It's odd to think that Blood Bowl is such a regular fixture on PC now that we've got side-games quietly coming out, but that's exactly what Blood Bowl: Death Zone is. Exiting early access today, it's a budget-priced real time spinoff of Cyanide Studio's tabletop adaptation series. Two players, RTS-style controls and fast, five-minute four-a-side matches. You set the plays, then micro-manage one player at a time. It reminds me of Chaos League, the Blood Bowl-alike that got the studio assigned to the series in the first place. Still, the fantasy (American) football scene is a busy place now.
]]>Currently with no title of its own (beyond the series branding), publisher Bigben Interactive announced today that among their "2019 and beyond" lineup is a Vampire: The Masquerade "narrative RPG" developed by Big Bad Wolf, the folks behind the episodic historical murder-mystery The Council. Also coming is Blood Bowl 3, once again developed by Cyanide, with plans to launch a new digital iteration alongside the 2020 tabletop edition, which is updating the game's rules. Typical - you wait fifteen years for a Vampire game, and they go and announce two practically side by side.
]]>I thoroughly enjoyed Blood Bowl II [official site]. A huge part of that enjoyment comes from the base rules of Blood Bowl itself, which create a tactical game so compact - in both duration and fieldspace - that it's almost claustrophobic. The slightest error can lead to a turnover and a defeat, and the riskiest plays occasionally see the entire run of play overturned in a moment. No matter how solid the foundations are, I'd always like to see more teams. The latest addition, the Norse, were free to everyone who already owned the game (on PC) before their release a couple of days ago. The next three teams will follow the same principle.
]]>It's been a while! Over November and December, the RPS community have indulged in tonnes of different games. Read on to find out what we've been up to in Clicker Heroes [official site], Guild Wars 2 [official site], PlanetSide 2 [official site], Terraria [official site] and more.
]]>I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed Blood Bowl [official site] until I got my hands on a preview build of the sequel to Cyanide's digital version. The concept is immediately appealing to me - a violent sport in the Warhammer Fantasy universe - and each match is a condensed tactical battle, short enough to burn through in a short lunchbreak but capable of plugging into a long-term season or tournament format. But does this sequel make the most of the robust ruleset and does it improve on the flaws of the previous attempt? Yes. Sort of. Mostly.
]]>It is a truth universally acknowledged that Skaven are the greatest of the Warhammer Fantasy races. Just this morning, I took some time out to write a series of furious letters to the BBC regarding their refusal to fund my all-Skaven series of Dickens adaptations. Our Mutual Pestilens is a surefire hit and Tiny Verminkin would help our new Christmas Carol to dethrone the Muppets.
At least Blood Bowl 2 [official site] will treat Skaven with the respect they deserve. Out later this month, it's a game sure to take up more time than I can reasonably spare and a new video shows dwarves vs skaven. Surely the vermintide will secure victory?
]]>Hi folks!
Here's what happened in May in the RPS community.
In this alliterative edition: Blood Bowl [official site] brethren batter and bludgeon in preparation for the new game; Cities: Skylines [official site] succession games subsequently succeed; Dirt Rally [official site] roadsters rack-up a riveting league; Guild Wars 2 [official site] troopers take to hammering out their differences; and PlanetSide 2 [official site] players participate profoundly in another smashing of servers.
]]>I recently spoke to Sylvain Sechi, project manager of Cyanide Studio’s forthcoming Blood Bowl 2, about their new adaptation of Games Workshop’s game of fantasy football. I had an ulterior motive, though. I didn’t just want to ask him about when the game is coming out and what the new team will be like. I wanted to selfishly hassle him about not including some of my favourite teams and also present my pet theory about the appeal of Blood Bowl: that what makes it fun is that it’s the most unbalanced strategy game ever made.
]]>I blame Tolkien. He wrote Orcs like football hooligans and so Games Workshop's idea of them actually playing football – albeit a version of American football where mutilations are encouraged – makes some sort of sense. The judgemental timer of Steam says I’ve played Blood Bowl more than a lot of other games in my library, more than plenty of games I play without having to complain about the interface, or the AI, or the fact you can’t turn the commentators off and turning their volume down banishes them only until you score a touchdown and then suddenly they’re back in your headphones and GRRR GORBAG SO CRANKY.
Blood Bowl is a game I love in spite of its flaws but find hard to recommend. Will Blood Bowl 2 remedy that? I spoke to Sylvain Sechi, project manager on Cyanide Studio’s Blood Bowl 2, to try to find out.
]]>As far as I'm concerned, the important tasks for any new Blood Bowl 2 trailer to accomplish are as follows:
1) Show me which races will be available so that I don't expect to be writing about an Ultimate Skaven Edition in three years time. 2) Attempt to convince me that the camera movement and turn-flow will be as smooth as a freshly shampooed dwarf beard. 3) Go some way toward showing that turn-based tactical trouncing is a bigger draw than 'comic' commentary.
The video below does not accomplish these things.
]]>It's a good year to be a Blood Bowl fan. Well, unless you're one of those folks who can't abide developer Cyanide. (I think they try to do a lot of interesting, ambitious things, but often end up fluffing them). Not only is a sequel to the relatively faithful and quietly successful 2009 PC adaptation inbound, but there's now also going to be Blood Bowl: Star Coach, which is to the Warhammer-themed sport of crunching heads what Football Manager is to the sport of foot-to-ball.
Cyanide are at the helm of that one too, and it's going to be free to play.
]]>Nuffle be praised!
See that picture above? That's quite literally all there is to tell you about Blood Bowl II right now.
]]>I’ve always wanted to try Blood Bowl, mostly due to Kieron’s amazing diary of his Skaven team’s inaugural season, so you can imagine my delight when Jim asked me to review stand-alone expansion Dungeonbowl. At last! I was so happy I tucked my t-shirt over my face and performed the traditional foot-to-ball “Frivolous Dance”.
My flat’s a bit small for it, mind, and I ended up putting my foot in my dinner, but the point is I went into Dungeonbowl with an open mind. Also, a sock that smelled of beef. Both of which were probably unwise.
]]>Did you know that Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an active Blood Bowl community? It does! Our forumites, they can't get enough of that turn-based sport, or the match reports, the injuries, everything hanging on a single simulated dice roll, all that good stuff.
]]>Registrations for the Blood Bowl World Cup 2011 are now open, although it's frankly as clear as mud (churned beneath the boot of a team of dirty orcs) exactly how you do that. There are some details here and here, but there doesn't seem to be an actual entry form, because there are no links where there should be links. Anyway, there will once again be thousands of dollars worth of prizes, and a big old real-world final in Cologne, Germany. So that might be worth (eventually) signing up for if you happened to be interested in Blood Bowl. Which, for some reason, I believe some of you might be.
]]>More stadiums! More star-players! A new Story mode! More than double the number of playable races, including Ogres, Nurgle, Necromantic and High Elves!
Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition has been released, and it's all a bit much for a Friday morning. I haven't even had my tea yet. If you already own Blood Bowl, Cyanide is offering a 33% discount on the Legendary Edition if you order through their online shop. Good news, considering the RPS Blood Bowl leagues are still going strong. Launch trailer after the jump. For some reason it's just a bunch of shots of cheerleaders. Maybe it'll make sense after tea.
]]>After the eyebrow-raising price the original game came out at, I was expecting to be asked to pay full whack for the Blood Bowl Legendary Edition. Mr Dixon tells me that Cyanide have announced that anyone who owns a previous edition of Blood Bowl will get 30% off the new version. You just enter your code into the shop, which will be up in October. Better, they say the game's price will be about $40 - which, if true and applied universally, is a better deal than the original. Those who picked up the game for four quid in last weekend's Steam sale will be pleased, I suspect. Unless they hate it.
