Blood Bowl III

This has potential, and mostly delivers with deep and gratifying gameplay underneath the blood sport, but it doesn't feel finished. From few new modes (aside from a solo campaign open to all races) and sloppy menus and typos to technical bugs that hurt the overall experience, Blood Bowl III needs more time and polish before it's worth shelling out money for it. The graphics have been improved with higher resolution character models and slickly produced animated videos, but the core gameplay mostly remains the same. This isn't a bad thing, mind you, but since it's been several years since Blood Bowl II came out, it's a shame it feels like the same game, with a few new tweaks, like a beefed-up competitive mode with new coach and league management features, and extra customization options.Like before, much of your luck is tied to the dice outcome, but you'll make the best with what you rolled by applying strategy and tactics, based on the character, positioning, and other variables.

The interface takes some getting used to, and the menu system seem cluttered in between matches, too. Confusingly, some parts of the game are locked, but doesn't explain why. Games were played, contracts won, but didn't seem to open up additional competitions in the "Clash of the Sponsors" games. For multiplayer, it proved difficult to find people to play with online, and be aware it requires an account you need to create or log into. Otherwise, it's only a single-player, offline game (and none of your progress transfers over to online once you do sign in). Performance is mostly decent, but there were bugs that caused occasional and temporary freezing (sometimes when the AI was making a decision), and odd square misplacement on the field (indicating where you can move to) that didn't matchup with where it should be. The overall lack of polish is evident, between the "deja vu" gameplay, some spelling mistakes, UI issues and bugs. Blood Bowl III isn't a disaster, but curiously was released as an unfinished product.