As a guy who's played his share of Games Workshop's Blood Bowl, it has been a continual source of frustration that there hasn't been a good video-game representation of sports in a fantasy milieu since the old Mutant League games on the Sega Genesis. However, all that will change with Chaos League. While it lacks the official Games Workshop stamp of approval, everything you liked about Blood Bowl is here.

In case you're not familiar with the genre, Chaos League's closest real-world comparison would be rugby. Two teams face each other on a long, rectangular pitch and attempt to carry a ball into the opposing team's endzone. The main difference is the inclusion of several fantasy races, including Dark and Wood Elves, Orcs, Goblins, Barbarians, Undead, and other species. It's a brutal sport, as befits the setting. The only real rule of the Chaos League is that you can't hit a player when he's knocked down, and even that's not enforced vigorously.

You can opt for a quick game with a pre-generated team, or you can go into championship mode and build your team from the ground up. You'll control the recruitment of new players, name the team, and control them as they vie to be champions of the league. As you rack up victories, you'll earn cash that can be used to train players and recruit star players.

That's not all money is good for; before the game is played, you'll be able to invest in a variety of dirty tricks to tilt the odds in your favor. For instance, you can dope a player to increase his performance, or flick some coins the ref's way to make sure they don't notice your troll stomping some poor human into the muck. Hooligans can also be hired to pep up your fans. Special spells will become available to the player who has the benefit of crowd support.

Each player on your team has speed, savagery, dexterity, and toughness statistics. Players with a high dexterity have sticky fingers when it comes to ball control, while players with poor dexterity are fumble prone. Each player also has a variety of special abilities and spells that are dictated by race and experience. Wood Elves have a lot of buffs, while Goblins and Orcs have abilities that tend to be more aggressive.

The game can be played either in real-time or as a turn-based strategy game. If you opt to play the game in turns, you'll give your commands to your players in a limited space of time (anywhere from five to 25 seconds), and see those commands play out in five-second increments of real-time gameplay. Pictures of each player on your team line the bottom of the screen, along with blue and red bars indicating hit points and "breath," the resource a player expends in order to cast spells or use abilities. Using those abilities couldn't be easier. Instead of a typical RTS scheme where you must choose your unit, choose the ability, and then choose the target, all the abilities of your team are lined along the left of the screen. Just choose your ability and target, and as long as your player isn't tied up fighting with an opponent, it will go off without a hitch.

Gameplay is relatively slow, even when playing with the real-time option. Players aren't exactly streaking down the field, which is good, because it allows players time to assign linemen to handle breakaway situations. The graphics aren't as detailed as some of the other things we've seen at E3, but that means Chaos League will be playable on most systems. While unit animations were satisfactory, there seemed to be only one run animation, one tackle animation, one hit-'em-while-they're-down animation, and so on. There were four arenas available for play at E3 taking place in a variety of different environments. While each was featured in full 3D, there apparently aren't any gameplay differences between them.

There will be multiplayer support for both LANs and the Internet for up to six people. However, even with those additional players, only two teams are allowed to oppose each other in a game. Championship teams can be exported for use online.

While the E3 version of Chaos League was certainly rough around the edges, it was playable and fun. Hopefully, it will only be the start of a new generation of games in the fantasy-sports genre.