]]>If I said that today Cyanide reveal the Blood Bowl Khemri, would you be excited? If you don't know the Khemri are, no, you wouldn't. They're Egyptian skeletons and mummies and shit! Them, playing a hyper-violent American-Football-esque game? That's probably worth money, and that's exactly what they're up to in the forthcoming Blood Bowl: Legendary edition. You can go and see their screenshots here. Regular readers may wonder why we regularly post links to just screenshots of Blood Bowl when we don't do it for anyone else. Well, because Cyanide do awesome screenshots, frankly. TRY HARDER, DEVS. Also, we're foolishly enamoured with Blood Bowl, obv. I also notice the Amazons have been unveiled since the last time we posted about the Legendary edition. It's probably lucky we didn't post about them, as we'd have to go on another one of our BOOB CRITICISM rampages, probably saying something about how historically Amazons had one boob except the Amazons didn't exist and the evidence on their one-boobosity is conflicted anyway so that's that sketch knackered then. Er... Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition will be released before Chrimble.
]]>The word's out on two of the twelve new teams featuring in Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition, which arrives at the end of this year. The word, and also screenshots. The Pro Elves aren't to be confused with the game's existing Wood Elves, because they're tougher than Wood Elves and as such would probably beat you up. The second team, the Ogres, offer unmatched brutality at the expense of their team roster being made up by Snotlings. Full press release after the jump.
]]>I suspect this isn't exactly worth a post, but it amused me. The previously announced before-Christmas Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition has just revealed the first images of their Halfling team. And they amused me, because they just scream doomed, and recalled me of a teenage Blood Bowl game I played against my brother with a pure team of halflings versus a pure team of Ogres, which grew so hysterical I let him move the Ogres off the pitch and into my dug-out to clear up. This sort of game is hobbit deforming. Does that work? Close enough.
]]>Showing that a failure to understand human brains isn't limited to their UI-team, Cyanide's marketing folk decided it'd be a good idea to announce their Blood Bowl Legendary Edition on April 1st. But no! It's for reals and everything. Basically, it appears to be an expandalone expansion to the game - and while it's possible they'll do an reduced price upgrade or even a Witcher-esque free thing, I suspect you'll have to pay full-whack for what it offers. Luckily, what it offers is really quite exciting. Mainly, adding twelve new team types to the eight already in the game. This includes such joys as the Undead, Amazon, Norse and Ogres. They're also promising new arenas, a story-lead single-player game and rules tweaks to keep it up to date with the Living Rulebook. Let's hope they manage to work in some polish to the league systems (i.e. Any polish) and UI before its released near the end of the year. That said, the Vampire player in the shades above really is splendid. I fear the Skavenblighters will be coming out of retirement.
]]>I haven't actually played much Blood Bowl since finishing off the Skaven Blighters' season, but I'm pleased to hear that Cyanide have finally released the long-promised Dark Elves patch for the game. You may remember that they were unlocked in the game by some modders around release, before being swiftly patched out. Still - good to finally see the bad guys back in play. You can get the patch from here and see their intro video below...
]]>This is sad, but not unexpected. FUMBLL have received a (fairly reasonably phrased) cease-or-desist letter from Games Workshop. FUMBBL has been the long-running online java bloodbowl client thingy, and been the premier way to play Blood Bowl for years. In fact, even now after the release of Cyanide's game, if you don't care about any of the bells and whistles - I actually think they do add something to the experience - it does a better job of simulating the game (Including all the teams, showing the maths better, etc). Of course, that FUMBBL is such a good league system, it does beg the question why Cyanide didn't just copy it wholesale, y'know? Its timing is particularly bad for RPS forumites, as their league is just coming to the close. The question that's on everyone's lips is "why now?". As in, they've been ignoring it until now. What pushed them to make the move?
