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For the last few years, Crystal Dynamics has been pumping out nothing but Tomb Raider games. Normally we wouldn't lead a job listing post with such information, but when Crystal Dynamics says it's looking for developers who are "able to effectively create and lead the multiplayer vision and design effort," it gets us thinking that we could be tomb raiding with (against?) other actual human beings!

Considering this year's layoffs, we're not convinced that the developer could be working on another "AAA title" in addition to the Tomb Raider franchise. Given the leaked images of a "reboot" and assurance from Eidos "Life President" Ian Livingstone that Lara's next installment will "reinvigorate the franchise," we're pretty confident that Crystal Dynamics is hard at work on whatever the next game in the TR series will be. For now though, we have a job listing and plenty of educated guesses.

[Via CinemaBlend]

They say you can find your stripper name by combining the name of your first pet with the street you grew up on. Keeping that in mind, you may someday find yourself trying to figure out how to politely decline the awkward, compulsory advances of Miss Fluffy Lara Croft. As reported in the Derby Telegraph, the hero of the Tomb Raider series in one of eight potential names for two stretches of a road in the UK city Derby, which was the home of Core Design, the original studio behind Lara.

Surprisingly, Lara Croft is not our favorite option, as the idea of being badgered into buying Scruffy John Flamsteed a $13 drink is just too wonderful to imagine. Voting is currently being conducted via a poll on Derby's official website.

[Via F*** Yeah, Lara Croft!, Thanks, Jose]

A Google image search of Lara Croft is a lot tamer than it used to be these days, though it's still something we wouldn't suggest doing. Thankfully, we have a link to quench your thirst for inspired, non-naked, sexually-deprived-fanboy-fantasy-quasi-porn, courtesy of The Design Inspiration.

There are 40 fanworks in total, all originating from deviantART (obviously). There are a lot of great renditions, including the image where Lara is fighting dinosaurs and the one where she's hiding from dinosaurs. We also have a soft spot for this odd image of her fighting Wonder Woman, but the best has to be this image where she defends herself so she can stop and eat the baked potato she brought down into the tomb with her. Tomb raiding takes a lot of carbohydrates, people!

[Via Kotaku]

After discussing his vision for Fable's future, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux recently reiterated his mantra of inclusive gaming innovation to attendees of BAFTA's Annual Video Games Lecture. Citing their ability to challenge "the foundation stones of conventional wisdom," he revealed five titles (documented by That VideoGame Blog) that he considers to be among the most revolutionary within the last two decades.

Molyneux praised Tomb Raider for subverting gaming's tough-guy protagonist and named Mario 64 as the genuine precursor to 3D titles like Grand Theft Auto 3. Dune 2 got a nod for its encouragement of more thoughtful tactics, while Bungie's first Halo earned mention for halfway introducing the now-ubiquitous regenerative health system and curtailed weapon swapping.

And the fifth title? World of Warcraft, which managed to lure Molyneux to level 40 with promise of a steed. You see? He's human, just like the rest of us.

Tomb Raider designer Toby Gard has told Gamesindustry.biz that his departure from Crystal Dynamics came at the right time -- and after realizing that no single man could control Lara Croft. "I think it's just something you have to learn to realise that there's no one person really in charge of what goes on with a character and they have a life of their own in the hands of the team," he said, noting that his passion for "rather expansive" games had not been extinguished quite yet.

While Gard scouts for a team to assemble his next planned project, he hopes to make it big in the consultancy business, something he feels will only grow more crucial in a big games industry. "The way I see it is there's a lot of companies scaling up and down so much, letting everybody go at the end of projects, and then having their core teams do pre-production and all this kind of stuff and it's not really working out the way it should be," he explained. "It seems like the industry wants to move to a more Hollywood model by bringing in experts for shorter periods of time and then leveraging their outsourcing, but also building small teams for projects."

His desire to provide a guiding hand (or a stern word) in a less embedded position likely comes from experience on his last title, Tomb Raider Underworld, which prompted several high-profile layoffs after release.

Toby Gard has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Lara Croft from the beginning. After helping to create the character at Core, he returned to help relaunch the series with Legend, before directing the cutscenes for Underworld. In June, his LinkedIn profile revealed that he'd been working on a a secret, unannounced project since January; one that we speculated was his latest engagement with the gun-toting adventurer.

It seems it's not to be, though. As Develop discovered, Gard's LinkedIn profile again tells the tale: He left the company this month to open his own consultancy business. At this point, we don't know if the project dies with his career at Crystal Dynamics, as both Gard and the development team have refrained from elaborating on recent events.

Meant to conclude the trilogy that began with the franchise's crucial and critically well-received reboot, Tomb Raider: Underworld ended not only Lara Croft's search for her mystically misplaced mother, but Eric Lindstrom's stint as creative director at Crystal Dynamics. He's spoken out on some elements of Underworld's development before -- particularly with regards to its two DLC expansions -- but a postmortem published on Gamasutra features a complete account of his work on the game.

While Lindstrom points out many of the game's successes in terms of design and play mechanics, he admits that several unforeseen factors took a significant bite out of time that was initially set aside for polishing. Getting a shared technology base in place proved unexpectedly difficult, and "acts of god" seemed to target the team, tragically taking the life of the lead level designer during the first half of production.

