My Birthday part 2 with Daniel!

A little under a week after my Birthday, my buddy Daniel http://www.rainbowcafe89.blogspot.com wanted to take me out to celebrate! Which is fantastic because we always have a good time chatting/gossiping/waltzing like a couple of dorks in Downtown. It's a Saturday and the plan is to meet at 5pm in front of Jamba Juice @ Horton Plaza, I decide to get there a little earlier just in case Daniel arrives early too. Funny thing happens. I'm pretty much waiting around Jamba Juice/Starbucks for quite some time when I decide to go walk over to where the saxephone player is for a bit. Just so happens Daniel comes right when I leave so we totally missed each other! I go back and wait some more and here comes Daniel and he was all like; "omg where were you!? and I'm all like; "right here!" haha...well apparently not there since we missed each other! Anyhow, so we decide on where we want to go eat Sushi...thus our sushi hunt begins! We walked by like...4 different sushi bars and they were all either too expensive or we've been there before hehe. Finally, we come to this really cute small place called Kiyos on F street and it was PERFECT! It's probably my most favorite sushi restuarant I've been to yet. Very simple and plain, and they had a tv playing with these HILARIOUSLY random Japanese Commercials! Gotta love them Japanese and their interestingnessness! So Daniel and I order our food and chat for a bit, and at this time I decide to open the gift he got me! (Insert 'aww sho shweet' here) It was in a box from Daniel's new job at Aldo wrapped in a pretty green ribbon and bow and inside was a rosary and a pair of really nice sunglasses! Which I think is amazing because 1. I totally needed a new rosary since I lost mine and 2. I need a nice pair of sunglasses since the ones I have are all old and scrathed and just plain UNCOOL! So by this time our food arrives and it was amazing! I officially love udon noodles! It was kind of embarrasing though. I'm going to be honest, I can't use chop sticks to save my life! So when I go to the udon noodles I was having the most difficult time eating my dang noodle soup! This is how bad it got, the waitress actually handed me a fork without me even asking for one! How sad is that? Pretty dang sad! And Daniel was just laughing about haha. After Dinner, which was AMAZING by the way, we decide to go down to the gayborhood! Hillcrest! and at night! Which makes it all the more...scary! So we get there and we're just walking down looking for interesting shops when we come across a rather quaint looking bookstore...as we venture further into it, it turns from simple bookstore to flaming porn shop! It's seriously like two different stores in one! Pretty interesting! We continue down our walts through the gayborhood when we decide its time to head home. We catch the bus to SDSU and made fun of trashy looking women out on the streets. By the time we get to SDSU its getting later and colder (Daniel was molesting the bus trying to get heat from one of the side vents XD). His bus had finally come and thus we parted ways, overall I had a really goodtime with him celebrating my Birthday! Thank you Daniel!
-Jeremy:)

My 21st Birthday :)

