World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 from Hardsuit Labs

[Mr. Hiver]

It comes out in the first quarter, so between January and March. If they get it out on the early side of that window, they’ll have a few months before Cyberpunk eats everything else alive.

Any delays and they will be spaghetified.

 

[Saerain]

The clear solution is to get a celebrity to be one of the in-game characters.

Done, Jesse Eisenberg at 0:52.

 

[Sarkile]

It comes out in the first quarter, so between January and March. If they get it out on the early side of that window, they’ll have a few months before Cyberpunk eats everything else alive.

Any delays and they will be spaghetified.

I was basing my statement on the date of April 2020 listed in Steam. GoG lists it as 31 March, which I would consider a hell of a lot closer to Cyberpunk's release than a generic Q1 release.

 

[Fairfax]

The trailer made me realize how fucking great Source engine is for facial animation. Holy shit. How come not a single one could get above that level?

It's weird how they still can't get npcs to have believable facial expressions like VTMB did 15 years ago, the few npcs I saw in this game looked so wooden and generic they gave me Bethesda vibes.

Valve created the best facial animation tool ever because facial animations were really important for the kinds of cinematic shooters they wanted to make. Everyone else just uses FaceFX middleware, which gets the job done, but a ton of not-worth-it-usually additional effort has to be made to get them on par (e.g. the difference between Deus Ex Human Revolution's usual dialogues and the extra special dialogue battles).

It's not that they're less important to other devs. What really set Faceposer and Valve's animations apart was how they used the Facial Action Coding System (also used by Pixar and other major animation studios). Paul Ekman explains the system here:


Valve standardized animations to be used across FACS-compliant models, while unique animations and expressions were developed for specific scenes. The process itself is very common, but it seems no other developer has used FACS. I don't believe it's because it's less important to them, usually there's either no incentive or a lack of resources. AAA projects resort to motion capture and then adjust the animations accordingly, which can lead to even better results:


Mid-sized independent studios are almost extinct, and smaller ones can't afford any of that. It'd be great for everyone if Valve released Source 2 with Hammer 2, Faceposer 2, and so on, but RIP Valve.

 

[Wunderbar]

The clear solution is to get a celebrity to be one of the in-game characters.

Done, Jesse Eisenberg at 0:52.
View attachment 10915

more llike Baldursgate Kingdomcome.

 

[Mr. Hiver]

It comes out in the first quarter, so between January and March. If they get it out on the early side of that window, they’ll have a few months before Cyberpunk eats everything else alive.

Any delays and they will be spaghetified.

I was basing my statement on the date of April 2020 listed in Steam. GoG lists it as 31 March, which I would consider a hell of a lot closer to Cyberpunk's release than a generic Q1 release.

Yeah but any delays, which tend to happen, will push them even closer and nobody knows what exact schwarzfield radius Cyberpunk is going to assume once it goes off.

It may even gobble things backwards in time.

 

[SpaceWizardz]

GoG lists it as 31 March, which I would consider a hell of a lot closer to Cyberpunk's release than a generic Q1 release.

They're doing it on purpose.
A buggy launch right next to one of the biggest titles of that year is just another one of those expectations Mitsoda was talking about.

 

[HansDampf]

There is going to be a mod for this.

 

[Wesp5]

The trailer made me realize how fucking great Source engine is for facial animation. Holy shit. How come not a single one could get above that level?

Valve created the best facial animation tool ever because facial animations were really important for the kinds of cinematic shooters they wanted to make. Everyone else just uses FaceFX middleware, which gets the job done, but a ton of not-worth-it-usually additional effort has to be made to get them on par (e.g. the difference between Deus Ex Human Revolution's usual dialogues and the extra special dialogue battles).

I believe Troika actually improved the already good system that Valve had for HL2, because as the latter would mainly be used in scripted scenes, Troika made theirs available using simple commands during dialogues or scripted scenes or cutscenes to reflect these dispositions and more: Neutral [1] Anger [1,2,3] Joy [1,2,3] Sad [1,2,3] Fear [1,2] Disgust [1] Apathy [1] Flirtatious [1] Confused [1] The command inside a dialogue file would look like this: npc.SetDisposition("Flirt",1)

 

[Roguey]

Probably because Bloodlines was rushed. Most people expect them not to pull the same shit this time but looking at the release schedule it looks like a repeat of last time. Paradox are retarded.

