Vampire: The Masquerade® - Bloodlines™ 2

[Jordy]

Roguey taking self-penned CVs/commercial blurb at their word since forever it seems.

Have you ever written a CV/blurb Roguey?

You won't find facts there. Only aspirations and wishful thinking, because that's what they're selling.

What are you even responding to? The guy outright says "Yeah I came up with the narrative direction and the character of Phyre." That's not "aspirations" or "wishful thinking."

It's a CV. That's an advertisement. Literally.

It is a collection of the most self-congratulatory and embellished version of events a person can put on paper.

If you're still not getting it, here's a picture:

I would eat both. Only preference would be whichever one is closer.

[Roguey]

Roguey taking self-penned CVs/commercial blurb at their word since forever it seems.

Have you ever written a CV/blurb Roguey?

You won't find facts there. Only aspirations and wishful thinking, because that's what they're selling.

What are you even responding to? The guy outright says "Yeah I came up with the narrative direction and the character of Phyre." That's not "aspirations" or "wishful thinking."

It's a CV. That's an advertisement. Literally.

It is a collection of the most self-congratulatory and embellished version of events a person can put on paper.

If you're still not getting it, here's a picture:

The guy gives credit to Sarah Longthorne, Arone Le Bray and Frances Wakefield-Harrey for helping him flesh out the characters after he created them. If someone else was responsible for Phyre, he would have given that person credit as well.

[Atlantico]

What are you even responding to? The guy outright says "Yeah I came up with the narrative direction and the character of Phyre." That's not "aspirations" or "wishful thinking."

It's a CV. That's an advertisement. Literally.

It is a collection of the most self-congratulatory and embellished version of events a person can put on paper.

If you're still not getting it, here's a picture:

The guy gives credit to Sarah Longthorne, Arone Le Bray and Frances Wakefield-Harrey for helping him flesh out the characters after he created them. If someone else was responsible for Phyre, he would have given that person credit as well.

You are very charitable to this person's interpretation of events. I am not.

Either way, he's under no obligation to tell a factual and accurate account of events. No obligation at all. Especially not since he's advertising himself. He does not need to give anyone credit, he'll throw his friends and trusted allies a bone. He names people prospective employers might contact.

[Roguey]

You are very charitable to this person's interpretation of events. I am not.

Either way, he's under no obligation to tell a factual and accurate account of events. No obligation at all. Especially not since he's advertising himself. He does not need to give anyone credit, he'll throw his friends and trusted allies a bone. He names people prospective employers might contact.

Taking credit for the character almost everyone has expressed a negative reaction to, including the actual target audience of the game itself, isn't the glory you think it is.

[Vergil]

It's a CV. That's an advertisement. Literally.

It is a collection of the most self-congratulatory and embellished version of events a person can put on paper.

If you're still not getting it, here's a picture:

The guy gives credit to Sarah Longthorne, Arone Le Bray and Frances Wakefield-Harrey for helping him flesh out the characters after he created them. If someone else was responsible for Phyre, he would have given that person credit as well.

You are very charitable to this person's interpretation of events. I am not.

Either way, he's under no obligation to tell a factual and accurate account of events. No obligation at all. Especially not since he's advertising himself. He does not need to give anyone credit, he'll throw his friends and trusted allies a bone. He names people prospective employers might contact.

There's no reason to believe he's lying about this thing that he nor the game gets any benefit from lying about you're just being autistic.

[J1M]

You are very charitable to this person's interpretation of events. I am not.

Either way, he's under no obligation to tell a factual and accurate account of events. No obligation at all. Especially not since he's advertising himself. He does not need to give anyone credit, he'll throw his friends and trusted allies a bone. He names people prospective employers might contact.

Taking credit for the character almost everyone has expressed a negative reaction to, including the actual target audience of the game itself, isn't the glory you think it is.

Maybe almost everyone here, in this den, views the character negatively. I am quite certain that in the game dev circles it is viewed as brilliant and brave to use an androgenic 3D model and voice for both male and female choices. Not only does it push their tribe's political message, it also cuts production costs in half.

Similar to Fenyx, I'm sure the name was chosen for search engine results over anything else.

[Roguey]

Maybe almost everyone here, in this den, views the character negatively. I am quite certain that in the game dev circles it is viewed as brilliant and brave to use an androgenic 3D model and voice for both male and female choices. Not only does it push their tribe's political message, it also cuts production costs in half.

Similar to Fenyx, I'm sure the name was chosen for search engine results over anything else.

It's not the physical characteristics, but the silly name itself as well as the clothing choices, particularly of the brujah, their favored class. The charitable take is that the clothing choices are off and bad on purpose on account of your being a person who has just woken up from a century-long slumber and thus knowing nothing whatsoever about modern fashion and going for what seems superficially right. The more cynical take is that TCR's artists are incredibly unfashionable.

