Blood Bowl, baby

There are usually one or two games per year that I get absolutely jacked up about. Granted, the older I get...the frequency of this feeling has lowered quite a bit. I used to get this way over sports games but not anymore. The publishers of sports games have pummeled me into submission. When the latest franchise comes out, I play it and move on.

Last year, I was pumped for The Witcher because I had followed its development and was rewarded with a kick ass PC RPG. BioShock was on the list because Ken Levine just plain knows his shit and I still hold System Shock I/II as two of the best games ever made. That was about it. Halo, Call of Duty...eh.

I guess you can now add Mass Effect PC to my 2008 list even though thanks to Brandon’s column….I kinda know what to expect. Ha! I’d add Fallout 3 to my list but no way in hell does that make 2008. No way.

Perhaps on TOP of my 2008 list is Blood Bowl. To appreciate this you need to understand just how fan-freaking-tastic the Blood Bowl boardgame is. In college back in the golden days of the early 1990s I played so much Blood Bowl that I would guess that it prevented me from getting a higher GPA and thus forced into a life of Internet journalistic purgatory.

Basically the game is a mix of American football, rugby, and…war. Most Warhammer races are represented: Orcs, Humans, Undead, Skaven, Wood Elves, Chaos, etc. You build teams, watch them grow over seasons (and watch as your favorite star player dies). I have waited for a long, long time for a real Blood Bowl PC game (MicroLeague tried back in the early 90s and failed miserably). But Cyanide Studios, makers of the Blood Bowl clone Chaos League is making what I hope is a real conversion of the boardgame. By the looks of it it will be a true boardgame port.

Check out these new screens.

Sign me up.