Post by Mistah Showtime on Aug 24, 2009 17:50:47 GMT -5
ps3.ign.com/articles/101/1017296p1.html
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 Explosion
We've got a hands-on report, news on creation modes, and videos of our matches.
August 22, 2009 - If there's one thing that the WWE SmackDown vs. Raw franchise has never truly tapped into, it's you -- the rabid WWE fan who e-mails me year-round about move sets and when I'm going to post news on the latest game. Fans have created independent websites to share created superstar saves and recipes, they keep constant watch over the Internet for the latest inkling of news, and they even form petitions on message boards demanding that THQ puts certain things in the game.
With WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010, THQ is looking to cater to fans like you.
Yes, SmackDown is back and packing more than 60 Superstars, 50 Create-a-Superstar slots, and a brand new attitude. At the forefront of this push is 2010's tagline "It's your world now." Last year saw the introduction of Create-a-Finisher, but this year THQ and Yukes are looking to create an online community. In the latest SVR game, you're going to be able to create fully 3D characters, entrance videos, finishers, logos, color schemes for existing WWE stars, and even your own stories to play through. As if that wasn't impressive enough, the hook is that you'll be able to upload all of these creations to the SVR servers so that the world can search for them, rate them, download them, and share ideas.
CAS websites might no longer need to exist.
All of this news and a handful of SVR 2010 matches slammed into the collective consciousness of the universe today at a SummerSlam Eve SVR press conference in Los Angeles. Hosted by SVR Senior Creative Manager Cory Ledesma, a roomful of videogame-amanics were walked through what SVR 2010 is and what we can all expect when it's released on October 20 in North America and October 23 in the United Kingdom.
For starters, the main menu lives in the THQ Training Facility -- an area that looks like the dojo from Tough Enough. There's a ring packing red, white, and blue ropes; posters promoting pay-per-views from days gone by; and whole bunch of empty chairs. Here, you'll get to tackle the first-ever SVR tutorial. Rather than just have you watch a video or play a game of Simon Says, the facility is packed with more than 100 moves and events for you to master.
CONFIRMED SUPERSTARS
Triple H
John Cena
Randy Orton
Undertaker
Chris Jericho
Kofi Kingston
John Morrison
Edge
Rey Mysterio
Mickie James
Maryse
As you move around the ring, different tasks pop up in the corner of the screen in an attempt to teach you the things you can do in a given area. If you're standing in the middle of the ring, the task might be as simple as taunting, but if you're coming up on your opponent -- who can stand there like a punching bag or be changed to one of the game's difficulties -- the game might try to teach you how to pull off a grapple move. As you perform these tasks, the move gets checked off on the screen and disappears so that it won't pop up while you're learning again.
You can turn the tips off or reset them so everything pops up again, but the idea is to give newcomers an idea of how to play and to give seasoned vets a refresher course while sprinkling in some of the game's newest offerings.
At first glance, SVR 2010 looks a lot like its predecessors. As a long-time fan of the franchise, I'm used to an annual series that drops in a few new modes and calls it a day, but when I got my hands-on the controller, I got to see some of the new tidbits THQ's peppered in to compliment the new community creation stuff. When I took on Triple H as Chris Jericho in a falls count anywhere match, the ref followed the fight around the barricade and up the entrance ramp -- he didn't stay in the middle of the ring like a goon. When we were brawling around the squared circle, the camera angles were actually cool and not way too close and/or obscured by barricades like last year. When I slapped the hell out of John Morrison's chest as Edge, the Shaman of Sexy's chest actually got red from flesh on flesh contact.
There are number of little presentation touches like those that jumped out at me. Another example is that the big on-screen HUDs are gone. Now, the matches have a TV style feel to them from the location of the bout popping up during entrances to the "WWE Live" logo that appears in the lower left corner of the screen as the match begins to the WWE copyright that pops up at the end of the fight -- mind you, this is all happening during exhibition matches.
Anyway, momentum is now displayed by a small halo around the feet of your Superstar. There's a blue outline that slowly builds as you pull off suplexes and drop kicks. When you've earned enough for your Signature Move, an "S" in a yellow circle appears on the meter, and when you've got your finisher, an "F" in a red circle appears down there. There's still limb damage and such to worry about, but you'll need to watch how the Superstars are acting and not some colored silhouette.
In terms of controls, 2010 played pretty much exactly the same as 2009, but there were more additions and polished moments. Now, there's one shoulder button for reversing. It'll pop up above your character's head to give you that window of opportunity to block a punch and fight back. Thing is, you get just one shot at it, so spamming the reversal button isn't going to help anyone but your opponent. I came across another interesting addition in a first blood match as Edge against John Morrison. When I pushed Morrison to the mat, a right stick icon with a blood outline popped up on my momentum meter. When I hit it, Edge knelt down and began jacking John in the head to try and draw blood. Similarly, when I was getting kicked to death as Triple H, a shoulder button combo appeared on my meter that commanded Hunter to roll out of the ring.
I know I'm a nerd, but it's the little stuff that I listed earlier -- TV presentation, cleaner screen layout, red chests, etc. -- that get me excited for WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010. The models and moves look better than ever but they still do look like last year's; these little camera cuts and ring rope physics make the experience feel fresher and more realistic. Personally, I want to play a match with a buddy and have it feel like I'm watching an episode of Raw, and overlays telling me that this match is brought to me by WWE Shop and the copyright logo at the end of the match nail that vibe.
