Vampire: The Masquerade® - Bloodlines™ 2

[krokodil]

Let's discuss this highly anticipated title. Will update as new information is released.

[MadPreacher]

It'll be woke and it will be ****. You love ****.

[rusty_shackleford]

Will update as new information is released.

[GhostCow]

It's going to be **** but I sure wish it wouldn't be. Nothing can compare to the original when it comes to atmosphere. They really got everything right with Bloodlines except for the melee combat being overly simple and Yukie's lines being recorded with a $2 microphone. Oh, and the sewer level can die in a fire. That's less complaints than I have about any other game.

[Ravenloft]

Best-case scenario: it gets cancelled (again) and never sees the light of day.

[Lhynn]

Its gonna be ****

[krokodil]

I can't wait for this to release and be ******* amazing while you **** jizz over Hogwart's Legacy 2 or whatever

[Konjad]

Dead game

[krokodil]

Undead game, actually.

[NaturalSelectionist]

It's going to be **** but I sure wish it wouldn't be. Nothing can compare to the original when it comes to atmosphere. They really got everything right with Bloodlines except for the melee combat being overly simple and Yukie's lines being recorded with a $2 microphone. Oh, and the sewer level can die in a fire. That's less complaints than I have about any other game.

The sewer level was unnecessarily long, but it definitely had a terrifying atmosphere. Those **** pregnant/abortioned abominations.

Yukie was waifu material.

[Fedora Master]

NEVER ever and that's for the best.

[Tweed]

There's no possible way a WoD can come out in this day and age and not be pozz'd to hell and back, you might as well just start designing your own vampire crpg right now if you want a successor.

[Acrux]

might as well just start designing your own vampire crpg right now if you want a successor.

[BlueMemphis]

The main fan mod/patch (think it was camarilla edition?) removes most of the sewer level so there is really only the bad melee combat as the big negative for bloodlines 1.
Although on reflection i will throw in one more negative: the ending and finale was always weak and unsatisfying imo.

But yeah the chances of this not being woke and bad are in the single digits.

[Tweed]

might as well just start designing your own vampire crpg right now if you want a successor.

"Game contains violence in turn-based combat simulation, as well as extensive and explicit sexual content."

Into the trash it goes.

[wndrbr]

https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/vamp ... juneupdate

Bloodlines 2: Update June 2023

Dear Bloodlines fans,

It’s been quite a while between updates while we’ve had our heads down working on the game. We remain just as dedicated to delivering a great Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines game as we were when we announced, and are looking forward to showing you more in September this year.

We acknowledge it was a long time ago that many of you pre-ordered Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. As development continues, we will be updating the game’s editions and bonus content, and we want to provide the best value to those of you who supported us via digital pre-order after all this time. We are thus offering refunds to anyone who has pre-ordered any edition of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. As part of this process, we are proactively refunding all pre-orders of physical products, including the Collector’s Edition. The digital versions of the First Blood Edition, Unsanctioned Edition and Blood Moon Edition remain, but can be refunded if you choose.

We’re excited to show you more and hope to have all of you with us in September when we reveal more. We know you are eager to see how the game is coming along so we’ve put together a fresh batch of screenshots to share with you.

For more information about refunds and how to submit your request, please visit our FAQ.

Until then,
The Bloodlines Team

► Show Spoiler

[wndrbr]

Judging by a filename of one of the screenshots, the new version still uses Seattle as the main city.

[KnightoftheWind]

Imagine being the idiot that still pre-orders games. And another thing I noticed is just how bland these screenshots look, this is the problem you have when every new AAA game has realistic graphics and use the exact same engine. There's no longer any kind of artistic nuance or cool designs.

[J1M]

Imagine being the idiot that still pre-orders games. And another thing I noticed is just how bland these screenshots look, this is the problem you have when every new AAA game has realistic graphics and use the exact same engine. There's no longer any kind of artistic nuance or cool designs.

Don't blame the engine for the choices of the art team.

[wndrbr]

this is the problem you have when every new AAA game has realistic graphics

it's not really AAA. I mean, look at this:



The new devteam have been given, what, like two, two and half years? It's gonna be a somewhat un-ambitious game with lowish production values.

[GhostCow]

Wasn't the original game going for photorealism? I mean as much as you could with 2004 hardware.

[rusty_shackleford]

Wasn't the original game going for photorealism? I mean as much as you could with 2004 hardware.

The environments mostly were, yes. The characters were done in a fashion similar to cartoons, especially the dramatic overly-expressive animations.

[GhostCow]

I don't think the tech used for LA Noire was around yet so that was probably about their only option for good animation

[wndrbr]

I don't think the tech used for LA Noire was around yet so that was probably about their only option for good animation

No one uses LA Noire's tech even today - too costly and time consuming, looks weird, and a PITA to optimize. And the facial mocap existed for a while, Silent Hill 3 (a game from 2003) utilized it.

The main problem with facial mocap is that it's only good for linear games with a limited number of dialogues that have closeups on character faces. VTMB has a ton of dialogues, all of them zoom in on an NPC's face, and those NPCs all have wildly different facial structures. It would be unfeasible to do a performance capture for every bit of in-game dialogue on Troika's budget, so an automatized solution was needed.

[rusty_shackleford]

Even mega-budget AAA games with a lot of dialogue or branching dialogue don't use what VTMB did let alone full mocap for dialogue. For example, all conversations in the last three Assassin's Creed games use runtime generated animations for everything. Speech(mouth animations), facial animations, and body animations are generated based on what the script calls for using the current context.

[rusty_shackleford]

Will update as new information is released.

Where's the update

[Roguey]

Formal announcement at PAX West presumably September 1st.

The company in charge of producing and distributing the physical materials has seemingly let the cat out of the bag, claiming an October 27th 2023 release date. https://shop.plaion.com/shop/de_DE/prod ... bloodlines

Though the site still uses the old art and screenshots which are no longer applicable.

[wndrbr]

They are just throwing the game out to die huh. Here goes Paradox' ambitions to become a publisher of mainstream games with their own multimedia franchise.

[Roguey]

Okay the announcement likely won't be the first. It's the second, Saturday, at 12:30 PDT. https://west.paxsite.com/en-us/schedule ... Masquerade

[GhostCow]

New release date confirmed. Fall 2024.