So, gamefly has VtM: Bloodlines on sale - why haven't you played it yet?

[Mangod]

Those 5 bucks are going to my buy dawnguard fund so no :/

Warmahordes fan? Me too

OT: I already own a CD copy. Yes, the game can be clunky without patching, but it's still so god-damn enjoyable to just listen to the games dialog. And the fact that you don't get to grind for exps is a big plus in my book.

 

[RaNDM G]

Because I'm sick to death of vampires. Television and film is way oversaturated in these serious, sexy, overpowered, god-tier, we-can-never-work, sparkles-in-sunlight vampire shows. I swear, every time I channel surf and spot a vampire soap, I get the urge to tear someone's throat out.

 

[Indecipherable]

My biggest complaint of the game is that as a vampire, you feel weak as shit. I don't know if it is just the horrible implementation of powers or just asstastic combat, but I just don't feel like a vampire. The game also lies, because guns ARE the best weapons for both vampires and humans.

I'm not really going to argue against your opinion about whether you enjoy the game or not, that's just silly to try and say you're wrong for not liking something.

...but what you have written here is very odd.

If you are talking about the very beginning of the game (I assume you must be, for reasons later) then yes, you are weak, because you begin the game literally on the very first night of your embrace. You are meant to be weak - comparatively. You can still take half a dozen baseball bats to the face, a like amount of pistol shots at point blank range, and can further kill someone with your bare hands in about 5-10 seconds. That's really without any investments in skills too. You do still die 'easily' if you just think being a vampire for an hour means you can march in and tank 10 people with pistols knives and guns, but to me that's an unreasonable expectation. Particularly for an RPG where you grow with power as time goes on.

Which leads me to why I said I assume you must have experiences only the very beginning of the game, because even half way through you are pretty close to untouchable to most humans. High levels of Obfuscate means you are literally invisible and can stealth kill without even appearing before their eyes. There is blood magic and dementation that just instantly kills one or more humans without them having any chance of living. You trivialise humans quite early on.

As for guns being the best - obfuscate + melee or brawling = humans can't see you, can't fight you, you automatically beat every human you ever meet.

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

Why haven't I played it? Because it has an absurd name. Why would you have 2 separate subtitles? It would be like calling a Dragon Age: Origins sequel, Dragon Age: Origins: Dragon Slayer.

Yes, I am that petty.

 

[TehCookie]

Because it takes a furious dicking to run on my PC. I got it to run once right after I bought it but when I tried to start it up the next time it went back to not working and I didn't feel like fucking with it when I have so many other functional games.

 

[DingoDoom]

My biggest complaint of the game is that as a vampire, you feel weak as shit. I don't know if it is just the horrible implementation of powers or just asstastic combat, but I just don't feel like a vampire. The game also lies, because guns ARE the best weapons for both vampires and humans.

I'm not really going to argue against your opinion about whether you enjoy the game or not, that's just silly to try and say you're wrong for not liking something.

...but what you have written here is very odd.

If you are talking about the very beginning of the game (I assume you must be, for reasons later) then yes, you are weak, because you begin the game literally on the very first night of your embrace. You are meant to be weak - comparatively. You can still take half a dozen baseball bats to the face, a like amount of pistol shots at point blank range, and can further kill someone with your bare hands in about 5-10 seconds. That's really without any investments in skills too. You do still die 'easily' if you just think being a vampire for an hour means you can march in and tank 10 people with pistols knives and guns, but to me that's an unreasonable expectation. Particularly for an RPG where you grow with power as time goes on.

Which leads me to why I said I assume you must have experiences only the very beginning of the game, because even half way through you are pretty close to untouchable to most humans. High levels of Obfuscate means you are literally invisible and can stealth kill without even appearing before their eyes. There is blood magic and dementation that just instantly kills one or more humans without them having any chance of living. You trivialise humans quite early on.

As for guns being the best - obfuscate + melee or brawling = humans can't see you, can't fight you, you automatically beat every human you ever meet.

