This is a tentative, on balance, I guess I recommend it.

What it does, it does well. True, there aren't many teams yet, and we'll have to pay for them later - but still a lot cheaper than getting them all as miniatures, never mind painting them. The graphics are terribly pretty.

The 'campaign' mode seems to be an extended tutorial, as far as I can tell, which for a BB vet is frustrating - but I'm not sure it has enough pointers to be useful for a novice. As far as I persisted with it, you get a series of matches linked by story, with the rules of the game being introduced a bit at a time - the earlier matches have most things work automatically, for instance, and gradually fewer things work automatically. You also get no SPP, up to the point I gave up at.

I've not tried the MP yet, so can't comment on that.

Playing SP leagues, however, works mostly better than the previous Cyanide BB games. I would say I like it, certainly. The AI seems slightly cleverer than BB:CE, though still does some really silly things (why try and pick up the ball when you literally cannot score a touchdown before the end of the half? Why not just pummel me in the hope of KOs/injuries?).

Oh, and having turn timers in SP. That's kinda annoying.

My biggest gripe, actually, is that after all the fuss of adding the ability to not use skills when you chose to BB1, that feature seems to be absent. If anyone knows how to do it, please tell me.