Thanks for the positive responses and feedback all. This script was 8,200 words and took me a week to write. Although I loved the way this story came out, it really highlighted my video editing deficiencies. I have such grand visions of the type of content I want to produce, but not the ability to craft it in terms of video editing/transitions. My goal is to find someone else willing to edit for me, that way it frees me up to write and voice over more which means more content and since the editor will be better than me better quality as well. I can also end up doing redux/remakes of previous videos where I can add extra commentary and we can have nice and fancy editing to accompany it. If you have experience editing and would like to apply as my editor, email me at exforcegamer@gmail.com and/or send me a message on RUclips. Thanks all!
As a point of interest. Obsidian are working on a fallout based game. (Being the studio that develped New Vegas.) Two of the lead Devs from the original Fallout are staff of Obsidian. So, yeah. Next Fallout iteration is going to be insaaaaaane.
wonderful episode ! Can i request a game maybe ??? FIREFALL ! that was a damn good open world / TPS shooter... COOP/PVE and PVP... 3 years of beta, the PvP done, and redone to be again stopped... and the whole studio felt appart. (it was also one of the rare game using Voxels...)
Sweet. Thanks you Warstar. Got the original copy and never bothered patching, BUT ..it's time to reinstall after half a decade and let's see what the patch fixes. I remember that besides the shotgun all weapons/arms were near worthless compared to bloodboost+unarmed.
Hey Warstar, I've still got the original physical copy (3 discs and all) from back when it was first released. All those fixes/updates you are talking about, are they automatically included if I buy it on Steam? (instead of installing from the discs and searching/updating all patches separately on my own). I've played this game many, many times with all clans and endings, and it's my 2nd best WRPG ever (Fallout 2 is the 1st), and with all those data you provided it sounds like an almost new experience :)
Really? I have several hundred games off steam and most of them I don't need to be online for. There are some however, that DO require you to be online to play and those ARE irritating because I like to play games when I am waiting for people.
OMG vampire bloodlines was the most fun game i ever played, the repeating value was low though. A follow up to the mood, system etc and multiplayer teamwork options in a far bigger world where you fight for your own faction to destroy the other ones etc would rlly get some nice followers I would think.
a slight add-on: the replay value of different characters and how ppl respond was fun (chatting using the crazy vampire made a lot of rolfs), but the replay of doing the same mission and story over and over...that was low
I wouldn't consider a game failing to be a total loss. The lessons learned by a game's failure can be used to create something amazing later. I think Pillars of Eternity is a great testament to that.
in this case i would consider it a horrid failure. this was the last of the true RPG games. it was not only the death of the the company but took a entire genre in a whole new, and in my mind worse, direction.
Have they managed to work out most of the kinks out? Remember playing it and not being able to get past some part due to a bug. Couldn't find a fix for it so just stopped there that time.
with the patch you can go through the whole game without crashing now. Something i personally was never able to do before lol. I still quicksave every 5m out of old habits though.
Same for me, I love that game but oddly I never managed to finish it, so I don't know how the ending is. Perhaps I'll go for it. I also love the original fallout 1 and 2. Screw the new ones =p.
RIP. Arcanum was indeed a buggy, rushed game with sub-par graphics at the time and badly balanced combat. But it's also my most favourite game ever. It had an imaginative yet very well thought out world, something which doesn't usually happen. Most of the time in games with a more fantastical setting, like the steampunkish style arcanum has, the developers usually forget about real world problems and focus on their own. Rusty looking machines with extra cogs and steam coming out of them are treated more like magic. Arcanum however didn't do this, it deals with the bad working conditions, slavery, racism, greed, poverty and everything else which was a part of the industrial era in addition to the magic vs technology thing they had. Their other games were also very good at what they did and you could see how much love they put in to making them.
So...the "buggy, rushed game" thing is a recurring theme when it comes to the principals involved at Troika. Arcanum, ToEE, and Bloodlines all demonstrated this, and Fallout and Fallout 2 both shipped rather shakily also. At a certain point, you have to start looking at the processes of the developer rather than reflexively blaming four different publishers. They were an imaginative studio, but they allocated too much time to implementation and not enough to bugfix and polish.
I loved all the games Troika developed, and I always felt a lot of regret at how people regarded the company's death so cavalierly. ToEE in particular gets crapped on, but it was really the best D&D game in terms of actual combat mechanics ever made for the computer. (Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment definitely having superior story, but the actual turn-based combat was fantastic.) I've always had a lot more patience for games with bugs but vision than polished turds.
Long story short, Troika gave a shit. They may not have been the best studio technically and they sure as hell didn't have the funds but they really cared about their projects. Can't say the same about a lot of studios today. Maybe CD Project.
Witcher 2 and 3 are soulless and wooden pieces of modern and idiot with low standars pandering shit. They are no better than Skyrim or Fallout 4. Witcher 1 was great.Morrowind was great.Deus ex was great.Vampire the masquerade bloodlines was great. Too bad that only retarded things like COD,MCU and Transformers make money nowadays... The bar for quality has never been lower.
skyrim is shit oblivion is way better so is daggerfall skyrim is nothing but graphics looks and awes it has no real rpg elements in it not like morrowind and daggerfall did why eso is way better than skyrim
Arcanum is still my favorite game of all time. I spent countless hours playing it and most likely even more trying to create my own scenarios years back. Games like theirs made me the gamer I am today. A tutorial type of level and then do your own thing. Nowadays, the handholding is out of bounds... as well as restrictions. You can't even be a pickpocketing gnome in his underwear running aroun in the capital city with a fake ork slaughtering everyone with an ancient supergun.
White Wolf also kind of screwed Troika by not helping to advertise Bloodlines since they were moving on to a new version of their World of Darkness RPG system.
One year later and now we know what obsidians new project is: The outer worlds. I can see why Cane called it his dream project, as it has the heart and soul of fallout new Vegas, the fallout game most similar to its predecessors by interplay. Best of luck to Cane and crew!
I absolutely adored Arcanum. I even read the game manual. Several times. It was that good. Even the banana fruit bread recipe in the back was good (made it one time, now I can't find the manual). I also got a kick out of the guy who lectured on where all the races came from. It was a really thought-out game world. Also, I just got myself and two of my brothers copies off steam.
I know is too late, but: In a large bowl, blend one-third of a cup softened butter and two-thirds of a cup of sugar until creamy and light. When this is done, add a fresh hen’s egg and beat the mixture a bit more to blend. In a second bowl, sift one and three-quarters cup of flour together with one and one-half teaspoons baking powder, one-quarter of a teaspoon of baking-soda, and a teaspoon of Cumbrian cinnamon. In the third bowl, mash three very ripe banana-fruit, preferably of the sweeter Cattanese variety. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the butter bowl, and beat the two together; then add one-third of the mashed bananas and beat again. Continue adding both mixtures by thirds to the large bowl until all the flour, butter-and-eggs, and banana-fruit are thoroughly blended. Then, if you wish, you may add a halfcup of shelled walnuts for flavor. Spread the batter into a well-greased 4" x 8" pan and bake for one hour at a temperature of 350 degrees. The resulting bread is very healthful and tasty and can be served as an addition to the mid-morning meal. It also makes a pleasant snack in a picnic basket, and is wholly appropriate fare to offer elven visitors
Lacuna coil opened a door for me to other great bands like Within Temtation, Epica or Delain and so on. When i heard Lacuna for the first time, that Swamped song was absolutely refreshing from me, simply darkish and still brilliantly melodic.