November 15th, 2009. Exactly 21 years ago I was brought into this god awful world! Joking heh, it's not that bad ;) Anyhoo, this year for my Birthday I decided I wanted to have a nice dinner with all of my friends! Where? No other place than HOOTERS ^.^ because I love owls, wings and other things! Anyway, so it's a Sunday and I wake up and go to Church as usual, visit Grandpa in the hospital while he recovers from a back injury, say hello to my a few family members and what not. The rest of the day kind of drags on, I'm just waiting to meet all my friends at Hooters in Mission Valley. 5:00pm rolls around and I head off to Hooters! I get there around like, oh 5:20 or so and put in the reservation for Jeremy of course. So I wait around for my friends to arrive, most of them get there around 6:45pm which was good because thats when our table was finally ready! So far its me, Bobby, Jenny, Joey, Kristine, her boyfriend Billy, Brittany, Minh and Melanie. Since I'm 21 tonight Jenny wants to buy me my first legal alcoholic drink! I order a Bloody Mary! HAH of all drinks a BLOODY FUCKIN' MARY!? Well, my whole goal of the evening is to NOT get wasted, and I don't even like beer all too much so a nice tomatoey clammy kinda drink is great...except it didn't have a celery stick! lol anyway, we all order our food, I had the spicy boneless wings with ranch and fries which was good, but not great, it was just okay hehe. So we chat and have a good time. Later on my friend Jose and his friend Rickey arrive which was great (he's trying to beat me in Happy Aquarium btw X_X) anyhoo so we're all having a pretty good time and then Vicki comes along! Which was great because she said she was coming and I didn't see her anywhere for the longest time! Little did I know Bobby had told our waitress it was my Birthday, so at one point during the dinner all the Hooters gals came and sang some sort of Happy Birthday song to me...Yeah I would have LOVED to actually hear what the heck they were saying but it was so loud in there I coulnd't a understand a thing they said! Bobby had recorded the entire charade and the look on my face is just flippen priceless I was so in shock and surprised lol...kinda like...the hell is going on here!? Either or it was nice having a buncha beautiful women singing something to me lol. After that we all finish our dinner so it's time to head home, overall I had a blast on my 21st Birthday and was glad my friends were able to show up but the celebration doesn't end here! My buddy Daniel is taking me out soon to have one of my FAVORITE type of meals...SUSHI! I'm excited ^.^ anyhoo, until next time!
-Jeremy :)

And the Worgin Fail Award goes to...

SHAKIRA'S NEWEST VIDEO FOR "GIVE IT UP" ft. LIL WAYNE!

wtf Shakira...just WTF!? Now, the video for She-Wolf wasn't all that great, it was just OK, but MAN I'll take a She-Wolf over this pile of trash any day! I already didn't like the song too much but this music video just drives it into the DIRT! It's starts off reminding me of a J.Lo sort of style, which isnt bad but so not Shakira...and then it has step dancing choreography (and if you notice all the girls are African-American except for Shakira, which makes me wonder...why exactly?) which I guess is kind of cool and very different from Shakiras normal stuff...but then...the whole thing just DIES when shes dressed up as the Statue of Liberty! Just what the heck is that all about!?!? UGH WHY Shakira WHY!? Shakira is totally being Shafailure right now...which sucks because shes usually pretty dang awesome. So anyway...I've decided this music video deserves the "Worgin Fail Award"...for those who don't know what that is...it dates back to when I saw Madonna's performance of "Like a Virgin" during her 1993 Girlie Show Tour on youtube and how I thought that whole performance was such a failure...Anyway here is the travesty that is..."Give It Up"



Now...to remind everyone that Shakira actually is capable of putting out good material...here is the AMAZING video for her song "Did It Again" The main attraction of this video features Shakira and some random guy doing a sexy kind of battle style dance in a hotel bed room.


-Jeremy :)

November 23rd is NEW ALBUMS day!

Seriously, there are so many cool sounding albums coming out that day! Lady GaGa, Shakira, Adam Lambert, Rihanna and not to mention the Britney Spears singles collection and The Princess and the Frog Soundtrack! SO for this blog I've decided to post all the album covers and give a little review of each one! I'll start with Lady GaGa...just cause she's my favorite of the bunch ^.^

Lady GaGa: The Fame Monster
There are actually two covers for this, one being the Limited Edition version that has the Original The Fame songs along with the new 8 tracks that will be on the standard version of The Fame Monster. The Standard Edition is pretty cool, I'm digging the triangle hairstyle, very Egyptian. In the Limited Edition GaGa has a brunette wig and she's crying make-up or blood or something! Lady GaGa had this to say about the standard cover; "I'm exactly who I say I am, and whats in the past is something that I've had to mourn like a death and so I showed you what I use to look like on my album cover, but it's not because I'm revealing anything. It's just like me saying when you asked me who Lady GaGa was, but even after I show you, it's still not going to show you who I am." So, I guess that means we still don't really know who the heck she is! hehe. Either or, I'm excited! So far I LOVE the first three song's I've heard which are "Bad Romance" "Dance in the Dark" and "Alejandro" and I'm sure the rest will be amazing :)
The Fame Monster

The Fame Monster: Limited Edition


Shakira: She Wolf
Our next album is Shakira's She Wolf. I'm not too crazy about this album cover, it's kind of boring. Then again, Shakira never really has very interesting album covers...OH except for Oral Fixation Vol. 2 Where she looks like Eve in the Garden of Eden and she's holding a bitten apple, I LOVE that one. I guess this one is just OKAY, Shakira looks great as always. I hope this album is good, but then again it's Shakira so it should be amazing! I need to add it to my collection of Shakira albums on my Zune!