[Atlantico]

The guy gives credit to Sarah Longthorne, Arone Le Bray and Frances Wakefield-Harrey for helping him flesh out the characters after he created them. If someone else was responsible for Phyre, he would have given that person credit as well.

You are very charitable to this person's interpretation of events. I am not.

Either way, he's under no obligation to tell a factual and accurate account of events. No obligation at all. Especially not since he's advertising himself. He does not need to give anyone credit, he'll throw his friends and trusted allies a bone. He names people prospective employers might contact.

There's no reason to believe he's lying about this thing that he nor the game gets any benefit from lying about you're just being autistic.

He's no longer developing this game, thanks for your opinion. It is very valuable!

Good to know what people who did not bother to read and understand the topic have to say.

[Atlantico]

You are very charitable to this person's interpretation of events. I am not.

Either way, he's under no obligation to tell a factual and accurate account of events. No obligation at all. Especially not since he's advertising himself. He does not need to give anyone credit, he'll throw his friends and trusted allies a bone. He names people prospective employers might contact.

Taking credit for the character almost everyone has expressed a negative reaction to, including the actual target audience of the game itself, isn't the glory you think it is.

Certainly isn't much glory in it in these parts. In the woke and soyfilled backrooms at modern game devs on the other hand...

edit: and R*ddit and twitter and discord and the mainstream media... but hey maybe this guy is telling the truth and he's the brains behind everything and he's managed to become a perfect soy-replica of gen-z weirdos. Stranger things have happened.

[Roguey]

In the woke and soyfilled backrooms at modern game devs on the other hand...

edit: and R*ddit and twitter and discord and the mainstream media...

I already just said all those people hate Phyre's name. It's not popular with anyone except TCR and Paradox.

[J1M]

Slow down Roguey, bring those goalposts back.

[Roguey]

Slow down Roguey, bring those goalposts back.

I never changed my argument. When I said people didn't like the character I never meant to suggest that meant they didn't like the physical characteristics of the character.

[Anon]

In the woke and soyfilled backrooms at modern game devs on the other hand...

edit: and R*ddit and twitter and discord and the mainstream media...

I already just said all those people hate Phyre's name. It's not popular with anyone except TCR and Paradox.

Exactly. When even wokesters are saying your woke idea is stupid, you know it's STUPID.

[The_Mask]

2024-01-24

Dev Diary #7: Visceral Immersive Combat

In dev diary #1, Alex Skidmore, Project Creative Director at The Chinese Room (TCR) wrote about the first game pillar “Feel like a Vampire”, which sets the player fantasy as a guiding light for creative decisions. We’ve shown a lot of combat so far to give you a taste of the power and flow. What you’ve seen is influenced by the second game pillar: "Visceral, Immersive Combat" which directs the action gameplay. Today, Alex is back to share his thoughts on this important part of the Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2.


Concept Art

When designing Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 combat the goal was to create an action experience that can compete with modern titles. We think of it in three main gameplay styles we want to offer to you all - existing Bloodlines fans, and players who are new to the World of Darkness.

STRATEGIC STALKER

The 1st playstyle we at TCR call the Strategic Stalker: as the name reflects, fans of more strategic combat experiences where staying hidden and using the element of surprise is key will get their vampire predator fantasy. Did you enjoy the Dishonored series, or playing stealth-focused builds in Fallout or Elder Scrolls games? Me too! It gives you time to prepare what Discipline power you’d like to use and when. Once your plan is ready, summoning the powers of the blood, sneaking up on an enemy, distracting them, feeding on them before a fight breaks out or hit and run tactics are options for people who love to play this way.



ACTION BRAWLER

The 2nd playstyle we call the Action Brawler: For players who prefer to jump straight into the action and rely on their fast reflexes and combat skills. Any Clan can brawl but this is where the Brujah shine. You’ll see them in our January gameplay reveal video. Their powers are aimed at dominating close combat. References for this style are action-brawling games like the God of War series, Shadow of Mordor and Elden Ring. It is about being in the centre of the brawl and using your abilities to control the crowd so you can deliver as much damage as possible. We see the above playstyles as two extremes on the same action spectrum, with players being able to play any mixture of the two to find the balance of stalking and brawling that works for them.



NARRATIVE ADVENTURER

The 3rd playstyle we call the Narrative Adventurer: For players who are less interested in combat and action gameplay and want to focus on the fantasy, narrative and exploration elements of the game. We envision that a core of the Bloodlines 1 fans identify with this playstyle and also fans of TCR's titles to date (and a lot of the developers working on the game), so we’re making sure the gameplay pillar doesn’t add action at the detriment of these important players. You can still enjoy exciting battles without having to delve too deeply into the combat mechanics if things like characters and story are more important to you.



