Making of Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider, sequel to the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, was announced at the E3 Expo last year, to some confusion and no small amount of controversy, as an Xbox One exclusive, at least initially. But I'm much more interested in the PC release, expected some time in 2016, for which I'm hoping that developers Crystal Dynamics will up the already beautiful looking graphics. In this video from E3 2015, Art Director Brenoch Adams and Lead Character Artist Kam Yu discuss how they brought Lara Croft to the screen, and frankly the results are stunning. This is one of the best real-time human characters that I have ever seen, and the level of detail they have delivered in striking. I particularly appreciate that the scars Lara acquired in the previous game have been carried over to the new model.
Of course, all we have seen so far are promos and tech demos. The real test will be how well does that asset hold up in actual game play. But things are looking good so far, and I have high hopes for what we will see come the Xbox release in December.

Star Wars Battlefront

Electronic Arts has debuted the first 5 minutes of actual gameplay footage from their upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront at the E3 video game expo this week, and frankly it looks amazing. I have never played the original Battlefront games, but I'm extremely excited at the prospect of playing what promises to be the most authentic Star Wars video game experience to date. Developers EA DICE (makers of the Battlefield series and Mirror's Edge) reportedly went back to the Lucasfilm archives to capture models, props and sound effects used in the original trilogy, so the game should look and sound as close as its possible to get to the original Star Wars that we grew up with. But what excites me the most is the chance to get involved in some of the classic action sequences. It looks like they have captured all the key moments of the battle for Hoth in the trailer above, and gone to great lengths to make it feel like you are part of the event.

This is the first gameplay trailer that we have seen, following on from the previous trailer released a back in April (below), which got us excited about characters such as Darth Vader and Boba Fett, but was game engine rather than gameplay, making it hard to judge what the final game would be like. This new trailer assuages our concerns, or mine at least. It looks amazing and I can't wait to see more.

Star Wars: Battlefront will be released November 17th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.