Terrible news! Santa ignored all my letters asking for 2025 to be a year when no new videogames came out so I could catch up on everything I missed from the past several years. In fact, it seems like maybe someone else might have sent him a letter asking for there to be more big games coming than ever.
]]>Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 won't be an "open sim" like the 2004 original game, according to Paradox Interactive. Now in development at The Chinese Room, it'll be an action-RPG with a relatively linear story set in the World Of Darkness universe. This obviously plays to The Chinese Room's strengths - they're better known for melancholy or horrifying strolls through broken spaces than the Dishonorable massaging of intricate systems. But it also reflects Paradox's view that the original Bloodlines has been "mythologised" a bit: people love the memory of it more than the reality, and there are aspects of the 2004 game, according to Paradox's deputy chief executive officer Mattias Lilja, that simply "wouldn't fly today".
]]>Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has been delayed yet again, pushing the troubled RPG into the first half of 2025. Publishers Paradox Interactive and developers The Chinese Room say the delay will allow them to continue to polish the game, respond to feedback, and expand on its story.
]]>Following a string of wee teasers for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, Paradox have released an "extended gameplay reveal" trailer. This is the most we've seen of Bloodlines 2 since Paradox took the RPG from original developers Hardsuit Labs and handed it to The Chinese Room, the studio behind Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs. The trailer shows 14 minutes of our vamp creeping about a warehouse with a pretty Dishonored-y combination of stealth and magical violence, showing very much why the sequel is now described as an "action RPG" rather than just "RPG".
]]>Happy New Year, folks! Have you recovered from the all the 100+ hour RPGs that came out last year? Well, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that everyone seems to be taking a bit of a breather in 2024, because (at time of writing at least) the official "big'uns" calendar is looking remarkably slim at the moment. There are still some heavy-hitters coming our way this year, such as Avowed, Star Wars Outlaws and Path Of Exile 2, but 2024 looks like another year where it will be the smaller, independent games that shine the brightest. They certainly make up the bulk of our most anticipated games list for 2024, which the RPS Treehouse has been feverishly putting together over the last few days. The bad news is that there are still loads of great games coming out. So come, join us, and see what's on our personal wishlists for 2024.
]]>Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has named its first playable race: the Brujah, who love to settle brouhahas with brutal melee combat. A brief, fifteen second trailer showed a little of that combat in action in The Chinese Room's rebooted take on the RPG sequel. Find it below.
]]>Your character in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 isn't a blank slate and will speak during dialogue scenes. New developres The Chinese Room introduced the protagonist in a new video, in which they show a couple of interactive conversation and then layout the backstory underpinning the troubled narrative RPG.
]]>Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has had a troubled development to say the least, but it has now risen from the dead once more. The first-person RPG sequel is now being made by Dear Esther developers The Chinese Room, it looks different from the last time we saw it, and it's aiming for release in autumn 2024. Watch the trailer below.
]]>The development of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has already been a bumpy ride. Publisher Paradox stated they were "happy with progress" on the game in 2021 following a switch in developers (whoever they may be) and delay after delay, but a new announcement from Paradox today has some a little worried.
"We want to provide the best value to those of you who supported us via digital pre-order," the publisher said in a statement posted to its official blog. "We are thus offering refunds to anyone who has pre-ordered any edition of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2."
]]>2022 is finally here and that can only mean one thing. We've got another year of hip new video games to look forward to, and we've been busy rustling up the ones we're most excited about. In truth, there are tons of games on the horizon that could easily sit on this list, and some of them are so close to release we can practically already see the pixels on our screens morphing into their lush, polygonal landscapes. Games like Monster Hunter Rise, God Of War and Rainbow Six Extraction. You won't find them here, but trust us, you'll be seeing a lot of them over the coming weeks.