I, too, played VTM:B recently (A year or so ago), and it was one of the most, if not the most wonderful experience I had with a video game, it felt so powerful to me, shame about the latter part of the game, but nevertheless I really like it. I don't really know what it is, maybe the inmersiveness, the music, the setting, is what cautivated me, also thanks to the game, I became a gm for WoD (more specifically, nWoD, but details) so I can experience more and more of a dark, supernatural setting. I really liked this video, helps to offer some perspective, and got me nostalgic about the game hearing the music. I have yet to play Arcanum but it is in my backlog, maybe i'll move it a bit forward. Your videos are good at getting me nostalgic, keep up the good work!
I never played any of their games, but when I heard employees went without pay just to deliver an amazing game that they could put their name behind is the type of company that deserves a kickstarter. If only kickstarter was around back them.
I've completed Vampire every year since it's development. Troika were on another level with that game. It's a shame we've not seen anything match it, since.
Wait, Boyarsky and Cain work at Obsidian now. Obsidian have a close relationship with Paradox Interactive, PI was their publisher for both Pillars and Tyranny. Paradox Interactive now owns White Wolf Publishing. One can hope.
I remember playing Arcanum and Bloodlines when they first came out. I still have the original discs and their original cases. Bloodlines, in particular, left a lasting impression and I was saddened when Troika folded. Some publishers are truly a blight on gaming.
Still holding your breath on that one? Looks like hardsuitlabs went woke and broke way before getting halfway through. Seeing what they had planned it was for the best. This game needs dedicated people to do it justice, not vacuous ideologues hellbent on supporting the current thing
Have you watched Tim Cain's great Post Mortem of Fallout? He and Boyarski were able to create the same working enviroment they had with Troika inside Interplay as well. As he tells it, various Interplay employees were staying at work after their harrowing shifts to go and help with Fallout because they loved the game/the people so much that their were willing to do it for free/in their spare time.
This is the spirit I try to keep in me when designing games too. And this is the way the games should be approached... Yes, you should try to get rid of the bugs for sure since it could kill every game no matter how good the design is but hell, this is the dream of every game designer - to see his games live long after they are maid and stay in the hearths of the fans.
The people at Troika loved their games. And it shows in the games themselves. The vision sadly outstripped their abilities as teams to create them in their fully glory
Bloodlines introduced me to the idea of vampire RPGs, in a relatively modern setting, and honestly, I loved it! Mostly because I only used the vanilla version unpatched back in the day, which meant that there was a bug in character creation, I stumbled across it by accident and had an insanely overpowered character, which suited my inept RPG skills really well back then. Also, the fact that the muppets of activision actually forced Bloodlines, without the final polish, on the market, next to half life 2....well... If Troika games struggled with the business aspect..well..what the fk do we call this decision on activisions part? Horror grade ineptitude? This is the equivalent of releasing your electric car to the market the same day that the tesla 3 went on sale aswell.... This does not require 30 years of experience and a university degree, a random muppet with a countryball icon and a 3 year business exam equivalent to a highschool exam..like, I know a guy from work, he is a grown man in his mid twenties, he reads like a 9 year old, and his writing is about on par with an 8 or 9 year old aswell, even HE, EVEN HE, can take this exam, and he did, I might add. So, if someone with such a basic educational background, with next to no knowledge can see that "X is definently gonna be amazing!! All my friends and I are gonna play!" why the hell can those massively overpaid suits not do that? Again, millions of dollars were lost in potential revenues, both from Bloodlines but also future sequels, and why? Because some megalomaniacs in activision got their egos bruised and they looked a little silly... It really speaks to why corporate cultures, at the top, need to be screened for psychopaths and separated them from any management role. I worked at a place where we had a psychopath, that was fun. Half our original staff have left in protest and those that remain are either worse people then the manager, or they are simply so bad at their jobs that if they were to work elsewhere...yeah...they would be found out real fast. Speaking of which, my manager mostly had meetings with other managers and then he paid the bills...which..kinda points towards the corporate issue. I could replace him with any random 14-15 year old kid with a few months of training, and all I would have to do myself that a random 14 year old cannot quickly learn, is the optimization of local marketing, and even that, well...frankly, its easy..could probably teach that in 12 months including 2 months of vaccation for the pupil. So 10 months and you can replace an old fart with a brain that actually works. Think about it, activision got so many financial people, marketing, PR, but very, VERY few full blooded "Gaming is my life and if my girl cant accept that, then am done with her" types. Which of course are the kinda people that actually have the innate understanding of gaming to read the market way better then an outside observer ever could. Its like the local marketing thing I mentioned, it is not possible to do that optimally unless you do research, and most retail people actually doing any work, well, why would you waste time doing that research in depth with focus groups and such? you wouldn't. Gaming is the same, each genre represents a different area with different socio economic compositions, cultures, morals, lifestyles, etc, and you need a firm grasp of gaming, not gaming statistics, in order to actually be able to tell the difference between a game with a high value proposition and a MVP(Minimum Viable Product) and if you cannot tell the difference between those two things, as an employee of activision..well...that is actually pretty emberassing. I wonder what activision would look like if their investors had a clue about how incompetent they've been the past two decades, a lot smaller I imagine. I mean geez come on, even WARNER BROS STUDIOS, have a less idiotic track record, yes they fuck up their games with live services, but atleast they did not demand the original shadow of mordor be released 6 months early because of budget issues...remember people..its activision. They got money. In fact, I am fairly sure they have been issued a printing press because of WoWs insane sucess. So why throw out a golden nugget with the bathwater? Did nobody making this decision read the market, or even play the game before making the decision? Someone fucks up their budget, so a company, with solid finances, throws a shitfit and throws its toys out the pram? I think there is more to that story..once you can pull in +60k USD a year, you gotta have half a brain on your head, surely?
Loved both Bloodlines and Arcanum. And many can talk about Bloodlines, I'll mention what Arcanum was to me, here. The thing about Arcanum was choice, as mentioned in the video, but not one video could describe how awesome choice was in the game. It gave the player so many ways to actually role-play the character, even in action. It felt like every mission allowed you to do it your own way, and treat various people involved in the mission your own way, based on your stats and your interpretation of what kind of attitude your character was to play out. I remember playing the game coming up with various character ultimatums, for which I had to play the entire game with. Stuff where, if I'm faced with a certain situation, I have to have my character do *this* in return. Often enough, that kind of planning is how you get into trouble (the fun kind), and it creates puzzles for which you may need to prep to still stick to the ultimatum. The game allowed you that, and I'll never forget it. I truly got to play my first true *grey area* character, and it felt like the story morphed to envelope my decisions. Sure, the combat had some issues, but given the time the game released, still fairly comparable to the competition; but it allowed you to do so many things outside of combat. (And yes, even set up some really violent and insidious traps to settle the fight before one could even start). Of course, this whole death of a game, at least for the main creators, did have a pretty happy ending for everybody, and one where their luck had a total reversal. And one which by the time of this video, nobody knew about. We had no idea that this "Dream game" was going to be Outer Worlds. Outer Worlds, seems like a game that is so very Troika (obviously), but instead with all the stars aligning in their favor. Having an absolutely Huge publisher come in for them, and one who was a fan enough to give them the resources they need and the marketing. And then, having the Masterstroke of Fallout 76 happening, having the legion of fans flocking to Outer Worlds to get their...well...a game more like what those fans wanted. It was like some sort of Karma built up over decades finally paying off. I think what is funny is that now that Microsoft kind of owns almost all the things that would otherwise be license issues, they could technically have the original Fallout owners take over Fallout combined with the teams who can masterfully create solid engines for it.
