Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

[you2]

I purchased this a few months (6?) ago during some sale or other and now I've decided to give it a spin. The question is which patches should I install? I know there are several branches of unofficial patches and official patches.

Also how do I tell which version I have? I don't see one on the binary nor when I run the game. Do I need the official 1.2 patch ?


Anyways can someone provide the version # and link of the patches I should use ?

[Also it would be nice if someone could suggest a proper way to find this info via search - i tried "vampire and patches" and found threads on gothic 3 and nwn2]...

 

[Maleficus]

http://www.planetvampire.com/bloodlines/files/patches/

http://www.fileplanet.com/1830...5.3-Patch-(Unofficial)

 

[BFG10K]

http://episteme.arstechnica.co...9309975/m/625004136731

 

[you2]

Ok - but two questions:
a) How can I tell which version i have (i.e, do i need the 1.2 patch?)
b) Should I go with 5.4 or 5.04 (5.04 being the 'official unofficial sort of type of patch')

Thanks!

 

[Bateluer]

I forget which patch is which, but one aims to add new features and restore old ones, the other aims only to fix bugs and keep with the developer's original versions. One will rename weapons and alter some dialog options, the other will not. I usually grab the one that introduces new features and renames things.

Also, I believe that you install the official 1.2 patch first, then the unofficial patch. However, later unofficial patches may have integrated the 1.2 patch. Check their respective readmes for details.

 

[Drift3r]

For the community patch I'd get the patches made by Wesp5 who resides on VampirePlanet.com along with the wide screen patch if it has not already been included in Wesp5's patch already. I do believe Wesp5 has a installer with his patch that would allow you to select which portions of the patch to install such as fixes only or all the mod's. etc The majority of work done with the "official unofficial patch" is actually based off Wesp5's work. The link below should explain the difference between the two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V...e_-_Bloodlines#Patches

A link to the widescreen patch is below if you need it. Make sure you apply the patch in the folder with the *.dll you are editing but before you do anything back up that *.dll file first !

http://files.filefront.com/Vam...8624553;/fileinfo.html

 

[Drift3r]

***doublepost****

 

[you2]

Ok so wesp patch. How do I tell which version of the game I have instaleld - i.e, if it is 1.0, 1.1 or 1.2 ?

 

[skyofavalon]

best single player game released this decade.

 

[you2]

Well I'm not sure. Btw I went with 1.2 official and 5.4 plus patch (not sure if I should have used 5.4 basic or plus but plus it is - also the game make me a toleador whatever that is). The sound seems pretty poor (I think i need to turn off environmental) and the movement is odd (not very good at all) but other than that it seems ok. Ok those are technical issues - i've only played an hour or so so can't really comment on the game itself (the graphics are fine).

 

[MTDEW]

Anyone care to list their favorite high res texture mods for this game?

 

[Calculator83]

DUDe,, you guys gotta get on the Nuddy patches.. THEY"RE awesome. hehehehehehehehehehe

 

[MTDEW]

Post removed by myself due to spoilers.
I'll ask for help on in a spoiler forum for the game. :thumbsup:

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: skyofavalon
best single player game released this decade.

Or it would have been if it weren't buggy as all hell. Even with the community fixes, the game still has bugs and problems with crashing for a lot of people. And the combat system is fairly mediocre, but at least it's not broken.

I prefer KOTOR only because it doesn't crash my computer at random.

 

[MTDEW]

Actually im running it with Vista 64 and the latest official patch and latest community patch and im half way through the game, not one crash yet or game/mission bug, its been flawless for me so far. (knock on wood)

Only problem i had was i have 8gb of ram and the game loads low rez textures for some reason with 4gb or more, so i had to limit the game to 3gb of ram.

But other than that , no issues for me at all.

Glad i waited to play it since now its all patched up and i was badly in need of something to play since pc game releases are few and far between this summer.

Having a blast...GREAT game.

THANK YOU you2 for posting about this game and triggering me to try it again. :thumbsup:

 

[you2]

I've only been playing a couple of hours a day (not very far) - I suspect this is a *long* game. Anyways, I've ony had one crash so far (not so much a crash per say - game just exited with no error of any sort).

 

[Drift3r]

I really love the atmosphere of this game ( Especially in the Chinatown and Hollywood zones ) and the storyline. All the characters are interesting and unique in the game save for the random street NPC's. For me at least it's one of my top 5 favorite RPG's of all time. I only wish there were a sequel to this game set in the same gaming universe that Bloodlines takes place and that it had 4x the game world. I know that CCP bought out Whitewolf and is making a MMO out of the PnP version of the game. This is good news but I like single player RPG's way more then MMO's. As for it been buggy well what do expect? It was after all based off a early beta SOURCE engine version and Troika went out of business shortly after it's release.

