Editorial Reanimated: Eurogamer VTM:B retrospective profiles Brian Mitsoda and Wesp5

[Luzur]

btw, what ever happened to that zombie game that Mitsoda gal was involved with?

 

[Volrath]

btw, what ever happened to that zombie game that Mitsoda gal was involved with?

 

[Goral]

Bloodlines is one of my favourite games ever produced and gameplay is good. Hence people still play it despite the game being linear and some are dedicated enough to patch it or create mods. No one has motivation to polish a turd because it's too much of a bother and in the end you still end up with a turd, albeit glowing. That's not the case with VTM:B. Troika did a great job with this game and I prefer it over shitty boring Icewind Dale for example.

 

[Space Satan]

Not sure if White Wolf would want another company to make a Vampire game. They've merged with CCP (makers of EVE), and are making a WoD MMO. Having another company make a different game would most likely dilute their brand.

Wait, what? How online faggotry ever deluted single-player game sales? If some shitty Vampire: The Masquerade book- goddamn paper book! - on kickstarter managed to earn four times their initial goal (240000$) then VTM game would be flowing in cash by day 2.

 

[Wesp5]

Activision gave Troika three years and they had to start over from scratch once because their first idea was beyond terrible.

As far as I know Troika had to start all over again all the time, because Valve were still updating the Source engine and Troika always had to adjust to a newer version. Then at some time they decided to stop and stay with the alpha version otherwise they would never be able to finish the game.

Brian Mitsoda once said they started from scratch at the time he joined Troika, but where did you get the info from that this was because their first idea was beyond terrible?

As for some numbers, even before the Eurogame article came out, the download numbers of the latest Unofficial Patch had succeeded 75.000 in the three month since release !

 

[Infinitron]

Sup Wesp

 

[Roguey]

Activision gave Troika three years and they had to start over from scratch once because their first idea was beyond terrible.

As far as I know Troika had to start all over again all the time, because Valve were still updating the Source engine and Troika always had to adjust to a newer version. Then at some time they decided to stop and stay with the alpha version otherwise they would never be able to finish the game.

Brian Mitsoda once said they started from scratch at the time he joined Troika, but where did you get the info from that this was because their first idea was beyond terrible?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/04/06/interview-without-a-vampire-bloodlines-b-mitsoda/

Mitsoda: Bloodlines was already into production when I joined Troika. The Half-Life 2 engine wasn’t finished. There was some preliminary design and some levels built, but most of the work that was there was revamped and, for the most part, the design was started from scratch.

Starting the design from scratch suggests their previous idea wasn't feasible at all.

Also Brian joined Troika in mid-to-late 2002, after they had already spent a year on it.

 

[Infinitron]

Not feasible != "terrible"

 

[Irenaeus]

Roguey's gonna rogue

 

[tuluse]

None of the gameplay parts of Bloodlines are any good; in fact they are quite awful. It could work as a visual novel, which makes it a failure as a game.

Movement is good, using powers is satisfying, loot has a nice progression, I liked exploring the detailed hubs.

 

[laclongquan]

Roguey's gonna rogue

 

[villain of the story]

Her voice actor wasn't actually from Japan and mispronounces a lot of words. Ming Xiao was also voiced by a white woman. Yellowface bullshit.

White actors playing Asians is one thing but voice acting? Give me a fucking break. You shouldn't just repeat every feminist/SJ trope that you hear without questioning the context.

None of the gameplay parts of Bloodlines are any good; in fact they are quite awful. It could work as a visual novel, which makes it a failure as a game.

Any work is to be considered as a whole, not on the basis of its individual parts. Dialogue is part of gameplay. Exploration is part of gameplay. And they are good. That is half the game. Even combat and stealth had good bits. Therefore, it is a good game with major flaws.

And it wouldn't work half as good as a visual novel because so much of the content is designed to be experienced through gameplay involvement that wouldn't work for passive spectating.

No butthurt revisionist bullshit here, Mary-Neo Sue.

As for Activision; dictating a release at the same time HL2 came out alone is enough to bury whatever slandering revisionist bullshit you come up with.

 

[Infinitron]

Roguey What's your opinion of the original Deus Ex?

 

[Serious_Business]

Bloodlines is good and I have this carefully crafted argument to convince you about this



MY DICK
MY FUCKING PENIS
UEAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHH

 

[villain of the story]

Roguey What's your opinion of the original Deus Ex?