You make great stuff. Unpretentious, intelligent observations. You can almost hear the love for these games in between the editing oversights. Have a subscribe.
Troika is probably the most undervalued developer in history. Arcanum and Bloodlines are overlooked classics, but for most of the people who played them, they're perfect examples of what an RPG should be, and perhaps the last of the truly great (albeit buggy) RPGs.
I wouldn't mind seeing a video like this on Origin (specifically focusing on their greats of the 80s and 90s, compared to where it is now) or a similar type on EA (from their good rep 30 years ago to their current tatters). Would be pretty interesting I think :D
I loved Arcanum even tho it was buggy and to this days is still one of my favorite games of all time. I played it all the way through multiple times just because you can finish it in multiple ways. The story was great, voice acting was spot on, it touched tough subjects like slavery, poverty and it had quests set up where you can question your own moral compass. The whole magic/tech gouge system was interesting and I think never explored in any game to date. Wanted to sneak around avoiding fight...raise prowling, dexterity, perception. Tank'n'spank? Go melee. Like to blow stuff up with spells? NP...go full mage Wanted to use guns or better yet run around with an army of robots at your command? Get a PHD in engineering. It had SO MUCH to offer. I didn't get this amount of depth and choices in any game until Witcher 3. The bugs were somewhat fixed and even more content was added by fans via fan-made patches, so I still like to play it from time to time just to get my nostalgia fix.
I fucking loved arcanum back in the day, the music and world was so good. I was probably too young to properly appreciate it though, so I kinda want to play it again.
Arcanum is one of my favorite games, it was just so rich the character editor was madness so many paths could be taken and NPC felt real that system to see if they were antipathic or friendly toward the player immediatly really worked it's a shame it didn't have the success it deserved 'cause I mean Baldur's Gate while decent doesn't compare for me... But hey I'm just glad Arcanum exist at all.
Bloodlines was the game me and all my friends were playing the month Half Life 2 launched. Because at the time you had to wait a good 50 minutes for Steam to even connect just to be able to play HL2. Still really stands up now, and the fan patches continue to maintain support. They're so far the only people to have truly done White Wolf's OWoD justice.
So sad that it was the last Masquerade Game...I would pay a fortune for a Sequel to this from the same Team in the same universe with the same rule set.
It probably didn't help that Vampire released same month as World Of Warcraft in NA, and a few months later, EU as well. But you can really tell who gives a shit when Troika was working hours unpaid to try to polish the game while Activision promptly shoveled it, no updates, no sequels, to this day. They happily continue to sell the product, but with no support since 2004. You as the customer are expected to run unofficial fan made patches in order to fix "their" game, after paying for it. Dark Souls got a similar treatment from From Software, who shoveled the game on PC, leaving it in a terrible state, while moving on to make and release sequels right next to it. You have to patch the hell out of it to get it to a decent playable state, none of which comes from the actual sellers of the game.
On the other hand it's insulting in it's own way in Activision's face when a bug-ridden and abandoned game that's almost 15 years old has a more enduring fanbase than Activision's typical "blockbuster" games that are completely desolate 2-3 years after their release date.
@@lalas198 Like Activision cares for that. They dont care if people honestly like their games. They should look good enough to make enough people buy it. If enough people buy it they will release a second game until no one buys this games. Than, they move on with new products that look püromising for people that dont care enough to watch how previous games ended up at Activision....
ToEE has it mark on my life. It was the last game my older brother gave me before he passed away. It was one of the buggier games I've ever played - looting enemies corpses was impossible at "normal", so I had to play in Iron Man (hardcore), which means no re-rolls (or point buy) character build (well, a LOT of new character, roll, return), "save & quit" in a single slot, permadeath - and deleting your save. That's the tale of my young self learning why and how to backup files. Until today I can't forget the town eerie and sorrow theme. It's a shame the storyline and the decision making was shit and didn't matter at all, but the combat was really cool. If you knew your way around DnD 3.5e. Years later, when relaunched at GoG, I've learned about a suoer decent fan patch with made the game work properly. Must say, tho, it wasn't the same.
Weird fact: the word troika also has some grim meaning for post-USSR people. During those days this was the slang name for government inspection who checked homes of the people who were suspected to be unfaithful to the regime.
have been playing computer games since you had to use audio tapes , literally not floppy disks, audio cassettes, anyway there are 2 games that i will remember every single minor detail about them till the day I die : Deus Ex and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines , for me these are the pinnacle of gaming and how it should be done, with passion.
It is sad what happened to Troika but over the years I have purchased multiple copies of VTMB and still load it up from time to time to take a little adventure into a universe that still brings me much joy to this day.
I still think of and talk about Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines fondly to this day and often recommend it to be people that haven't played it. Fantastic game.
VtM Bloodlines 2 hype!!!! I still have my boxed copies of Arcanum and Bloodlines. I LOVED Bloodlines! The atmosphere of that game was amazing. One of my favorite games of all time.
I wonder if you'd do one on VTMB2 - I have followed the production, knowing it was cursed, and seeing all the contemporary fad-chasing types working on it gave me no comfort. Still, I preordered it, for some cosmetics I would probably never see in-game and some IRL loot ... well, the game has been shelved. XD They got rid of Brian Mitsoda and from that moment on, I knew we'd either never see it or it'd be bland AAA grey slime (as is the current fashion). They've made text games (nice and simple, especially when you get someone else to do the writing) and a battle royale instead. I cannot be disappointed by the industry nowadays, I'm kinda numb to it. XD
+ IIRC, after a year or more of Dev, after preorders were made available! - they were looking to hire some basic staff to work on it. Just a shitshow all around :(
Temple of Elemental Evil was a classic, it was re-released with major expansions by a fan group, Circle of 8. Horribly buggy but they were able to re-use background illustrations from the game to build an entire city and several other dungeons as well as boost the maximum character levels considerably.
I love all the 3 Troika games. It's evident I'm not alone going by the amount of fan patches, and how popular Arcanum became as a title sold on GoG. I still occasionally go back to these 3 games.
Bloodlines was such an awesome game, I bought a copy for three of my friends that admired it when I played it. Now that it's on Steam, when I get my computer back up I will definitely be buying it again. I only played through once, but spent a lot of time figuring out my character. Something I rarely do in most games. This game was and still is one of my favorites to this day. I need to get my PC back up. Playing again will no doubt be a treat.
