smoking can lead to jock itch? Holy crap!

Hehe..and kills cute little puppies! Anyway, I made a quick search on the net for some combat screens for Peltz. Some are huge, but that's not my problem. Don't forget that you can fight both in 1st and 3rd person (melee only in third), so don't be confused by the changing pov's.

http://www.tothegame.com/res/game/2610/ ... _large.jpg
http://www.tothegame.com/res/game/2610/ ... _large.jpg
http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/art ... 455016.jpg
http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/art ... 602809.jpg
http://www.gamebanshee.com/screenshots/ ... nshot4.jpg
http://www.gamebanshee.com/screenshots/ ... shot33.jpg

Dudes, get Vampire: Bloodlines...what a freaking great game. Best RPG I played in a looong time, too. Just finished it and I've got that "high" that you get from finishing a great game, you know?

(no spoilers, don't worry) Anyway, what's so great about it? The atmosphere is tremendous. I only played the game after dark with earpieces, to make the experience even better. I have been scared (a lot at some points), hyped, have laughed, have felt remorse (! lol) etc., all the stuff a great RPG should do, in other words. The music is awesome and fits the glamour-goth-rundown-LA atmosphere perfectly. There are tons and tons of NPC's, all with their own voice. The conversations are great (as you might have noticed from the screenshots), both in content and facial animations. It was also nice to notice that my weak character could talk/hack her way through many of the more difficult fights. In a later level I was in a building packed with vamps with machineguns and low health, so I hacked into the system, turned all the lights off and sneaked past them in the dark (using my auspex skill, some sort of nightvision/heath detector vision ). And that's only one example. The quests are usually very intuitive, there's only one single moment that I really had to think over before figuring it out, compare that to some other RPG's... And maybe most important of all: the plot rox0rs! Up until really, really late in the game the motives of all conflicting parties were very unclear...I respected and loathed all of them to some extent, only at the end things began unfolding. Sure, there were some suspicions and hunches, but everyone had reasonable explanations. So, superb story with different endings. (I gather) There's prolly more but bleh, I'm a little bit too hyped on coke and gaming to make good sentences and stories.

Moving on the lesser stuff, tho: it's freaking heavy on my pc. Granted I'm not the owner of a killermachine, but jesus, I could play HL2 and Doom3 without probs at medium settings, whereas I'm still suffering from low FPS in big populated areas and long loadtimes in Bloodlines with everything set to low. That much even that I'd prolly not have continued playing if it hadn't been this great. Another technical thing is that there are a few bugs in it...nothing major, I myself only encountered one game-crashing one, but still. It seems like Troika didn't spend much time streamlining and debugging bloodlines in the 6 months extra they had cos of H-L2. A lot of ppl out there recommend waiting for the first patch to come out to play the game, because of all a mentioned above. But all you biatches have monsterpc's (I'm looking at you Satis )so the performance shouldn't be a prob. Other beef I had were gameplay things...there are 10 'ranks' in ranged combat (in everything really), but it wasn't until rank 9 (!) that I could use a sniper rifle decently, at 7 it's still like very jumpy. I'm just saying: ranged combat is hard, and you need to be really good at it before being any use. I was gonna yak about combat balance towards the end but bleh. It's prolly cos my char's a wuss that I had some probs.


So:

PLUS
----
->atmosphere, w00t!
->plot rocks
->character's abilities really make a difference
->conversations, memorable characters

MINUS
-----
-> eats my pc alive (not in a vampire way )
-> lots of load screens
-> some bugs


That's about it...I could rave on about some other cool moments in bloodlines but i'll let you off the hook. For me this is the best RPG I played since Kotor (and I played that way after it was released, too). Two thumbs up. Now I'm gonna get ready to replay it as a Nosferatu...should make for a very different gaming experience than my gorgeous Toreador. I'll post some more pics later on.

I never looked at the system specs before, but I just noticed:

minimum: P4 1.2 GHz; 384MB RAM, 64MB DX9 card
recommended: P4 2.8 GHz, 512MB RAM, 128MB DX9 card

That explains some of the issues I had with performance I suppose. Crazy specs.


Last batch of screens:

I just figured I'd post this to give you an idea of the extent of voice acting in the game. I actually watched out the credtis, because the music was cool.

P.S. John DiMaggio is the guy that also does the voice of Bender on Futurama. lol.

The game is now officially on my "to get" list.

Cool...I hope many here will follow. It's for your own good, I assure you.


Started a new game as I said I would...with a Nosferatu. They're deformed, hideous bastards that barely look human anymore and they risk a masquerade violation (if you don't know wtf that is then nevermind) from just walking in the streets, so they're forced to stealth and using the sewers as a means of transportation. It's very different, to say the least. NPC's react véry weird now, if at all. But I like the whole "I'm here...or am I?" thing they got going, something I learned to appreciate after finding the Nosferatu "HQ" in my first game. Once you'll get there you'll see what I mean.

One of their disciplines is 'obfuscate', i.e. the ability to become invisible. Depending on your rank (1-5) this will be less or more restricted. I'm on rank 3 atm:

Level Three: Hidden Killer
You may perform stealth kills while invisible. Be careful not to touch your victim beforehand, or you will be revealed. Additionally, any melee attack that breaks Obfuscate 3 will gain a 50% damage bonus

this is rank 5:

Level Five: Unseen Force
You may move freely and interact with the environment. You will be revealed if you touch anyone. Additionally, any melee attack that breaks Obfuscate 5 will deal triple damage.

Can you say 'pnwed'?