I played as a Bruha (?) the guys that have more animalistic powers as my first character. I did not have access to obfuscate but I think was animal eyes and feral claws or something like that. The problem I was mentioning was from the second hub area of the game where I had to go into a penthouse to beat up a mob boss. Charging in claws or hammer swinging was pretty much suicide.

I stand by my point that as a vampire, I felt way to weak. You either played as a Malkavian or an Noferatu I assume from the reference to Obfuscate so obviously you had a much easier time in perma-stealth. I don't expect to tank 10 guys in the beginning, but I do however feel that the bullets did way more damage to me then it should. If it was a flamethrower I would understand, but getting sprayed by machine gun fire/sniper shots (from a certain level with that annoying vampire hunter) should not drop me from full all the way down to 25% of my health. I don't know if you have certain mods installed or not, but I played on vanilla as my first character and as a Malkavian on my second with the unofficial mod.

Guns actually just do flat out more damage than melee with upgrades. True I could use obfuscate, if I had access to it, but I don't for other vampires. Humans become a slight annoyance later on, but to say the ones who have guns pose no threat is just plain wrong if I don't have obfuscate. Also, not all enemies are humans and again, without obfuscate, going toe to toe with mobs in melee is just plain stupid.

 

[EclipseoftheDarkSun]

It was a good dialog based game but a crappy action game - I played it through once, but that was with an invulnerability cheat on and sneaking most of the time - it seemed pretty near impossible to have played it without that - several combats would have been keyboard-smashingly frustrating I think. Nosferatu are the least pleasant to use given mortal's reactions. Some areas were annoyingly long/confusing like the catacombs with the nosferatu. I recommend it with the invulnerability cheat, playing through once, particularly if you know anything about the 'World of Darkness' setting of the Vampire: The Masquerade roleplaying game setting by White Wolf. Maybe if there was a high regen or high lifepoints patch it might be okay - most battles against non-'Bosses' are acceptable in terms of difficulty, but the bosses can be infuriatingly tough.

The graphics are a little dated and might not be acceptable to people who don't like the conversation-aspected role playing games like fallout and arcanum and planescape torment. Might even be worth playing through a couple of times, at least if certain areas of the game were a bit less padded (catacombs) to try out the different abilities that come with the different vampire types. Your ghoul (human female fed vampire blood, making her like a weaker vampire able to move around during the day) is an interesting addition to the game and sneaking around people's apartments is amusing.

I played a Malkavian (crazy vampire type that has the ability to control other's minds by making them insane)and that was reasonably interesting. The radio conversations weren't bad, but not nearly as interesting as the talkback radio channels in GTA3/4.

If only they could have created it nowadays, blending in that game with the graphics and fighting style of Batman: Arkham City/Asylum + GTA IV or Saints Row 3 + Infamous 1/2

 

[random_bars]

In case you have, in which case that question doesn't concern you. But for the rest of you, Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines is $5 (or £3.75, if you're at least 20% more awesome). I'm not going to give links, in case somebody whines about advertising. Besides, you're all big people, you can spend the 10 seconds needed to get to the sale page.
Subliminal messaging: ON
Just make sure you grab the latest Unofficial Patch [http://www.patches-scrolls.de/vampire_bloodlines.php].
Listen to my words!
But Bloodlines is one of the best RPGs I've played. I have literally lost count of the runs I have through it. While certainly not perfect, it's one very good game - has:
Blodlines is awesome!
- interesting characters
- multiple solutions to problems
- intriguing story
- zombies
- a nice dose of humour
And has one of the best takes on vampires!
All set in modern day LA. And did I mention it's $5?
$5 is not a lot of money!
I have the feeling that it wouldn't catch the attention to a lot of people but even if one takes notice, I'll have done my good deed for the month.
You will now forget me brainwashing you!
But anyway, what's your excuse for not playing Bloodlines?
You, heathens.

Remember: whenever you try to recommend a game to people, they'll act as though you have some sort of ulterior motive, as though you're secretly trying to trick them into playing a bad game for kicks. And the more you gush about the game, the more likely they are to pass you off as a loon.

