Blood Bowl 2

[buzzmong]

Cyanide are doing Blood Bowl 2:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/11 ... its-grass/

Certainly has more graphics, that's for sure. Hopefully they fix the UI and don't do stupid releases this time.

[Dog Pants]

I had to check the date on that article to see how old it was. Not quite sure what new information it contains other than a single screenshot of a view nobody actually uses. Still, worth having a thread about for when we do get something.

[buzzmong]

Cast: Thread Revive!

Cyanide have dropped a gameplay trailer out. Looks very pretty, but also does look to be a 2.0 version of the last one rather than anything massively different.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-vhwFQkRP0[/media]

Truth be told, unless it gets slammed in reviews or they announce they're going to do the expansions the same silly was as the first game started, then I'm probably going to buy it.

[Joose]

Not sure they could do anything massively different without going away from the boardgame, which would be bad. Looks like the interface is a hell of a lot better designed though, seems to be displaying a lot more clear information about what's going on for things like where the ball is going and percentage chances of stuff working.

[Dog Pants]

I think that's all they ever said they were going to do. New engine, better gui etc. Hopefully better multiplayer facilities. I can live with extra teams being DLC. Actually, since I picked up Legendary and Chaos editions for less than a fiver on sale it probably worked out cheaper than DLC teams anyway, so whatever. I hope the little cutscenes are limited to stuff like touchdowns and injuries though. As pretty as they are they'd get old fast in a game.

[Joose]

As far as dlc goes, the cost was never the issue for me, as like you say they could always be squid for cheep in a sale, plus they were all given price reductions if you owned the originals. My problem was more that it ended up with me having multiple copies of bb in my stream library, along with some confusion around how it all worked. Did my multiplayer teams pass through from one version to another? In still not sure, and if they don't in left with needing two copies of the same game installed. It was a dumb system.

[buzzmong]

New video!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAS-pDTeejI[/media]

Good one to watch as it briefly shows off a large number of the management screens. It's actually looking rather slick and I'm looking forward to it. It's also been pushed back a few weeks to the end of September.

They're aiming for just over 20 teams currently, and I can accept the fact they're doing teams as DLC this time around in place of the version separation, and they've made positive sounds over on PCGamesN over longevity and dropping of real-time.

[Dog Pants]

Also a troll's arse.

[buzzmong]

It's now available for pre-order on Steam, £34.99 (no discount) and you have to pick either Wood Elves or Lizardmen as your pre-order team.
Interestingly PC owners get a choice while PS4 is Lizardmen and Xbox is W'Elves.

I'm also very tempted to pre-order this, as I know I'll have to wait for bug-fixes anyway before it'll really be playable, it is a Cyanide game after all.

[Dog Pants]

Not tempted because:

It'll be bug ridden at launch.
I'm not paying £35 for a tabletop conversion (I rarely pay £35 for any game)
Pre order DLC can fuck off.

So my interest has plummeted and I'm currently planning on waiting for a Steam sale.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Pre-order things are bad! BAD DEVS!

[buzzmong]

Things come around quickly. It's out tomorrow. RPS are doing a Wot I Think in the near future, but their pre-release impressions were quite good.

[Dog Pants]

Although the comments on the same RPS article announcing an RPS article tomorrow don't seem to think much of the beta. I'll probably be waiting for a sale on this one - it's still Blood Bowl, but for £35 I want something with miniatures.

Actually I'd pay more than £35 for a new Blood Bowl board game.

[Dog Pants]

Well RPS seem to think this is an improvement on the original, just maybe not a £35 improvement. Better UI, slightly better AI, better multiplayer. But some weirdnesses like players not upgrading visibly (like in BB1) and a peculiar player auction.

As for the DLC, I think this is a much better approach to the 'keep releasing rehashes with new teams' approach of the original. If the base game was priced at £15 and the DLC teams at £5 I'd probably end up spending a fortune over time. Maybe I still will once it goes on sale.

The pre-order bonus DLC hasn't helped this. There was no way I was going to pre-order, given Cyanide's track record for bugs, but now I've decided I probably will buy it I have no reason not to wait until the sales. If they were still giving the DLC away with it for a week I might.

[Joose]

There was no way I was going to pre-order, given Cyanide's track record for bugs, but now I've decided I probably will buy it I have no reason not to wait until the sales.

This. I'll snap it up in an inevitable sale, by which time the team DLC will probably have got into the swing of things.

[Dog Pants]

Ironically, Cyanide announced today that anyone who bought the game in the first week (i.e. up until yesterday) will get the lizardmen DLC free. So, again, no reason for me to buy. Given generally good reviews I'd have considered it if they'd said this earlier.

[Dog Pants]

There have been many inevitable sales, but the current one on Steam is 66%, putting the game down to a rather reasonable £11.90. So I picked it up with the equally discounted Lizardmen DLC, since they're my favourite / OP. Welf DLC is similarly discounted (£1.69), Norse is 33% off (£3.34), and Undead is still full price at £4.99. The latter is probably the only one I'm interested in playing, so if I like the game I'll probably wait for another sale before I get any more.

[buzzmong]

I was tempted, but I still have the "is it any good?" question.

Steam reviews seem to point it's got a fair bit better post release.

[Dog Pants]

I'm about five games into the single player campaign, and I've found it to certainly be no worse than the original. The GUI is clearer and of course the graphics prettier. It's also a little more bloated with animations and cutscenes, but these can be turned off for the most part. The AI seems to be about the same at this stage, which isn't very good, but I only want it to be something to throw my own team at. The actual campaign itself I've found to be quite good. Yes, it's pretty much an extended tutorial, but it does a good job of gradually introducing features so not to overwhelm new players. Then it tries to promote different tactics by giving you secondary objectives within the game.

So, at the moment I'm happy with the purchase, but I wouldn't have paid more because it doesn't offer enough over the various editions of the original that I already own.

[buzzmong]

Hmm, seemingly out of the blue they've released a Nurgle team for the game. A variation of the normal Chaos team, but adding a couple of extra types.