Blood Bowl has been around as a board game since 1987, in June 2009 the game was adapted and released by Cyanide as a PC title however, and as of November 2009 the game has been available for the Xbox 360.

If you’re a fan of the Blood Bowl board game then there’s a good chance that you’ll thoroughly enjoy playing this title for the Xbox 360, if you have a PC that meets the minimum requirements for the Blood Bowl PC game however then you’ll probably want to buy this game for the PC rather than the 360. The reason I say this is because when comparing the Xbox 360 version of the game to the PC version; the Xbox 360 game suffers in key areas. Whereas the PC game offers you the ability to compete in online leagues and you can build up your team as you play against fellow human gamers; with Blood Bowl for the Xbox 360 there is only the option to play one-off games against other human players, and in terms of online gameplay you therefore don’t get anywhere close to the same experience that you’d get with the PC game.

With that out of the way, whilst the online experience may not be the same, the actual quality of gameplay is still quite strong for the Xbox 360, and although the occasional glitch may be experienced; Blood Bowl board game fans should be able to get many hours of fun out of this video game. As an Xbox 360 title you would perhaps expect a little more in terms of the quality of graphics and sound, if you’re a fan of the board game looking to play a good few games of Blood Bowl on your console though then the game should surely satisfy.

If you’re not someone that is familiar with the Blood Bowl board game then this may not be for you. Blood Bowl is a turn-based strategy game, and whilst it may be loosely based on the game of American Football, this is definitely not a pick-up and play title for fans of Madden NFL. Don’t assume that because you like Madden NFL you will also enjoy Blood Bowl; you may well be someone that will enjoy both games, it’s definitely not a given though, and if you’ve never before played the Blood Bowl board game then this is a game that may take some time to really get, particularly given the fairly sub-standard tutorial that is offered. A greater tutorial would definitely be of benefit here, Cyanide is clearly hoping mainly to target those that are familiar with the board game however, and this can be seen as the reason as to why the tutorial is not as in-depth as it perhaps might have been.

The game has eight playable races; Humans, Orcs, Wood Elves, Dwarfs, Skaven, Lizardmen, Chaos, and Goblins, and if you’re planning to play this one as a single-player title then there’s definite fun to be had in watching your team level up after each match. If you were hoping for an online mode to rival the PC version of the game then as previously stated you’re going to be left sorely disappointed, and although Cyanide has done a decent job in porting the game to Xbox 360, the PC game is still superior, and if you want to purchase the game then it’s worth checking those specifications to see if you’re going to be able to run the PC version on your machine.

Blood Bowl for the Xbox 360 is far from perfect, it does still remain a very playable game however, and whilst the PC version offers more for the gamer, this is still a title to look to if you want to play Blood Bowl on the screen as opposed to the table.

6/10

Like many FPS fans, the moment I heard about the release of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 I was full of excitement and anticipation. One of the most high profile game releases of this year has landed and is here to take its rightful throne as daddy of all the FPSs.

Graphics: It seems IW have just been plain lazy with the graphics for the main part of this game, they haven’t changed an awful lot, but when you do get the chance to dangle tantilisingly close to the edge of a gaping chasm in the Cliffhanger mission, you really do feel it and the snow effects further on in that mission are top notch. The little touches are what I appreciate the most though, for example when you spend a long period of time outside in the snow, your gun gets some snow on it and when you go inside, it melts. Amazing! On the whole the graphics haven’t changed much since CoD 4 however the little touches more than make up for it. 8/10

Sounds: The sound in CoDs of old were absolutley crapola, however IW have really cleaned up their act with this one, the gun noises are excellent and the voices of fellow soldiers is second to none. Even the engine noises from BMG (Big ass machine gun cars!) are very nice. 8/10

Gameplay: This is one of the CoD series’ very large up points, it’s brilliant. It’s the same controller layout which is very simple to use and is brilliantly laidout. The missions in this game absolutely rock, they range from driving a snowmobile full pelt down a hill to holding up in a fast food place, it is brilliant. The offline multiplayer is just as awesome, and as long as you don’t cheat and get your 3 year old cousin to play with you it’s just as good as online. The Spec Ops (that’s Special Operations) is a new multiplayer mode, similar to the “Nazi Zombies” that Treyarch spearheaded in the last CoD game, and the “Horde” in Gears of War 2, basically you and a buddy team up to fight wave after wave of bad guys (the same ones you encounter in the campaign) each wave gets harder and harder for example you might start out with 21 hostiles to kill, then in the next round it’s 25 hostiles and a jeep and so on and so forth. 9/10

Anything Else: The first expansion pack for this game is due for release in Spring 2010.

