Wowaweewah. DEEEEEP.
http://dnbshare.com/download/TeeBeeNov09DeeperMix3Dex1.mp3.html
Friday 15 January 2010
Fusion Mixing for Spectrum ICR 9/1/2010
Lovely two hour mix. Sort of runs like a retrospective of the heavy club hits from the past few years.
http://dnbshare.com/download/Spectrum-9Jan2010Fusion-myspace.comSpectrumicr.mp3.html
http://dnbshare.com/download/Spectrum-9Jan2010Fusion-myspace.comSpectrumicr.mp3.html
Thursday 7 January 2010
Reload: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines (2004): Finally got Bloodlines back off one of my old housemates and reading the back of the box stirred up all the fond memories of playing it through a few years back, so I thought I'd give it another run through with a different character style. Replaying Bloodlines also gave me a chance to try it out with the newest fan made patch (now up to v.6.7) made by a guy called Wesp (http://www.patches-scrolls.de/vampire_bloodlines.php if you wanna give it a go). Bloodlines was famously bugged to shittery on release due to the fact that Troika went bust before finishing the game, which was a real shame. Apparently on first release, there were a few proper game-breaking bugs, as well as missing textures and models and stuff, although once patched up it's now really quite stable. I did experience a few crashes to desktop, but nothing really bad.
I'm pretty sure I first played this back in 2005, when I was still deeply in love with the Source engine (those water effects...) and despite technology moving on a fair way since then, Bloodlines still looks quite pretty. The graphics and soundtrack are perfect for LA by night, and there are very few games I can think of which create such a fantastic atmosphere. However, Bloodlines' strongest point by far is its cast of characters. From vampires to humans and a whole host of other creatures in between, the range of different characters and personalities encountered is quite awesome. Some are just standard RPG/videogame/movie cliches, others are completely original, but all are well-realised. The closest comparison I can draw is to the original two Fallout games, which is perhaps unsurprising as Troika Games was founded by various members of Black Isle Studios who bailed before Interplay shut the company down.
Bloodlines is definitely worth a replay today, once it's all patched up. It's sort of like Deus Ex, if Deus Ex had Fallout's writing staff. It's not all fantastic though, with a couple of the quests descending into basically mindless hack n slash type nonsense, but even this isn't enough to bring the game down.
I'm pretty sure I first played this back in 2005, when I was still deeply in love with the Source engine (those water effects...) and despite technology moving on a fair way since then, Bloodlines still looks quite pretty. The graphics and soundtrack are perfect for LA by night, and there are very few games I can think of which create such a fantastic atmosphere. However, Bloodlines' strongest point by far is its cast of characters. From vampires to humans and a whole host of other creatures in between, the range of different characters and personalities encountered is quite awesome. Some are just standard RPG/videogame/movie cliches, others are completely original, but all are well-realised. The closest comparison I can draw is to the original two Fallout games, which is perhaps unsurprising as Troika Games was founded by various members of Black Isle Studios who bailed before Interplay shut the company down.
Bloodlines is definitely worth a replay today, once it's all patched up. It's sort of like Deus Ex, if Deus Ex had Fallout's writing staff. It's not all fantastic though, with a couple of the quests descending into basically mindless hack n slash type nonsense, but even this isn't enough to bring the game down.
Unfortunately, Bloodlines didn't sell well on release and it looks like the end of the line for the Vampire games series, which is rather a pity what with everyone being gay for vampires these days. With games in the state they are at the moment, I can't see anything like this being produced for a while, but at least Bloodlines exists as an example of how great PC games can be.
Post script: Rock, Paper, Shotgun did a lovely VTM: Bloodlines retrospective which is infinitely better than anything I could write: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/02/11/forever-young-the-tragedy-of-bloodlines/
Post script: Rock, Paper, Shotgun did a lovely VTM: Bloodlines retrospective which is infinitely better than anything I could write: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/02/11/forever-young-the-tragedy-of-bloodlines/
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