Shadow of the Tomb Raider

I preordered the standard edition last week, can't wait to start playing, hopefully on Thursday night.

Reviews seem mixed but good overall. Probably a solid 8/10 at the very least.
 
OpenCritic
https://opencritic.com/game/6015/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider

Frametimes are extremely stable in DX12.
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I preordered the standard edition last week, can't wait to start playing, hopefully on Thursday night.

Reviews seem mixed but good overall. Probably a solid 8/10 at the very least.
If you eliminate the politically correct mainstream outlets and their incorrect use of "colonizer" the reviews are very good.
 
I preordered the standard edition last week, can't wait to start playing, hopefully on Thursday night.

Reviews seem mixed but good overall. Probably a solid 8/10 at the very least.


I forget which review I watched on YouTube, but some dipshit knocked the score because he said "The game brings much of the same from the last installment and not much new in the way of mechanics..." and I stopped watching right there. YES! That is what we want. I just want more story / places to explore / and there are some new mechanics....dude is a total idiot.
 
Early access unlocks on Steam at 09:00 PDT (UTC -7) tomorrow morning. It unlocks on Xbox One and the Microsoft Store in half an hour from this posting, or 20:00 EDT (UTC -4). PS4 unlocks at 00:00 (all time zones).
 
I just bought the normal one, so I'm guessing I won't have access until Thursday/Friday. The game DL'ed an update this morning that had 9/14 right on the icon, so I figure that's a safe assumption. I probably won't be playing it yet, but I do usually fire things up and make sure it's at least working correctly, though.

Personally, I just want more of the same stuff from the last two games. I preferred the 2013 game a hair more than Rise, although it was smaller and shorter. I'd be happy enough with a game that resembled either of them, though.
 
I seem to recall a bunch of weapon skins and stuff for the last game(s) as well, that were all listed individually.
Yea I'm pretty sure the release "DLC" is just outfits and some "skill booster pack". The quest DLC which is like 7 survival tombs and side missions will release on a monthly basis starting in October.
 
I seem to recall a bunch of weapon skins and stuff for the last game(s) as well, that were all listed individually.
Yes, they are the deluxe edition and croft edition bonuses, that doesn't mean it's not bad. where was the time, where games were just released as is. You pay for it, and get access to everything. And this is not even the worst of it.

Anyhow, I started playing the game, and after three hours I feel I'm still playing the damn tutorial, I was ready for the game to start in earnest 2 hours ago, but it just keeps dragging on. At least you can save without being at a campsite now. Which is a good thing because the first campsite was like an hour into the game, and still only a restricted version where you only got access to skill upgrades and nothing else. Speaking of skills, the skill tree, is more like a skill jumble, and I'm already struggling to find anything useful among the skills that I'd actually want, on level 3. Hell I had a hard time choosing half useful skills on the first levelup. I only got to the same situation halfway trough rise.

I'm not saying the game is bad, but it is not made with returning players in mind.

On the other hand the graphics is noticeably better, and runs much smoother than rise did for me. That was a slideshow on ultra. This, well you can see for yourself:
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Everything on ultra / or highest available settings except motion blur which I refuse to use. Other settings: 2560x1440, TAA, DX12 Exclusive fullscreen 144hz. VSYNC OFF
I also did a run with vsync and only got a couple fps less, but micro-stuttering is noticeably worse with vsync.

The game is more of the same, but some of the movements are somehow less fluid, especially the climbing feels more clumsy. I had a hard time making some jumps.

I'm still very much against the difficulty system in the game. I'd like to play on hardest as I did with both previous games, but I can't because it comes with additional idiocies now that I refuse to put up with.
 
Yes, they are the deluxe edition and croft edition bonuses, that doesn't mean it's not bad. where was the time, where games were just released as is. You pay for it, and get access to everything. And this is not even the worst of it.

Fair enough, and I agree with that. In my ideal world, microtransactions would not exist. They only really don't bother me that much when it's a) a free-to-play game and b) they are cosmetic only. If you're paying $40-60 for a brand new title and there're microtransactions, fuck off with that.
 
No vsync = blech...unless you have a Gsync or Freesync setup. I can't handle screen tearing.
 
Digital Foundry: Shadow of the Tomb Raider PC Analysis

very, very impressive...DX12 finally has a showcase game...

 
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Just ran the game for a bit, the game looks great. Gonna wait for my 2080Ti though before I commit to a playthrough since I have to drop some settings to get 60FPS at 4k. It does look amazing though, can't wait to play.

Does anyone know how to enable HDR in the game?, it is there but its grayed out...
 