Adam Lambert: For Your Entertainment
Our favorite American Idol runner up is the glamourous Adam Lambert! I've heard his first single "For Your Entertainment" and it's pretty amazing, so I hope the rest of the songs follow the same way. I'm not too sure about this cover...kinda trannyish but ever so FABULOUS. It is Glam-Rock at its best and looks totally David Bowie-esque. In any case, lets go Glambert!


Rihanna: Rated R
Honestly, I'm not that big of a fan of Rihanna, she does make great music but anyone ever noticed most of her songs are just remixed versions of older songs? That's not a bad thing, they are good songs, but it's not too original. Anyway, here's hoping her next album is amazing. Cover is pretty good, she looks annoyed or pissed off....she must have still been upset over that a-hole Chris Brown....poor gal :(


Britney Spears: The Singles Collection
^.^ Everytime I read or hear about this it reminds me of my good buddy Daniel http://rainbowcafe89.blogspot.com/ Seriously he LOVES Britney, even went to her concert last month (I know, lucky right?)! Anyway, this an entire box set of Britney Spears' Singles starting from her first "Baby One More Time" all the way to her latest "3". This is actually going to be in 6 different formats; The Standard Edition, CD+DVD, the Ultimate Fan Box Set(all 29 singles), Exclusive Edition-Direct to consumer aaand Digital 45s. Pretty Cool stuff, I do like me some Britney so I just might pick up the CD+DVD set...and hey I think the Ultimate Box set is amazing, if I was a bigger fan of Brit I probably would go for that too! In any case, this looks like quite a collection.


The Princess and the Frog Soundtrack
Being a Disney fan I'm SUPER stoked for this movie! Ever since I was a kid I've loved Disney movies and I am so happy they're finally going back to traditional hand drawn animation. So the soundtrack is coming out a little earlier than the movie which comes sometime in December. So while I'd love to pick this up the day it comes, I kind of want to wait until I see the movie so I will be 100% Surprised. Im really hoping the music for this one is good, Randy Newman is doing the music and I was hoping for Alan Menken (Composer of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules) because he's my favorite Disney composer, but I'm sure Newman did a good job so we will wait and see!


Well kids, that's pretty much all thats coming November 23rd! Excited right? I sure am!
-Jeremy :)

Lady GaGa does it again!

So the video for Gaga's latest single "Bad Romance" finally came out...one word...WOW. She's totally nuts, but thats why I love her. Words cannot even describe this video, it's so creepy yet beautiful, part horror film and part art gallery all combined into a fashion show. This is probably Lady GaGa's best music video, but I think for myself I still like the video for "Paparazzi" the best. I just love the story for that one on how it demonstrates how far some people will go to stay in the limelight. Lady GaGa's videos are definitely getting a lot better, they are evolving from simple party scenes to amazing stories. It's like what my friend Daniel said, all she needed was the money to crank out some pretty bitchin' music videos and like Lady GaGa has said herself numerous times, she is a pop-cultureal performance artist and she's definitely staying true to that 100%. Can't wait for The Fame Monster!
-Jeremy :)

"I wan't your loving and I want your revenge you and me could write a bad romance."

*Oh yeah forgot, watch the ending, its the creepiest thing ever lol.

Video Game Review: Tomb Raider Underworld.