CCP just sold off white wolf to another company so maybe we'll get one eventually seeing as CCP stole the money was supposed to go to their WoD MMO for Eve staying afloat after their Dust flop
Wait...some of Fallout's original developers...both working at obsidian...on a project they dub their "dream game"...HOLY SHIT I THINK THAT'S "THE OUTER WORLDS!" So glad they have that opportunity!
I got a top end gaming PC in 2004. It was a very good year, heh. I remember playing Doom 3 maxed out on launch day and people being like "I can't max this game, it's so insane!" That was still the most expensive PC I've ever owned, lol. I tend not to buy "absolute highest end hardware available" these days and go for better value ;)
I'm playing vtmb right now and man, what a fucking gem it is. It's one of the few RPGs that don't make me feel like save-scumming when I fail a quest because I know it was my fault I failed it. The game might have been a buggy mess once but man, the community patches really helped there and now you can focus in the incredible characters and the feeling of being there, roaming around biting necks.
How have I not come across your content before? This is exactly what the gaming community WAS missing, but you have filled that void with professional content. Don't ever sell yourself short because your content is amazing. Why your not pitching this as a tv show to netflix or amazon, I do not know, but you should be. Your work is unique and one above all else.
Hey nerdSlayer, i randomly found your channel last night within my recommendations channel, and oh boy what a ride it's been. I've binged 3 videos of your already (Within the same series) and this is amazing work. I can't begin to fathom the effort, stress, attention to detail put in - whether it pertains to scripting, research, pacing - all of it just works so well and in tandem seamlessly. Though this is a video from a year and a month ago, the quality is fantastic, specially in this day and age of RUclips, rather the state it's been in for the past few years. Great work !
30:34 Two? Eh, ToEE is absolute classic and the best D&D transfer to computer game to date, no videogame ever came close to translating all that stuff so faithfully including proper turn based combat, grid movement and even 5-foot steps, it's just mind-boggling! And yeah, it was the most broken out of three games out of the gate, but how it was resurrected by fans is whole another story that deserves a full documentary.
So, that's what happened. I was wondering about that game company, ever since I saw the Arcanum box art cover as a pre-teen...It was embedded into my memories. I won't forget how the box art looks like.
Those defending activision with the logic Activision extending the development schedule and increasing the budget multiple times, are not looking into the details of the issue. 1.) Troika was developing Bloodlines with a prototype, unfinished engine. It wasn't just a new engine that the team wasn't familiar with, it was a completely new engine in general, at the time. The Source engine was one of the 3 new big game engines being revealed at the time - Source, id Tech 4, and Unreal Engine 3. 2.) Troika was already tasked with developing 3 games in a 6 year span. A daunting task in and of itself, for such a small studio as Troika, it's next to impossible to think of accomplishing. They actually had to split the already small team (which was mentioned in the video) between development for TOEE and Bloodlines. So to say Activision extended the time Troika needed, in some attempt to exonerate them of blame, isn't really looking into the fact that Troika were never given enough time to begin with. The main culprit is the market system itself, with it's competition-driven nature and profit over everything else incentive, which is why the industry is in the sate it's in today and we get rushed games that never meet their full potential, like, well, pretty much everything Troika developed... This is why options like Kickstarter are a godsend, allowing developers to cut out the middleman and replace them with funds and feedback from the players themselves.
![[VRChat] Terrors of Nowhere #1 [VR]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/T8_uCb_YDFE/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for the positive responses and feedback all. This script was 8,200 words and took me a week to write. Although I loved the way this story came out, it really highlighted my video editing deficiencies. I have such grand visions of the type of content I want to produce, but not the ability to craft it in terms of video editing/transitions. My goal is to find someone else willing to edit for me, that way it frees me up to write and voice over more which means more content and since the editor will be better than me better quality as well. I can also end up doing redux/remakes of previous videos where I can add extra commentary and we can have nice and fancy editing to accompany it.
If you have experience editing and would like to apply as my editor, email me at exforcegamer@gmail.com and/or send me a message on RUclips. Thanks all!
Your content is great, hope you find an editor!
Great Visions... just like Troika. :)
As a point of interest.
Obsidian are working on a fallout based game. (Being the studio that develped New Vegas.)
Two of the lead Devs from the original Fallout are staff of Obsidian.
So, yeah. Next Fallout iteration is going to be insaaaaaane.
Are you ever going to do the death of Airtight Games? I worked there when it went under, it'd be one hell of a great dose of schadenfreude for me.
wonderful episode ! Can i request a game maybe ??? FIREFALL ! that was a damn good open world / TPS shooter... COOP/PVE and PVP... 3 years of beta, the PvP done, and redone to be again stopped... and the whole studio felt appart. (it was also one of the rare game using Voxels...)
You know the saying... "If anyone mentions VTM: Bloodlines in conversation, it's soon after installed once again on a computer"
Unfortunately a true one.
Something I've been thinking about recently is.
I saw someone play this once I just dont remember who or why. They played the crazy vampires.
funny enough i never played it nor had any interest in playing it
@@nerdSlayerstudioss The hell do you mean "unfortunately"?
VTMB is the most perfect imperfect game ever made.
It's one in the morning and I am watching this video... >sigh< I'll be reinstalling.
Sweet. Thanks you Warstar.
Got the original copy and never bothered patching, BUT ..it's time to reinstall after half a decade and let's see what the patch fixes. I remember that besides the shotgun all weapons/arms were near worthless compared to bloodboost+unarmed.
Hey Warstar, I've still got the original physical copy (3 discs and all) from back when it was first released. All those fixes/updates you are talking about, are they automatically included if I buy it on Steam? (instead of installing from the discs and searching/updating all patches separately on my own).
I've played this game many, many times with all clans and endings, and it's my 2nd best WRPG ever (Fallout 2 is the 1st), and with all those data you provided it sounds like an almost new experience :)
Really? I have several hundred games off steam and most of them I don't need to be online for. There are some however, that DO require you to be online to play and those ARE irritating because I like to play games when I am waiting for people.
That begs the question, who demands that you be online to play the game? Steam, the publisher, or the developer?
I hate seeing Death of a Game. Always breaks my heart when people put time and effort only to fail.
Nodosa Thankfully Vampire got pretty popular after the fall. Still sad it didn't get a bigger following sooner.
OMG vampire bloodlines was the most fun game i ever played, the repeating value was low though. A follow up to the mood, system etc and multiplayer teamwork options in a far bigger world where you fight for your own faction to destroy the other ones etc would rlly get some nice followers I would think.
a slight add-on: the replay value of different characters and how ppl respond was fun (chatting using the crazy vampire made a lot of rolfs), but the replay of doing the same mission and story over and over...that was low
I wouldn't consider a game failing to be a total loss. The lessons learned by a game's failure can be used to create something amazing later. I think Pillars of Eternity is a great testament to that.
in this case i would consider it a horrid failure. this was the last of the true RPG games. it was not only the death of the the company but took a entire genre in a whole new, and in my mind worse, direction.
RIP, still playing VTMB it just got another community patch update
Have they managed to work out most of the kinks out? Remember playing it and not being able to get past some part due to a bug. Couldn't find a fix for it so just stopped there that time.
nearly any bugs fixed + some restored content
with the patch you can go through the whole game without crashing now. Something i personally was never able to do before lol. I still quicksave every 5m out of old habits though.