There are always more games coming out than we have fingers to write about them, but the 2022 games we've listed below are the ones the RPS team are personally most looking forward to playing. We've got games big and small here, and they're all listed in alphabetical order. After all, release dates are increasingly slippery beasts these days. Think we've missed something? Why not take to the comments below and tell us all about it. You might just convince us to put it on our radars. But enough from me. Here are our 43 most anticipated games of 2022.
]]>Paradox Interactive say they're happy with progress on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, but they're still refusing to say who's making it. The topic came up again during the Swedish publisher's Q3 interim report, in response to the question, "Any news on Bloodlines 2 or its developer?"
]]>When Paradox Interactive made the remarkable decision to take Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 away from its original developers, Hardsuit Labs, the company considered outright cancelling the game. That's according to returning CEO Fredrik Wester in a recent interview. Paradox still aren't saying who's making the World Of Darkness RPG now nor when it will be done, but apparently it's still happening?
]]>Various folks behind Netflix series including The Witcher and Shadow And Bone have plans to develop films or shows set in the World Of Darkness. That's the goth fantasy universe which houses tabletop RPGs like Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, as well as video games including the venerated Bloodlines. They haven't yet announced any specific project yet (nor indicated where they might find homes), but here's my pitch: a mystery show starring a Malkavian private eye.
]]>A question that crosses my mind from time to time is why there aren’t more horror RPGs. Certainly, RPGs are more than capable of generating psychological terrors, and horror games are as popular as they’ve ever been. But outside of a handful of classics like Sweet Home, System Shock 2, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, it remains a fairly under-developed area within the genre.
I posed this question to veteran developer Brian Mitsoda, who has a long history of working on unique RPGs like Alpha Protocol, having most recently been the narrative designer for the seemingly ill-fated Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. Mitsoda replied. “When it comes to RPGs, [executives] are going to look at what is the most popular genre for RPGs. And what is the most popular genre for RPGs? It’s fantasy. [...] If your RPG is just focused on horror, it’s probably going to turn off a lot of RPG fans. They’re going to go back to something that’s more comfortable.”
]]>Update: Hardsuit Labs have confirmed the layoffs, saying they were "unable to provide work for a small number of individuals". More below. (Original story from March 2nd)
Hardsuit Labs, the studio that worked on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, appears to have laid off a number of staff. Multiple employees took to Twitter last night to reveal they'd lost their jobs, and it seems the entire narrative team have been affected. This comes just a week after Paradox Interactive announced Hardsuit would no longer be developing Bloodlines 2.
]]>As the months go by, it seems we're getting further and further from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 ever coming out. The supernatural RPG was originally supposed to launch in 2020, before being delayed into 2021. Now publisher Paradox Interactive say that won't be happening either. But the real shock? Paradox are removing developer Hardsuit Labs from Bloodlines 2, and will be finishing the project with a different studio.
]]>Never mind your calendar. E3 is a state of mind, not a date on your wall. Announcements and game reveals and trailers can happen in any month—like March, for instance. That's when Paradox Interactive will be coming back with another one of their Paradox Insider video showcases to tell you about all the games they've got coming up. You'll be able to catch it on March 13th.
]]>At the risk of this becoming that episode of The Simpsons where they see inside Lenny's house and he says "please don't tell anyone how I live", I'm going to share some pictures of my bath with you.
That header picture is not me, or my bath, by the way. I wish I put that much effort in when I have baths. It is the model photo on the store page for some Vampire: The Masquerade themed bath bombs I got sent (disclosure: for free, to try out). Bloodlines 2 may have been delayed to next year, and had some surprising staff changes, but for Halloween they threw up a bunch of clan-themed key rings and vampy bath bombs, because vampires love baths.
]]>While Bloodlines 2 is the big Vampire: The Masquerade game folks are waiting for, it's far from the only game in the tabletop RPG setting, with the newest and weirdest being... a battle royale? Huh. Sharkmob, a Swedish studio founded by former The Division devs, this weekened announced a yet-unnamed battle royale that'll see vampires scrapping through the streets and over the rooftops of prague. Huh. A surprising use of the license. It's due next year, and all they have to show for now is a cinematic trailer.
