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With Tomb Raider: Legend on the verge of release in China, SINA, a big-time online Chinese media corporation, set out to find the nation's 'Lara Croft.' It appears that nine would-be adventurers were singled out for the awkwardly titled "Play Girl" contest.

The winners received a cash prize and will be featured in a "live action" photo bundled with the game.

Big week for handheld gaming! As we creep closer to the end of the year, release dates are just more and more packed with must-have titles. If this keeps up, we may have to consider undertaking a life of crime in order to afford everything we want. What are you picking up this week, and how much ramen are you gonna munch to compensate?

DS releases:

• Asphalt: Urban GT 2
• Bionicle Heroes
• Bomberman Land: Touch!
  
• Brain Boost: Beta Wave
• Brain Boost: Gamma Wave
• Charlotte's Web
• Digimon World DS
  
• Eragon
• Final Fantasy III
• Gunpey
• Happy Feet
• Monster Bomber
• Rayman Raving Rabbids
  
• Spider-Man: Battle for New York
• Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 2
• Tomb Raider: Legend
• Totally Spies! 2: Undercover
  
• Yoshi's Island 2

GBA releases:

• Bionicle Heroes
• Charlotte's Web
• Eragon
• F-24: Stealth Fighter
• Happy Feet
• March of the Penguins
• Polarium Advanced
• Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis
• Spider-Man: Battle for New York
• Super Robot Taisen 2
• Tomb Raider: Legend
• Tonka on the Job
• Totally Spies! 2: Undercover
• Yggdra Union
  

And don't forget (like you were going to!) -- next week is the first of the global launch dates for the Wii! Then we'll really be awash in Nintendo goodness. As for this week's games, as ever, supplies are subject to manufacturer delivery.

[Big ups to whoever the games in the picture belong to!]

Media conglomerate Time Warner is looking to purchase a 10 percent stake in developer SCI Entertainment (Tomb Raider, Hitman). According to website The Business, Time Warner initially wanted to buy SCI, but that was lowered to 20% and then halved to 10% of stock.

A complete buyout of SCI may be in the plans for the future; Time Warner executives are "preoccupied with a share buyback and the restructuring of AOL," according to the article. (For sake of full disclosure, Time Warner owns AOL owns Weblogs Inc. owns Joystiq.)

SCI's Tomb Raider franchise was turned into a film franchise by Paramount Pictures, a rival of Time Warner's movie studio Warner Bros. Pictures. Will there be a conflict of interest should a third Tomb Raider movie materialize?

[Via Gamasutra]

Ever since the release of Tomb Raider Legends, Lara Croft has redeemed herself and kept the franchise alive. Since her last iteration was so well-received (selling nearly 3 million copies in a year), Eidos has decided to bring the voluptuous lady to the Playstation 3. Said Chief Executive Jane Cavanagh, "Our 2008 products will include new versions of Tomb Raider (including a PS3 version) and many of our other key franchises. We also plan new franchises, including completely new products from both Crystal Dynamics (developers of Tomb Raider) and Io Interactive (developers of Hitman and Kane & Lynch)." This begs the question, should Nariko (of Heavenly Sword) and Lara get into a Super Smash Sisters: Brawl contest, who do you think would win?

According to Eidos' SCI's Ian Livingstone, Tomb Raider vixen Lara Croft is "the most famous character in gaming." Interviewer Paul Loughrey of GamesIndustry.biz then questions whether or not he means most famous ... other than Mario. Livingstone adamantly asserts that Mrs. Croft is indeed more popular than Nintendo's gaming icon.

"Well, Mario is still very much within the games niche, whereas Lara has gone beyond that thanks to two blockbuster films, for example. She's graced the covers of thousands of not just games journals, but lifestyle journals as well."

We'll admit, much to our chagrin, that Super Mario Bros. film was not the glorious re-imagining of Nintendo's flagship series, nor was it a box office smash (the total domestic gross was $20.9 million, which would be approximately $32.3 million today when adjusted for ticket price inflation). But Mario, we'd argue, is still more of a household name.