Their other stuff is cool too, but obfuscate is what I'm going for. Other fun things I noticed is how I spot much more things with an increased perception/investigation ability/skill. I find things at places I've been dozens of times in my first game, which means I didn't notice them ever before and that the skill is useful. Maybe that sounded like gibberish, but bleh. Btw, the extra 512mb of ram made most of my low FPS/loadtimes grievances go away...it's still not optimal, but at least I'm getting ahead more quickly in the game than before.

The pic is of me while Obfuscate is running...the guard is looking for me as you can see, while I'm sitting right in front of him. PUNY HUMAN!!!1111 (yes, those 1's were decorative)

Just FYI....a 1.2 patch has been released by Troika, that should fix a LOT of the issues in Bloodlines. So you ppl who start playing it soon will be playing a better (a more bug-free, anyway- game than me. Bastards.

gonna get it tomorrow

any recommendations clan wise?

Cool Erhm...depends really. You being a seasoned gamer i'd suggest you don't pick Brujah, for one. They're simple brutes...which is nice, but takes away some of the RPG fun.

Any other clan is good really, but I'd recommend Malkavian. I haven't played them yet (did play Toreador and now Nosferatu), but they're reportedly a lot of fun. (they're insane-leading to very peculiar situations and inisghts-and have an exclusive discipline, dementation, which can be used in both dialogue and combat)


This is their sheet:



At first glance, the members of Clan Malkavian do not appear to be a clan at all; they are chosen from all races, creeds and social strata. But Malkavians, regardless of mortal standing, bear one disturbing commonality: They are all quite mad. Whether from the clan's choice of victims, the circumstances of the Embrace, or some property in Malkavian blood itself, all Malkavians go insane shortly after the transformation (if they were not insane to begin with).

Accordingly, many Malkavians find themselves pariahs, ostracized by a vampiric society fearful of their random urges and capricious whims. Wiser Kindred, however, prefer to keep the madmen close at hand: Behind the Malkavians' lunatic cackling and feverish rantings lie smatterings of insight, even wisdom.


Initial Distribution Points: 1 Social, 2 Mental, 1 Talent, 2 Skills, 3 Knowledges


Advantages: +2 to Inspection Feat, exclusive access to Dementation Discipline


Disadvantages: Penalties to negotiations


Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Dementation, Obfuscate



Other than that: Nosferatu are sneaky and ugly, toreadors are talkers/seducers, tremere are 'mages', ventrue are the 'high society' vamps, Brujah fighters and Gangrel animalistic. Let me know when you start playing, and what clan you chose.

got it, great game.

couldn't really choose so used the random generator and ended up with a toreador.

at the moment i'm doing the downtown part in the museum. its bugging me at the moment because my vamp is a GREAT talker, passable fighter (fire axe, cant be bothered with the guns) but a LOUSY hide/sneaking about type. and what do you need most in there? dont turn it into a bloodbath? yeah right...

haven't got much farther as i'm playing football manager 05 at the same time

Haha, so am I. Currently leading Olympic Charleroi in their first season in belgian top league, after promoting from 3rd division in 5 year's time. Doing good, 6th place halfway the season, not bad for a newly promoted side eh!


Anyway, back to vampire lol@ sneaking...don't worry, even for a sneaker that's not an easy lvl. If you're going melee, make sure you're good enough at it/can take enough damage, cos I had a hard time fighting in some places as a toreador later on. Neverthless, celerity is an awesome discipline and should get you past most bastards. What are you 'focusing' in, stat-wise? In any case, keep me updated with your progress/questions.

I've played/seen ppl playing some 4 different clans now, and even if the game itself can be quite linear, the experience differs from luch to véry much when playing with a different clan. They put a lot of work in that, apparently. Everybody despises Nosferatu, everyone'll treat the Ventrue like princes (being vamp nobility and all), the malkavians are VERY different, they have a completely different dialogue-tree than all the other clans, with special letter types and everything, etc. Really great stuff.

Some pics attached (nothing from later in the game than were you are, don't worry)...btw, what do you think off the conversations BJ? Awesome, innit?

some more

heh, since the patch fm 05 can own your ass even more, so i've started quite a few games, played a proper season as liverpool, 2nd in league behind chelsea at the finish and reached the semis of the champs league. pissed me of though to get handed a paltry 5.5 mil budget the next season. bah started a new game with wigan. nice club, with 25 mil in the bank so very set up for the prem if you can get there.

blah, back on topic...

i see what you meant about high spec needed, with everything maxed even my machine lags in 1078 x 975 (or whatever it is..back down to 800 x 600, much smoother.

where'd you grt the ghoul from? she looks like that chick laying in her own blood from the hospital. didn't give her the blood, wish i had now. i want my own ghoul..

on the story line, its looking good so far, getting sick of being pulled about by the factions though, might just cut loose from the whole lot of them.

Hehe..yeah, you do get pushed around quite a bit, but that's very normal for a fledgling vamp in the vampire universe. Remember that your actions and reactions during the game will affect your options in the end. (there are some 5 different endings in total)

Oh, and they elegantly keep you on 'main quest' path, too. Lacroix is a ventrue, eh. If you tell him to stick this or that quest up his ass he'll dominate you and you'll only be able to answer yes. lol.

In any case: choose your allegiances well...depending on your clan and your dealings with certain ppl you'll be able to get extra's from them. Did you manage to do the quest on the Elizabeth Dane without killing anyone? Iirc that could land you a new haven donwtown...or maybe you needed to do the musem one without killing anyone rither first, forgot. Are you doing as many sidequests as you can? They are quite good on the whole and can land you good XP.

@ghoul, yes, she's the girl in the hospital. Bad news: you can't get her anymore now. If you feed her your blood she'll come looking for you and bring you gifts etc. Good fun.

Who are your favorite NPC's for now?

I think i'm gonna start a FM2005 thread.