Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines sequel? Remake?

Mort bit the bullet and watched the whole promo interview from WoD, so he could make a summery.

He states (heavy CP2077 influences):

• You can chose gender and 1 out of 4 clans (with more clans as DLC).
• While they didn't expressly state you can customize anything, they did put up some art showing various male and female versions of the PC.
• The narrative will revolve around the PC having two people in the same body.

Araysar said:

5 years after the title was announced, they need some new inspiration, huh?

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I would hope they meant that they have been playing BG3 Act 1 for years in EA, in order to steal as many ideas as they can to make it a good game...

Burns said:

• The narrative will revolve around the PC having two people in the same body.

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Non-binary struggle story to go with the non-binary character art. No surprise there. I had a feeling it was more than just an art direction choice.

Maybe we'll get lucky and the nonbinary stuff is toned down and it's just that there are still ample chicks with dicks and dude with tits options! I could have my hetro female character stuck with a lesbian alter ego inside her.

jayrebb said:

Non-binary struggle story to go with the non-binary character art. No surprise there.

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It sounds more like a CP2077 rip, in that the Elder Vampire, with a dumb fucking name, had a "spell" carved into them using the blood of a thin blood modern day vampire, while they were hibernating (torpor). This causes PHYRE to wake up and have the voice/soul of the thin blood talking to them, in their head (like Johnny in CP2077).

I assume that allows them to ramp up the power levels faster within the confines of the IP. I don't know how difficult World of Darkness is to work with, but maybe they were shooting down cool_shit_idea_0043 because a "thin blood can't do that," since the original player character was supposed to be a thin blood (I think).

popsicledeath said:

Maybe we'll get lucky and the nonbinary stuff is toned down and it's just that there are still ample chicks with dicks and dude with tits options! I could have my hetro female character stuck with a lesbian alter ego inside her.

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In the short blip of that promo that I watched, they were referring to the voice in your head (from the thin blood) as a male ("he" this and "he" that) with a normal sounding name. I'm a bit doubtful that they are going to pay for 2 different voice actors to read all those lines in order to offer a choice... but maybe, they are taking inspiration from BG3, after all.

Mist what do you think about VtM 2?

Burns said:

I don't know how difficult World of Darkness is to work with, but maybe they were shooting down cool_shit_idea_0043 because a "thin blood can't do that," since the original player character was supposed to be a thin blood (I think).

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From what little I remember of my VtM days thin bloods are so far removed from Caine that they can barely even be considered vampires. Little or no sun vulnerability, can't use disciplines, no beast within, can't create progeny. They don't really bear the curse of Caine so much as they were lightly sideswiped by it.

Burns said:

In the short blip of that promo that I watched, they were referring to the voice in your head (from the thin blood) as a male ("he" this and "he" that) with a normal sounding name. I'm a bit doubtful that they are going to pay for 2 different voice actors to read all those lines in order to offer a choice... but maybe, they are taking inspiration from BG3, after all.

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Good point on them cheaping out on voicing multiple, extra main characters. Instead they're just making the voice and old, powerful vampire some stuffy old man. Hope there is a way to fight against this perpetuation of the patriarchy, otherwise it'll seem quite problematic.

Mist said:

Apropos of almost nothing, Twilight Sucks.

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Would you say...

No real surprise, but conformation from the CEO that this game will be shit (for fans of the first):




Paradox will not do a third game in-house if they somehow make a profit on this game (from interview with CEO):

Burns said:

No real surprise, but conformation from the CEO that this game will be shit (for fans of the first):

View attachment 551677
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Bloodlines 2 is more "spiritual successor" than sequel to "a competently good game by 2004 standards", say Paradox

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 won't be an "open sim" like the 2004 original game, according to Paradox Interac…

www.rockpapershotgun.com

Paradox will not do a third game in-house if they somehow make a profit on this game (from interview with CEO):
View attachment 551680
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Paradox wants to get out of the RPG business: 'If Bloodlines 2, God willing, is successful, Bloodlines 3 [will be] done by someone else'

It's time for someone else to shoulder the World of Darkness curse.

www.pcgamer.com

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These idiots are completely out of touch with the players. RPG fans don't expect a BG III. We simply want a 'good' game and, for any competent studio, the bar really isn't that high. Though one of the definitive ways any game can tank is by having it rub social commentary in people's faces.

And there's absolutely no doubt that a vampire game (which attracts a disproportionate number of alphabet mafia and degenerates) is going to be steeped in Seattle stew. That alone is enough to make the game fail, but the studio will never admit that so they're making excuses now.

It's all pointless anyway. When the game was announced most people felt a twinge of excitement, but it quickly faded because we all knew this game was going to be a trainwreck and its development indicates it will be even worse than we expected.

These people need to take a hard look in the mirror. When a very small group of hobbyist modders can make a full-length (80+ hour) campaign for Fallout 4 that rivals the base game, but a studio of 250+ 'professionals' put out slop, it's time to gut the operation and start over.

Publisher admits game is an abortion.

yeah, it should be remembered here, Paradox Interactive, is the PUBLISHER.

They still own Triumph studios, which makes Age of wonders.
vicky 3, stellaris, hearts of iron, etc is all Paradox dev studios.

Harebrained schemes split off.

At the end of September 2021, the company announced it was cancelling development on several unannounced products to focus on "proven game niches", leaving 15 projects in development.[27] According to Wester, the company's focus remains on their strategy and simulation games, and that they have "sharpened our pipeline further to ensure that the projects with the highest potential have the resources necessary for the best possible development".

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so this seems like a perfectly reasonable. "big budget, high cost IP games were a trainwreck for us, back to making niche strategy games that make us money"
seems like grabbit 100% misread the situation. its the exact opposite.

Caliane said:

its the exact opposite.

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It's not though. Chinese Room makes walking simulators, and they have no "strengths" remotely suited to making any ARPG, let alone Bloodlines 2. The last time they got their hands on an IP that contained actual gameplay, we got the abomination Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. Everything the asshat from Paradox said is just spin to try to get people to buy something we all know is a complete disaster that should have been cancelled years ago.

And I just played through VtMB a couple weeks ago. Only someone trying to cover up how large the steaming pile of shit they're going to dump on the fans would try to claim the game is "mythologized" or that the fans' love of the game is just rose-colored nostalgia glasses. The only aspects that wouldn't fly today are the same issues that the game had when it first released. Using the wrong engine and getting fucked over by Valve in the process and forced to release early due to Activision, Troika's own inability to deliver a polished or even relatively bug-free product, and the rushed final act. With the full unofficial patch everything else about the game is just as good now as it was 20 years ago. Anything that 'wouldn't fly today' can only be referring to stuff that the mob of woke faggots would get offended by, like the faux outrage over Yukie, etc.

Caliane said:

Harebrained schemes split off.

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After Paradox sabotaged them to the point of almost ending the studio.