The Uncanny Valley: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Are Starting to Freak Me Out

John Constantine — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT

The world has seen a lot of Lara Croft. Back in the mid-90s, it was downright hard to avoid videogames’ so-called first sex symbol and even more difficult after the Angelina Jolie “films” started coming out in 2001. Lara as ridiculous-looking-game-character has always been more of an icon than Lara as actual-human-being. Of course, that hasn’t stopped Tomb Raider’s publisher Eidos from paying models to dress up like her from the beginning. It was pretty silly back in 1996; Lara Croft looked more like the freakish offspring of Barbie and a Dire Straits video than a woman. The only thing the model had in common with the character were guns and leotard. But as technology has advanced, and photos of models have gotten more photoshopped, over the past twelve years, the real and fake Lara’s have been getting more and more similar in appearance.

Frankly, it’s starting to freak me the hell out.

Let’s take a look at the eight Laras that coincide with the soon-to-be eight Tomb Raider games. See if it freaks you out too.

Here’s Katie Price in 1996 for Tomb Raider 1. Like I said, pretty silly.

Nathalie Cook in 1997 for Tomb Raider 2.

Rhona Mitra and Tomb Raider 3. Game character still looks scary but is losing the whole jagged edge thing.

Nell McAndrew on Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. Here’s where it’s starting to get a little freaky.

Lara Weller and Tomb Raider Chronicles. Lara Weller does not look like a real person.

Jill de Jong and the ill-fated Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. The crappiness of this first PS2 version of the series provides some respite from the uncanny valley because Jill de Jong looks like an attractive young woman in a costume and Lara Croft has got angles again.

Karima Adibebe in 2003 for Tomb Raider Legend. Lara’s a little bit more realistically rendered in the game (a little, mind you.) Karima looks a whole lot like the character though.

Alison Carroll. Tomb Raider Underworld. 2008. This is fucking terrifying.

Yeah. Well, now I don’t know what’s scarier. That real and imaginary sex symbols are converging, that I noticed this, or that I put the time together to write this. Sheesh.

Related links:

Feeling It: Social Versus Primitive Emotion in Videogames
Gamepro Mourns the Loss of Mammaries
The Five Greatest Enhanced Remakes – And Five That Weren’t So Great
Video of the Day: Judah Friedlander Explains the Uncanny Valley

The Internet is a Dangerous, Terrifying Place

John Constantine — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT

We here at 61 Frames Per Second take games seriously but we also do not consider any creation a sacred cow. The rest of the internet, prone to madness as it is, is a different story altogether. The veritable ocean of faceless voices out there holds almost every single game ever made in a regard that borders on the religious. Someone, on some message board, will curse your name forever if you say something bad about Revolution X. This what the internet does: it makes people think games about shooting a dominatrix with compact discs in order to rescue Steven Tyler are a good thing.

Then there’s Final Fantasy VII.

As I said earlier this week, Final Fantasy VII makes people go crazy. Chances are, if you slander Final Fantasy VII’s name in any way, a cosplayer will hunt you down and do improbable things to your hair. Say Final Fantasy VII is overrated, and someone will poison your oatmeal and say they “did it for Jenova”.

This is what Final Fantasy VII does to people.

Thanks to NeoGAF user XiaNaphryz for sullying our eyes forever.

Related links:

Behold: The Internet's Effect on Erotica
Games to Film to Games to Film: Resident Evil Degeneration

61 Frames Per Second : scary internet

The Uncanny Valley: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Are Starting to Freak Me Out

The Internet is a Dangerous, Terrifying Place