It is the start of November and so I decided to dedicate the first blog of the month to review the latest game in my favorite video game franchise of all time; Tomb Raider. This November Marks the 11th year since I've become a full fledged Tomb Raider fan. Since November of 1998 I've been following video game heroine Lara Croft and her perilous adventures through the tombs and jungles of the world. In that time, I've collected the games, the comics, the cards, the action figures, books and more. Lara Croft has definitely come along way since her break through in the original Tomb Raider(1996) and today she has arrives in the latest installment Tomb Raider: Underworld. Being a Tomb Raider fan I always have high expectations for a new Tomb Raider game, but regardless good/bad to down right horrible Lara Croft always has a place on my gaming shelf. The game Tomb Raider itself has come a ways since the original classic adventures for the Playstation and PC Tomb Raider(96'), Tomb Raider II: Starring Lara Croft(97'), Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft(98'), Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation(99') and Tomb Raider: Chronicles(00'). Having gone through many modifications since Eidos Interactive took the rights away from original developer Core Design after the ill fated Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness(2003) the Tomb Raider of today hardly seems like the game of Tomb Raiders past. Lara's new developer is San Francisco based company Crystal Dynamics, which is known for really good games like Gex and Soul Reaver. They are responsible for the reinvention of the Tomb Raider series with games like Tomb Raider: Legend(06'), the remake of the original Tomb Raider: Anniversary(07') and the latest, Tomb Raider: Underworld(08'). Since the switch to a new developer Tomb Raider fans have been divided amongst themselves having arguing over differences between Core Design Lara and Crystal Dynamics Lara, the game play style, story elements, to even the way Lara Croft looks today and how she’s becoming more and more "Americanized" blah blah blah. Myself, being a veteran fan these days I tend to look passed the differences between old Lara and new Lara and focus on how the current Tomb Raider is as a video game while comparing it to the previous Tomb Raiders but trying to do so without a somewhat bias point of view(which tends to come out anyways). I could go on and on about the nitpicky differences involving the Lara Croft character but today I'm only focusing on the games game play while comparing it to the original and how Crystal Dynamics third try was an...almost charmer.

In this first part I am going to tell the story of Tomb Raider Underworld while giving my thoughts about the stand out moments and overall look of the game. The next part of my review will discuss the game play.

