Winterwind reviews Bloodlines

<a href="http://www.winterwind-productions.com/">Winterwind Productions</a> (No, I don't know what they "produce") have done a <a href="http://www.winterwind-productions.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=46">review of Bloodlines</a>. Here's a specially selected quote taken purely for dramatic purposes:
<br><blockquote>Graphics: Let it first be said, that the machine I used to play VTMB on can no longer be called a top-notch machine, and is probably in below average end of today’s spectrum. That said it is still no excuse for less than good programming. Whilst the graphics weren’t bad, they could certainly have been better and less power consuming. To run the game at a playable framerate, I had to put the various effects down to a bare minimum. In comparison, the same machine is able to run Doom 3 in high resolution, and with most effects cranked up to maximum, with an average framerate of 30 to 40. Still, the graphics weren’t bad, and I believe they would have been stunning if run on a better machine. But this doesn’t cover up the fact, that they could have done a better job. Or used the Doom 3 engine. </blockquote>
<br>Boris never actually says just what machine he's running. People really need to learn that the old 486 just won't play the latest games anymore. Doom 3 also looked plastic and had nothing like the "life-like" models in Half-Life 2.
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<br><blockquote>In some quests you are limited in the way that you can’t kill anyone, but this is only where it makes sense not to, and most of these quests are optional.</blockquote>
<br>LIES! ALL LIES!! Optional? Hell no! Did he miss the 4 hour combat sequence at the end? As for "making sense"? It's an RPG. If I have a speech skill of 3,000,000% I should damn well be able to talk some two-bit vampire out of his dumb plot to spread disease with some simple logic such as "Well, when everyone's dead, what will you feed on?" or "Someone will eventually find a way to stop the disease". You know, selling ice to an eskimo kind of dealio?
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<br><blockquote>Overall: I think this is definitely one of the best games I have ever had the joy of playing. You can’t be helped, but to be overwhelmed by the sheer thoroughness that permeates the entire game. Nearly everything you do has some kind of consequence, and as of yet, not one game has been the same as the previous one. Troika have finally managed to fuse an excellent story (like they did with Arcanum) with a solid performance (as they did in Temple of Elemental Evil) into one, single game. For this, I give them a well deserved:
<br>(9/10)</blockquote>
<br>(That 9/10 seems wrong because if you actually add up the bits of his score you get about 8.25/10 or 82% but anyhoo).
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<br>Spotted at the <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.com">RPGCodex</a>.