So, how do we go about achieving this? We focus on immersion over complexity: A streamlined control scheme with actions that are easy for all three playstyles to pick up and play. We then build depth on top of these to give longer-term mastery for the players that want it. For example, the defensive mechanic is a dash, allowing players to dodge incoming attacks or reposition. If dodge is used towards an enemy performing a melee attack, it becomes a counter, staggering the enemy - it is fine for players to never do this move, but for those that want a higher skill-ceiling, it is there. How we use abilities is also streamlined, to maintain immersion. Abilities are mapped to the face buttons (on gamepad), limiting the player to 4 available at one time. This is a small enough amount that a player can use them without breaking their flow, but also deep enough, through the different ways you can combine and use them that it keeps combat engaging and fun.

All of this serves our principal of Immersive Combat. We would rather players were thinking about what cool thing they want to do next, rather than how they do it.

Visceral Combat is a stylistic choice we have made as we believe being a vampire should be a bloody business. Feeding plays a huge role in any vampire story and we wanted to give you a cool reason to tear out throats in the middle of a fight. As an Elder vampire, Phyre has become desensitised to violence, and we want the same to happen to the player over the course of the game - maybe being shocked the first time they chop someone's head off, but after a while accepting that violent carnage is par-for-the-course when you are a 400 hundred year old vampire in a city where everyone is out to get you.

The final game pillar in Bloodlines 2 is “Exploring the World of Darkness”. I look forward to talking to you about that in the next dev-diary.

Good night!
Alex Skidmore, Project Creative Director

What’s Next

As Alex mentions above, the next dev diary will be on the third pillar ‘Exploring the World of Darkness’, coming in two weeks. Before that you'll be able to see how everything comes together when we debut our gameplay trailer and deep dive on January 31.



The Mask's Note: if you're wondering why "centre" and "desensitised" are spelled like that, it's because they spelt them like that.

[J1M]

They did a really admirable job ensuring those textures look and feel the same resolution as Bloodlines 1.

[DagothGeas5]

I know it won't magically happen, but can we make this game disappear? I don't want it to exist This, Knights of the Old Republic's "remake" and the, hopefully just rumored, "remake" of Dragon Age are things I do not want to exist with the threat of these people around. I'd rather they fade and disappear. It was enough hurt to see "Indiana Jones" (put inside a spoiler to shield your eyes. "Lasciate ogni speranza o voi che entrate."/"Abandon hope all ye who enter here.")

► Show Spoiler

[Vergil]

Really like the gameplay exclusively being described by mentioning other games they're hoping to rip off. Gives a lot of faith in the product.

[J1M]

I know it won't magically happen, but can we make this game disappear? I don't want it to exist This, Knights of the Old Republic's "remake" and the, hopefully just rumored, "remake" of Dragon Age are things I do not want to exist with the threat of these people around. I'd rather they fade and disappear. It was enough hurt to see "Indiana Jones" (put inside a spoiler to shield your eyes. "Lasciate ogni speranza o voi che entrate."/"Abandon hope all ye who enter here.")

► Show Spoiler

Re-KOTOR was cancelled.

[Vergil]

Re-KOTOR was cancelled.

The only thing on this earth that makes me remember God is still alive.

[Anon]

When even reddit and twitter crowds are being overcritical of this game, you know how bad things are. I still hope this game becomes at least semi-successful because I still wouldn't like Paradox to completely drop the franchise.

[gerey]

They could at least lie and attempt to get people excited for the game instead of loudly proclaiming their game is a dumbed down, derivative turd that is Bloodlines in name only.

But we all know the gameplay will be the least offensive thing about this trainwreck.

[Goth-Girl-Supremacy]

I cannot wait to shame anyone who buys this game.

[Tweed]

Bloodlines has no sequel, Bloodlines needs no sequel.

[gerey]

Bloodlines needs no sequel.

The really tragic part is that I do wish for a proper sequel to Bloodlines, but I don't think there is a single dev in the whole industry with the talent and passion to do it justice.

[Anon]

Bloodlines needs no sequel.

The really tragic part is that I do wish for a proper sequel to Bloodlines, but I don't think there is a single dev in the whole industry with the talent and passion to do it justice.

Exactly. Bloodlines is an amazing game but has got such a short story and gameplay and leaves a lot that could be explored. Sadly that would require decent writers, which TCR didn't get.

[Roguey]

Gameplay reveal 13 hours from now.

[Vergil]

inb4 like 3 minutes of new footage that is so choppily edited together and clearly scripted that you can't really clean any worthwhile information from it

[1998]

lol yeah looks crap.

[1998]

I almost don't want to shit on it too much, really impressive they got the balls to show that gameplay. Would certainly do better without.

[gerey]