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

[Mexi]

So Mitsoda lost another job? Damn, they keep takn' his jerb!

By the way, that video of Damsel was depressing. She came across hot in the original, not some fucking creature from Tumblr. I guess we dodged a bullet, though. I remember people posing those developer documents, and this game was going to be full on woke to the levels we've probably never seen before. I'm glad they pulled the rug from Mitsoda's company. I fucking hate that developers are now averse to hot bitches in video games. Makes me sick seeing the ugly character models everywhere.

 

[Ismaul]

Guys, Mitsoda wasn't lead of anything except narrative. He wasn't project lead, wasn't lead designer, wasn't producer, wasn't lead programmer, and it wasn't his company. He was exactly where he needed to be: the special guest star of the project.

If things shit the bed, it's highly unlikely it was on him. If it was, they'd have fired him only, not everyone on top and then the whole studio. In fact, they wouldn't have greenlighted the project on the sole basis of his narrative pitch in the first place.

 

[d1r]

He just was the kid with the cool gloves, you say?

 

[vortex]

My best hunch at the moment is Splash Damage:

What about Bioware? They were under hardcore reform and revision. Bioware's Bloodlines shall win even most based hearts of Delete-terrius and Jenkis-khan.

 

[Lovely Feather Pillow]

Makes me sick seeing the ugly character models everywhere.

There’s obviously a concerted effort to make females as unattractive as possible these days, but I think another culprit is a lack of talent. I always chalked up the awful character models in The Outer Worlds and Mass Effect Andromeda to a lack of talent more than anything, though I acknowledge that Obsidian purposely made every woman in Outer Worlds look like an ANTIFA member from Portland, Oregon. Games will continue to decline, both aesthetically and mechanically, as more hack millennials enter the workforce IMO.

 

[Larianshill]

While I think that lack of competence is an issue, looking at Ryder's default male model, I can't help but feel they made an effort to make him as unmanly as possible. He's even short.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Guys, Mitsoda wasn't lead of anything except narrative. He wasn't project lead, wasn't lead designer, wasn't producer, wasn't lead programmer, and it wasn't his company. He was exactly where he needed to be: the special guest star of the project.

If things shit the bed, it's highly unlikely it was on him. If it was, they'd have fired him only, not everyone on top and then the whole studio. In fact, they wouldn't have greenlighted the project on the sole basis of his narrative pitch in the first place.

I have no idea where people keep getting this idea that he was anything other than a writer.
I highly doubt that writing -- of all things -- was the reason development was going so slow.

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

My best hunch at the moment is Splash Damage:

What about Bioware? They were under hardcore reform and revision. Bioware's Bloodlines shall win even most based hearts of Delete-terrius and Jenkis-khan.

I think that's way beyond the realms of possibility, for many reasons.

 

[Melcar]

Talented artists are not hard to come by. You can see their work all over social media like on IG and FB. It's just that either that talent isn't interested in games or the studios themselves don't hire that talent anymore (incompetence in hiring culture or just agenda).

 

[DeepOcean]

What I'm curious is that any tard that isnt lazy can make the basic systems of a FPS with RPG stats on Unity or Unreal in something like six months, what the fuck those idiots were doing? All their press releases were really light on content and full of woketard fluff. What was the problem? A linear/hub based game that doesnt have high end graphics doesnt require much in terms of coding unless you are trying to make a new engine from scratch, what is an unbelievable dumb idea for those types of games.

Their problem was the artist pipeline/ level designers? Those are the ones that are really demanded hard on this type of game. Could Hard Suit Labs be syphoning Paradox money to other stuff? It wouldnt be the first time a developer does this. Really strange, there are only three things that could have lead Paradox to pull the plug: a) They were trying to make a new engine from scratch and failed hard, having to start over because what they had was too disfunctional and Paradox lost confidence, b) Scope creep, what would be strange because pretty much all developers pass through scope creep, usually this is solved by cutting down the game and pulling the plug this way seems a too radical decision, c) Paradox lost confidence on the management of the company, they were unwilling, incapable to manage the game or maybe even syphoning resources from Paradox as they were strangely hiring people for another project.