Guess it's due time for another visit to that game then. :)
Still one of the best RPG's ever made. And best vampire game to date.
Shit, someone mentioned Vampire Bloodlines: The Masquerade. There goes my next 25 hours...
@Joker Jesus You sonnavabitch
*launching Steam*
Whoa, Vampire Bloodlines: The Masquerade? Such an awesome game, looking forward to the new game coming later this year.
At least no one mentioned deus ex
Same for me, I love that game but oddly I never managed to finish it, so I don't know how the ending is. Perhaps I'll go for it. I also love the original fallout 1 and 2. Screw the new ones =p.
@@TheDarthpsi even new vegas?
Last part of bloodlines is lots and lots of fighting
But I definetely don't mind except the sewers they are the worst
RIP.
Arcanum was indeed a buggy, rushed game with sub-par graphics at the time and badly balanced combat. But it's also my most favourite game ever. It had an imaginative yet very well thought out world, something which doesn't usually happen. Most of the time in games with a more fantastical setting, like the steampunkish style arcanum has, the developers usually forget about real world problems and focus on their own. Rusty looking machines with extra cogs and steam coming out of them are treated more like magic. Arcanum however didn't do this, it deals with the bad working conditions, slavery, racism, greed, poverty and everything else which was a part of the industrial era in addition to the magic vs technology thing they had.
Their other games were also very good at what they did and you could see how much love they put in to making them.
Sweet avatar. Arcanum is the best.
Best CRPG I have played, another crpg are good but they didn't impact me as much as Arcanum did.
So...the "buggy, rushed game" thing is a recurring theme when it comes to the principals involved at Troika. Arcanum, ToEE, and Bloodlines all demonstrated this, and Fallout and Fallout 2 both shipped rather shakily also. At a certain point, you have to start looking at the processes of the developer rather than reflexively blaming four different publishers. They were an imaginative studio, but they allocated too much time to implementation and not enough to bugfix and polish.
Would love to see a sequel to Arcanum
I loved all the games Troika developed, and I always felt a lot of regret at how people regarded the company's death so cavalierly. ToEE in particular gets crapped on, but it was really the best D&D game in terms of actual combat mechanics ever made for the computer. (Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment definitely having superior story, but the actual turn-based combat was fantastic.)
I've always had a lot more patience for games with bugs but vision than polished turds.
Long story short, Troika gave a shit. They may not have been the best studio technically and they sure as hell didn't have the funds but they really cared about their projects. Can't say the same about a lot of studios today. Maybe CD Project.
Bill Pairaktaridis
CDPR is going to save the industry, mark my words
FromSoft made people rebuy DS2 in the form of DS2:SotFS, which should have been a free patch to Season Pass owners.
Witcher 2 and 3 are soulless and wooden pieces of modern and idiot with low standars pandering shit. They are no better than Skyrim or Fallout 4. Witcher 1 was great.Morrowind was great.Deus ex was great.Vampire the masquerade bloodlines was great. Too bad that only retarded things like COD,MCU and Transformers make money nowadays... The bar for quality has never been lower.
"The bar for quality has never been lower" - This is so true.And very sad.
skyrim is shit oblivion is way better so is daggerfall skyrim is nothing but graphics looks and awes it has no real rpg elements in it not like morrowind and daggerfall did why eso is way better than skyrim
I purchased all of these on day one. This is a company that should have never died.
"Death?" This game lives up to it's name. It's un-death.
Infact, a new unofficial patch just dropped not too long ago.
Arcanum is still my favorite game of all time. I spent countless hours playing it and most likely even more trying to create my own scenarios years back.
Games like theirs made me the gamer I am today. A tutorial type of level and then do your own thing. Nowadays, the handholding is out of bounds... as well as restrictions. You can't even be a pickpocketing gnome in his underwear running aroun in the capital city with a fake ork slaughtering everyone with an ancient supergun.
The combat system is a pain though.
Vampire the masquerade bloodlines is one of my favorite games of all time.
White Wolf also kind of screwed Troika by not helping to advertise Bloodlines since they were moving on to a new version of their World of Darkness RPG system.
Not sure what is more sad, the death of Troika, or the joke that is Vampire the Requiem.
screw u that was awesome game
No, Vampire the Requiem was a steaming pile of shit..
It was such an awesome game that Vampire the Masquerade continued to outsell it when all the Old World of Darkness books were out of print.
VTR was so successful... that we got V20 in 2011 and 5th edition is in development.
:D
I always use this game as an example of how a great community can keep a game alive
One year later and now we know what obsidians new project is: The outer worlds. I can see why Cane called it his dream project, as it has the heart and soul of fallout new Vegas, the fallout game most similar to its predecessors by interplay. Best of luck to Cane and crew!
The Outer Worlds was my favorite game the year it came out, I hope they're also working on the sequel
@@war2theren227me too
I absolutely adored Arcanum. I even read the game manual. Several times. It was that good. Even the banana fruit bread recipe in the back was good (made it one time, now I can't find the manual). I also got a kick out of the guy who lectured on where all the races came from.
It was a really thought-out game world. Also, I just got myself and two of my brothers copies off steam.
I know is too late, but: In a large bowl, blend one-third of a cup softened butter and two-thirds of a cup
of sugar until creamy and light. When this is done, add a fresh hen’s egg and
beat the mixture a bit more to blend.
In a second bowl, sift one and three-quarters cup of flour together with one and
one-half teaspoons baking powder, one-quarter of a teaspoon of baking-soda, and
a teaspoon of Cumbrian cinnamon.
In the third bowl, mash three very ripe banana-fruit, preferably of the sweeter
Cattanese variety.
Add one-third of the flour mixture to the butter bowl, and beat the two together; then add one-third of the mashed bananas and beat again. Continue adding
both mixtures by thirds to the large bowl until all the flour, butter-and-eggs,
and banana-fruit are thoroughly blended. Then, if you wish, you may add a halfcup of shelled walnuts for flavor. Spread the batter into a well-greased 4" x 8"
pan and bake for one hour at a temperature of 350 degrees.
The resulting bread is very healthful and tasty and can be served as an addition to
the mid-morning meal. It also makes a pleasant snack in a picnic basket, and is
wholly appropriate fare to offer elven visitors
@@Lamadredetuamigo wholesome
I remember playing this gem endlessly during my college days. And it introduced me to Lacuna Coil and the metal genre. It had such an impact on me.
Jack Absolute
Same here.
Ditto.
Lacuna coil opened a door for me to other great bands like Within Temtation, Epica or Delain and so on. When i heard Lacuna for the first time, that Swamped song was absolutely refreshing from me, simply darkish and still brilliantly melodic.
same here, as far as lacuna coil goes :D
_V:tMB_ got me hooked on Lacuna Coil and Chiasm.
