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

ZMOT

wat
kiwifarms.net
Remember all of this?
View attachment 2163785
According to the Wiki the Collector's Edition doesn't even come with the game.
because it makes sense from a logistical standpoint, much easier to have one global SKU than one for every platform, especially when all that changes is just a disc code. it's like complaining game swag like a yoshi plushie (which CEs basically are) doesn't come with the game.

buy the game, if you want more shit, you can buy the CE stuff. simple as that.
 

SiccDicc

The Defenestrator
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
because it makes sense from a logistical standpoint, much easier to have one global SKU than one for every platform, especially when all that changes is just a disc code. it's like complaining game swag like a yoshi plushie (which CEs basically are) doesn't come with the game.

buy the game, if you want more shit, you can buy the CE stuff. simple as that.
They could at least offer a voucher or some shit for the Paradox store to generate a key of your chosen platform.
 

ZMOT

wat
kiwifarms.net
They could at least offer a voucher or some shit for the Paradox store to generate a key of your chosen platform.
true, but that would still require an account, and most likely wouldn't cover console versions. heck this way you can rent it and still get the swag, can't get any more customer friendly than that.
 

Tad Loaf

kiwifarms.net
The whole thing feels like a parody, like taking Dansel seriously when she was a woke activitist joke character in the first game that no one really respected (they kept her around for the sake of numbers and she had big titties)...like yeah, from ALL the huge cast of characters to bring back, you bring the one most people only remember for being annoying, nice move there guys.
To be fair even Damsel said her ideology wouldn't work in human society, only thinking it'd work in vampire society is sort of a nice little cheat to have your character be a commie without being like a real world commie. But at the same time I have no doubt they will completely ignore that bit of nuance her character has.
 

Emperor Julian

kiwifarms.net
To be fair even Damsel said her ideology wouldn't work in human society, only thinking it'd work in vampire society is sort of a nice little cheat to have your character be a commie without being like a real world commie. But at the same time I have no doubt they will completely ignore that bit of nuance her character has.

It's been one of the consistant mistakes the writters have made lately, Vampiric ideological perspectives do not align with human equivelants because their ecology and psychology are distinct from ours. anarchs may be left wing by our standards but their long terms interests do not align with the human equivelants.
 

SiccDicc

The Defenestrator
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
true, but that would still require an account, and most likely wouldn't cover console versions. heck this way you can rent it and still get the swag, can't get any more customer friendly than that.
You need a Paradox account to begin with, though.
 

Pentex

You're Ridin' With Biden...STRAIGHT TO HELL!
kiwifarms.net
It's been one of the consistant mistakes the writters have made lately, Vampiric ideological perspectives do not align with human equivelants because their ecology and psychology are distinct from ours. anarchs may be left wing by our standards but their long terms interests do not align with the human equivelants.
The writers of V5 don't even understand human politics; Why would they understand vampire politics?

One of the few consistent points in OWOD was that those in power regarded using mortal politics as a vehicle or cover to further vampire interests as a normal and proper thing. Actually believing in mortal political ideologies was a good way to get yourself kicked out of polite Kindred society.

Dumbass Anarch: "I fucking love democracy!"

Smart Vampire: *Dominate 5* "What a coincidence! So do I! Glad to know I can count on your vote!"

*Multiply this conversation as needed to get a majority*

Mortal religions are considered an eccentricity among vampires. Mortal politics are considered absolutely cringe.

There was a character in 2nd Edition WOD Hong Kong named George Robinson who was an honest to badness, no-bullshit communist, not an Anarch, not a college commie like Damsel, but a vampire and mortal proletariat, rise the fuck up and slaughter the bourgeoisie, living and dead. The Prince of Hong Kong, Robert Pedder told him to GTFO out of Hong Kong with that shit, and when Robinson snuck back in, Pedder called the Blood Hunt against him.

When the rest of the Kindred learned just how badly the Brujah Revolutionary Council shat the bed in the Soviet Union, up to and including getting thoroughly assfucked by Baba Yaga, they had a collective YouGetWhatYouFuckingDeserve.gif moment.

