From, obviously, Penny-Arcade

Go to Metacritic, which is destroying the video game industry, by the way, and check out the Tomb Raider: Underworld’s metascore. Right now it’s 78. That’s not good enough, apparently.

It’s like this: Eidos, which publishes the game, instructed its PR firm to ask sites to hold off on publishing Underworld reviews before Monday (yesterday) if they were less than 80 percent. The idea, I guess, was to maximize sales before too many people found out about the game being good or bad (I haven’t played it, so I can’t comment either way). It’s like how in the movie industry, the opening weekend is key because, after that, people will have found out if the movie is good or bad, and whether or not it’s worth their time and money to see it.

Now there’s a controversy regarding Eidos, the PR firm and magic bullets. It’s very meta. Also boring.

My advice to those of you reading game reviews: ignore the number. Ratings are an archaic practice that are largely irrelevant nowadays, what with reviews being a dime a dozen online. Read the actual content of the review and decide from there.

Name: Alison Carroll

Mission: To Become Lara Croft

Let’s all watch, shall we? Eidos might as well just make a full-length movie while they’re at it with all this video stuff they’re doing. New game in late November.

[via CVG]

If only Lara Croft were real then I’d marry her. Oh wait, she is real!

You know, the new Lara Croft that we told you about yesterday. Enjoy…

Aye-chee-wah-wah. Here’s the new Lara Croft; former gymnast Alison Carroll of Croydon, a borough of London. I can’t stand Angelina Jolie – can’t stand her – so it brings me great joy to see that she can retire and I can finally like Tomb Raider again.

Granted, Miss Carroll won’t really be playing the role of Lara Croft in a movie anytime soon, but “she will appear at promotions and conferences in character, performing stunts such as back flips, and will play the part in TV commercials. Miss Carroll will even answer questions on chat shows as Lara, after taking a crash course in archaeology,” according to the Daily Mail.

More photos after the jump.

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It’s easy with games to complain that there are few original ideas; everything just seems to be a rehash of the same old titles we’ve been playing for years. But then sometimes an old game re-envisioned for a new platform is more original than anything else out there. And sometimes a retelling of an old classic seems more innovative than everything else we’re seeing. While we can’t explain why, we can say that we’re thrilled to see a few old friends again.

This spring has seen the release of a few long time favorites, including our beloved treasure hunter Lara Croft, plus the premier fighting franchise has made the jump to the Wii. Say what you want about old school games, but these are like old friends finally coming home. Of course not lived up to our fond memories. But isn’t that what reunions are always like?

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Next Gen, the online magazine that used to be a dead tress magazine I used to read because it didn’t use hyperbolic language to describe video games, reports that Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a remake of the original game, may well be on its way to Xbox Live as a downloadable game. It cites a recent ESRB listing on the organization’s Web site that shows the game was rated (and will presumably be released for) five systems, one of which is the Xbox 360. Why, exactly, Next-Gen automatically jumps to the conclusion that it’ll be released onto Xbox Live as a downloadable game is unknown.

The game’s been getting good reviews, with the flawed but still useful GameRankings score currently at 81 percent. Though, I suppose, good or bad, XBL users are always thirsty for new content.

Downloadable Lara Heading to Xbox 360? [Next Gen]

Fan of the original “Aeon Flux” or “Reign: The Conqueror?” Might want to sign up for GameTap soon, as the company will be releasing a new animated series called “ReVisioned.” A collective group of artists and writers will get together to create a cartoon series based on popular video games. Up first is “Tomb Raider” and guess who’s doing the first two episodes? None other than Peter Chung, of the aforementioned “Aeon Flux” fame.

Some of the animation looks really fantastic and seems to be worth checking out. All the episodes of each series will be available for free to anyone who wants to watch them, so props to the guys at GameTap for offering their idea to those of us without accounts.

Tomb Raider: GameTap Collection [GameTap via Kotaku]