House of ZAN Forum

Ravage · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 8:07 pm Post subject: Vampires!

I think this was the game Spence was playing a while back when he came over to the DDT.

Anywho, the name of the game is Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines.

It's an FPS/RPG (Much like Deus Ex, I presume), where you pick from one of several vampire "clans", and develop in a somewhat traditional roleplaying style. All the while, you develop social skills to aid in conversations (always a personal favorite of mine in RPG's), and drink the blood of foes and innocents alike.

So far, it's a great game (based off the HL2 engine), although there are a fair number of bugs. There is a pretty nifty "stalking" system in play as well, though it's nowhere near as accurate as, say the "Hitman" series. It's still really fun and really REALLY creepy. If you get a chance, I think it's worth the money (NOT for teh childrens, however - rated Mature!)

I dl'ed it from Gamestop (My new fav. way to buy games) after I beat NWN2. On that note, I'm still convinced that NWN2 was well worth the frustration of getting the damn game running. Best storyline I've seen in a game since at least HL2, maybe WC3 even. I played both endings (regrettably, you must be evil to be given the choice of endings, Todd). I'm going to look into the Expansion soon.

commandertracker · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 12:44 am Post subject:

Really? Good guys always finish last I guess. Suppose that's incentive to try it evil.

And yeah, NWN2 is a good and fun story , but I'll continue to insist that Planescape Torment tops it. I should note that I'm only in the second act right now though. I'm sure I will get the expansion when it comes out.

I remember seeing Spence play the Vampires game and thought it looked pretty good. I like Deus Ex style games well enough (note to all, if you have not played Deus Ex before, its $10 freakin dollars on Steam, buy it already - but by itself, cause the second one isn't worth your money).

How does the downloading from Gamestop work anyway? You just download a gigantic packed installer that you can keep forever and ever, or does it need to to activated online (and with a limited or unlimited number of unlocks/installs)?
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Ravage · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:57 am Post subject:

You download the game downloader, then let your PC sit overnight while it downloads all the game files. Then, you can choose to keep the installer and downloader files or not. You can re-install and re-dl by logging into the site. Honestly, it's not as good a system as steam, but it's not meant as an umbrella system, just a way to get individual games.

I believe the system is set in place more to limit the number of computers you can install the game upon than number of times downloading it. I'll have to read much further into it. However, I wouldn't go so far as to buy games I KNOW I'm going to use alot via this system. After I beat Vampires, I may never play it again, same goes for Evil Genius. Games like Starcraft 2, I'm definitely going to buy a copy of, and anything on Steam...well, I'm willing to take my chances there, it's worked well so far.

commandertracker · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:38 am Post subject:

I've never messed with it before, but you're supposed to be able to back up content that you've purchased and downloaded through Steam. I imagine that way you wouldn't have to download it onto your machine again and could just re-install at will (which would take up a lot of space, but handy - cause you never know...if valve went under and you don't have stuff on your local machine, maybe you're just out of luck).

's too bad everybody doesn't sell games that way. I would prefer it.
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Wang · Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 1:56 pm Post subject:

Yeah I bought this game back when it came out. Didn't play it much cause it was buggy. I know a few patches came out.

Ravage · Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:54 am Post subject:

The bugs that I've run into are mostly graphics glitches. After playing NWN2 all the way through, I'm quite used to ignoring those, but they can still be a source of irritation.

Once or twice, I've run into the problem where I get stuck "sliding" in a direction I'm moving. However, the game isn't an intense shooter so much as a strategical stealth game, so it hasn't caused any horrible deaths yet.

I haven't updated, tho, so maybe that will take care of those problems.

Ravage · Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:51 pm Post subject:

OMG, having so much fun - seriously.

Unfortunately, the dialog isn't panning out to be quite as fun as NWN2, but the action is pretty neat. In particular, since I've been upping my stealth skills, I can crouch-walk right up in front of my enemies before sucking their blood.

Broken? Perhaps, but I like to think of it as mad-stealthy!

Also, one level boasts the single creepiest time I've EVER had in gaming, just narrowly edging out the Ravenwood section of HL2. Seriously, I had to turn the lights on in my apartment, and turn the volume DOWN because I kept having those "OMG, screaming popup!" moments.

Good stuff, my reccommendation is growing! Hopefully I'll be able to let some of y'all borrow it. We'll see how that works in this format.