Preview Bloodlines sneak n' peak by Yahoo! Games Domain

[Whipporowill]

No, a combination of a stat and an ability makes a feat in Bloodlines - something which you do actively in the game. It's mentioned in both screenshots and several of the previews, so I'd say it's pretty safe it's in there. I can't say I care much about it being called Feat instead of for instance Action or something similar, so what's your beef with it Voss - that it's too D&D? It's an english bloody word, nothing else.

I think it's too bad that we are limited to dishing out stats as dictatded by our choice of clan, but I guess it's a design choice. But considering, how the feats work it doesn't look impossible to have say a Tremere with a decent melee skill after all (as seen in the video preview). And as for certain disciplines not being clan specific... I can't remember that? From what I remember I could choose from a certain few - but that was a couple of years ago, so maybe that changed.

They've sort of left the "realistic Vampire pnp" char advancement as the game takes place during a few nights. So we'll basically gain generations in a few days - at least in power if we compare to pnp, obviously - the change is needed for a game which is set in such a s short time and doesn't include diablerie.

 

[Voss]

Yes, Jinxed you did say they are faithful to the classes. Thats what doesn't make sense.
There *are* *no* *classes* in Vampire.

feats- no. He didn't just call it that. The column on the right-hand side of the character screen was labelled feats.

virtues, willpower, etc. Well, it wasn't on the character screen. Kinda means its gone, doesn't it?
<snip other stuff>
Look, go read the damn rulebook. It helps to have some idea of what you're talking about if you want to discuss it.

Whip- no my beef with the term feat is theres no reason for it. Theres already a term, dice pool which covers the thing. Why call it something else?
Ah, a tremere can have a decent melee skill, but without potence, celerity and fortitude to back it up, a close combat oriented vampire is going to shred him in 3.4 seconds. (assuming both are going hand to hand)

And wait, what? Gaining generations? How? Where'd you hear this? I figured it'd would simply be set, and unchangable without diablerie.

 

[Stark]

in this case the guy's run actually looks like he is a homosexual of the highly flaming variety

i felt that way too. It was... so gay.

it was all cool until the narrator switches over to 3rd person angle, and the player character adopts a fighting stance, which does not fit into the overall scene.

execellent dialog, and some role-playing shown. for some reason it reminds me so much of Dues Ex. anyone else felt that way?

 

[Amerestatistic]

Comparisons to DX are inevitable, although they seem pretty different to me.

The presense of any kind of role-playing really makes it very unlike DX as far as I'm concerned, which was more about player skill and creative problem solving than character development.

It'll certainly benefit from the large number of DX fans who didn't get much of a fix at all from the sequel, at any rate, since it looks superficially similar and will probably please a lot of DX fans who wanted more of the RPG stuff that DX barely had.

 

[Amerestatistic]

By the way, all videos can be accessed.

Part 1
http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/predownload?g=30651

Part 2
http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/predownload?g=30652

Part 3
http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/predownload?g=30653

Part 4
http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/predownload?g=30654

Part 5
http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/predownload?g=30655

 

[Shevek]

Ya, I felt this was going to be a Deus Ex-like game as soon as it was announced (albiet, with a more indepth character creation/development system that better handles non-combatatibe gameplay). For fans of DX, like myself, this is a good thing but Im sure Saint and others may be somewhat displeased by such parallels.

At first, I was a bit skeptical of the title since it seemed to focus on boobies too much and I thought the boss encounter I saw at the first e3 was a bit console-like for some reason. What I saw at this past e3 and the press that has followed has made me a firm believer though. It seems to be getting plenty of polish too which is key. I just hope it delivers.

