - that is, until they got fired for it.

@pal_080 Yes, those exact game mechanics wouldn't work in 2013. But what they did here is turn a classic game series into something completely different, from shifting the focus from puzzles and exploration to survival horror and cinematic action to even changing the personality of the protagonist.

Not sure if you recall, but Lara Croft used to be a sophisticated British archeologist whose passion was to explore and hunt treasures and only shot people if she really needed to, much less stab them in the back or comfortably shoot unsuspecting victims with a bow from afar.

Crystal Dynamics could have created a game using modern game mechanics while retaining the focus of the classic games in the series. Of course, it's much easier to just copy what sells well today instead of actually making an effort and trying to figure out how to update a game series while staying true to its roots.

@efoxneo And what a horrible trend it is... it's fake, it's bad dramaturgy, often comes with bad writing...but all for a more "engaging and cinematic" experience I guess.

I've seen a couple gameplay videos, but after this I now say this game is nothing short of a sacrilege. Crystal Dynamics has managed to "reboot" one of the most original and challenging action/adventure game series ever to become a significantly more violent clone of Uncharted (which, ironically, was heavily inspired by the original Tomb Raider games in many respects).

@jemoedr 95% of single player games today do not give you 20 hours of gameplay. You're not obligated to pay 60 dollars for it either - I just found a 43 dollar offer for Dishonored. Plus this game has a great replay value. Once you've completed it in say, 8 hours, in full stealth mode, you can replay it in all guns blazing mode.

"A good game should be able to bind you to a game for weeks." - is that your idea of a good game? How about Portal 2? How about a game like Risk or an iOS game? Think outside the box.

Boy, this was a pretty crappy year for shooters.

@jemoedr This isn't a "Most gameplay hours" award.

Well deserved.

There were some incredible nominees this year, X-Com, Dishonored, The Walking Dead... but they just stand no chance against a good MMO. I don't really play MMOs so can't judge, but the others were very deserving single player games.