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

[Wesp5]

I will let this dude from the Let's Play Archives reply to this.

Although having to fight Grout's wife is ridiculous, I really think she was a vampire. Grout explains on his tapes that she got sick and this is probably what it was !

 

[Lambach]

Although having to fight Grout's wife is ridiculous, I really think she was a vampire. Grout explains on his tapes that she got sick and this is probably what it was !

I don't think that's it. Also in Grout's tapes is that tidbit about his own Sire being captured by human authorities and dying of exposure to the Sun shortly after Embracing him. His Sire seemed to have been a total nutjob Malkavian and his Embrace was just a product of her insanity, not a planned action. Had his wife gone though something similar, he would've probably mentioned that as well in the tapes along with the fact that most of her "symptoms" match his own, but there was never any mention of anything like that.

 

[Semiurge]

plus all the options you get as Ventrue (dominating bums and prostitutes, even small time NPC's to do your bidding)

In the vanilla version you can't use dominate on any of the lowlifes, unless they're part of quests. It doesn't make sense, but that's hardly unusual for Bloodlines. Not that you can just talk to random bums anyway.

 

[Wunderbar]

https://www.rpgnuke.ru/2021/07/20/c...hemu-avtory-bloodlines-2-poterpeli-krakh.html

A Russian RPG site did an investigation on what Hardsuit have been doing since the time the studio was founded. It's in russian, so you'll have to use google translate.

tl;dr - it seems like the higher management are a bunch of conmen who scammed Paradox (similarly to how Randy scammed Sega with Colonial Marines), deliberately hindered the development of VTMB2, and then scapegoated Mitsoda and Cluney.

 

[Marat]

Nihil novi sub sole.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Infinitron and what's stopping you from doing investigative journalism? Hmmm?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

https://www.rpgnuke.ru/2021/07/20/c...hemu-avtory-bloodlines-2-poterpeli-krakh.html

A Russian RPG site did an investigation on what Hardsuit have been doing since the time the studio was founded. It's in russian, so you'll have to use google translate.

tl;dr - it seems like the higher management are a bunch of conmen who scammed Paradox (similarly to how Randy scammed Sega with Colonial Marines), deliberately hindered the development of VTMB2, and then scapegoated Mitsoda and Cluney.

as a sidenote, machine translation is pretty fucking good now
reading the Yandex version(I assume it has some of the best Russian<->English translation around due to it being Yandex), and it reads just like an English article.
https://translate.yandex.com/transl...-bloodlines-2-poterpeli-krakh.html&lang=ru-en

 

[Caim]

Infinitron and what's stopping you from doing investigative journalism? Hmmm?

Too busy copypasting other people's articles, like how all modern journalists do.

 

[Infinitron]

Well, their main discovery here is that Hardsuit did a bunch of port jobs on the side. Everything else (ie, the assumption that it was the reason for their failure to complete Bloodlines 2) is conjecture.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Ah yes, they spent most of their time and resources on third party work but that may not be why VtMB 2 tanked.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Paradox deserves a lot of the blame for letting it go on for so long without intervening.

 

[Wesp5]

Well, their main discovery here is that Hardsuit did a bunch of port jobs on the side. Everything else (ie, the assumption that it was the reason for their failure to complete Bloodlines 2) is conjecture.

I agree. To do port jobs you would probably only need good programers because the game assets already exist. This is very different to developing a new game like Bloodlines 2 where they would need all the game assets in the first place before even starting to string them together to get an actual game! I still have the feeling that the change of the Paradox CEO had something to do with it, like Bloodlines 2 was started under the old one and then delayed and cancelled under the new one. As if they had a different vision for what it should be...

 

[Roguey]

Seems extremely unlikely to me that Hardsuit was spending Paradox money on the port jobs. Can't imagine any publisher saying "Hey, port this other studio's game for us, no we're not going to pay you."

 

[Roguey]

Paradox cancels a bunch of non-strategy/management games but confirms that Bloodlines 2 is not among them https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/...ame-development-pipeline-writes-down-135-msek

Paradox Interactive AB (publ) has today decided to discontinue the development of several unannounced games. In connection with the cancellation, the company has written down the value of the projects which will impact the Q3 2021 profit before tax with -135 MSEK. The cancellation is a consequence of the company’s strategy to focus resources and expertise on its proven game niches and projects that better meet the company’s requirements on returns and risk.

In the past year, Paradox Interactive has continued to focus its game development and business activities on the company’s core areas. Including these cancellations Paradox Interactive has since the third quarter of 2020 cancelled the development of unannounced projects that amounts to 265 MSEK in write-offs.

“Paradox Interactive was born and raised in strategy- and management games. It is where we have our heart and our mind and we are passionate about making games that our players can enjoy over a long period of time. Therefore we have sharpened our pipeline further to ensure that the projects with the highest potential have the resources necessary for the best possible development. We now have a promising game pipeline and I look forward to sharing these games with our players over the next few years.” says CEO Fredrik Wester.

Paradox Interactive now has fifteen new games in development, some are new titles and some are sequels on existing franchises. Four of these games have been announced; the much demanded grand strategy game Victoria 3, Crusader Kings 3 for consoles, the classic Shadowrun Trilogy for console and Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. Additionally, a number of DLCs are in development, such as Royal Court for Crusader King 3.

I hope Ziets's Digimancy project made the cut for his sake even if it turns out lousy.

 

[Zombra]

The "classic" Shadowrun trilogy? Jesus fucking christ I feel old.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

The "classic" Shadowrun trilogy? Jesus fucking christ I feel old.

This 'classic' needs a sequel or two methinks.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Amusing that they're porting them to consoles considering dragon fall has had a major gamebreaking bug for years that's still unfixed.

 

[Hellion]

Apparently Paradox's CEO considered shutting the game down completely when they dropped HardSuit Labs, but eventually "received an interesting pitch" by a "very reputable and talented developer who has made a number of different games before.".

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Are there any examples of other modern games of similar scope coming out alright despite changing developers during production?

 

[JamesDixon]

Are there any examples of other modern games of similar scope coming out alright despite changing developers during production?

Duke Nukem Forever... j/k

 

[rusty_shackleford]

in before it's announced that Larian is making it

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I struggle to even imagine a scenario where this comes out and turns out to be something vaguely competent at this point.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

So, what's the general consensus here?
Are we agreeing with people who are guessing Harebrain is the studio working on it?
Or are there solid reasons to argue that it's unlikely?

 

[Gargaune]

developer who has made a number of different games before

If those were his actual words, that's corpospeak for "doesn't have AAA experience in the genre." The whole piece reads very pragmatically cautious, like a man who's already bracing for that eventual shareholders' meeting down the line.

 

[vortex]

So, what's the general consensus here?
Are we agreeing with people who are guessing Harebrain is the studio working on it?
Or are there solid reasons to argue that it's unlikely?

Someone said it's Splash damage, guys who also made Arkham Origins.