As a casual Lara Croft fan this Tomb Raider reboot was the game I had been waiting for. With a more modern, down to earth but still adventurous look and a smaller breast size this Lara would complement her adventures instead of taking away from them due to her sexualized appearance. She’s still incredibly sexy, mind you, but she fits the tone the game is aiming for and blends in nicely with the scenery.

Since this is a reboot we get to see Lara anew: she’s a little different than before, but deep down still the same Lara we always knew. She just has to learn the ropes again. She doesn’t have that killer attitude like she had in the first series of games. In fact, Lara hasn’t killed before the start of this game so it’s a real reboot indeed.
We’ll see Lara grow into a full blown gritty survivor and archeologist during this game’s journey. And it’s the reason the game begins rather slowly and linear. It’s all about the character’s development. And it works: being stranded on a mysterious island will change Lara in many ways during the course of the game. She’ll has to survive by killing animals and, eventually, humans. Her first human kill naturally has an emotional and devastating impact on her. However, and this is unfortunate in my opinion, not much later she’ll be viciously slaughtering tens of enemies, which gives off somewhat of a mixed feeling. From that point onwards the character development seems to shift to story development. But in the end it’s all for the sake of survival, naturally.
This new Tomb Raider fittingly plays out in a Metroidvania type of manner. In hindsight you’re wondering why they didn’t come up with this before as it feels like such a natural fit for the series. Like a true Metroidvania you start with some basic weapons and tools and continually you’ll acquire more with which you can access new or previously inaccessible areas, treasures and more.
You will quickly acquire an climbing axe and a handmade bow, a valuable tool and weapon. Later on you’ll also be able get an assault rifle or a shotgun, for example. The guns feel good to use, but I myself preferred the bow because it allows for stealthy kills, and I am generally more a fan of using stealth. But if you’re the type that usually goes in guns blazing there’s also the possibility to do that. These choices, although simple, give the game a fresh and, unknowingly, much needed element. Enemies and objects can also be highlighted by the press of a button, as we’ve seen in many other games before.
Almost everything you do will earn you experience which you can use to level up. Together with the materials you find you’ll also be able to craft and upgrade weapons and tools. All of this is done at the many different bonfires you can lit across the island.
Speaking of the island; it’s a big open island where you can go into multiple directions. It looks amazing with a ton of setpieces for the story itself and some breathtaking scenery for when you get to take a breather (or when you have finished the game, since you can then continue and look for missed treasure). And since it’s a Metroidvania the world is also connected in an amazing, logical, but still natural way.
New to this Tomb Raider are the tombs. And in similar fashion to the older games the island also houses quite a few environmental puzzles. But let’s get back to the tombs for a minute. These are self-contained, sometimes devious, puzzles that can be solved in a few to 15 minutes and will earn you treasure for your already growing collection. These are fun to do, but I wish there were more *and* that they were bigger.
The game lasts about 20-25 hours if you want to do everything.

I can’t really think of any cons for this game, except for maybe the fact that it sometimes overuses the quick-time events (QTE). And obviously the tombs that would’ve been much better or at least fun if they were only a few sizes bigger. Thankfully, the sequels fix this issue.
Other than that, I found this game to be pretty much perfect fun, 100%ing it entirely (and later its sequel: Rise Of The Tomb Raider).

As far as the graphics are concerned Tomb Raider still impresses with excellent lighting and physics. Lara looks realistic and moves with grace, as you would expect, and the details on her clothes and body (especially when in and out of the water) will almost make you think she’s real. Almost.
Camilla Luddington does an amazing job at portraying a grounded Lara. She reacts like one would expect. The other voice actors do an equally good job, but Camilla stands out without a doubt.

This Tomb Raider reboot exceeded all of my expectations and then some. It’s just a game that is such a joy to play. The new Lara Croft is grounded and realistic and the Metroidvania-like gameplay fits the series like a glove. Unfortunately, the newer titles aren’t build the same way – they’re great games in their own way, however – but that makes this one even more special I think. Highly recommended!

Mini Motorways is a casual, but deep, minimalistic puzzle simulation game, all shown from a top down perspective. That’s quite a mouthful when reading it back, but every word of it is absolutely true. After the delightful Mini Metro this game improves upon it in every way possible.

Mini Motorways has you create roads from houses towards warehouses/companies and back. A house appears together with a warehouse and you connect a line to it. Then more and more appear and you do the same, all set on an equally simplistic city of your choice (but limited to what the developer has added to the game (fortunately there are more than enough)). Simple enough you would say, but nothing would be further from the truth.
What starts off as a slow, take your time, simulation increasingly speeds up, spawning more houses and more warehouses then you can eventually handle. But that’s the nature of the game; it’s a high score type of game, and not a simulation. Not in the traditional sense anyway.
Roads can only be build as long as you have blocks for them and these are rather limited so you have to efficiently lay these roads, removing them or redirecting them as you go. You can also add roundabouts, bridges (the only way to get across water), traffic lights and highways to handle the increasingly high traffic load. After each passing week you’re given a choice of which random items you will receive; this can be anything ranging from a roundabout to a bridge with 20 road blocks, for example. But one thing’s for sure; they are almost always desperately needed and usually come when it’s already (a little) too late. That makes it sound a bit like Tetris, and in a way it absolutely is. It’s extremely addicting.

The game has a very pleasing visual style, with everything shown in 2D and from the top.
The interface is easy to use and dragging from one point to another has never caused any issues or at least any issues that couldn’t be fixed by a simple right-click. It has a very intuitive interface.
The music plays a bigger part in this game than the sound effects and it’s somehow quite relaxing (right?). I’m usually way to busy to notice anyway. The sound effects are just simple noises but they fit the style that the game’s aiming for.

Mini Motorways isn’t really mini at all. In fact, it shows ambition in a big way. It’s just a very enjoyable game that anyone can pick up and play, yet it’s very deep at the same time, especially if you try to play it more seriously.
I’m really curious to see if and what they can come up with next, but even if it’s ‘only’ equally as good as this game count me in for sure.