The company passed a really chaotic impression, even Brian and the leader designer didnt convince me as leaders at all , they looked more like a bunch of friends hanging out on a party than a company. I didnt see any of them capable of forcing the others to get their shit together and actually take action.

 

[Storyfag]

(incompetence in hiring culture or just agenda).

The former. HR departments are the scourge of civilisation.

 

[Bad Sector]

"Well, if one wants to be the party pooper here, there is nothing to even remotely suggest that Hardsuit Labs is a triple A company.

FWIW Troika wasn't a "triple A" company either (despite the name :-P), if anything they could barely hold their two As together. Which was for the best IMO.

Only devs I could trust to finish this and it being still worthy of playing would be ELEX ones.

I like ELEX but i do not think all women having the same face would work for VtMB :-P

 

[rusty_shackleford]

What I'm curious is that any tard that isnt lazy can make the basic systems of a FPS with RPG stats on Unity or Unreal in something like six months, what the fuck those idiots were doing?

Reminder that we were never shown any part of the game's RPG mechanics whatsoever. Not even a character sheet. IIRC there were a couple(?) very short gameplay demos that were janky as hell.

 

[Melcar]

It's obvious the budget was going elsewhere.

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

It's obvious the budget was going elsewhere.

Brian's fingerless glove collection and Martin's beverage consumption.

 

[Melcar]

It was the fingerless glove man!

 

[PlacidDragon]

FWIW Troika wasn't a "triple A" company either (despite the name :-P), if anything they could barely hold their two As together. Which was for the best IMO

In their field (RPG's), i'd absolutely call Troika a triple A company

 

[Heroic Liberator]

FWIW Troika wasn't a "triple A" company either (despite the name :-P), if anything they could barely hold their two As together. Which was for the best IMO

In their field (RPG's), i'd absolutely call Troika a triple A company

A troika of As.

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

What I'm curious is that any tard that isnt lazy can make the basic systems of a FPS with RPG stats on Unity or Unreal in something like six months, what the fuck those idiots were doing?

Reminder that we were never shown any part of the game's RPG mechanics whatsoever. Not even a character sheet. IIRC there were a couple(?) very short gameplay demos that were janky as hell.

The whole combat concept was basically a poor man's Mirror's Edge, going as far as including the inane 3rd-person finishers from Catalyst (plus Bioware's "awesome-button" for how they handled the Disciplines).

 

[Latelistener]

Guys, Mitsoda wasn't lead of anything except narrative. He wasn't project lead, wasn't lead designer, wasn't producer, wasn't lead programmer, and it wasn't his company. He was exactly where he needed to be: the special guest star of the project.

If things shit the bed, it's highly unlikely it was on him. If it was, they'd have fired him only, not everyone on top and then the whole studio. In fact, they wouldn't have greenlighted the project on the sole basis of his narrative pitch in the first place.

I have no idea where people keep getting this idea that he was anything other than a writer.
I highly doubt that writing -- of all things -- was the reason development was going so slow.

Because those two guys literally pitched the project to Hardsuit and then to Paradox.

If Cluney was the creative director you would be fooling yourself thinking that his pal Mitsoda was just a writer. Maybe on paper.

 

[PlacidDragon]

Considering that Mitsoda and Cluney were friends I assume they were both in charge. And Mitsoda in charge is bad thing.

Mitsoda was only the narrative lead (responsible for the story), he had nothing to do with anything else as far as i know. Cluney was the creative director, which i am a tad more fuzzy on the responsibilities of. I think its a "multiple hats" type of job, helping out various departments as needed.

Edit : ahh, you just replied to someone on this subject. Hardsuit pitched it to Paradox using Mitsoda, yes, seeing how Mitsoda was the lead writer on the original game. Mitsoda was the catch that made Paradox bite (most likely), and he was used heavily towards the audience for the same reason.

Then he got fired (if i recall, he said that they were always on top of things in the writing department, and everything seemed just fine... and then *boom* out of nowhere). How accurate that is i couldn't say anything about however

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Guys, Mitsoda wasn't lead of anything except narrative. He wasn't project lead, wasn't lead designer, wasn't producer, wasn't lead programmer, and it wasn't his company. He was exactly where he needed to be: the special guest star of the project.

