
The recently released and evocatively named Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered starring Lara Croft allowed an entirely new generation of gamers to experience the formative action platformers for the first time. But it seems that in the last update, released a couple of weeks ago, sexy pinup posters of Croft herself have quietly gone missing, a change not mentioned in the patch notes. Fans, as you might imagine, quickly noticed and were unimpressed, already pointing fingers at Crystal Dynamics.
Reports began to trickle in via Reddit (thanks, Kotaku) that certain suggestive images of Croft, which could be observed in a locker room in the Tomb Raider 3 level, Sleeping with the Fishes, are now entirely blank when playing in the remastered graphics mode. The pinups can still be seen in the original graphics setting, where they resemble pixelated postcards. SmashJT demonstrates the removal below:
Interestingly, Crystal Dynamics decided to keep the racial and ethnic stereotypes present in Tomb Raider 3 for the remaster, which makes the removal of the pinups seem even stranger. We suppose it is probably easier to remove a picture than it is to redesign enemies, but it remains a strange decision nonetheless.
What do you think of the removal of sexy Lara Croft pinups from Tomb Raider 3 Remastered? Are we making a mountain out of a molehill here, or is it censorship run amok? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source reddit.com, via kotaku.com]
Comments 93
Not going to lose sleep over it but why? Kinda stupid really.
Why? Keep it pixelated at worst? This is dumb, especially after it launched. They sold a product and are retracting it. Frankly, there should be laws against this. Supeehot VR had it really bad where they removed the suicide, first by making it optional in the menu, they patronizingly telling we deserved better and removing it entirely, you know, when no one asked for it.
I’m all for optional filters as well, this should have been a menu option at most.
Digital only and censorship, glad I still have the originals on my PSP I guess.
I'm all for it — it never made sense for those to be there in the first place, and I prefer to see Lara as a tough, athletic adventurer, which she definitely does not appear to be in those pics.
Honestly, this is ridiculous.
I like how they bundled it with bug fixes and qol stuff so you have to choose between censorship and a buggier experience lol. Granted it's such a small and inconsequential thing so I don't really care but the fact that they bothered to do this in the first place is not a good sign.
Not a dealbreaker imo but still, very silly to do so.
This whole remaster has been a disaster. CD didn't even want to release it because "reasons" which I won't say here, then stick in a disclaimer apologizing for the nature of the old games in case it offends ppl then removes anything that could attract the male gaze 😆 modern gaming is becoming a bad joke and the next TR game? Oh boy
Just seems silly to remove it in IMO.
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@GrandValkyrie Disaster? Its a pretty good remaster though. Also what's wrong with the new TR game? Because other then one image of Lara we know next to nothing about it.
The great blandenning continues. The women I've known that have gotten pinups done are all sexually powerful badasses. This isn't a politics thing, it's a trash company with no spine thing. So hopefully people don't get ugly.
@ThaBEN someone censored or threatened to censor or suggested that someone should censor Stellar Blade?
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@MiaowMinx She can be all of those things and still be sexy, and still be happy with being sexy. Why not just have an option to turn them off or on?
@ThaBEN Woke now just means stuff you don’t like. The original intent has gotten hijacked by people like you.
On topic, I don’t really care, but seems silly.
Dev 1: Do you have those new upscaled poster graphics ready?
Dev 2: Nah, haven’t gotten around to it
Dev 1: Well, what do we do?
Dev 2: I dunno, just leave ‘em blank for now
Internet: Oh it is on now
Those were sexy?
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While they do stick out as particularly egregious examples of lads mag culture in the late 90s, Lara Croft just wouldn’t be as much of a cultural icon without that whiff of vaguely sexist characterisation. It’s part of her and shouldn’t be ignored. Not that she should just be Sophie Anderson (RIP) does Jungle Run, but it’s her schtick the same way that Nathan Drake has…. uh, being a white dude that drops quips? Let’s face it, OG Lara still bizarrely stands as kinda unique in terms of action protagonists as a woman who’s genuinely quite ruthlessly efficient. I’m probably one of the few people who’d connect with Lara if she was a man who occasionally got his arse out while murdering people like the T-100 so it makes sense why they leveraged her sexuality in these sorts of crass ways.
