SmackDown vs. RAW 2010

[Andrew]

Cool, sounds like anyone who's still getting by with a PS2 would be getting their money's worth.

[JaoSming]

yea from what I've read it's being claimed as the best on the PS2...which surprised me

[Andrew]

Shame another series couldn't similarly maintain the quality of its last gen releases.

(Though hopefully next year will make up for it)

[Andrew]

Great...the official SDvRAW 2010 site currently features a poll asking about the importance of blood in the game. Thankfully, 78% of the vote so far has gone to "extremely important". Take note, WWE and THQ...

[Andrew]

Stone Cold is now available as DLC, for the price of 80 MS Points/99c in the PSN Store. Just downloaded him, good deal for anyone who didn't get him free through the pre-ordering specials.

[Andrew]

Picked this one up again after not playing it for a while. The Fake Difficulty is really annoying; I'm playing through HBK's RTWM and beating the hell out of JBL in the cage, hit Sweet Chin Music about ten times in between making sure he's beat up enough for the game's satisfaction and to properly complete the "jump from the top of the cage" optional objective, I go for the win by climbing out and JBL - bleeding and having taken a tremendous beating in the match - pops right up, knocks me off, climbs the cage and wins the match. Pretty much the standard for cage matches in wrestling games, which is why they're my least favourite mode.

[buzzy]

True that, but I did like the I Quit match against JBL (shame you can't play it anywhere else). I remember busting him wide open and capturing a nice screengrab while HBK was holding the mic to JBL's mouth.

[Andrew]

Sounds cool, obviously I'm not up to that point yet as I decided to give it a break after the cage match fiasco. I'm sure I'll get back into it soon enough. Speaking of difficulty in that storyline, it took me ages to bust Jericho open for the optional objective (finally had to slam his head into the stairs) but then effortlessly busted JBL open on a bulldog in the cage match, using pretty much the same offensive strategy.

[shadowgrin]

I don't know if this has been posted before in the Live section and it's not new info either, none the less...

Former EA Community Manager and NBA Live 10 Producer Marcus Stephenson leaves EA and signs on with THQ for SvR 2011.
I think Marcus had a couple of posts here in the NLSC.
Pastapadre interviewed him last March.

Quoting some statements that may mean Live 11 is going for teh suck...

PP: You have previously worked on NBA Live 10 before most recently moving to FIFA Online. At the time what was the reasoning for shifting away from working on NBA Live 11? Was that something you wanted to do or were you frustrated by the situation?

MS: I had such a fun time working on NBA LIVE 10, I’ll cherish those memories making that game forever, and I’ll miss that team! Things changed once NBA LIVE 10 shipped, and we started pre production on NBA LIVE 11. It was no longer a place I saw myself.

PP: When Mike Wang departed from NBA Live to re-join 2K Sports for NBA 2K11 he cited a big reason being a change in direction for the Live series. Would you agree with that assessment, that NBA Live may be moving away from being a simulation offering? That EA Sports is not committed to the vision that Mike Wang and yourself had for the future of NBA Live?

MS: The way I see it, things change. I can’t say the direction NBA LIVE is moving in, I can say it will be “different,” but I think it will be up to all of you on what you want from a basketball simulation. There are guys on that team that know what’s being said out there, and they’re building something pretty special I think. Mike made his decision, just like I made mine, but I wish the NBA LIVE team success, and think they’re on a path to making that happen.

[Andrew]

Quoting some statements that may mean Live 11 is going for teh suck...

A lot of that stuff has been blown out of proportion with specific details beginning to come out in the next couple of months. I don't think it's a sign NBA Live 11 will suck, I'm sure we'll have minor complaints about this or that at the very least but I don't think we'll necessarily be complaining about the things that led to Mike or Marcus' departure; we'll have to wait and see and even then I'm sure we can at best speculate. At the end of the day, I wouldn't read too much into this as far as NBA Live is concerned.

As for the Smackdown vs RAW series, hopefully it will benefit it greatly. The two community events that Marcus put together were great and having come from the community I think he understands the importance and usefulness of interacting with the fans and providing a link to the development team.