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2016-11-23 19:36:09
30 votes, rating 4.4
30 votes, rating 4.4
BB2
It has "mixed" reviews on Steam. When the_Sage contacted me over steam chat to let me know it was on sale and, being an impulsive out of control idiot with little decision making skill, I dipped into my child's savings and bought it.
Yeah, it's not very good. The word that springs to mind is Soulless.
Ok, it's pretty. Very pretty. Like that super hot blonde at the bar. Then off comes the make up and the push up bra, out comes the selfish and expectant personality, as well as the affairs and the bankruptcy and... I lost my thread. I've never even had a blonde girlfriend.
I played 6 games (I think). I had a sum total of half a conversation. Most people don't talk. Somebody conceded when they failed to stop my drive at the first attempt (classily not waiting for the TD, of course).
Team management sucks. You can choose the kit colour, I guess. That's about the extent of the customisation. You can name players but there's severe limits on name length. You get to pick your stadium and upgrade it, to invoke specific inducements in every game. Like... why?
The prettiness isn't even that pretty. Players 'sink' into the silly shader grass. There's TV cameras at the side of the pitch because the fantasy world really needs TV cameras adding to it, right? You have to sit through all these annoying animations, only to be massively oppressed for time due to the 2min turn limits where you have to abuse dice selection dialogs to extend it.
It doesn't show all the dice rolls, and the dice log is so damn unreadable that I doubt half the players know it is even a dice based game. I'm assuming there are human players. I only encountered 1 that said hello and he/she interacted like one of those stupid AIcamgirls chat bots that never directly answers questions.
So, to sum up...
Pros: pretty, getting games is easy
Cons: soulless, chats are like an unfunny spiro, boring to play
JavaBB isn't perfect. The gamefinder sucks. The blackbox model sucks. But this place has a soul, you can really indulge in a team theme, and the community is at the forefront of the experience and not hidden somewhere under a glossy silly game.
Yeah, it's not very good. The word that springs to mind is Soulless.
Ok, it's pretty. Very pretty. Like that super hot blonde at the bar. Then off comes the make up and the push up bra, out comes the selfish and expectant personality, as well as the affairs and the bankruptcy and... I lost my thread. I've never even had a blonde girlfriend.
I played 6 games (I think). I had a sum total of half a conversation. Most people don't talk. Somebody conceded when they failed to stop my drive at the first attempt (classily not waiting for the TD, of course).
Team management sucks. You can choose the kit colour, I guess. That's about the extent of the customisation. You can name players but there's severe limits on name length. You get to pick your stadium and upgrade it, to invoke specific inducements in every game. Like... why?
The prettiness isn't even that pretty. Players 'sink' into the silly shader grass. There's TV cameras at the side of the pitch because the fantasy world really needs TV cameras adding to it, right? You have to sit through all these annoying animations, only to be massively oppressed for time due to the 2min turn limits where you have to abuse dice selection dialogs to extend it.
It doesn't show all the dice rolls, and the dice log is so damn unreadable that I doubt half the players know it is even a dice based game. I'm assuming there are human players. I only encountered 1 that said hello and he/she interacted like one of those stupid AI
So, to sum up...
Pros: pretty, getting games is easy
Cons: soulless, chats are like an unfunny spiro, boring to play
JavaBB isn't perfect. The gamefinder sucks. The blackbox model sucks. But this place has a soul, you can really indulge in a team theme, and the community is at the forefront of the experience and not hidden somewhere under a glossy silly game.
Comments
Posted by CroixFer on 2016-11-23 21:27:37
Good to know. I can now relax and ignore it completely. Just as I thought I would.
Thanks for your soul summary
Thanks for your soul summary
Posted by pythrr on 2016-11-23 22:24:15
thx for diving on this grenade for us
Posted by Wotfudboy on 2016-11-23 22:37:30
And on FUMBBL opponents don't disconnect at the first sign of a bruise...
Posted by Danish_Dan on 2016-11-24 08:28:14
Nice review, and I don't disagree. However, I do find that BB2 fulfills a different need for me that FUMBBL. If it's late at night, and I'm kind of bored, playing a game of BB2 is way more relaxing for me than playing FUMBBL.
As you mention, people don't chat (although not everyone on FUMBBL does either), but then, as long as you're not playing one of the concede-losers, it feels more like a 'normal' game against AI, rather than playing a human. A kind of pick-up-and-play game, with quick turns (I like the 2min turns, as for me BB2 shouldn't be about carefully thought out turns, but more speed-chess) and some nice animations.
But that's just what I think.
As you mention, people don't chat (although not everyone on FUMBBL does either), but then, as long as you're not playing one of the concede-losers, it feels more like a 'normal' game against AI, rather than playing a human. A kind of pick-up-and-play game, with quick turns (I like the 2min turns, as for me BB2 shouldn't be about carefully thought out turns, but more speed-chess) and some nice animations.
