Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 – The Chinese Room Explains its Game Design Priorities

Chinese GPU maker, GITSTAR, has introduced a brand-new graphics card known as the JH920 which it claims is faster than NVIDIA's GTX 1050 with support for AMD's FSR.

Publisher Paradox Interactive and developer The Chinese Room have published a new dev diary for upcoming game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. Written by senior narrative designer and writer Sarah Longthorne, the post focuses on the game’s narrative atmosphere and themes.

Following the surprise news earlier that Paradox Interactive's beleaguered Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 is now in the hands of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs studio The Chinese Room, the developer has talked a little about its goals for the rejuvenated project, saying it's building its action around 'doing things only a vampire can'.

Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 recently received (September 2023) some news regarding its targeted release, having been moved over to a new development studio. The game was initially supposed to be released all the way back in March 2020, but after several delays, the project appears to have been refocused somewhat. 

The Chinese Room's rebooted version of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 won't be an immersive sim like Hardsuit Labs' version of the game was said to be.

The Kirin 9000S found in Huawei’s latest flagship smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro 5G, would not have been possible without the involvement of SMIC, a Chinese chipmaker that leveraged its second-generation 7nm process to mass produce the SoC. However, one U.S. congressman believes that stricter sanctions should be placed on both SMIC and Huawei as the trade between them should not have happened.

There's been much secrecy regarding Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2, the sequel to the 2004 cult favorite vampire RPG. First announced in 2019—with the original creatives returning for the sequel—work on that game hit a roadblock, and a creative and developer shakeup was announced in 2021.

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture team The Chinese Room has been confirmed as the new studio behind the troubled Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2, with an updated release window set for late 2024. It's unclear how much of the work original developer Hardsuit Labs put into the project will carry over into the final version, but you can catch a new trailer above.

Paradox interactive has re-announce Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, now with The Chinese Room taking over as the game’s developer.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has risen from the depths of development hell, two years after Paradox Interactive parted ways with the game's former developer, Hardsuit Labs, and delayed the game indefinitely. The publisher has since recruited Dear Estherand Everybody’s Gone to the Rapturestudio The Chinese Room to work on the sequel to the original RPG from 2004. Bloodlines 2 is now set to arrive in fall 2024.

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines had a cult following, and for years, it didn’t look like the game would see a new installment. However, that changed just a few years ago with publisher Paradox Interactive working with the studio Hardsuit Labs. This team would bring out a new thrilling installment with players tossed into a war filled with legions of vampires. Details were a bit scarce, but the studio was full steam ahead for getting this game out into the marketplace. However, it all fell apart a couple of years ago.

Paradox Interactive recently re-revealed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, confirming that the action RPG is now being developed by The Chinese Room (Dear Esther, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture). Of course, until early 2021, the studio in charge of the project was Hardsuit Labs, before being taken off it due to behind-the-scenes development issues– however, the project wasn’t rebooted and started from scratch.