 

[plin]

Thanks. I've only seen 1 and 2, and I wanna kill that fat mother fucker who sells shit in #2. I loathe him.... arrrr

 

[Nightjed]

watched just the first one and waiting for the second one, i liked the char generation (remainds me a lot of arcanum's)
the xp growth seems too high tho (maybe its a debug version), the female avatars are not THAT boobed up like other ppl said (other than the bruha), the malkavian one however does seem to have an erected *something* hiding under her skirt and doesnt look as crazy as the male avatar and i HOPE well be able to choose different avatars

is it me or venus's boobs before talking look just big but believable and then when he speaks with her they grow like frigging giants ?, with the censorship i could swear she fashed them instead of jiggling

nobody noticing was pretty crappy (if they wanted to make it easy for the player in an early stage they could just have shoved the office in a dark place) but i liked the hacking system a lot better than deux ex's

and the gay run (maybe the pants are tight ?) ... im not going to play a temere in 3rd person thats for sure... i just wonder how does the toreador run

 

[Nightjed]

part2: i see some clipping in FL's arms and holy crap bob looks even gayer with a leather jacket

part3: man, the enemies seem to be faster than lionheart's flash cousins, and bums/hobos seem to have absolutely no hearing sense (or eyes for that matter), its also weird that those ... blood thirsty enemies didnt even notice him, maybe if he was crouching in the corner mumbling "oh mommy" i MIGHT accept the fact he is just standing there...

part4: ... meh, nothing to see here

 

[Shevek]

bums/hobos seem to have absolutely no hearing sense (or eyes for that matter), its also weird that those ... blood thirsty enemies didnt even notice him, maybe if he was crouching in the corner mumbling "oh mommy" i MIGHT accept the fact he is just standing there...

That's the only part I've seen that I didnt like.

 

[Sarkile]

At least you can kill the hobos. And I would be disappointed if enemies with celerity didn't speed around like that.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

I thought the source engine was suppose to be the second comming, but there like 10 people dancing in a club? I GUESS ILL HAVE TO WAIT TILL SOURCE2

 

[Stark]

Thanks Amerestatistic, as I thought initially only part 1 is available for viewing.

I'm dissapointed by the dialog with the gargoyle. The "right" speech option "to convince gargolye to avoid a fight" is too obvious. I was hoping a few coloured options where player will still need to apply his player intelligence to convince the gargolye.

but otherwise an extremely good looking game.

the night, the club with dancers, the streets, the lock picking. it's no wonder it keeps reminding me of Dues Ex. they're just so similar in setting.

 

[plin]

bums/hobos seem to have absolutely no hearing sense (or eyes for that matter), its also weird that those ... blood thirsty enemies didnt even notice him, maybe if he was crouching in the corner mumbling "oh mommy" i MIGHT accept the fact he is just standing there...

That's the only part I've seen that I didnt like.

I think alot of it was there just because it was their little show off demo. Didn't he say it was in God-mod too?
Seemed like the hobo was too conveniently placed, especially when he showed no reaction. So I'm guessing they just stuck an idle one there for the demo.

 

[Nightjed]

part 5 is just like part 4, seems like fighting wont be vampire's main strenght, the game's world also feels sort of ... empty ... just like deux ex did, maybe they will add more ppl/objects in the retail version (or maybe source isnt as good as hyped like Poopers said)

 

[Stark]

the game's world also feels sort of ... empty ... just like deux ex did, maybe they will add more ppl/objects in the retail version

well, it's late night afterall, so empty streets are kinda expected.

I'm wondering if the game areas are tied to the game story, kinda like DX where once you progressed beyond a chapter, you're stuck at new area and can not go back to old area. I'll feel "on rail" if that's the case.

also, would be nice if they have lots of winding narrow streets that do not tie to story, but allow you to explore and ,err, hunt for blood.

 

[plin]

part 5 is just like part 4, seems like fighting wont be vampire's main strenght, the game's world also feels sort of ... empty ... just like deux ex did, maybe they will add more ppl/objects in the retail version (or maybe source isnt as good as hyped like Poopers said)

Well, what do you think should have been added to the handful of scenes we saw? Seemed populated enough to me for it's setting.