The story continues directly after the ending of Tomb Raider: Legend. Lara, off to find a way to get into Avalon, the resting place of King Arthur in order to seek the answers of her missing/dead Mother. The game open ups pretty differently than past Tomb Raiders. Croft manor is on fire and Lara must navigate a way through to find an exit. The first part actually serves as a quick tutorial, which was different, you also have no idea what the heck is going on so that made it more interesting. After the quick tutorial it flashes to one week earlier where Lara is out at the Mediterranean. Lara then finds an under water structure where she faces a giant kraken that needs to be killed in order to get into the next area. I was kind of disappointed in this section, mainly because in all the trailers and demos it showcases underwater combat against a few sharks, perhaps they just weren't in the PS2 version, still I was pretty bummed as there were only jellyfish floating around in this section. As the game progresses Lara comes across Thor's gauntlet. Upon going back to the surface Lara encounters Amanda Evrets(The baddy in Legend) ship, and inside she meets up with her first nemesis, Queen of Atlantis Jacqueline Natla. Natla then tells Lara that she needs Thor's hammer in order to enter the Norse underworld, Helheim, which is just another name for Avalon. I kind of don't like the fact that they used Natla in this game. She was after all the very first of Lara Croft's foes and supposedly Lara had killed her off in the original. But whatever, again this is a whole new developer, so thing's aren't going to follow as before. The next big section is Thailand. Thailand was probably the most beautiful of all the areas in Underworld, very green with lots of detailed plants and a few ferocious Tigers. Here, Lara comes across Bhogavati, which some sort of magical Hindu place (I'd love to elaborate, but I really don't know too much about it). After discovering the second of Thor's gauntlets. Lara is headed back to her own house where she then finds out her father had left a few clues and apparently underneath in a secret Chapel are the clues that lead to the location of Thor's Belt...What a bloomin' coincidence. This part reminded me a lot of the first Tomb Raider movie where Lara is led to find the Clock of Ages in a secret storage area in her home after having a dream involving her Father. It kind of irks me because Crystal Dynamics had changed Lara’s Fathers name from Lord Henshingly Croft to Lord Richard Croft, which was the name of Lara's father in the first Tomb Raider movie. They also made her home exactly as it was in the film, which was cool I must admit, since it's almost an exact 3D replica of the movie mansion. So while that did bother me, it wasn't really a surprise they used a few TR movie elements in this game. As a whole this was only part of what bothered veteran fans as they totally changed Lara's original biography and her entire relationship with her parents. Changes already began as early as the first Tomb Raider movie, and that’s when Core Design still had the rights! Damn...I said I wasn't going to go into the differences and continuities but I already did! ANYWAY hehe, after finding out the Location of Thor's Belt, Lara returns above the ground to her home and it's on fire! This is where the explanation of why it's on fire from earlier comes in. It's Chaos! Lara finds Winston and Zip, and Zip is trying to kill her! Only though, because a clone like Doppelganger created by Natla is the one responsible(of course, they don't know this...yet) after Zip and Winston make it out, Lara stays inside to watch surveillance video only to come in contact with the doppelganger herself. Unfortunately the doppelganger kills Alistair(One of Lara's assistants). Though Lara is upset over the death of Alistair as a women in desperate need of answers she continues onward, which causes some friction between her and Zip. We are now in Mexico, and it's rainy but beautiful, Crystal definitely did a good job at was put lots of focus on the graphics and detail in the locations of this game, and I'm only playing the PS2 version. I can't even imagine how much nicer the PS3 or 360 versions look. This was another section that had a few things cut out of it, supposedly there were going to be these giant Spiders, but nope, like two panthers and a few of the Mythical Thralls(Norse myth glowy like weird creatures). I actually really enjoyed the whole Mexico segment, the whole segment involved Lara's Motorcycle and you actually needed it to finish the levels and complete the puzzles. I really liked that idea it was a nice throwback to past Tomb Raiders where you needed a vehicle of some sort to get through a level or two. We finally find Thor's belt in the Mayan Underworld called Xibalba and we are now ready to go after the Legendary Hammer! The next of Lara's many destinations is Jan Mayan Island. The puzzle in this place was pretty good, it actually me stumped for a few...minutes lol, the majority of the level involves jumping from two swinging pendulums to get across to other rooms, this actually got me dizzy a few times! After the puzzle that encompassed the full level we finally retrieve...THOR'S HAMMAR! So, since we now have...Thor's Gauntlets, his belt and most importantly that blasted hammer we can now head to Arctic Sea to annihilate Natla for the second time! Oh...I totally jumped the gun...the reason we must kill her off is because she plans on using the Midgard Serpent in attempt to destroy the world...again. Cliché right? Ah well, Lara's gotta do what she’s gotta do. As we find the underwater sanctum Lara enters a large chamber with Natla blasting a few bolts at us while we must take down the Midgard Serpent whilst our once foe Amanda is helping us by killing off lots of ogre like thralls. The final part of the game is basically a giant puzzle that takes down a giant mechanism aka The MIDGARD SERPENT! Honestly I thought I was actually going to have a one on one battle against Natla, but after you take down the parts to machine its the end of the game. The final cut scenes roll where Lara throws the big shiny hammer into the breaking machine while it takes down Natla with it (insert big boom shiny things here) and Lara and Amanda finding their way back to the Himalayas where Lara had lost her mother. The final shot is Lara uttering "rest in peace mother" as the camera pans backward while an updated version of Lara Crofts theme plays in the background. *Roll Credits*

