Moon-Safari: The Microsoft DLC deal was made very late in development, and that's a fact. It was told to the team relatively quickly -- no more than days or weeks. The bold type you are asking about...I actually don't know what it means. "this defined the whole Underworld experience the moment it was told to us." is a sentence I don't understand. And anything about it stalling, well I don't know what happened Friday afternoon after I left. I thought it was all still on course just fine. As for the rest, it is absolutely true that part of the DLC came from elements cut from Underworld, and it is absolutely false that this was done because the DLC was looking thin. I am the one who proposed and decided the cuts, and it was unrelated to DLC. But I am not saying that SacreficialLamb is lying, they were just misinformed by someone who didn't know the truth themselves. And the decision I made was only to cut the content from Underworld. The decision to make a deal with Microsoft for exclusive content was Eidos and Studio Production, and the decision to use some things cut from Underworld was made by the DLC team. Does that clear it up better? And what I would give that Eidos was paying me to spend my Sunday answering your questions!
I'm sure they would prefer that I was not saying what I am saying today, but they can take solace in the fact that I am being fair and balanced.
Kittypower: I don't know anything about whether WB plans on continuing to buy more stock or the company outright. If I did, I couldn't say, but I don't.
Rivendell: Tomb Raider and Stargate? Ugh. Well, we kind of opened ourselves for that one with the shape of the portal in Legend, which we knew at the time was pushing it but I couldn't do anything about it. But Stargate's mix of sci-fi, myth, and truth behind the myth came after Tomb Raider, not before. If it helps, I enjoyed the movie but never saw any of the TV episodes.
lacryjr: I think Underworld was a much better tomb raider experience than Uncharted, but Uncharted succeeded very well at what they were trying to do. The games were just very different with only a slight connection in their high concept.
Angelus: EPIC!
Anarae: I really can't say what future stories will bring, or what "book" they will come from, not only because it would be telling secrets, but I just don't know.
Larapink: Good ideas are good ideas, whether they come from designers or 3D artists or testers. Good teams listen to everyone and know goodness when they hear it. I hope you find a good team someday.
Neteru: sorry to be keeping you up late...I know I'm on PST and not GMT, but people seem to be going to bed because I'm gaining ground on the posts!
Awestruck: changing the braide to a ponytail was a style decision in Legend that I wasn't a part of and also didn't understand, but I didn't feel the same attachment many of you did. It was also believed that the braid would not behave properly with the new level of realism and outr physics and collision, I recall. Same on Underworld, and we had established the pony tail. I don't know if people will like or hate me for this, but I specifically made sure that the doppelganger had a braid as a nod to this debate among the fans. That and a way of saying that the ponytail was not a reinvention, because the doppleganger having a braid means that Lara still had one at the time the Doppleganger for imaged from Lara during the events of TR1.
Immortalis08: Enemy AI is really hard. MIT issues PhD's on this sort of thing. The only way we could have done better on this would have taken a lot away from the rest of the game, we we felt that Underworld the games before it, should be more about climb and find that combat, so we allocated resources appropriately.
Matrix54: I'll talk about the story arc of the three games later, and how it affected Underworld. I don't think I agree that Mexico got all cartoony, though. The ful screen effects softened things a bit, and that edge can go against realism somewhat, but I didn't feel it was dramatically off.
Sblade: Even though the PC version was in my perview, I don't know tech details and stuck to creative elements and expression, so I don't know about the patches.
Evan C.: I have a great many Most Memorables with respect to Tomb Raider. Here's one at random that makes me look bad. On Legend I flew to London to direct Keeley doing cinematics and other in-game VO, and while all the important cut scene stuff was settled, I still had a lot of bits of in-game dialog to write, random comments about puzzles, ruins, stuff for the in-binoculars help, etc. I stayed up all night typing furiously (rather like I'm doing now) and finished ten minutes before going down to ride the tube to the studio, having been up for 40 hours straight...yikes. And we still got a BAFTA nomination for Best Videogame Screenplay! As for you fans, I often went to the forums to read posts when I was tired or depressed, because the enthusiasm and opinions strongly held always made me feel better, that these little things that consumed me at work really did matter to people. Even when it was all gripes and complaints, often about stuff that wasn't true, I took it all as energy and care about what I was working on. The fans helped a lot, on many levels. Even ole ben Croft could cheer me up, sometimes with flames, other times with unexpected sanity.
Quasimodo: What am I most proud of? Even where I think the story didn't express itself as well as I wanted, I am proud of that in both Legend and Underworld (I was only tangentially a part of the Aniversary story and script). Help on Demand was another, as small as it was...and you'd be surprised, but this feature more than all the others was what interested publications like Newsweek and Gamasutra. More will come to me...
croft94: "Epic Lindstrom" always made me laugh. It also reminded me of how we had a sign up that read "Epic Exploration Puzzles!" on the wall, and my Lead Level Designer KLyle Mannerberg used a ball point pen to change the "Epic" into "Eric" shortly before he died. The word Epic means everything to me that it means to you and more so because of it's association with Kyle, who we still dearly miss.
passing by: The reason I said that I suspected that some of the people claiming to be Crystal employees were possibly true is because I didn't really see much that was clearly wrong in what they were saying, within the boundaries of personal opinion anyway. I don't know who you are (if you believe I can keep your secret, send me a PM) but it sounds like you are legit, too. I did not realize that anyone was claiming that none of the DLC was cuts from Underworld, and if they are, then yeah, we have a truth issue here. (I haven't really read threads about DLC at all...) Without going out and looking at those threads, I'll just say that I stand behind what I've said, and if anyone wants to ask me directly to agree or disagree with claims of the prior CD posters, please do so. I didn't mean to say (reality is so complicated) that we had never spoken to Microsoft about DLC prior to the cuts I made -- these kinds of talks happen all the time -- but no deal was forged at the time. And thanks for the comment about my talents being noticed...I know that there are people on the East side of the building who are frustrated by mistakes they believe were made by me, but they don't know the whole story. I did make mistakes, but many of the complaints they have would lessen or vanish if they knew the circumstances. Rather than get mad or complain about me, I wish they'd just ask. The truth is available.
amiro1989: Can't talk about the future, but here's a polarizing comment...I never liked Kurtis. Don't hate him, either, just didn't see the need or value in him. To those who like him, I'm glad you got something you cherish. Will he ever come back in the future? Who knows? I don't.
Alister's Brain: We trimmed different transitional moves and whatnot but didn't really cut much wholesale. That screenshot is funny -- it's just that the collision on the boat is wrong so she is acting like it's a solid wall and not an unbraced ledge...
Megalith: When Microsoft approached us about exclusive content, they didn't know what we would want to do. It just so happened that we had a head start with assets in progress, so we could get going sooner and finish earlier. I think they approached us, but it might have happened the other way round...it happens at a higher level than I travel. I don't know what efforts were made to make similar deals with Sony or Nitendo, etc. I also don't know why there was no PS3 Demo. One could say that we were rushed in making these Tomb Raider games, but you can also say that we tried to do too much in the time we were given. Who's right? Well, it does come down to expectations. If the publisher expects something of certain size and quality in a certain time frame, it can lead to rushing that is unavoidable, but if we were better at our jobs could we have done it? Maybe. The real world is a murky place, and I try to avoid accusations I don't 100% believe in or can prove.