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Posted by: Critias Apr 30 2008, 05:23 AM

In the last few weeks I've started to tread the Dark Path, and some of the fellas at work have been slowly dragging me into the uncharted waters of being something of a football fan (what with the draft and all that). The latest drug I took was finding a little game called Goal Line Blitz, which is like football for geeks. There's no running or jumping or sweating, and there's not even the knowledge of plays and joystick-wiggling and hand-eye-coordination involved in playing a console game.

You http://goallineblitz.com/game/signup.pl?ref=6768540 and spend points on attributes like Strength and Speed and Tackling and Agility. Tehre's some "feat" like stuff, too, but normally base stats are the way to go. Depending on what position you choose (the less glamorous, the cheaper), you'll even have enough starting points to just boost your guy right then and there, and bump up as high as level 4 before you've ever seen a football field. Then you go whoring yourself out for a contract, get paid, set up a quick and easy training regime (you just select what attribute you want to focus on)...and...that's it, really.

You don't control your guy during games, the computer just runs a simulation based on the attributes of the opposing players (and some coaching/game plan input from the team owners), and then you go back after the fact and watch a little play-by-play (and cheer wildly when your alter ego does anything cool). You can have more than one character, have them spread out on multiple teams or all on one, do whatever you want to do. Games are every other day, seasons are 40 days long. They just doubled their server size and opened up like a thousand new teams, the season just started over the weekend, so now's a great time to get into the game (lots of openings).

So, anyhow. Check it out. If anyone is looking for a contract, feel free to PM my manager, "livergood," and tell him Crit sent ya. Maybe he'll have a spot for ya.

For a non-jock, this is turning into a pretty addictive little game.

Posted by: Aaron Apr 30 2008, 01:51 PM

http://www.bloodbowl-game.com/

Posted by: Bearclaw May 1 2008, 03:15 PM

Nice.
I'm now Dexter Hugepants, NT for the Houston Demons.

Posted by: Fabe May 4 2008, 06:51 PM

As A long time player of the original boardgame I'm really looking forward to video game adaptation.

Posted by: Cantankerous May 27 2008, 09:55 PM

Wooohoo, playoff bound and the sack king of my division! Wooooot, wooot, woot!!! Yeah baby. Even the D-Leagues are fun in this game. And, no offense to Critias, but the special skills make a WORLD of difference.

Posted by: annachie May 27 2008, 10:23 PM

http://fumbbl.com/

Posted by: Aaron May 27 2008, 11:07 PM

Blood Bowl makes me sad. It could have been so much cooler.

Posted by: Fabe May 27 2008, 11:17 PM

The board game ,the video game or both?

Posted by: Aaron May 28 2008, 03:25 AM

All of the above.

I'm also disappointed with Urban Brawl.

Posted by: Critias May 28 2008, 05:18 AM

Oh, I never said the sepcial skills suck. They just almost all require attributes to back them up. They're icing, not cake, 90% of the time. I find a point a level is about the way to go (for most positions), if you sink much more than that into special skills you just won't have the raw speed, agility, strength, etc, to actually use them.

Posted by: Fabe May 28 2008, 05:26 AM

So what did you find wrong with bloodbowl,maybe things have change since you've last played and/or read the rules.

Posted by: Aaron May 28 2008, 12:20 PM

Nah, I posted that after I read the updated rules.

It just needs some tweaking, is all. It's still played like a war game: I move everybody, then you move everybody. There's no thrill of the game there; the mechanics don't back up the look and feel. I think it would add to the tension if the activation of pieces (players) was a bit more chaotic. Something like each player having their own card, shuffling all of cards of the players on the field in one deck, and flipping the cards one at a time to reveal which player acts next. Incidentally, this would give the game another variable to play with for more diverse special abilities.

There are still all those pointless target number tables, all of which can be summed up by saying "add 1D6 to your skill stat, and you win if the total is 7 or more." Not as big a deal in the electronic version, of course.

It also suffers from GW's penchant for Totally Random and Unbalanced Special Abilities that is ubiquitous in their games. I'm not saying it's a bad thing (Let's Kill, for instance, isn't exactly the pinnacle of strategy games), but I really feel that they mixed a war game with a chaotic mayhem game and it wasn't a good merge, if I might use the term.

That being said, the look and feel are pretty awesome, the "astrogranite" board is wicked, and the general concept has coolness factor. GW has always seemed to have a "style over substance" approach to games. I mean, they made a game that I could win by covering my side of the board with snotlings; I think we can agree that's a fun concept, but rather broken.

Posted by: Cantankerous Jun 26 2008, 06:15 PM

Ohhh guys and gals, the man is sooooo right. The D-Leagues don't really show it, but get in to Triple A and you find out FAST to stay away from spending anything in SA points until you've gotten your base stats high as hell, otherwise you get snowed. If you are relatively the same level as everyone else or higher, they are solid gold, but if you aren't they are a stone around your neck.

Props to Critias, he nailed it.


Isshia

Posted by: deek Jun 27 2008, 12:38 PM

I've been playing in goal line blitz since the first season...have a QB, P and SS...fun as hell!!!

Posted by: Critias Jun 27 2008, 03:03 PM

Still playing here, too. I'm in the middle of a weird season right now.

My "main" character (first guy I made, etc) got a sweet gig as the star running back of a brand new Western European team in a brand new Western European league, and was right at the level cap when he got in...I was looking forward to some big numbers and big wins, and our first two games were great (I was 2nd in our league for overall rushing, in fact) -- but we've lost every single game since then. The rest of the team just can't keep the pace, there's no blocking, not enough of a passing game to keep them from just focusing on Tyler, and I'm getting smashed every game. Seriously about 2/3 of our roster is brand new players that just started this season, so they're only just now hitting level 8-10 or so. The whole division is weird, though, everyone's either on a giant losing streak or a huge winning streak, there's no middle ground. It'll be a few seasons before it balances out and smooths over, I think.

The team Tyler LEFT (where I still have a Strong Safety and a Punter) has yet to lose this season. My SS is kicking ass and taking names, but it's kind of weird not having anyone on offense there. We're doing great, I've even had a couple of really nice punts (no return, starting the opponent's drive on the 1-2 yard line), but it's just kind of odd not having anyone scoring any points.

And the other team I play on, with a WR, is 5-3 I think, but he's only just hitting his stride at level 17. I never got more than one pass per game all last season, and I just got my best game today (for 5 receptions and my first TD ever), so it just feels like there's something wrong with his build. On paper, he looks better in almost every way than either of the team's other WR (more speed, more agility, more vision, more confidence, on-par stamina and catching, and better special abilities) but they both end up getting open way more often. It's weird.

Overall, though, I'm still having a blast.