While there is no quantitative backing to either assertions, we'd like to point out that Livingstone's support is rather inefficient. In 1966, John Lennon exclaimed that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus." And while we suspect those zany Brits did grace more magazine covers than the founder of Christianity, it's still a stretch to elevate a band over a world religion.

And though the Mario film sunk, his power was seen elsewhere in pop culture. Not to mention his games tend to do better, both financially and critically.

Whether it is indicative of the versatility of paper or the dedication of video game fans is unclear, but the fact of the matter is that someone has gone to great lengths to capture Link's likeness in a detailed papercraft model. We find the little fellow to be a strange mix between endearing and creepy, likely the reason why we won't be downloading the accompanying instructions and attempting to fold our very own recyclable Hyrulian Hylian into existence.

Princess Zelda also makes an appearance on the clearly obsessive (yet helpful) website, if only to add a feminine touch to a gaming lineup otherwise dominated by manly Star Trek ships, Advance Wars tanks and sluggish Tomb Raider vehicles (Lara excluded). Site proprietor Ninjatoes certainly does a fine job at making plain 'ole paper more interesting, though it probably comes at the cost of being rubbish at most card games.

[Via Bits & Bytes & Pixels & Sprites]

See also:
Sonic papercraft
Make your own Quake Papercraft
Katamari Prince papercraft
Revolution controller made of paper
Game Boy Micro origami

Curmudgeon Gamer gets curmudgeonly about the nebulous state of the Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary Edition PSP release. Don't know what we're talking about? Head on over and read the scandalous, hyperlink-encrusted tale of dual developers working clandestinely on separate versions of the same game, and the evil publisher who pulled the plug ... but on which one? After much compiling, Curmudgeon Gamer's jvm peels the gum from his shoes, removes his deerstalker cap, and lights up his trusty pipe, before breaking down the whole tawdry affair:

"For reasons unknown, Core and Crystal Dynamics were working independently on the same 10th anniversary game. Perhaps Core had been given a green light to try and after the SCi/Eidos merger, no one remembered that detail. Meanwhile, Crystal Dynamics successfully launched Tomb Raider: Legend and was considered by the management, especially in North America, to be the obvious team for the new game."

We've embedded the video for Core's version after the break. If anyone can track down the Crystal Dynamics video, we'll post that too and we can tear ourselves apart arguing over which one would have -- undoubtedly -- been the better game.

[Update: Curmudgeon Gamer has updated their analysis writing, "According to the SCi/Eidos press release verifying that Crystal Dynamics would produce the game, it will be published not just for the PlayStation Portable but also for Windows and the PlayStation 2. The current Tomb Raider: Legend engine supports all three of these. That changes my reading of the situation."]

These Tomb Raider: Legend screenshots certainly needed to be rounded up ... and immediately executed. They're not particularly impressive and the one on the right is notable for not featuring a tomb at all. Still, it's early goings for Lara's return-to-roots portable adventure, and if it's even half as good as the console outings, we'll be satisfied. We'd rather it be just as good, however, controlling well and featuring plenty of evil traps looking to mangle our beloved Lara's limbs. There's every possibility of that happening, but confidence isn't particularly prevalent when it looks like the touch screen seems to have been relegated to yet another glorified inventory menu.

[Via GoNintendo]

"Riiiiiidge Raaaaacer!" Kaz Hirai's famous declaration at Sony's E3 media breifing might not have garnered much applause, but, according to UK PSP Magazine, there are plenty of other emulated PlayStation titles (for the PSP) that will. These five AAA titles should be available when the emulation service launches:

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
• Final Fantasy VII
• Final Fantasy VIII
• Silent Hill
• Tomb Raider

In addition, UK PSP Magazine reports that up to 7,000 PlayStation titles will be available for download by the end of 2007. Say what?! 7,000! Yes folks, it's possible -- Wikipedia: "As of March 2005, there were 7,743 software titles available (this figure counts games released in multiple regions as separate titles)."

Forget PSOne, the PSP has officially become the first, truly portable PlayStation. We knew the thing would find its calling sooner or later...

