Back in July, the city's council asked for suggestions for two new roads. After getting over 100, the city council narrowed down the choices to eight. Those choices can be voted on via internet by anyone able to access the internet. You don't have to be a Derby resident! Which means that the city will most likely be getting a street named after Lara Croft.

It has been noted that there is a connection between Derby and Lara Croft. The studio behind the original Tomb Raider was based in Derby before shuttering in 2006.

Vote in the link below. Vote wisely.

Derby [Official Site via Derby Telegraph via Joystiq via The Escapist]

Now, I dig Tomb Raider. But after Zero Punctuation's brutal review of Underworld, I'm started to feel mighty uncomfortable about all the animals Ms. Croft knocks off on her way to steal valuable stuff from dead people. In all seriousness, I actually apologized to the virtual panthers I shot up during my own review of Underworld. Because I'm a huge softie. And a cat owner. And maybe a little crazy after 10 straight hours of gameplay on deadline.

Enjoy the artwork, from the over-sexed to the over-manga'd. This image comes from Joe Jusko.

40 Various Styles Artworks of Lara Croft [The Design Inspiration]

The city is taking suggestions for names of two stretches of road, and one of the more popular ideas is Lara Croft Way. The city's marketing director thinks it's a great idea too. "Personally I would be in favor of something that projects something new and modern about the city so I quite like the Lara Croft idea," said John Forkin, the director of Marketing Derby.

And that's even considering other suggestions of a more robust tradition - Florence Nightingale Way and Rolls Royce Way, among them. Nightingale lived in the area, and Rolls Royce is a major employer.

I wouldn't be surprised to see them go with Lara Croft here. In Europe, they go for recognition in naming their public construction. As opposed to the United States, where it seems most bridges, overpasses and stretches of highway are named for some transportation commissioner, retired general or state senator no one's ever heard of.

Lara Croft is Lined Up for Derby Inner Ring Road Immortality [Derby Telegraph via Destructoid]

It's hardly shocking that Eidos - bought out by sequelmeisters Square Enix of course - would be planning another Tomb Raider. Existing IP is a big chunk of a studio's value as an acquisition target, and Eidos' Ian Livingstone even said to expect a Lara Croft reboot a couple months ago. Still, this is someone else's rumor and someone else's photos. We've emailed Eidos PR if they want to take a swing at this rumor, first reported today by 4Player Co-Op.

In the shots (which you may see here) you can see a mounted Lara (on horseback, stupe) firing arrows at zombiefied creatures with gnarly, ouchy-looking appendages. The concepts for her foes are barely more than silhouettes, but they all look ugly and threatening, Lara herself has a look that backs off the overt sex appeal and makes her into a more athletic, ass-kicky fighter.

From the descriptions, this figures to be a reboot origin story similar to the kind of treatment Batman, James Bond and even the Hulk have gotten in cinema. Livingstone had hinted that would be the tack of this story. Here's a transcription of some of the text on the screen, which appears to be from an internal website:

When a sudden storm destroys her research vessel, a young and inexperienced Lara Croft finds herself stranded on a mysterious and remote island hidden off the shores of Japan. Despite several signs of various inhabitants the island is oddly deserted, and an uneasy feeling settles in as strange sounds emerge from the shadows. With only her determination, inner strength, and resourcefulness to help her, Lara must overcome the challenges of a harsh and unforgiving journey that will take her across a vast island wilderness and deep into the claustrophobic and menacing underground tombs from the island's past. As she struggles to prevail through brutal combat encounters and treacherous exploration, Lara will be pushed to her limits and forced to adapt to her situation in order to survive and escape from the lethal predators that stalk her every move.

[...]

• Origin story. "This new Tomb Raider concept reboots the franchise by exploring the origins of Lara Croft's transformation into a hardened adventurer as you unravel the story behind the island's mysterious past."

New weapons, new ways to use them, and a reworked combat system are also hinted at in the text. If anything else dribbles out about this leak, we'll be sure to update it here.

Tomb Raider Reboot - The First Details? [4player Co-Op via Joystiq]

The Tomb Raider franchise is getting a cinematic reboot with Dan Lin, the movie's producer, saying, "It is an origin story so it is a younger Lara Croft. It will have character-driven action." This is the third film in the Tomb Raider movie series — the last one was in 2003.

A source tells The Sun (yes, yes, we know) that Jolie was originally keen to reprise her role as Lara Croft in the blockbuster film franchise, but now "feels robbed". "Angie isn't a fan of the Transformers films and believes Megan won't do the Lara Croft character justice," the source adds. "She's also annoyed because she thinks Megan copies everything from her, from her tattoos to her style." (But will she copy Jolie's cool mom status?)

