WWE 2K

[JaoSming]

Just from hearing about Universe mode, this game went from a not this year to being on my radar. I'll get some impressions before I decide and maybe rent it.

http://wwe.thq.com/go/article/view/2515 ... e---part-1
http://wwe.thq.com/go/article/view/2515 ... e---part-2

[Andrew]

Awesome, really looking forward to it.

[shadowgrin]

Paul Heyman asking.

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[Andrew]

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Mick Foley and Randy Savage have been confirmed as DLC. Would be cool to have Bret Hart, British Bulldog and Andre the Giant as well; Hogan and Warrior would be nice but given Hogan's affiliation with TNA and the tenuous relationship with Warrior, their exclusion is understandable. Martha Hart's stance pretty much ensures no Owen Hart, too.

[Chino]

Good to have Savage in the game.

This is not related to WWE 12 but related to WWE games in general. I saw this video of Smackdown: Just Bring It intro and I was amazed by the graphics and physics although the game itself do not feature that. Everything about the intro looks realistic. New WWE games should have based their graphics and physics from this.

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[Andrew]

I don't know, I think they've done a pretty good job with the graphics and physics since.

WWE '12 hits shelves here in Australia tomorrow, if I can make it out to the shops I reckon I'll be picking it up.

[[Q]]

haven't all the WWE "sim" games after the first Smackdown game (excluding the Raw game) been developed by Yuke's & THQ?

[Andrew]

That's right.

[JaoSming]

I havent been too impressed with what I've seen from user uploads to YouTube and from the official gameplay trailers. I really like the getting up faster and quicker paced matches, but I think we can do that with sliders in 2011. If it gets to that $30 mark, maybe, but it sounds like they have a NBA Live 3 year plan which this is the first year of....so I might skip '12.

[Andrew]

Picked it up today and have mostly been playing through Road to Wrestlemania.

Pros

- Very impressive graphics

- Controls are fine, at first I kept trying to grapple with the right stick because that's what I've grown used to but you adjust to the simpler controls fairly quickly. No complaints about the control scheme and the general array of moves and actions that can be performed. The finisher/signature move system is pretty much the same with momentum, which is fine by me.

- Creation modes have received a few updates. There's a wider array of generic music to be selected and you can also select from a user playlist if you want to use custom music. There's also a decent list of custom finisher names that have audio, to suit different types of moves and characters.

- The presentation in Road to Wrestlemania is awesome, they've gone all out in trying to replicate a WWE broadcast. Sometimes the timing feels a bit off as far as the show wrapping up and the end of show RAW/Smackdown on-screen bug that contains the copyright notice, but for the most part it's very well done, there's a good flow to the story and different objectives/match ending cutscenes keep things interesting.

- Getting to play with several different wrestlers during the course of Road to Wrestlemania is a good idea. All the different scenarios, match types and wrestlers keep things interesting.

- The CPU isn't as unforgiving when it comes to breaking up pins in tag matches. Since Road to Wrestlemania features tag matches (as always), this is definitely a welcome change; I've usually found tag matches very tedious in years gone by because of the way pins were broken up nine times out of ten but this year, they're more enjoyable.

- It's a good roster as you can see from the previews, but as usual you've got to unlock a decent portion of it. Depending on how things go with RTWM, I may be inclined to get the Unlock All DLC at some point.

Cons

- The CPU is cheap. Incredibly cheap. Unbelievably cheap. Seriously, it rivals some of the boss battles in EA's first NBA Jam game for cheapness. To be fair, there is a bit of a learning curve and I think I'm picking it up the more I play it but even so, expect a LOT of reversals, a lot of difficulty reversing moves yourself and some downright unfair stuff in RTWM. There are moments where you feel like setting the controller down because it really doesn't seem to matter what you're doing, the CPU's decided what's going to happen. I guess they're going for the ebb and flow of a real match but it's implemented in a frustrating way. The CPU is also pretty good at recovering and can obviously act much quicker than you, so the AI is comparable to Super Cena booking, only for everyone.

- A little too often, attacks just flat out miss or have little to no effect on CPU opponents. This often goes hand in hand with the above cheapness, adding to the fake difficulty and unfair challenges mentioned above. I'm not completely sold on the new Predator technology, it's far from horrible but it's not as polished as I would've liked. I'll need to spend more time with the game before I make a final judgement on it but right now I'm not sure that it's necessarily better than the previous tech.

- I mentioned some unfair stuff in RTWM. It's mostly due to the aforementioned issues, which really don't help when you need to survive a 2-on-1 beatdown in a backstage brawl. Some segments with in-ring action a bit too long, though thankfully objectives are often broken up into stages and failing one doesn't require starting all over again. Straight up matches with standard gameplay are kind of rare, quite often you fight your way to a point where you trigger the ending cutscene. From a storyline point of view, it's good and sometimes beats trying to win matches outright, but that gets a little tiresome too and getting there isn't always easy. Kind of a mixed bag with that approach, it probably is more a pro than a con but it does have its drawbacks.

There's still a fair bit to explore, I haven't looked into WWE Universe just yet. On the whole, I'm finding the gameplay a little frustrating at times but am starting to get the hang of it a bit. I might have to play around with some settings, with the revamped AI I might have to turn the difficulty down a bit until I'm used to its quirks. I do think there's more good than bad in the game but those three points I mentioned under Cons really have stood out so far. I also had the game lock up in the Community Creations section but apparently they've had some issues there which they're looking to patch and it might've been a one off.

