Blood Bowl video game

Not sure if this is the right place to post this or not, but I guess there's only one way to find out... What do people here think about this game? It's been the better part of 20 years since I've played the board game, and I was really looking forward to the video game. I was dismayed to find out upon purchase that it wasn't quite the Madden Blood Bowl mash-up that I had envisioned, but was just as, if not more complicated than the board game I (thought I)had such fond memories of playing. The "realtime" mode wasn't what I thought it was going to be either.

I watch my 7 month old during the days while the missus is at work and tend bar several nights a week so I don't really have the time right now to peruse the living rulebook, (or to do much of anything for that matter) although I did print it out. The rules booklet states that it is just an overview of the game mechanice, and that the current ruleset is required.

So I guess my big question is, is this worth taking the time to learn or should I cut my losses and sell it back to the game store? It strikes me as a not as much fun, not streamlined in the slightest version of the board game. The online play is what intrigues me the most, butI don't know if it's gonna be worth muddling through the gameplay. Thoughts?

Sell it back. They screwed it up. The buzz about a year ago was this was going to be a quick and dirty XBLA (think ~$15) game with online leagues and so forth--instead we got a piping hot shit sandwich. I'd rather play MADDEN NFL ARCADE , which is basically CYBERBALL with NFL jerseys.

A year ago, I would have bought this on launch day. But it took forever to turn up on 360, and when it did all the cool stuff that could have been there (online leagues for example) was apparently gone.

The thing is, if it is just a video game version of the board game then it would have been MUCH better served as an XBLA game. Selling folks a $60 video game and telling them to go to a full board game manual to learn how to play is kind of ludicrous.

It's a shame, I was really looking forward to some BLOOD BOWL action with F:ATties.

I'd sell it back if I were you...do it soon at Gamestop, they're offering a 50% bonus on all trade-ins this week, and you want to ditch it before the inevitable price drop. I wouldn't be surprised to see this one drop $30 out of the gate.

BTW- Jay, we need your gamertag. Mine is crackedlcd75.

I play the PSP version which is only the board game with graphics, and it's good fun. Only downside is that I'm not sure you can customize your team (so as to, for instance, import your F2F league team). And yeah, the AI is dumb as shit and will repeatedly do stupid stuff even on the toughest level. I'm not a good player, but I still win most of my games. Which is nice, since it's given me much needed confidence for the F2F league I'm about to join.

Thanks for the input guys. Yeah, this was a real bummer since I was waiting for it for so goddamn long. Should've sought out some reviews I guess. I can't imagine this being popular with video gamers at all. Seems like a real mistake to convert an extremely complicated board game/minis game into a videogame while keeping the whole complicated ruleset. And whose bonehead idea was it to nix the online league play? Maybe a knockoff (ala Elfball) will come along in a digitized form and give us all what we want.

On a side note, my gamertag is Jaydawg718, but I'm almost never on xbox live. Between running a bar and the advent of my son, I really only use the xbox for streaming Netflix and watching dvds.

I'm going to visit your bar the next time I'm in Brooklyn. You better have something good on draft.

The news about this game is saddening --- what a wasted opportunity

The PC version was well received, although apparently it only really shines in multi player. I'm still waiting for it to turn up on steam for £5.

Space Ghost wrote:

The news about this game is saddening --- what a wasted opportunity

Amen brother. It's unbelievable really.

First couple rounds are on me if you make it up Barnes. As far as drafts go, we're not really known for amazing beers as the majority of our clientele is made up of punks, skins, bike messengers, metalheads, and older folks who used to count themselves among one (or all) of the above. That being said, this month we've got Guiness, Radeberger, Genny cream, (I know, I know) Yeungling, Blue Moon, Brooklyn Lager, Red Tail Ale, Coney Island Lager, Stone smoked porter, Blackthorne Cider, and Harpoon IPA and Winter Warmer. The porter's fucking amazing.

I can see it being more popular among PC gamers than console gamers. I think folks that play turn based strategy games and the like would have a much higher threshold for the kind of crap involved in playing this game. On the other hand, maybe I should just read the damn rules.

Stone Smoked Porter- "Jesus in a glass". Holy mackarel, I think I ought to get a bomber of that tonight.

I actually like that the game is a 1:1 transposition of the board game, but I'm sort of shocked that anyone thought that was marketable to a console audience- at least at full price. But I've also heard that the game doesn't really have tutorials and the interface isn't the best for it. I didn't really want a Madden meets BLOOD BOWL kind of thing at all.

I have a buddy that plays it on the PC (which I hear is the best implementation of the game). Funny story (or at least I thought it was): With the online game I guess early on there was no penalty for dropping out of a game which resulted in a lot of people who were getting whooped dropping out like a little bitch. Well they changed it to where if you drop out it counts as a loss and some other things I think.

This game has timed turns and when your time is up the turn moves to your opponent. But there was a glitch where the timer stopped when your opponent had to pick the result of two dice. So what happened is my buddy was playing someone who was getting thumped and then a roll happened where his opponent had to pick a dice - And his opponent walked away from his computer and just let it sat hoping that my buddy would drop out of the game. Well it got towards the evening with nothing happening in the game so he goes to bed. In the meantime though the dude gets back on, picks the dice and tries to continue the game while my buddy was in bed. Of course the turn timer runs out on my buddies side and the dude tries to beat up on his team. Well as it turns out the guy got stuck in the same bit where my buddy had to pick a dice and the game timer stopped again. My buddy gets up, sees this and types: "I'm heading to the lake for the weekend like I planned, I'm not dropping, have a good weekend." The guy eventually dropped the game and took his loss, but he waited 24 or 48 hrs hoping that he wouldn't have to...Kinda sad in my opinion.

I bought the PC version.

The AI is shit. The online version is pretty good. I get a little bit frustrated with not being able to take back a move entered in error - it has cost me quite a few games.

I'm not so sure I would recommend it to new Bloodbowl players.

WHOA..."a piece laid is a piece played"...this game is an asshole!

i enjoyed the original PC version 'chaos league', especially for this bit of commentary:

commentator 1: "the crowd is looking pretty good here today!"
commentator 2: "hmm, looks more chaotic neutral to me"