There weren’t too many big surprises during Microsoft’s E3 2014 presentation, just lots of peeks at upcoming games. Which is a good thing. But surprises are always nice, too!

One pleasant surprise was the announcement of a sequel to Crystal Dynamic’s hit 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, which will be titled Rise of the Tomb Raider.

You can watch the announcement trailer for the sequel below.

Tomb Raider
Playstation 3 | Xbox 360 | PC Download
Third Person/Action Adventure/Puzzle Game
Rating: M
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Square Enix
Designer: Darrell Gallagher
Writer: Rhianna Pratchett
Artists: Visual Works (CGI)
Composer: Jason Graves
Release Date: March 5, 2013

Not to sound like that old guy, but I can remember playing the original Tomb Raider back in 1996, dear God I am old. I was in college and I was living with a few friends, and we were taking turns playing the game, while the other helped out by reading the walkthrough. I don’t think we ever beat it, but there were some fun times either way. I think I dabbled in the series as it continued on various systems, but never really got into enough that I finished the game. Any time a game revolves around timed jumps so perfectly timed, that is where I fail in video games.

But when I heard they were rebooting the series and giving us a sort of prequel, I was interested in checking it out. And much like most things on the internet, the initial buzz was not favorable, well that was until people actually got to see it and play it.

The release of Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix’s reboot of Tomb Raider is less than a week away, and fans of the franchise and newcomers alike are eagerly awaiting its arrival.

Plenty of videos have been released along the way, showcasing the new Lara Croft, a new style and complete overhaul of the gameplay mechanics, and an origin story.

Below you’ll find three of these videos, all part of a series called “Guide to Survival,” which looks at different exciting aspects of Tomb Raider.

Last year’s E3 brought with it a peek at the video game reboot (a movie reboot is also in the works) of the Tomb Raider franchise, complete with an origins story and new look for the famed Lara Croft.

This year developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix brought with them even more goodies from the game in the form of a brand new gameplay trailer and a demo of the game in action as you’ll play it.

This is a game getting a lot of positive attention thanks to footage such as this, but unfortunately we still have to wait until 2013 to get our hands on it.

You can see the new trailer and gameplay demo by clicking on over to the other side.