Tomb Raider out now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC

One of the most anticipated games of the year, Tomb Raider, is now available at game stores and online retailers for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It costs Rs 2,499 on the PS3 and the Xbox 360, and Rs 999 on the PC. The game is also available on Steam, but for a much higher $49.99, which roughly translates to Rs 2,700.

Commemorating the launch, game retailer Games The Shop is giving out merchandise, including the Counter Strike Pack and Explorer Pack DLCs and litographs for those who buy the game today. Those who buy the game from Landmark today get the Explorer Pack DLC. Those who had pre-ordered the game from Games The Shop can now get their hands on the steelbooks and other freebies.

Go from being an ordinary girl to one of the most badass characters ever

This Tomb Raider game is a reboot of the original series and tells the story of how Lara Croft went from being an ordinary girl to the Tomb Raider we have come to know. She is stuck in a fictional, tropical island called Yamatai where she has to survive against bandits and nature.

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Unlike the previous Tomb Raider games, Lara’s main weapon in this game is a bow. She has three options in any situation when confronted by an enemy. She can either go the stealth route and try to sneak around while picking off enemies with a bow, or she can go toe-to-toe with enemies using mêlée weapons like the pickaxe, or she can just run in guns blazing and murder every single enemy. You can level up skills in different weapons, learn new skills and new ways to use the aforementioned weapons.

Lara can also use her environment to gain an advantage over her enemies; she can shoot a lantern to start a fire, or throw it to start a fire. You can also get different kinds of arrows for the bow, like arrows with a rope attached so you can turn it into a makeshift grappling hook, or a fire arrow that lets you cause explosions and fires. If push comes to shove, Lara can also use her arrow to perform an unsuccessful tracheostomy by sticking an arrow into an enemy’s throat.

A lot of times, the weapons that Lara finds are in poor condition. So she has to go around scavenging parts to rebuild the weapons and eventually improve them. This is basically meant to be an incentive to explore the world more than the story requires.

Crystal Dynamics has spruced up the game’s graphics and overall quality too. The company recently revealed what enhancements had been made to the PC version of Tomb Raider, along with the system requirements for running the game on the PC. The company claims that the PC version of Tomb Raider has been extensively optimised to heighten the gameplay experience with the goal of taking advantage of the platform. Some of the enhanced features include full integration with Steamworks, increased detail tessellation, improved SSAO and post-filter effects, and very high-resolution textures, shadows and cloths.

Here are the minimum system requirements for running Tomb Raider on the PC:

• Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista, 7, 8 (32bit/64bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics card with 512MB Video RAM: AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT or Nvidia 8600 onwards
• Dual-core CPU: AMD Athlon64 X2 2.1GHz (4050+) or Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86 GHz (E6300) onwards
• 1GB RAM (2GB on Vista)

Here are the recommended specifications to run Tomb Raider on the PC:

• Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
• DirectX 11 graphics card with 1GB Video RAM: AMD Radeon HD 4870 or Nvidia GTX 480 onwards
• Quad-core CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 565 or Intel Core i5-750 onwards
• 4GB RAM