Preview Bloodlines sneak n' peak by Yahoo! Games Domain

[Whipporowill]

Tags: Troika Games; Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

<a href="http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/" target=_blank>Yahoo! Games Domain</a> got lucky and scored a <a href="http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/preview/30686" target=_blank>hot date</a> with Troika's Leonard Boyarsky. Apart from what we already knew (which seems to be pretty much everything released) Leonard talks on the mature setting and Activision's support in making Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines. I found this quote worth mentioning:
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GD: You seem to have had a pretty free hand to include "adult" themes and language in the game. Do you think this is a natural consequence of a maturing industry, or a passing fad? How does it enhance your game?
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LB: I think the fact that we've been allowed to include mature themes in Bloodlines results directly from the fact that Activision has realized from day one that any self-respecting game about vampires, especially one derived from the White Wolf universe, is at its very core a mature game.
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Sadly, I don't think this has anything to do with the "maturing" of the game industry, as most of the industry at present will run screaming from a mature title. Activision is rare in that not only are they letting us do a mature game, but they're supporting it as one of their main titles as well. I think this enhances our game in that it gives us much more freedom to explore different themes, and dish up some good content.
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Could it be? Has Troika finally come into the hands of a responsible publisher? Will wonders never cease...
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Also, make <b>sure</b> to watch the <a>first of <a href="http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/feature/30610" target=_blank>5 video walkthroughs</a> with Activision Producer Thain Lyman. The first one spans character creation, environment interaction and character advancement in a whopping 13:17 minutes!
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGdot</A>

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I want the PC to be given the possibility to pimp him/herself out.

 

[Ultron]

Maybe the industry is finally learning that there is no shame in violently killing hobos.

 

[Transcendent One]

OMG VENUS JIGGLES HER B00BIES AT U!11!!! THIS GAME IS T3H ROXX0R!11!!

Looks great, really. And the narration seems a million times better than ToEE. The only thing that I thought was kinda iffy was how he lockpicks the door and no one seems to notice.

Edit: this is about the video

 

[Whipporowill]

It's pretty damn funny that the boob-jiggling is dimmed out in this video though...

And yeah TO, I agree. I found it a bit odd too... hopefully it was just to do with the lighting and shadows or something. What would be the point of sneaking otherwise?

 

[space captain]

i wanna know how they got such accurate goth-dancing.... did they do motion capture on a bunch of bats at a nightclub or something??

:twisted:

 

[protobob]

They must have watched that south park episode with the goth dancing kid.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Game looks promising.

 

[suibhne]

I want the PC to be given the possibility to pimp him/herself out.

You need to be able to marry yourself first.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I want the PC to be given the possibility to pimp him/herself out.

You need to be able to marry yourself first.

And for that, i need to equip the ring!

 

[mathboy]

"Something that reminds me of how far I'm from the rest of humanity, we'll go with Bob"

the narrator is very cool.

 

[Voss]

...

Well, that answered a few questions about the game.
Interesting points...
the PnP system is altered in several major ways.
Clans are classes.
Each clan seems to have 1 male model and 1 female model for players.
Jiggly tits are a major selling point
the voice acting on at least 1 character is better than TOEE.
The male tremere model has the gayest running gait possible.
Arcanum style backgrounds for some variety in characters.

And yes, you can break and enter with everyone watching, and also hack computers while standing in front of an open door...

 

[plin]

Looked like the bartender had his back turned both times. And I doubt the people dancing would be concentrating what's going on far away from them, or even anything at all besides eachother.

edit: And yes... that is a pretty gay run. haha

 

[space captain]

even though that prepubescent insult is thrown around millions of times daily...

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

 

[Whipporowill]

As long as the characters don't walk they walk they do in Morrowind I'm happy.

 

[Voss]

it wasn't intended as an insult. Just a classification... there simply is no other way to describe it.

 

[jiujitsu]

that looks cool. i've seen part of that before. without the commentary. and without the blurring of the jumbly boobies.

they didnt even bounce that much...

 

[Amerestatistic]

It's easy to imagine that people who never saw the video that did not censor the jiggletech demonstration probably think she was exposing a nipple or two.

 

[Jinxed]

...

Well, that answered a few questions about the game.
Interesting points...

the PnP system is altered in several major ways.

Looks like it. If if you've played white wolf, it would be interesting if you listed the changes. Except the skill point slots

Clans are classes.

