The Rise of Tomb Raider - Female gamers must play this

"I wish this pain wasn't so familiar. Like looking an old enemy in the eye. It wants to take me down. It wants me to lie just down and die. I won't.  I can't!"
- Lara Croft, the Rise of Tomb Raider

For any fan of Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider series, we had our share of ups and downs with the franchise. Well for the first time, we can say Tomb Raider isn't over-hyped.The Rise of Tomb Raider is a dark horse.

Analyst said it made the mistake of coming out on the same day as Fallout 4, but The Rise of Tomb Raider stays on it's own two feet and holds its ground with the best of them.  The reasoning being, this game is exactly what you expect.

I tell you from the start that Lara really has it bad this game.  Every 10 minutes structures are literally collapsing around her, attacks by bears, and salvage thugs that come at her with all they got will keep your heart racing. The timed actions sequences ensure you stay moving, and enemies will have you scared to move until you have a real strategy to take them on. I know you're thinking that i'm drinking the kool-aid, but this is really a good game.  It's large, has a skill tree and level up system, plot driven missions, and a lot of action that keep you active and excited to stay invested.  Now, here is the good and bad analysis.

Let's get the bad news out early.  The Rise of Tomb Raider does not have much replay ability and the game is linear where you have to complete the current mission unlike Fallout 4 where you can explore the open-world and get to the main storyline when you feel like. The storyline is progressed by a mix of flashbacks for the plot and goals you set to learn the truth of a mystery that made her dad crazy.

Now here are the positives.  First of all, this is a game about a survivor.  The Rise of Tomb Raider has a purpose, and make you feel like Lara  Croft has a vital role to play in order for you to finish the game.  The days of Lara being eye candy are gone.  She isn't bouncing around in a spaghetti strapped t-shirt and daisy dukes any more. Lara is clever, self-aware, dark, gritty, and hungry.  Each level is filled with well thought out traps, puzzles, mysteries to solve, and personal challenges to overcome.  You have to think to survive and completing the game is a given.

I swear, this game will make you think about how you approach your obstacles and have you second guessing on whether you are doing the right thing.  Fighting enemies isn't limited to a gun battle anymore.  There are elements of stealth and hand to hand combat that are designed well to make you feel like someone who doesn't have a lot strength for combat but compensates with her brain.  Lara's fist fights with enemies get real graphic and rewarding.  From gathering herbs to heal yourself, to upgrading a homemade bow to take on a giant bear, you really use nature to survive with barely anything.  With hidden treasures, alternative paths and fast paced gameplay, I always felt like I was missing something.

Honestly, surviving against zombies and bandits in 7 days to die or Ark really drained me.  Learning secrets, history, and testing my limits in the game made The Rise of Tomb Raider the most fun game that i have played in a while.    It's definitely worth playing and a treat for fans that always knew a good Tomb Raider game was possible.

It's a great game that overcome the negatives people associated with the Tomb Raider franchise.  Lara Croft showed strength, intelligence, leadership, the ability to make tough decisions, and kick butt when needed. It's cool when hardwork doesn't go unnoticed. The good resume is all here: solid story, good graphics, innovative combat, quality AI, and well designed gameplay from start to finish.  I'm not one to give a game a perfect score, but  The Rise of Tomb Raider comes close.

7 Days to Die Alpha 13: All Dramatically Improvements and Updates

The release for Alpha 13 is almost near.  The fun pimps spoiled us with an update or new alpha every 5 weeks, so this long wait really is having gamers wondering what have they been doing that could take this long.  Here is a sneak peak of what to expect in 7 Days to Die: Alpha 13.

Hit Points, and Cars, and new Guns

Tracing all of 7 Days to Die 12.5 alphas history of hit points, before, all blocks had 10 hit points and then we used a hardness to say how hard it was. In the end it was really just a bunch of math that made it difficult to balance the game and also made it impossible for us to really display a health bar for blocks. Now each block shows a hit point value as you harvest it, and you can see how effective your tools are and the impact low stamina has on damage too, feedback that was always invisible before. Plus you will get a feeling for what blocks are the strongest in the game because well, stats are awesome.

Cars are now harvest-able. Rather than blowing up you can mine them and get metal. But if you are smart, you will use a wrench and disassemble the car to get all kinds of cool parts, like short metal pipes, springs (now required to make a blunderbuss), cloth, small engines, batteries, radiators and more. You can still loot them too, but the loot isn’t guaranteed like before, since you can harvest them, and now that they aren’t entities (eating collisoin and server cpu).

Speaking of the blunderbuss, its now the most powerful shotgun in the game, followed by the sawed off, and then the long barrel pump. Of course range and reload time make a big difference, but for up close one shots, the blunderbuss is king. Also, a badass home made looking rocket launcher is being introduced in the alpha 13 update. I hope it makes a better impact than the explosive arrows.  All the arrows did was blow holes in the ground and attract the annoying spider zombies that would scream and unleash a flood of zombie hordes.

A welcomed additional feature will be flooded basements! Now, underwater exploration in looting is added as well. Instead of water destroying anything in its path, water only floods over items realistically. Under water exploration could be dangerous though, you never know what you might find.

They added dismemberment of limbs.  You can dynamically cripple enemies by shooting or cutting off a limb in combat.  You can continue to cut pieces off even if they're more dead...well completely dead we are fighting zombies, lol.

Melee will be an worthwhile investment in Alpha 13. Here is the first look of the new machete. Looks like a machete will be useful when dealing with the modifications and animations made to the improved zombies. 

As seen in other games like ARK cold weather survival will present a new challenge. The entire world has a global temperature and then each biome has a modifier, as well as time of day, wind, sunny or cloudy all influence the perceived temperature.

Each clothing item in the game has an insulation value which can be positive or negative. Fire warms you up as well and running raises your core temperature. Running raises your core temperature, drinking coffee warms you up as well.

In order to cope with the cold weather survival system clothing has been upgraded with stats that will play a factor in conducting heat and improving defense.  The starter gear will be the same plant fiber armor we have seen in prior games.

Here is a look at the new leather duster coat. I’m really excited about the new coats and armors. Shown here is the leather armor, denim pants, leather duster, cowboy hat and a blue plaid shirt.

Abandon houses are redesigned and serve as a better survivalist haven than in prior alphas. Abandon houses won’t have any zombies near them, but hardly any loot either, and far from secure. But if your cold and desperate and willing to put some elbow grease into it, it might make a place you can stay at for a night or two. 

You can upgrade everything: floors, doors, walls and window to the steel level.  On the right side of the screen you will see the upgrade cost and materials needed for upgrading. You can take an dilapidated home and upgrade it to something livable or a complete steel fallout shelter.

Other cool new additions are garbage piles make random noises when you walk over them.  It doesn't seem interesting now, but when you are exploring and a zombie is trying to sneak up on you...that random noise will be very useful to you.