The Official Smackdown vs Raw 2 thread

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

It's hard to believe, but it's been almost five months since THQ's WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW shipped to retailers nationwide and we've had plenty of time to think about it ever since. Sure there's no denying that it was an excellent wrestling game (and our 8.4 score reflects that), but no matter how good something is there's always room for improvement. SmackDown! vs. RAW is no exception to that rule, and that's what got us thinking. What could THQ and Yuke's add to the 2005 edition to make it even better than before? What features, extras, and goodies could help shape the next iteration of the franchise into the single best wrestling game ever made?

After talking it over with our fellow editors, we've managed to narrow down our previously enormous wishlist of feature to 21 essential inclusions that WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2 absolutely must have. You could consider these requests as an open letter of sorts to both the THQ and Yuke's development teams so that they know exactly what it is we'd like to see, what it is we expect, and why these bonuses would be so cool in the first place. And now without any further ado, we present to you the 21 essentials for WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2.

Bigger and Badder -- Expand the Superstar Roster
It's great to have all the big name wrestlers in the lineup, but after playing as most of these guys for years it's a lot more refreshing to have choices beyond the traditional roster. Give us guys like Billy Kidman, Akio, and Kenzo Suzuki so that we can have a legitimate cruiserweight division and a reason to fight for that belt. Throw in Heidenreichs, and the Bashams, and Orlando Jordon so that we can relive some of Thursday's biggest angles of the last year or so. And whatever you do, don't forget about recent up and comers like Snitsky, Simon Dean, and Muhammad Hassan. In other words, give us as many recent WWE superstars as humanly possible and if space is an issue, use double-layered DVDs -- believe us, it's worth it.

Information Overload -- Complete Stat Tracking
With so many different things to do in the wrestling world and so many things to keep track of an automated stat-tracking system is absolutely necessary. Let no small detail go unlooked, unchecked, and unrecorded. With this system any player can see what percentage of play time has been done with each of the wrestlers in the game. It would also be possible to see wins, losses, and overall success.

But that's still just the tip of the iceberg. What are the player's favorite moves, total number of submissions, total number of finishing moves, etc.? What's the shortest match, the longest, and the average length of time for each fight? By giving so much information that players will almost drown in it anyone can take a glance at the info and get a better idea of what kind of a fighter they are and even what areas they can then focus on more to be a batter player. More is most definitely better and if the wrestlers could sneeze, we'd want a sneezing percentage. Give us everything

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/600/600140/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2-20050330072255197.jpg
Sure the Undertakern gets the proper intro, but what about CAWs?

Say My Name! -- Personalized Announcing
Both Madden and NCAA have been treating us to pre-recorded names. If a name was common enough according to the U.S. Census, then it was recorded by the announcers. After entering the name into the character creator the game would use its own audio file to create a personalized experience. It's a beautiful thing and it should become more of a standard. Starting now!

Rest in Peace -- Casket and Buried Alive Matches
Since the moment the original SmackDown first powered up on our PlayStation Ones, the thought of slamming some hapless soul into a nearby coffin and closing him in forever has been at the top of everyone's dream list.
How long has the general public been asking for casket matches anyway? We don't even want to speculate. But regardless of how long we've been waiting, the time is now to finally give it to us.

But how would it work? It's simple -- borrowing the mechanics from the already existing Bra and Panties match, the mode would utilize a similar tug of war system centered on the closing of the lid. Getting your opponent in the casket would be the first hurdle to overcome (use a timed meter not unlike the reversal bar to do this), while shutting him in would be the second part (using the aforementioned tug of war system). Boom! It's an instant match mode that would probably get more play the most of the other existing ones.

And hey, while the team is at it, it wouldn't hurt to throw in Buried Alive matches either. The principal and mechanics here would work essentially the same way as the caskets, with the location and appearance of the trap changing form. There's absolutely no way you wouldn't play it.

Float Like A Butterfly -- Tighter Animations
Something the videogame industry needs to work on is fluidity. Wrestling games in particular seem prone to featuring stiff puppets as opposed to lifelike humans. Now, we're not asking for a lot of instant reaction movements, but we would like some more polished transitions between current move sets.

We'd also like to see the collision detection that initiates and finishes movements significantly tightened. The best way to go about attaining this greater level of overall smoothness would be to combine physics driven collisions and interactions with more animation routines. The result would be arms that properly interlock and a takedown that quickly and smoothly segues into a leg lock without any of those stiff or jerky in-between actions.

Timed Attack -- Skill Over Button Mashing
As gaming in general advances, so should the mechanics of gaming. Fight Night proved that boxing titles needn't rely on brainless button smashing to achieve their goals, so why can't wrestling learn?

Everything from getting up, to grappling, to winning grapples, to countering should feature a greater emphasis on timing, rather than repeated controller shattering. To further focus on this more skill-based game style, the future of WWE should penalize its players when they pound X one hundred and seventeen thousand times in a row by making them miss moves or become otherwise vulnerable.