Even the Berliner Vampire Anarch Nazi LARPers of The Final Reich, despite being led by an actual Nazi (Heinrich Himmler), were more or less just pawns of the Sabbat.
 
Last edited:

Emperor Julian

kiwifarms.net
The writers of V5 don't even understand human politics; Why would they understand vampire politics?

One of the few consistent points in OWOD was that those in power regarded using mortal politics as a vehicle or cover to further vampire interests as a normal and proper thing. Actually believing in mortal political ideologies was a good way to get yourself kicked out of polite Kindred society.

One of the things I really liked about the sects was the way civic freedoms varied greatly and differing merits. The Sabbat let you be a vampire but the carmarilla lets you be a person. Then again the correct move is to fuck off to some town in the middle of no-were once you've mastered your disciplines, keep a low profile and ignore/avoid the other vampires.
 
Last edited:

Corn Flakes

Battle Creek's Finest
kiwifarms.net
They really hammered it with Requiem, but it was also an integral element of Masquerade: vampires are predators first and foremost. Even the ones that strive to retain a sense of morality and a connection to humanity have to face the fact that there's something very primal inside them that compels them to take nourishment the only way they can: by draining the life of human beings. And even these vampires would eventually look at most humans as less an individual and more as a pulsating jugular with... someone attached to it. Humans are cattle to Cainites. They're a source of food and cheap labor, and that's about it.

The vast majority of influential vampires would have been embraced long before the Communist Manifesto was even written. Seriously, a 10th generation bloodsucker would have been embraced in the 1800s at the latest. They would have seen the rise and fall of dozens of different mortal political movements, more than enough to conclude mortals and their politics are only useful as a way to gain material power. Their ideologies all crumble to dust along with the mortals that embrace them, while the vampire observing them lives on.

Only two types of vampires would espouse mortal political ideologies: those that are blind ideologues (and are invariably pawns in a more powerful vampire's plans), or those that are completely cynical about it and simply using it as a means to an end. At the end of the day (or the night, as it were), vampires are only out for themselves. If leeches (excluding stupid gimmicks like Blood Brothers, and even those restrict themselves to their packs) could think about one another, the Anarchs wouldn't be the shitshow they they have always been and the Tremere wouldn't have needed all those Blood Bonds to keep the clan together. The big drama of the setting is precisely what do you do when you're a predator stuck living with dozens, if not hundreds of other predators in a modern city, all out for themselves and for whatever blood they can get.
 

Snekposter

No wolves on Fenris, no gators in Florida.
kiwifarms.net
To be fair even Damsel said her ideology wouldn't work in human society, only thinking it'd work in vampire society is sort of a nice little cheat to have your character be a commie without being like a real world commie. But at the same time I have no doubt they will completely ignore that bit of nuance her character has.
What do you mean, "without being like a real world Commie"? Every single one of those are insistent Communism will work, in the exact circumstances they have in mind, and pay zero heed to reality. You know, like Damsel thinking a group of literal predators can agree how to safely and equitably divide up the meals, and nobody is going to do anything stupid.
 

Tad Loaf

kiwifarms.net
What do you mean, "without being like a real world Commie"? Every single one of those are insistent Communism will work, in the exact circumstances they have in mind, and pay zero heed to reality. You know, like Damsel thinking a group of literal predators can agree how to safely and equitably divide up the meals, and nobody is going to do anything stupid.
I meant in the sense that if Damsal was real she wouldn't be pushing for America to become communist or any human nation unlike actual commies we have right now.
Not that she isn't stupid in her own way, she's just not as stupid as real commies.
 

mr.moon1488

True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Remember all of this?
View attachment 2163785
According to the Wiki the Collector's Edition doesn't even come with the game.
ETA I'm not assmad about it or anything, just pointing how they put the cart before the horse, as so many companies do these days with crowd funded media.

