Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2

There will be only 5 playable clans in Bloodlines 2 at launch (not counting Thinbloods) instead of the 7 from the first game. Two Vanilla clans are going to be left out. More are planned to be added via free DLC post-launch.

I expect the starting list to be: Malkavian, Toreador, Nosferatu, Ventrue and Tremere, because that's the clans that are members of the Camarilla in 5e.

I can see your logic, but I seriously doubt that the developers are going to miss the chance of letting you to play a clan outside "the establishment". The themes of the Anarchs and the Brujah just resonate way too strongly with their take on modern politics.

It's hard to predict which ones they'll postpone introducing or cut entirely and why. I could see them folding the Toreador into the Ventrue, and the Gangrel into the Nosferatu or the Brujah. Or keeping the Malks as DLC for when they've designed a suitably trippy top-to-bottom gameplay experience. Or maybe they've just cut the Nosferatu and the Gangrel out for starters, banking that those two won't be anybody's first choice of clan. Or the Ventrue, since they're the most elitist and least likely to offer some upstart thinblood membership. Among other reasons.

I'm guessing this won't be made part of the final gameplay, but it would be really cool if we got a variant of the path system.

In the tabletop (in the older editions at least) you could choose to follow a different 'path' in how you dealt with your Beast. The default was obviously the Path of Humanity, wherein your Cainnite was focused on acting as human as possible so as to hold onto their control; though it was less about acting good and more about what aspect of humanity you wanted to emulate (including the darker concepts). There were other pathways though.

One I always found to be really interesting when it came to roleplaying my characters was the Path of the Outsider. This was about embracing your nature as a vampire and becoming something more; though I really appreciated how the books didn't automatically label such perspectives as: different = evil. My Tzimice vampire wasn't interested in the petty politics of the Cammarila, insofar as he knew enough to avoid them but otherwise took no part in their discussions, nor was he interested in trying to act like a mortal human. He wanted to explore the nature of his clan's disciplines, but this didn't necessarily make him a monster. He wasn't going out every night and kicking puppies or punching babies for the hell of it, but at the same time his motivations and desires differed drastically from what humans and most vampires would consider to be 'normal'.

Eh, probably a pipe dream but it would be cool if we could have the option of playing our creature of the night as what we are, rather than what an outside context (i.e. real world) arbitrary moral guideline says we have to be.

The first game was great, but it was still rather black and white on it's approach to certain things: "Bust up that gang of drug dealers preying on children or you'll loose a humanity point!" to "Stand up to that racist NPC throwing around insults or you'll loose a point of humanity!" It's not bad to have that in general, but when it comes down to it, why would my character need to care about those things, and why would choosing to not engage in them automatically make me more 'evil' and/or cause me to loose control of my character (Beast taking over more often)?

I fully expect Malkavian and Nosferatu to be the two free DLC clans that get added post-release. From the clans that are in the original, those two are the ones who would require the most work in making the experience different if you want to get it right.

Plus Malkavian is probably by far the most liked and well-remembered clan from the original, so there's that "hook" to get people to download the DLC and play through again once it gets released. That would make even more sense if it was paid DLC and Malks were used to entice people to buy it, but they already announced that they'd add more clans for free

No voiced protags. 

I don't think your description is exactly accurate. There are ways to loose Humanity by making certain choices (not just killing random people outside dialogue), but those choices usually involve PC leading others to certain doom (convincing Thin Blood to kill president) or commiting crimes (certain instances of stealing, extortion). Many of those were obviously a d**k choices, but still in line of vampire just surviving from night to night. Not/Challenging someone's philosophy will grant you an angry NPC at best and not getting a sidequest at worst, with exception of one quest (the one with serial killer - you basically agree that you should indulge the beast if it leads to justice, but here Humanity lost makes sense).

The problem with VTMB's Humanity system was that it's ridiculously easy to keep it on 10, which is basically second coming of Jesus. Average PC is going to kill some people and commit many, many crimes along the way.  

I kinda expect examples you provided might be seen in Bloodlines 2 though, since: "We are giving you a lots of options to react to situation, but we take a stance over certain issues." (paraphrasing here, but that's what I got from arcticles and interviews)

A new Brujah clan sign haven decoration is unlocked on the bloodlines 2 site.

I like the idea of Bloodline a great deal, played the Masquerade and had some kind of fun...
I didn't finish it because I'm not good at horror games.
I get scared, then I get angry and the game turns into a rushed frustrating bloodbath.

Probably gonna end up playing it though, I like vampires and I have an obsession with Seattle Grunge times.
Also I like the idea of the tech boom and gentrification, it's different from the power that be in LA.

*pfft*  Says you.

Hm. Anyone notices only Potence and Celerity were confirmed for clan Brujah? I hope they still have Presence as well and the reason it wasn't mentioned is that this discipline is shared among many clans (and thus examples of its powers will be revealed with Toreador/Ventrue). Brujah might be skilled fighters, but they also know how to inspire awe.

That new but familiar Bloodlines theme