But that's just what I think.
Posted by mekutata on 2016-11-24 10:09:10
of cours it has no soul, no stunty teams included!
Posted by JellyBelly on 2016-11-24 13:55:53
I agree with much of what you say - imo, BB2 is form over function. Although, I'm curious where you say that gamefinder sucks, blackbox sucks. I mean, for any kind of open play, either you're gonna choose who you play or it's randomized, right? Is there a better way to do it?
Posted by The_Carthaginian on 2016-11-24 15:37:59
Great post. I'll probably still pick it up, because I have friends who are going to get it, but nice to know what I'm getting into!
Posted by keggiemckill on 2016-11-24 22:01:26
Rated 1, because it's Chainsaw. Probably should have read it first, it would have been a 5.
Posted by Chainsaw on 2016-11-25 00:04:35
Gamefinder - can take hours to find a game, even an unfair one (not in my favour). UI is obnoxiosu, when it is busy it becomes unusable as teams flicker in and out of the 5 you are limited to seeing. There's too much repeat. It just used to be a single list of teams/coaches, so it was really easy to spot good matches. You have to literally watch this gamefinder in case somebody offers you a game, because usually the few that do get taken up on their offer(s) very quickly. I find it stressful to use. There was a time where I was greenlighting 100s before getting a match. Horrible.
Blackbox - 15 minute slots require timing. Again, can take hours to get a game at the wrong time of day. Too many opponents sweating it out trying to find the optimal build. I've been away so long I forget the term.
Blackbox - 15 minute slots require timing. Again, can take hours to get a game at the wrong time of day. Too many opponents sweating it out trying to find the optimal build. I've been away so long I forget the term.
Posted by the_Sage on 2016-11-25 01:13:06
You wrote an accurate review of the casual open MM enviroment. Yes, COL is terrible. The decision not to police concessions there shows. I don't play there at all anymore.
However, if you play open MM in the champion ladder, it's quite OK. People who concede more than 5 times in a season (which is 6-8 weeks) get kicked from there, which helps a lot. Chat levels are highly variable.
The real life of the game is in scheduled leagues (I play in 4 of them at the moment, with 50-200 members, tiered systems, great fluff, prizes, and most importantly: real communities). People there are a lot more chatty; many leagues also encourage people to use voice chat (skype or discord) during their matches, which I do for many (most?) of my league matches.
Hanging out in the discord channels of these leagues is a bit like hanging out in #fumbbl was before it died. BB2 doesn't offer community tools the way the fumbbl site does, but the leagues all have their own groups.
To get an idea, you could check them out yourself
the ReBBL (Reddit league with 3 subleagues based on timezones): https://www.reddit.com/r/RELGman/
The Orca Cola League, a big league from BB1 which just moved over a few weeks ago: http://www.orca-cola.com/beta/
The UK BBL, another big one that migrated around the same time:
http://www.ukbbl.co.uk/
The Twitch Blood Bowl League, which is loosely centered around people who watch or stream BB on twitch:
http://www.twitchbloodbowlleague.com/Forum/index.php
However, if you play open MM in the champion ladder, it's quite OK. People who concede more than 5 times in a season (which is 6-8 weeks) get kicked from there, which helps a lot. Chat levels are highly variable.
The real life of the game is in scheduled leagues (I play in 4 of them at the moment, with 50-200 members, tiered systems, great fluff, prizes, and most importantly: real communities). People there are a lot more chatty; many leagues also encourage people to use voice chat (skype or discord) during their matches, which I do for many (most?) of my league matches.
Hanging out in the discord channels of these leagues is a bit like hanging out in #fumbbl was before it died. BB2 doesn't offer community tools the way the fumbbl site does, but the leagues all have their own groups.
To get an idea, you could check them out yourself
the ReBBL (Reddit league with 3 subleagues based on timezones): https://www.reddit.com/r/RELGman/
The Orca Cola League, a big league from BB1 which just moved over a few weeks ago: http://www.orca-cola.com/beta/
The UK BBL, another big one that migrated around the same time:
http://www.ukbbl.co.uk/
The Twitch Blood Bowl League, which is loosely centered around people who watch or stream BB on twitch:
http://www.twitchbloodbowlleague.com/Forum/index.php
Posted by JellyBelly on 2016-11-25 02:41:47
@Chainsaw: I see what you're saying, although it seems to me that picking in [R] and min-maxing in [B] are largely down to human psychology, so I'm not sure what could be done about those.
I think an interesting solution could be to just do away with [R] and make [B] the ranked, competitive division. It would eliminate cherry-picking overnight and would make getting games easier by reducing fragmentation of the player base. Seems like we are where are partly because of history.
I think an interesting solution could be to just do away with [R] and make [B] the ranked, competitive division. It would eliminate cherry-picking overnight and would make getting games easier by reducing fragmentation of the player base. Seems like we are where are partly because of history.