Review GameSpy sez Bloodlines good but not great

[Sol Invictus]

Have you in all your brilliance, ever considered that perhaps Bloodlines could be using significantly more memory and processing power for the scripts, reactions, and pathing? Surely I jest! Such a thing could never be possible! Not in a million years, Jeeves! I say!

Half Life 2 doesn't have a lot of pathing. Most of the characters stand motionless until you arrive so they can shoot you. It's not the same with Bloodlines.

Stop being such a framerate whore. That's worse than being a graphics whore.

 

[Whipporowill]

I can't sit this one over:

I have basically framerate issues (esp not in combat) and I run the game on 1024*768*32, maxed everything and having used the IGN tuneup. My system is - a 2,66 ghz, 9600 Pro 128, 1024 ram (newly updated, soley for this game), so it's possible the game has some kind of memory leakage, or just needs more amount of ram as my performance got way better with it.

I've had one looping dialogue out of 60 or so, just had to reload a couple of times until I got past it. Wasn't anything major, but a wee annoyance.

People calling it adventure game needs to check their reality - the game is so deep it's silly, you can do a lot of stuff, that's not being explained. Read an email about something and your character actually knows the info, without being told in bold flashing text or something and suddenly you get an option to blackmail someone, offer help et c.

 

[chaedwards]

Read an email about something and your character actually knows the info, without being told in bold flashing text or something and suddenly you get an option to blackmail someone, offer help etc.

Damn my crap pc and my lack of money. Perhaps I'll buy it anyway and then blink a lot so I don't notice the horrible jerk-o-vision I'd get from running it on a p3 800. {Sigh}

 

[Whipporowill]

Sorry chaed, there's no way you'll be able to run this beast on that thing - as I guess you're aware. Whatever people say - it's an rpg. The dialogue system is great - and often very subtle.

 

[Sol Invictus]

It's worth the money it would take to upgrade your computer. I promise you that chaed.

 

[chaedwards]

Only too well aware - it even jerks slightly when playing the Kult deom.

I'm currently playing 'let's buy bargain basement games that run on the day-before-yesterday's technology'. Still, it does mean that I've now played Fallout for the first time (too young before), Arcanum all the way through, and I'm now going through Prince of Qin as we speak. And I've got all of Spiderweb to mess with as well {grin}.

 

[Limorkil]

It seems obvious to me that the reviewer has spent a lot of time playing HL2 immediately before reviewing Bloodlines. The main criticism is that the FPS elements of Bloodlines are nowhere near as good as HL2, even though they are built on the same engine. I mean, come on! The FPS elements of almost everything suck compared to HL2, so its hardly a valid criticism. That and the few other minor points do not warrant giving it 4 stars, given the amount of praise for the RPG elements.

It looks unlikely to me that Bloodlines would get a higher score from Gamespy unless it happened to be the best ever RPG and the best ever FPS. In other words, 4 out of 5 is a damn good recommendation.

 

[Whipporowill]

And I've got all of Spiderweb to mess with as well {grin}.

At least you can still look forward to Geneforge 3. So some new games...

 

[chaedwards]

It's worth the money it would take to upgrade your computer. I promise you that chaed.

I had a horrible feeling you'd say that. But it's hard enough living in one of the most expensive cities in the world on an NGO researcher's salary already without digging out the £700 for a new grey box. Damn the fast pace of technology.

 

[dojoteef]

HL2 has more complex scenes and superior graphics, but the framerate is a significant improvement on bloodlines'.

That is something I can never understand. How two games using the same engine can be as you described. The only thing I can think of is that a)Valve didn't give Troika enough tech support to know what issues needed to be covered using the Source engine b)the fact that Troika probably submitted the game 6months ago to the publisher (considering they said that they have been working on their own rpg engine for a new title for about that length of time), while Valve was busy optimizing the graphics issues for HL2.

As for the gamespy review, I think the reviewer is an asshat. It seems the main reason it didn't get a higher score was the fact that the person expected the combat to be more like HL2. He essentially faults it for using the skill system for combat because if you aim and shoot at something you can miss if you have bad skill in firearms. Give me a fucking break. It's as if the guy can't get over the fact that it uses the Source engine and has a first/third person perspective. It just sounds like he was it expecting the game to be a fps with rpg elements as opposed to a first/third person perspective RPG.

