Preview Bloodlines discussing at Boomtown

[Spazmo]

Tags: Troika Games; Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

<a href=http://pc.boomtown.net>Boomtown</a> have written up a <a href=http://pc.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=4557>preview</a> of <a href=http://www.troikagames.com>Troika</a>'s now-somewhat-controversial action CRPG dealie, <a href=http://www.vampirebloodlines.com>Bloodlines</a>.
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<blockquote>In fact knowing little about the game before I started I actually had no idea it was using the engine and when I was told it was I had to take a bit of a double take. On closer examination the graphics are indeed impressive – well detailed and with some excellent use of light and shade (funnily enough the game is always set at night). Indeed according to Boyarsky the team have made many of their own alterations to the basic engine with their own lighting and cloth system as well as a complete overhaul of the particle system.
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This may well be but just looking at the game it’s still not a patch on anything that has yet been seen of Half-Life 2. Which is really a testament to the talents of Valve’s artists rather than a complaint against Bloodlines. At the end of the day Bloodlines is still heaps better looking than pretty much any comparable RPG and that’ll be all most people care about.</blockquote>
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Hey, even if this and other Troika titles don't sell at all, they can always license their boob jiggling algorithms to other developers.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://ve3d.ign.com">Voodoo Extreme</a>

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Hey, even if this and other Troika titles don't sell at all, they can always license their boob jiggling algorithms to other developers.

Thats like the recurring joke a while back about Dead or Alive having two physics engines: one for characters, and the other for jiggly breasts.

 

[Barghest]

Troika's now-somewhat-controversial action CRPG dealie, Bloodlines

It is?

I know it is infamous on the Codex for the fence, and the filthy fucking cursing, but controversial ?

 

[Spazmo]

Controversial in the same sense as Passion of the Christ. I'm a slave to media sensationalism.

 

[Barghest]

I think we need a rebranding exercise. 'The Passion of the Codex'

Is there any cussing in aramaic in the film?

(Oooo - I'm being controversial...!)

 

[Anonymous]

HL2 looks like garbage.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

HL2 looks like garbage.

At least I'm not alone in that aspect. I think it looks like crap too.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I havent seen any pics for it yet, whats wrong with the graphics?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

It's a <i>controversial crisis of epidemic proportions</i>. At least, that's how CNN would put it. Everything on CNN is a crisis or epidemic, I think.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

funnily enough the game is always set at night

Hmm you are a vampire .What is so funny about the game always set at night ? Vampires in daylight die as far as i know.

 

[Sammael]

I haven't played PnP Vampire in a while, but I think the Fortitude discipline allows vampires to survive a bit longer in daylight. Probably not worth the trouble of implementing in a computer game, though.

 

[Azael]

Dracula managed just fine in the sun, although I believe he wasn't as powerful in the day as in the night. While findind a safe place to hide for the day could add an extra dimension to the game and forcing you to keep track of time, I imagine it could turn into a pain in the ass real soon, so I'm not opposed to playing at night for the entire time.'

Do they show the same demonstration to every journalist? It makes me wonder if those are the only clans that are finished enough to be displayed. I for one would have liked to see a demonstration of Brujah brute force.

 

[Whipporowill]

The Brujah approach is shown in one of the movies that was released... so yeah?

 

[Megatron]

I wouldn't mind some daylight, like mebbe having to escape from some place while sticking to the shadows at dawn? Some locations during the day could also be nice, like using mirrors or shooting curtains to kill vampires?

I also think hl2 looks pretty mediocre. It doesn't even look as good as stalker? Cheers.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

I'm more interested in gameplay (particularly in terms of physics, deformable environments, and interaction with objects) than graphics. Half-Life's graphics look fine to me, especially considering their scaleability. They may not be Doom 3 level, but I'm convinced the game will be much better than Doom 3 for many reasons. Doom 3 will be more of a tech demonstration whereas Half-life 2 will succeed in creating a rich, breathing world with open-ended gameplay and interesting AI. In other words, it will succeed where DX:IW failed.

 

[Anonymous]

Personally, I think HL2 will be a bland and buggy game experience. Most of the stuff seemed half-assed and now that they are rewriting it (if the code really did get stolen), I have much more doubt of it being good. It seems like it was thrown together for the OMFG COUNTAR-STIEK 2 aspect and whatever else.

I've been keeping a pretty close eye on the 'new' FPS games and all that, and I think Doom 3 will actually be pretty fun. It seems like Doom 1 remade, same play style and ideas and stuff, but all in 3D, but graphic-wise it could use some improvements.

The best looking and the one with the best gameplay is gonna be Stalker, for sure.

 

[Voss]

Well, as far as games that aren't even out yet go, Duke Nukem Forever has them all beat.

 

[Seven]

Well, as far as games that aren't even out yet go, Duke Nukem Forever has them all beat.

Speaking of which wher does that title get its funding from, a god-damned money tree?

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, some wacky publisher dudes keep handing them money, and the funny part is, the second they said they might have to limit how much they give, the 3DRealms guys insult them. WAY TO GO.

 

[Seven]

Who are these publisher dudes and why aren't they funding my game?

 

[Sol Invictus]

The thing that bugs me about Troika's new game is that the environment isn't as interactive as it could be, especially with the engine that they're using. They could just as easily implement the whole 'daylight' scenario where curtains and dark windows block out the sun - which, if parted or destroyed, would cause sunlight to spread into certain areas, kiling off the vampires in that vicinity.

 

[ArcturusXIV]

Ooooh...I like that idea Exitium. Yeah, I'm pretty disappointed in what Troika is doing (or rather, not doing) with the Source Engine.

In any case, I still lend my support to Valve. Out of all the shooters I've played, Half-life and No One Lives Forever 2 have been my favorites, and considering how many shooters I've played, that's a pretty impressive position to hold. Of course, I'm not counting the original Deus Ex or System Shock 2 into the shooter category, because they pretty much blow everything out the water.

STALKER definitely looks like a good game. It's a very ambitious project, though, so I'm not entirely sure they can pull it off. On Gamespot, most of the games produced by the company creating STALKER scored around 85%. That's pretty decent. If a lot of polish is put into STALKER, it could definitely be groundbreaking. If not, it will surely flop.

Far Cry also sounds interesting, especially since map-making is so easy for it.

I'm also keeping a bit of a watch on the shooter Kreed. Though its graphics are crappy, it has an awesome backstory about being sucked into a black hole. I'm a sucker for a good plot, as long as the presentation is good as well.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

The thing that bugs me about Troika's new game is that the environment isn't as interactive as it could be, especially with the engine that they're using. They could just as easily implement the whole 'daylight' scenario where curtains and dark windows block out the sun - which, if parted or destroyed, would cause sunlight to spread into certain areas, kiling off the vampires in that vicinity.

You know how boring it would be to spend the day in one house, all day long? At the end of every night, you'd pretty much be forced to pick somewhere dark and select Sleep until night. There's really no point in forcing that on a player unless there's a significant amount of stuff that's fun that could be done during the day.

BTW, this is why I'm glad the vampire character in Sacred doesn't have to seek shelter during the day.

 

[Voss]

Actually there is something that Vampire characters (in the White Wolf system) have to do during the day:
make humanity rolls to stay awake.
And if their humanity is low, they can only stay awake for a matter of minutes or even rounds.
Vampires sleep during the day.