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Hey, I've heard there are some video games that are a close match to the table top game. Not much of a video gamer, but since I am looking to get into bloodbowl (having never played the original and thus having no nostalgia to ruin), can anyone recommend one?

Thanks!

Cyanide's Blood Bowl games can have their small issues here and there, but are generally close enough to learn what strategies work.

Blood Bowl II has been a favourite for some years, now Blood Bowl III is coming out soon and might be the next big budget title to look for. If you want a straight conversion from the tabletop and aren't afraid of homegrown projects, there is the FUMBBL community.

I'm a bit late to this thread but I'll give my two pence worth anyway:

Blood Bowl 3 has now released, and I think it's fair to say that the fans are less than happy with the result. Also as with many other videogames these days there's a deluge of DLC on the way, upping the cost of owning the game.

I own Blood Bowl 2 Legendary Edition and I'd say this game is probably a better option for now. It's not cheap but you can always wait for a sale.

I own both BB3 and BB2, and I've been playing BB3 a bit lately.
BB3 had a bit of a rough launch, with lots of bugs, and the usual suspects having a major hissy fit over the cash shop. Most of the bugs are fixed, so you can play a game without it crashing at least. There are still a few of the league based rules not implemented, but they aren't that important for single games.

The opponent AI is bad. Really, really, really bad. Somehow they managed to make the AI even worse than BB2. I've played a couple of dozen games and haven't given up a single touchdown to the AI. You might learn the basic moves against the AI teams, but you aren't really going to learn good strategies.

If you can find a league of people online who play, you can probably get some good multiplayer games. There's going to be an official MP league, but it won't launch for a couple of months yet. Until then you're only going to be able to play single matches vs random people, and we all know how well that works.

If you want to get Blood Bowl 2, it's on sale for US$5.99 on Steam right now, until the 23rd I believe. The single player AI is not as bad as in BB3, but it's still pretty easy to beat. I haven't played MP in BB2 lately, but I hear it's pretty dead.

forgot to say: There is one big(ish) change from the tabletop rules in BB2 to BB3. The latest edition added Passing Ability as a separate stat where the old one used Agility for that. There were a few changes to the way certain skills work too. The game still plays 90% the same, but BB2 uses the older rules and BB3 uses the latest ones.
They are planning on adding more teams as DLC, but As I Understand It, you'll either be able to buy them right away, or earn them through a battle pass kind of thing during the course of the season.

I had kind of expected BB3 to be basically the same thing but with the newer rules set (ie- Passing Ability, the new leveling and FF mechanics and all of the presentation differences).

Were most of the issues about crashing your box? The other thing I expected was for them to start BB3 with way fewer teams than they had at the end of BB2, and I can imagine that upsetting people as well.

If you just want to play games vs a really bad AI, then BB3 works OK most of the time now. Hardly ever crashes.

The teams it launched with are Imperial Nobility, Black Orc, Orc, Human, Skaven, Dark Elf, Dwarf, and Elven Union. Except for IN & BO, those are some of the most popular teams so that probably covers most people.
Surprisingly, they also included Old World Alliance, Chaos Chosen, Chaos Renegades and Nurgle.