If things shit the bed, it's highly unlikely it was on him. If it was, they'd have fired him only, not everyone on top and then the whole studio. In fact, they wouldn't have greenlighted the project on the sole basis of his narrative pitch in the first place.

I have no idea where people keep getting this idea that he was anything other than a writer.
I highly doubt that writing -- of all things -- was the reason development was going so slow.

Because those two guys literally pitched the project to Hardsuit and then to Paradox.

If Cluney was the creative director you would be fooling yourself thinking that his pal Mitsoda was just a writer. Maybe on paper.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/brian-mitsoda-has-been-fired-as-narrative-lead-on-bloodlines-2

In his statement to RPS, which is quoted in full below, Mitsoda says that he is "incredibly disappointed and frustrated to say that this is where it ends for me on the project." He says that he's been involved with the project since its very beginning, in charge of narrative, and he had "never been led to believe that I hadn’t succeeded" in fulfilling the projects goals. He also describes the game's marketing as something which was "intensely difficult and took a mental and physical toll."

I was not part of the conversations that led to the decision to delay production, and to my knowledge, there were no delays caused by the Bloodlines 2 narrative development. I am confident and proud of the work that I and my team put forward. When that work will be seen and what form it will take is unknown to me.

If you have some proof of him doing something otherwise, then show it.

 

[KateMicucci]

There’s obviously a concerted effort to make females as unattractive as possible these days, but I think another culprit is a lack of talent. I always chalked up the awful character models in The Outer Worlds and Mass Effect Andromeda to a lack of talent more than anything, though I acknowledge that Obsidian purposely made every woman in Outer Worlds look like an ANTIFA member from Portland, Oregon. Games will continue to decline, both aesthetically and mechanically, as more hack millennials enter the workforce IMO.

It's baffling that a game creator can put so much effort into trying to make us like a character, but then not bother to make them look good.

I want to play games that feature muscular, square-jawed chads and beautiful maidens with hair and boob physics. I think most people do.

 

[Melcar]

He was just the name. Kind of like with Avellone. These celebrity devs from olden times are just there for star power and for initial morale boost among the staff. They may get a bone or two thrown in there direction, but the people in power won't hesitate in discarding them.

 

[Latelistener]

Guys, Mitsoda wasn't lead of anything except narrative. He wasn't project lead, wasn't lead designer, wasn't producer, wasn't lead programmer, and it wasn't his company. He was exactly where he needed to be: the special guest star of the project.

If things shit the bed, it's highly unlikely it was on him. If it was, they'd have fired him only, not everyone on top and then the whole studio. In fact, they wouldn't have greenlighted the project on the sole basis of his narrative pitch in the first place.

I have no idea where people keep getting this idea that he was anything other than a writer.
I highly doubt that writing -- of all things -- was the reason development was going so slow.

Because those two guys literally pitched the project to Hardsuit and then to Paradox.

If Cluney was the creative director you would be fooling yourself thinking that his pal Mitsoda was just a writer. Maybe on paper.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/brian-mitsoda-has-been-fired-as-narrative-lead-on-bloodlines-2

In his statement to RPS, which is quoted in full below, Mitsoda says that he is "incredibly disappointed and frustrated to say that this is where it ends for me on the project." He says that he's been involved with the project since its very beginning, in charge of narrative, and he had "never been led to believe that I hadn’t succeeded" in fulfilling the projects goals. He also describes the game's marketing as something which was "intensely difficult and took a mental and physical toll."

I was not part of the conversations that led to the decision to delay production, and to my knowledge, there were no delays caused by the Bloodlines 2 narrative development. I am confident and proud of the work that I and my team put forward. When that work will be seen and what form it will take is unknown to me.

If you have some proof of him doing something otherwise, then show it.

We'll only have proof when someone who worked at Hardsuit will spill the beans.

Mitsoda covering his own ass is not exactly a proof. Of course he'll say everything was good and he doesn't understand why he was fired.

If Paradox was confident about him and satisfied with his work, they would offer him to join another studio and help with the transition the project. Instead, they just cut all the ties with him, despite the fact that he was a key selling point for Bloodlines 2.