]]>Brian Mitsoda has been "suddenly terminated" from his position as narrative lead on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. "That this came as a shock to me is underselling it," wrote Mitsoda in a email statement given to RPS. Paradox Interactive have said in their own statement that Mitsoda and creative director Ka'ai Cluney are "no longer part of the team at Hardsuit Labs."
]]>The 15-year wait for a Bloodlines sequel will stretch a little longer, because Paradox today announced they've delayed the launch of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 into 2021. While they had never announced a specific release date, the supernatural RPG was expected this year. Now Paradox and developers Hardsuit Labs say they want more time to make sure it lives up to the Bloodlines legacy (and presumably not repeat its mistakes).
]]>The makers of Dying Light 2 have publicly cut ties with writer Chris Avellone following allegations from several women of sexual harrassment, sexual assault, and abusing his industry prestige as a sexual predator. Avellone is known for writing on games including Planescape: Torment and Fallout: New Vegas. Several other upcoming games he was known to have written for, including Bloodlines 2, have clarified they were not currently working with him anyway.
]]>Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 was bound to have a few familiar faces, wasn't it? I mean, they're vampires so they tend to hang around a while. Paradox Interactive have released a new video announcing that yer girl Damsel—who seems much less likely to be in distress than the one causing it—will be making a return in Bloodlines 2.
]]>Did you miss today's Xbox Series X stream? While the first of Microsoft's many planned streams for their new machine was naturally concerned with their new tellybox, there were still enough multi-platform announcements and trailers going around for us PC folks to get excited over. Here's our rundown of what happened during today's showcase.
]]>A cheeky little new Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 trailer shuffled out today, full of goths showing off their dance moves. I'm almost sorry to see they're not throwing the same moves as folks in the first game's nightclubs.
]]>Over the break we had a chance to do some serious scientific study of this business we call games, and it turns out that games are actually good. 2020 in particular has a healthy mix of big budget bonanzas and smaller indie plates to suit everyone's discerning tastes. And, as you know, the RPS treehouse is the most discerning, so to make it easier for you we've got a big ol' list of the games we're most looking forwards to this year. It's traditional.
]]>Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is on the horizon, and we should be seeing it chomp its way into the necks of the general public some time in March next year. As it turns out, vidbuds Matthew Castle and Alice Liguori haven't ever played the original Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Other vidbud, me, has played it a bunch before, so in anticipation of brand new vampy shenanigans, I'm walking them through the World Of Darkness as a sexy Toreador fledgling called Ms Horace III.
]]>As is my wont, I am here to bleat about Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 at you. I got in to see the Gamescom demo build, which they were also showing off at E3, but since Brendy got a punchy vampire run I tried to steer it more towards the sneaking and talking route by yelling things like "play both sides!" at Paradox product manager Florian Schwarzer, who was talking us through the demo.
In fairness, I think they were always planning to do a bit more of that this time, as you can see in the new demo footage they've released. It features commentary from Ka'ai Cluney, creative director at developer Hardsuit Labs, and a lot more creeping and talking than the previous version.
]]>If you hold the shift key to slide down the RPS treehouse’s rickety ropeladder, you’ll get ropeburn, but you’ll also get to the bottom of the tree. There, you’ll find a trap door that requires a pulley and a rubber chicken to open, and at the bottom of the gaping chasm, you’ll find me, a ball and chain fastened to my ankle and purple and green-striped prisoner’s garments adorning my body, sat in front of a high-end workstation. This is the RPS video dungeon, where I have been hard at work making a deep-dive video on Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, and all the blood-sucking and sneaking you'll be able to do. Come look.
]]>Last night I met a guy, who knew a guy, who told me about a girl, who said she was penpals with some sort of rat thing, who wrote a URL down for her, all so I could get this footage of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 to you. I was up all night, and it turned out all I needed to do was Google. Anyway, here’s some footage of the RPG straight from a developer’s claws. It’s so raw it’s almost blue.
