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

[ColaWerewolf]

Paradox should just release what Hardsuit created for free, write an apology letter for the bad quality and announce that they've hired The Chinese Room to do VtMB3, and that they'll continue giving boutique studios a shot until someone actually creates a good VtMB game. Yeah it's gonna lose them money, but by the time VtMB#8 releases I think people will start warming up to the approach and the PR will skyrocket.

 

[Fedora Master]

PDX should go down in flames and everyone who worked on this game should have their fingers broken so they can never code or tweet again.

 

[Tyranicon]

Eidos Montreal did well enough with DXD. I haven't played anything by Arkane except for Arx Fatalis, but I feel like I remember reading reasonably good things about Dishonored years ago.

I think that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a decent game (haven't played the sequels), but it still doesn't compare with the original Deus Ex which was a real masterpiece. As for Arkane, they can make a good action game in WoD universe, but not a good RPG because they don't have the experience needed for this. I hate it to say, but Obsidian seems to me the best studio suited for the job.

A dream scenario is if Obsidian got the rights for VtMB right after completing FO:NV. But that didn't happen and they ended up making POE and Outer Worlds... with the release of Grounded I'd say Obsidian is maneuvering for a broader audience. They have worked with Paradox in the past so it's not completely out of the question, if they weren't already working on Avowed.

Fuck Obsidian. Stop posting and make vampire porn RPG pls

Got a pre-alpha/prototype screenshot for you madlads.

Spoiler

Can't promise it won't be shit.

 

[Vincente]

Can't promise it won't be shit

Looks great, which city did you choose as the setting?

 

[HeroMarine]

Can't promise it won't be shit

Looks great, which city did you choose as the setting?

Looks like something in ching chong and a chinkette up the board.

 

[Skinwalker]

DX:HR was indeed decent, but it was in my opinion then and still now fundamentally an MGS3 clone that might as well have been its own franchise.

Human Revolution didn't have any of the spirit of Deus Ex, because it was made by a mainstream AAA studio and couldn't possibly stoop so low so as to entertain various "crazy conspiracy theories" that made the original game great.

Instead, they went the "misunderstood and oppressed transhuman minority" route.

 

[Storyfag]

PDX should go down in flames and everyone who worked on this game should have their fingers broken so they can never code or tweet again.

Not bad, tho the Tzimisce in me favours impaling them on wooden stakes instead. Their tortured dying screams will make such music!

 

[Tyranicon]

Can't promise it won't be shit

Looks great, which city did you choose as the setting?

It's in my own setting I've been making games in for a few years. I would describe it as a bit of a cyberpunk fantasy kitchen sink. Has a version of the SCP Foundation in it.

Also, before anybody gets the wrong idea, the game's not real 3D. I played around with 3D with my current game and found not too many advantages to justify the investment. The background is instead an IE-esque 2D image (handcrafted, yada yada), and the camera angle is fixed.

Once the Steam page is live in a few days I'll make a real post for it.

 

[Kirliean]

DX:HR was indeed decent, but it was in my opinion then and still now fundamentally an MGS3 clone that might as well have been its own franchise.

Human Revolution didn't have any of the spirit of Deus Ex, because it was made by a mainstream AAA studio and couldn't possibly stoop so low so as to entertain various "crazy conspiracy theories" that made the original game great.

Instead, they went the "misunderstood and oppressed transhuman minority" route.

Yeah, that's ultimately the most boring route they could've chosen though.

 

[Harthwain]

Human Revolution didn't have any of the spirit of Deus Ex, because it was made by a mainstream AAA studio and couldn't possibly stoop so low so as to entertain various "crazy conspiracy theories" that made the original game great.

Instead, they went the "misunderstood and oppressed transhuman minority" route.

I'd say it had bits and pieces, but not enough.

It's in my own setting I've been making games in for a few years. I would describe it as a bit of a cyberpunk fantasy kitchen sink. Has a version of the SCP Foundation in it.

