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

[Corn Flakes]

He looks like he'd cry if I sneezed loudly.

Imagine having a Brujah protagonist option and not having him look roughly like this:


How did we go from the beautiful, sometimes goofy stylization of the 00s (for both the TTRPG books and videogames of the time) to this bland-ass multimillion polygon realism bullshit?

 

[Adamska]

The Brujah has Raiden's Electric Fly move.
View attachment 5475423

View attachment 5475464The concept art might be a hint to the clans featured in Bloodlines 2. It shows Phyre in male and female form with the outfits for what appears to be a template of each clan. Brujah, Nosferatu, Ventrue, Tremere, and Gangrel with the 6th being Thin-blood another reason why I think Fabien is going to be the "standalone DLC".


Damsel is who you were thinking of. The developers said back then Damsels reason for being in Seattle was to deliver a message from Nines Rodriguez.

That's a lot of ugly designs for a character you're forced to play as. Also they feel the wrong type of dated and the fake type of punk. Definitely not what I'm interested in. Also lovely that of fucking course Thin-Blood is an option... for a sixth gen vampire.

 

[Mega Black]

TTRPG books and videogames of the time) to this bland-ass multimillion polygon realism bullshit?

You don't craft character models anymore, you scan an actor's face and then record them talking and the computer will do all the work. A stylized protagonist will take effort hand animating the dialogue, no time, use an algorithm that automatically lip syncs and animates.

And what do you do once you have a hyper realistic face scanned in the game? You can't make the rest of the game look stylized, Uber realism is the only choice.

 

[SiccDicc]

You don't craft character models anymore, you scan an actor's face and then record them talking and the computer will do all the work.

And yet they have enough time to take the faces of attractive female models and turn them into men.

 

[blablabla]

Imagine having a Brujah protagonist option and not having him look roughly like this:
View attachment 5476260

How did we go from the beautiful, sometimes goofy stylization of the 00s (for both the TTRPG books and videogames of the time) to this bland-ass multimillion polygon realism bullshit?

A sneak peek at the brujah protag.
View attachment 5475518

when i think about vampire the masquerade i really think about some looking faggot from watch dogs. this game is DOA

just use whatever the fuck engine they used in robocop and add a lot of options ala alpha protocol and bam. what the fuck is even this game a rpg? and "action rpg" railored piece of shit like cyberpunk 2077? devs are fucking retarded

 

[mindlessobserver]

I can't wait for the meaningful dialogue options.

"Will you do this BS task for me?"

1. Yes
2. Yes (but sarcastic)
3. Yes (But rude)
4. No (But yes)

 

[Rockzo]

V5 introduced the idea that unless Elders diablerise someone (usually Thinbloods because they're weak) they will be mind controlled to go to the Middle East.

Don't remind me of Night Road. Having the entire Sabbat leadership just walk off to fight forever wars in that god forsaken desert is such a cheap thing.

Onto this game, after all the revisions and change in developers, they're still having a focus on melee combat. I'm someone who usually goes Firearms/Tremere for Bloodlines so not being able to use a gun, in America of all places, seems like a stupid thing.

I hold no hope that this will be any good. The initial pitch that Brian gave back in 2016 has been mangled into something unrecognizable. Just an average day when Tzimisce control the video games industry.

 

[Ventrue]

These clan reveal trailers are uninspired.

Here is what Hardsuit Labs produced in 2019.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Put a Stake in it! Just let it die! Not persist in this nightmare state!

 

[Johan Schmidt]

Put a Stake in it! Just let it die! Not persist in this nightmare state!

Pretty meta that the game about the children of cain suffers the same fate as the man himself. Or are we cain? Doomed to see that which we love, fight and be fought repeatedly with no way to stop it? Watching it endlessly get worse and worse?

 

[Mr Processor]

That's a lot of ugly designs for a character you're forced to play as. Also they feel the wrong type of dated and the fake type of punk. Definitely not what I'm interested in. Also lovely that of fucking course Thin-Blood is an option... for a sixth gen vampire.

Ok, so I'll just compare these costumes to the slightly upgraded armor my Malkavian is currently wearing in my current run through:


Aha, I see the Chinese Room has really captured the spirit of the original! I don't know what I was worried about!

