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Jason Anderson, Tim Cain, and Leonard Boyarsky

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is an action role-playing video game developed by Troika Games (founders pictured) and first released on November 16, 2004, by Activision for Microsoft Windows. Based on White Wolf Publishing's role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, it follows a male or female character who is killed and revived as a fledgling vampire in 21st-century Los Angeles. Bloodlines is presented from first- and third-person perspectives. Characters may use violent and nonviolent methods to achieve their goals while moving freely between the available hubs: Santa Monica, Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles, and Chinatown. Troika's 32-member team began development in 2001, using Valve Corporation's brand-new Source game engine, also used for Valve's own Half-Life 2. Bloodlines was incomplete at its first release, with disappointing sales of fewer than 80,000 copies initially. It divided critics at the time, who faulted it for technical flaws. It now has a cult following as a rarely replicated example of a game that succeeds in both gameplay and narrative; critical opinion now styles it as a flawed masterpiece. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

SMS Novara

... that SMS Novara (pictured) was ceded to France as a war prize under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye?
... that Taslima Akhter's photograph "Final Embrace" became an iconic image of the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse?
... that "Dirgahayu", by Malaysian artists Faizal Tahir and Siti Nurhaliza, serves as a theme song for a 100-episode television series?
... that at the suggestion of a group of fourth-graders, Thomas J. Shusted and John A. Rocco introduced legislation that made Hadrosaurus foulkii New Jersey's official state dinosaur?
... that a new organ with 3,370 pipes was built in the Gothic church Liebfrauen in Frankfurt am Main in 2008?
... that Moses Bensinger helped organize the American Bowling Congress, which standardized the rules of modern ten-pin bowling?
... that the Katihar Medical College campus includes a 590-bed general hospital and a branch of the State Bank of India?
... that the white-backed night heron is hunted for traditional medicine in Nigeria?

In the news

Leonard Cohen

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 to 7.8 strikes north of Christchurch, New Zealand, triggering tsunami warnings, causing widespread damage, and killing at least two people.
Canadian singer, songwriter, and poet Leonard Cohen (pictured) dies at the age of 82.
A tram derails on the Tramlink in Croydon, London, killing seven people and injuring more than fifty others.
Donald Trump wins the United States presidential election, while Republicans retain control of the House and the Senate.
India demonetises 500- and 1000-rupee banknotes to fight black money issues.

On this day...

November 16: Day of Declaration of Sovereignty in Estonia (1988)

Jadwiga of Poland

1384 – Jadwiga (pictured) was officially crowned as "King of Poland" instead of "Queen" to reflect the fact that she was a sovereign in her own right and not merely a royal consort.
1491 – Several Jews and conversos were executed in Toledo, Spain, for the alleged ritual murder of an infant, who was later revered as the Holy Child of La Guardia.
1855 – Explorer David Livingstone became the first European to see Victoria Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the world, on what is now the Zambia–Zimbabwe border.
1938 – Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann first synthesized the psychedelic drug LSD at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.
1992 – In Suffolk, England, an amateur metal detectorist found the largest hoard of Roman gold, silver and bronze coins from the late fourth and early fifth centuries ever discovered within the former Roman Empire.

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Today's featured picture

Bangles on display in Bangalore, India. These rigid bracelets are usually made from metal, wood, or plastic and are traditionally worn by women in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In India, it is a common tradition to see a new bride wearing glass bangles at her wedding and the honeymoon will end when the last bangle breaks.

Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

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