I, too, played VTM:B recently (A year or so ago), and it was one of the most, if not the most wonderful experience I had with a video game, it felt so powerful to me, shame about the latter part of the game, but nevertheless I really like it. I don't really know what it is, maybe the inmersiveness, the music, the setting, is what cautivated me, also thanks to the game, I became a gm for WoD (more specifically, nWoD, but details) so I can experience more and more of a dark, supernatural setting. I really liked this video, helps to offer some perspective, and got me nostalgic about the game hearing the music. I have yet to play Arcanum but it is in my backlog, maybe i'll move it a bit forward. Your videos are good at getting me nostalgic, keep up the good work!
I never played any of their games, but when I heard employees went without pay just to deliver an amazing game that they could put their name behind is the type of company that deserves a kickstarter. If only kickstarter was around back them.
If only they had kickstarter back then Troika is a perfect candidate
Even in its buggy state the game was an absolute masterpiece. One of my all time favorites.
RIP Troika, its a sad story. They deserved so much more
I've completed Vampire every year since it's development. Troika were on another level with that game. It's a shame we've not seen anything match it, since.
Troika really has a special place in my heart. I love Arcanum and I really wish there would be a new game in that setting.
The Legend says: Evrey time someone talks about Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines someware it gets reinstalled ^^
I loved both Arcanum and VTMB and I agree with a lot of your conclusions. Thank goodness there are still people out there keeping the games alive.
Wait, Boyarsky and Cain work at Obsidian now. Obsidian have a close relationship with Paradox Interactive, PI was their publisher for both Pillars and Tyranny. Paradox Interactive now owns White Wolf Publishing. One can hope.
Jonathan Luoto
And pray
Your wish has been granted
I remember playing Arcanum and Bloodlines when they first came out. I still have the original discs and their original cases. Bloodlines, in particular, left a lasting impression and I was saddened when Troika folded. Some publishers are truly a blight on gaming.
I’m glad to come back, realizing that VTM 2 will come out soon, hopefully it will be as good as the first one
Still holding your breath on that one? Looks like hardsuitlabs went woke and broke way before getting halfway through. Seeing what they had planned it was for the best. This game needs dedicated people to do it justice, not vacuous ideologues hellbent on supporting the current thing
Have you watched Tim Cain's great Post Mortem of Fallout? He and Boyarski were able to create the same working enviroment they had with Troika inside Interplay as well. As he tells it, various Interplay employees were staying at work after their harrowing shifts to go and help with Fallout because they loved the game/the people so much that their were willing to do it for free/in their spare time.
This is the spirit I try to keep in me when designing games too. And this is the way the games should be approached... Yes, you should try to get rid of the bugs for sure since it could kill every game no matter how good the design is but hell, this is the dream of every game designer - to see his games live long after they are maid and stay in the hearths of the fans.
The people at Troika loved their games. And it shows in the games themselves. The vision sadly outstripped their abilities as teams to create them in their fully glory
Bloodlines introduced me to the idea of vampire RPGs, in a relatively modern setting, and honestly, I loved it!
Mostly because I only used the vanilla version unpatched back in the day, which meant that there was a bug in character creation, I stumbled across it by accident and had an insanely overpowered character, which suited my inept RPG skills really well back then.
Also, the fact that the muppets of activision actually forced Bloodlines, without the final polish, on the market, next to half life 2....well...
If Troika games struggled with the business aspect..well..what the fk do we call this decision on activisions part? Horror grade ineptitude? This is the equivalent of releasing your electric car to the market the same day that the tesla 3 went on sale aswell....
This does not require 30 years of experience and a university degree, a random muppet with a countryball icon and a 3 year business exam equivalent to a highschool exam..like, I know a guy from work, he is a grown man in his mid twenties, he reads like a 9 year old, and his writing is about on par with an 8 or 9 year old aswell, even HE, EVEN HE, can take this exam, and he did, I might add.
So, if someone with such a basic educational background, with next to no knowledge can see that "X is definently gonna be amazing!! All my friends and I are gonna play!" why the hell can those massively overpaid suits not do that?
Again, millions of dollars were lost in potential revenues, both from Bloodlines but also future sequels, and why?
Because some megalomaniacs in activision got their egos bruised and they looked a little silly...
It really speaks to why corporate cultures, at the top, need to be screened for psychopaths and separated them from any management role.
I worked at a place where we had a psychopath, that was fun. Half our original staff have left in protest and those that remain are either worse people then the manager, or they are simply so bad at their jobs that if they were to work elsewhere...yeah...they would be found out real fast.
Speaking of which, my manager mostly had meetings with other managers and then he paid the bills...which..kinda points towards the corporate issue.
I could replace him with any random 14-15 year old kid with a few months of training, and all I would have to do myself that a random 14 year old cannot quickly learn, is the optimization of local marketing, and even that, well...frankly, its easy..could probably teach that in 12 months including 2 months of vaccation for the pupil. So 10 months and you can replace an old fart with a brain that actually works.
Think about it, activision got so many financial people, marketing, PR, but very, VERY few full blooded "Gaming is my life and if my girl cant accept that, then am done with her" types. Which of course are the kinda people that actually have the innate understanding of gaming to read the market way better then an outside observer ever could.
Its like the local marketing thing I mentioned, it is not possible to do that optimally unless you do research, and most retail people actually doing any work, well, why would you waste time doing that research in depth with focus groups and such? you wouldn't.
Gaming is the same, each genre represents a different area with different socio economic compositions, cultures, morals, lifestyles, etc, and you need a firm grasp of gaming, not gaming statistics, in order to actually be able to tell the difference between a game with a high value proposition and a MVP(Minimum Viable Product) and if you cannot tell the difference between those two things, as an employee of activision..well...that is actually pretty emberassing.
I wonder what activision would look like if their investors had a clue about how incompetent they've been the past two decades, a lot smaller I imagine.
I mean geez come on, even WARNER BROS STUDIOS, have a less idiotic track record, yes they fuck up their games with live services, but atleast they did not demand the original shadow of mordor be released 6 months early because of budget issues...remember people..its activision.
They got money. In fact, I am fairly sure they have been issued a printing press because of WoWs insane sucess. So why throw out a golden nugget with the bathwater? Did nobody making this decision read the market, or even play the game before making the decision?
Someone fucks up their budget, so a company, with solid finances, throws a shitfit and throws its toys out the pram? I think there is more to that story..once you can pull in +60k USD a year, you gotta have half a brain on your head, surely?
Loved both Bloodlines and Arcanum. And many can talk about Bloodlines, I'll mention what Arcanum was to me, here.
The thing about Arcanum was choice, as mentioned in the video, but not one video could describe how awesome choice was in the game. It gave the player so many ways to actually role-play the character, even in action. It felt like every mission allowed you to do it your own way, and treat various people involved in the mission your own way, based on your stats and your interpretation of what kind of attitude your character was to play out.
I remember playing the game coming up with various character ultimatums, for which I had to play the entire game with. Stuff where, if I'm faced with a certain situation, I have to have my character do *this* in return. Often enough, that kind of planning is how you get into trouble (the fun kind), and it creates puzzles for which you may need to prep to still stick to the ultimatum. The game allowed you that, and I'll never forget it. I truly got to play my first true *grey area* character, and it felt like the story morphed to envelope my decisions. Sure, the combat had some issues, but given the time the game released, still fairly comparable to the competition; but it allowed you to do so many things outside of combat. (And yes, even set up some really violent and insidious traps to settle the fight before one could even start).