That being said, I do wonder if the posters been removed while they upscale and this is some sort of misunderstanding.
While the minor additional or removal of something will not affect me, the principal that someone believes someone else should not see something that was originally there (Because it makes them uncomfortable/perception it might make other uncomfortable) sets a dangerous wider term precedent for more significant things to be censored in the future (In and out of gaming).
My question to the publisher is why try to profit off an IP you are no longer comfortable on the contents within? Just make a new game and set your own path.
The games industry is just getting embarrassing now. Half the industry sells sex and the other half would spray paint over Michelangelo's Venus to preserve purity.
So do we have to file this complaint to Middle Earth & Friends now? One does not simply remove Lara Croft pinups......
The 3D boobs are still busting out so probably just a dumb bug and not worth acknowledging that you still use twitter.
What do I think? It’s stopped me buying the game. Just as the censorship in DMC5 stopped me buying that. I won’t be funding such disgusting moral arbiters. Disappointed, but I have a million other games to play.
I wouldn't have a stink about it if this is how they released the game but way after it was already out!? Wtf are they creating artificial controversy so that they then can patch it in and say "alright guys we'll return it to how it was, we do appreciate the extra eyeballs on the game this fake controversy garnered us 😜"
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@ThaBen
Very good information.
Their description of their own board game really makes clear the direction they are taking. I wasn’t aware of it until your post. Really puts this article into a wider perspective of their “moral” position, so thank you. I’m sure others can just google it.
The world really has gone to crap since the time the original games were released.
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So silly and just adds more to the culture war crap that already surrounds the remasters.
@DennisReynolds
Eve is created by Concept Artist "Jiyun Chae".
"Shin Jae-eun" is the Korean model from which they scanned her body.
Oh noes! Anyway...
You can buy the originals on steam for like 89p when they have a sale and most of them work and have mod support and they are originals. Crystal Dynamics are hypocrites nothing more
@Nakatomi_Uk what makes them hypocrites exactly?
@GrandValkyrie Yeah, it's over. Tomb Raider is dead.
Society really has gone soft
A big thumbs down on Crystal Dynamics for this. Very unnecessary.
@ThaBEN Created? Kinda but no more she designed Eve based on what Hyung-tae Kim wanted. Eve is based on a model yes but they changed so much you don't actually see the model.
Western games make female characters "ugly"? Funny you say that when Baldur's Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 came out less then a year ago.
We're just not allowed to enjoy boobies anymore.
thank god we still have Asia developer teams
Oh no boobies and legs we can't handle that, away with it.
Ridiculous just ridiculous but at the same time it won't ruin my enjoyment of the games.
@Futureshark Not in Western culture no but at least there's Asian games like the commenter above me said.
Who remember the naked cheat on pc hahaha
It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but this is just another example of how pointless censorship is to me. Like they are silly, goofy, pixelated pin-up posters...who in the world were they hurting? Was anyone honestly offended by these? Plus they already have the disclaimer in the game saying that themes in the games are outdated and whatnot so why do this now?
Just a head scratcher. I really don't get it.
@DennisReynolds
Well, not all games are affected (yet). I don't want to go to off-topic, but lately it is happening in a increased pace. The fact that we're having this conversation in the comment section of a article about retroactive censorship via a patch should be a hint. And it's not the only game that this has happend to.
And I'm not saying that the characters are ugly per se, but I do think they are "Uglified", meaning they are made less attractive than they used to be.
Not every female character has to be a "babe", but the main thing which convinced me of this deliberately "Uglification" is when I started to notice that when I look at the male and female face models for popular Western games, the digital men always look spot-on to their real life counterpart (or even better), while the women in the same game will be dowgraded (Californian man-jaw and other androgynous features so that it no longer resembles the Face Model in the slightest).
And if this is a creative decision, why does it only seem to happen to the female face models that one would consider to have traditional feminine beauty in real life?
@dark_knightmare2 Just out of curiosity, what is your definition of far right? When I think of far right I literally think of 1930’s German Nazis.
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Nice to see that they're concentrating on the important stuff and not wasting time on, oh, I don't know, putting a hop back button into the updated controls?