Unfortunetly yeah. However, you don't have boring fighter kits. Each class has their own distinctive style. Considering that I hoped ToEE was richer in dialog,contained more interesting quests than fetching Jaroo's staff I wonder if it really feels different, that's the key. Keeping in mind that White Wolf works in this system Troika is being faithful to it. It's the system, like it or not people play it.

Each clan seems to have 1 male model and 1 female model for players.

Perhaps they'll add more. As we have 7 clans, and each of them gets their own model complete with stance, I'm not sure what this complain is about anyway. It's not only about armor anymore.

Jiggly tits are a major selling point

I haven't seen the "jigglyness" in this vid, but I'll agree with you there straight away. Sexual content seems to be underlined in this game. There were some "in-depth" screenshots pointing a finger towards this direction.

A selling factor it may be, no one complained about the amount of whores in Planescape, now did they? :D

the voice acting on at least 1 character is better than TOEE.

What? You didn't like Thain Lyman's voinceacting?

The male tremere model has the gayest running gait possible.

He doesn't look like Duke Nukem that's for sure.

Arcanum style backgrounds for some variety in characters.

Hmm.

And yes, you can break and enter with everyone watching, and also hack computers while standing in front of an open door...

Thain popped up his character to 3 out 5 points. Considering most of the NPCs at the bar had their backs turned, and didn't hear anything either, I hardly consider that a situation which could be described as daylight robbery. Keep in mind that we need to view more of these types of things before we can make sound statements. If I was to hazard a guess, it looks better than FO or Arcanum where you could steal armor NPCs were wearing or other significantly large items.

As for the lapton, yeah, if they happened to look in that direction, the drunk bar attendants should stop the player.

 

[manco]

with the insane money being made with GT3, True crime, and to a lesser extent, manhunt, I don't find the publisher's support all that amazing. Plus, all them white wolf freaks would grow tumors if Troika nerfed their universe. Now, for any title not taking place in the Mushroom kingdom, a little blood, guts and cursin' is expected. I will really be impressed when you can throw a rapin' on somebody, or take steroids in an EA sports title. Then I will get behind the progressive publisher for supporting mature content.
manco

 

[Lasakon]

with the insane money being made with GT3, True crime, and to a lesser extent, manhunt, I don't find the publisher's support all that amazing. Plus, all them white wolf freaks would grow tumors if Troika nerfed their universe. Now, for any title not taking place in the Mushroom kingdom, a little blood, guts and cursin' is expected. I will really be impressed when you can throw a rapin' on somebody, or take steroids in an EA sports title. Then I will get behind the progressive publisher for supporting mature content.
manco

So Rockstar now owns Activision? Or is it the other way around? Or was that just a badly phrased example of "mature" games selling well?

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I want the possibility to change a model's width and height, and customize it with clothing styles, on character creation.

 

[Sarkile]

I want the ability to decide what my primary, secondary, and tertiary attributes are rather than having the decision made for me by my clan.

 

[Voss]

Looks like it. If if you've played white wolf, it would be interesting if you listed the changes. Except the skill point slots

Unfortunetly yeah. However, you don't have boring fighter kits. Each class has their own distinctive style. Considering that I hoped ToEE was richer in dialog,contained more interesting quests than fetching Jaroo's staff I wonder if it really feels different, that's the key.

Distinct styles are nice, but not when its limited as much as it is. All Tremere are sorcerers, all Toreador are poseur artsy gits, etc. The way this is set up, you can't break the generic stereotype very far, if at all. That's disappointing. And limiting the disciplines to clan only breaks the game in many, many ways. Nosferatu can never use dominate to force someone to forget about them (which is extraordinarily bad, since their very appearance breaks the masquerade), and similar things for other clans. Malkavians and several other clans will get their asses handed to them in close combat (without fail unless fighting mortals, but other vamps with other disciplines will *always* beat them to a bloody smear). I could write pages on this, but I'll stop.

Changes:
- stat points. This one comes across a very weird. Two dots is human average. Having 1 dot in anything means the character is weak and/or crippled in that stat. Additionally, having them allocated to each category according to Clan, makes the 'class straight-jacket' feel even worse.
- disciplines being limited to clan only. Its just screwed up in so many ways, and either breaks the system or requires further alterations to it. {Fortitude in particular- without it everyone except gangrel and ventrue will be almost insta-killed by an aggravated damage: fire, sunlight and assorted other things... which suggests they changed the combat system a lot}
- half the skills are just gone. Not surprising, but worthy of note.
- experience system is quite different. Figure in PnP 2-4 points per session. Not 10 every time you do something significant. Skews things a lot, doesn't it.
- the feats thing is odd. Why they called them feats is beyond me. Its just the dice pool of attribute + ability (for example in the vid, lockpick was dexterity + security). Why call it something else, particularly if the masses will confuse it with something else from 3rd edition D&D
- all disciplines will cost blood. According to the level of the discipline 'ability' being used.
blood pool will have to be different. It is normally 10, for a standard 13th generation vampire (the default for a normal starting character). And since theres no diablerie, the blood pool can't be changed. So if the blood pool is the same, using a level 5 power twice would drain you completely. Probably different...
- backgrounds (not the arcanum style things, but Vampire backgrounds, virtues (conscience, self-control, courage), willpower. Poof. Gone. There are many, many systems in the game that depend on virtues and willpower.