OKAY, now to talk about the actual game play of it all. Sorry, this post is totally going longer than I thought it would. In the first level again I was really upset about the sharks not being there, it was one of the highlights the makers of the game were talking about with underwater gunplay and all the fancy physics involved. Yet then again, this is PS2 version, so I'm pretty sure 360 and PS3 had some sharks! My initial thought was; "Oh well maybe the sharks will come later." They didn't. Now one thing that Crystal D nailed this time was how a Tomb Raider puzzle is supposed to work. They got the idea that a Tomb Raider puzzle isn't just a level with a bunch of quick little simple puzzles you solve in each room to get to the next room, a true Tomb Raider puzzle is one that encompasses the entire level. So it doesn't really feel as if you're solving random puzzles, you're solving it just by running around pulling levers and finding keys to get to the next level, rather than figuring out how to push a few blocks over a pressure pad in order to get to the next room, and while Underworld did have a few of those, it definitely wasn't as much as in Legend, because Legend was filled with only those kinds of puzzles. I think they figured this out when they redid the original Tomb Raider, because Anniversary was modeled almost exactly after the original Tomb Raider, so of course the puzzles are going to be done the same way. I must admit, I was stumped on a few of the puzzles in Underworld. Particularly the first one involving the Kraken, once in Mexico(which is a HUGE level) and the pendulum one in Jan Mayan Island. It definitely reminded me of the good ol' days of Tomb Raider where I would spend hours looking for a way to get to the next area and run around in circles forever, but I can't say these puzzles had me stuck for hours, but definitely way longer then the easy puzzles of TR:Legend. So as for the puzzle aspect of Tomb Raider: Underworld, Crystal Dynamics did a pretty good job this time around. Now, time to talk about the combat...Okay, I'm going to say this once; Tomb Raider was never about combat, it's always been more about exploration and puzzle solving, but man, Crystal Dynamics definitely took that a whole new level. I was so surprised at how little action there was in this game! There's literally none in the first few hours and when you finally get to Thailand you get to plink off a few Tigers and then 1 or 2 Panthers in Mexico and a few more Thralls in the rest of the game! Oh and there is quite a few men when you board Natlas boat but they were pretty simple to kill off anyway. Now this is just an estimation, but going back to the original Tomb Raiders, I'd say TR1-5 is about 60% exploration and puzzle solving and 40% is combat and boss battles. In Tomb Raider: Underworld it felt like 85% puzzle and exploration and about 15% combat. Lara Croft definitely did not use her guns much in this adventure. It also wasn't about how little action there was, but the combat that was there so simplistic. Pretty much you ran around and enemy and shot a few shots and that’s it, sure its more realistic, but it almost felt as if you didn't really do anything. The combat kept me wanting more and I kept not getting it. Now while the original Tomb Raiders for the PC and Playstation weren't combat based games, the combat that was there was pretty dang amazing. You actually needed a strategy in order to kill off enemies. Back then Lara Croft's acrobats were very useful, you could fight off over 5 or 6 baddies at once and do so while side flipping, back flipping and rolling around all over the place to dodge enemy attacks, not to mention the enemies back then were a lot harder to kill. The combat in Underworld reminds me a lot of Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness...pretty much in that game you could run around and fire your guns as fast you could to kill an enemy, but instead of doing that here, enemies died pretty quick with out the need to button smash the R1 button while Lara Crofts acrobatics moves were pretty pointless...pretty to look at...but not needed. It's kind of a bummer because I thought the combat in both Legend and Anniversary was pretty okay, and in Underworld it seems as though it's been dumbed down a bit. Another big surprise and a first in Tomb Raider history was that there were NO BOSS BATTLES. Like...none...at all! Shocking...Nearing the end I thought there would be at least the final showdown against Natla, nope, you just take down that big machine and the end. But about the combat overall, I will say this again, this is the PS2 version I am playing and I am pretty sure they cut a lot of the combat out. So this review is solely basing the game from the PS2 version, ya'll can go read reviews of the PS3 and 360 versions of the game. Anyhoo, moving on from the combat, another major issue I had with this game was the amount of bugs and glitches it