Call of Duty's bottomless content machine has claimed Lara Croft

rockpapershotgun.com:

Lara Croft is coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone as part of the imminent Season 5 content drop, and... I am not OK with this. I am not OK. The news has been out there for a while, but today's Activision screenshot bulletin is the first I've heard of it, and I am here to tell you that this is a travesty and a disgrace and, excuse me, I'm sorry, I need a moment. What have they done to you, Lara? Oh hell, they've even used your "I only play for sport" quote from the original TR intro as a finishing move catchphrase. Good night, sweet Croft. May flights of angels (of Darkness) sing you to your rest.

Some might argue that Lara Croft makes a good fit for Call of Duty, given that she is famously trigger-happy. Her Modern Warfare debut makes particular sense in the wake of the Crystal Dynamics-helmed "Survivor" games, which broadly alternate between Lara getting all messed up Mortal Kombat-style and Lara massacring hordes of goons and wildlife in a sort of apologetic way. Some might even see the sparks of future triumph: over at Eurogamer, Victoria Kennedy notes that the Call of Duty Lara design blends elements from Crystal's work and the old Core Design games, perhaps anticipating the direction of the next Amazon-published Tomb Raider, or even the Phoebe Waller-Bridge-penned TV show. A third group of people might note that Lara has guest-starred in everything from Fortnite to Powerwash Simulator at this stage, and for heavens' sake, man, get ahold of yourself.

Well, I refuse to get ahold of myself. I still cling to the Core Design vision of Tomb Raider as a game of enveloping silences, pixel shadows and secretive obstacle courses, where the gunplay served mostly as an infrequent pace-breaker. It had