Vampires @ GameSpot

Leonard Boyarsky has taken a PR trip to the GameSpot offices to show off <a href="http://www.vampirebloodlines.com">Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines</a>. The result is <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/vtmb/preview_6089715.html">an interesting article</a> on several aspects of the game. Here are various snippits:
<blockquote><b>Character System: </b>The White Wolf system is flexible enough to account for all the usual archetypes for vampires, from the disfigured and bestial vampires of the Nosferatu clan to the beautiful and seductive bloodsuckers of the Toreador clan.

<b>Auspex Discipline: </b>Not only does auspex allow you to see better in the dark, but you can also see the auras generated around people. At higher levels, you can even see auras through walls, which is a handy ability that lets you map out where people are scattered throughout a building. At high levels, auras will also be color-coded according to the person's disposition; neutral characters will have white auras, while hostile characters will have red auras, allowing you to quickly determine who's a threat.

<b>Perpetuating the Masquerade: </b>There are areas in the game, known as masquerade areas, where you have to exercise caution and not expose your nature to humans. If you violate the masquerade, your masquerade level will take a hit. If you accrue too many violations, the vampire clans may send someone to eliminate you before you blow their cover. According to Boyarsky, this will be one of the challenges in the game, but you will be given opportunities to recover lost masquerade points by completing certain quests and missions.

<b>Controlling Vampire Urges: </b>Humanity is basically how much control you have over your vampire nature. ... if it gets too low, your character may simply lose control and give in to his or her vampiric urges. When this happens, the game will switch to a third-person view, and you can only watch as your character grabs humans at random to feed on them.

<b>The Story: </b>The game's story was developed by <a href="http://www.troikagames.com">Troika</a>, but it is closely intertwined with White Wolf's Time of Darkness novels about "Gehenna," the end of the world. In fact, the story has been officially accepted into the canon, and White Wolf considers Bloodlines to be the prequel to the books.

<b>Every Problem has Multiple Solutions: </b>Every quest and mission in the game will have multiple solution paths, and Boyarsky took us through an encounter to show us how it could be resolved three different ways. The mission was to recover some stolen explosives from a beach house guarded by thugs. We watched as Boyarsky completed this quest using different styles of play: fast talking, stealth, and out-and-out combat.

<b>RPG/FPS: </b>Boyarsky told us that they want Bloodlines to have the depth of a solid role-playing game and the fast pacing of a first-person shooter, and it looks like the pieces are falling into place. After the disappointment of 2000's Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption, Bloodlines may very well be the game that White Wolf and role-playing fans have been looking for.

<b>The Release Date: </b>The game is scheduled to ship later this year.</blockquote>
There's just a wee bit more info in <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/vtmb/preview_6089715.html">the article</a> that I left out, so be sure to give it a read.

There are also some videos of the game and an interview with Leon on the site, but you have to sign up to GameSpot and pay $25 US a year for that. Yeah, I'll go sign up now. HAR. HAR. HAR. (Sorry, I can't help myself sometimes.)

In other news, the official <a href="http://www.vampirebloodlines.com">Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines</a> website sucks as it is built entirely in Flash. Even now that I'm on Broadband, I still think the site sucks. Rest assured I'll be saying that the site sucks at every opportunity I have, until someone makes a "normal" version of the site.

Spotted at the <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.com">Codex</a>.