New Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 update finally adds custom difficulty and motion blur toggle, but delays much-requested save functionality

When was the last truly great game about vampires? I enjoyed Byte a lot, and Cabernet was a blood-drenched delight earlier this year, but the last to truly break containment was Vampire Survivors, which is brilliant but doesn't really offer the same sharpened-tooth roleplaying we want. After Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2's damp squib of a release, we were hoping for a juicy winter update to sink our teeth into. Unfortunately, with many anticipated features delayed, it seems like we'll be waiting for Blood of the Dawnwalker for our next blood-sucking fix.

Despite its predecessor appearing on our list of the best vampire games, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 has a lot of catching up to do if it wants to knock the classic RPG out of the top ten. Its big winter update takes the first shaking step out of its coffin in the right direction: by adding custom difficulty settings.

To unlock custom difficulty settings in Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, you must have already completed the game once on any difficulty. After that, custom difficulty will become available via the difficulty menu.

You can tweak and shift your HUD, your health, Elixirs, and Phyre's damage, targeting time dilation, enemy damage, quests, and more. But beware, unlike with regular difficulty settings, you can't switch things up once you start playing if you've got custom settings enabled. No, not even if the permadeath Iron Vamp mode is kicking your ass.

Bloodlines 2 publisher Paradox also teases the future implementation of beards with a Father Christmas-inspired customization option.

We've been requesting an FOV slider and Motion Blur toggle since the game's rocky launch, which are finally being implemented, too. However, The Chinese Room says the 'Improved Progress Saving' feature isn't quite ready, so is being delayed until "early next year." I guess we'll have to keep our eyes on the Valentine's update for that one.

The Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 Winter update is live now.

While Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 still sits at 'mixed' reviews on Steam, with just 56% positive feedback, I hope that Paradox and developer The Chinese Room can rectify most of our problems with the game through ongoing support and DLC. The winter update helps with some basic requests, but it'll take some stellar story DLC to really change our minds. Until then, I guess I'm going to try to sink my teeth into a solid steel neck in the Iron Vamp mode. Wish me luck.