Eidos may have expressed disappointment in Underworld's sales, but the now Square Enix-owned publisher is rumored to be at work on a new direction for the franchise, overseen by original Tomb Raider designer Toby Gard.

Update: We were contacted by Nielsen Entertainment to remove the leaked image, and we obliged (though at this point, a good Google search will help you find what you're looking for). They also asked us to remove the story, adding just a little bit more credence to the rumor. Considering the source, we're guessing the images were part of a Nielsen poll to see how people would react to Lara's new look, and to see what they thought of the few gameplay details which were revealed. For what it's worth, we think it sounds awesome! Original story is below.

We're usually pretty hesitant when it comes to accepting the testimony of moles at face value, but this story's got a bit of credibility -- some underground agent, working in conjunction with Four Player Co-Op, snagged some supposed screengrabs of concept art and details for a new Tomb Raider game. According to the text accompanying the art, Lara's new adventure will be open-world, will feature a reworked combat system and -- most importantly -- will serve as an origin story for the young heiress.

Anonymity breeds contempt in the gaming news world -- however, this report is supported by four pieces of news that have dropped in the past two months:

1. Eidos' president said the next Tomb Raider game will "reinvigorate the franchise."
2. Crystal Dynamics is hiring folks to work on an installment in a "AAA franchise."
3. Toby Gard, the series' creator, is leading a design group for an "unannounced project."
4. Eidos is terrible at keeping its secret games under wraps.

Gard lists his current responsibility as "leading a design group for an unannounced project." Now, this could be pretty much anything; but it's probably the next Tomb Raider. The series is getting another reboot, Crystal Dynamics has been staffing up to develop a new game in "one of the most prestigious AAA franchises in the industry" and, well, who'd honestly be better suited? But, as of now, we must simply go with "unannounced project" (a.k.a. Tomb Raider).

Current Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics hasn't had much good news to report, with much of its workforce laid off, and disappointing sales of Tomb Raider Underworld. However, a job listing posted on Gamasutra's job search site reveals that the company is still at work, bringing in at least one new hire for something big.

"Crystal Dynamics has a rare opening for a Senior Art Director on one of the most prestigious AAA franchises in the industry," the listing opens. The obvious, exciting conclusion to be inferred from the fact that Crystal Dynamics is working on a new big-budget franchise game: Gex is coming back. We suppose there's also the remote possibility that it could beTomb Raider.

[Via Develop]

The Tomb Raider Underworld Trophy patch is finally coming! You can expect it on Thursday, May 28th, worldwide. Check out the Trophies after the break.

[Thanks, Daniel!]

Speaking to About.com, Terminator Salvation producer (for the film, not the game) Dan Lin stated that the next Tomb Raider film will feature a younger Lara Croft. Lin spoke of the "rebooting" of the franchise -- revealed earlier this year -- saying, "It's a great origin story that we're going to tell." Lin added that the film would be "very character-oriented" and that it would be "more realistic" than previous films in the series. While Lin did not reveal any information on who would be playing Lady Croft, he did note that it would be a younger Lara, so don't count on Angelina Jolie making a third appearance.

Furthermore, Lin said that the films and games have become "too action-oriented," while he would rather see "action, but with character." We have to agree with Lin, action has never been Lara's strong suit, as combat is typically the worst aspect of any Tomb Raider games. Still, we suppose a movie about platforming might get a little boring.

[Via Kotaku]

In Mumbai for the Golden Cursor Animation Awards, recently appointed Eidos "life president" Ian Livingstone sat down with the folks at GamingIndians and spilled a full bag of beans. Unsurprisingly, he says the Square Enix acquisition was "a great deal in many ways" and that the various Eidos development studios would remain largely independent. "It's great news for the brand and for the people," he says.

And also, apparently, great for sequels, as Livingstone confirms work on the next Hitman game, a sequel to Kane & Lynch currently targeted for a September release date and -- big shock! -- a re-imagining of Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider series. "The next Tomb Raider, I think, will surprise a lot of people and reinvigorate the franchise," Livingstone notes, stressing the relevance of game characters in mainstream media these days. Incidentally, he more than intimates that Eidos Montreal is working on Thief 4, though now we know that to be a fact -- the "worst kept secret in the industry," in fact.

Despite having all of its hit points gobbled up by Square Enix, Eidos still expects to remain autonomous of its new parent company, saying in a press release that Eidos will continue to function as "an independent operation, as a wholly-owned subsidiary" of the role-playing giant. To drive this home, Phil Rogers will stay on as the CEO at Eidos, where he will report directly to Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada, who calls the union an "international marriage." Aww, we forgot to bring a gift.

Eidos was finally acquired by the Japanese company last week for £84 million. However, despite our suggestions to the contrary, the British pub will still answer to the name Eidos instead of adopting something a bit more creative.

We're really beginning to understand why more corporate buyouts don't happen. It was reported yesterday that a court has approved the Square Enix purchase of Eidos -- the third and (hopefully) final approval the Japanese publishing house needs before officially acquiring UK-based Eidos. According to Gamasutra, Eidos' board of directors confirmed the transfer of the company's titles Tomb Raider and Deus Ex (among others), while the court has acknowledged its delisting in the company's native country, effective as of last night.

And so it seems all there is left to do now is make silly combinations of the companies' names, as per the image above. Squeidos? Square Enixos? Kane & Enix: Dead Square? Alright, we're reaching a bit much with that last one ... we'll admit it.