Preview Bloodlines sneak n' peak by Yahoo! Games Domain

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I hope the game reacts very much to my character. I want to be a decadent, fabulous dahling when playing a Toreador - and i want it to show. Groupies following me around in nightclubs and all.

 

[Psilon]

I want to wear the red cape and play flamenco music when playing as a toreador. The funny hat would go nicely as well as I fight the bulls.

 

[Nightjed]

hmmm... i haven't watched the movies(probably won't either, being on a 56k with no patience for downloading) but from what everyone's saying, the guy lockpicking the door in the middle of the club is probably using the Obfuscate disicpline...at level 2, this power makes you invisible to people unless you actively do something to disrupt it, like attacking someone, or shoutiing, or doing something deliberate to make you noticed. Quietly lockpicking a door in a crowded nightclub would most likely go unnoticed, though opening it is a different story.

the character he made didnt have access to obfuscate

I'm somewhat dissapointed that you're point allocation may be limited by clan, one of my favorite things about vampire is that it is possible to make any character with almost any clan background, like a brujah pacifist speaker, a malkavian mass murderer etc etc. Being limited to clan disciplines is also dissapointing, as this will veen further straitjacket you into playing a certain way(i.e...all nosferatu and malkavians will be required to be sneakers, all toreador and ventrue will be talkers, all tremere will be sorcerers, all brujah and gangrel will be fighters).

they should at least let you choose one discipline, however, there is space in the sheet to add other 3 disciplines and you might be able to add/change some though history traits or game events
maybe you can add more once you matered the inital 3 ?
i dunno how the white wolf rules work that out tho

 

[Whipporowill]

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/half-life-2/532299p1.html

So, HL2 gold in 16 days? Quite a stupid thing to say if it's not likely, isn't it? When's Doom3 due out in shops anyway?

 

[plin]

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/half-life-2/532299p1.html

So, HL2 gold in 16 days? Quite a stupid thing to say if it's not likely, isn't it? When's Doom3 due out in shops anyway?

Nah, 16 (I think it's 14 now) days until they estimate they will be done finding/fixing bugs. Then they send it to Vivendi as a Release Candidate and they test it, and if they find shit and they aren't happy with it, they send it back to valve for more polishing. Who knows, it could go gold, but alot of people doubt it and say games usually go through 2-3 RCs before they go gold.

Doom 3 is out in stores august 3rd or 5th. Can't remember. But one of those for sure.

 

[Nightjed]

Gamerankings says doom3 ships on 8/3 (pc gamer allready review it: 94%, hard to believe)
and that hl2 ships on 9/1

plin: are you kidding me ? you think they are going to put hl2 on hold while doom3 ships in 10 days ? the only way vivendi is going to reject that RC is if it doesnt run at all

 

[plin]

Gamerankings says doom3 ships on 8/3 (pc gamer allready review it: 94%, hard to believe)
and that hl2 ships on 9/1

plin: are you kidding me ? you think they are going to put hl2 on hold while doom3 ships in 10 days ? the only way vivendi is going to reject that RC is if it doesnt run at all

They would lose sales if they go head to head with doom I would think. And they would get worse scores if they rush out an unpolished game. But I think they will have most bugs squashed when they give them the RC, and that Viv will accept it, but some other people think that it will take 2-3 RCs. I don't.

 

[Nightjed]

imho, considering they both have the same target and that since they are both the same kind of game most ppl will buy just one, the one that releases first will quicly eat the other game's ground.

as for the bugs, game companies always say "we can always patch it later" for pc games and release things like driv3r/etm/toee/fallout2, i doubt it will be different this time

 

[Voss]

they should at least let you choose one discipline, however, there is space in the sheet to add other 3 disciplines and you might be able to add/change some though history traits or game events
maybe you can add more once you matered the inital 3 ?
i dunno how the white wolf rules work that out tho

In PnP you can. In bloodlines, they've said not.

As for doom3 and half-life2. I predict a battle of the giants that will turn out to be dwarves jousting with shopping carts. The hordes will say, 'yes, more of the same gaming experience that we've played over and over again'. And by november, it will all be forgotten.

 

[plin]

imho, considering they both have the same target and that since they are both the same kind of game most ppl will buy just one, the one that releases first will quicly eat the other game's ground.

as for the bugs, game companies always say "we can always patch it later" for pc games and release things like driv3r/etm/toee/fallout2, i doubt it will be different this time

Well, doom 3 will be released first no matter what, and the closer HL2's date is to D3's, the more if will hurt eachothers sales.

Yeah, those are other game developers, but valve has spent 5 years and millions and millions of dollars on this game to make it the mother of all FPSs in their eyes. Gabe has said he would delay it to 2005 if he needed to. I don't think a couple weeks of polishing is going to matter. And vivendi can't argue because the better scores it gets, the more sales it gets, and this will be one of the best sellers in a hell of a long time.

 

[Mr Carrot]

Vivendi also cant argue because Valve can self finance (ex-MS founders after all) and owns all the licenses.

HL2 is going to be a much bigger seller than D3 there is just no competition they dont need to rush release. The integral MP component, the probably larger brand recognition with newer gamers and more importantly can run on a much larger amount of machines.

 

[Psilon]

Doom 3 requires just a GeForce MX440 in terms of graphics card, though. My laptop has the equivalent of an MX440, so most of the people salivating over Doom 3 will probably have sufficiently meaty systems for 35fps at medium detail.

 

[Spazmo]

Really, Psilon? Let's compare.

1. CPU:
   Half-Life 2: 1.2 Ghz processor
   DOOM3: A 1.5-gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 chip or AMD Athlon 1500
2. Memory:
   Half-Life 2: 256 MB of RAM
   DOOM3: 384MB of memory
3. Graphics card:
   Half-Life 2: DirectX 7 compatible graphics card (this means Radeon 7000 and above; not sure of an nVidia equivalent)
   DOOM3: An Nvidia GeForce 3 graphics card or ATI Technologies 8500

So you need a 25% faster processor, 50% more memory and a video card that's a whole generation newer for DOOM3. Granted, many people have systems more than adequate for both games, but Half-Life 2 has the edge is the low end market.

 

[Psilon]

A GeForce 4 MX is a GeForce 2 GTS with newer drivers. The main new feature in DX7 is hardware T&L, which is coincidentally in the GF2. I'll concede the RAM and processor, but the number of gamers who have "minimum requirements" is pretty minuscule, and most of them will probably go for the X-Box versions anyway.

 

[Spazmo]

That's the thing, though. DOOM3 requires a DX8 card. And besides that, DOOM3 is coming out in a few days. We're not even sure when HL2 will hit stores. It might be a month, it might be 2005. In the time between now and when HL2 is released, its requirements will get even more forgiving. What DOOM3 does have, however, is the advantage of being out there first.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

You know, the thing that bugs me about Doom 3 is that I have this feeling that it will just be a mindless shooter with little or no story, and just pretty graphics. While HL2 will be a shooter, it will certainly be very entertaining with it's rich story and such. D3? What does it have? So far I've seen a bunch of impressive HL2 vids, and I can't find a D3 vid anywhere. Basically, it means that I won't buy it right off the shelf. I'll wait for a demo or something for D3, and HL2 I'll get off the shelf.