So XBox Live Arcade brings the latest Tomb Raid— Oops. Still getting used to the title change. Let’s try again. During Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade, the XBox received a five week exclusivity deal for Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.  A completely different take on the traditional gameplay Lara is used to from the Tomb Raider series, this downloadable only title gives an overhead perspective mixed with two stick gunplay and puzzle solving.

Gameplay:

The control scheme of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light seems simple enough. One analog stick moves, the other aims and the buttons help Lara dodge, jump, set explosives or grab objects. The game also attempts to assist players with certain jumps like leaping from the edge of a platform to one of Lara’s golden spears that can be used as an extra step.

Unfortunately due to the 45 degree angle of the camera and the lack of feedback of hitting those perfect 45 degree angles from the XBox’s controller, some tasks become unnecessarily difficult. They aren’t challenging on purpose but because they are hindered by the game’s control scheme. Sometimes the auto-assist on the jumps sends Lara off in a direction you didn’t intend to take her.

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As we previously reported, Lara Croft is making her return to gaming this summer. But even though she’s no longer under the Tomb Raider moniker, don’t think Lara is changing her MO. She is still going through dark underground lairs in search of treasure.

But this game will not be a full retail release. Instead it will be a digital download only game. In addition, gameplay will drastically be changing as it takes a 3/4 overhead view which resembles a dual stick shooter than a traditional third person action platformer.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light stars Lara Croft as she discovers the lost Temple of Light, resting place of the ancient artifact the Mirror of Smoke. When she finally reaches the mirror, she is ambushed by a devious Mercenary named Vasco and his army. Vasco steals the mirror and releases the evil Xololt who was imprisoned in the mirror.

As you will see in the trailer after the jump, Lara isn’t alone as she teams up with Totec in her first ever cooperative adventure. Hopefully Totec doesn’t whine about his wife the whole game like Dom insists on in Gears of War. It’s refreshing to see Crystal Dynamics attempt to take this series in a new direction much like Ensemble Studios did to the Halo franchise with Halo Wars.

While keeping to the core mythology, they created a drastically different gaming experience still keyed in on what players loved about the Halo world. We are hoping to see the same with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

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Previously on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt had to go on without Christina but were joined by special guest Rick Marshall of MTV’s Splashpage and Movie’s Blog to talk comics, movies and all things geek. Some of the topics discussed included John Carter of Mars casting, the rebirth of Captain America, the power of Twitter in movie marketing and upcoming comic-book-to-film adaptations including Whiteout, Scott Pilgrim and Iron Man 2.

This week, Christina is back and the team is ready for action with new topics such as Megan Fox as Lara Croft, the new Conan and his similarity to the old Conan, Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, the sad performance of Year One, the return of Futurama and much more. And once again, the team made some interesting picks this week including one of Christina’s favorite video games, The Sims 3, Matt’s pick of Justice League Unlimited and Chris’ pick of the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks miniseries Band of Brothers.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

If you’ve been dreaming of a new Lara Croft movie and that Megan Fox will take over the role made famous by Angelina Jolie, then you’re not going to be very happy with this post. Still, this post does contain info about both subjects, which obviously you’re fond of if you’ve been having the above mentioned dreams, so read on.

According to a recent interview with the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen star, Fox is not interested in taking on the role of Lara Croft in a Tomb Raider reboot nor has anyone even offered her the role. Speaking after a press conference for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen last week in Beverly Hills, Calif. Fox told a cluster of reporters that it’s a complete rumor. No one has offered her the role of Lara Croft or even spoken to her about it.

Not only that, but even if they did, she wouldn’t be interested anyway. “I think that’s a role that Angelina Jolie mastered, and I would never attempt to take that over from her,” Fox said.

Of course, in Hollywood that could also mean that people are talking with her about it and she is considering it but just playing hard to get. That’s just the way things work sometimes. So, don’t give up hope just yet. You might still end up seeing Fox doing backflips, firing two giant guns while wearing skimpy shorts and a clingy tank top. Its Hollywood, dreams sometime do come true.