Tomb Raider revealed by Square Enix in Game Informer

As we theorized last month, the January issue of Game Informer will, indeed, be showing off the latest iteration in the Tomb Raider series called, simply, Tomb Raider. Details are scarce, but we know it features Lara's first adventure in which she must struggle to stay alive (hence "A Survivor is Born," the tag line used to tease the release). You can see the rough-looking Lara after the break.

Though Darrell Gallagher, head of Crystal Dynamics, says we should "forget everything you knew about Tomb Raider" and that this is "an origins story that creates Lara Croft and takes her on a character defining journey like no other," it's not clear if this is a relaunch or just an origin story that takes place in the series' already pretty convoluted time line. Heck, we don't even know platforms, though PC, PS3 and 360 seem like safe bets. Soon as we all get our hands on the new GI, we'll hopefully all know much more.

As for the new, stripped down title, Gallagher said "We know there is a blog that has a significant games database that relies on individual tags for each game title, and we like making things hard on them." ... OK, he didn't say that. But you know he was thinking it.

[Update: We've got the full cover image from Game Informer as you can see above (click here for big version). And is that ... a bow? Scour the image and let us know if you find any other clues.]