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

[thesheeep]

BTW what the fuck is this shit


Garrus was awesome because he had little to say and was a bro.

Wrex was the bigger bro though.

Also had the bigger dick.

 

[Child of Malkav]

I am so confident this game will be amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOTY 10/10!

What game?

 

[jackofshadows]

Why? Watching things crash and burn is the best kind of entertainment we can still get in the clown world. Far better entertainment than this shitstain of a game could ever become.

Watching what, exactly? We're sitting here and trying to match bits together. Not if this shit actually gets canceled it's all gets out right away but betting "how long it will take before any news appear" is not that much fun, honestly. And any possible hope for this to be anywhere decent died for good, so...

 

[Infinitron]

Here's an official notice btw: https://www.pcgamer.com/bloodlines-2-senior-narrative-designer-cara-ellison-has-left-the-project/

Bloodlines 2 senior narrative designer Cara Ellison has left the project
Paradox Interactive confirmed that Ellison is no longer with developer Hardsuit Labs.

In August, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 developer Hardsuit Labs announced that it had parted ways with both lead writer Brian Mitsoda and creative director Ka’ai Cluney. Reasons for their release weren't given, but Mitsoda suggested that it wasn't a happy split, saying that he was unaware of any problems, and that his firing came as a complete surprise.

Today, publisher Paradox Interactive confirmed that senior narrative designer Cara Ellison has also left the project, and is no longer with developer Hardsuit Labs. Rumors about Ellison's departure began to swirl after fans noticed that she'd removed references to the project from her Twitter profile; Armello developer League of Geeks also recently announced that Ellison had joined it as senior narrative designer.

"We can confirm that Cara Ellison has decided to leave Hardsuit Labs and is no longer working on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2," a Paradox spokesperson said. "Cara brought fresh ideas to the project and many of her contributions will be present in the game launching next year. We thank her for her work on Bloodlines 2 and wish her the best in all of her future endeavors."

It's possible that the move reflects the natural evolution of Bloodlines 2 development—that the narrative design is finished and so Ellison's work was effectively done. But in August, Bloodlines was delayed into 2021, suggesting that work was definitely not nearing completion, and it's not hard to see the removal of Mitsoda and Cluney a week later as a sign of deeper trouble. The statement that "many of her contributions will be present in the game" is also interesting: I would expect that as senior narrative designer, the story it tells would be primarily her responsibility.

Paradox declined to comment on when Ellison left the project, or how it will impact the development of Bloodlines 2. I've emailed Ellison for more information, and will update if I receive a reply.

 

[moon knight]

Didn't think much of Garrus either positively or negatively. Just kinda there.

Me too. I only ever took him in my party when something obviously involved him. I was surprised to read so much praise for the character.

It's an interesting character because his personality in the first game is directly influenced by the player's action. A bit like Leliana in DA Origins

 

[Riddler]

There are writer chicks like her everywhere in the industry today.

Which is why we need Eastern Europe - and Swen - to save us.

More like continental Europe (of which eastern Europe is a part). French and German developers seem to do just fine imo. It's the swamp people we need to worry about.

 

[Sarathiour]

Watching what, exactly? We're sitting here and trying to match bits together. Not if this shit actually gets canceled it's all gets out right away but betting "how long it will take before any news appear" is not that much fun, honestly. And any possible hope for this to be anywhere decent died for good, so...

Yeah, it's more like this :
Last time we saw the train, it was set ablaze with half of it's crew jumping overboard while the conductor was yelling "THERE IS NO BRAKE ON THAT DAMNED THING" just before going into a tunnel, where we lost visual and radio contact. Now and then, we can still hear muffled scream and the screeching of steel, but not much more. So we wait for the indubitable collision at the end of this tunnel.

 

[sser]

I don't understand, was she actually the Senior Narrative Designer or was it some other role? Wikipedia doesn't have anything, just says she did some QA work for GTA and then worked as a journalist in the industry. Did she go from that right into a senior position for a major project? Or did someone scrub all that from wikipedia? It may be the case that they're largely finished with the writing and everyone is just filling in insidious details because the gaming community is filled with drama gremlins? With Covid a lot of workflows have gotten busted up so it wouldn't really surprise me that the content is written out, but putting it in the game has gotten stalled out a few months cause of the pandemic; end result would be the writing team finishing way ahead of the curve and sitting around. (Trying to look with rose-colored glasses here.)

 

[santino27]

Me too. I only ever took him in my party when something obviously involved him. I was surprised to read so much praise for the character.

THere's a terrifying amount of fan fiction about him. Too many undersexed people in the world who want to fuck a lizard because he seems damaged and they want to fix him.

 

[mondblut]

Why? Watching things crash and burn is the best kind of entertainment we can still get in the clown world. Far better entertainment than this shitstain of a game could ever become.

Watching what, exactly?

Watching it released and blowing out Underworld Ascendant in the "ha-ha, they actually had the chutzpa to put it on shelves" category.

Give us another Dai-Katana to taunt for years to come.

 

[mondblut]

Did she go from that right into a senior position for a major project?

Business as usual in the pozzed industry.

