Many ways to skin a wallet

Despite my many faceted (personal) issues with Games Workshop (£9.50 for a spray!!!) I still wander past their website on a regular basis to press my nose to their virtual shop window to ogle the eye-candy before turning away with a slight sigh.

Two recent releases have caught my attention as a deviation from the norm the less obvious one being from Black Library;

The forces of Chaos are moving against the Imperium once more, and only YOU can stop them! The first in a new series of Warhammer 40,000 adventure game books, Hive of the Dead casts you in the role of an Imperial Guardsman, fighting for survival upon the plague-ridden world of Subiaco Diablo at the beginning of the Thirteenth Black Crusade.

So a 40K Fighting Fantasy book then. An interesting development, but as a "print on demand" release the £13 price sticker is a little hefty for its 288 soft-bound pages. Brings back memories of Kai Wolf - for those of you that remember those, well done!

The more obvious release is Dreadfleet that I originally thought was a re-release of Man-O-War, which it isn't, and might have been prompted by Spartan's seafaring successes, which given lead time is somewhat unlikely.

A splash release in the same way as Space Hulk its a stand alone game for the princely sum of £70 with, one assumes, correspondingly high production values. Fair enough, I was one of the ones who threw the credit card at Space Hulk with wild abandon, don't remember the price tag - didn't care, and was deliriously happy to do so.

This was mainly because the immense gaming gaming joy that Space Hulk had previously provided. I can't say the same for Dreadfleet. As I sat and watched the intro vid on GW's site I tried my best to keep an open, un-biased mind but the more I watched the less I liked.

I had an overwhelming feeling of the whole game being EPICLY EPIC for no other reason the 'cos rather like Storm of Magic. Most race's are represented, in a piecemeal way, which is an understandable option for a one-of boxed game but it seems an attempt to offer something to too many and not enough to all. Seriously, what's wrong with turning out a nice game that actually works these days!

That's what Space Hulk was / is and that's why I was so keen to part with my hard earned. But then, relatively speaking, I'm a Old Git in that respect, or so it seems.

I could be wrong, I often am, and feel that I should at least offer some admiration for effort applied but if I was going to pick up either of these releases I'm sure you can guess which one I'd be going for.

Bloody kids these day, don't know that they're born!! ;)