 

[Nightjed]

well, it's late night afterall, so empty streets are kinda expected.

dont give me the ye' olde max payne excuse, its 4 am right now and if i happened to walk outside i would probably count more ppl in 5 minutes than during the whole demo, and if i went to a night club i would count them 3 times 5 blocks before arriving

plin: lights in the subway path for example ? cables on the walls ? rocks everywhere ? there are not even cables hanging from the ceiling, how does the subway work without them ?, it just doesnt feel like a subway, where are the tools ? the double rails ? its way to open for just 1 rail and the ceiling is too high for a subway's path, maybe for a station, but not the path, it should be dark, dirty and cramped.
edit: btw, who the hell cares to put blue and white tiles in a place nobody is going to walk though ? even the light, ive never seen more than a hanging cable with a plain bulb in that kind of place and even the door doesnt fit the place, the standing lights are ok because they are working there, weird placing tho (the subway would probably break the ones near the rail pretty easily in rl)

i could let this slip past deux ex with its old engine and everything, but i cant let this slip past a game "using the best engine evah!"
there is a lot of detail missing from the levels and i think THATS what makes it so deux exy, that game reeked of that problem

 

[Stark]

I think the number of NPCs on the street is ok. I think the problem is there's not much else to see on the streets. There's the stray cat and a car, but more would be nice.

Well, what do you think should have been added to the handful of scenes we saw? Seemed populated enough to me for it's setting.

they can add more cars on the street. not necessarily moving (as it might create problem with player standing in the middle blocking the road) but parked. I would expect more cars parking around.

add one or two snoozing on the street, or hundling themselves against the cold, a stay dog/cat, some begger searching through a rubbish dump, etc.

or add a bunch of guys hundling over a fireplace, and add some vending machines, just to remind us it's DX remake.

 

[Jinxed]

Voss, I was just having a fun discussion. No need to fling the "go read the rule book" crap at me.

What we need is to get Troika explain why certain things were cut out. I can bet your grandmas gums that that is a perfectly good reason why it's so. No need to go "oh noez! They are gone! The terrar!"

 

[IClaudius]

I thought the source engine was suppose to be the second comming, but there like 10 people dancing in a club? I GUESS ILL HAVE TO WAIT TILL SOURCE2

The limited number of nightclub patrons has nothing to do with Source. In fact, out of all the major post-Q3 engines Source can probably render the most entities at one time on any given hardware given its scalability. Any shortfalls are problems at Troika's end - likely with art content. Anyway, you can't abstract criticism such as this away from a costs / benefits breakdown. Spending hours and hours setting up a realistically populated nightclub simulated down to a fine level of granularity is a waste if the player will only spend five minutes there. Yes, adding more would help immersion, but don't forget the opportunity cost of adding more might be more than you would be willing to pay if you knew where it would hurt.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Fuck it. Just make Vampire: The Nightclub and dance all night pimping hoes, hacking computers for the latest pr0n and dancing with big jiggly-titted girls. *jiggle* *jiggle*

I wonder if you can choose your breast size if you play as a female character? I'm going to have the biggest, jiggliest tits of them all!

 

[StraitLacedDeviant]

I want tiny concave black hole titties that suck in and destroy all matter....

 

[Mr. Teatime]

I've watched 1 and 2, starting on 3. I like the way your clan affects how you interact.
But there are some graphical problems - the clipping on fat bob, for instance, was very noticable. And people just standing in alleys like the girl he feeds on... wouldn't they at least be walking around?
And the occasional car driving by would be good.
But I'm definately buying the game, it looks really good.

EDIT: and the way the glass just disappears when the gargoyle crashes down is a bit annoying.

 

[Whipporowill]

I think the female player avatars are pretty normally endowed for some odd reason. I guess it would look pretty freaky with boobs the size Venus's in combat for instance...

"hey, this model comes with airbags"

Voss. It would look pretty silly calling it Dice Pool in a crpg, as there are no dice. And you'd have to explain a lot more of the game dynamics to people new to the WW pnp rules. At least that's what strikes me as a possible reason...