Truthfully, the Chinese Room are far too prudish to be making a sequel to Bloodlines. (Some people might object to how much Bloodlines focused on sex appeal, which is fine but it's pretty integral to the original game.) If they had any integrity, they'd just call it something else and drop Bloodlines from the title. Of course, then it would probably sell worse than the random WoD games I see on Steam now and then, and they are going to want $80 for this thing.

 

[FuckMeGentlyWithAChainsaw]

So all the protags will have to be called 'Phyre', and all the female protags will have to look like Elliot Page, your hair options are 'short' with various neon colors and clothing options range from generic to gender mishmash?
Not sure what this has to do with vampires, but this is turning into an excellent Seattle simulator.

 

[Pentex]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9gyzRvi3NTsThese clan reveal trailers are uninspired.

Here is what Hardsuit Labs produced in 2019.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ksm1q0Zo4Do

What is this even supposed to be?

I love that these 15 sec 'reveals' are only increasing the anti-hype on this game.

I want to contrast these 'reveals' to Namco's Tekken 8 character reveals (the latest two leading to a mass outbreak of simping for Reina [Not Asuka] and Victor [Not Noctis]).

The marketing strategy for this game is just so bad. It would have been better to go radio silent on the game and wait for the actual reveal in January than to try and dick tease people on a game that's been stuck in development hell for years now.

 

[blablabla]

because they know they have a woke shitshow in their hands

 

[Leaf Wage Slave Jr]

What is this even supposed to be?

I love that these 15 sec 'reveals' are only increasing the anti-hype on this game.

I want to contrast these 'reveals' to Namco's Tekken 8 character reveals (the latest two leading to a mass outbreak of simping for Reina [Not Asuka] and Victor [Not Noctis]).

The marketing strategy for this game is just so bad. It would have been better to go radio silent on the game and wait for the actual reveal in January than to try and dick tease people on a game that's been stuck in development hell for years now.

Safest bet is that everyone involved - from the suits at Paradox to the fucking janitor at TCR - knows that this game is an all consuming money pit, and they just want to punt it out the door to try and recoup some of what they spent.

There’s not a chance in hell of it breaking even - even on the Normie parts of the Internet this dumpster fire is getting blasted - but I figure it’s far enough in production that they can’t bring themselves to Ol Yeller the game like it deserves.

because they know they have a woke shitshow in their hands

Honestly the game being Woke looks to be the least of it’s problems at this point.

Like, I like a good dumpster fire every once in a while, but this is a proper fucking dumpster fire.

 

[Adamska]

Again, we might see Paradox rip it from the Chinese Room and hand it to another godawful and fucking retarded company one more time given how the game is being reacted to right now. And due to how the Chinese Room can't code for shit. I wouldn't be shocked, given they do legitimately want this one to succeed at all costs.

 

[Need for Sped]

These teasers are absolutely awful, and I love to see the developers getting blasted in the comments for this bullshit. Hell, it got me to check out the old Bloodlines trailer, and it holds up lightyears better than anything they've got now.

They really don't make them like they used to.

 

[Mr Processor]

Again, we might see Paradox rip it from the Chinese Room and hand it to another godawful and fucking retarded company one more time given how the game is being reacted to right now. And due to how the Chinese Room can't code for shit. I wouldn't be shocked, given they do legitimately want this one to succeed at all costs.

On the plus side, unless Brianna Wu decides to start up Giant SpaceKat again, I don't think they could give it to a worse studio than the Chinese room...

 

[Adamska]

On the plus side, unless Brianna Wu decides to start up Giant SpaceKat again, I don't think they could give it to a worse studio than the Chinese room...

The ring finger of the monkey's paw curls with an almost impish glee...

 

[Snekposter]

You don't craft character models anymore, you scan an actor's face and then record them talking and the computer will do all the work. A stylized protagonist will take effort hand animating the dialogue, no time, use an algorithm that automatically lip syncs and animates.

And what do you do once you have a hyper realistic face scanned in the game? You can't make the rest of the game look stylized, Uber realism is the only choice.

For whatever reason I cannot explain, the incredibly ugly, clunky, and what I can only describe as surreal face models in the first VtMB make the game in so many ways. Probably because they're just as not-quite-real as the world they inhabit. What Troika did there is magnificent.