According to an announcement on Core Design's web site, the PSP update of Lara Croft's first adventure has been scrapped. The official word:

"The video of Tomb Raider: 10th Anniversary Edition that appeared on certain sites was an unauthorised release of an internal presentation of a game that was being developed by Core Design until very recently. It was running on PSP and used a Core-developed engine. However, following a recent review this project has been officially cancelled by SCi."

Core's staff and assets were recently acquired by Rebellion Developments (AvP, Rogue Trooper), although SCi still maintains the Core brand name.

Update: Eurogamer is now reporting that the remake isn't canceled. Apparently, SCi has just issued a new statement saying the project is back on. PSP owners now have Lara's original adventure, as well as this month's Legend to look forward to.

The long awaited 360 dashboard update is finally coming, arriving by invite for most Stateside gamers sometime early tomorrow morning.

The update will actually begin to go out by 2:00 AM PT, but, according to Major Nelson, it "can take up to four hours for a user to be prompted to receive this update," so the invitation to download the small-in-size (but large-in-scope) update could arrive as late as 6:00 AM PT.

Patient gamers can look forward to 125 new features for their cream-colored Xboxes, including the ability to queue multiple Marketplace downloads, keep your place in DVDs, and even fast-forward to just the choicest parts of videos (like the one featuring the titular Tomb Raider above). Plan your evening and/or morning accordingly, folks.

See also:

• A video tour of the Xbox Live Spring update
• 360 BC update "in the next few weeks"

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in; also via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

World Cup fever is running high in the UK still, with FIFA World Cup holding on to its top spot for a second week. Metroid Prime: Hunters rushes straight into the top ten in its first week at number 6, and Crazy Frog Racer finally vanishes from the top 40, leaving us with nothing but a terrible memory.

1. FIFA World Cup Germany 2006
2. Tomb Raider Legend
3. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
4. The Godfather
5. Animal Crossing: Wild World
6. Metroid Prime: Hunters
7. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
8. FIFA Street 2
9. Buzz! The Big Quiz
10. Championship Manager 2006

There are moments in our gaming pasts that stand out with clarity from the mass of bygone levels, saves, high scores and kill counts. One of mine is a first date of epic proportions, one which launched a thousand clones and broke a million hearts. It was my first date with Lara.

Lady Croft and I have a lot in common. The novelty of playing as a girl who looks great and sounds normal grabbed me back in 1996 and hasn't let me go since.

A decade later, in Tomb Raider: Legend, Lara still looks the part; she hasn't put on a pound, though her poly count's up. As I put the disc in, her iconic face stares at me. This revamped Lara looks more human, more real, less like a creature from some stylised midnight fantasy. Her face is soft, her lips slightly curled in a welcoming smile -- her eyes measure me up. It's been a while.

I was rummaging through the endless piles of gaming memorabilia that clutter my living space the other day, when I happened upon an old advertisement featuring the lovely Lara Weller, a.k.a. "Lara Croft." Weller donned the famous Tomb Raider duds from 1999-2000, during the promotion of Last Revelation, and is probably the closest physical approximation to gaming's most successful heroine of all time. She shares not only the same first name with her agile avatar, but also certain physical attributes and a passion for world travel.

Five other models have portrayed Lara Croft for Eidos (six, if you count Angelina). Karima Adebibe is the latest, and Jill de Jong gets props for her depiction of the Angel of Darkness. Visit Tomb Raider Chronicles and let us know your favorite.

The sales figures are in, with last week's UK sales looking similar to the one before. Tomb Raider Legend is still number one, and Ice Age 2 is enjoying popularity both at the box office and in the games charts, though with 28,000 fewer sales. King Kong has dropped out of the top ten, with The Sims 2: Family Fun Pack jumping in to replace it, and the continued dominance of Crazy Frog Racer (29) over Guitar Hero (36) is depressing us.

The ten bestselling games in the UK for the week ending April 22:

1. Tomb Raider Legend
2. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
3. Animal Crossing: Wild World
4. Fifa Street 2
5. The Godfather
6. The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff
7. Football Manager 2006
8. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
9. Buzz! The Big Quiz
10. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion