Alright Boyz, 'ere we go... WAAAAAAGGGGHHH!!! (The Blood Bowl Impressions Thread)
 

Wow, nice announcement from Focus today.

The emails offering pre-downloads were supposed to get out yesterday, but they were delayed (the game was supposed to be allowed to play starting Thursday evening).. so they gave us this instead:

Blood Bowl • View topic - About pre-downlaod!

Hello everyone,

After reporting all your demands concerning the pre-download of Blood Bowl, here’s what your favorite Goblinette brought you back from the locker room! It was tough to find these information… I had to pay some bugmans for my team-mates, bribe the referee and even hire one or two wizards… but in the end, I got these precious answers!

You have a been a lot of fans to pre-order the game, that is why in order to skip endless queues , we decided to start sending important e-mails on the 24th of June midnight (Paris time).
In these e-mails, you will find a link to download the game and an activation key. If you were among the first ones to pre-order the game, you will be among the first ones to receive it! Waves of 500 e-mails will be sent every hour, so you will be able to download, install and play Blood Bowl as soon as your e-mail arrives.

Have a nice evening and thank you everyone for being that patient.

So, starting in about.. five-six hours, the download AND activation keys will be sent out. I can't wait.. so I decided to create this thread :)

I can't wait to read the reviews and reactions. I will probably pick this up next week. Between work obligations and other things, I really wont have any time to play until then.

This will be my reward for all that hard work.

I'm also really hoping that this game turns out good. I really loved the first Blood Bowl PC game. If that version had league play and a career mode I would probably still be playing it.

I'm looking forward to some impressions. If they are good, I'll be picking it up soon to play you all.

I can say this from the Beta, without breaking NDA. The game was pretty much flawless.. and the number 1 problem, rage quitters, can probably be solved by playing in private leagues.

I'll be just as interested to see how the single player version plays, since I've already played the MP in the beta..

I didn't get around to preordering until yesterday. So I'll have to wait impatiently throughout the day to see when I get my email.

it's five hundred per hour (and it may start 24 hours from now, there's confusion on what midnight the 24th means).. so if there's 10,000 preorders, that's 20 hours.

Great, now I get to wait even more impatiently.

holy shit, this game looks fantastic. whats sys requirements for this bad boy?

Here's the Mininum

OS: WINDOWS XP SP2 / VISTA SP1
PROCESSOR: PENTIUM4 2.4GHZ / ATHLONXP 2400+
RAM MEMORY: 1 GB (XP) / 2 GB (VISTA)
3D GRAPHICS CARD: 128 MB 100% DIRECTX 9 AND SHADERS 2.0 COMPATIBLE (NVIDIA GEFORCE 6600 / ATI RADEON X700 OR HIGHER)*
DVD-ROM: 2X DRIVE
HARD DISK SPACE: 3 GB
SOUND CARD: DIRECTX 9 COMPATIBLE
INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED FOR ONLINE GAME
* INTEL, SIS AND VIA/S3G GRAPHICS CONTROLLERS NON-SUPPORTED

Recommended

WINDOWS XP SP2/VISTA
CORE2DUO/ATHLON64 X2 PROCESSOR
2 GB OF RAM MEMORY
256 MB 100% DIRECTX 9 AND SHADERS 2.0 SUPPORT COMPATIBLE GRAPHICS CARD
(NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800/ATI RADEON HD 3850)
2X DVDROM DRIVE
3 GB HARD DISK SPACE
DIRECTX 9 COMPATIBLE SOUND CARD
INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED FOR ONLINE GAME

thanks foz, I couldn't find it. Thats not nearly as bad as I thought it was gonna be, sweet!

Since I rarely have time to play a full game against a real person online, I'm going to wait and see how the ai look.

Update from Jessica:

In order to sum up: the emails will send today Thursday the 25th at midnight.
More than 500emails/hours will be send at midnight.
All people who have ordered will have the email Thursday don't worry!
All people will be able to play at the release date!

P.S: sorry for my bad english ;)

So Tonight (6:00 or 7:00 PM Eastern is midnight Paris time) through tommorrow is the day.

I'll wait for solo career impressions, but this seems a secure purchase unless it's messed up.

Good news: I got my download link!!! YAY

Bad News: I'm stuck here for four more hours; GDMFAHSOB!!!!!! (it's an acronym. you fill it out)

Got my link. Downloading now.

Oh man I purposely made my self stop following threads on this game when it was announced because I didn't want to get hyped and wait endlessly and now it's completely snuck up on me. I thought it was coming late this year.

It looks fantastic but I'm still a little leery of Cyanide. I liked Chaos League that they did, but the AI was absolutely atrocious and it didn't have any longevity. Now apparently that's gone with the career mode but I'll wait and see on the AI.

Expect some reviews from the board here soon! This gets a real full release on Friday right? It's just a day or two early for the pre-order crowd?

If you order it now, you get it now.

Download is complete.

I'm going in. If I don't come back in 48 hours.. don't come looking for me. Send a team of halfling chefs in to keep me fed.

And three hours (and four games later) I am utterly hooked on this game. It is so much fun. The game is appropriately smashy.. the rats were down to 3 players on the pitch at the end of the game (had one at the end of one drive).

I faced off against a Dwarf team in the first round of the playoffs in the first tournament, and they brought out a secret weapon, with the inducement money they had..

Wait.. did I say a SECRET weapon?

How about a not-so-secret weapon...

This thing..



The good thing, is it's only on for one drive.

The bad news was, since it was two dwarf teams, who um.. aren't too fast.. and we were evenly matched.. it was on the field for the whole first half.

Ow.

We did end up winning though :)

I'm buying a new computer in a couple weeks, and this looks like my first game purchase for it.

SirFozzie, do you suggest Real Time or Turn based play?

Turnbased, but that's because I'm a Blood Bowl board game player.

I'd say once you get up to speed, Real Time could be used

How deep is the career/franchise mode?

Went ahead and bought this. I haven't even downloaded it yet but will do so tonight. I hear their servers are pretty fast so hopefully it won't take long.

Never played Blood Bowl but always wanted to. I assume the turn based mode is truly that in this game? I ask because Chaos League was basically real time with autopause. Is this an IGOUGO system or more like a Combat Mission style simulteanous plotting of turns and then running them?

I'd definitely be up for trying a multiplayer game this weekend but I can't promise to be at all competitvem :) I will need to read up to even decide on a team to be.

It has both modes, a real turn based one exactly like the tabletop game and a real time one. For what i'm reading at different forums, the turn based one is pleasing the tabletop fans, that is a very good sign. The real time mode is reported to be messy, but i guess most of us prefer the turn based one.

I noticed there's a PSP and DS version of this game? Are those released as well? I'm thinking PSP is a better option for me because I'm not sure my laptop has the specs to run the PC version.

2 gigs of memory? man, I'm behind the times.

Not till September, as is the 360 version and the boxed/Steam PC version.

How is the electronic delivery service? It was not a name I recognized when I went to check out their site.

It's a good service, from what I could tell, the download file is in three bits (plus a 1MB executable).

I believe the download service is the same I used for Armed Assault 2 a week or so ago and it seemed solid. Its more restrictive than something like Steam or Impulse of course but it is legit.

As for multiplayer I think I read there is replays is this true? One thing I learned to love was replays of games and even more the shoutcasts people would do of the games. This would be perfect for that and I'd love it to see some strategies used.

Be a blast if you could spectate live also. That could lead to some annoyances but would obviously be lockable. Itd be fun to watch some games unfold live.

Going to download the rulebook they posted tonight and try to go through it some. Nice they made that available.

Disappointed that I read it looks like the time clock is forced on even in SP? Seems an odd choice and a turn off for new peope. I'd like to really sit back and think for a while. Having not even played the game yet I can't complain though as it might be more than enough time.

