Lara's back, but for the next game in the all-new trilogy she'll be going further back than anyone expected... bring on the dinosaurs!

Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is the first title of a brand new Lara trilogy for next-gen, with the final two chapters releasing on PS2 and PC over the next couple of years.

After much arty-farty posturing, Core returned to its roots for Angel of Darkness, offering a classic Tomb Raider adventure set in the murky streets of Paris and Prague. But that clearly wasn't 'classic' enough for Core co-founder Jeremy Heath-Smith, who let slip some surprising details when he spoke last week.

Speaking about plans for the remainder of the trilogy, Heath-Smith stated: "We don't think we went traditional enough with this game. For the next one, we want to bring the dinosaurs back."

Explaining this ostensibly massive u-turn from Core's position at the time AOD was announced - where Lara was said to be moving in a darker, edgier, more adult direction - Heath-Smith explained: "Lara's pretty good in Paris, but in hindsight, we were scared of taking her straight back to tombs. We thought people had had enough of tombs, but the reality is, I don't think people can get enough of tombs and all that stuff. So we're gonna go pretty big on that.

Full on, old-skool Lara action? Back to basics, shall we say? "Yeah!" exclaimed Heath-Smith. "We were nervous of going back there. We felt we had to make a statement; I think we've now made that statement and we can draw the consumer back in, the players are gonna love it and I think we can take them back with a real good trip in the next game.

"Our plan for the trilogy is very much to have one out every 12 months, because we've got them planned out and we're not going to touch the technology, so we're going to play with the storyline - and our plan is to spin the next one in a year. Our plan is to have it, I'm hoping, before June next year. Worst case would be in a year, but hopefully before that." Tempting as it was, we didn't dare ask Eidos if it had a solid date for the sequel...

Commenting on the current status of the AOD follow-up, Heath added: "Yeah, all the design and locations are done, lots of sketches have been done... and we have the main character! [laughs]."

Tombs and dinosaurs are the future, and Core knows it. Keep it here for the very latest on all things Lara related, and as soon as Eidos announces a European date for Angel of Darkness on PS2 and PC, you'll be the first to know

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