Just ran the game for a bit, the game looks great. Gonna wait for my 2080Ti though before I commit to a playthrough since I have to drop some settings to get 60FPS at 4k. It does look amazing though, can't wait to play.

Does anyone know how to enable HDR in the game?, it is there but its grayed out...
enabled in windows control panel and on monitor?

No vsync = blech...unless you have a Gsync or Freesync setup. I can't handle screen tearing.
try the driver control panel forced vsync.
 
enabled in windows control panel and on monitor?

Ok I got it working. I had to update to the 399.24 Nvidia driver and enable it in windows.


The game looks incredible in HDR, played about an hour at near max settings at 4k. I found playable settings for my rig as well without losing much fidelity if anyone is interested.

AA: SMAAT2x (could probably drop it down to SMAA for better fps, but I didn't bother testing)
Texture Quality: Ultra
Texture Filtering: 16x
Shadow Quality: High
Depth of Field: Normal
Level of Detail: High
Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+
Pure Hair: Normal
Screen Space Contact Shadows Off
Motion Blur: Off
Screen Space Reflections: On
Lense Flares: On
Screen Effects: On
Volumetric Lighting: On
Tessellation: On

Guessing with a 2080Ti this game can be ran on Max settings at 4k/60 (other than RTX ofcourse, but who knows at this point).

Edit: Also want to note that DX12 is the better performer in this game over DX11 on Pascal atleast. Which is the first game that I've seen it perform better other than Sniper Elite 4.
 
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Ok I got it working. I had to update to the 399.24 Nvidia driver and enable it in windows.


The game looks incredible in HDR, played about an hour at near max settings at 4k. I found playable settings for my rig as well without losing much fidelity if anyone is interested.

AA: SMAAT2x (could probably drop it down to SMAA for better fps, but I didn't bother testing)
Texture Quality: Ultra
Texture Filtering: 16x
Shadow Quality: High
Depth of Field: Normal
Level of Detail: High
Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+
Pure Hair: Normal
Screen Space Contact Shadows Off
Motion Blur: Off
Screen Space Reflections: On
Lense Flares: On
Screen Effects: On
Volumetric Lighting: On
Tessellation: On

Guessing with a 2080Ti this game can be ran on Max settings at 4k/60 (other than RTX ofcourse, but who knows at this point).

Edit: Also want to note that DX12 is the better performer in this game over DX11 on Pascal atleast. Which is the first game that I've seen it perform better other than Sniper Elite 4.

RTX requires DX12. We’ll see more focus on it now.
 
I am quite enjoying the game. It is really well done. Runs on my PC at 2560x1600 at nearly max settings at 75 fps with a rare dip to the mid 50s during some loading/transition sections (benchmark never dropped below 65). I also ran it at 4K HDR on my TV and it's just stunning, but definitely won't be playing it there at 4K because it had an average of 48fps with dips to 42 fps which were really noticeable. Though it looked nearly as good rendering at 2560x1440 HDR and upscaling it to 4K but ran at the 75fps mark (but that's at 7-8 ft away from the screen).

Bugs wise, I have ran into 2 weird controller issues (I use a DS4). It occasionally seems to not work for some menu items. Like once at the menu it said press the start button on the controller to run the benchmark but when I press it nothing happened. I had to use the keyboard to start it. Then it started working again the next time. The same thing happened in game, for some reason it stopped reading the X button so I had to press the keyboard equivalent once, and it started working again. Looks like some kind of bug, but it's completely random and rare (happened 2x) and I can't reproduce it.

If you liked the previous 2 games I think you'll definitely like this one.
 
No vsync = blech...unless you have a Gsync or Freesync setup. I can't handle screen tearing.
I agree, but only for 60Hz displays. On 144hz I have a very hard time noticing any tearing with vsync off. The worst maybe in the 10px range that I can actually see. The microstutter that vsync seems to cause was immediately obvious.

I had a 60Hz freesync setup before. I'd rather choose death than to go back to that from 144hz even without vsync.

BTW has anyone figured out the ingame benchmark? The numbers just don't seem to add up. And what is CPU render / CPU Game / GPU ?

Also the average FPS it shows seems low. It never even dipped bellow 90 during the test, and mostly stayed in the 100-120 range, but it still shows a 92 average? How is that.
 
I put a few hours into it, and so far the game is mind-blowingly awesome. TR1 '96 was the first game that really drew me into its world, and it's just unbelievable how far the franchise has come. ROTTR is my favorite all-time 3d game, so for it to get a sequel that is giving it a run for its money is all I could ever have asked for as a gamer. Love the game and the developers behind it.

