![]() Flipping about with evasive maneuvers and hitting them with powerful weapons such as the tranquilizer or spear gun are imperative. Animals' ability to knockdown Lara with a pounce and their swarming tactics are often brutal. On the other hand, animals can be downright deadly. Don't believe me? Throw a sticky grenade on one of the nondescript minions and watch them run toward their buddies. However, melee combat is a bit wonky, as the spinning kicks she performs often miss or clip through her target. Evading attacks by your enemies is typically easy, as Lara acrobatically flips out of danger with a press of a button and a flick of the analog stick, maintaining a steady stream of bullets on her target all the while. This adrenaline mechanic is pleasant, providing another cinematic element to the mix. This allows her to enter into slow motion moments to perform immediate headshot kills. Additionally, an adrenaline meter will fill as she takes out baddies. While dual-wielding her pistols, Lara can even hit two targets at once. Lara, as usual, can lock on to targets by holding down the left trigger. Players will also find combat to be a snap. Gamers of a variety of skill levels will be able to enjoy Underworld, as it can be both forgiving and challenging depending upon the level of difficulty selected. Heck, even the dreaded swim mechanic works amazingly well. ![]() That's because, for the most part, hopping from ledge to ledge, climbing rock faces, performing chimney jumps, making a wall run with her grapple tool, and vaulting from strategically placed poles is second nature. Platforming skill is needed to perform a number of difficult swinging and jumping segments, but a player's aptitude for simple problem solving to find the best routes through the levels tends to be tested rather than their technical savvy with the controller. The team at Crystal Dynamics did a great job of giving her easily manageable abilities. Players will find Lara to be very lithe and painless to control. Lara will have to use her signature athletic prowess to platform her way from site to site and in and out of danger. With this as a background, players will travel to various locations around the world. In fact, the high quality cutscenes and epic environments do a great job of recounting the plot and engaging players the cinematic nature of this title is both polished and fast-paced and never heavy-handed. Though this may all sound a bit contrived and even confusing to the uninitiated, the story actually plays out quite nicely over the course of the game. After laying hands on the relic, Lara is quickly stifled by an encounter with thugs of Amanda Evert, and soon thereafter comes face to face with her nemesis, the imprisoned Jacqueline Natla, former Queen of Atlantis. The seemingly out of place, sunken structure houses an artifact of great power that allows its bonded wearer the ability to wield Thor's not-so-mythical hammer, Mjolnir an implement that can raze mountains with a single blow. Lara is on a quest for truth and finds a ruin at the bottom of the Mediterranean, which is home to proto-Norse ruins. Continuing from where Legend left off, Underworld catches up with Miss Croft in search of Avalon, the mythical netherworld where her father Richard Croft felt her mother had been transported so many years ago. With a vast estate and technological resources at her disposal, Lady Croft has tackled numerous quests around the world that were steeped in the paranormal and supernatural. The mysterious disappearance of her mother and, later, the death of her father, have instilled an insatiable wanderlust in her. Lara, since childhood, has been plagued by misfortune. Though not without a number of technical flaws, Tomb Raider Underworld is a very enjoyable platform adventure for anyone who digs the genre. The dev studio began polishing this series with Legend and has given Underworld the lavish treatment that the once powerhouse series deserves. Fortunately, the assignment of Crystal Dynamics as developer was a very good move. ![]() This has caused much of the sheen of Lara's draw to be tarnished and, subsequently, neglected by all but true fans of the series. ![]() Her skimpy outfits, dual pistols, and signature ponytail have permeated popular culture (though having Angelina Jolie cast as her movie counterpart didn't hurt).ĭisappointingly, the Tomb Raider franchise has been hit with a number of underwhelming entries throughout its lengthy history. Next to Mario, Lara Croft is perhaps the most iconic video game persona of all time. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Brubeck’s piano was steeped in blues and had a palpable connection to stomp, boogie-woogie, and earlier jazz styles. Yet the quartet exhibited a developed sense of swing thanks to bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello. The fast and asymmetrical pulse of “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” the opening track, bore traces of Balkan and Turkish influence. The impetus for the rhythms of Time Out came in part from Western classical music, in part from the band’s travels in India, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Yet as avant-garde cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum wrote in The New Yorker shortly after Brubeck’s death in 2012, “Those musicians, too hip for their own good, who dismiss Brubeck as square do so at their own loss.” Time Out and the rest of the quartet’s “time” concept albums ( Time Further Out, Time Changes, Countdown: Time in Outer Space, Time In) merit close attention as some of the most engaging and unique small-group jazz of the era. 2 on the Billboard pop charts, but it also yielded jazz’s best-selling single of all time: “Take Five.” Written by alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, the tune had a novel 5/4 groove but ultimately came to be identified with a kind of inoffensive hotel lounge jazz. Time Out, his 1959 foray into odd time signatures, polyrhythm, and mixed meter, not only ended up going platinum and reaching No. ![]() It also includes two tunes not heard on the original album: “I’m in a Dancing Mood,” a piece from the Thirties musical This’ll Make You Whistle, and “Watusi Jam,” a trio performance - sans Desmond -based on the piece “Watusi Drums,” heard on the 1958 live album The Dave Brubeck Quartet in Europe.It’s ironic that in Dave Brubeck’s attempt to make jazz more complex, he actually made it more accessible. The record will be released on December 4th, two days before the 100th anniversary of Brubeck’s birth.Īlong with the alternate “Take Five,” Time OutTakes will feature previously unreleased versions of several other pieces from the original Time Out LP, including “Blue Rondo à la Turk,” a piece inspired by a rhythm that Brubeck heard a street musician playing in Turkey while on a State Department tour. The tapes that make up Time OutTakes originally came to light while author Philip Clark was researching A Life in Time, a biography of Brubeck released this past February in honor of the pianist’s centennial year. Justine Lupe on Willa, the Sex Worker Tied Up in ‘Succession’ Whereas on the final, Brubeck and bassist Eugene Wright play behind Morello’s feature, here the drummer takes the spotlight alone. In his drum solo, Morello sticks close to the rhythm of Brubeck’s “1, 2, 3 1, 2” piano vamp, slowly building up density and excitement as he goes. You can also hear alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, who composed “Take Five,” getting used to improvising on the tune. They play the tune faster than on the familiar take and drummer Joe Morello hadn’t yet settled into the famously relaxed beat that made the five-beat structure feel so natural. On the alternate version, you can hear how the band is still acclimating to the feel of the piece’s 5/4 rhythm. Wednesday, in advance of Time OutTakes’ December release, Brubeck Editions is unveiling a never-before-heard early run-through of “Take Five,” streaming above. Roughly 61 years after the release of “Take Five” on Brubeck’s Time Out album, the late pianist’s estate will release TimeOutTakes, a new album of previously unreleased alternate versions of pieces from the iconic LP. But it was also a huge hit and the first platinum-selling single in jazz history. “Take Five,” a 1959 track by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, was always a musical oddity: a swinging, instantly catchy jazz piece written in the uncommon time signature of 5/4. ![]() |