Back in January, a spokesperson for Megan Fox stated, "Megan is not involved in this movie." So either Jolie is getting upset for no reason or The Sun is making up shit for no reason. Or maybe Megan Fox is actually involved in this movie.

Regardless, the really important question is what does Angelina Jolie's father, actor Jon Voight, think? "They're both very beautiful and they're both kind of sexy girls." Thanks, Jon!

Angelina Jolie is furious that Megan Fox has been tipped to take the lead role in Tomb Raider [The Sun]

We first heard stirrings of these new layoffs earlier this week, receiving several tips from people purporting to be former employees or friends of former employees. Now an Eidos spokesperson has confirmed the layoffs, citing the need to "focus resources" as the underlying reason behind them.

"We can confirm that Crystal Dynamics has made a reduction of approximately 25 people at the San Francisco studio. This decision is a reflection of the continued drive to focus resources at the studio. We would like to thank all of the employees affected by this difficult decision for their hard work during their time at Crystal and we wish them all the best in the future."

This latest round of cuts follows rumors in January of another 30 or so employees cut loose from the developer following poor performance of the latest Tomb Raider title, Tomb Raider Underworld.

With no currently announced projects and the recent acquisition of parent company Eidos by Square Enix, one cannot help but worry about the future of the remaining Crystal Dynamics employees. Tomb Raider was a large part of the allure of Eidos to Square Enix, so we wouldn't be surprised if they took Lara out of Crystal Dynamics' hands in an attempt to revitalize the franchise once again.

I'm personally hoping that the developer sticks around long enough to deliver a new Gex title.

Speaking in an interview with About.com during the premier of Terminator Salvation, producer Dan Lim explains that the new Lara Croft film will be an origin story with a strong focus on character development, which is definitely a new direction for the film franchise.

"We're rebooting Lara Croft...It's a great origin story that we're going to tell, a very character-oriented, I would say more realistic than the past Lara Croft movies...It's not full-on action. I would say it's like Terminator, it's character driven action. For me, the Lara Croft games and movies have gone a little too action-oriented. I wanted to have action, but with character."

But who is going to play the new Lara? When questioned about the casting, with About.com's Rebecca Murray specifically mentioning Angelina Jolie, Lin's response was "It is an origin story, so it is going to be a younger Lara Croft."

So no casting news yet, but with a younger Lara Croft it seems like Angelina Jolie might be on the outs. She can still pull off pretty, but young might be a bit of a stretch. Perhaps they'll pull a Spock and slip her in there by way of time paradox. Angelina Jolie is as good a reason for a time paradox as I can think of.

Dan Lin Interview - Terminator Salvation and Lara Croft [About.com via Tomb Raider Fanboy]
image

While Eidos may feel that Lara Croft's Tomb Raider franchise is in need of an overhaul and the company says Underworld's performance hasn't met expectations, sales were decent enough to reduce the publisher's losses to just 1 million pounds ($1.43 million USD).

That's potentially good news for Square Enix, currently doing its damnedest to snatch up the European publisher.

Good work, Lara! And good luck speargunning those sharks!

Guess they need to fill her contract until the character gets an overhaul.

Compared to previous Lara Croft models, poor Alison Carroll has had it rough with everything from NSFW publicity pics, creepy stalker pics and even archaeology questions.

But, look, she's a good sport. Cellphone guns, ring, ring!!

PRETEND LARA CROFT EXTENDS PRETENDING CONTRACT INTO 2009 [UK:R]

That, and the games aren't exactly tearing up the sales chart.

So what gives? While the previous Tomb Raider flicks were made by Paramount, the film rights reverted back to publisher Eidos. Last December Time Warner increased its stake in Eidos to 19.92 percent. Included in that were Tomb Raider motion picture rights.

The project is still early in development, and Angelina Jolie does not appear to be involved. A new Lara Croft actress, director and writer are still not attached. The reboot is expected to revamp the character, the film franchise and the high kicks.

Warner Bros. Rebooting Tomb Raider [ComingSoon.net]

In The Times of London, Brent is quoted as modeling the Croft overhaul after the one the cinematic Batman went through — from yet another sequel to a new, more critically acclaimed, and profitable franchise.

“We need to look at everything, as we develop the next game," Brent said. "Look at how Batman changed succesfully, from the rather sad character of the Michael Keaton era to the noir style of The Dark Knight.”