Runs butter smooth for me, 4790K / GTX 1080 Ti, 4K, max settings but no aa/2xaf, no motion blur (personal preference), mouse smoothing disabled, fullscreen exclusive, vsync enabled 60hz, all in-game hints disabled, hard difficulty.
 
Lots of complaints about black or missing textures in DX12 and I have seen some myself in some areas and even right on her face a couple times. No issues in DX11 but it does run a little slower than DX12 for Pascal users.
 
Well just did a play through all night, part of yesterday. Almost took 8 hours at only 54.4% completion. Played smooth. Going to give it another, slower run through once I get my 4K PJ back from RMA. Wouldn't rate it above Rise, but it was close. Fun game. Didn't have any graphics issues either all set to max settings, except SMAA.
 
Yes, they are the deluxe edition and croft edition bonuses, that doesn't mean it's not bad. where was the time, where games were just released as is. You pay for it, and get access to everything. And this is not even the worst of it.

Anyhow, I started playing the game, and after three hours I feel I'm still playing the damn tutorial, I was ready for the game to start in earnest 2 hours ago, but it just keeps dragging on. At least you can save without being at a campsite now. Which is a good thing because the first campsite was like an hour into the game, and still only a restricted version where you only got access to skill upgrades and nothing else. Speaking of skills, the skill tree, is more like a skill jumble, and I'm already struggling to find anything useful among the skills that I'd actually want, on level 3. Hell I had a hard time choosing half useful skills on the first levelup. I only got to the same situation halfway trough rise.

I'm not saying the game is bad, but it is not made with returning players in mind.

On the other hand the graphics is noticeably better, and runs much smoother than rise did for me. That was a slideshow on ultra. This, well you can see for yourself:
View attachment 103540

Everything on ultra / or highest available settings except motion blur which I refuse to use. Other settings: 2560x1440, TAA, DX12 Exclusive fullscreen 144hz. VSYNC OFF
I also did a run with vsync and only got a couple fps less, but micro-stuttering is noticeably worse with vsync.

The game is more of the same, but some of the movements are somehow less fluid, especially the climbing feels more clumsy. I had a hard time making some jumps.

I'm still very much against the difficulty system in the game. I'd like to play on hardest as I did with both previous games, but I can't because it comes with additional idiocies now that I refuse to put up with.
The previous games always autosaved at various times unless you played on Extreme Survivor difficulty. That was the only time saving was restricted to campsites.

Funny, I heard from other people that the parkour is better this time around. I haven't started playing it myself, yet, as I want to finish Rise because I only ever played it halfway through.
 
The previous games always autosaved at various times unless you played on Extreme Survivor difficulty. That was the only time saving was restricted to campsites.

Funny, I heard from other people that the parkour is better this time around. I haven't started playing it myself, yet, as I want to finish Rise because I only ever played it halfway through.
I played on that. So that exlpains it. I thought I needed to find a campsite and save there when I first started playing, but as it turns out you can't save at campfires at all. There is a save game option in the menu. IDK if it saves the exact spot where you are, or the last autosave.

I Had a bunch of occasions where I just couldn't move properly until I realized that controls work in relation to the screen, and not the character. So for example if the camera switches to a right side view W is no longer forward, but left and D is forward, and so on. Which is dumb IMO. I can't remember if it was the same in the previous games.
 
I played on that. So that exlpains it. I thought I needed to find a campsite and save there when I first started playing, but as it turns out you can't save at campfires at all. There is a save game option in the menu. IDK if it saves the exact spot where you are, or the last autosave.

I Had a bunch of occasions where I just couldn't move properly until I realized that controls work in relation to the screen, and not the character. So for example if the camera switches to a right side view W is no longer forward, but left and D is forward, and so on. Which is dumb IMO. I can't remember if it was the same in the previous games.
You're right, I'm pretty sure it wasn't that way prior on the PC versions. That would be the way joystick control is expected to act.
 
looking forward to starting this tomorrow when it unlocks for everyone...I'll be going for another 100% completion as with the previous 2 TR games...
 
Really liking hardest difficulty, but might start over on 2nd hardest for a first playthrough, maybe even lower, I feel I need survival instincts for a first playthrough. Lost over an hour of progress by jumping to what I thought was a ledge I could grab. Will go back to hardest settings on my next playthrough.

So far I really like the tombs in this game, they are a step up over previous games. The underwater stuff is phenomenal as well. Graphics are excellent, other than some random NPCs that look kind of generic. Overall not disappointed at all with about 4 hours played.
 
OK, what am I missing here? Can't run 1440 using DSR. Highest setting showing is 1920 x 1080. Any ideas?

