Review Bloodlines gets some late love from Prophecy

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

<a href="http://www.prophecy.co.za/">Prophecy</a> has finally gotten around to <A href="http://www.prophecy.co.za/default.php?p_section=article&aid=362">doing a review</A> of <a href="http://www.vampire-bloodlines.com">Bloodlines</a>. I'm sure we all know the ups and downs of the game by now, but I needed to post something today.
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<blockquote>It's also pretty tough if you don't play a powerful combat-oriented character, and graphical and sound anomalies do occur, damaging the suspension of disbelief. Include an ending that isn’t particularly fulfilling (great outro track though), a city filled with no moving vehicles, performance issues that shouldn't exist and a host of other minor niggles, and there's enough to give even the most desperate of gamer pause for thought. Happily enough, I can certainly say it's worth the frustration. Had Troika spent a few more months ironing out things instead of rushing Bloodlines for the holidays, it could most certainly have been The RPG to Beat. </blockquote>
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You know, I've heard that <i>lack of cars moving around</i> thing before as something that's bugged people. It never really bothered me. Having to look both ways crossing the street probably would have been annoying, though.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.shacknews.com">Shack News</A>

 

[Fez]

Having some traffic would have made the city seem a bit more alive, like the GTA cities. If they did it in the same way you wouldn't have to worry too much about getting run over as it was pretty rare in them. Could be fun having a chase through traffic and seeing the enemy getting mowed down by it, it was always a laugh in GTA anyway.

It's not a game breaker, but as people get more used to the icing on the cake you get with the GTA games they want to see it in all the others.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

I'd rather have no cars than the shit-for-brains car driver AI seen in the GTA games.

 

[Fez]

The GTA drivers were not bad, they stopped when you were infront of them, and we are only talking about a bit of window dressing, not a full-blown racing game, or even a GTA-like game.

 

[NeverwinterKnight]

of all the "issues" i had with bloodlines, the lack of cars driving around was least on my list. but i did notice it, it just never really bothered me.

not to mention the fact the framerates were already piss poor, imagine how much worse they would be if there was a car or two moving about as well.

 

[asa]

not to mention the fact the framerates were already piss poor, imagine how much worse they would be if there was a car or two moving about as well.

Speak for yourself. My frame rates in Bloodlines were excellent. But then again I have hardware designed to play the source engine

P4 3Ghz HT
6800 Ultra
1GB DDR
Ultra 160 SCSI

 

[NeverwinterKnight]

Speak for yourself. My frame rates in Bloodlines were excellent. But then again I have hardware designed to play the source engine

P4 3Ghz HT
6800 Ultra
1GB DDR
Ultra 160 SCSI

i was. :wink:

although im not the only one that had major issues with the framerates, including a lot with high end systems.

 

[Fez]

There was already an argument here about the difference in performance between the HL2 source engine and the Bloodlines version. That's why so many people complained.

 

[asa]

Meh.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

People complaining about no cars (some reviewer was even mad becuase there was no daylight. I believe he was promptly taken out and shot.) is as stupid when the PC Gamer reviewer criticized the game becuase it used the source engine, but it wasn't like Half-Life 2. The ending line of the review was the best, "You may enjoy Blooldines, but don't expect Half-Life 2art Two". I wasn't. I wanted a good RPG and that's what I got, not an overrated twitch shooter. Of course, this is the magazine that gave Sacred rpg of the year over Bloodlines, so it's to be expected..

 

[z3r'0']

Agreed. Bloodlines is a pretty good RPG, and I am having a blast. :Jack is fucking cool!:
I can only hope more games like this are made in the future.

With 4xAA and 16x AF at 1024 resolution, its pretty smooth for me. Using
Geforce 6800GT256MB, P4-3.0Ghz, 512MB RAM.
The thing that bothers me the most technically -- is the random sound stutters, a source engine bug as it happens in HL2 as well.