We imagine the future of wrestling being more about skilled interactions and anticipation. But honestly, we'd be happy if there were a few mini-games that governed actions as simple as getting up off the mat.

Oh So Tired -- Wrestler Exhaustion
Wrestling matches take a lot out of you, so why not reflect that in the gameplay? The longer a match wears on and the more damage that has been done, the more of an effect it should have on your character. Near the beginning of a contest, for example, players should have the ability to do anything they want from their repertoire of moves -- but as the bout wears on they'll slowly lose the ability to pull their more devastating maneuvers.

At first your wrestler should slow down a bit, but eventually it'll take longer for him to recover, get up from his own high-flying attacks, and the power of his strikes would decrease substantially. If he was in too rough a shape, your tired gladiator could find himself falling off the turnbuckles, bleeding more easily when taking strikes, and possibly even losing the use of a limb if it's been damaged enough.

Luckily, an added crowd meter would allow you to come back from the brink of an ass-kicking (kind of like Shadow of Rome does), where solid comebacks, spectacular moves, and effective taunts would give you the ability to do something you normally couldn't do. How awesome would that be?

Better Online -- Ranking Systems, Voice Chat, Titles
Every fighting game needs an online component these days or at least they should have one. That may still be some wishful thinking on our part, but we might as well think big and go all the way. There needs to be an online ranking system that will allow players to show that they are some of the best videogame wrestlers in the world.

To make the experience secure there needs to be some way to make sure that no cheat devices are being used or at least give players a possible way of reporting cheaters so that they can be removed and their victories against other players considered null and void. Then, and only then, will online fighting feel solid and other features such as belts and defending belts can be introduced and mean something.

To add in to the experience, voice chat would be a huge help as well. That way two friends could play each other and taunt each other or just chat for the duration of the fight. Winning is good, but trash-talking the whole time is even better.

The Crowd has its Say -- Destructible arena objects, superstar-specific crowd interactions
The feeling of a WrestleMania is all about interaction. The wrestlers can destroy everything in the immediate area and the crowd can shout at their favorite heroes. If there is something, anything, that can be picked up or jumped onto, then it needs to have the ability to be utterly destroyed. By that same token, if a wrestler has a trademark move or phrase, then the crowd should react accordingly. When Kurt Angle walks down to the ring the crowd should be shouting, "You suck!" at him. When Stone Cold Steve Austin shouts out the crowd better be yelling, "What!?" every damn time. Enough of the stock crowd that just moves up and down and has a generic crowd noise, we want the feeling of the event.



Feel the Burn -- More realistic body damage
Maybe we're spoiled by Fight Night Round 2, but it would be the best if the wrestlers had some more realistic damage being done to them. If someone takes a hard hit, then we want to see some blood on the clothes. The faces should get bruised and cut after repeated bashings. It's cool to see the status icons on the top of the screen show how badly each wrestler is hurt, but to show it in the game's graphics themselves would be the business. It would be even better if the blood stains stayed where the damage was done. Players could then "paint" the mat with their opponent's face.

Tag-backs Allowed -- The ability to counter anything
Having any move that can do damage without any possible way to counter it is something that should be completely banished. It takes the fun and the fairness away from the fight. By putting in a possible counter for every move out there the game becomes more of a skillful fight. Experienced players would be able to throw moves and counter-moves like crazy so that when a powerful move is pulled off and bloodies the opponent there's that feeling of deep satisfaction that wouldn't come from a cheap attack.

Besides, WrestleMania 21 on the Xbox has this feature so why shouldn't we?

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

Expanding Your Horizons -- Use Other Organizations
The WWE archive is huge, and SmackDown should learn from EA's example and institute its licenses into its games. The WCW, ECW, and OVW brand names are all owned by the WWE, for example, which opens up a world of possibilities in terms of the career mode, possible story events, arena types, and more.

The Long Haul -- 25-year career mode
One year just isn't enough to feel like an entire career. How about a full-on 25-year experience? This would let players create a character, work him through the low-level fights, become a renowned fighter, and go all the way through retirement. Making horrible movies and acquiring a drug habit would be out of the picture, but at the least this would give the game more of a complete feel and allow players to truly develop a character even further.

To start out with the first challenge would be the Tough Enough competition. After that the wrestler would move into the OVW and compete with the crusty older wrestlers as well as other young up-and-comers. The next steps would be to graduate to Velocity and Heat before getting into Smackdown!, RAW, and PPVs.

Along the way the wrestlers would be able to develop relationships with the other wrestlers in the game that would have lasting effects. There could be alliances, rivalries, and feuds that would help to determine what the matches would be. This would complete the character truly becoming a part of the WWE world and help to take a step away from something that's "just a game" and become something immersive. Oh and for crying out loud, give us two-player seasons again!

