In a Q and A with Scot Amos, Executive Producer at Crystal Dynamics, a few tidbits were unearthed about the new Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition releasing next month
Among the highlights, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition will receive voice-controlled commands on both Playstation 4 and Xbox One and both versions of the game will look significantly better than the PC version which released in March.
The release was planned as far back as November 2012 and work officially began in January 2013, prior to the launch of the game on current-gen platforms. Scot went on to say that all in-game characters were updated for next-gen, but Lara has obviously received the biggest treatment. Rez geometry, textures and other aspects of all primary characters for the game have been improved. However, Scot admitted that Lara’s looks are just the start for all future iterations of Tomb Raider on next-gen platforms.
There will be some slight console specific additions and Scot hinted that the DS4 touchpad could be used in the game. He did say that the lit front of the controller will interact with the game and that Kinect also has a role to play, but didn’t elaborate on that. However, we do know that Kinect and the Playstation camera or a microphone plugged into DS4 will pick up voice commands. The voice commands will be used to enhance Lara’s actions and as shortcuts to various menus and upgrade screens. In particular, players will be able to switch weapons and ammo types verbally. Scot suggested there would be differences between both versions of the game, but went on record to say Tomb Raider will run at 1080p on both Playstation 4 and Xbox One, though an official framerate hasn’t been revealed as the game is still being optimized.
Scot also revealed the back-end architecture of the multiplayer portion of the game has been completely rewritten, but wouldn’t be drawn into specific improvements.
For the full read, check out the thread here. In particular, Scot goes into great detail about the graphical enhancements coming to Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition.
The game releases on January 21st for Playstation 4 and Xbox One.