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TA Review: Blood Bowl 2

  • LifeExpectancyLifeExpectancy1,746,384
    Posted on 27 September 15 at 21:32
    Strategy meets football in a bloody mess.

    Please click here to read the story: TA Review: Blood Bowl 2
  • AndruwJonesAndruwJones469,058
    Posted on 27 September 15 at 21:53
    Nice Review. I'm still on the fence about this.
  • ChefjaymanChefjayman247,383
    Posted on 27 September 15 at 23:07
    I want this. I've liked blood bowl ever since I saw the little figurines in my local hobby shop.
  • MasterHouzeMasterHouze782,209
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 01:07
    "gameplay can be tedious" warning.. Type of words of who picks the game thinking it's a sport game facepalm
  • EurydaceEurydace652,737
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 01:48
    This should be shipped to my house tomorrow but I think I'm going to return it. No desire to fuck with a glitched achievement.
  • JMJimmyJMJimmy631,545
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 01:58
    MasterHouze said:"gameplay can be tedious" warning.. Type of words of who picks the game thinking it's a sport game facepalmAs a huge strategy fan, I've probably spent more than 5000 hours playing turn based strategy games in my life (a huge chunk of that being MOO2). I could barely get through a game of Blood Bowl 1 to beandive it. The gameplay is seriously tedious if it's anything like the first one.
    Life, it's funny that way.
  • MasterHouzeMasterHouze782,209
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 02:23
    JMJimmy said:MasterHouze said:"gameplay can be tedious" warning.. Type of words of who picks the game thinking it's a sport game facepalmAs a huge strategy fan, I've probably spent more than 5000 hours playing turn based strategy games in my life (a huge chunk of that being MOO2). I could barely get through a game of Blood Bowl 1 to beandive it. The gameplay is seriously tedious if it's anything like the first one.I saw your games, you are more like an mobile strategy gamer, maybe not familiar with D&D and spend hours playing board stuff
  • MasterHouzeMasterHouze782,209
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 02:33
    Right now I'm playing the third contest with the classic rules in blood bowl 1 (not going for achievements yet). So many possibilities to evolve the players, so many ways to play different .. more aggressive, more defensive, doing beautiful passes with wood elfs.. this kind of stuff smile
  • prakkeroprakkero425,642
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 02:36
    I'm liking the campaign mode so far, hopefully they'll add new ones for the other races too (and add more races too, bunch of good/interesting ones are missing still). The AI is pretty poor and stupid though, so far I haven't conceded even one touchdown.

    Besides graphical glitches there's at least one annoying bug I've encountered so far. Sometimes you just CAN'T move a player into a certain square, even though there's nothing in the way or in the square, pretty annoying if you're trying to blitz someone, and there's one of these phantom squares in the way...
  • MC PHILABUSTAMC PHILABUSTA2,278,931
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 02:57
    I'll wait until the return of mutant league football .
  • Posted on 28 September 15 at 07:03
    >Players take control of teams straight out of high-fantasy

    It's a Warhammer game...

    Also, I haven't seen any long load times. They seem fairly average.
  • TheMaizeTheMaize1,402,335
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 07:14
    The achievement with the elves is not hard, just currently unobtainable....

    I absolutely love this game..and if the graphics is an issue, this game is not for you...my only big issue, is the time it takes the AI to make their first move in a turn..2-3 minutes of waiting on every turn
  • SaikredSaikred373,744
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 12:59
    The AI turn time is a little frustrating.
    My major issue however is the complete lack of a stats screen for your team.

    Do you want to know how many TDs or Kills your prize Beastman has scored? Tough because as it stands there's no way to track it. You can have a rough idea from their SPP but self tracking is something I'd have hoped to get away from here.
  • JMJimmyJMJimmy631,545
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 13:06
    MasterHouze said:JMJimmy said:MasterHouze said:"gameplay can be tedious" warning.. Type of words of who picks the game thinking it's a sport game facepalmAs a huge strategy fan, I've probably spent more than 5000 hours playing turn based strategy games in my life (a huge chunk of that being MOO2). I could barely get through a game of Blood Bowl 1 to beandive it. The gameplay is seriously tedious if it's anything like the first one.I saw your games, you are more like an mobile strategy gamer, maybe not familiar with D&D and spend hours playing board stuffStrategy games, especially turn based, don't tend to land on consoles. I usually play them on PC as a result - things like Sins of a Solar Empire, Armada 2526, Endless Space, Galactic Civ 1&2 (waiting on 3 to drop below $20), Space Empires IV&V, all the Sid Meier games, Stardrive, FTL, and so on.

    As for D&D, I still own the 1983 3rd edition basic set - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_Basic_Set#/media/File:D%26D_1983_Basic_Rules_cover.jpg
    Life, it's funny that way.
  • MasterHouzeMasterHouze782,209
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 14:12
    JMJimmy said:MasterHouze said:JMJimmy said:MasterHouze said:"gameplay can be tedious" warning.. Type of words of who picks the game thinking it's a sport game facepalmAs a huge strategy fan, I've probably spent more than 5000 hours playing turn based strategy games in my life (a huge chunk of that being MOO2). I could barely get through a game of Blood Bowl 1 to beandive it. The gameplay is seriously tedious if it's anything like the first one.I saw your games, you are more like an mobile strategy gamer, maybe not familiar with D&D and spend hours playing board stuffStrategy games, especially turn based, don't tend to land on consoles. I usually play them on PC as a result - things like Sins of a Solar Empire, Armada 2526, Endless Space, Galactic Civ 1&2 (waiting on 3 to drop below $20), Space Empires IV&V, all the Sid Meier games, Stardrive, FTL, and so on.

    As for D&D, I still own the 1983 3rd edition basic set - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_Basic_Set#/media/File:D%26D_1983_Basic_Rules_cover.jpg
    facepalmcryso.. how you still think blood bowl gameplay is tedious? Maybe you need to play blood bowl in PC. Need to try more, get into the game, you will like it
  • JMJimmyJMJimmy631,545
    Posted on 28 September 15 at 15:46
    MasterHouze said:facepalmcryso.. how you still think blood bowl gameplay is tedious? Maybe you need to play blood bowl in PC. Need to try more, get into the game, you will like itPart of it is purely balance issues. The difference between a successful roll and a failed roll is too extreme. Part of it is the waiting for slow & repetitive animations. Part of it is the lack of pre-set plays, especially the ability to custom make presets, and the fact that you've got to manually manage each member of the team. It's like taking the original Xbox Gladiator game (tedious by most people's standards) and multiplying it by a dozen players (or however many there are on the field).
    Life, it's funny that way.
  • Posted on 29 September 15 at 14:19
    Nice review, thanks. I think you could probably bump that up a score if you're a Blood Bowl affectionado.

    I used to play it with my brother years ago and loved it (despite being awful at it) I was put off by the first one by the repeated claims of loaded dice.

    I've had this since release and I'm having a great time on it so far. Some very fair criticism leveled in these comments so far - AI turn time is a bit silly, I've had issues where it's taken 2 minutes just to move a single player. Load times are a tad on the long side but as a Forza 4 fan, nothing too untoward. Saikrid has a great point that considering the level of stats potentially available it is disappointing that you can't check how your individual players are getting on.

    For those concerned about it being too hard or tedious a couple of things to consider:
    It does take a while to learn the basics and the depth is actually unbelievable - the combination of skills and abilities is colossal. The teams you start with are (obviously) vanilla - they get much more exciting once you get a few star player points on board.

    I haven't been brave enough to get slaughtered online yet but it won't be long before I take the plunge.

    Just as a side note - I think you can turn animations off.
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