actually had. It's pretty surprising considering this is Crystal’s third Tomb Raider and also the fact that both Legend and Anniversary had very few if any bugs or glitches. These weren't tiny glitches that you could just ignore either, these glitches would actually make you restart the game because it would freeze or Lara would get stuck somewhere. I kid you not, the first 5 minutes into the game I got stuck in a rock while trying to get a key of sorts in the Mederterranean Level. Other bugs I noticed were let's say Lara needed to jump to a ledge or pillar, sometimes she would be catch it a couple spaces away from where she needed to land thus causing her to appear as if she is floating in mid air. I can't say Underworld has as many glitches as Angel of Darkness did, but it is probably the more glitchy of all the Tomb Raiders. Still it's pretty bad considering how far along gaming has come. We are too far advanced to still see as many bugs crawling around in today’s games. The final problem I had with this game was...It's too short! That was actually the main issue with Legend and Anniversary, critics said they were great games, but way too short, and I definitely thought Underworld would be a little longer and it wasn't. Other than those 3 details, I must say I actually enjoyed playing Underworld more than Legend or Anniversary. In terms of exploration and puzzle solving Underworld definitely feels like a classic Tomb Raider adventure, I just wish the combat was a little better. Another positive for me was the storyline, while it does stray away from Classic Tomb Raider status on how it involves Lara's Parents and contradicts Lara Crofts original background, the story for Underworld is a nice follow up to Legend, even though I thought a few things were kind of a rip off heh. The script writers did a good job as well as the voice actors lending their voices to make the dialogue between characters seem believable. One of the things Tomb Raider always has to offer are memorable quotes. A few favorites from Underworld were when Lara and Zip are arguing and Lara says; "I need Thor's belt to find Thor's hammer, and I need that hammer to kill a god!" or when Lara Croft thinks she found her Mother again only to be deceived she says to herself "No, that's not my mother, my Mother died, my Mother is dead." and she’s forced to shoot her back. That scene really humanized Lara Croft and made her seem like a believable human being which was definitely a first and that scene was one of the more emotional scenes in the game and probably one of my favorites of all the Tomb Raiders. OH! I forgot to mention! The story for Underworld was actually nominated for a BAFTA award, so that pretty says more than I need to hehe. Another good point of Underworld is the music, my God it's beautiful, particularly the scores for Thailand and Mexico. I also LOVED the updated version of Lara Croft's theme song. It has come along ways since the simple electronic sound of 96's Tomb Raider. I also loved how they incorporated it into the final scene, it was very reminiscent of the last scene of Angel of Darkness(one of my favorite ending scenes). The theme song for Underworld has become one of my favorites, of course the theme for Tomb Raider III still remains my top favorite of Lara's theme songs but this version definitely comes close. The overall ambience of Underworld is great too, you can tell Crystal spend a lot of time composing the score for it and put detail into every location so they don't all sound similar, which was kind of an issue in past Tomb Raider games.

In the end, I think I pretty much summed all of Tomb Raider: Underworld. Pros: Good Puzzles and Exploration, Beautiful Graphics and details, Good Story and Voice Acting, wonderful music. Cons: Combat is meh, lots of glitches, no boss battles and still way too short. So while I think this game is half amazing and half crappy, I'm on the border of giving it a 2.5/5 but...the stronger points definitely over power the weaker points, so I've decided to give Tomb Raider: Underworld a solid 3/5. Not bad, not great, about the same as Legend and Anniversary, but slightly better. It definitely seems as though Crystal Dynamics are headed on the right track with Tomb Raider, and I'm hoping the next one will be even better. Sad to say, I don't think Tomb Raider: Underworld is worth the original 59.99 dollar retail price for the newer consoles, it's just too short for that amount of money. However, it was definitely worth the $19.99 I spent on it for the PS2 version. Whenever I get a PS3...If I ever get a PS3...I'm definitely going to play that version as well, I probably won't give a review as I did for this one, since I'm sure it's not that different. Anyhow, until the next Tomb Raider game, see ya then and thanks for reading.
-Jeremy :)



Rated T for Teen
Developed by: Crystal Dynamics
Produced by: Eidos Interative
SRP: $29.99 (but its only 19.99 now woohoo)