WWE 2K

[Andrew]

Downloadable Punk cover:



Downloadable John Laurinaitis cover:

[[Q]]

phpBB [video]

sounds like paul heyman in the video

[Andrew]

This pre-order content certainly is becoming the standard, unfortunately.

[Andrew]

phpBB [video]

[Lean]

Probably a setup for Punk-Austin for WrestleMania XXIX.

[Andrew]

That would be awesome, but I'm not holding out much hope until they start building up to it on TV.

I'm hoping that we won't miss out on too much (or indeed any) content if we choose not to pre-order, though. I understand why developers do it of course, but it's a shame to see that practice becoming commonplace for cool features that should be a selling point of the base game.

[Lean]

*cough* Day 1 DLC *cough* EA *cough*

[Andrew]

That wouldn't be so bad I guess, at least it'd be available.

[Andrew]

phpBB [video]

Love the fact they've got the two announce teams in the game for the Attitude era and current product. I hope you can choose between the two outside of the story modes; if so, I know which one I'll be going with. Everything else looks and sounds pretty good too, should be another fine installment this year.

[deihatein]

EMPTY ARENA MATCH PLEASE!

[Lean]

Didn't check the actual YouTube page, but I sense someone would comment that the "OH MY GOD" crowd chants should be "HOLY SHIT", which of course THQ won't add in.

[Andrew]

It's on WWE's YouTube channel and they've disabled the comments, so it won't be pointed out on that particular video. It is obviously done for a PG rating, but so be it. I remember some years back they included the chant as "Holy Shh..." to avoid bumping up the rating, "Oh My God!" probably is the better way to go if they want to tone it down. At least it's a complete, uncensored phrase.

[homicide1550]

Oh man.. Attitude Era! This is really awesome!
Too bad I don't have a console...

[Andrew]

phpBB [video]

And several more videos here.

[JaoSming]

wow, commentary is still terrible....everything else looks better than 2011 at least....I'll budget it though me thinks, not a $60 game for me

[formx]

phpBB [video]

And several more videos here.

I've noticed by looking at the videos, that there is 2 Raw Is War arenas in the game. One with a WWE logo, and one without one. No big difference though.

[koberulz]

Those videos tend to get shot at varying times in development, so it may be the same arena further along in the process, depending on how similar they are.

wow, commentary is still terrible....everything else looks better than 2011 at least....I'll budget it though me thinks, not a $60 game for me

Commentary has apparently been completely redone, using audio clips from actual WWE/WWF broadcasts (the crowd has been redone the same way), but it hasn't been put into the game yet for whatever reason. I'd wait and see on that at this stage.

[Andrew]

I have a feeling that commentary in sports and wrestling games will always run into the same problem eventually, seeing as how they're obviously limited by the finite amount of dialogue recorded for the game. They can certainly work on making it sound natural though, more like real running commentary and actual conversation than a selection of lines awkwardly pieced together. I'm interested to see how it's turned out this year, once they start highlighting that more.

Meanwhile, a new Q&A video:

phpBB [video]

[koberulz]

Yeah, the WWE games have always sounded like people reading lines, and there's always been far fewer lines than most sporting titles (heck, it was only a year or two ago that they added in commentary at all, rather than just commentators having about three exchanges about the personality/style of each wrestler that had nothing to do with what was actually happening). You get repetition, obviously, but there's no excuse for what WWE/SmackDown has been churning out to date.

[Andrew]

It has improved some over the years, but it does need to take that next step. It's funny to go back and play one of the older games in the series and hear the pieced together commentary, stuff like "TRIPLE H!...is really in control now."

[Andrew]

Another interview:

phpBB [video]

Sounds good. Nice to have Special Guest Referee mode back.

[deihatein]

That Attitude Era mode sounds awesome

[Andrew]

Yeah, I think that content will be my favourite part of the game. Like the historical content in NBA 2K11 and NBA 2K12, while I did enjoy the games that came along during that era, it's nice to be able to play that era using the tech that's available today.

[Andrew]

Complete roster reveal is coming during Summerslam Axxess.

[JaoSming]

dat roster is making this look like a buy again.....
http://wwe.thq.com/roster

but really, three HHH's? '04 Cena? Current Lita? Paul Wright? I mean it's a double standard cause I support the many faces of Mick Foley being in, but w/e. It's one hell of a roster.