But they cut clans and disciplines, much to the annoyance of people who want feature parity with its predecessor

 

[Prime Junta]

Yeah shame about the facial animations, it was a huge factor in the charm of the original. VO sounds wooden compared to the likes of Jack, Jeanette, Bertram, or VV too.

 

[Wesp5]

VO sounds wooden compared to the likes of Jack, Jeanette, Bertram, or VV too.

I would really like to know if these VOs are already final. I mean they are pre-alpha and I would imagine VOs are done when everything is finished! You can recognize Mitsoda doing some VO in the trailer, maybe the others are improvised by team members too?

 

[InD_ImaginE]

There is going to be a mod for this.

Mod for Unreal Engine game. Good joke.

 

[serch]

We need a 'the joke fying over you' icon, or however the fuck you say that in engrish

 

[Wesp5]

But they cut clans and disciplines, much to the annoyance of people who want feature parity with its predecessor

They already promised the missing Gangrel and Nosferatu clans as free DLC, and I can't fight the feeling that third person view has something to do with this. Like how would Protean or Obfuscate look from first person view? Not like very much !

 

[Infinitron]

They already promised the missing Gangrel and Nosferatu clans as free DLC

You may have just revealed something you weren't supposed to.

We know they plan to release additional clans for free after launch. They've never said which ones.

 

[Vincente]

They already promised the missing Gangrel and Nosferatu clans as free DLC

You may have just revealed something you weren't supposed to.

We know they plan to release additional clans for free after launch. They've never said which ones.

SHUT IT DOWN, THEY KNOW

 

[Child of Malkav]

There is going to be a mod for this.

Mod for Unreal Engine game. Good joke.

They said it's going to have mod support so yeah, not really a joke.

 

[vota DC]

Lacroix saying "A bomb" with the same voice and tone of JC Denton would be funny.

But they cut clans and disciplines, much to the annoyance of people who want feature parity with its predecessor

They already promised the missing Gangrel and Nosferatu clans as free DLC, and I can't fight the feeling that third person view has something to do with this. Like how would Protean or Obfuscate look from first person view? Not like very much !

With only 2 disciplines instead of 3 for clan they can have the original Clans with more chance to have unique powers. They would be lazy and coward if they don't try. Seriously.
Malkavian dementation
Ventrue dominate
Bruja potence
Nosferatu obfuscate
Toreador presence
Tremere thaumaturgy
Gangrel protean

Then toreador and bruja share celerity, tremere and malkavian auspex, nosferatu and gangrel animalism.

 

[Xeon]

I think someone said there are a lot more clans that weren't present in Bloodline or something. If true I hope they add some of the clans that are missing from Bloodlines 1, I don't mean just as a character race, even if not playable, kinda want to see their hierarchies or something.

 

[BANANA CONDUCT]

I hate to admit it, but I'm increasingly looking forward to this with every new piece of content that's released.

 

[Vibalist]

Anyway, looks shitty. The triumph of its predecessor was in creating a low-key, cool atmosphere that you wanted to immerse yourself into, and having the freedom to do that in a variety of ways. Whereas this one just screams 'You can be a fucking cool vampire man, you can do parkour shit and blow people up with your hands and anything you like! Buy our game and we'll call you Ebony Nightshade in real life, for real dawg! It's EPIC'.

Maybe Knox Harrington is secretly lead writer?

 

[Zombra]

Another game where no one is talking about the evident C&C. That extended trailer shows a mission to capture a guy and bring him back with at least four possible outcomes, three of which must have a dramatic effect on the story. (Killing the guy and letting him leave the city may not be too different.) Maybe this is the only case where the player has huge agency in directing the story but I doubt it. Already rethinking my original assumption I'd only play this once.

 

[Vibalist]

Eh. Plenty of games offer these choices with no consequences to follow. Hell, the first game had a similar situation in a side quest and was pretty much a self contained event that didn't mean anything in the bigger picture (the incident with Julius, the stuttering thin blood at the pier).

Most RPG designers are experts at creating scenarios that give the illusion of agency without actually offering it. Think of Deus Ex.

 

[Infinitron]

Brian Mitsoda on Twitch E3 broadcast: