Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light plunders PS3, Steam on Sep. 28, five DLC packs in 2010

Though Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is making its debut as part of Microsoft's high-profile (and heavily co-marketed) Summer of Arcade program, that doesn't mean Lara isn't destined for other platforms. Square Enix today announced that GoL will be released on both PlayStation Network and Steam on September 28th for the same $15 asking price. But Lara's plans for 2010 don't stop there.

While we agree DLC is a pretty strange acronym for Downloadable Content, we're going to disagree with Crystal Dynamics General Manager Darrell Gallagher when he insists, "DLC for us means Downloadable Lara Croft." Don't get us wrong, we're on board for Guardian of Light in a big way (though our initial enthusiasm has certainly been blunted with today's news that online co-op will suffer a one-month delay for Xbox owners). We simply worry that five DLC packs over three months is going to cause a consumer revolt, fueled by cries of "that should've been in the game."

The first three packs are straight-up expansions, meaning fresh puzzles and "new areas" to visit. The latter two are "playable character packs" which will let you swap out Lara and Totec throughout the entire campaign for "some other well-known videogame characters." Our guess: Hitman's Agent 47 ... or perhaps another trigger-happy hero from Square's catalog, Vincent from Final Fantasy VII.

Reader Comments (14)

Remember how awesome this franchise was? Around the time Tomb Raider 2 was released on PS1?

@thisredengine
I dunno about everyone else but since Crystal Dynamics took over, I've actually played and thoroughly enjoyed the TR games. Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld were all really fun games with enjoyable and sometimes thought-provoking environmental puzzles. I'm looking forward to this.

Isn't that the Lord of the Rings font?

Should of just made it a $60 retail game. That is waht it will wind up costing anyways.

@GMB Brian Plus $5 extra for the co-op feature.

Something tells me these DLC is just some good portions of the game that were cut out to make more money. :|

@The Harbinger of Pie Everyone who immediately assumes this obviously has no idea how development works. More often than not, DLC is being created while the main game is in submission or manufacturing by people who've already rolled off of the main game and isn't usually fleshed out until they start working on it. Some of the assets used may have been cut from the main game, but it would likely have been cut anyway for one reason or another. DLC simply allows them time and resources to revisit content that would, otherwise, never would have seen the light of day. The rest of it is new content that probably wasn't even fully fleshed out until after the main game was finished when the developers actually have time to concentrate on it.

Hitman .. oh how i miss that game. too bad we didn't get blood money on PS3 .. i would love too see Hitman Contracts, Blood Money and Hitman 2 HD with Trophy Support.

I don't know which game to compare to the Lumines blunder that was the XBLA version: Catlevania HoD or TGoL. All three are expensive XBLA games with plans for "multiple" and "premium" DLC packs.

Kinda glad I don't have the MSP to plop down on Castlevania, as the demo itself was a big "NO" for me.

@Nintendo Tim

It's basically a multiplayer only game. I honestly don't know why they would give a single player option.

As much as I love Tomb Raider games, I think I'm going to pass on this at launch. 1200 points is too much for any DLC game, especially in Canada, where that's close to 17 bucks! (We pay $20 for 1400 points).

I'll download it during it's inevitable "sale/discount" price within the first 6 months of it's release. And I'm pretty sure I'll skip out on the DLC, unless the character swap out pack is actually a nude version of Lara ;)

Oh and to all those monkies who seem to think Tomb Raider Legend, Underworld and Anniversary were no good - you clearly did not play them - All three were fantastic games rivaled in their genre only by Uncharted (and Uncharted 2 of course).

They said that Guardian of Light is 2GB big which is the limit for XBLA games so the DLC might simply be the bits they couldn't fit into the limit.

Tempted to hop on this if only to have another couch co-op game to play with my wife at release and later with friends during extra life, but I think I'll wait on some reviews from trusted sources.

This makes me a bit wary - Underworld had shitty pricing for it's DLC. Oh well, game still looks good, will probably still get it.