As cool as all that stuff was for me, THQ's main thrust today was getting the world to understand how all this creation stuff is going to work. Create-A-Superstar is back, but this time all the parts are in 3D, which means ties will no longer be painted to your character's chest and so on. There are more than 1,000 parts in this year's mode and it's packing a new interface, super-quick load times, and more.
When THQ was paging through the hairstyles, all of the options popped up in a second and as the player scrolled through the hairpieces on the character's head, the longer styles swayed back and forth with a surprisingly fluid animation. Rather than restrict you to a certain number of layers as in years past, SVR 2010 gives each item a point value and only allows you to use so many points (48 is what I saw when fooling with the mode) for your guy or gal. The goal of this overhaul is to make the CAS look as good as the real WWE talent. During the demo, I didn't see any that accomplished this goal -- hats still look goofy -- but these created character definitely look better than the offerings of pervious titles.
Plus, you can even choose your character's pose for the versus screen -- there are 18 options ranging from intimidating to hilarious -- and it's about time we got that choice.
Speaking of things we're finally getting, WWE SVR 2010 packs the Paint Tool. Here, you can create original art that you can then slap on a piece of clothing or straight to someone's body as a tattoo. In action, the tool looks a lot like the paint tool in Fire Pro Wrestling and packs a bunch of tools -- pen, eraser, paint can, etc. -- as well as a color spectrum on the left side of the screen with the canvas on the right. This is a freehand option, so you're free to create comic book logos, sports icon, and whatever else you can think up. These icons will appear online and, again, you can upload them for other people to download and use.
Although it is simpler, Superstar Threads is kind of like the Paint Tool for Superstars. Here -- for the first time ever -- you can choose an existing Superstar and create three alternate outfits for him. Now, this isn't a create mode so you can't put the Undertaker in a tiny pair of briefs; you're just changing the colors of the existing clothing the character is wearing. Each Superstar has an individual menu based on his outfit, and you can go in and tweak it however you like. This should be huge for fans looking to keep their roster looking like the one they see on TV each week.
When it comes to Create-a-Finisher, 30 percent more moves have been added to the front grapple and there's a new position for diving attacks. Beyond that, you're still stringing 10 parts together for your move, you can apply it to a CAS or existing Superstar, and you can choose from a list of announcer-ready names or deem the action whatever you like via the virtual keyboard. During the presentation, THQ built a top rope finisher and strung together God knows how many flips. Aside from making moves like this that are completely impossible, you can also change the trajectory of your leaping finisher so that you're getting close to touching the rafters or coming in low and lazy -- a dotted arc appears on the screen so you can track the move.
Aside from the fact that all of the stuff I'm talking about is able to be uploaded and downloaded, marked with custom keywords to make searching a breeze, and commented on, the craziest thing THQ is trying out this year is WWE Story Designer. There was no hands-on with this option -- I just saw a video and listened to Ledesma talk about it -- but the idea is that you get to work from the Gorilla Position and create your own storylines. When you start a storyline, you'll choose your show -- you can have this feud last for one show or two years -- and then pick if you want to work on a match or a cutscene.
If you go the match route, you'll pick your competitor, difficulty, win condition, who is running-in, who that guy's running in for, who the other fighter's help will be and so on. You can use some of these options, all of them, or none of them -- it's your choice. On top of that, you can go in and set limb damage for the Superstars to reflect whatever beatdown is going on in your story.
Obviously, big parts of WWE storylines are the cutscenes that set up the matches. In SVR 2010, you're going to have more than 100 scenes to choose from. Now, these scenes are things like contact signings in the middle of the ring, limos pulling up backstage, people getting hit by cars, and a car exploding . You'll cast up to five people in these scenes, pick where it's going down (in the ring, backstage, etc.), and move the camera all over the place and play with zooms and such. What was nifty was watching THQ go in and change the emotions of these characters -- making JR smile after getting yelled at in the middle of the ring and then going and changing it to frown in a split-second. You can choose what's playing on the Titantron, you can have the camera locked on a specific target, and you can add text so that your actors are saying the right stuff to push your story forward.
Again, create an awesome story, and feel free to upload it so others can download it and enjoy.
Now, an hour or so removed from my deep dive into the world of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010, one thing that's standing out to me was just how fast everything was loading. I already talked about the creation bits coming up really quick, but matches were loading quickly, the CAF moved super-fast, and the video I saw made previewing an uploaded move before downloading it look like a breeze.
Although I didn't get to see it, Road to WrestleMania is back with six new stories -- one of which is a Diva tale and one of which is for your created Superstar -- and supposedly will feature more decisions for you to make and more branching plots for you to explore as well as replay for different endings.
There's always more to talk about when it comes to a THQ wrestling game, and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is no exception, but I've got to stop rambling about this game sometime. From what I saw, I'm looking forward to SVR 2010. The story editor seems really cool for dorks like me who used to plan PPVs on sheets of notebook paper, the TV presentation is a nice bit of eye-candy, and the new HUD is appreciated. Sure, championship belts still hover over shoulders and I saw some clipping issues in a cutscene, but there are definitely reasons to be on the lookout for more on WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010.
When IGN has whatever the next piece of news is, I'll have it for you here.
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