[buzzy]

- The CPU isn't as unforgiving when it comes to breaking up pins in tag matches. Since Road to Wrestlemania features tag matches (as always), this is definitely a welcome change; I've usually found tag matches very tedious in years gone by because of the way pins were broken up nine times out of ten but this year, they're more enjoyable.

You'll soon find out that this appears to be exclusive to RTWM matches.

[[Q]]

i'm actually pretty impressed by the roster. i remember when it first came out, i thought it was cool they got real deep and put in the jobbers & pretty much the guys they showed on WWE Superstars every week at the time like Tatsu, Tyson Kidd, Chavo, Natalya, Husky Harris, and zack Ryder (who would've known he'd blow up like this?)
but thte legends and DLC list is pretty expansive too

[Andrew]

You'll soon find out that this appears to be exclusive to RTWM matches.

That's fine by me, for the most part that's the only time I play tag matches (because the game forces you to at points in the story). As such, it's the only time I really need the game to be more forgiving in that area.

[koberulz]

I had my CAW, from SmackDown, show up on a RAW card. Brock, who was a Legend, also showed up on RAW. Austin, whom I haven't even unlocked yet, showed up on a SmackDown card.

I've also had three matches so far occur without entrances, for some weird reason.

Other than the controls, I really see no difference from last year as far as the in-ring product, other than that they appear to have removed the ability to throw weapons.

[koberulz]

Just spent half an hour trying to beat Big Show (without being allowed to tag anyone despite it being a tag match, for some reason), only for it to play a cutscene having me lose once I finally managed to do it. And I'm apparently meant to enjoy that, or something.

Dunno what they've done to the kickout meter, but there have been several times where it looks like I've kicked out, but I haven't. And then one time where it popped up so late and went so slowly, I didn't manage to get it anywhere near the kickout zone by the time the three count was made.

Anyone else having the reversal indicator fail to show up on approximately 50% of the CPU's moves?

[Andrew]

Just spent half an hour trying to beat Big Show (without being allowed to tag anyone despite it being a tag match, for some reason), only for it to play a cutscene having me lose once I finally managed to do it. And I'm apparently meant to enjoy that, or something.

Yeah, that's one of the more frustrating elements of RTWM. I wasn't too thrilled about that section of the story either.

I think the "fight until the cutscene trigger" method has its merits, it makes more sense than back in the day where you'd win the match and then there'd be a cutscene showing you losing or the match ending in a DQ. In that respect I like the idea but when the outcome is predetermined like that, it certainly feels like a lot of effort just to end up losing. If the AI wasn't quite as cheap and you could get to the cutscene a bit quicker, it might work out a little better.

Anyone else having the reversal indicator fail to show up on approximately 50% of the CPU's moves?

Yep, I've noticed that too. Even when it does, the timing feels a bit off to me. The CPU's ability to reverse moves, on the other hand...

[koberulz]

The stupidest one was when I triggered the cutscene, which showed me winning the match. With my finisher. Clean. Why not just let me do that myself? I'm up to Elimination Chamber, and there's been something like three matches that have played out as actual matches. Cutscenes triggering is fine, but not if it's the rule rather than the exception. I get that they're striving to make it seem like actual WWE programming and all, but the complete lack of interactivity isn't the best aspect to bring into a videogame.

The limb targeting is a letdown, too. Every single wrestler has the same limb targeting moves. I used it a bit at first, then got the achievement for using it ten times in a match, and haven't touched it since. Speaking of which, what's this 'win 50 matches in one sitting' bullshit? How much free time do these people think we have?

[Andrew]

Agreed, I'm also up to Elimination Chamber and the ratio so far could be better. I'm guessing Universe is for playing through standard matches and they've tried something a little different with RTWM, so that it plays out like real programming; the effect is there but it definitely leads to parts where it feels like you go to a lot of effort for little payoff.

I haven't used limb targeting that much either. As for the 50 matches in one sitting, it is a bit out there but if you were to win 50 exhibition matches in an average of about three minutes each, that's only two and a half hours (not including loading times and wrestler selections). I'm guessing most could get it done in 3-4 hours, which is still a long gaming session but I suppose it's one for completionists and folks who are inclined to play the game for that long in one sitting.

[koberulz]

If I'm winning matches in three minutes, I'm not going to stick with it for two and a half hours.

[Andrew]

Fair enough. I'm fine with matches running that long myself, while a good match in real life is going to be worked much longer I don't mind it being compressed for the sake of the game. It's a bragging rights achievement for the most hardcore of the hardcore, so unless you're after 100% completion it's neither here nor there.

[koberulz]

Had a really good triple threat earlier today. Orton/Brock/Miz, I was Orton. At one point, Miz went to do the snapmare/bounce off ropes/dropkick combo. Got as far as the snapmare, went to bounce off the ropes, ran straight into an Orton powerslam. Move interruption is awesome.

Hit an RKO on Brock, Miz went for Skull Crushing Finale on Orton as he got up, reversed it, RKO. By this time, Brock's back up, a couple of punches and gets Orton on the ropes. Attempts a grapple, Orton reverses into a backdrop over the ropes and out of the ring, and then pins Miz, who is still down from the RKO, for the win.

Took a good ten minutes, whole lot of back and forth, and had a perfect finish.

[Andrew]

Cool. Was that in WWE Universe?

[koberulz]

Yeah.

EDIT:

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[Andrew]

Awesome, as far as glitches go.

[buzzy]

"Well I'm gettin the fuck outta here"