When the original Tomb Raider series came out for the Playstation, I was immediately hooked. The immersion it had grabbed hold and sucked me in completely. The score and ambience was so awe-inspiring at the time – subtle cues of music to signal important events were as impressionable as they were effective. Most of the time you raided in silence but when the music kicked in, you knew you either better be on high alert or were about to be treated with an amazing unveil of some fantastical tomb full of intricate textures, ruins, and mysteries that were equal parts stunning and brilliant.

Though the controls were a little clunky, they made maneuvering Lara a very calculated endeavor. You had the tools necessary to fight and survive when necessary, but when it came time to go deeper into the crypt, you had to watch your step and plan your course through ruins forgotten by time. Since everything was based on a grid, you were taught from early on through training that you needed 1 full grid space to make a proper jump and that you needed 3 full grid spaces to make a leap.

Despite the almost unforgiving controls, when you explored in the original game it made you feel as if every tricky move you made in your pursuit of exploration had to be carefully planned out. It actually added to the immersion by giving you the feeling of, "Yeah, if I was going to leap across this chasm, I would take more than a couple seconds to gauge the distance and prep my jump before risking my life."

These days we have dynamic contextual controlling that allows us to move in very fluid and intuitive ways. Pie had astutely pointed out that Tomb Raider and the Guardian of Light is an amazing example of this. Lara and the guardian move to your will as if the game is tapping your brain directly to figure out what to do next. It makes games more fluid and we are better for it, but I can't help but feel something is lost in that careful deliberation of you movements.

Suffice it to say, the original series has a lot of amazing qualities to it. Go check it out; Tomb Raider 1, 2 and 3 are all worth a play through. Finally, I leave you with this little ode to this week's comic, which you should probably read before attempting to understand the hieroglyphs set out below.

Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity,
To seize all the honey you ever wanted, in one moment,
Would you capture it? Or just let it slip?

His paws are sweaty, knees weak, claws are ready.
There's glitter on his fur already, Pie's confetti.
Bear's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to delve tombs,
but he keeps on forgetting what he wrote down, these monkeys are so loud!
She opens her mouth, fresh Pop Tarts come out!
He's choking now; RoboCroft's stroking now.
The clock's run out, game's over, POW!

I don't really think of myself as a movie person; I seldom ever had an interest to see new movies for most of my youth. I enjoyed movies, but I never felt compelled to see them. I find it strange that for the last few years I've been living with Bear, I've had strong cravings to see certain films like How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda.

I've gotten over my How to Train your Dragon craving, but for the past few weeks, I've been almost obsessed about wanting to see Megamind and Tangled. >.< I can't help feeling like I shouldn't expect too much just in case I'm setting myself up for disappointment. I was really interested and/or obsessed about two animated films that I've heard were supposed to be really good a couple years ago and was disappointed after seeing them both. I've done some research on Megamind and Tangled lately and they both still seem like they have potential. ^^;

I'll have a chance to see those two films and Kung Fu Panda very soon so I'm rather anxious! XD I haven't been this excited about seeing a movie or game in a long time! =D