Murdurous rampage never looked so beautiful....

User Rating: 8.5 | Blitz: The League II X360
If there's one thing i hate in this complexed world, that is monopoly and the will for one company to literally put its own competition to rest. I've always liked diversity; i don't mean to sound rascist or whatnot, this isn't meant as rascism, but when i used to live in Japan, what made me uncomfortable is the fact i would see an Asian person time after time whenever i would wander away from my home in Chiba prefecture. Sure, it's Japan, it's the land of the rising sun, and the home of the Japanese, but it's a mere culture shock when you've lived in California in all 15 years of life beforehand. Before i sway away from the point at hand, let me reiterate the fact that i loved diversity. After 2005, i couldn't stand the lack of diversity in the sports sim world. EA Sports and Madden wasn't the same again...after Major League Baseball with Manny Ramirez, baseball games simmered; simply put, monopoly gave these gaming companies a reason to slack off, with shotty gameplay, unbearable visual graphics, whatever, they didn't mind letting a mistake slide after a game's release, would hardly do anything to fix it next time around, and there's nothing you can do about it.
But when Blitz The League came into the scene, my outlook on sports took on a dramatic, drastic change, but for the better. The first Blitz the Leage was astounding. It was one of those games that left you begging for more and it raised the bar while i waited on the wings in anticipation for the second game. I gotta tell ya, Blitz The League II did its job. Just like a pill, the pain behind waiting for more after the first game was killing me, only to be eased off when Blitz the League II came out. Where do i start?

Even though Gamespot didn't appreciate the fantasy league, i liked it. I found it unique that my hometown, Los Angeles, had its own football team and i didn't have to waste my time creating it. I felt that the whole fantasy league thing is what set it apart from other football (or quite simply sports sims) games. What is the point of playing a game with real teams, when you could go all out playing pretend? You can play with real football teams with Madden, so if you want real teams, Madden is your game, but Blitz is a whole new ball game....pretend is the total point behind video games, right? What stretched the uniqueness of the fake league is the drama behind it on the campaign mode. Varieties and varieties of stuff happens, from doping scandals, the abuse of power in the commissioner's office, individual milestones, etc, all the drama never ceases to amaze. Story mode never gets old and the gameplay is just as splendid. The backbone behind the Blitz franchise is of course, the violent, homicidal gameplay. One of the few handful additions they've added this year is the part where you would make a late hit and choose what body part you could preforate, which most of the time, would lead to a serious injury for your opponent. It could vary, from a shoulder stinger to a ruptured scrotum. Even though the Blitz series is headed into the right direction, it's quite not to perfection just yet. The lack of playbooks during gameplay is kinda lame; the fact that it left me with either a prevent, cover, or a blitz defense gets stale with time. I would have loved the west coast offense mixed in there somehow, or whatnot. After manually tackling your opponent with your own player, that enables you to use "late hit", where you can punch your staggering opponent several times, pound his head into the ground, or rip his helmet off and hit him in the face couple of times, while at the same time, deplete your opponent off stamina. The "late hit" feature is of no use; i could enable the late hit on an opponent all game long, yet, he's still the same person who would burn my secondary each time on offense. As diverse a franchise mode this is, i would have loved to see more creativity on there. For example, a division 3 full of teams from Europe striving for a spot on division 2 would have been fun, along with more creation options for your created player, and last, but certainly least, i would have loved it if you could trade, deal, sign a player on your team throughout the season. The ability to man a team through campaign mode such as the New York Nightmare or the Los Angeles Riot instead of creating your own team would have been fun too. But yeah, these are several things i will keep my eye on on the next Blitz game, but up til now, i'm far from being bored with this game....not with a long shot : )