Lara Croft is making a return with the help of Amazon Games. The company will publish the next Tomb Raider title, which Crystal Dynamics is developing. Amazon said the studio is using Unreal Engine 5 to craft the biggest and most expansive Tomb Raider game to date. It'll likely be a few years before you can get your hands on the next Tomb Raider game, which is coming to multiple platforms. It's still in early development, but Amazon says it'll retain all of the franchise's hallmarks.

This year, some GMG students attended camp at the Crystal Dynamics offices in San Mateo. Crystal Dynamics is the current developer of the Tomb Raider franchise, which stars globe-trotting archaeologist Lara Croft, one of gaming's most prominent heroines. Crystal Dynamics studio head Scot Amos described the developer's partnership with GMG as an extension of the company's core values, pointing out that two of Crystal Dynamics' co-founders, Judy Lang and Madeline Canepa, were women. Amos praised GMG as a launchpad for helping budding game creators, especially for those who love games but have no idea how to start making their own.

The latest report on Meta's VR ambitions has likened Project Cambria, its next headset beyond Quest series, to a "laptop for the face" or even a "Chromebook for the face." A report from The Information suggests Meta will unveil its own VR operating system, which is based on Android. This will work with web-based tools and services, as well as some Quest apps. Technical specs are still unknown, but we can expect higher-res screens to make text easier to read -- the aim could be to ensure the VR headset is usable in work situations. We haven't yet seen an entirely new VR device since the company rebranded, but all this suggests that, compared to the Rift and Quest devices, the use cases could be broader, or at least tap into some of that sweet enterprise segment.

Swedish game company Embracer Group has just made a blockbuster deal to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal and Square Enix Montréal for what seems like a bargain $300 million price, the company confirmed in a press release. The deal includes a "catalogue of IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain and more than 50 back-catalogue games from Square Enix Holdings," it wrote. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. Those studios represent around 1,100 employees across eight global locations, the company noted. When the deal is finalized, Embracer will have 14,000 employees, 10,000 game developers and 124 internal studios.

Crystal Dynamics has "just started development" on a new Tomb Raider game, the studio announced today on Twitter. It didn't share what the game will be called nor when fans can expect to play it, but it did note that it will run on Epic's new Unreal Engine 5. After working on the mediocre Marvel's Avengers, the project will see Crystal Dynamics return to the franchise it spent more than a decade making popular again. Crystal Dynamics is incredibly excited about the future of Unreal and how it will help us take our storytelling to the next level. That's why we're proud to announce that our next #tombraider game is being built on Unreal Engine 5! pic.twitter.com/UFMiWzJAZc It would also appear to signal the end of the studio's in-house Foundation engine, which powered Rise of the Tomb Raider and the most recent mainline entry in the series, 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

When Crystal Dynamics's Avengers game got delayed, it left a pretty large hole in the spring release schedule. I can't say I was surprised though. Last year's reveal didn't go quite as smoothly as Square Enix (and Marvel) presumably hoped. The loudest detractors merely complained that the titular Avengers didn't look like their film-screen counterparts, but concerns about level design and repetitive combat abounded as well. Crystal Dynamics broke radio silence today to reintroduce Marvel's Avengers in the first of what it's calling its "War Table" streams.

Before this year's E3, the annual video games event where publishers descend on Los Angeles to unveil and promote their wares for the next year and beyond, anticipation was high for Square Enix's new Avengers game – an action-adventure for one to four players, in which you can fight as Hulk, Black Widow, Thor and plenty of others. In the year that Endgame grossed more than $2.7bn at the box office worldwide, surely not much could go wrong for a game proffering a personalised Marvel superhero fantasy. As it turned out, however, the Avengers game's big reveal fell rather flat (and was rather eclipsed by Keanu Reeves, who made a surprise appearance to reveal his top-secret cameo in the forthcoming Cyberpunk 2077 the day before). That is Iron Man, right? Why does he look nothing like Robert Downey Jr? The Avengers characters in this online action-adventure game share absolutely no likeness with the ones we know from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Avengers assembled again, only it wasn't on a movie screen. On Monday night, video game publisher Square Enix revealed the first details of "Marvel's Avengers," which will launch on May 15, 2020. The video game will be available for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Google's new Stadia streaming service. Among the game studios working on the Avengers game are Crystal Dynamics, who previously worked on the Tomb Raider franchise; and Eidos Montreal, best known for their work on the popular Deus Ex series. What should video game players expect when they don the role of an Avenger next year?

I have not quite finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the latest in Crystal Dynamics' rebooted saga of videogame icon Lara Croft. I'm not sure I want to, either. Following the violent archaeologist on a quest to a hidden city with the lofty goal of stopping an ancient apocalypse, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a competent, occasionally enjoyable action-adventure romp. It'd be great, if only it weren't so nasty. Lara Croft is defined by her ability to endure pain. One of the earliest moments of the games is pure claustrophobia.

Early trailers for Shadow of the Tomb Raider have portrayed Lara Croft as a ruthless killer. Someone who can hide in the jungle and silently dispatch armored soldiers with sophisticated traps and fast, calculated strikes. The underlying message is clear: The beloved archaeologist is now the hunter rather than the hunted. Developer Eidos Montreal is framing the game as Lara's pivotal shift from reactive to proactive fighter. In 2013, when Crystal Dynamics rebooted the franchise, players were introduced to a younger, inexperienced tomb raider who had never been in a firefight before.