The Starting Line: Bloodline Champions Out
Out, and still doesn't have any good screenshots. STUNLOCK STUDIOS! Stop making my life difficult. I could make your life difficult, you know. "Stunlock Studios Celebrate Bloodline Champions Going Gold With Rare Nordic Tradition Of Eating Forty Kittens". That's a headline. I could do that. Actually I couldn't do that, it wouldn't fit on one of our posts. But you get the idea. I am a powerful man.
Aaanyway, this mighty thoroughbred of an arena-battling game is as accessible and intense a way of spending 10 to 15 minutes as I've ever seen. I'm going link to my Eurogamer hands-on preview of Bloodline Champions once again, though I'll be putting together a wot i think for RPS next week.
If you want to play Bloodline Champions (and you should! it's good!) you have three options, neatly summarised here. Here's my own, even more succint summary:
(1) Play the game for free, with the two biggest limitations being that you don't get to play as all 16 different Bloodlines and you don't have access to bots. I call this option "The Fagin".
(2) Buy the Champion Edition for £25 (plus an extra £7 if you want the 4 extra "Bloodlust" Bloodlines). I call this option "Buying The Game".
(3) Buy the elite Titan Edition for £70, getting yourself a discount in the in-game store, the Bloodlust Bloodlines, access to all future Bloodlines, and an increased rate at which you gain Bloodcoins (an in-game currency) and a load of other, smaller things. I call this option "Have you considered subscribing to RPS?"
It's worth noting that not one of these editions nor the in-game store offers anything resembling an advantage in battle, so less of the grumbling, folks. Also, anybody who buys either editions of the game before February 1st will get the pre-order bonus of a load of new skins and a new title.
Lastly, who wants to see the new trailer? Ah, g'wan. It has a man pronouncing "jetpack" as "yetpack"!