6700K + GTX1080 Driver 391.35

Edit: After unchecking the DX12 box and checking it allowed the higher res to show.
 
Fired it up for a second on my lunch break. No render resolution %? C'mon, it's 2018.
 
Fired it up for a second on my lunch break. No render resolution %? C'mon, it's 2018.
It has that if you're running in one of the windowed modes. And in exclusive fullscreen you should just use DSR to get the same effect anyway.
 
If you are playing this game I have some very important premlinary information I want to pass along that I have learned right now while opening the game for the first time.

It is important to note that this game does support DX12 out of the box, and HDR. It is also very important to note that DX12 was enabled for me by default, but Exclusive Fullscreen was not. In past testing we have proven Exclusive Fullscreen is faster in performance since it renders the viewport correctly at the right resolution (very important if you are running a resolution lower than your native resolution, but also helps at the native resolution as well.) Users should most definitely select and enable Exclusive Fullscreen for best performance. If you think you are under-performing, make sure you have this enabled.

Further, this game's "Highest" graphics preset setting is not the actual highest or maximum game settings possible. You can manually turn up four options to higher levels beyond the "Highest" preset. Those options are: Texture Filtering (you can bump this up to 16X AF), another is Shadow Quality (you can bump this up to Ultra versus High), another is Level of Detail (you can bump this up to Ultra versus High) and the last is Screen Space Contact Shadows (you can bump this up to High versus Normal.) Therefore, if you want maximum graphics, make sure to manually turn up those four options beyond the "Highest" preset.

Naturally, I have not yet tested with and without DX12 to see if it helps in performance, so I'd be interested in your feedback on your experiences.
 
First impressions: They have really nailed the eyes, eye quality looks fantastic, no joke. There are a lot, and I mean a lot of model close-ups, and it actually looks very good on the character detail. I looked at mouth movements closely and the mouth matches up very good with the dialog. Physical movements of the characters is also very good and realistic. Environment detail is great, and lighting is particularly a treat. The stone detail in one scene is amazing. I did have one little screen space occlusion glitch, very minor, lasted a second, it's like the game forgot how to render it and the ambient occlusion turned to a hard shadow quickly. But it was brief, only saw it once. The Cozumel scene from all the RTX demos is really intriguing. Naturally, this doesn't support RTX features yet.

Performance: On a GTX 1080 Ti I'm playing at DX12 Exclusive Fullscreen 1440p with maximum graphics settings (beyond the "Highest" preset) and getting 80-110 FPS in the whole intro, then I hit Cozumel and the FPS is hitting lows around 65 FPS in that scene.
 
You can go over to gamegpu.ru to check out some testing and see that CPU optimization in DX 11 is absolutely abysmal.
 
You can go over to gamegpu.ru to check out some testing and see that CPU optimization in DX 11 is absolutely abysmal.
I posted up frametime graphs earlier and you can see it's nearly a smooth line in DX12 while DX11 has mountain peaks and valleys.
 
Sounding like a very mediocre game according to Jim Sterling.



Disappointing to hear that the plot is again dull and unengaging, Rise of the Tomb Raider was so flawed from a narrative perspective that you would think the writers would have made sure to nail that this time.
 
Around 6 hours in and playing on hard mode. So far not seeing the painted surfaces makes everything more immersive. Some of these jungle environments are excellent, I haven't felt this way about a jungle since the original Crysis. Graphics look great overall, can't wait to play some more of this tomorrow.
 
Sounding like a very mediocre game according to Jim Sterling.



Disappointing to hear that the plot is again dull and unengaging, Rise of the Tomb Raider was so flawed from a narrative perspective that you would think the writers would have made sure to nail that this time.

Did that guy have a clothespin on his nose? Very irritating listening to and very whiny. Anyways I will find out in the near future, after I finish FC 5 first. What was shown looks to be very very good lol, more of the same as in fun is OK with me as well, love exploring and going back for something, I usually find more stuff, hidden passageways, writings, loot etc.
 
Did that guy have a clothespin on his nose? Very irritating listening to and very whiny.

Not sure what your intolerance of his British accent has to do with anything, Sterling has been professionally reviewing games for a long time and is fairly well regarded. The fact that he derives all his income from patreon means that he is always honest and isn't beholden to AAA publishers like other publications.
 
Am not feeling the options in this game. HDR is tied to Windows 10's internal HDR function, which isn't very good. Resolution scaling is tied to windowed mode, which doesn't seem to allow for a borderless fullscreen and still support it. I'm just going to wait for my RTX card to show up and hope that they either fix some of this stuff or that card can actually push legit 4K.
 
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