Game News Bloodlines 2 no longer being developed by Hardsuit Labs, delayed past 2021

[True Ukrainian]

"Consent-based vampirism in a neo-liberal setting"
Does this sentence actually have a meaning? Feel like it's just a random string of "Twitter-approved keywords". Can anybody, including the writers of the game, actually tell me what a neo-liberal setting is?

In universe it means sexy vampires prowling in posh parties and taking blood from victims who derive pleasure from giving. Before you say I'm bullshitting you, this is exactly how the Ventrue and Toraedor are portrayed to feed. Most of their victims are upper class and fully aware that the person in front of them is a vampire. They just get excitement and psuedo sexual pleasure from getting bitten in the neck.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

"Consent-based vampirism in a neo-liberal setting"
Does this sentence actually have a meaning? Feel like it's just a random string of "Twitter-approved keywords". Can anybody, including the writers of the game, actually tell me what a neo-liberal setting is?

In universe it means sexy vampires prowling in posh parties and taking blood from victims who derive pleasure from giving. Before you say I'm bullshitting you, this is exactly how the Ventrue and Toraedor are portrayed to feed. Most of their victims are upper class and fully aware that the person in front of them is a vampire. They just get excitement and psuedo sexual pleasure from getting bitten in the neck.

I know that's how they are portrayed, i just don't know what it all has to do with neoliberalism.

 

[True Ukrainian]

"Consent-based vampirism in a neo-liberal setting"
Does this sentence actually have a meaning? Feel like it's just a random string of "Twitter-approved keywords". Can anybody, including the writers of the game, actually tell me what a neo-liberal setting is?

In universe it means sexy vampires prowling in posh parties and taking blood from victims who derive pleasure from giving. Before you say I'm bullshitting you, this is exactly how the Ventrue and Toraedor are portrayed to feed. Most of their victims are upper class and fully aware that the person in front of them is a vampire. They just get excitement and psuedo sexual pleasure from getting bitten in the neck.

I know that's how they are portrayed, i just don't know what it all has to do with neoliberalism.

The culture of accepting marginalized / minority groups like gays and transgenders is credited to the atmosphere created by Neoliberalism. In this sense, the vampire is no longer a predatory outcast, but an accepted part of society, making consent to his feeding necessary.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

"Consent-based vampirism in a neo-liberal setting"
Does this sentence actually have a meaning? Feel like it's just a random string of "Twitter-approved keywords". Can anybody, including the writers of the game, actually tell me what a neo-liberal setting is?

In universe it means sexy vampires prowling in posh parties and taking blood from victims who derive pleasure from giving. Before you say I'm bullshitting you, this is exactly how the Ventrue and Toraedor are portrayed to feed. Most of their victims are upper class and fully aware that the person in front of them is a vampire. They just get excitement and psuedo sexual pleasure from getting bitten in the neck.

I know that's how they are portrayed, i just don't know what it all has to do with neoliberalism.

The culture of accepting marginalized / minority groups like gays and transgenders is credited to the atmosphere created by Neoliberalism. In this sense, the vampire is no longer a predatory outcast, but an accepted part of society, making consent to his feeding necessary.

I can't bend backward that much. My back'll break.

 

[Fuck_The_Banks]

I am a bit dismayed by this news. I was a great fan of the original Vampire: Bloodlines when it came out back in the day. I got optimistic when I heard that Paradox had bought the rights, and when it was announced that the original writer for Vampire:Bloodlines was going to make a sequel I was very happy.

However it has been increasingly clear that the studio making the game, Hardsuit Labs had some serious internal problems. When in august last year the Lead Narrative Designer Brian Mitsoda and Creative Director Ka’ai Cluney got fired it was clear that there was some kind of internal war inside the game studio. While I do not know the details I can not help suspecting that some of the employees of Hardsuit Labs, situated as they are in Seattle have gotten more and more woke and has been trying to push modern progressive politics into the game, something that did not fit the visions Brian Mitsoda had for the game. Given how the left has embraced cancel culture I suspect they staged an internal revolt getting Brian Mitsoda and Ka’ai Cluney fired as they would not change the game in the direction the progressives wanted. Getting in a new creative director in Alexandre Mandryka was most likely a futile attempt by Paradox to rescue development of the game, but since the root of the problems was the employees of Hardsuit Labs it was doomed to fail. It would seem that Paradox has realized that since Hardsuit Labs can not be controlled or directed to make the game they are supposed to make, they had to cut them loose and try to find a more dependable developer that could take over.

It's a shame but I believe that a modern sequel to V:Bl that matched its tone could do very well it would seem that development of V:B2 was taking the game in another unwanted direction. Sometimes it is best to go back to the drawing board or to take a pause instead of making a game nobody wants. I still feel the pain of the disaster that was Dawn of War 3 and would hate to see the same fate happen to the Vampire:Bloodlines franchise.
Sorry for the ramble

This is what occurs when you allow SJW's to infest your organisation or team. They are cancer. Destroy on sight.