And thats just what I noticed from the intro video (blood pool is a guess, and the disciplines costing blood/level is from an old preview thing)

Keeping in mind that White Wolf works in this system Troika is being faithful to it. It's the system, like it or not people play it.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. As you can see, this is very different from the storyteller system. Particularly since you said it in respone to my 'clans are classes' remark. That is absolutely, 100% definitely lacking in any sort of truth in PnP.



The jiggly tits- if that venus chick was real, she'd be permanently stuck on the floor. Way, way too top heavy for how scrawny she was.
Realistic sexy women isn't that much to ask for, is it? I don't mind sexual overtones in a vampire game- its entirely appropriate. But the immature approach of 'sexy = da big b00bies' puts me off.

 

[Jinxed]

Distinct styles are nice, but not when its limited as much as it is. All Tremere are sorcerers, all Toreador are poseur artsy gits, etc. The way this is set up, you can't break the generic stereotype very far, if at all. That's disappointing.

Didn't the man say that they have ready templates for all clans but we can also custumize our character any way we want? They all wear generic clothes at the start. I presume things will change with it. You are what you wear after all eh?

And limiting the disciplines to clan only breaks the game in many, many ways. Nosferatu can never use dominate to force someone to forget about them (which is extraordinarily bad, since their very appearance breaks the masquerade), and similar things for other clans. Malkavians and several other clans will get their asses handed to them in close combat (without fail unless fighting mortals, but other vamps with other disciplines will *always* beat them to a bloody smear). I could write pages on this, but I'll stop.

So you are saying that certain limitations are bad, which will mean the system will be unbalanced? Hmm, I'm not sure. The class/clan thing gives the devs a lot more space when working on the balance. They can optimize the game to work well, since they can presicely define the class. Even then, that's the worst case scenario, I'm hoping they are allowing a lot of freedom.

Changes:

- disciplines being limited to clan only. Its just screwed up in so many ways, and either breaks the system or requires further alterations to it. {Fortitude in particular- without it everyone except gangrel and ventrue will be almost insta-killed by an aggravated damage: fire, sunlight and assorted other things... which suggests they changed the combat system a lot}

So what you mean is that they modified white wolf? Disciples that were available to every clan are now exlusive? I haven't seen a list to be sure.

- half the skills are just gone. Not surprising, but worthy of note.

PNP lets you do anything in theory. A computer game is much more limited, and putting in skills which will be useless throughout the game would be darn stupid.

- experience system is quite different. Figure in PnP 2-4 points per session. Not 10 every time you do something significant. Skews things a lot, doesn't it.

Doesn't really skew anything if we have no idea how the game progresses does it? It's up to Troika to use this faster xp system and make it work. Computer gamers have proved to be impatiant. We need a steady xp increase to motivate ourselves to play. Killing monsters yields no xp, so in order to progress it would take an ass long time otherwise.

- the feats thing is odd. Why they called them feats is beyond me. Its just the dice pool of attribute + ability (for example in the vid, lockpick was dexterity + security). Why call it something else, particularly if the masses will confuse it with something else from 3rd edition D&D

It could be that Thain called it what he liked.

- backgrounds (not the arcanum style things, but Vampire backgrounds, virtues (conscience, self-control, courage), willpower. Poof. Gone. There are many, many systems in the game that depend on virtues and willpower.

We are talking about what we saw in the movie right?
I'm not sure what you said is gone or even if it is present. He only said backgrounds.

Keeping in mind that White Wolf works in this system Troika is being faithful to it. It's the system, like it or not people play it.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. As you can see, this is very different from the storyteller system. Particularly since you said it in respone to my 'clans are classes' remark. That is absolutely, 100% definitely lacking in any sort of truth in PnP.

I said they are faithful to the classes. At this point, I'm not sure what they changed. The vid doesn't go that far.