I have seen that complaint elsewhere. I do think it's really odd and completely unnecessary for a single player game. I have to imagine that it's something they'd fix in a first patch. Given that the Beta was only multiplayer (correct?) I can sort of see how it slipped through.

That's a weird "feature" -- is there a way to pause the game at least, so you can leave the computer and come back to it later?

Ok, I've put a minor amount of time in now. I started off doing the tutorials which are borderline useless. They give you the extreme basics of the game, nothing beyond that.

I fired up a game picking a 1000 point Human team and facing a 1000 point Goblin team. Not really sure why I picked either, but I assumed Humans were a middle of the road, do everything ok but nothing spectacular type race like they are in most games so would therefore let me try out everything. I picked Goblins for the opponent because hey, Goblins usually suck.

The first few turns were a mess. I had absolutely no idea what was happening. There was a lot of camera spinning and movement, and two giant Trolls massacring my guys. Instantly regretted my purchase.

It all turned around when I saw the option to turn off the automatic camera. Now it wasn't jarring and I could zoom out a bit and take a good look at things. A couple turns later I had a semblance of an idea what was happening and a turn or so after that I was having a blast. I'm really boggled by the strategic options available. I can't wait to delve into differing formations and setting up the equivalent of plays.

I had a really good game(albeit extremely ugly). We went back and forth for most of the first half, I was injuring a lot of their guys but the ball was stuck at midfield when eventually they caught me off guard by having one of the trolls pick up a Goblin and launch him past my last defender, and all the sudden I was down 1-0. It stayed that way through the half and most of the 2nd half before I was able to get some good blocks on the right flank and ended up with a great pass and lots of open field to tie the game up. Ended up a draw, which I was more than happy with.

Was extremely fun and I was using extremely rudimentary tactics, and a lot of stalling actions. Think for my first campaign I'd like a smashmouth defensive style team. Dwarves best option for this? I initially thought I'd like to play the Elves and a real wide open game but now I think I'd get massacred. Tough guys seem like a good learner.

You pretty much described my initial experience perfectly. Its really hard to describe to someone that hasn't played yet the endless amounts of strategy that's here. And, yes, my first tip to anyone playing the game is immediately turn off the auto-camera.

FWIW, the strategy threads I've read on the blood bowl forums say that Wood Elves are a popular pick for beginners in multiplayer because they're really hard to defend against unless you have a good grasp of what's going on.

Atopec/Calis, could you turn off the timer or is there at least an option to make your turns last longer? (What's the limit? 2 minutes?)

You can increase the time limit up to 8 minutes.

I was concerned about this, but it's not a huge deal I'm finding out. It defaults to 4 minutes and that's more than enough time for even someone like me who is a bit lost and messing around. I still want it gone because I do find myself especially in turn-based games moving around the house to do things between turns, and if you're not paying attention you'll be out a turn. Hopefully it's fixed soon.

Just finished up a 2nd game this time as Dwarves versus the same Goblin team. Definitely went better overall. I ended up winning 2-0 and really dominated more than the score shows. They never really were threatening and I spent a lot of time just beating the crap out of them. I ended up with a lot of guys in the penalty box, but that didn't seem to matter much. They still couldn't stop my Dwarven Flying Wedge.

I tried a few turns of a Wood Elf vs. Human match before and was lost again. Humans got the ball first and I was completely baffled as to how to stop them. They seemed to have the upper hand with strength and I was actually impressed with the AI's setup. They formed a great protective barrier and moved forward in a good fashion. The Goblins seem a bit more helter skelter, and I get the feeling that they're probably the worst race. They have some really neat special deals like when the guy got launched half the field and when one of the chainsawed one of my Dwarves somehow, but I'm not sure what their playstyle is yet.

Thinking I might end up trying every race once in a one off match before moving on to a campaign.

I think someone else asked, but can you pause? I don't care if it stops me from being able to look at units or really plan, but it would be nice if I could do that so I could go to the washroom or answer a phone call.

In single player you can. I haven't played a multiplayer game yet.