I avoided this thread and most info on the game for a while because I wanted to be optimistic, but pushing merch like this before a game is released is never a good sign. When I first noticed that SEEKER board behind Elif I was like, great, this really is a game fueled by SJWism. Although Elif herself is enough of a red flag; she looks like an Instathot who wants to be goth for a day. She doesn't look like she belongs in the World of Darkness. None of the characters do. Look at the Nosferatu:

View attachment 2163866View attachment 2163867
A Marvel villain reject and a burn victim.

What was wrong with how they looked before? They're supposed to be misshapen and gross looking, but still have a design that makes them unmistakably WoD Nosferatu.
View attachment 2163873

I thought the first game did a great job with aesthetics and setting overall mood. Now we have rather average environments that could be used in any murder/mystery game:
View attachment 2163850

View attachment 2163851

View attachment 2163852

Swinging back to characters, I hate Mr. Damp.
View attachment 2163877

uwu murdering psychopath so kawaii! I'll take my neg rates for this, but Mr. Damp reminds me of Eddie Gluskin from Outlast: Whistleblower, or rather the crowd that heavily fetishized him. Gluskin mutilated and murdered women before being tossed into the asylum, and after that he mutilated his male inmates by cutting off their genitals, carving them up to give them large breasts, and making at least one of them look like a pregnant woman in labor. Completely unhinged, absolutely dangerous, and yet there was a sizeable crowd that fetishized Gluskin torturing Waylon Park, the protagonist. IMO Damp is the creation of the kind of lunatic who gets turned on by murderers as long as they're semi-attractive. The glamorization and fetishization of mental illness and murder in horror media is beyond tiresome.


If they must make another game I think this would be for the best, and maybe not call it VtMB 2, because that comes with expectations. If it isn't tied to the events of the first game then just call it something else. Hopefully they can't shit the bed harder than Hardsuit Labs did.

View attachment 2163914

:story:
I think probably the earliest Red Flag for me were the animations in the trailers, particularly the facial animations.


It's not that they look bad, it's just that you know that they hand-selected the best looking they had, and many of them are obviously from cut-scenes, and yet they still look somewhat amateurish.
 

wrangled tard

Not actually a nazi.
kiwifarms.net
I think probably the earliest Red Flag for me were the animations in the trailers, particularly the facial animations.
View attachment 2169247

It's not that they look bad, it's just that you know that they hand-selected the best looking they had, and many of them are obviously from cut-scenes, and yet they still look somewhat amateurish.
It really goes to show how deceptive trailers can be. What you see in that video looks like a playable mostly finished game when in reality they've probably got barely anything if they can gut the studio working on thee game and fire the lead devs. It really is a shame, that trailer at the very least looks interesting even with the jank.
 

Johan Schmidt

kiwifarms.net
I think probably the earliest Red Flag for me were the animations in the trailers, particularly the facial animations.
View attachment 2169247

It's not that they look bad, it's just that you know that they hand-selected the best looking they had, and many of them are obviously from cut-scenes, and yet they still look somewhat amateurish.
Parts of it look like source filmaker, parts of it look like actual Gmod levels. Like, the white hospital/hotel building looks like it should be on DarkRP. It's really not good.
 

mr.moon1488

True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Parts of it look like source filmaker, parts of it look like actual Gmod levels. Like, the white hospital/hotel building looks like it should be on DarkRP. It's really not good.
What's funny too is that it's not just side characters with the Gmod level animations. The chick with the lip ring's animations look pretty decent, and from what I've read it sounds like she's one of the first main characters you encounter in the game. It kind of makes me wonder if they didn't have some kind of interoffice fight like what happened with Cyberpunk and all their talent walked off early in development.
 

Johan Schmidt

kiwifarms.net
What's funny too is that it's not just side characters with the Gmod level animations. The chick with the lip ring's animations look pretty decent, and from what I've read it sounds like she's one of the first main characters you encounter in the game. It kind of makes me wonder if they didn't have some kind of interoffice fight like what happened with Cyberpunk and all their talent walked off early in development.
The whole thing just seemed like a complete shitshow. I dunno what the hell happened over there that caused this fuckup; but it must be nightmarish working in that office.
 

