Apparently Microsoft DROPPED the ball.
I make no secret of the fact that I’m a huge Blood Bowl fan. I played the miniatures game back in the day, and proceeded to buy the PC game when it was released earlier this year. I gave that game a glowing review, and intended from Day One to buy the 360 version upon its release as well.
Microsoft, however, have given me less reason to do this. Want to know how they’ve screwed over the consumer this time? Hop on over the jump with me…
The Xbox 360 SKU of Blood Bowl was released today (Friday), in Europe. All was well with the world, until people began reporting certain omissions from the original PC game. Persistent online leagues cannot be set up, Star Player Points (Blood Bowl’s take on Experience), are limited to Single Player games only, and teams are only customizable to the point of the player choosing a team name.
At first, the entire player base revolted against the developer, Cyanide. It seems that they’re not the ones to blame in this case though. The game of Blood Bowl weighs heavily on statistics, art and animations. This led to the PC version requiring lengthy load times at the beginning of each match in order to run each [hour-long] game smoothly. Microsoft, it seems, has decreed that they have a “maximum amount of time a loading screen can be displayed,” and in its original form, Blood Bowl exceeded that time.
In order to meet Microsoft’s demands, Cyanide have cut several features from the game to decrease loading times. This is their official stance on the subject, at least. I’m no game programmer, so I couldn’t even venture a guess as to whether this all makes for good sense. All I know is that if you had plans to level your players whilst playing with your friends, you’ll be needing the PC version.
As far as I can tell, the player’s Single Player team can be used, SPPs and all, in multiplayer games. But the inability to gain further SPPs against other players almost makes the whole process moot.
I’ll probably pick this one up anyway. If nothing else, in the hope that Cyanide can release a patch that fixes these issues without increasing load times. It just depresses me that Microsoft have essentially chopped a perfectly good leg off a game just because it walks a bit slow.
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Seems like a bit of a poor excuse to me. There are plenty games that are also heavy on stats and animations on the 360 that don’t have long load times.
Could it not just be poor programming and optimization from Cyanide that means they can’t meet Microsofts cert requirements.
I find it hard to believe that Blood Bowl is so much more demanding than other 360 games that it isn’t possible to make it load in a reasonable amount of time.
Blood Bowl is all stats though. You tell a guy to go somewhere, and his stats determine if he makes it and what he does along the way, your skill means nothing, it’s a strategy game in the truest sense of the word
May I point you to the Football Manager 2006, currently the game with the longest loading time I seen on the 360. I’ll have to time it some day, but it does get ridiculous.
You sir, are an idiot. Blaming Microsoft for this mess is ridiculous.
The only one “screwing over consumers” is the developer in this case.
You sir, are a fish.
Sorry Krelith, but NO… This isn’t Microsoft’s fault. I have the game on PC, and as of it’s release date for digital download (and even the patches now for the ‘CD/Box’ version) make it as barely a well-tested Beta version. With so many games out there that can be played over live, it’s a problem with Cyanide’s programming. Microsoft simply has standards (As hard as THAT is to believe) For how much can be sent through live, and Cyanide did a piss-poor job of making things work right to work over that network.
I’m inclined to think that it is a little naive to accept that this is Microsofts fault. More than naive actually but I’ll not start throwing insults around on someone else’s blog
Cyanide fucked up and they are trying to shift the blame. There are plenty more heavily detailed and heavily stat oriented games out there that work perfectly well.
The xbox Bloodbowl gamer has been royally shafted by the developer.
I do realise that the fault here does ultimately lie with Cyanide. My argument was that Microsoft’s “standards” have apparently forced the game to be less than it could… SHOULD… be. Although whether this is true or just a PR spin, I don’t know. As I previously stated, I’m no programmer.
Honestly, I don’t know which side of the fence I stand on here. I can say, however, that I’ll be reviewing the 360 SKU soon and I intend to be highly critical, given my love for the PC version.
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