I can imagine some people were not happy with this so they went out of their way to get it removed and they got what they wanted.
lol! This is why I don’t believe in the forced all digital era for games, movies, and books. As soft modern societies will censor them in the name of “modernism.” Censorship always happens for things that men like.
To be fair, the way Lara was sexualised was against the original creators vision as well (Toby Gard apparently left over this issue) and it was probably the publisher who pushed it, “sex sells” and all that. That being said, I don’t think it’s right to censor and remove stuff like this. Maybe the pictures shouldn’t have been there in the first place but the fact is they were, so they should remain.
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So unnecessary 🙄
@ThaBEN its deliberate mate in the western societies. Especially the English sphere which tries so hard to distort what men classically find attractive. Controlling games and media men consume to push their objective works to some degree. It’s not that western men have unreasonable physical standards. It’s just that beauty has become so warped in the English speaking countries especially for women. I’ve long noticed that men must still be top notch in terms of physical attributes though like you stated. Eastern game developers don’t have this problem presently because their societies are more based in reality.
@Korgon and this is how censorship will grow by having that attitude. It is a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
Unplayable. Get them cancelled asap 😡
@Jaz007 not like it’s a rated E game. The target audience was for adult men when it came out.
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@kejsi-sensei yup! And eastern cultures don’t shame men for preferring fit beautiful women compared to the English ones. So asian developers will continue to put out what they want.
Why? ...no seriously, WHY? What purpose has this move? Why author destroy it's work just to please false needs of the world? Who forced them to do it? Why do they only think about it? Is world now in grasp of self-named censorship no one wants, no one cares, but everybody do, in fear of some virtual unacceptance that leads to fall of its company?
What do they FEAR to make this?
I'm seriously asking. Can someone explain these moves to me?
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I simply said average women are already good looking. We don't need porn stars in games.
But lately even getting average female femininity in Western games is like pulling teeth.
Why is that?
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The world is safe now.
This is such a small, unnecessary change, that is now going to be used in countless examples across the internet of how games are going "woke", "sweet baby" etc etc.
I really don't get why people care about these insignificant events.
@Northern_munkey
Y-you have to understand, back then when we didn't have easy access to the Internet we had to take what we could get!
@NEStalgia amazing comment haha
@ATaco lmao 🤣
@DennisReynolds google it,you can find info,don't be naive,you know what will be done with franchise,epic failure and then studio closure
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Kinda pointless as the games were marketed towards guys.
@Radekbejbl1 I would rather wait for official stuff.
The agenda is clear.
Guess, I will never update my switch version of the game lol
@MiaowMinx Not mutually exclusive.
It is, AFAIK, humanly possible to be smart, successful, athletic, and talented in many areas of life and also be attractive and have some sexuality - even attractiveness you are happy to show a little of to the world.
Crikey - the PC crowd will outlaw sex next.
Blackrock and Vanguard are regarded at high esteem here,it's pathetic how they censor when u just wanna give your opinion
Sony have the worst censorship in gaming. It's like, what are they trying to be? Nintendo making kids games? There's a website I use that explains and maintains a list of all censored games on PS. Really annoys me the type of people running Sony. Pushing the agenda that nobody wants, now infesting our games.
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@thefourfoldroot1 just had to research the DMC5 thing wtf. Why is a bare bum "breaking European law" but Witcher 3 has T&A on show everywhere?
@GreatAuk search your feelings, you know... it begins with a W....
@kejsi-sensei they've started towing the line too now to appeal to western markets, only the beginning signs but it's there. They'll be full blown in a few years.
@Terra_Custodes
Don’t expect consistency from Sony. They refuse to publish their guidelines or requirements precisely to avoid that type of scrutiny.
@thefourfoldroot1 a game where you're eviscerating demons in bloody carnage, but a female bottom is deemed offensive. These people drive me crazy. And yet it's fine to put extremely controversial political stances and organisations into AAA games. Somethings gotta give...
@MidnightDragonDX the original intent has been utterly warped and hijacked by the proponents of it. It used to mean being awake to societal issues, it is now about pushing a cast iron set of beliefs and stances that must be adhered to or there's severe consequences. Censorship and shutting down of free speech being large parts of it, but pushing extremely controversial views being another. Using the word in a derogatory sense is now perfectly apt and valid.
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