Awesome, don't care about MP, gonna buy now :)

Couple things to add; the tutorial isn't all that deep, but its broken up into 6 parts, doesn't take too long to get through, and is informative. The manual is also top-notch - its worth a quick read.

Got the chance to play quite a bit this evening including a couple LAN games against a friend and this game is amazing. Everything I had hoped it would be.

You guys suck at impressions. :p I guess you either work for a living or can't tear yourself away from the game.

I have never played Blood Bowl but the game has always intrigued me. This particular game especially interests me but the $50 price tag keeps me from pulling the trigger until I see some more about the game. So, any more thoughts/impressions?

I've never played BB either, although I have played 40k. I've now played 1.5 matches of BB, and I think I really like it! I really, really suck though. I'm playing on easy with straight 1000 point matches using pre-configured teams, and so far I have yet to score a touchdown. In fact, I haven't even sniffed one. Hopefully I can figure out how the heck to move the ball successfully, but aside from that, the game is a blast!

Oh, and I'm strictly playing the Classic mode, I have no interest in the Blitz stuff.

Its really hard to describe it, honestly. I'll do my best and if there's any specific questions I can try to answer.

It 100% nails the board game in a way I didn't think was possible. So much so that the actual blood bowl rulebook works as a better manual than the manual that came with the game.

Its very overwhelming at first. I had only played blood bowl a couple times many years ago so I wasn't very familiar with the rules and my frustrations mostly came from not understanding why certain things were happening. Once I found a link to the official blood bowl rulebook and read through it the game simply became a blast to play.

I play Turn-based blitz mode, fwiw.

This game shines in multiplayer. Even if you're not a big multiplayer fan I'd suggest trying it out. SirFozzie can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe leagues allow you to play multiple seasons with players that will retire, there's contracts (although the contract portion of the game isn't deep at all), there are stats, and an assortment of other things.

I just started playing through the single player campaign. Thus far its fun and challenging. Your players gain experience and levels along with the team increasing fan support just as they do in multiplayer except there doesn't seem to be contracts or retirement from what I see (could be wrong). You can also export your team from the campaign into multiplayer.

Each race plays very different from one another and the AI makes good use of the races abilities. It never feels like you're just playing a standard AI team. Play against dwarves and they're never going to throw the ball but instead will run the ball down your throat. Wood Elves on the other hand are going to avoid fights and try and throw the ball all over the field. Goblins are just entirely different from anything else and something you have to see to understand. Chaos will try to injure all your players. And so on and so on.

My tips are: Play through the tutorials, then glance through the manual (its not many pages, but very informative), and then reference the core rulebook for even better understanding.

http://www.bloodbowlonline.com/LivingRulebook5.pdf

Also, if you're struggling with tactics the official forms has a strategies forum that has a thread for each race plus a ton of other info.

I'm having a blast with the campaign in blitz mode. This game fulfills many of my old-school gaming needs:

• turn-based, grid-based 'combat'
• ability to name characters after my friends (or not-so-friends)
• players gain experience, injuries and skills...and die, across the campaign
• sports management fun

$50 is a lot of cash, and it definitely still feels like an indy game in some aesthetic respects (sounds, slim commentary, long load times), but most importantly it obviously does everything it is meant to do perfectly.

Very minor complaint: the logic for picking the team's MVP at the end of the game is way broken...seemingly the least valuable player wins every time, and I sure would like those SPPs to go to my good players that are actually working. Also, minor spoil/cheat/bug:

That's as intended and follows the traditional rules. The MVP is entirely random and more of a joke and a way of handing out some free xp to a player than anything else.

In the board game at the end of a match you simply roll the dice to assign the MVP.

Ahhh..I guess that makes 'sense', or something close to it. At least I can stop worry about it. I'm going back in for more now! I thought I'd picked everything up realatively well after half-a-dozen games or so, but I guess I'd just gotten adept at kicking slow dwarven ass, and the gotdamn rats are skatting and be-bopping all over me.