You get a nice shiny 48 hr Xbox live trial if you buy the Xbox version (obviously) which is nice and handy if your Xbox live runs out all of a sudden.

There are other “luxury” versions on this game, Hardened, Veteran and Prestige, depending on how much you want people to hate you.

If you’re like me and don’t have Xbox Live and henceforth can’t get updates, this game comes with an update preinstalled, enabling you to make an avatar!

Overall: This game is easily the best FPS shooter this year, with lovely little touches that I know will make you smile and cracking sound quality. Awesome gameplay and some nice additional features, this game is a must buy for ANY FPS fan. 9.7/10

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @MichaelB5522

Back in the May of ‘05 the first in the Forza Motorsport franchise was released, and in June ‘07 the second was released, now in 2009 we have the latest in the series, the cleverly named…Forza Motorsport 3! (Shocking I know, didn’t see it coming either.)

Graphics:Wow, is the only word I can use to describe them without the need for censorship, Forza 3 runs at a crisp 60 fps and is very smooth and appealing to look at. The details on the cars are second to none, every little crease is accounted for. You can perfectly see the carbon firbre weave on the Audi R8 (the hero car) in the lil visual you’re given at the start. Forza 3 also features real-time-tyre deformation, meaning when you turn into, lets say a left hand bend, the tyres on the right hand side of the car are going to compress, and you actually see it! The details on the tracks is awesome, these tracks are beautiful, from the small sea-side Itallian villages to the sweeping corners of the Nürburgring in Germany. These graphics are top notch. 9.5/10

Sounds:In Forza 3 there are many different cars and tyre compounds and exhaust manifolds, and so on and so forth, so you’d expect there to be a plethera of different and individual sounds that don’t distort (seeing as this is the 3rd gen of this game, you’d want it to be good) and you won’t be disappionted. Everything from the little buzzy engine in a Fiat 500 Arbath to the roaring V12 of the Audi Q7 sounds just stunning. The tyre noises are nice and clear and don’t distort among the engine noises. 8/10

Gameplay:One of the best I have ever played, my only beef with it is the fact you have to pick a default controller setup and can’t customise it just so, however minor problems aside, this game is one for everyone. Die-hard enthusiasts will love it every bit as much as much as their 9 year old sister, it’s very easy to get used to and wether you just want a quick blast round a circuit or sit for hours on end getting CR and modifying your car and tuning to your own spec, it’s perfect. There are 2 modes you can go into, Event mode, where you see you’re career by events similar to that of Forza 2 or another mode where you see it as a calender. My only major problem with it is the split screen mode was Forza 2’s weak spot, and I’m afraid to say it’s the same in Forza 3 due to same Proprietary engine having to split itself and you lose some of the feel of the game, but when someone does challenge you to a split screen race, as long as it’s less than 5 laps you won’t be throwing your controller at the TV. 9/10

Anything else:I had some minor problems uploading the additional content disc on to my HDD but after some perseverance it did upload, but I was ready to fall asleep and not bother playing the game when I had started the upload. The uploading itself is a quick and painless process, giving you additional tracks and cars.

Turn 10 have announced that the 1st expansion pack available to download over Xbox Live will be out from the start of December to new year.

If you have Xbox Live you will be pleased to know that inside every copy of the game will be a redeemable code that gives you 10 extra cars and 2 tracks.

Overall:Forza 3 is the best game I have played this year and the best racer I have ever played. Really great graphics and awesome sounds make for a very enjoyable gaming experience and the general gameplay and feel of the game makes it that 100% better. I give this game a; 9.8/10

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @MichaelB5522

Having not played a Championship Manager title since Sports Interactive split with Eidos; going into playing Championship Manager 2010 I really wasn’t sure what to expect. Tempted into purchasing the title due to its £2.51 price tag, the game was always likely to represent fantastic value for money, quite how the game would play however was to me an absolute mystery.

