VtM: Bloodlines 1 Year Anniversary Q&A

[Judge Hades]

Good ideas alone does not make good games. I think that is one of the lessons learned by Troika's failure.

[Surreptishus]

Some BL bugs - crash to desktop, stuttering, graphical weirdness - people's legs moving too fast, horrible loading times.

 

I've experienced all those personally and they seem to be common issues. TBH mine are most probably caused by my really decrepit graphics card.

[Musopticon?]

The only bug I really experienced(apart from crashes to desktop) was the slowing down. But I bet everyone had that 'cos of memory leakage.

[Jumjalum]

I wonder who was responsible for casting and directing of the voice actors. The game had the best voice acting of any game I've ever played  :cool:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Here's hoping Obsidian have a decent voice budget for NWN2, the first NWN didn't have the best VO imo.

[Musopticon?]

I still can't understand the use of 'imo' or 'imho'. Why do you need it? People can easily see it's an opinion from the context.

[Lyric Suite]

I still can't understand the use of 'imo' or 'imho'. Why do you need it? People can easily see it's an opinion from the context.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's to prevent people from rebutting : 'but that's just your opinion...'

[Musopticon?]

So that way the relevant message becomes foolproof? I got it.

[Volourn]

NWN has great voice overs. However, to keep on topic, BL's was better overall. Then again, BL has some of the best voice overs in any game.

[Oerwinde]

Seriously, can someone give me some examples of all these bugs you keep mentioning.

 

Well, one major one I encountered was that several quests became unfinishable because everything in my haven turned into a couch. Computer, chairs, table, lamps, etc. Other than that mostly horrible graphics glitches like the screen going all wavy and crazy colored around the beach and stuff like that. A lot of the crazy buggy games people complain about, I don't even notice the bugs, this one I did. I didn't really notice any of the bugs in ToEE.

[Spider]

Well, one major one I encountered was that several quests became unfinishable because everything in my haven turned into a couch. Computer, chairs, table, lamps, etc. Other than that mostly horrible graphics glitches like the screen going all wavy and crazy colored around the beach and stuff like that. A lot of the crazy buggy games people complain about, I don't even notice the bugs, this one I did. I didn't really notice any of the bugs in ToEE.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks for the insight.

 

I usually don't notice minor bugs either, if it doesn't crash the game or break a quest I'm not terribly observant. I experienced nothing like what you described in Bloodlines but instead had my share of bugs in ToEE (like the mosters spawning inside walls bug for instance).

 

It just goes to show that your mileage may vary. And how hopeless it must be working in QA for PC RPGs.

[Calax]

I Just bounce with glee because they got Phil LaMarr to do voices in that game

[Gabrielle]

NWN has great voice overs. However, to keep on topic, BL's was better overall. Then again, BL has some of the best voice overs in any game.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Bloodlines had the best of any game that I played.

[Musopticon?]

I wouldn't say the best game, but up there in top-15, yes.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Voice acting in a game? Bloodlines by far. If the good old BG and IWD games had voiced every line than BG2 would be the best.

[metadigital]

I still can't understand the use of 'imo' or 'imho'. Why do you need it? People can easily see it's an opinion from the context.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's to prevent people from rebutting : 'but that's just your opinion...'

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

... but that's just your opinion.

[Gabrielle]

I wouldn't say the best game, but up there in top-15, yes.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Which ones do you like?

[Yst]

Bloodlines combines all my favourite ideas from the RPGs of the past five years and packages them in a fun and highly immersive bundle of gaming joy.

 

It's also the first game I've ever found myself replaying solely for the sake of hacking it. That is to say, playing around just getting ideas to modify some given things in some particular interesting or screwy way as I go along and trying them out, finding a way to make strange things happen. The combination of the Source engine and Troika's own fairly intuitive scripting makes it pretty easy to toy with. You can do essentially everything from the console save for introduce new content. Fun stuff.

[Gabrielle]

Bloodlines had lots of neat things I like as in vampires, good story, good voice acting, great character creation, sound track and characterrs that you meet. A great game which i can't say enough on.

[metadigital]

I guess I should play this game (especially as the price has dropped to c.

[Krookie]

Brothers In Arms: Earned in Blood has some great voice acting.

[Illunder]

I guess I should play this game (especially as the price has dropped to c.

[Wynne]

More importantly, he designed the Ocean House Hotel level, one of the best game levels I've ever played.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The hilarious and perfectly spot-on Malk dialogue was a million times more significant--at least, if you've had the pleasure of playing Thief 3's Shalebridge Cradle, which dwarfs all other scary levels ever, even the ones in the excellent Silent Hill series. But I digress.

 

Bloodlines is one of my favorite games. I have played it around 9 times at least, and I still don't feel sick of it. I've moderated an online RPG based on the Bloodlines setting for a year now. That's how fanatically I love this game, even though I agree 100% with Oerwinde--too much combat-pandering and weak technical chops. It's impossible to play as a REAL Toreador (i.e. use Presence to turn the tide, as opposed to pumping up a combat stat all the way and juicing your physical attributes.)

 

A wistful little part of me will always wish there'd be a sequel. But at least Obsidian got some of these talented people on board. *crosses fingers for KOTOR 3*

[Meshugger]

Bloodlines was a great RPG with great story, voiceacting and dialogue. Too bad there was atleast one gamestopping bug and the combat was horrid.

[Musopticon?]

I wouldn't say the best game, but up there in top-15, yes.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Which ones do you like?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Humm, the Thief Trilogy, Mafia, Rune, Outcast, BG 2, IWD 2, Gothic, The Avernum Trilogy, Bloodlines, Golden Eye and Broken Sword.

[Spider]

The hilarious and perfectly spot-on Malk dialogue was a million times more significant--at least, if you've had the pleasure of playing Thief 3's Shalebridge Cradle, which dwarfs all other scary levels ever, even the ones in the excellent Silent Hill series. But I digress.

 

I haven't played Thief 3 so I wouldn't know. But I'm just not that impressed with the Malk-dialogue. It's fun at first (and the stop sign and anchorman dialogues are hilarious) but after a while the novelty wears off. Besides, it's hardly groundbreaking, it's very much the same as the stupid dialogues present in Fallout 1&2 and Arcanum.

 

(The malk-dialogue was well written and great fun though, I'm not disputing that)