I had the impression it reminds me of Shadowrun... I am not too keen on "cyberpunk fantasy" though.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Human Revolution didn't have any of the spirit of Deus Ex, because it was made by a mainstream AAA studio and couldn't possibly stoop so low so as to entertain various "crazy conspiracy theories" that made the original game great.

It's another episode of "codex pretends the video game industry didn't exist in the late 90s and it was all just a bunch of people working in their garage"

Eidos was one of the biggest video game publishers that existed(and the largest one in Europe) when Deus Ex was released.

 

[Skinwalker]

And yet, it released a video game whose plot was centered around the United Nations being an evil Illuminati-controlled NWO, an artificial plague released for global depop by transhumanist big tech billionaires, story elements like the Bilderberg group, Majestic 12, FEMA internment camps, secret mind-controlled assassins, etc.

It's almost like there was a massive cultural shift during the zeroes that sanitized the mainstream video game industry of anything that hits too close to home.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

And yes, it released a video game whose plot was centered around the United Nations being an evil Illuminati-controlled NWO, an artificial plague released for global depop by transhumanist big tech billionaires, story elements like the Bilderberg group, Majestic 12, FEMA internment camps, secret mind-controlled assassins, etc.

It's almost like there was a massive cultural shift during the zeroes that sanitized the mainstream video game industry of anything that hits too close to home.

Basically all of that was pop culture conspiracy shit you'd see on X-files at the time.

"artificial plague released for global depop by transhumanist big tech billionaires" -> x-files, spartan virus. It's even put in a vaccine.
"bilderberg group" -> x-files, The Syndicate, basically the main antagonists
"FEMA internment camps" -> x-files movie, major plot point. Even goes further to the point where they have the power to suspend the government.
there's even an x-files episode where they use vaccines to catalogue and track people.

Newer deus ex games have different themes because the culture changed.

 

[Skinwalker]

X-Files is another example of how different mainstream culture used to be before it was artificially sanitized from the top down. Oh wait, nvm, culture just randomly changed by itself. Retard.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

X-Files is another example of how different mainstream culture used to be before it was artificially sanitized from the top down. Oh wait, nvm, culture just randomly changed by itself. Retard.

So you're admitting I'm right and it being made by a "mainstream AAA studio" like you claimed actually didn't matter?
Thanks.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

Human Revolution didn't have any of the spirit of Deus Ex, because it was made by a mainstream AAA studio and couldn't possibly stoop so low so as to entertain various "crazy conspiracy theories" that made the original game great.

It's another episode of "codex pretends the video game industry didn't exist in the late 90s and it was all just a bunch of people working in their garage"

Eidos was one of the biggest video game publishers that existed(and the largest one in Europe) when Deus Ex was released.

Ion Storm Austin was the dev, with a far more shoestring budget than Ion Storm Dallas' excess. The culture of Austin was wildly different than what we'd expect from most AAA today. It also featured the last of Warren Spector's creativity.

Daikatana cost EIDOS $44M. Deus Ex cost $7M.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Human Revolution didn't have any of the spirit of Deus Ex, because it was made by a mainstream AAA studio and couldn't possibly stoop so low so as to entertain various "crazy conspiracy theories" that made the original game great.

It's another episode of "codex pretends the video game industry didn't exist in the late 90s and it was all just a bunch of people working in their garage"

Eidos was one of the biggest video game publishers that existed(and the largest one in Europe) when Deus Ex was released.

Ion Storm Austin was the dev, with a far more shoestring budget than Ion Storm Dallas' excess. The culture of Austin was wildly different than what we'd expect from most AAA today. It also featured the last of Warren Spector's creativity.

Daikatana cost EIDOS $44M. Deus Ex cost $7M.

$7M was far, far above the average for big budget titles at the time.

