Widescreen Gaming Forum

Ugh. This game was a NIGHTMARE to investigate. Every time I tried to take a picture with FRAPS, my machine would crash, and AVG would report that an embedded virus was detected in fraps.exe. Using printscrn during FMVs made them exit, leaving me with a black screen in the clipboard. I overcame this by disabling keyboard input to the game, printscrn'ing the FMVs, and alt+F4'ing out. And printscrn'ing during the actual gameplay made the entire game crash, but on the plus side, gave me a useful picture in the clipboard. Worst of all, the game sucks so bad (mostly due to the most worthless and unresponsive controls since Superman 64) that I had a hard time getting motivated to do this. But here it is.

==Game Information==

Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is a third person action game from Core Design and Eidos, and the sixth game in the long running Tomb Raider series. You once again play as Lara Croft, and must leap, shimmy, climb, and shoot your way through various environments to clear your name of suspected murder, and save the world from the evil Angel of Darkness.

==Version==

This information is based on the unregistered 60 minute trial version. The retail version should be exactly the same.


==Method==

This game supports widescreen natively, but to set it right, you need to use the settings control panel. Click on "settings" in the splash screen, click on your video card tab, and select your resolution. Also, set your "Monitor aspect" to your correct aspect (1.6 for 16:10, 1.77 for 16:9).

==Screen change==

This game is Hor+.


1024x768, 1.33


1280x800, 1.6


==Supported resolutions==

All tested resolutions worked.

Confirmed: 1280x720, 1280x768, 1280x800, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 1920x1200


==Singleplayer anomalies==

I have not found any singleplayer anomalies related to using widescreen, but I didn't play for very long, nor could I if I felt like it.


==Multiplayer support==

This game is single-player only.


==Aspect ratio support==

The aspect ratio is correct as long as you set it correctly.


1280x720, 1.77


1280x800, 1.6


==HUD stretch==

The HUD does not stretch.


==Cut-scenes==

The cut-scenes are FMV, and they are anamorphic.


1024x768, 1.33


1280x800, 1.6


==Grading==

Calculated grade: B
Potential grade: Certified

Major unresolved issues:
Are there any single-player anomalies?

Minor unresolved issues:
None.

Cranky's coverage estimate: 88.5%

Ugh. This game was a NIGHTMARE to investigate. Every time I tried to take a picture with FRAPS, my machine would crash, and AVG would report that an embedded virus was detected in fraps.exe. Using printscrn during FMVs made them exit, leaving me with a black screen in the clipboard. I overcame this by disabling keyboard input to the game, printscrn'ing the FMVs, and alt+F4'ing out. And printscrn'ing during the actual gameplay made the entire game crash, but on the plus side, gave me a useful picture in the clipboard. Worst of all, the game sucks so bad (mostly due to the most worthless and unresponsive controls since Superman 64) that I had a hard time getting motivated to do this. But here it is.

Yikes...

When I was posting screenies for this game, I was not having these issues with FRAPS. Regardless, that sounded like a frustrating time. And yeah... this game is pretty bad.

It's probably worth mentioning that the HUD stays in the middle of the screen regardless of whether or not you run widescreen. Meaning that it's location relative to the edge of the screen is not consistent between widescreen and standard resolutions.

The saddest thing is, as bad as this game may be, it's potentially certification-worthy. But only if anyone actually owns the full version of the game, and has a 24" monitor, and is willing to subject themselves to the torment long enough to find out if there are any anomalies or not.

I have a 30", though I wouldn't buy the game. I might see if I can "aquire" a copy long enough for research purposes.

You can download a 1-hour trial version like I did here:
http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/7520/Tomb+Raider:+Angel+of+Darkness+Trial

The saddest thing is, as bad as this game may be, it's potentially certification-worthy. But only if anyone actually owns the full version of the game, and has a 24" monitor, and is willing to subject themselves to the torment long enough to find out if there are any anomalies or not.

I have the full version (came with a video card a while back), and I have a 24" monitor. I do not have, fortunately, the desire to ever play that game again.

Would you even be willing to just test the resolutions? And, do the 1-hour trial count as the full version, or the demo?

Would you even be willing to just test the resolutions? And, do the 1-hour trial count as the full version, or the demo?

Doh!

Well... If the boss-man wants me to re-install the game, I guess I have to reinstall the game.

I will test the resolutions. I need to find the discs, but I imagine they are somewhere around (probably very near the trash can).

The 1-hour trial is the full game. The question is if 1 hour is enough time to review the game thoroughly enough to be satisfied that it is anomaly free, or find a bug. Generally speaking, I don't like declaring a game to be without anomalies unless I've played through at least 10% of it, though enforcement of this policy is pretty much impossible.