The revision might make her a more female-friendly character, the Times speculates (it also calls her a "pneumatic archaelogist," I suppose in reference to her impossible dimensions.) Gloomy sales numbers for Tomb Raider: Underworld helped knock 30 percent off Eidos' share price this week. It's not expected to sell more than 2.5 million copies, whereas the previous game, Tomb Raider: Legend, sold 3 million. It indicates gamers might be getting tired of the character in her current state.

Lara Croft has appeared in eight games since her 1996 debut. If the comparison to a film character is apt, she's long overdue for an update. James Bond may be more than half a century old in film and novel, but each new Bond actor rejuvenates the franchise, and Casino Royale with Daniel Craig was a total makeover (its working title was even "Bond Begins," a nod to Batman.) A canonical do-over that minimizes the Lara Croft stereotypes and shortcomings may be just what the doctor ordered.

Lara Croft Faces Female-Friendly Makeover After Poor Sales in US Bring Profit Warning from Eidos [The Times of London, via Develop, thanks josh1122]

According to the BBC, North American game retailers are already selling Tomb Raider: Underworld at a sizable discount — not a bad thing if you want to buy the game, but not so good for Eidos. The company had put full year revenue forecast at somewhere between £180m and £200m.

The 2008 revenue results will actually fall between £160m and £180m. Eidos said it might have to discuss debt repayments with its lenders.

According to Eidos: "In an difficult North American economy, we have seen retailers restricting inventory levels and...products priced discounted above our expectations." Eidos isn't the first company to complain about this stinky economy and certainly won't be the last.

Lara Croft battles sales downturn [BBC]

Apparently the massive, 198MB download has been sitting there for quite some time, but nobody bothered to let us know, so we were fully prepared to go into the new year without the stirring main theme from Troels Brun Folmann, or the bulk of the game's music from composer Colin O'Malley. Thankfully that isn't the case.

Well, assuming all of the folks who now know about the soundtrack finish up their downloads so we stop getting "Too many connections. Try again later" errors. Just give yourself a little time for the sharks to stop circling and the music shall be yours.

Tomb Raider Underworld Original Soundtrack Download [Tomb Raider Chronicles via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

The winner is after the jump. Actually, I also put the second place winner as well. Due to a technical snafu (I APOLOGIZED DON'T BE ANGRY), we had to vote again. I'll need the first place winner and second place winner to send their home addresses to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom.

Creepy Tom Selleck 'stache came in first...

...followed closely by this beautiful hand-drawn entry. The first place winner will get a copy of Tomb Raider Underworld. The second place will get something — though I have no clue just yet. Feel bad for the double voting! Again, apologizes.

Best part? Watching Totilo trying to follow in her footsteps. Thanks goodness he doesn't have the same outfit.

Watch Lara Croft Model Flip Through Our Office [video]

Lara Croft [Ekstra Bladet via VG247]

Jolie tells Harper’s Bazaar “My kids play video games. I let them play with toy soldiers. We don’t take war and violence lightly, but we don’t hide it from anybody."

How does the big screen Lara Croft explain all that fictional violence to Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and eventually Knox and Vivienne? “We say, ‘Mommy and daddy have movies where we play these characters, but there’s real death and violence in the world.’” Talking to your kids, eh? Helping to define the difference between reality and fantasy is an interesting concept that might just be crazy enough to work.

Reader and tipster Jason says "I thought that this is quite an interesting read considering that Ms. Jolie frequently travels to war torn nations for the UN and [has] seen what war does to people. That and how she makes an effort to talk to her kids about real world violence. It's very much a different perspective about gaming in the media that people [should] definitely hear more of in my own opinion."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves, so we didn't even try. Thanks, Jason.

Jolie says she’s ‘just a punk kid with tattoos’ [MSNBC]

Just when you thought things couldn't get any better than this, a fight broke out.

As you can see, James got really into character, carrying Marilyn Monroe to safety while the battle raged on. While perhaps not the most accurate Lara Croft costume out there, I could certainly see her taking on wild panthers much more readily than Angelina Jolie.

WWE Diva Halloween Costume Contest [WWE via MTV Multiplayer]

No no, I'm sure she's fine, and this is the best Tomb Raider game since the original. They wouldn't be releasing it if it weren't, now would they?

Demo: Tomb Raider: Underworld Playable [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

Shiny Interview: Tech Digest meets Alison Carroll aka Lara Croft 2008/9 [Tech Digest]