Tomb Raider delayed due to hidden nudity?

What we heard: One of the keys of the Tomb Raider series' success has been the sex appeal of its heroine, Lara Croft. Whether it's her previous buxom incarnation or more-athletic current build, it is self-evident that Croft's designers made her to be pleasing to the eye--and the opposite sex.

In her latest adventure, Tomb Raider: Legend, Croft's outfits verge on the risqué, and include a slinky evening dress, skin-tight artic suit, and the requisite hot pants. However, they remain modest enough for the game to have received a T for Teen rating from the ESRB.

However, according to Xboxic, Legend may not be as demure as it purports to be. The editors of the Dutch Web site pronounced that "the game's US release date of April 11 has been moved back after someone had posted textures of the game to a forum clearly showing nipples on a bare breast."

"The game contains a chapter set in Tokyo, where several women are dancing in the distance," said Xboxic. "To keep it simple for the animators, they had initially modeled all the women naked, so they could simply drape different dresses around them later. Why the breasts were there complete with nipples initially, I don't want to know."

With anticipation for Legend running high, word of the flap spread throughout forums like wildfire. However, Eidos reps were quick to extinguish the fires of speculation. "No, Tomb Raider is not delayed," a rep told GameSpot. "That rumor is false. We are shipping on time for ALL platforms (PlayStation Portable is following by a few weeks as we've stated before)." (Emphasis in the original.)

So where did the nude pictures come from? Eidos reps hinted that they may exist in the European version of the game--but not the one that goes on sale stateside on Tuesday. "No, the file commented on in this post is not in the US version of the game as reported," said the rep, before adding, "Ugh."

Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus.