Tomb Raider delayed again

It’s not really news as such but we thought that you’d like to know that Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness has slipped again.

It was originally supposed to come out in November last year, then February, then "early Q3" (financially speaking, meaning April), and now "early Q4", meaning sometime probably July, but don’t be at all surprised if it come out in late September.

This information, rather oddly, has come via the recently updated Core website, as opposed to the actual Angel Of Darkness website.

So why the blinking hell has it slipped so badly? Hasn’t it been nearly four years in development? Well, stupendous optimism from Eidos seems partly to blame. Last year’s E3 revealed the game to be barely more than a tech demo, then three months later it was shown off in playable form for the first time at the PlayStation Experience, and was just short of disastrous. Yet on every single occasion Eidos has waited until the last possible moment to reveal a delay. This time it hasn’t even bothered mentioning the latest slip; it must be as bored as us with the wait.

Since then, internal talk of Core completely rejigging the control system has emerged. Good work – no point releasing the game before it’s ready, but the real problem Core and Eidos face now is the glaring fact that the game’s graphics are now starting to look rather behind the times. Indeed, several print magazine previews over the past few months have been less than glowing.

On a personal level, we hope the game turns out to be worth the wait, but the endless slippage and general murmurings are all pointing to a painful birth for Core’s cash cow franchise. Please don’t mess it up Core.