Remember the train wreck that was Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness? It was what caused Eidos (the publisher) to give over development duties of the next (critically acclaimed) game to Crystal Dynamics from the series’ original home Core Design. Next-gen takes a look at the development of the game, marking its initial development phase to the final push near the end.

The article touches on the subject of control, bringing up this insightful quote from Jeremy Heath-Smith, co-founder of Core Design: “We spent an inordinate amount of time on the animation of Lara and designed the controls around the animation instead of designing the animation around the controls.” He added, “We got wrapped up in that whole beautiful big animation experience. I don’t know if we ever would have understood what we got wrong with the animation until the game was out. We could have easily used another two or three months. We could have used another year.”

It makes for an interesting read, mostly because the ideas and concepts that were initially presented for the game would have made it a legend (oh, the irony!) rather than a scapegoat for bad games that it is today.