By Kieron Gillen on April 2nd, 2010 at 4:30 pm.
Showing that a failure to understand human brains isn’t limited to their UI-team, Cyanide’s marketing folk decided it’d be a good idea to announce their Blood Bowl Legendary Edition on April 1st. But no! It’s for reals and everything. Basically, it appears to be an expandalone expansion to the game – and while it’s possible they’ll do an reduced price upgrade or even a Witcher-esque free thing, I suspect you’ll have to pay full-whack for what it offers. Luckily, what it offers is really quite exciting. Mainly, adding twelve new team types to the eight already in the game. This includes such joys as the Undead, Amazon, Norse and Ogres. They’re also promising new arenas, a story-lead single-player game and rules tweaks to keep it up to date with the Living Rulebook. Let’s hope they manage to work in some polish to the league systems (i.e. Any polish) and UI before its released near the end of the year. That said, the Vampire player in the shades above really is splendid. I fear the Skavenblighters will be coming out of retirement.
02/04/2010 at 16:36 Vinraith says:
The sheer volume of new stuff (teams, modes etc) sounds sufficient to justify “expandalone” pricing. That said I do wish they’d released Undead as a free thing for current Blood Bowl owners, as they were originally promised alongside Dark Elves.
The main thing I need to see, though, is better AI. I’m a bit concerned that the best SP modder Blood Bowl has (Stw402) seems to have disappeared since November and is no longer updating his projects. Without him to around fix the new game’s single player, Cyanide is going to have to do it themselves.
02/04/2010 at 16:37 Kieron Gillen says:
Vin: Having a quick nose I couldn’t actually find where they actively promised it*. If anyone finds the actual thing, I’ll edit the story to include that.
KG
*A very quick nose. We’re abstractly not updating today.
02/04/2010 at 16:40 Vinraith says:
@Kieron
Hmm, maybe it was just an erroneous word of mouth thing. I confess I don’t think I ever heard it direct from the source. If I run across a source I’ll send it your way, in the absence of that I suppose I’ll withdraw what minor complaint I had. Realistically, even if it were “only” 11 new teams and a huge pile of other stuff, it’d still be more than worth picking up in my opinion. The AI is by far the bigger concern for me.
02/04/2010 at 16:49 Uhm says:
I was more concerned that approximately one rule was properly implemented. Though I’m sure much of that must be fixed by now.
02/04/2010 at 16:45 disperse says:
First Mount and Blade: Warband, then the new version of Dwarf Fortress, and now Blood Bowl?
Help me out here guys, time and money are two things I do not have.
02/04/2010 at 20:26 Sobric says:
Lucky DF is free then!
02/04/2010 at 16:51 jsutcliffe says:
Interesting. I never took the plunge with the original release, as I didn’t think the single player experience alone justified the price. This is very tempting though.
02/04/2010 at 17:37 KBKarma says:
Neither did I, actually. Nothing to do with single-player only (my local gaming group started a league), everything to do with my PC not being able to support it.
By the time it’s out, however, I should have a very nice machine ready for it. Here’s hoping!
02/04/2010 at 16:54 Vega says:
Heh, I picked up Blood Bowl not two days ago, and I’m really enjoying it despite not really knowing what I’m doing. Definitely looking forward to this. Expansion is always welcome :)
02/04/2010 at 17:34 Jockie says:
Been umming and ahhing over whether to pick up the original. I was waiting for a price drop or Steam sale, think I’ll just wait for this instead now.
02/04/2010 at 17:37 Nick says:
Noooooo Wood Elf catchers will have MA 8 =(
02/04/2010 at 17:54 clive dunn says:
I’ve been waiting for the Undead team to be released before getting this. I just want to replicate my lovingly painted minitures team of skellys from 20 years ago. Jeesh, getting old…………….
02/04/2010 at 17:56 Web Cole says:
More Blood Bowl Diaries. Moooooore i say!
02/04/2010 at 18:05 Easydog says:
I just picked it up on tuesday myself and ‘m learning it slowly. This announcement has me excited as it might mean that I’ll be able to play as Halflings. Hooray.
02/04/2010 at 18:32 Nick says:
Oh and Kieron, should the Blighters come out of retirement perhaps a rematch? You never know, you might score more than 7 – 1.
02/04/2010 at 18:37 cheeba says:
Sounds promising, though If they charge the full 50 euro for the download again with no cheaper boxed copies until months and months later, they can go die in a ditch.
02/04/2010 at 18:46 Kieron Gillen says:
In passing, my code I brought from a code-reseller was never actually canceled.
KG
02/04/2010 at 19:48 Dominic White says:
Likewise. As far as I can tell, the publsher made a bit of noise about going after key resellers, and then quietly forgetting about it about a week later. So long as you didn’t brag on the official site about having one, you were fine.
03/04/2010 at 06:56 Jeeva says:
Mine was, sadly. =( Key-seller refunded me, though, as they didn’t have any more keys for ages after that.
02/04/2010 at 19:15 Arathain says:
Oo… I’ve been looking for something to treat myself with when I finally break this sticky period of unemployment. This has just moved right up with this many new teams- the team diversity is one of the things that has had me staying with FUMBBL.
Still, I’ll wait and see if they do a release with both team sets for a price I consider reasonable.
02/04/2010 at 19:21 drewski says:
There better be High Elves.
02/04/2010 at 19:34 Serenegoose says:
Drewski: I have it on good authority that they will be totally wasted, never fear.
03/04/2010 at 05:54 drewski says:
Well, as long as they don’t eat all the fairy bread.
