Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Issues and Fixes

Voices and Sound Effects have low quality surround/echo

If any of the audio sounds like they're attempting a reverb effect, but just sounds terrible, go to the options menu and turn off 'Environmental Effects'.

Patches

Unofficial Patch

The fan-made Unofficial Patch is essential for a bug free experience.

The Unofficial Patch is available in two flavors: Basic and Plus. The Basic version consists of bugfixes that do not dramatically alter Troika's vision for the game. The Plus version makes more significant changes including the reintroduction of cut content and numerous other improvements that go above and beyond what the developers may have intended.

NOTE: Due to it's regular update schedule, not all versions of the Unofficial Patch will be compatible with all mods.

Download link

Using Unofficial Patches with Steam Version

Original info from geronimo789 on Steam Forums

Expanded upon by Reddit user filthster

1. Install the game from Steam as you would any other game.
2. Run the game once. It's fine if it crashes (this is where an install with a 64 bit OS is likely to give a memory error).
3. Right click on the game entry in Steam, go to properties, and disable Steam Community In-Game and Automatic Updates.
4. Download the unofficial patch above (the latest version is 8.1)
5. Run the executable you've downloaded. Depending on your security settings, you may be required to run as an administrator. When the patch prompts you for an installation folder, point it here:

   C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steamapps\common\Vampire the masquerade - bloodlines\

6. You will be asked whether you want the basic or plus patch. The basic patch focuses primarily on bug fixes and some additions to the original game that were disabled in the vanilla installation, but are not game changing. The plus patch adds numerous other tweaks and changes for improving the game.
7. After the Unofficial Patch is installed you will be prompted to run ResPatch which will allow the game to support widescreen monitors in a variety of aspect ratios. It will ask you for the default folder and again point it here:

   C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steamapps\common\Vampire the masquerade - bloodlines\

   From there simply select your aspect ratio and click "Patch It" and the program will adjust the in-game resolution options and FOV for you. Click quit and you are done. Should you need to adjust these settings in the future you can find the ResPatch executable here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steamapps\common\Vampire the masquerade - bloodlines\Extras\ResPatch.exe

You're done. Go ahead and run the game. It is normal for the opening cinematics to be broken at this point. Should you want to re-enable them, right click vampire.exe in the default folder and check "Disable visual themes" and "Disable desktop composition." If their absence doesn't bother you just press ESC or click until the main menu appears.

Note: Steam will re-enable the automatic updates each time you play the game. This is frustrating, but unfortunately the only solution I have found is go back into the game's properties in Steam and manually disable them each time you exit the game. I do not know if this problem is universal.

True Patch

An alternate to the "Unofficial patch" the "true patch" is a purist patch, meaning that it only makes bugfixes and tries to preserve an experience as close as possible to the original game. It is effectively complete (has fixed practically all possible bugs that can be fixed), so users will not need to download a new version in the near future.

Download link LINK IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK

Should you have any additional problems, it might be worth checking out this thread by Steam user DarkByke.

Enjoy!