June 1st, 2012 by Nickie Williams
In the spirit of E3, there will be video game trailers coming out of the woodwork, left right and centre. The most exciting for me is the new Tomb Raider, in which Miss Lara Croft seems to be facing a lot more real life issues than trying to find ancient artifacts. Watching the trailer, it appears that Crystal Dynamics and/or SquareEnix have combined Tomb Raider with Uncharted. Which is a little bit odd for me.
The biggest issue I seem to have with this game? HER BLOODY ACCENT….er…sorry for the outburst. I am from the city where Core Design was just a tiny startup gaming company, long before the days of being bought out or becoming famous with a female video game character. I won’t mention it, as 90% of people have no clue where it is anyway. But the shortened version is that her accent now seems to be somewhat American. And I, as an upstanding British citizen am slightly offended. See, as her history states- she was born and raised in a suburb of the Borough of London. This means that she should be speaking the Queen’s English, just like she was in the first few games. So why on earth does she sound like Lara had elocution lessons? I think that the main reason for this is that the game is no longer developed in the UK. Her creator, Toby Gard used to work for Core Design- but now works for Crystal Dynamics in California. I’m a little shocked though that her change of accent doesn’t seemed to have bothered him. Are American accents easier on the ear or something?
Anyway, less about the character. The whole precipice of the game seems to be that Lara will attempt to take on more real-life situation, like being mauled by fierce dogs or being possibly murdered by unsavoury types. The graphics of the game look absolutely astounding, and the gritty feel of the game look very realistic. Besides, I’m a little tired of the old Lara and we all knew that it would take more than a bit of spit and polish to make our favourite female heroine shine again. One of the lines from the trailer that made me chuckle was “I hate tombs.” Tee hee. Obviously with her past as an archaeologist, this is funny that she has grown to resent them. I just really hope that even though as a character she seems to be different, I just hope that her back story isn’t. Or the idea that she’s a bad-ass woman with a penchant for afternoon tea. As a bonus at the end of the trailer- it mentions that the game will be released on the 5th March, 2013. Which for me is too flippin’ long, but I will just have to tough it out with the rest of the fans out there.
Until then, I’m going to sit at the Lara Croft Way sign in my city and mourn for her forgotten British accent.
http://youtu.be/qC0WyzbNS_A
Game on Girl is a weekly podcast hosted by Regina McMenomy and Rhonda Oglesby. New episodes premiere every Thursday. We interview gamers and discuss games, gaming, and game culture. We also have a regular segment, Games in Pop Culture, where we talk about representations of games and gaming in mainstream media.