]]>For the last month, The RPS Cup has been fought. Against seven brave (or at least psychotically deranged) teams, I've lead my plucky underempiredogs - The Skaven Blighters. It produced seven match reports which try to illustrate exactly what it is to play Blood Bowl. That being, a mixture of triumph and failure - both of the coaches, and of the developers. You'll find them all below...
]]>It's on.
]]>There will be blood.
]]>Just finished writing up the penultimate Blood Bowl match report, which I'll be posting tomorrow, but I found myself reading Mat Kumar's piece on his reservations on Blood Bowl. The Caledonian Chaos Warrior is a bit of a dice-head on the quiet, but he's found himself frustrated...
]]>Now things get tricky.
]]>Violence, treachery, controversy, cheese-on-cocktail sticks. You can be sure of all of the above if you put two teams of Skaven on the same Blood Bowl pitch. We got it all, but doubled up on the controversy and left the cheesy nibbles behind.
]]>This match report will be brought to you by the phrase “GFI fail”. But more on that later. Much more.
]]>Orcs and Goblins. Skin of green. Surly. Violent. They're the same, surely?
]]>For my sins, I'm pretty confident about the season's first fixture.
]]>I've been playing Blood Bowl to the death – mostly other people's, occasionally mine. I can't actually do a Wot-I-Think review, due to feeling uncomfortable with my conflict of interest. But I've played so much, with its UK release imminent, I wanted to do something. As such, with the second season of the RPS Cup now under way, I thought I'd take you with me on the rise and fall of the Skaven blighters. Why don't you join me? Join me..
]]>It's a story I've been following since, in the aftermath of raising an eyebrow at the forty-quid British Direct-Download sales price of Cyanide's Blood Bowl, a gentleman mailed me and pointed me in the direction of sites which just sell the serial code for Blood Bowl. Sites like G2Play and Online Key Store, charging fifteen euros and twenty dollars respectively. They've both been operating for well over a year, doing it for a variety of games, but I suspect the unusual combination of factors (price difference, smaller size of audience) has given it greater prominence. Cyanide are strongly objecting. LewieP from Savygamer has been doing the heavy lifting on this one, so it's worth going and reading his hard work, but here's the situation as I see it...
]]>Hmm. Blood bowl's just been released via Digital Download. I almost didn't blog about it. Which is some going when I normally leap a the slightest chance to mention the Skaven. The reason why is the small matter of its price. It's forty quid, digital download only. And there's no demo. That's not on, is it?
]]>Huh. Why haven't we posted about the upcoming Blood Bowl electric videogame for a while? Oh, that's it - because we hate Skaven. Can't stand the ratmen. We'd never discuss them, and there's no way one of our number would spend his every spare minute painting plastic figurines of them. No way.
Since we last posted about Cyanide's adaptation of Games Workshop's brutal fantasy football tabletop game, the whole gamut of the game's playable races has been revealed. You got yer Orcs, Humans, Dwarfs, Lizardmen, Goblins, Skaven and, as most recently announced, Wood Elves and Chaos. Which rather makes this one of the most faction-full Warhammer-related videogames in ages, excitingly.
]]>Following this afternoon's sports theme, we get something a little more meaty: a trailer and some screenshots for the upcoming Bloodbowl game. This if, of course, is the Games Workshop boardgame in which the denizens of fantasy RPG-world tear each other to shreds in fights over an inflated pigskin, while wearing clothes that look remarkably similar to the armour worn by American foot-to-ballists. In keeping with the boardgame, Bloodbowl is be turn-based. No crazy Speedball-style gaming here - we're talking tactics. After the click: a trailer and some enormous images.
]]>While there's little actual information available on the site proper, the first official shots of Cyanide's version of Games Workshop Fantasy Football are become available. It's coming across several formats, including DS, so who knows what version these are for. They look kinda PCy. Let's say PC. Cyanide's most relevant previous game was Chaos League which - er - I may have done the English translation for the commentators for. Er... is that the time? Go screens!
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