Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 75% Off on Steam

[HeXen]

i hated this game when it was new, i sure as heck wouldn't play it even if it was free now.
However, the first Vampire was awesome, its a shame they completely altered it into this, with an even worse storyline

 

[BFG10K]

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=38278

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

What's a good class for a first playthrough?

Toreador or Brujah.

 

[mingsoup]

As long as we are on the topic of Bloodlines. If anyone has any recommendations for games similar to Bloodlines I'm ALL ears. Bloodlines is easily in my top 5 games of all time. Deus Ex being right up there too. I feel that the dark mature atmosphere in this game is by far one of the best I've experienced. Console or PC, doesn't matter. Buy this game people. Its incredible.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Toreador or Brujah.

Yup.
I'd go Toreador with the Rapacious Bloodlust history. (To enable histories if you don't have the Plus patch, add vchar_edit_histories "1" to your config,cfg file) The bonuses of Rapacious Bloodlust are worth 19XP (28XP if you're not metagaming the skill handouts/skill books and max Brawl), and the minus (penalty to Stealth) isn't that important, as without Plus, you can use the skill book exploit to get Stealth 1+2 for free, and Stealth 3 only costs 2XP more than normal. With the plus patch, you can pay the normal 3xp for Stealth 1, use the book for Stealth 2, and then you're going to be wanting to raise Dex anyway instead of Stealth for lockpicking -- so again there's little downside.

 

[Perknose]

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=38278

Yhpm.

 

[coloumb]

Before looking at the pictures - I got this one confused with Vampire: The Masquerade Redemption [significantly poorer graphics and crappy control/combat system].

For $5.00 - definitely going to pick this up as I've/read good things about it.

 

[IlllI]

i've read lots of comments saying how wonderful this is.
so i looked at some youtube videos. i guess i am missing something because it looks very ancient. and the game mechanics look prehistoric. voice acting seems 'ok' and thats about it. i know this game is 7+ years old, but is there some unofficial patch to at least make it ~look~ better?

 

[OCNewbie]

i've read lots of comments saying how wonderful this is.
so i looked at some youtube videos. i guess i am missing something because it looks very ancient. and the game mechanics look prehistoric. voice acting seems 'ok' and thats about it. i know this game is 7+ years old, but is there some unofficial patch to at least make it ~look~ better?

Do you think anybody plays this game nowadays for its looks? Of course not... that's not why this game shines. It's a very engrossing game, and it excels at being enjoyable to play, not pretty to look at. Once you get lost in the game, the story, etc., you won't mind the fact that the graphics are dated much at all.

 

[ImpulsE69]

There are also texture updates and you can play it at 1920x1080. It's not Crysis of course, but it's really not that bad.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

This is a fantastic mod that honestly doesn't overwhelmingly change the game but makes it a lot more fun for character development. I think it uses WESP as a base.

http://camarillaedition.darkbb.com/
http://camarillaedition.darkbb.com/t29-what-is-vtmb-camarilla-edition

 

[DaveSimmons]

This is a fantastic mod that honestly doesn't overwhelmingly change the game but makes it a lot more fun for character development. I think it uses WESP as a base.

http://camarillaedition.darkbb.com/
http://camarillaedition.darkbb.com/t29-what-is-vtmb-camarilla-edition

Interesting, though as with any mod you'll have to decide whether you agree with their changes such as feeding no longer helping with healing.

For anyone playing through for the first time, I'd recommend playing without game changes, using either the Tessmage page or Wesp's Basic version.

Also, people may want to make a copy-paste of their folder before applying either of the patches, so they can install a different patch or version later.

 

[IlllI]

Do you think anybody plays this game nowadays for its looks? Of course not... that's not why this game shines. It's a very engrossing game, and it excels at being enjoyable to play, not pretty to look at. Once you get lost in the game, the story, etc., you won't mind the fact that the graphics are dated much at all.

maybe that would be true. except i doubt i could get too involved in something that looks so ancient, plays stiffly, has animations which make the people look like puppets on strings etc. in other words, all those negative aspects would be too distracting for me and take away from i guess what would be a decent story.

maybe i'll look into trying to find that texture pack mentioned

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Interesting, though as with any mod you'll have to decide whether you agree with their changes such as feeding no longer helping with healing.

For anyone playing through for the first time, I'd recommend playing without game changes, using either the Tessmage page or Wesp's Basic version.

Also, people may want to make a copy-paste of their folder before applying either of the patches, so they can install a different patch or version later.

Makes it more challenging. I actually played with this mod my first time w/ max difficulty and found everything to be just fine. Feeding might not directly help healing, but indirectly it still does since it will replenish power to use blood heal.