]]>Bloodlines 2 asks you the same question of every vampire when they've gone through the Embrace: Do you hide in the shadows, or become fear itself? The original Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines was a cult favourite, so beloved that the fans fixed the issues with the game. The team at Hardsuit Labs know all too well that it is a big deal that Bloodlines 2 is being made at all.
]]>Remember that thing you like from 10 years ago? It’s probably getting a sequel. Shenmue 3. Evil Genius 2. Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2. The calendar of upcoming games is packed with throwbacks that will revisit the worlds we left behind over a decade ago. Oddworld: Soulstorm is heading back to the strange homeland of Abe the skinny green freedom farter. Mechwarrior 5 is booting up a bipedal destruct-o-bot that was powered down in the year 2000. If your favourite childhood game is not getting a sequel, it's probably getting a glittering remake.
Reviving forgotten entertainment relics is nothing new (hi, George Lucas) but the recent glut of resurrections has made me wonder: why are developers and publishers so keen to go back to old ground? Why do they want to chase this sense of nostalgia? So, I asked them.
]]>It’s a bit tricky to knock together a list of the best upcoming stealth games, because it’s a bit tricky to say what a stealth game even is anymore. Stealth is more frequently looking like a playstyle or bulletpoint rather than the crux of an entire game. Even the best stealth games in recent memory - yer Invisible Incs, Ian Hitmans, Alien: Isolations - have all layered their stealth within towering trifles of genre mashups. And that’s good! It just means we've had to flex the definition for this list.
Below, I’ve gathered together a few of the best upcoming stealth games that I’ve got my ridiculously over powered, patrol pattern-sensing eye on. Some of these aren’t strictly genre adherent, but all offer stealthy play as at least core element. Do feel free to suggest your own upcoming games in the comments.
]]>We've been drowned by E3 2019 this past week, but maybe you only waded into the river of game reveals and new trailers up to your ankles. If you didn't get your hair wet, there might be some gems among the flotsam and jetsam that you missed. That's what this post is for: we've rounded up our picks for the best games of E3, based on our own impressions of either seeing the games behind closed doors at the show, or of watching the videos from the comfort of our homes.
]]>The Bloodlines liker has, as they say, logged on. Paradox and Hardsuit labs have released a new gameplay trailer for Bloodlines 2. Excellent. It’s a smaller mouthful than the taste I had at GDC last year, but it’s a slightly different one. An amuse-bouche, we might say. Made of blood pudding, or something else all vampire-y. Brendy saw an extended demo, and has thoughts about the dancing. It’s pre-alpha, and does look a bit, whisper it, janky in places. But I am undeterred due to one small, key part of the video.
Look, I can tell you a couple of helpful things based on my own chats with the team. The voice over near the start, the whiny lad who says “welcome to the first day of the rest of your death!”, is your next door neighbour, and in full context he’s clearly meant to be a bit cringy. The loft apartment with brick walls and a big Charlie Day conspiracy map is your home. And the lady in a club with a lip ring who is pictured above? She is my best friend now. None of you can have her. Sorry, that’s just how it is.
]]>Press X to dance. It’s not the first demonstration of demonic prowess I expected to see during my brief hands-off playthrough of Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2. But it is one of the very first things developers Hardsuit Labs show off. Our character has just been sauntering through the streets of Seattle. Sewer grates pump steam into the air, the lights of the city glare on the wet roads. The womp-womp of a nearby nightclub lures our boy in, and he proceeds to the dance floor, where a crimson prompt appears on-screen. This is it, he must be thinking. I am an avatar of darkness, I am a child of the night, the elegance of blood magic flows through me. Press X to dance.
The vampire starts dancing, and he is bad.