Oh well, I'm about to head over to EB games and pick up my pre-order for Bloodlines and I can see for myself. I'll probably be locked away for a couple days until I've beaten the game at least twice . I just hope I don't forget to eat, sleep, shower, take shit, etc.

 

[Shevek]

Ya, the gamespy review is pretty weak. Then again, this is gamespy we are talking about. The only people I respect less are IGN.

 

[Volourn]

"Whatever people say - it's an rpg."

Another person who claims that Troika lied. WOWSERS!

 

[taks]

That is something I can never understand. How two games using the same engine can be as you described. The only thing I can think of is that a)Valve didn't give Troika enough tech support to know what issues needed to be covered using the Source engine b)the fact that Troika probably submitted the game 6months ago to the publisher (considering they said that they have been working on their own rpg engine for a new title for about that length of time), while Valve was busy optimizing the graphics issues for HL2.

i think it's a combination of things, actually...

1. it's valve's engine, they understand it better than anybody that wants to lease the license, even with the best tech support.

2. bloodlines is an rpg, HL2 is not. take HL2, add in more dialog, more pathing, more AI, more everything and then see if it runs on any current machine. my guess is no.

3. as a result of 2 (and maybe even 1) you can probably guess that troika put everything into the "low end" resolution on purpose. just a guess, but i'm thinking they realize that crpg fans aren't really graphics whores. shooter fans are.

taks

 

[Jora]

"Whatever people say - it's an rpg."

Another person who claims that Troika lied. WOWSERS!

Leonard has been saying that all the time. Just read some his recent interviews.

According to this article the idea behind the marketing campaign of Bloodlines was to " find some kind of hook that will convince the marketing dept at your prospective publisher that this really isn't a "hardcore RPG" they're going to have to sell, it's an action RPG! (My skin is already crawling.) So not only do you, as an RPG designer, have to create a compelling RPG (which is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult genres to do right) you also have to find a way to sell it as something else - or, at the very least, an RPG hybrid of some sort. But never state it's a hardcore RPG to the marketing people - it tends to give them seizures. "

 

[Ortchel]

Have you in all your brilliance, ever considered that perhaps Bloodlines could be using significantly more memory and processing power for the scripts, reactions, and pathing?

Pathing being the hundreds of identical hobos walking in circles.

ROLEPLAYING!

 

[Jora]

Pathing being the hundreds of identical hobos walking in circles.

ROLEPLAYING!

No.

 

[Ortchel]

My sentiments exactly.

 

[suibhne]

My sentiments exactly.

Your hands keep typing, Ortchel. Might want to see to that.

 

[Ortchel]

 

[Spazmo]

That's just another symptom, I think.

 

[Ortchel]

Last edited by Ortchel on Wed Nov 17, 2004 8:50 pm; edited 8 times in total

I couldn't pick a robot I liked.

 

[Mr. Hand]

Stop being such a framerate whore. That's worse than being a graphics whore.

Dont know about the other guy but I assure you Im not. My tolerance for low framerates
has been honed in the past by playing CounterStrike online on a P2-233, which got
nasty at times.

Actually, in Bloodlines my framerates have dipped to 13 fps or lower in certain areas (for example in that cult place downtown). Its not like its a minor spike that goes away instantly, it jerks for almost the entire area. The 'OMG this jerking is giving me a fucking headache' kind.

 

[Mr. Hand]

I can't sit this one over:

I have basically framerate issues (esp not in combat) and I run the game on 1024*768*32, maxed everything and having used the IGN tuneup. My system is - a 2,66 ghz, 9600 Pro 128, 1024 ram (newly updated, soley for this game), so it's possible the game has some kind of memory leakage, or just needs more amount of ram as my performance got way better with it.

Looks like we're on the same boat then Whippo. Im convinced that the memory leak
thing only happens to us ATI users, other people seem to be insisting the game
runs fine on their systems.

 

[suibhne]

It doesn't have any HL2-specific fixes, but are you guys using the new ATi drivers from 11/12?

I'll be installing Bloodlines tonight with a Radeon 9800 Pro, so I guess I might end up in the same boat.

 

[Mr. Hand]

Yeah mate, I have the some-number-or-the-other point 11 drivers. Those are the
latest Catalyst ones available if im not mistaken.