Talk about unexpected news. There's going to be a Vampire: The Masquerade sequel boys and girls, according to this news item on GameSpot. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines as it's called, will be developed by Troika Games (the company currently working on the Infogrames RPG Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil) and will mix first person action with RPG elements. Now that would be exciting enough news for fans of the original game, but there's more: it's powered by the Half-Life 2 Source engine.

In the game, players will play as a fledgling vampire who will belong to one of seven vampire clans, each of which has its own distinctive strengths and abilities, including superhuman strength and speed, invisibility, and mind control, to name a few. As players progress through the game, they'll earn experience points that they can spend on improving their powers. These abilities and the game's major vampire factions will be drawn from White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade pen-and-paper game.