 

[santino27]

I don't understand, was she actually the Senior Narrative Designer or was it some other role? Wikipedia doesn't have anything, just says she did some QA work for GTA and then worked as a journalist in the industry. Did she go from that right into a senior position for a major project? Or did someone scrub all that from wikipedia? It may be the case that they're largely finished with the writing and everyone is just filling in insidious details because the gaming community is filled with drama gremlins? With Covid a lot of workflows have gotten busted up so it wouldn't really surprise me that the content is written out, but putting it in the game has gotten stalled out a few months cause of the pandemic; end result would be the writing team finishing way ahead of the curve and sitting around. (Trying to look with rose-colored glasses here.)

She was a narrative consultant on Dishonored 2, then brought in as a senior narrative designer on Bloodlines 2. That and her QA work are the extent of her professional experience as far as I know.

 

[Fedora Master]

So what exactly was the reason everyone began shitting on this? I miss a few dozen pages and the attitudes have completely changed.

 

[GhostCow]

So what exactly was the reason everyone began shitting on this? I miss a few dozen pages and the attitudes have completely changed.

All the trailers look like shit, gunplay is going to be even worse than the first game, Mitsoda got fired

 

[karoliner]

Wherein Cara confirms she quit/was fired from Bloodlines 2 back in September




And a Glass Door review from September, possibly written by Cara herself given the writing style and subject matter.



If that is Cara, quite the backstabbing of Mitsoda there, calling him and Cluney a couple of con men. Accurate, though, based on my assessment.

Women belong in the kitchen.

 

[Fedora Master]

So what exactly was the reason everyone began shitting on this? I miss a few dozen pages and the attitudes have completely changed.

All the trailers look like shit, gunplay is going to be even worse than the first game, Mitsoda got fired

We knew all that early on though except the firing.

 

[vota DC]

So what exactly was the reason everyone began shitting on this? I miss a few dozen pages and the attitudes have completely changed.

There Is no game and 2000 delays for a game published by Paradox that consider a game completed even if It needs 50 DLC to be playable.

 

[Darkwind]

we're probably already getting a crpg WoD game from hairbrained schemes. probably not vampire though but Wraith or Changeling

Well thank god for that at least! It will only be 97.5% as woke as Hardsuit since according to Harebrained Schemes in the year 3000 (Battletech) there are no more white men. Which, honestly, on our current shit tier timeline, is 100% accurate...

 

[mondblut]

She was a narrative consultant on Dishonored 2

What were her glowing narrative accomplishments that made her eligible as a consultant? Other than pushing the leftist narrative in videogame luegenpresse, that is.

 

[DalekFlay]

So what exactly was the reason everyone began shitting on this? I miss a few dozen pages and the attitudes have completely changed.

Until recently the main reason I saw people hate on it was the culture war shit, along with it looking a little low-budget. Then they fired Mitsoda, who seems to have a godlike rep despite being involved in one good game, and they hired an Ubisoft guy to get it out the door. This has fueled typical cynicism.

Expectations are always the real name of the game though. I'm hoping this is Deus Ex Human Revolution level, not Deus Ex or Bloodlines 1 level, so I can hold on to a smidge of optimism.

 

[santino27]

She was a narrative consultant on Dishonored 2

What were her glowing narrative accomplishments that made her eligible as a consultant? Other than pushing the leftist narrative in videogame luegenpresse, that is.

Hell if I know. I'm not a fan, I was just answering the question.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

So what exactly was the reason everyone began shitting on this? I miss a few dozen pages and the attitudes have completely changed.

- Sequence of bad trailers not showing game in good light
- Weak developer studio is not putting its best foot forward, if that's even possible
- Mitsoda fired, he had no idea why (debatable, but his writing I was looking forward to)
- Cluney, Creative Director, fired, very little info on this, don't care all that much
- Cara Ellison fired/left in September (again, don't care about writing other than Mitsoda)
- Paradox producer, Schlutter, who I think was in charge of Paradox's RPG division, also fired
- Game release date pushed out after weak and dismal official annoucement of staffing changes and bringing in new personnel to replace Cluney and finish the game
- Nothing new shown that makes old footage look good probably won't be for a while if at all
- Glance at resumes of current designers and devs do not inspire confidence (Anna Webster, Erik Waaaaaaaananen, and the idiot lead producer who wrote the last filler dev diary)

The positive spin people seem to place on the game is that "oh, the writing must be done" to be able to get rid of these people, so there's that, but no idea what that means for the DLC.

In short, aside from the other problems I listed earlier in this thread about Hardsuit itself, the game just seems to be in development hell. It happens, but rarely at this level of ineptitude all courtesy of the studios involved, so that's entertainment at least.

 

[purupuru]

So what exactly was the reason everyone began shitting on this? I miss a few dozen pages and the attitudes have completely changed.

Because firing top people this late into production is a sure sign of project management nightmare. Maybe Mitsoda and Cara suck and totally deserve to be fired, but that can only make me even less optimistic about the game.

 

[Fedora Master]

Paradox mismanaging games? Quelle surprise.

 

[J1M]

Nobody gives a fuck about those though.

Vampire, Mage and Werewolf are the Big Three of WoD, everything else is probably too obscure and niche (in an already niche setting) to bother putting into a licensed game.

The lesser settings should essentially be used as monster manuals for Vampire.