If you’ve been following my antics on Twitter, you’ll probably know that I’ve recently been revisiting the Greece levels of Tomb Raider 1, sniffing out material for a new edition of Arte-Factual. It had been years since I last played the 1996 classic so I’d almost forgotten how much real-life art makes an appearance throughout the game. One of the artworks that caught my eye while exploring the Colosseum level earlier this week was this depiction of Ancient Greek ... [Continue Reading]
Time for another blast from the past as we return once again to the original 1996 Tomb Raider for this edition of Arte-Factual! If you’ve ever played the original game, you may have noticed that the game developers drew inspiration from real-life artworks and artefacts, such as the Toltec pillars at Tula in Mexico, the Gayer-Anderson cat statue, and the Chimú bird motifs that adorn the adobe walls of buildings at Chan Chan in Peru. This time around, we’ll be looking at the walls ... [Continue Reading]
In the last edition of Lara’s Travels, I wrote about the island of Jan Mayen in the Arctic Ocean, one of the real-life locations featured in Tomb Raider: Underworld. This time, however, we’ll be going back in time to where it all began and look at one of the places Lara visits in the original Tomb Raider (and Anniversary): St. Francis’ Folly. Of course, there is no real-life St. Francis’ Folly (try not to be too disappointed), though this hasn’t deterred fans from ... [Continue Reading]
In the last edition of Arte-Factual, I wrote about the Gayer-Anderson cat statue and its virtual counterpart seen in the original Tomb Raider. This time around, I will be looking at an artefact that depicts one of my favourite animals: the Athenian Owl Figurine. The Athenian Owl Figure is one of the collectable relics found in Tomb Raider: Anniversary and, as its name suggests, is a depiction of the owl normally associated with the Greek goddess Athena and the ancient city-state of Athens. ... [Continue Reading]
In this edition of Arte-Factual, we turn our attention to the Golden Mask of Tornarsuk, an artefact that makes an appearance in Tomb Raider II: The Golden Mask, a five-level mini-adventure that was created for the 1999 “Gold” edition re-release of Tomb Raider II. According to Inuit mythology, Tornarsuk (also known as Torngarsuk) is a god, or supernatural being, who is usually depicted in either polar bear or human form and is the leader of the tornat (or tuurngait), nature ... [Continue Reading]