I have no idea why this happens but it does, so there's just some advice for ya.

 

[EclipseoftheDarkSun]

Because I'm sick to death of vampires. Television and film is way oversaturated in these serious, sexy, overpowered, god-tier, we-can-never-work, sparkles-in-sunlight vampire shows. I swear, every time I channel surf and spot a vampire soap, I get the urge to tear someone's throat out.

You must be a werewolf Speaking of which, there's one in the game... *brrr*

 

[Flames66]

But anyway, what's your excuse for not playing Bloodlines?

I am playing it at the moment and having a great time. Apart from that sewer level to find the gois which dragged on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.

 

[Dandark]

A very fun game although I have never got around to finishing it. I played as the Gangrel and found them fun but im not sure I can ever play another race after trying out the Malkavians. They are so much fun, especially their dialouge.
Who knew being completely insane could be such fun, I love it when people go "Oh ****! Your a Malkavian arn't you? Im not going to understand 90% of what you say".
Only problem is I don't understand what my guy say's either xD

 

[Sacman]

Because it looks shit.

To me anyway. I'm sure it's amazing, given you have a certain taste. But it doesn't look like anything I'd enjoy. I don't like the world, I don't like the characters at a glance, the combat is apparently God awful along with every other damn mechanic...

Again, I'm sure it has some charm somewhere. It just doesn't like the charm that would charm me, if that makes sense.

Maybe I'll pick it up if it goes on sale somewhere for 99 cents. Maybe.

(Don't hate me for saying this, you did ask!)

Yeah basically this... I'm a much a fan of toybox RPGs as anyone else... hell I hold the original Deus Ex as the single greatest video game achievement so far in the history of the medium... but it just looks bad... the world seems schlocky and generic, with it's approach to portaying a Gothic/Modern setting, the story/characters simply don't seem the slightest bit interesting and while I can put up with clunky gameplay to appreciate the core design elements, it just doesn't seem to be anything special... just another RPG with a fresh coat of paint and some minor moments of, "The developers thought of everything..." which from the outside, seem to be more annoying than anything else...<.<

 

[BlackStar42]

I downloaded it off Steam and enjoy playing it a lot. I haven't finished a playthrough yet, EU3 is stealing all my free time. A word of warning- if you do want to play it, it is a major pain in the arse to get running. It was buggy when it was new, and it was never designed to work with Windows 7, so you need to use several unofficial workarounds.

 

[DoPo]

Why haven't I played it? Because it has an absurd name. Why would you have 2 separate subtitles?

Because it's a game based on the VtM franchise. Losing "the Masquerade" really devalues the title, while losing "Bloodlines" makes it not mean anything. It doesn't have the power and spread of the D&D name, so it needs it there in the title.

Because I'm sick to death of vampires. Television and film is way oversaturated in these serious, sexy, overpowered, god-tier, we-can-never-work, sparkles-in-sunlight vampire shows. I swear, every time I channel surf and spot a vampire soap, I get the urge to tear someone's throat out.

You must be a werewolf Speaking of which, there's one in the game... *brrr*

The latest UP+ makes him fightable, by the way. Well, wesp5 said that it might not be possible to kill him without cheats but maybe in the future that would be somewhat balanced.

I downloaded it off Steam and enjoy playing it a lot. I haven't finished a playthrough yet, EU3 is stealing all my free time. A word of warning- if you do want to play it, it is a major pain in the arse to get running. It was buggy when it was new, and it was never designed to work with Windows 7, so you need to use several unofficial workarounds.

Just the Unofficial Patch usually works. Well, on Steam it takes a couple of extra steps to install but still, it's only one thing.

 

[Sangreal Gothcraft]

Bought the game..added offical patch and a few mods, it is perhaps my top personal favorite game, I love the setting and the tone and the twisted humor, Only way to play is with Malkavian!

 

[Joos]

I'd buy it again if I hadn't already.

Also, as a slight nod to others here, I'd hurry up and play it soon, before it becomes too much of an eyesore.

The controls aren't so bad for melee char builds, it's worse if you are going down the run and gun route.