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Celebrate 20 years of Tomb Raider with a great charity

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The 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and last year’s Rise of the Tomb Raider may have reinvigorated the adventure series and made it a household name again, but Lara Croft has now been raiding tombs and shooting baddies for 20 years. To celebrate the milestone, publisher Square Enix and developer Crystal Dynamics have partnered with a charity to help ill children and give away lots of Tomb Raider goodies.

“We look forward to celebrating with fans, and honoring the iconic Lara Croft with special events, retrospectives, giveaways, and other surprises throughout this year of Tomb Raider,” says Crystal Dynamics’ Ron Rosenberg.

While the first “major milestone” celebration will take place next month at PAX East, you can help celebrate 20 years of Tomb Raider right now, and contribute to a very good cause at the same time. GameChanger, a charity helping severely ill children, will be taking donations from March 29 (that’s today) through April 5. Donations of $1 or more will net you a free PC copy of the 2013 Tomb Raider, and donating more will enter you for a chance to win a collector’s edition of Rise of the Tomb Raider, an Xbox One, and other games and accessories.

GameChanger helps provide video games to children suffering from serious illnesses in addition to providing college scholarships and “hosting unique gaming events to connect patients and the gaming community.” This actually isn’t the first time the organization has partnered with Square Enix — a campaign back in June of last year offered a free copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution to anyone who donated more than $1, as well.

And if helping GameChanger isn’t enough (it should be!), there is some other Tomb Raider news to get fans excited. Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Daisy Ridley has confirmed that she has begun talks to play Lara Croft in a new big screen adaptation. She would be taking over the role played by Angelina Jolie in the the previous films.

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