Boring box level design where every level follows the same formulaic gameplay approach full of repetition. Augmentation cheats. Broken AI. Clunky combat. Broken gameplay due to abundance of snacks and health packs all over the place. Misogynist subtext as all the good-natured female characters are weak and helpless and only serve to help or empower the player (save Carla Brown the scientist, get unquestioning help from Carmela the maid, convince Nicolette DuClare with a single line to get her to help you, save Tiffany Savage the guerilla fighter or let her get executed, save Sandra Renton or let her get killed, save Stephanie Maxwell the scientist) who gets to be their personal saviour and they don't display an ounce of agency or independence and are otherwise insignificant. Rest of the female characters, including those with any amount of agency, power or skill (either physical or political) all display inhumane traits with foreboding evil motivations and they all try to kill the player at some point (Anna Navarre, Destiny Savannah the VersaLife secretary, Janice Reed the UNATCO secretary, Mari Hela the Woman In Black, Maggie Chow) and most of the female bystanders are prostitutes or are dressed in sexually objectifying clothing. Plus Maggie Chow is voiced by a WHITE VOICE ACTOR YELLOWVOICESHIT BURN WITH FIRE. Flat writing with constipated and dull voice acting and layers upon layers of poorly written nonsensical self-contradicting conspiracies laid on a male fantasy wish fulfillment plot in a failed attempt to obscure its many holes.

So not only are the gameplay parts awful but the entire game is one bland soup of misogynist bore. No wonder most of the conspiracy theorists are also men.

edit: oops, forgot to sign in with the correct account.

 

[dnf]

Roguey What's your opinion of the original Deus Ex?

Boring box level design where every level follows the same formulaic gameplay approach full of repetition. Augmentation cheats. Broken AI. Clunky combat. Broken gameplay due to abundance of snacks and health packs all over the place. Misogynist subtext as all the good-natured female characters are weak and helpless and only serve to help or empower the player (save Carla Brown the scientist, get unquestioning help from Carmela the maid, convince Nicolette DuClare with a single line to get her to help you, save Tiffany Savage the guerilla fighter or let her get executed, save Sandra Renton or let her get killed, save Stephanie Maxwell the scientist) who gets to be their personal saviour and they don't display an ounce of agency or independence and are otherwise insignificant. Rest of the female characters, including those with any amount of agency, power or skill (either physical or political) all display inhumane traits with foreboding evil motivations and they all try to kill the player at some point (Anna Navarre, Destiny Savannah the VersaLife secretary, Janice Reed the UNATCO secretary, Mari Hela the Woman In Black, Maggie Chow) and most of the female bystanders are prostitutes or are dressed in sexually objectifying clothing. Plus Maggie Chow is voiced by a WHITE VOICE ACTOR YELLOWVOICESHIT BURN WITH FIRE.

edit: oops, forgot to sign in with the correct account.

So, they put women on a realistic light, what's so wrong with it?

 

[FeelTheRads]

When you see Roguey saying a game has shitty gameplay remember she likes Alpha Protolol then point and laugh.

 

[Infinitron]

He does? I don't remember that.

 

[dnf]

He does? I don't remember that.

Xe defended it tough.(neutral pronoum for trannies plz?)

 

[Wesp5]

Even combat and stealth had good bits. Therefore, it is a good game with major flaws.

Both combat and stealth were improved by the Unofficial Patch plus version. Especially stealth is now much more realistic!

Boring box level design where every level follows the same formulaic gameplay approach full of repetition. Augmentation cheats. Broken AI. Clunky combat. Broken gameplay due to abundance of snacks and health packs all over the place...Flat writing with constipated and dull voice acting and layers upon layers of poorly written nonsensical self-contradicting conspiracies laid on a male fantasy wish fulfillment plot in a failed attempt to obscure its many holes.

Amazing summary that I have to agree too! I never noticed the thing about the women, but just compare Chinatown in Bloodlines with Chinatown in Deus Ex and you will see that one title was very much over-hyped. Granted, it was the first game to introduce multiple solutions to navigate a map, but indeed they were much too obvious with always a vent where one was needed and some buildings seemingly build around the philosophy and not the other way around like it should be.

 

[Lancehead]

None of the gameplay parts of Bloodlines are any good; in fact they are quite awful. It could work as a visual novel, which makes it a failure as a game.

Any work is to be considered as a whole, not on the basis of its individual parts. Dialogue is part of gameplay. Exploration is part of gameplay. And they are good. That is half the game. Even combat and stealth had good bits. Therefore, it is a good game with major flaws.

That may be so, but it also means builds specialising in the flawed individual parts would wind up unsatisfying. If melee is considered to be awful, then a build specialising in melee would be awful, for example.

 

[Wesp5]

Sup Wesp

If this is more than just a greeting , I'll tell you that patch 8.7 is near release and besides some more fixing and restoration it will include a Sabbat ending! Not perfect of course because we could only use the stuff Troika provided, but you'll now finally have the option to choose all sides.

 

[Excidium]

Sup Wesp

If this is more than just a greeting , I'll tell you that patch 8.7 is near release and besides some more fixing and restoration it will include a Sabbat ending! Not perfect of course because we could only use the stuff Troika provided, but you'll now finally have the option to choose all sides.

Do we still get to kick Andrei's ass for being a incompetent retard if we go sabbat?

 

[villain of the story]

I'll play again with 8.7 then. I'm a Vanilla Virgin, so it will be my first time! I've only ever played BL with the fixes.

 

[Wesp5]

Do we still get to kick Andrei's ass for being a incompetent retard if we go sabbat?

No, but if you join him you can save yourself the long fight through the Hallowbrook hotel !