Of course, this whole death of a game, at least for the main creators, did have a pretty happy ending for everybody, and one where their luck had a total reversal. And one which by the time of this video, nobody knew about. We had no idea that this "Dream game" was going to be Outer Worlds.
Outer Worlds, seems like a game that is so very Troika (obviously), but instead with all the stars aligning in their favor. Having an absolutely Huge publisher come in for them, and one who was a fan enough to give them the resources they need and the marketing. And then, having the Masterstroke of Fallout 76 happening, having the legion of fans flocking to Outer Worlds to get their...well...a game more like what those fans wanted. It was like some sort of Karma built up over decades finally paying off. I think what is funny is that now that Microsoft kind of owns almost all the things that would otherwise be license issues, they could technically have the original Fallout owners take over Fallout combined with the teams who can masterfully create solid engines for it.
VTMB is genuinely my favorite game of all time. So proud to see it rise from its ashes.
You make great stuff. Unpretentious, intelligent observations. You can almost hear the love for these games in between the editing oversights. Have a subscribe.
_Bloodlines_ is, hands down, one of my favourite games ever.
Troika is probably the most undervalued developer in history.
Arcanum and Bloodlines are overlooked classics, but for most of the people who played them, they're perfect examples of what an RPG should be, and perhaps the last of the truly great (albeit buggy) RPGs.
I wouldn't mind seeing a video like this on Origin (specifically focusing on their greats of the 80s and 90s, compared to where it is now) or a similar type on EA (from their good rep 30 years ago to their current tatters). Would be pretty interesting I think :D
Quite fitting for VTMB that the game "died", but then came back to life with enhancements in a small secretive community.
I loved Arcanum even tho it was buggy and to this days is still one of my favorite games of all time. I played it all the way through multiple times just because you can finish it in multiple ways. The story was great, voice acting was spot on, it touched tough subjects like slavery, poverty and it had quests set up where you can question your own moral compass.
The whole magic/tech gouge system was interesting and I think never explored in any game to date.
Wanted to sneak around avoiding fight...raise prowling, dexterity, perception.
Tank'n'spank? Go melee.
Like to blow stuff up with spells? NP...go full mage
Wanted to use guns or better yet run around with an army of robots at your command? Get a PHD in engineering.
It had SO MUCH to offer.
I didn't get this amount of depth and choices in any game until Witcher 3.
The bugs were somewhat fixed and even more content was added by fans via fan-made patches, so I still like to play it from time to time just to get my nostalgia fix.
I fucking loved arcanum back in the day, the music and world was so good. I was probably too young to properly appreciate it though, so I kinda want to play it again.
This video finally made me play through V:TM Bloodlines and I loved it. Really reminded me of Deus Ex.
7:46 better animation than ME: Andromeda
EXACTLY what I told my husband a few minutes ago. xD You nailed it.
Arcanum is one of my favorite games, it was just so rich the character editor was madness so many paths could be taken and NPC felt real that system to see if they were antipathic or friendly toward the player immediatly really worked it's a shame it didn't have the success it deserved 'cause I mean Baldur's Gate while decent doesn't compare for me... But hey I'm just glad Arcanum exist at all.
oh my... thank you for reminding me of these amazing games i used to play so much... so many memories
Bloodlines was the game me and all my friends were playing the month Half Life 2 launched. Because at the time you had to wait a good 50 minutes for Steam to even connect just to be able to play HL2.
Still really stands up now, and the fan patches continue to maintain support. They're so far the only people to have truly done White Wolf's OWoD justice.
Listening the background music from the Temple of Elemental Evil brought me so many memories, i loved that game. I still have the box somewhere.
A redux of Bloodlines would be awesome. Loved this game despite all the flaws.
So sad that it was the last Masquerade Game...I would pay a fortune for a Sequel to this from the same Team in the same universe with the same rule set.
It probably didn't help that Vampire released same month as World Of Warcraft in NA, and a few months later, EU as well. But you can really tell who gives a shit when Troika was working hours unpaid to try to polish the game while Activision promptly shoveled it, no updates, no sequels, to this day. They happily continue to sell the product, but with no support since 2004. You as the customer are expected to run unofficial fan made patches in order to fix "their" game, after paying for it. Dark Souls got a similar treatment from From Software, who shoveled the game on PC, leaving it in a terrible state, while moving on to make and release sequels right next to it. You have to patch the hell out of it to get it to a decent playable state, none of which comes from the actual sellers of the game.
Shitty practices that people have sadly become far too accepting over.
On the other hand it's insulting in it's own way in Activision's face when a bug-ridden and abandoned game that's almost 15 years old has a more enduring fanbase than Activision's typical "blockbuster" games that are completely desolate 2-3 years after their release date.
@@lalas198
Like Activision cares for that. They dont care if people honestly like their games. They should look good enough to make enough people buy it. If enough people buy it they will release a second game until no one buys this games. Than, they move on with new products that look püromising for people that dont care enough to watch how previous games ended up at Activision....
Your great at making videos and researching. It's so nice to listen to these stories when playing games. Thank you for making quality entertainment.
The dream game is The Outer Worlds. That's exactly how he described it in a recent interview with Gamespot.
Their Arcanum of Steamworks and Magic Obscura is the MASTERPIECE of all times!
ToEE has it mark on my life. It was the last game my older brother gave me before he passed away. It was one of the buggier games I've ever played - looting enemies corpses was impossible at "normal", so I had to play in Iron Man (hardcore), which means no re-rolls (or point buy) character build (well, a LOT of new character, roll, return), "save & quit" in a single slot, permadeath - and deleting your save. That's the tale of my young self learning why and how to backup files. Until today I can't forget the town eerie and sorrow theme. It's a shame the storyline and the decision making was shit and didn't matter at all, but the combat was really cool. If you knew your way around DnD 3.5e. Years later, when relaunched at GoG, I've learned about a suoer decent fan patch with made the game work properly. Must say, tho, it wasn't the same.
I think that Van Gogh sold only one painting while he was alive. :p
The soundtrack of Arcanum is a masterpeice. Give it a listen, its worth it!
Arcanum such an imaginative game
Weird fact: the word troika also has some grim meaning for post-USSR people. During those days this was the slang name for government inspection who checked homes of the people who were suspected to be unfaithful to the regime.
have been playing computer games since you had to use audio tapes , literally not floppy disks, audio cassettes, anyway there are 2 games that i will remember every single minor detail about them till the day I die : Deus Ex and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines , for me these are the pinnacle of gaming and how it should be done, with passion.
And now we know what will be the legacy: Outer Worlds :3
Lancor84 and now bloodlines 2 is coming out ;)
@@deanyy3373 Except it isn't. ;)
It is sad what happened to Troika but over the years I have purchased multiple copies of VTMB and still load it up from time to time to take a little adventure into a universe that still brings me much joy to this day.
i miss roleplaying games so much
I still think of and talk about Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines fondly to this day and often recommend it to be people that haven't played it.
Fantastic game.
Oh yeah, been waiting for this since the streams on Twitch.
VtM Bloodlines 2 hype!!!!