 

[Eeezee]

Drift3r, are you seriously suggesting that when I buy a game, I shouldn't expect it to run?

I have heard that the developers were pushed by the publishers to release early, so I'm not blaming the developers for this, but why are gamers so easily persuaded that barely working games are acceptable? If more than 1% of your customers can't run the product out of the box, then you shouldn't have released it. Isn't shit like this exactly why we have beta testing?

 

[Schadenfroh]

If more than 1% of your customers can't run the product out of the box, then you shouldn't have released it. Isn't shit like this exactly why we have beta testing?

Welcome to Activision. Vampire: The Masquerade shipped with a show stopping bug (that prevented one from finishing the game), but they were able to patch it out.

Another fine example of quality control at Activision would be their Guitar Hero 3 game for the Wii... despite being advertised otherwise, it was mono only and they could not patch it out so they had to issue replacement disks. Vivendi bought Activision recently (creating Activision-Blizzard), so hopefully they will bring them up to Blizzard quality control standards (Vivendi has owned Blizzard for years).

 

[you2]

I've had one crash now. My gut feeling is the game is leaking memory...

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

If more than 1% of your customers can't run the product out of the box, then you shouldn't have released it. Isn't shit like this exactly why we have beta testing?

Welcome to Activision. Vampire: The Masquerade shipped with a show stopping bug (that prevented one from finishing the game), but they were able to patch it out.

Another fine example of quality control at Activision would be their Guitar Hero 3 game for the Wii... despite being advertised otherwise, it was mono only and they could not patch it out so they had to issue replacement disks. Vivendi bought Activision recently (creating Activision-Blizzard), so hopefully they will bring them up to Blizzard quality control standards (Vivendi has owned Blizzard for years).

That would be nice, but PC game publishers seem to be okay with releasing unfinished products. Why do people put up with that shit?

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is a great game if you ignore the bugs. The only box I have (out of three) that can run the damn thing without crashing regularly is a Dell from 7 or so years ago. Coincidentally, I haven't tested it yet on my laptop (also a Dell), and hopefully it doesn't screw me (although the graphics are Intel... so I'm not going to get my hopes up).

 

[Drift3r]

Originally posted by: Eeezee
Drift3r, are you seriously suggesting that when I buy a game, I shouldn't expect it to run?

I have heard that the developers were pushed by the publishers to release early, so I'm not blaming the developers for this, but why are gamers so easily persuaded that barely working games are acceptable? If more than 1% of your customers can't run the product out of the box, then you shouldn't have released it. Isn't shit like this exactly why we have beta testing?

Do whatever you want with your money. IMHO VTMB is still a great game and I am glad I had a chance to play it. I played it and yes I had a few crashes to desktop but nothing huge or show stopping ever prevented me from finishing the game. It's a very old game which saw only 1 patch before the developer went belly up. That one official patch did not solve all the problems. Just like Fallout 1-2 games had their bugs when they released so does VTMB. VTMB is still a great game and still worth playing but if you end up having issues then there is little that can be done. In the end it's your choice. As for complain about the state of gaming software when it launches well....Welcome to PC gaming....It's been like this for the past 10 years or so that I have been a gamer. Developers and Publisher can only hold a game back for so long before they "HAVE TO SHIP NOW" and pay off the bills that are piling up. In fact I believe it's the same way with most software these days which includes your Windows OS which no doubt shipped with tons of bugs. Hell I can't even play my recently purchased BF 2142 game because of some crappy issue with it not supporting any non-Creative audio cards. I keep crashing to the desktop every time I try to adjust my audio settings in the menu or try to join a online game. If I had knowm of this issue I would of skipped the game altogether.

 

[Eeezee]

In my experience, most PC games don't release with serious bugs that prevent play to a large minority (> 1%) of players. On one of the PCs I tried it on, I couldn't even drink blood without a game crash!

All PC games release with minor bugs and glitches that aren't show-stopping and only effect a very small minority of players. Very, very few are released with show-stopping bugs, and typically those are only for certain hardware configurations and most people would never know the difference. Vampire's bugs, even with the patches, are way too severe.

I don't mind putting up with a minor glitch or the occasional crash, especially not on a game that just went gold, but VTMB is ridiculous.