The next day he did just that. His pitch was pretty simple and very compelling - make the game of my dreams, biggest budget I'd ever had, biggest marketing budget, no creative interference from anyone ever... I mean, who says no to that? So I signed on with John and never looked back. I have to say, for all the weirdness around Ion Storm, he lived up to every promise.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

https://www.wired.com/2001/03/world-creators-we-got-game/

Ion Storm developer Warren Spector had a budget of $5 million to create Deus Ex, which was released last year.

For that kind of money, Spector said he had to make sure the game would appeal to a wide audience. So he designed it with two audiences in mind: the gaming geek, and the family man.

"I want to make games with depth that people can exploit if they want to," Spector said. "But I don't want to force that player into those depths, because lots of people don't want to go that far into the game."

yes, deus ex was a big budget title, no it wasn't some niche game targeted directly towards you. Yes, it was based entirely on pop culture at the time.

 

[Skinwalker]

X-Files is another example of how different mainstream culture used to be before it was artificially sanitized from the top down. Oh wait, nvm, culture just randomly changed by itself. Retard.

So you're admitting I'm right and it being made by a "mainstream AAA studio" like you claimed actually didn't matter?
Thanks.

I am admitting that you're an imbecile who doesn't understand that different decades have different mainstream. I don't think AAA even existed as a term when Deus Ex was released, nor was there any significant push to make video games "cinematic", avoid problematic topics like crazy conspiracy theories, etc. In other words, it was a different mainstream, obvious to anyone except complete cretins like yourself.

You're welcome.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I don't think AAA even existed as a term when Deus Ex was released,

It was. And Deus Ex was one.
https://www.stardock.com/stardock/articles/e3-99.html

Brad’s E3 1999 Report!

Small developers would have to lead the race here. The days of seeing several thousand games coming out to choose from are drawing to a close I think. By next year, I suspect a AAA title will have a $5 million or more budget to it with it growing more.

You were wrong, now you're backpedaling towards a completely different topic.

 

[Skinwalker]

$7M was far, far above the average for big budget titles at the time.

"7m is a bigger budget than the budget of video games with smaller budgets, durrrrrrrrrrrrr."

Go starve to death already.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

$7M was far, far above the average for big budget titles at the time.

"7m is a bigger budget than the budget of video games with smaller budgets, durrrrrrrrrrrrr."

Go starve to death already.

don't forget to apply your butthurt cream

 

[Skinwalker]

You were wrong

This moron is still pretending that the nineties/early zeroes had the same mainstream culture as the tens?

Apart from mainstream entertainment exploring a variety of topics which would be completely out of the question today, there is the fact that video games in general were still widely seen as a niche hobby. Even if the AAA term had existed at that time. The mainstream wasn't completely pozzed and subverted by the degen agenda back then, which is the reason Deus Ex was about globalist public-private partnership solidifying control through a myriad of anti-human conspiracies, whereas Human Revolution was about oppressed minorities, coping with evolving culture and shades of grey.

backpedaling towards a completely different topic.

You being too dumb to understand the topic does not concern me.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

You were wrong

This moron is still pretending that the nineties/early zeroes had the same mainstream culture as the tens?

Apart from mainstream entertainment exploring a variety of topics which would be completely out of the question today, there is the fact that video games in general were still widely seen as a niche hobby. Even if the AAA term had existed at that time. The mainstream wasn't completely pozzed and subverted by the degen agenda back then, which is the reason Deus Ex was about globalist public-private partnership solidifying control through a myriad of anti-human conspiracies, whereas Human Revolution was about oppressed minorities, coping with evolving culture and shades of grey.

backpedaling towards a completely different topic.

You being too dumb to understand the topic does not concern me.

You're arguing my point tho

 

[Skinwalker]

You're arguing my point tho

I am arguing my original point. You seem to be arguing against a strawman, though.

Are you really too stupid to understand that "cultural marxist propaganda" is inherently implied in "mainstream AAA studio" in the context of a game developed in the 10s? And why are you still pretending that video games didn't undergo a massive shift in the mid-zeroes in order to pozz, casualize and dumb them down? Retard, disingenuous edgelord, or both?