I still have my boxed copies of Arcanum and Bloodlines. I LOVED Bloodlines! The atmosphere of that game was amazing. One of my favorite games of all time.
THHE ORIIGNAL VAMPIRES the masqurade was AMAZING both graphically and gameplay it was WAY BEYOND its time.. and underated
the original not the fps one in this review
I'm going to guess that the Dream Game Boyarsky worked on with Obsidian was The Outer Worlds?
Sequel is coming out now! What a time to be alive!
I love to check on my old gaming CDs and magazine to find old hidden gems and memories, the good old times
I wish I could forget about your videos, so I could go back and watch them all over again. Fantastic stuff.
do the downfall of pandemic studios, the ultimate EA fuck up
Troika might be long dead, but VTMB is constantly being updated thanks to my friend Wesp5 :)
I wonder if you'd do one on VTMB2 - I have followed the production, knowing it was cursed, and seeing all the contemporary fad-chasing types working on it gave me no comfort. Still, I preordered it, for some cosmetics I would probably never see in-game and some IRL loot ... well, the game has been shelved. XD
They got rid of Brian Mitsoda and from that moment on, I knew we'd either never see it or it'd be bland AAA grey slime (as is the current fashion). They've made text games (nice and simple, especially when you get someone else to do the writing) and a battle royale instead. I cannot be disappointed by the industry nowadays, I'm kinda numb to it. XD
+ IIRC, after a year or more of Dev, after preorders were made available! - they were looking to hire some basic staff to work on it. Just a shitshow all around :(
I still play Vampire Bloodlines. For me, is still the best vampire game to date.
Nooooooo! This one is too sad! :,(
Temple of Elemental Evil was a classic, it was re-released with major expansions by a fan group, Circle of 8. Horribly buggy but they were able to re-use background illustrations from the game to build an entire city and several other dungeons as well as boost the maximum character levels considerably.
I love all the 3 Troika games. It's evident I'm not alone going by the amount of fan patches, and how popular Arcanum became as a title sold on GoG. I still occasionally go back to these 3 games.
Bloodlines was such an awesome game, I bought a copy for three of my friends that admired it when I played it. Now that it's on Steam, when I get my computer back up I will definitely be buying it again. I only played through once, but spent a lot of time figuring out my character. Something I rarely do in most games. This game was and still is one of my favorites to this day. I need to get my PC back up. Playing again will no doubt be a treat.
I would love a modern, open world, adult VTMB esque title.
Pretty much one of those overlooked genres that has a shitload of potential.
CCP just sold off white wolf to another company so maybe we'll get one eventually seeing as CCP stole the money was supposed to go to their WoD MMO for Eve staying afloat after their Dust flop
I regret not mentioning that...but I can make another video for WoD/White Wolf at some point
And now after all these years theres a new one in development :)
Shout out if you actually made Grandma Cookhill's Three Bowl Bread.
Turns out there dream game was Outer Worlds and that was my game of 2019 so it was well worth the wait!
HAHAHA
After seeing Matt McMuscle's video on Amalur, hoping that N.S. will cover 38 studios and Kingdoms of Amalaur in the future
The first half of this video would've been solid in and of itself - you always go the extra mile nerdSlayer, nicenicenice
Wait...some of Fallout's original developers...both working at obsidian...on a project they dub their "dream game"...HOLY SHIT I THINK THAT'S "THE OUTER WORLDS!" So glad they have that opportunity!
Halo 2 came out in November 2004 too. GTA San Andreas was in late October too. 2004 was stacked
Also Doom 3, and Far Cry
I got a top end gaming PC in 2004. It was a very good year, heh. I remember playing Doom 3 maxed out on launch day and people being like "I can't max this game, it's so insane!" That was still the most expensive PC I've ever owned, lol. I tend not to buy "absolute highest end hardware available" these days and go for better value ;)
Fuck San Andreas. I played the hell out of this game. This and Breath of the wild were the games that make the most of having a open world....
I'm playing vtmb right now and man, what a fucking gem it is. It's one of the few RPGs that don't make me feel like save-scumming when I fail a quest because I know it was my fault I failed it. The game might have been a buggy mess once but man, the community patches really helped there and now you can focus in the incredible characters and the feeling of being there, roaming around biting necks.
How have I not come across your content before? This is exactly what the gaming community WAS missing, but you have filled that void with professional content. Don't ever sell yourself short because your content is amazing. Why your not pitching this as a tv show to netflix or amazon, I do not know, but you should be. Your work is unique and one above all else.
Hey nerdSlayer, i randomly found your channel last night within my recommendations channel, and oh boy what a ride it's been. I've binged 3 videos of your already (Within the same series) and this is amazing work. I can't begin to fathom the effort, stress, attention to detail put in - whether it pertains to scripting, research, pacing - all of it just works so well and in tandem seamlessly. Though this is a video from a year and a month ago, the quality is fantastic, specially in this day and age of RUclips, rather the state it's been in for the past few years. Great work !
Thank you for your kind words.
I'd love to see you do Sierra On-Line on a death of a company. Such a good run of games but they couldn't keep up with the technology and trends
Arcanum. One of my favorite rpg's of all time. I have it installed right now. I always do.
Now we know the mystery game was outerworlds which is amazing
Looks like they were working on Outer Worlds. Full circle and beautiful.
Wow Troika made some of my favorite games. I wish they still existed.
30:34 Two? Eh, ToEE is absolute classic and the best D&D transfer to computer game to date, no videogame ever came close to translating all that stuff so faithfully including proper turn based combat, grid movement and even 5-foot steps, it's just mind-boggling! And yeah, it was the most broken out of three games out of the gate, but how it was resurrected by fans is whole another story that deserves a full documentary.
So, that's what happened. I was wondering about that game company, ever since I saw the Arcanum box art cover as a pre-teen...It was embedded into my memories. I won't forget how the box art looks like.
One of the best games I ever played. Last returned to it in 2012.
Those defending activision with the logic Activision extending the development schedule and increasing the budget multiple times, are not looking into the details of the issue.
1.) Troika was developing Bloodlines with a prototype, unfinished engine. It wasn't just a new engine that the team wasn't familiar with, it was a completely new engine in general, at the time. The Source engine was one of the 3 new big game engines being revealed at the time - Source, id Tech 4, and Unreal Engine 3.
2.) Troika was already tasked with developing 3 games in a 6 year span. A daunting task in and of itself, for such a small studio as Troika, it's next to impossible to think of accomplishing. They actually had to split the already small team (which was mentioned in the video) between development for TOEE and Bloodlines.
So to say Activision extended the time Troika needed, in some attempt to exonerate them of blame, isn't really looking into the fact that Troika were never given enough time to begin with.
The main culprit is the market system itself, with it's competition-driven nature and profit over everything else incentive, which is why the industry is in the sate it's in today and we get rushed games that never meet their full potential, like, well, pretty much everything Troika developed... This is why options like Kickstarter are a godsend, allowing developers to cut out the middleman and replace them with funds and feedback from the players themselves.
Okay, but Temple of Elemental Evil is genuinely the best adaptation of a dnd tabletop experience I’ve played to date. Even with all its little quirks.