It's a curious thing to be part of a crowd that's half curious journalists and half relentlessly overjoyed Games Workshop fans who seem to be having the best day of their lives. Regardless of IGN's struggle to remain soberly analytical even in the midst of whoops, cheers and incomprehensible in-jokes about Wood Elves, it's a sign of what this adaptation of a tabletop fantasy sports game is up against. It has to both satisfy a ludicrously devoted existing fanbase, and somehow also appeal to total newcomers.
This dichotomy runs right to the heart of Blood Bowl. On paper, a game about orcs and dwarves (and a good half-dozen other fantasy races, also incorporating beast-men, tree-men and rat-men) playing a particularly brutal version of American football sounds as simple as it gets. Big green man hits little hairy man, runs ball to other side of pitch, right?