Starting out a season with Oxford City in the Southern Premier League, what instantly struck me about the game was how bad it made football look at this level. Players were unable to remain on their feet, falling over at every kick of the ball, with a passing style that was bizarre to say the very least. The football at this level just didn’t look right, starting up a new game and playing as Manchester United in the Premier League soon sorted things out however, with the 3D match action then looking a lot more natural and true.

My fun in football management titles tends to come in taking on small teams, attempting to get them promoted as far up the footballing system as possible. With the ugly style of lower level play in Championship Manager 2010, this seemed to take much of the fun out of managing a non-league football team, and this I feel is something that could affect quite a lot of people’s overall enjoyment of the game. This is by no means a ruining factor of the game, it’s certainly something that has affected the way that I play the game however, and it may well have an impact on your Championship Manager 2010 gaming experience also.

Managing a team from the top-flight, Championship Manager 2010 is a good, solid football management title, and one that is without doubt great fun to play. The screen set-up took a little getting used to at first having played with the Football Manager system for so many years, the controls feel quite natural after a while though, and definitely aren’t particularly difficult to deal with.

The graphics of the 3D match action in Championship Manager 2010 is pretty impressive, and the crowd sound also works well within the game. When in the middle of the match it is easy to get your team to change tempo, take a more attacking/defensive approach when necessary, and the tactics also can quickly be altered at any point in the match.

Where the Championship Manager 2010 team has seemingly failed in getting this game released is in ironing out the creases; taking out the small bugs and making the game as problem free as possible. One problem I have personally come across in the game is the matter of the match day team talk loop. Having been sacked by Manchester United and moved across to Middlesbrough; I was into my third/fourth friendly with the club, was winning 2-0 at half-time, and found myself stuck in the half-time team-talk, unable to get into the second-half of the match. This is a problem that has been officially identified by the Championship Manager website staff, and the team are currently working on a fix; this is a problem that really should have been removed before the game was released however, and it’s quite frustrating to say the least when you do get stuck in a team-talk halfway through a match. When this happens it is not possible to save the game and exit, and you just have to bite the bullet and close the game down. What made this issue ten times worse for me was that I hadn’t saved the game for several in-game months, and therefore lost several hours of gameplay as a result of the bug. An auto-save feature could have saved me here, sadly for me however, an auto-save never took place.

Championship Manager will have difficulty ever overtaking Football Manager in terms of popularity, and come October 30th I will be one of the many paying out somewhere in the region of £25 for Football Manager 2010. I have no plans to ditch my faith in Sports Interactive just yet, having been reasonably impressed with Championship Manager 2010 I do feel that I will probably be buying the game again next year though, and this year’s Eidos experiment of letting people pay what they want for Championship Manager 2010 should help them increase sales figures for the future.

Championship Manager 2010 is quite an impressive football management sim, and whilst it’s not without its problems; Championship Manager 2010 is still a game that is well worth playing, and I’m sure that the title will continue to improve in the future.

7/10

Playing Street Fighter IV on the Xbox 360 has brought back many happy memories for me of playing Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo in years gone by; thrashing friends and beating siblings with my sublime style of button bashing.

With Blanka as my street fighter of choice, I set about recreating many happy memories of old, quickly feeling the Street Fighter memories flooding back to me. Electrocuting my opposition, I soon found myself getting incredibly into Street Fighter IV, finding it to be a very enjoyable video game.

If you were a Street Fighter fan in the past then you’ll no doubt still be one today. Many of the old characters still remain, and you’re quickly able to get down to gaming as you get used to the controls. You can spend many hours truly mastering the game and its huge variety of moves; alternatively you can just pick the game up and play however, and the option is there to get as much or as little involved in the game’s intricate workings as you like.

The aesthetics here are brilliant, with the traditional 2D screen scrolling included, with a nice modern touch in the way of the 3D graphics. The graphics here really do work well, and the game has been brought up to date to still be as relevant in 2009 as it was back in the nineties. The gameplay is as fun as ever, and although the years have quickly passed; Street Fighter is still yet to lose its cool.

The controls are incredibly responsive, and you’re happily able to play the game and get your moves in when you want to. There’s no waiting around for your character to catch up with your move selections, and this therefore provides for a very smooth and much enjoyable gaming experience.

The music here serves its purpose, adding to the gaming experience as a whole as you look to conquer your opponents. Everything about the game has just come together very nicely here, and it’s clear that much time has been spent in trying to make the game as perfect as possible.

