Hello again, and welcome to Gaming Union's community feature New Game Plus! The premise is exactly the same as that of a bookclub, but with video games; each week Unionites will all play through to a pre-determined checkpoint of the same game. It's just like playing a game normally, but plus a whole bunch more fun and discussion with your good ol' community pals! The feature invites in depth discussion about video games, bringing focus on small sections of one title at a time. This can create a space where video gaming fans can be more analytical or critical about any of the many game design areas. No conversation topic is barred, but you must remember to do your homework to keep up with everyone else!

Week two of this season of New Game Plus will see the community jetting off to Japan & West Ghana, in Tomb Raider: Legend. Ms Croft has already had her fair share of puzzles to solve and goons to shoot, so we can only hope that this week of adventuring goes much better for her. Knowing the Tomb Raider series, it's fairly unlikely it'll be a relaxing vacation...

This is our second week with Lara Croft, so it's still not too late to catch up and play along with everyone else! Check out the guidelines below on how to participate and for details of where to start from and where the next checkpoint in the game will be. Make sure to come back regularly to let us know how you're finding the game!

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We're hoping to split Tomb Raider: Legend into four sections. This is Week 2!

The checkpoint which you need to play up to is:
Go through Chapters 3 & 4
(Japan & Ghana (West Africa))
Inside the following spoiler tags is a slightly more in depth description of all the locations you go through before you get to this point, just to dispel any confusion:

ALL DISCUSSION FOR WEEK 2 IN THIS THREAD.
(Previously: Introduction Thread, Week 1)

All previous New Game Plus threads can be found in the dedicated section on the forums!

Also if you need any clarification of the guidelines then please ask!
Have fun exploring, guys!

GUIDELINES
- You can play almost any version of this game! The only ones that aren't allowed (due to the game and story being very different from the others) are for Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Many community members have also warned about the terrible control system in the PlayStation Portable version.
- A new thread will go up each Thursday telling you where the next check point is. All discussion for each section must go in the relevant threads. Previous threads will remain open to let people catch up and let the conversation continue if they're a little behind or joined late.
- You MUST resist playing on past the scheduled check points. I know it's sometimes too tempting, but for these discussion threads to work we need to all be at the same point in the game. Besides, it's not in the spirit of this activity!
- Please don't post spoilers for things that haven't happened in the game yet. We love that you're enthusiastic about it, but some people will be playing for the first time.
- However, you CAN post spoilers for anything that happens within the given section of the game. It would be thoughtful to use the [ spoiler][/spoiler ] tags to protect those still playing through, but it's not strictly necessary.
- There are no topics off limits here, so talk about anything and everything! Story is just one aspect, but if you love the sound design or hate the map, then speak up! Get a little more specific and in depth than usual! And yes, if you want to talk about Lara's butt, that's fine too.
- If you find yourself lost or stuck on a puzzle, post into this thread! The good thing with NGP is that people are playing alongside you and will remember exactly how to help you out!
- On the other side of the coin, if you've played this game before, feel free to take on a challenge. Tomb Raider: Legend has Time Trials so maybe try your hand at that? You could also use this as a clean up run, to get all the trophies/rewards to 100% the game.
- Remember to HAVE FUN!

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Alright, just got through with Japan. Wasn't really too difficult. I had fun ducking around corners and taking out some Yakuza with grenades ^_^
Didn't do too much in rewards, sadly. But then again, I never really do in Japan iirc.

Bronze: 2/6
Silver: 1/4
Gold: 0/1

next stop, Ghana.

::EDIT::
Just beat Ghana
The rewards in Ghana were as follows
Bronze: 3/5
Silver: 2/4
Gold: 0/1

looking forward to tackling next week's levels ^_^

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Finished Japan in like 35 minutes on hard(with a Hunter it's always on the toughest difficulty).

6/6 Bronze
4/4 Sliver
1/1 Gold

Got all the rewards...like a boss.

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Just finished Japan, time was 9 minutes and 39 seconds, although short this one of my favourite chapters, and Lara is right "Its never a party until something gets broken" xD

Did anyone else notice at the beginning ( when the combat is about to start) how fast Lara changed her hairstyle from long hair to ponytail?

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(June 14, 2012 05:48:29 PM)Roxas21691 Wrote:  Did anyone else notice at the beginning ( when the combat is about to start) how fast Lara changed her hairstyle from long hair to ponytail?

well, it's just a simple tail, not braided or anything. Even for the inexperienced, that only takes about a few seconds to do. I know, I do it all the time myself

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Finished Chapter 3...got all bronze and 2 silvers.

Now onto chapter 4...gotta love the water ^_^

UPDATE: Finished Chapter 4...and boy oh boy was that boss a pain in the @$$!!!! O.O

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Just finished Japan. Got 2 silvers and 5 bronzes.

I have to admit after the first gun fight was finished I couldn't resist shooting those TV screens down in front of Mr Nishimura.

I did die on the quick time event, was a split second late on the last input. I hate quick time events.

I gave the shotgun a go this time. Much more fun than the assault rifle.

The climb up the big screens outside the building was pretty cool.

Tearing down that big screen in the room with the cubicles was immensely satisfying. I do wish there was a bit of an emphasis on stealth kills though. I was having fun sneaking around the cubicles but as soon as someone dies it becomes another fire fight.

The boss fight was actually pretty easy once I figured out what to do.

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(June 14, 2012 11:49:07 PM)Waldo Lang Schnitzeldong Wrote:  Tearing down that big screen in the room with the cubicles was immensely satisfying. I do wish there was a bit of an emphasis on stealth kills though. I was having fun sneaking around the cubicles but as soon as someone dies it becomes another fire fight.

Lara must really hate Tv, i mean, it would be a lot easier to just shot the glass doors and move formard

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Finished Ghana. 1/4 silver and 4/5 bronze.

I really liked this stage both in terms of the visuals and level design. A lot of really fun climbing sections and the puzzles were cool too. I actually had a bit of trouble against the boss. Mainly because for some reason I have a really hard time seeing where the grenades are going.

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Wow Ventis is farther than me?! This is what I get for going on a date apparently lol. Time for me to bunker down and get to raiding.

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