Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines: 2 - I want to believe, but...

[*Grunts Softly*]

yeah, it's not even close of being as good as the first one

 

[Snekposter]

I still laugh whenever I think about how he finally realized that chucking his own genitals at Hardestadt's face was a terrible idea that did nothing but make him look like a vulgar jackass.

 

[Adamska]

Let's not pretend the tranny shit is in there for any other purpose than for there to be tranny shit.

Oh no, Sascha's new art is shit and done to affirm bullcrap, but historically the form they prefer is more like this sort of Slaaneshi-Cenobite take:


And it was played up for horror and a lack of humanity, more Rocky Horror than affirming BS. An alien design that shows how much Myca has fallen into that cold insanity.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

The cut to black sex scenes (if you can call them that because I'm pretty sure they're just feeding?) are.....odd. Apparently they got every British VA in this including the fag who plays Sylvando in Dragon Quest.

It being only 14 hours is disappointing. But is it worth it? Absolutely not.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

Oh no, Sascha's new art is shit and done to affirm bullcrap, but historically the form they prefer is more like this sort of Slaaneshi-Cenobite take:
View attachment 8132846

And it was played up for horror and a lack of humanity, more Rocky Horror than affirming BS. An alien design that shows how much Myca has falled into that cold insanity.

Seems like Andrei, which is a Tmizisce itself.

The cut to black sex scenes (if you can call them that because I'm pretty sure they're just feeding?) are.....odd. Apparently they got every British VA in this including the fag who plays Sylvando in Dragon Quest.

It being only 14 hours is disappointing. But is it worth it? Absolutely not.

Meanwhile you can have sex with Jeanette and have a pole dancw with Velvet in Bloodlines 1.
Which is best hands down.

 

[Day of the Cope]

It's wild to me that this game released nearly two decades after the first has worse facial expressions. People will be talking about wanting to kill you and take revenge and they look like they're holding in a shit. Like, look at this conversation with Jack where he finds out you're Malkavian. You can see, in his face and mannerisms, the swings of emotions from the sudden shock to finding it funny before the gravity of the situation hits him which results in a feeling of pity.

Each of these four screenshots shows a completely different emotion that you can tell just from looking at it. Then you go to Bloodlines 2 and everyone looks like their face is frozen from botox and characters that are supposed to be angry enough to want to kill you have have the same facial expressions as a Karen being told her restaurant order is going to be an extra 10 minutes.

Again, compare that to characters from the first game.

Obviously, the system in the first game wasn't perfect as expressions could have some sudden shifts that are out of line, but you get the point.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

It's wild to me that this game released nearly two decades after the first has worse facial expressions. People will be talking about wanting to kill you and take revenge and they look like they're holding in a shit. Like, look at this conversation with Jack where he finds out you're Malkavian. You can see, in his face and mannerisms, the swings of emotions from the sudden shock to finding it funny before the gravity of the situation hits him which results in a feeling of pity.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ino425voCs0View attachment 8133228View attachment 8133230

View attachment 8133231View attachment 8133233
Each of these four screenshots shows a completely different emotion that you can tell just from looking at it. Then you go to Bloodlines 2 and everyone looks like their face is frozen from botox and characters that are supposed to be angry enough to want to kill you have have the same facial expressions as a Karen being told her restaurant order is going to be an extra 10 minutes.
View attachment 8133243
Again, compare that to characters from the first game.
View attachment 8133245View attachment 8133250
Obviously, the system in the first game wasn't perfect as expressions could have some sudden shifts that are out of line, but you get the point.

Yeah, i love how emotional they are.
Even the minor characters are flawless.