02/04/2010 at 19:44 wiper says:
Kieron – while I hesitate to defend the developer responsible for The Worst Netcode, I feel that I ought to at least point out that they have a fair excuse for not understanding the cynicism that April 1st brings to us anglophones, as in France there is no April fool’s day (clearly an attempt to woo John). Rather, the French use the day as an excuse try to stick paper fish to each other’s backs. Don’t ask.
02/04/2010 at 19:51 Kieron Gillen says:
They’re a developer on the Internet, man.
KG
02/04/2010 at 21:20 wiper says:
I don’t think that makes it particularly damning. Even with the vastness of the web at your fingertips, it’s easy to miss out on aspects of cultures other than your own, especially when said cultures communicate in a language different to your own first language, and so are likely to spend less time absorbing their texts.
It’s also very easy to be aware of a certain custom, but just forget that it’s happening – even when immersed in the culture that practices it, but especially when outside of it. And even more so when your country on that date is busy sticking fishes to backs, and in this year’s case is also busy contemplating The Last Supper (what with France being the most Catholic secular country around).
But yes, what it mostly tells me is that they really need a decent PR person. Ideally to be added at the same time they add some new netcode specialists, rules lawyers and UI designers to the team.
03/04/2010 at 08:23 Choca says:
@wiper : “as in France there is no April fool’s day”
Hmm, yes there is.
03/04/2010 at 14:03 wiper says:
Hmm, perhaps I’ve been misled by my family and students here. Now that /would/ be a good prank… (alternatively, perhaps it’s different in this region [Rhone-Alpes, specifically around Saint-Etienne]). The fish thing at least is true, right? I’d rather not discover that my childhood was a lie…
03/04/2010 at 16:18 Taillefer says:
April Fools started in France, didn’t it?
That’s where Poisson d’Avril comes from in the first pla(i)ce (ah ha).
03/04/2010 at 22:33 Choca says:
@Taillefer : I do believe that the first known reference to the holiday as we know it nowadays comes from a French writer or poet. The holiday itself might however be far more ancient and could come from somewhere else.
03/04/2010 at 22:39 Choca says:
@wiper : The “fish thing” is indeed true in France, but it is also customary to play pranks and create hoaxes like in every other country practicing this holiday.
The “fish thing” actually extends to the pranks, since you’re supposed to say “Poisson d’Avril” (literally “April’s Fish”) after your prank/hoax to reveal it was a joke.
04/04/2010 at 18:54 wiper says:
Well, thanks for the info. Clearly my family and students fail at fully living up to the tradition (I currently teach and work in France, and my family are French), and I failed to pick up on said tradition elsewhere. Presumably I should read more French newspapers/websites :(
02/04/2010 at 21:34 Wisq says:
Twelve new races is great, but have they fixed the ones they already have? I.e. have they finally added the Goblin bombardier?
Sure, gobbos are supposed to be hard to play, but they’re supposed to have some fun secret weapons to partially offset that (with mayhem). And from looks of it, nothing would cause more fun and mayhem than lobbing bombs into the enemy’s cage.
Right now, they’re nothing more than a punching bag in SP, or a true test of how masochistic a coach you are.
02/04/2010 at 21:41 Duffin says:
Ohh this looks very nice.
02/04/2010 at 23:12 Hmm-Hmm. says:
I still hold it’s an April fool’s (yes we have those in the Netherlands).. at least until I get more information. But I’d be very pleasantly surprised to find if it’s true.
03/04/2010 at 08:26 Choca says:
Some Focus dude confirmed it wasn’t an April Fool’s on the French forums yesterday.
02/04/2010 at 23:15 Chiablo says:
I want to see a team of vampires (called Team Edward) vs. a team of warewolves (team Jacob).
DO THIS!
03/04/2010 at 01:34 malkav11 says:
Mm. I’ll probably eventually wind up picking it up, despite having done really very little with my extant copy of Blood Bowl and not understanding the strategy of the game at all.
03/04/2010 at 02:32 poop says:
twelve races? that probably means halflings, so i think we need a RPS stunty cup after the release
03/04/2010 at 04:47 Spacewalk says:
I do so want to play Blood Bowl on the PC but I will not buy it until they Dungeon Bowl rules have been implemented. I guess I will have to stay optimistic for future DLC.
03/04/2010 at 06:26 Dave L. says:
I really hope they release a Relic-style megapatch so that people who bought vanilla/Dark Elves edition can at least play against people that have Legendary Edition (plus the rule changes). The player-base split will be pretty devastating if they don’t.
03/04/2010 at 12:30 bill says:
smaller devs really have to be careful about player base splits… it can be the kiss of death.
Yet it rarely seems to be something they consider at all.
03/04/2010 at 09:16 bill says:
Why is vampire not on fire???
Also, I’ll buy it if I hear the single player AI is worth it.
03/04/2010 at 09:40 Lorc says:
Because he’s wearing shades.
03/04/2010 at 12:32 bill says:
ah…. so that is why Blade is ok in sunlight?
Good thing the other vampires never figured that out!
03/04/2010 at 11:04 somnolentsurfer says:
Unless they fix the ‘port’ errors that multiplayer leagues pointless, there’s no way I’m buying this.
Also, Steam Play support would be nice…
04/04/2010 at 23:17 Tabris says:
I hope they polish up the UI, but regardless I’ll be picking this up as soon as it slinks into the US; I never played BB before, but even with all its problems the first one’s got me hooked bad. As long as this leads to more RPS leagues and diaries, I’ll be a happy guy.
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12/09/2010 at 02:20 qrter says:
calm down, keep your UGG BOOTS on!