Author: David Peach

Pet Owner of three; Father of two; Husband to one; I enjoy sharing my gaming photography. I blog on my website. I am a disliker of generative AI (I'm essentially mandated to use it at work) My fediverse profile is part of my personal website, using WordPress.

Whenever you are offered something for free, always ask how that company makes it’s money. Then ask if you can still ethically use it.

Review of Tomb Raider 2013

For my 14th Christmas I was bought an original Playstation along with a copy of the newly-released Tomb Raider 2. On boxing day I sat there, transfixed to the screen, trying to work out how to traverse the Great Wall of China with two tigers hot after my blood.

After a good few hours of working my way through that first level I finally made it out and was soon following the next clue to Venice. Ever since Lara first dropped down into the streets of Venice, gaming was never quite the same for me again.

This was the first time I remember being swept up in the magic of a gaming world. The winding waterways of Venice; the sunken wreck of the Maria Doria; the trippy, other worldly nexus of the Floating Islands; and finally the last ditch effort by Bartolli’s men on Lara’s home. Lara Croft was, and remains to this day, my favourite gaming hero.

After Tomb Raider 4: The Last Revelation I kind of lost interest in the series. I was moving on to other things in life and gaming sort of fell behind. I never actively searched out any of the newer releases since Tomb Raider 4. That was until the rebooted Tomb Raider (hereafter referred to simply as “Tomb Raider”) was released in 2013.

Tomb Raider 2013

Tomb Raider completely blew me away from the get go. Lara was finally a real flesh and blood woman. She came alive right in front of me and wasn’t actually a battle-hardened raider of tombs yet. She was a scared young woman, who I would come to follow through to discovering her destiny on the island of Yamatai.

During Lara’s journey across Yamatai, she encounters a range of adversaries: armed soldiers; huge, demonic Storm Guards; sneaky forest wolves. All are out for blood, and all you will need to fight through at some stage. People have mentioned to me how they were disappointed by the focus being more on the fighting than on the actual raiding of tombs. While it’s true if you just follow where the story nudges you, you may find puzzles at a minimum. However there are many tombs located across the island and are there for you to try and solve, should you want to. So it’s not that there are less puzzles as such, only that you can choose if and when you want to attempt each tomb. I find this is actually more realistic than previous games as these hidden tombs would be just that – hidden. In fact I am currently on my second play through and have discovered a whole portion of the Mountain village that I had missed on my first play through.

Lara’s seemless progression across the island make this one of the most immersive games I’ve played, and one that I keep wanting to return to. I never feel that I’m just in a game, only that I am fighting my way through a living, breathing, deadly landscape where everything from the wildlife to the patrol guards are out to get me.

For me, Tomb Raider is a welcome addition to the family; the big shot of adrenaline the series needed. It also serves as probably the best origin story for Lara too, along with 2015’s Rise Of The Tomb Raider, which follows on.

Tomb Raider can be picked up dirt-cheap on Steam now for both Windows and Linux and you really should experience it.

Interview with Lyndon Holland

One of my favourite soundtracks, and a recent obsession of mine, has been the soundtrack to the game Virginia by Lyndon Holland. His soundtrack has had such a great affect on me, and no doubt many others.

Lyndon recently agreed to answer some questions of mine so that we can get more of an understanding of the man behind the music.

The Interview

Please tell us about yourself in as many or as little words as you like.
I’m a pretty normal guy with geeky interests and a strange job, working out of my bedroom in West London.
Growing up, who were your heroes in music?
John Williams, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri, Jerry Goldsmith, Nobuo Uematsu
Growing up, who were your heroes outside of music?
Not sure I really had many ‘heroes’ to be honest, but I remember Spielberg movies having a huge affect on me.
What was the first album you remember buying?
Ha, I distinctively remember it being Metallica – …And Justice for All
Was there any defining moment in your life when you knew that you wanted to write music?
I remember being in love with the music to Final Fantasy VIII as a 13 year old. As a result, I started playing around with midi in a basic software package called Noteworthy composer.
Who is your biggest influence in how you approach what you do today?
The way I think about music in relation to narrative developed a lot whilst I attended The National Film and Television School. I couldn’t choose a single individual, but the process of working with like minded people in such a heightened and condensed way for 2 years was as influential as anything else.
What is the proudest moment of your career so far?
Probably all the positive the feedback I have received from people after playing Virginia.
What is your favourite Book?
To Kill a Mockingbird
What is your favourite Album?
Tough one. In terms of music that I keep coming back to, I suppose it could be something like The Beatles – Abbey Road. But ask me another day and it would probably be something different.
What is your favourite Film?
Again, very difficult. I could pick something obscure and meaningful, but instead I will choose something I have watched a million times and never fails to work it’s magic; E.T.
What is your favourite TV Show?
Something like Breaking Bad or House of Cards probably deserves this, but for all it’s faults, I still have a huge place in my heart for Lost.
Do you have a favourite film/tv/game/musical soundtrack?
For the way it works with the picture, I love stuff like Howard Shore’s score to Crash or Jonny Greenwood’s score to There will be blood. But then for listening purposes outside of the film, I dunno, I love The Lion King, and the recent arrangements of Final Fantasy VII in the Final Symphony album.
Are there any new albums you are binge listening to at the moment?
For no real reason in particular, I’ve been listening to The Nightmare Before Christmas a lot recently, ha.
You’re walking somewhere and your mp3 player has only a little battery left; You’ve only got time for one more song. What song do you play?
Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb
What advice would you give to your younger self?
I’d tell younger self to concentrate on understanding form and structure before attempting any complex orchestration.
If you could ask any person – living or passed – any question, who would it be and what would you ask them?
I’m definitely throwing this question away, but I’d ask Stanley Kubrick if Eyes Wide Shut was his final cut
Do you have any exciting new projects you are working on that you can tell us about?
There are some things in the pipeline, but it’s too early to say anything at this time!
Could you tell us a joke?
“I’ve decided to sell my Hoover… well, it was just collecting dust.”

A big thank you to Lyndon

Thank you, Lyndon for taking the time to answer these questions.

If any of you need convincing to listen to his awesome music, then please do read my write up of the Virginia soundtrack. Or just go and buy it right now.