 

[Dead Lion]

It's wild to me that this game released nearly two decades after the first has worse facial expressions. People will be talking about wanting to kill you and take revenge and they look like they're holding in a shit. Like, look at this conversation with Jack where he finds out you're Malkavian. You can see, in his face and mannerisms, the swings of emotions from the sudden shock to finding it funny before the gravity of the situation hits him which results in a feeling of pity.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ino425voCs0View attachment 8133228View attachment 8133230

View attachment 8133231View attachment 8133233
Each of these four screenshots shows a completely different emotion that you can tell just from looking at it. Then you go to Bloodlines 2 and everyone looks like their face is frozen from botox and characters that are supposed to be angry enough to want to kill you have have the same facial expressions as a Karen being told her restaurant order is going to be an extra 10 minutes.
View attachment 8133243
Again, compare that to characters from the first game.
View attachment 8133245View attachment 8133250
Obviously, the system in the first game wasn't perfect as expressions could have some sudden shifts that are out of line, but you get the point.

VTMB was clearly made by people who understood what the source engine was good at and played to its strengths. Source came with a very complex (and janky) tool for facial animations and they used that for all it’s worth.

Meanwhile the recommended solution for facial animations in Unreal is to literally just use an iPhone to scan and import the animation data.

 

[ChefKiss]

Can The Chinese Room finally go out of fucking business this time? How have they operated for years without ever making a successful game? Their games sell less than RPGmaker Anime Furry Hitler Rape games on steam yet they endlessly have millions to pour into their shit.

 

[Michael Wade]

So I finally beat it and I have a lot of mixed feelings. If we compare it to the original? Complete dogshit. but lets pretend its not a sequel to one of the best vampire games ever made. Let's pretend its an indie game (ha). It is the very definition of 6 or 7 out of 10 if your being charitable. It's no exaggeration to say this is an above average visual novel story copypasted with mid doom combat. Now I got my money's worth and enjoyed the ride, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's not so bad it's good and it's not so good its worth 60 dollars.


Frankly the best ending is the one where you kill the IAO chief and the spec ops kill almost all the vampires except the fag nosferato (he's unkillable) and you escape. I didn't get that ending unfortunately because im too much of a softie.

Interestingly the side missions do have a (minor) effect on the ending if you gain certain characters affections and encourage them to become prince. Dont know if you can do it with every side character, but you can do it with the piano guy and Miss Thorn.

 

[Pentex]

Why yes, I am enjoying this expensive walk of shame The Chinese Room, nu-Wolf, and Paradox are being forced on.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

I have a thought:
I saw all the endings except the obvious ones (LaCroix and Xiao) but there's something i don't get it.
In the Camarilla ending, Strauss just sends the sacropaghus into a warehouse and hiding it, very Raiders of the Lost Ark vibes. But doesn't explode. Same as Andrei.
Jack only intercept with bombs after your choice? And only if you are with the Anarchs/Alone?

 

[ANF]

I have a thought:
I saw all the endings except the obvious ones (LaCroix and Xiao) but there's something i don't get it.
In the Camarilla ending, Strauss just sends the sacropaghus into a warehouse and hiding it, very Raiders of the Lost Ark vibes. But doesn't explode. Same as Andrei.
Jack only intercept with bombs after your choice? And only if you are with the Anarchs/Alone?

It's just rigged to go off when opened, Jack doesn't directly detonate the bombs. As to how he realizes whether or not the MC got caught in the explosion, I dunno, maybe Caine tells him, they do seem to be pretty good pals.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jH3zvmNcxIs

Faggot Matt never mentioned the reason why Chris Avlon was taken off the project.

Also

Paradox Takes the Blame for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Sales Flop, Announces $37 Million Write-Down​

IGN Artical

Publisher Paradox Interactive has today taken the blame for the poor sales of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2.
The long in development sequel launched in October and was met with a ‘mixed’ Steam user review response, with fans saying it failed to meet the expectations they had for the sequel to Troika’s 2004 cult classic Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. IGN’s Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 review returned a 7/10. We said: “Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 takes another flawed but unique and remarkable bite at the jugular, with plenty to love and loathe alike, but I certainly enjoyed my time as an elder vampire at the very least.”


Now, after 30 days on sale, Paradox has issued a note to financial markets signalling a write-down valued at 355 million SEK (approx. $37 million) of capitalized development costs for Bloodlines 2. This write-down, Paradox said, was based on an updated sales forecast now it has had a month to look at Bloodlines’ commercial performance.

Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive, said the blame for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2’s failure lay at the publisher’s door, not that of The Chinese Room, which had been drafted in to save the project after years of development hell.

“Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is a strong vampire fantasy and we are pleased with the developers’ work on the game,” Wester said.

“We’ve had high expectations for a long time, since we saw that it was a good game with a strong IP in a genre with a broad appeal. A month after release we can sadly see that sales do not match our projections, which necessitates the write-down. The responsibility lies fully with us as the publisher. The game is outside of our core areas, in hindsight it is clear that this has made it difficult for us to gauge sales. Going forward, we focus our capital to our core segments and, at the same time, we’ll evaluate how we best develop World of Darkness’ strong brand catalogue in the future.”
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has two expansions planned as part of the game’s Premium Edition, and Paradox said it remains committed to delivering them. “Our post-release plan remains firm; we will deliver updates and the promised expansions to the game in the coming year,” Wester added.

Swedish game company Paradox’s main focus is on grand strategy games, which have proven enormously successful over the years. Games such as Stellaris, Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, and Cities: Skylines have all enjoyed big sales, and, in total, Paradox games have six million players each month.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, however, falls outside that core grand strategy genre, and always looked like it would struggle upon release. And while its development trouble began years ago, it suffered issues right up to launch. In September, a month before release, Paradox and The Chinese Room announced that the Lasombra and Toreador clans would be available in the base Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 experience following a backlash from players.

Paradox announced Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 all the way back in 2019 with then-developer Hardsuit aiming for a Q1 2020 release window. That, of course, never happened, as Paradox would go on to announce an indefinite delay alongside Hardsuit's departure from the project. The Chinese Room was then announced as its new developer in 2023.

In a recent interview with the Goth Boss podcast, former creative director Dan Pinchbeck said the development team tried to work out how to get Paradox to not call the game Bloodlines 2.

"The tricky question around it was Bloodlines 1," Pinchbeck said. "Are you making a sequel to Bloodlines 1? We used to sit there and have these planning sessions of how do we get them to not call it Bloodlines 2? That feels like the most important thing we do here, to come at this and say this isn't Bloodlines 2. We can't make Bloodlines 2; there's not enough time, there's not enough money.”

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[Brap God]

$37 Million Write-Down

And there goes the entire franchise's video game potential down the fucking drain, thanks for nothing Paradox.

 

[crunchy bits are the best]

Good fucking luck on trying to make VtmB 3: The Last Milk Squeeze.

 

[p1138]

And there goes the entire franchise's video game potential down the fucking drain, thanks for nothing Paradox.

Good fucking luck on trying to make VtmB 3: The Last Milk Squeeze.

Paradox's CEO already said back in mid 2024 they weren't going to be making another one.

https://www.ign.com/articles/paradox-chinese-room-vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-sequel-someone-else

"It is not in our strategic direction to make this kind of game," Lilja told PC Gamer. "So if Bloodlines 2, God willing, is successful, Bloodlines 3 [will be] done by someone else, on the license from us. I would say it's the sort of strategic way this would work. So it's still an outlier from what we're supposed to do, we don't know that stuff, so we should probably let other people do it."

In short, Lilja considers Bloodlines a "dead end" for the company regardless of how well it does, which is made more awkward by the fact that Paradox Interactive owns Vampire: The Masquerade creator White Wolf Publishing. Lilja didn't talk about Paradox's plans for White Wolf, but it seems as if any future Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines RPG will be licensed out to other developers.

So even over a year ago, Paradox's CEO said the only way bloodlines 3 would happen, is if someone else is willing to eat the development cost and that Bloodlines is a dead end for the company. And of course because they're a publicly traded company, being positive about the product is basically a requirement but with statements like that they knew damn well it was going to be a failure.

 

[El Chacal De La Trompeta]

They should have made a good game imo

 

[Asian tech support]

So even over a year ago, Paradox's CEO said the only way bloodlines 3 would happen, is if someone else is willing to eat the development cost and that Bloodlines is a dead end for the company.

Shoulda let the skyrim modding troons make their bloodlines-in-skyrim overhaul instead of this bloodlines-but-not shit that's never going to come out now.