White Devil

If He Dies, He Dies
kiwifarms.net
The whole thing just seemed like a complete shitshow. I dunno what the hell happened over there that caused this fuckup; but it must be nightmarish working in that office.
I've been told by several people throughout the years that have worked in studios like EA to Infinity Ward to smaller ones that working in game dev is complete hell and misery unless you have an actual autistic passion for making games (which consequently, studios LOVE to exploit like you're a 6 year old in a Nike factory).
 

ZMOT

wat
kiwifarms.net
I've been told by several people throughout the years that have worked in studios like EA to Infinity Ward to smaller ones that working in game dev is complete hell and misery unless you have an actual autistic passion for making games (which consequently, studios LOVE to exploit like you're a 6 year old in a Nike factory).
there's a difference between a corporate slave driver (which a lot of people can't even imagine how bad and outright insane that bureaucracy can get get, even worse for creative types when it's just about bringing in the numbers) and identity politics which turn the office into the equivalent of a high school cafeteria. don't get me wrong, the tendency was always there to some degree, but with how batshit woketards are, you can only try walking on egg shells for so long before you either fuck up and get canceled or exhaust yourself and it reflects in your work.
 

The handsome tard

RealHandsomeJack - Based HERO CEO of Hyperion
kiwifarms.net
Man, its sad that even the thread about this game has gone quiet. There is truly nothing to say about it. I wonder why at this point they dont just cancel it, tho Im sure there is a lot of legal reasons to why...but come on, you can imagine that they know this game will be a disaster, especially since tis a sequel to a VERY beloved game AND said beloved game is technically incomplete...which says a lot about the current gaming industry, doesnt it?

You know whats sad? Besides, like, everything else? The new Prince was probably going to be an expy for Trump and you would probably not gonna be able to join him (or if you do, its gonna be an instant game over because orange man bad) and the game took soo long to come out that Trump aint even president anymore...so instantly dated. I wonder if they will fix that (which would require a lot of changes to the narrative) or just leave it in because this game is fully dead in the water so why bother?

A lot of TDS humor is dated by nature but it takes a special type of woke incompetence to be dated before it even comes out. I know the entertainment industry is struggling now Trump isnt president and good luck not getting cancelled making fun of Biden, but even they know that making Trump AS president jokes are dead on the water (instead they just do it Trump as a person...because they cant let that man go for as much as they claim to hate him).

there's a difference between a corporate slave driver (which a lot of people can't even imagine how bad and outright insane that bureaucracy can get get, even worse for creative types when it's just about bringing in the numbers) and identity politics which turn the office into the equivalent of a high school cafeteria. don't get me wrong, the tendency was always there to some degree, but with how batshit woketards are, you can only try walking on egg shells for so long before you either fuck up and get canceled or exhaust yourself and it reflects in your work.

You know why the original game was so beloved? Because it came from a place of passion, you can tell that the ones behind it were people that played or at least were familiar with Vampire lore and still, the game doesnt REQUIRE you to know it beforehand...tho it does offer a more fullfilling experience if you do. Thus making Bloodlines an amazing entry point for fans of the board game's lore. And for as much unfinished as it was, you can tell that they still did their best under these conditions. This game was more than just a paycheck to them. And hell, they actually made online patches on their site for free...they had no obligation to do so but they did. Again, passion.

Nowdays there is no passion, at least not lasting passion. You go into the industry seeking to make the next Mario or Sanic and you become a fucking slave in a corporate hellscape that doesnt respect you and you might even forget which project you are slaving away for (adding the woke culture we have too, to which WILL get you sooner or later as the "requirements" to not get cancelled get tighter and tighter). And you are probably gonna get forced to say to the interviews you love your job...because saying otherwise would get you fired and there are a lot of younger passion fueled dummies ready to replace you in an instant and having no job in this economic shitshow is a fucked situation.


This thing is just legit never being released is it?

Sometimes Final Death is better
 

Similar threads

Those with connections to the Second Battle of Fallujah discuss the Middle East in media and mistrust of the US military, and ask who the game will actually ask players to empathize with.
Replies
51
Views
5K
With actual audience participation!
Replies
222
Views
6K
Top