]]>I'm still not entirely convinced that Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is a real game that's really coming, given its tortured history, but watching the first gameplay video today is starting to turn me around. It appears to show some of a newly-bitten vampire's first nights in Seattle, running errands for the warring powers that be, and I want to believe. Original Bloodlines storyman Brian Mitsoda is lead writer on the wonky-but-much-beloved first-person RPG's sequel and ah heck, who needs my words, just watch the video below.
]]>Trying to keep up with E3 2019 is a fool's errand, and the foaming river of content streaming down the internet's face doesn't always make it easier. So here's a round-up of every news story from the show we think matters to you, with links to our full stories (and bantful liveblogs) where relevant. We'll be updating this hourly, so keep coming back.
]]>E3 is getting started this weekend, otherwise known as the Encredible Electricity Experience, or sometimes simply “Hellweek”. It’s a very busy and exciting time to be a videogame liker, but you might need some help. Allow the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, to be your digital sherpa through this storm of fictional bullets and lightsabers. Let’s talk about what we’re looking forward to seeing, and the games that probably won’t appear (but that we wish would).
]]>“I actually wish we had started with Malks," said Brian Mitsoda, "Because honestly the number one thing I think people ask is, 'Are malkavians in the game?'” I had a chat with Mitsoda, narrative lead on Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines 2 and lead designer on the original Bloodlines, for the new Clan reveal. Yup, the Malkavians are back, baby. There will be comments.
]]>Paradox and Hardsuit Labs aren't quite ready to show us any of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 in motion yet, but they've got plenty to say. During a developer stream today, they explained the opening part of the game in more detail including the kind of choices you get to make during character creation and what being a 'Thinblood' vampire entails. Players start at the very bottom of the vampiric food chain, considered monstrous by humans but too human to invite to the cool parties by the vampiric gentry. There's even a new teaser trailer giving us a peek at how that works below.
]]>I heard you don’t like our podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. But have you listened to 76 hours of it yet? Honestly, mate, it opens up after that. The 76-hour mark, that’s when it “clicks”. But I understand if you don’t have the time. Just skip ahead to this week’s episode, in which we’re talking about games about which we changed our minds. Listen in for the platformers we prematurely pooh-poohed and the Souls games that “sucked” before they were super.
]]>Imagine, dear reader, my delight upon learning that Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, a game about which I have said “...but it’ll never happen” several times, is, in fact, happening. More than that, I have seen, hands off, the first half an hour of it and have spoken to senior writer Cara Ellison (late of this RPS parish), as well as Hardsuit Labs co-founder Andy Kipling, and narrative lead Brian Mitsoda.
Bloodlines fans among you may recognise Brian Mitsoda as designer and writer for the original Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines. So not only is B. Mitsoda on board, when I met him he was wearing black fingerless leather gloves. This is exactly the sort of thing we need to see from a lead on Bloodlines 2.
]]>The blood moon rises. The elders at RPS have reported feeling twinges in their necks and a mild taste of iron in their mouths. In other words, a sequel to early 2000s neckbiter RPG Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines might be announced at the Game Developers Conference next month. The heavy teasing of an alternate reality game has been traced back to Paradox Interactive (the folks who own White Wolf, the publisher of the vampire RPG) and some clues have popped up. The company haven’t officially announced anything but players of the ARG discovered a date and city being mentioned by one of its characters. The 21st of March and San Francisco. And would you look at that. GDC is happening on the 21st of March. I’ve tried to calm the elders down by feeding them blood sausage and black pudding, but they won’t be contained. They’re convinced Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is finally getting a sequel.
]]>Either Paradox, who these days own Vampire: The Masquerade & World of Darkness publisher White Wolf, are getting into the Netflix & Chill game, or they're they're gearing up to reveal a long-awaited follow-up to the legendary Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines.
They've come up with Tender, ostensibly a dating site. Whose metadata just so happens to read "Whether you’re looking for meaningful friendships, true love or simply a late night bite with a kindred spirit, Tender is here to help."
By the pricking of my thumbs...
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