VtM: Bloodlines - Retrospective @ RPS

[Couchpotato]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Cara Ellison has written a new article for Vampire The Masquerade:Bloodlines as part of her S.EXE columns , and posted the first part.

Bloodlines treats characters as much more complex than we have a right to expect from games, though I think there could be huge improvement in its treatment of women and sexuality, and its treatment of people of colour is very poor. It still manages to stand out from other games in the way it welcomes sexual themes, and doesn’t end up being hamfisted about the negotiations spurred on by them. The grimy, murky environmental art only serves to make the world somehow smokier, sexier too. The mood is an important reason you indulge the cartoonish character models. It’s hard to make NPCs into real, live people. It’s hard to make a player feel like they are a sexual being. Somehow Troika did it, by preserving a particular mood, by making characters bluster in with all their id and ego and a charming rapport. They made you understand that although the game wants you to fetishise others (namely goth chicks), that those goth chicks have agendas. And yes, the next time we visit, perhaps when my laptop is not so broken, we will talk more about Jeanette and her brash seduction techniques.

More information.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

VTM: Bloodlines, the game with the most retrospectives?

 

[Vindicator]

I still plan on playing this game… someday.
I bought it on release day, played a couple of hours, thought it was a diamond in the rough and decided to wait for the patch… and it was buried and forgotten in a box somewhere. Now I think I'll just wait for the unofficial patch 10.0.

 

[Deleted User]

I still plan on playing this game… someday.
I bought it on release day, played a couple of hours, thought it was a diamond in the rough and decided to wait for the patch… and it was buried and forgotten in a box somewhere. Now I think I'll just wait for the unofficial patch 10.0.

Play it, play it now.

Seriously, I just finished it up for the first time ever the other day and I think it is the best game I've ever played. It's really good.

 

[SpoonFULL]

Seriously, I just finished it up for the first time ever the other day and I think it is the best game I've ever played. It's really good.

You obviously have not played Fallout New Vegas yet!

 

[Deleted User]

You obviously have not played Fallout New Vegas yet!

Have played, actually. I even beat the game . However, I didn't give it my usual thorough open-world exploration apparently, because I seem to have missed a lot of the game because people are saying it took them hundreds of hours to get through where it took me like 40-60 (can't remember).

My honest feelings of New Vegas was there wasn't much to see in the world. I'll have to pick it up again sometime and give it another look.

 

[SpoonFULL]

Have played, actually. I even beat the game . However, I didn't give it my usual thorough open-world exploration apparently, because I seem to have missed a lot of the game because people are saying it took them hundreds of hours to get through where it took me like 40-60 (can't remember).

My honest feelings of New Vegas was there wasn't much to see in the world. I'll have to pick it up again sometime and give it another look.

I take my suggestion back then. I found the writing and stories in New Vegas on par with Bloodlines if not better, and so are the characters.

It took me 120 hours to finish New Vegas (without any of the DLCs). I plan to revisit it with the DLCs which I understand adds significant number of hours.

 

[Vindicator]

Seriously, I just finished it up for the first time ever the other day and I think it is the best game I've ever played. It's really good.

Yeah, I plan on playing VTMB as soon as I get the chance… but it will have to wait until after Divinity Original Sin and Wasteland 2.

Same thing with Fallout New Vegas… I bought the nice collector's edition and guide, and played about 20 hours until I put it aside to wait for patches… never went back… maybe one of these days. I put hundreds of hours into Fallout 3 and all the expansions, but I don't have the time to waste now. Too many good games and too little time.

 

[pseudonymous]

I still plan on playing this game… someday.
I bought it on release day, played a couple of hours, thought it was a diamond in the rough and decided to wait for the patch… and it was buried and forgotten in a box somewhere. Now I think I'll just wait for the unofficial patch 10.0.

I would suggest ignoring the unofficial patch and going with the true patch. Nothing against We5p's dedication, but the number of crashes his patch caused are incredibly off putting to the point that I rage-uninstalled the game.

 

[JDR13]

I would suggest ignoring the unofficial patch and going with the true patch. Nothing against We5p's dedication, but the number of crashes his patch caused are incredibly off putting to the point that I rage-uninstalled the game.

I played VtMB in 2009 or 10' with Wesp's patch, and I don't recall having any major issues. I only had the "basic" version of the patch installed though.

 

[Vindicator]

I would suggest ignoring the unofficial patch and going with the true patch. Nothing against We5p's dedication, but the number of crashes his patch caused are incredibly off putting to the point that I rage-uninstalled the game.

So, it sounds like it might be a good idea for me to wait for patch 10.0 after all… In any case, it's an excuse to put off playing it for another year while I wade through the upcoming flood of RPGs.

 

[JDR13]

So, it sounds like it might be a good idea for me to wait for patch 10.0 after all… In any case, it's an excuse to put off playing it for another year while I wade through the upcoming flood of RPGs.

It runs just fine the way it is now. All major bugs were fixed a long time ago. At this point, his updates only include minor tweaks that you wouldn't notice anyways.

 

[Vindicator]

It runs just fine the way it is now.

Good to know… I'll give it a try if I can find it (buried in a box somewhere, among dozens of other forgotten games).

 

[SpoonFULL]

Good to know… I'll give it a try if I can find it (buried in a box somewhere, among dozens of other forgotten games).

Maybe you don't have to, as it might be on the Steam summer sale soon very cheap - just keep your eyes open!