 

[DominionSeraph]

i've read lots of comments saying how wonderful this is.
so i looked at some youtube videos. i guess i am missing something because it looks very ancient. and the game mechanics look prehistoric. voice acting seems 'ok' and thats about it. i know this game is 7+ years old, but is there some unofficial patch to at least make it ~look~ better?

Are you expecting photorealism?
IMO it looks pretty darned good for a game from 2004.
And it's an RPG. "Game mechanics" consists mostly of running back and forth talking to people.

If you can't get past this, I feel sorry for you, since you'll never be able to play Deus Ex, HL2, Homeworld, Baldur's Gate II, or Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

 

[Markbnj]

i've read lots of comments saying how wonderful this is.
so i looked at some youtube videos. i guess i am missing something because it looks very ancient. and the game mechanics look prehistoric. voice acting seems 'ok' and thats about it. i know this game is 7+ years old, but is there some unofficial patch to at least make it ~look~ better?

Sure, it's dated, but it looks good enough that it isn't a barrier to the game play. It's a fun game so far, and for $4.99 how can you really go wrong? I installed the VTMB True Patch and ran the wide screen patcher, and it actually looks pretty good. Loads of fun for the money so far. The first guy they team you up with is a riot.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Graphics snobs will be graphic snobs. He really didn't need to post in here. I on the other hand am really enjoying this game.

 

[Edge1]

Bought it. Played once before and loved it, wanted a Steam version. Very original, and I'd like to play different clans. I remember I struggled with the cemetery mission at one point. This is a fun game. If you're bored with gaming this just might do the trick.

 

[Compddd]

I loved Deus Ex 1 and 2, and the graphics look pretty good to me, but I hate all things about vampires, so I'm screwed

 

[gorcorps]

Graphics snobs will be graphic snobs. He really didn't need to post in here. I on the other hand am really enjoying this game.

He has just as much right to post here as you do, or do you forget how discussion forums work? Graphics add a lot to immersion, and older games will simply not grab people like they could back when they were new. I tried playing this a couple years back and I found it dated enough that I couldn't play it either. It was a mixture of visuals and how it handled... it just won't be fun for a lot of gamers these days.

 

[xXFaNtAsMaXx]

I didn't mind the graphics at all. The thing that really breaks immersion for me in this game is how often it loads. It loads seemingly more often than HL2, which loaded quite a bit, and it just doesn't let the game flow the way it should.

It's not like it just loads when you go into a house or change areas like Oblivion or Fallout would (even though it does load in those situations); it loads in some of the most random places. Walking down an alley? Load screen. Going up some stairs? Load screen. Walking down the street? Load screen.

I can deal with it, and I'll beat it eventually, but this game definitely went on the back burner for a while because of the constant loading. I can deal with dated graphics, but load screens just pull me out of the game and back into reality. When they happen every 2-3 minutes, it's pretty painful.

 

[sanzen07]

I didn't mind the graphics at all. The thing that really breaks immersion for me in this game is how often it loads. It loads seemingly more often than HL2, which loaded quite a bit, and it just doesn't let the game flow the way it should.

It's not like it just loads when you go into a house or change areas like Oblivion or Fallout would (even though it does load in those situations); it loads in some of the most random places. Walking down an alley? Load screen. Going up some stairs? Load screen. Walking down the street? Load screen.

I can deal with it, and I'll beat it eventually, but this game definitely went on the back burner for a while because of the constant loading. I can deal with dated graphics, but load screens just pull me out of the game and back into reality. When they happen every 2-3 minutes, it's pretty painful.

Wow, really? I've played through this game 3 times, completing every side mission each time and never once had an issue with load times. I don't remember a single place where it loads walking down the street - it's usually when you enter a building and even then it's not that bad.

 

[Stumben2]

Great friggin game.

To be honest I have tried to beat it 3 times however and always fall short somewhere and stop playing.

 

[DominionSeraph]

He has just as much right to post here as you do, or do you forget how discussion forums work?

He wasn't discussing anything. This is a Source engine game. It looks like a Source engine game. All he was doing is trying to brag that the Source engine isn't "good" enough for him.

Straight-up troll.

Given the World of Warcraft and Deus Ex stickies, this obviously ain't a photorealism forum. If he needs photorealism across-the-board, he doesn't belong in here.
Now excuse me while I go play a PC browser game/while listening to a graphically inadequate singer.

 

[xXFaNtAsMaXx]

Wow, really? I've played through this game 3 times, completing every side mission each time and never once had an issue with load times. I don't remember a single place where it loads walking down the street - it's usually when you enter a building and even then it's not that bad.

I've encountered it a couple of times, and I'm less than an hour into the game.

I might just be spoiled by games like Oblivion and Fallout where you can walk for what seems like miles and never hit a load screen.