 

[Tavar]

Good bye and good riddance. Honestly, I never understood why they attempted to make a sequel in the first place. Given how buggy the original game is it would make far more sense to properly remake it. If you kept the writing and the C&C as they were and just gave it a stable base plus modern technology it would be much better then any current year sequel could be. Sadly, faithful remakes / remasters are not on the table.

 

[Van-d-all]

PDX should've just pulled the plug on that one and put it out of it's misery, but I guess too much money was already poured into it.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

https://careers.hardsuitlabs.com/

 

[kain30]

holy shit! is full of landwhales and danger hair... gross!! I´m happy bloodlines 2 is out of their hands.

 

[EtcEtcEtc]

I didn't expect the conductor to come out of the trainwreck, insist it wasn't a trainwreck, then try to push the train back onto the tracks. Its going to be interesting to see just what happened when someone leaks the never released game twenty or thirty years down the line.

Shit, hardsuit labs will be out crying about how their progressive woke vision was jettisoned because Paradox is RACIST AND HOMOPHOBIC any day now.

If anyone has the fortitude, I bet if you scanned some of their staff members personal twitters you'd see all kinds of veiled commentary towards what happened.

 

[deuxhero]

VtM ended at the start of 2004 for a reason. The setting simply does not work with YouTube and cell phone cameras.

 

[Mortmal]

So what Eurojank shovelware dev team is Paradox gonna hire to shine up the shitpile of code that Hardsuit left behind? Of course Paradox will make sure the game is finished, they don't want to refund the sweet filthy lucre they've already collected from pre-orders.

Hmmm.. i only see dontnod, yes it's very possible.Vampyr was half decent, and they are into that woke stuff that is so mandatory nowadays. The perfect match is dontnod.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

VtM ended at the start of 2004 for a reason. The setting simply does not work with YouTube and cell phone cameras.

That can easily be fixed just by using some traditional vampire lore though.
How are you going to use a camera to capture footage of something that has no reflection?

 

[deuxhero]

Creates further problems and needs a retcon. Also doesn't work because modern cameras are based on light sensors, not burning it into silver.

 

[Lambach]

Dunno about V5, but back when VtM wasn't shit, it was only Lasombra who did not have reflections and could not be captured on camera. It was their Clan Weakness, which is kinda dumb considering it was usually more of an advantage instead. A non-Lasombra Vampire could be captured on camera even while using Obfuscate, because that Discipline didn't actually affect the Vampire's visibility, it merely prevented the observer's brain from registering the Vampire's presence, or some such explanation.

 

[mondblut]

Dunno about V5, but back when VtM wasn't shit, it was only Lasombra who did not have reflections and could not be captured on camera.

Back when VtM wasn't shit, people normally weren't streaming their every fart to usenet with a pocket phone cum CIA grade HD camera cum necessary hand extension they can't make one breath without.

Ended at the start of 2004 for a reason, indeed.

 

[mondblut]

In before PDX annouce their rehiring of Mitsoda and every fanboy is back for another round of being owned and loving it.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Creates further problems and needs a retcon. Also doesn't work because modern cameras are based on light sensors, not burning it into silver.

Not being able to be captured by photograph/camera would solve more problems than it causes, they've never had problems with retcons before, and the third point is flat out wrong.
Silver being effective against vampires is very modern, moreso than Bram Stoker. e.g., Dracula had no issue handling silver objects.

Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white
moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck
of colour about him anywhere. He held in his hand an antique silver
lamp, in which the flame burned without chimney or globe of any kind,
throwing long quivering shadows as it flickered in the draught of the
open door. The old man motioned me in with his right hand with a courtly
gesture, saying in excellent English, but with a strange intonation

If I had to guess, it was about vampires lacking a soul.

 

[Lambach]

In before PDX annouce their rehiring of Mitsoda and every fanboy is back for another round of being owned and loving it.

Inb4, being the proper feminist ally he is, he insists they leave him out and rehire Ellison instead lul.

 

[Mortmal]

In before PDX annouce their rehiring of Mitsoda and every fanboy is back for another round of being owned and loving it.

Inb4, being the proper feminist ally he is, he insists they leave him out and rehire Ellison instead lul.

Compare to dontnod writers with that transitioning main character storyline, mitsoda is very backyard.

 

[Diggfinger]

Aotrocious!

Ah well, glad I didnt care for this anyway

 

[Optimist]

I'm sure this will all turn out just fine!

 

[Keyboard Vomit]

I'm sure this will all turn out just fine!

It just did.

 

[Old One]

A prequel set in the 1930s or 1940s would be far more interesting than a sequel. Lots of events that took place at that time are referenced in the original game. It was the first time the Camarilla tried and failed to take over L.A.

Nines, Isaac, Gary...they would all be there.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

So what Eurojank shovelware dev team is Paradox gonna hire to shine up the shitpile of code that Hardsuit left behind? Of course Paradox will make sure the game is finished, they don't want to refund the sweet filthy lucre they've already collected from pre-orders.

Maybe the team that did The Council. It really felt like a WoD scenario. And it was a awesome puzzle adventure game. Shame the episodic format kinda obscured it.