Game of the Year - Tomb Raider (2013)

I've played 7 out of the 10 Tomb Raider games that have come out since 1996, and across platforms (PC, Wii, and now, Xbox) - I only skipped 5, 6, and Anniversary. And before I played the new reboot of Tomb Raider that came out last month, I was one of those people that pined for the good old days of Tomb Raider 2's tigers and Venetian canals.

That has changed. Crystal Dynamics have made a reboot that rivals any reboot in any media (yes, including Batman Begins), and not only is it my favorite Tomb Raider ever, it is also my favorite game this year (so far), and it works as a remix of Indiana Jones, Lost, and your favorite FPS...

To me, this beats Assassin's Creed III at its own.... uh... game. It features better storytelling, equally good combat/ free-running, and amazing puzzles and exploration elements, all in a somewhat smaller world-size. AC better watch out, because Lara even has her own Eagle Vision now!

I started writing this post on Google+ and switched over to the blog as my raving grew in length. I now realize this is the first game I'm actually blogging about. How about that? Well it is a deserving one, that easily deserves a 9 on a scale of 10. Here's why...

Man of Tomorrow - Today

You will believe...

When Richard Donner made "Superman" in 1978, the tag-line was "You will believe a man can fly". Although Star Wars had only just come out, and Krypton could be pronounced as "CRIP-tun" by half your characters (instead of CRIP-taun) without a Reddit-y uproar, it was necessary to reassure the audience this was just a man, not an alien from another world. That world therefore had to be a pristine, crystalline, neon-lit, but ultimately sterile place backed up by the gravitas that Don Corleone brought to it.

Superman could be - had to be - the blue eyed, red-brief-on-the-outside wearing Nietzschean hero who (Fascist undertones notwithstanding) would be a bewildered Kansan in a big city that fights for 'truth, justice, and the American way'. The meanest villain imaginable for Superman in this Cold War era was nuclear weapons gone rogue, and no one took a super-hero seriously, so it was OK to reverse the Earth's spin and turn back time and for Lex Luthor to be a bumbling criminal genius with a real estate fetish...

Actually corniness was not something to be frowned at - it was a prerequisite! One of the iconic funny exchanges I remember from the movie is this mid-air snippet from when Superman saved Lois Lane as she fell out of a helicopter and off a building:

SUPERMAN: Don't worry miss, I've got you!
LOIS (hysterical): You've got me..? Who's got YOU?!

A trustworthy alien?

Fast forward 35 years and audiences no longer have trouble believing a man can fly! We've seen Neo go off and "do the Superman thing" in the Matrix movies. The Avengers have fought as a team to ward off an invasion of Earth. Alternate worlds have come alive, fully fleshed out, in their grime and bile as much as their radiance, in everything from Avatar to Game of Thrones. Zod can no longer be a promise made for a sequel in the era of instant gratification.

We leave rogue nukes for mortals like Jack Bauer to handle these days, and even cartoon fiction like 'Ben 10' is deadly serious about the origin tale, and has little tolerance for corniness. Comic books, and movies based on them, are acceptable and mainstream enough that critics spend time debating what the Joker (from The Dark Knight) represents in a post-9/11 era...

This is the perilous airstrip on which lands Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel". I thought it does the job of bringing Superman to the post-modern era well, while faltering just a little... I am not much of a star-giving reviewer, especially when the movie is about source material that I am so invested in - but if I had to, I'd give this a 3 out of 5. Let me explain why...