Street Fighter IV is not a game that tries to bring anything new to the fighting game genre; Street Fighter is an unashamedly old school name, and as such the game therefore reflects this. Capcom doesn’t try and reinvent the wheel here, it instead opts to provide the quality Street Fighter game that we were all hoping for, and in doing so has provided many people with a lot of happy hours of quality gaming entertainment.

If you have played and enjoyed a Street Fighter game in the past then I really do urge you to go out there and purchase Street Fighter IV; it’ll definitely not be a decision that you regret, and you’ll no doubt spend many happy hours playing this one. Street Fighter IV is most definitely a game that has impressed me, and I can’t really provide any reason not to buy this game; it’s just a very good fighting game, and one that would sit very nicely in your collection.

9/10

Having been hooked on WWE wrestling games ever since the Smackdown series first hit the original Playstation back in 2000; always when a new WWE game is released I look well and truly forward to playing it. THQ has taken time away from the Smackdown series with Legends of Wrestlemania, and has here decided to put together a game where you can compete as some of your favourite wrestlers from the eighties and nineties such as Andre the Giant, Bret Hart, and Mr Perfect.

When I first sat down with Legends of Wrestlemania I was excited to get involved in matches with some of my favourite wrestlers from years gone by. It’s fun to see your favourites in pixel form, and the game allows you to recreate/change history in some of the most high profile wrestling matches ever to have taken place.

Legends of Wrestlemania is a bit of fun for nostalgic value, when it comes to the actual quality of the gameplay however the game is seriously let down. The game is just far too easy, and although the simplistic arcade nature of the game may appeal to some; if you’re an experienced gamer looking for a challenge then Legends of Wrestlemania is definitely not going to provide you with that. The graphics are nothing special here, and whilst Legends of Wrestlemania definitely isn’t a bad game; it’s certainly not a very exciting one.

It didn’t take me too long at all to get bored of playing Legends of Wrestlemania, and although it’s nice to be able to play as some of your former wrestling favourites; the novelty of the game is quick to wear off, and the game does little to make you want to keep playing.

If you were a wrestling fan in the eighties/nineties then you’ll probably want to rent Legends of Wrestlemania in order to relive a few happy memories; I wouldn’t recommend investing in the game though as it’s unlikely that you’ll be wanting to play the game for more than a couple of hours. I’ve definitely played worse wrestling games in the past than Legends of Wrestlemania, the arcade style and incredible ease of the game doesn’t sit too well with me at all though, and in terms of gameplay it just doesn’t come anywhere close to matching the quality of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009.

Legends of Wrestlemania is by no means a must have THQ sports title, if you were a fan of wrestling in the eighties/nineties though then playing the game at least once is a definite must.

5/10

Guitar Hero III for the mobile phone is a good fun game to play when you’re travelling on long distance journeys. It’s obviously not the same as playing it on your console, and there are only three buttons to hit making the game quite easy to master, as far as mobile games go though it’s still a pretty cool game, and if you’ve got 20 minutes or so to kill on the train then this game is absolutely perfect.

I used my N95 for playing Guitar Hero III, and found the controls to be an absolute dream. There are three difficulty settings, and whilst none of them are too tricky to handle once you’ve been playing the game for a while, there are a couple of tracks that can cause a few problems.

There are two game play modes; career mode and quickplay mode, and just like the console version of the game there are Achievements to aim for in career mode.

The MIDI sound is pretty poor, and if you were hoping for MP3 quality tracks from the game then you’re in for a disappointment; despite the poor quality of sound though, the game is still fun to play, and although it may be slightly lacking in some areas, Guitar Hero III is still surprisingly enjoyable.

There are only 15 tracks in total, there’s a decent range of rock music here however, and the game provides you with the opportunity to button bash along to tracks from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. Artists include Kiss, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper, and Black Sabbath, and whilst they may not sound a whole lot like the originals; the game will still make you smile, and provide for a pretty entertaining gaming experience.

The game is far from perfect, I did find it quite fun to play however, and was quite disappointed when my battery packed in whilst in the middle of a game, as Guitar Hero III will now no longer load up on my phone.

Guitar Hero III Mobile has not been made over complicated, it’s simple to pick it up and play, and I definitely feel that the simplistic nature of the gameplay is key to the success of the game.

If you’ve got a few pounds to spare and Guitar Hero III is compatible with your phone then you should definitely give this one a go.

7/10