The question should be, has the Tomb Raider series copped enough flack? Rather than having run its course, or being old, tired, inapplicable, sexist, etc, anyone who has actually played and enjoyed the games would be looking forward to the new instalment. Since the release of the first Tomb Raider, there have been many games which, just because they included a third-person view, were supposed to knock Tomb Raider off its perch. I've played many of them and think that there are two main reasons why they haven't. First, the developers thought that the Tomb Raider success was solely due to an over-endowed protagonist. Second, they didn't understand the history and nature of third-person gaming.

The first point has been argued for and against ad nauseum, so I'll concentrate on my second point. In the third party experience, the gamer seeks to protect his or her character in their quest; unlike in an RPG, for example, where the gamer becomes the character, or the FPS where the gamer is the character. The success of the Commandos series, or Rainbow Six showed that many gamers like the 'protect and nurture the character' style of gameplay. Back to Tomb Raider.

Each successive outing has improved on and surpassed the preceding game's gameplay so I anticipate that the fourth instalment will do no less. Of course, there are many detractors who say that nothing much has changed from game to game, but the inclusion of seemingly small skills such as climbing (TR2) and the monkey hang (TR3) instigated a far richer range of possibilities for the character and therefore for the level designers too. This seems to have been forgotten in all the talk about breasts and which actress will play the part in the film.

The Tomb Raider series, for all its faults, is the only game which realises that the PC and console gamer need a different experience. And regardless of the unfounded complaints from gamers, who I can only presume haven't read the readme file, keyboard controls are all accessible, as is the ability to change the camera angle. And for all of the 'showiness' of the series, each game leaves an extremely small footprint on the hard drive, runs well from the CD and is released without bugs! Of course, some of the complaints have validity. Where's the level designer? Why no multiplay? Why mousepads and all the endless crap about a movie? Personally, if I worked for Eidos I'd have released the walk-throughs on high-res video...
Mr Gronk