That Old Bum Knee -- Career Injuries
It's one thing to have injuries impact a match in progress, but what if sustained damage actually carried over through the entire career of a wrestler...? What if an excess of cuts scarred a pretty face and altered crowd perception? How about if the more sustained damage there is, the more worn and feeble a wrestler becomes as the years go by?



If the old knee gets bent out of shape match after match after match, then it should fail quickly late in the career. And, what if 20 years into it all a wrestler's right arm turns useless and his limp from that ridiculous chair bashing he took two years ago causes his entrance to be a little sluggish? What if all that helped to determine what matches he was and was not awarded? Taking better care of your wrestler would then be a priority. Now that's character development, baby. And besides, cuts add character, so why ditch 'em?

Hometown Heroes -- Real Venues
Last time we checked, wrestling didn't take place in some random Hollywood backlot, so where are our real stadiums? We need crowds and hometown favorites. We need the untamed wildness of Mile High versus the downtown glitz of Staples. Where are the Universal Amphitheatres, Rod Laver Arenas, Allstate Arenas, Pontiac Silverdomes, Madison Square Gardens, Cow Palaces and Nassau Coliseums of the world? We need those and more.

If the universe were perfect, specific venues would even have an effect on wrestler performance as well as entrance routines. Since it is not perfect, maybe THQ could plaster the sides of arenas with advertisements to offset costs.

Fighting Out Back -- Backstage Areas
One big backstage area is simply not enough. Here Comes the Pain offered five or six different areas to choose from, but in the future we need boiler rooms, dressing rooms, hallways, parking lots, bathrooms, green room / lobby areas, shipping and loading docks, city streets, technical booths, and just about everything else that makes a real place a real place.

More important than all of those areas is how they could conceivably be tied together seamlessly and even present real gameplay innovations like choking a man with some electrical cord, dropping a wrecked car onto a wrestler, or stuffing the Macho Man into a port-a-potty and rolling the whole thing down a street.

In addition to a large amount of useable objects (read: weapons), every room could contain specific points of interest. Like The Punisher, the use of each point of interest could play a mini-game that, if properly completed, could result in a spectacular animation routine. Showdown: Legends of Wrestling did it, why not SmackDown?

The Pen Is Mightier -- General Management
Brawling is one thing, but for those of us on the Vince McMahon trip, where's our arena management? In the years to come it'd be great to finally sit behind the desk of greatness and wield the pen of ultimate power -- it'd be great to set t-shirt prices and establish a traveling routine!

There's so much going on behind the scenes of wrestling that it seems almost shameful to omit such a wealth of worthy gameplay from the ever-evolving genre, especially when other sports titles are integrating more advanced managerial features with each passing year.

We imagine dealing with some of the more eccentric personalities of the wrestlers by balancing headliners with no names, turning heels into faces, making stars out of scrubs, and even telling a 50-year-old has-been that enough is enough. After that, we could work on traveling from city to city making sure all of the venue details are set. We could then book TV time, set up our own events based on current audience desires, and eventually move into some merchandising. If you want to get crazy, players could actually be encouraged to start spin-off themed wrestling organizations from scratch.

Your Money's Worth -- Five Matches Per Card
Even though we can create our own events with up to eight matches per card, our extended career mode should feature the traditional, realistic collection of five matches per card, which would of course allow us to play...five matches! Five instead of three. Seems like no big deal, you know?

Flashback Fever -- Relive WrestleManias
With Acclaim's Legends of Wrestling franchise long since dead, it leaves the rights to dozens of grappling greats ripe for the picking. THQ should use this fact to its advantage by allowing players the opportunity to relive some of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all time. Who can forget Steamboat vs. Savage and Hogan vs. Andre at WrestleMania III? Or the Ultimate Warrior's stunning victory over the Hulkster at WrestleMania VI? The possibilities here are endless, and the replay value would be too if this was included.

Comeback Kids -- Superstar Careers
Speaking of legends, it would be great if there was a way to use them in career mode and even better if it was specific to their status. Imagine coming back as Bret "The Hitman" Hart as a surprise guest at the latest Royal Rumble as you fight your way back to the top of the ladder. Old rivalries (Stone Cold or Shawn Michaels anyone?) could pick right up where they left off, and with so few legends available in comparison to the regular superstars it would be easy to customize this so that it matched the wrestlers to a tee.

Shiny and New -- Enhanced Creation Features
We don't know about you, but the time for additional character creation features is long past due. Not only would it be great to expand on the weight detection system by instituting realistic body types (no more 7 foot, 400 lbs luchadores please) in addition to the aforementioned aging option, but it would also be fantastic if you could customize your entrance animations and lighting effects just like RAW used to do. This presentational flexibility would allow players to create literally anyone they'd want and would make each wrestler a lot more unique too.

SmackDown! vs. RAW 2 could also benefit from even more original music selections, generic Titan Tron intros, and realistic clothing effects instead of the painted on look of the current competitors. Just look at something like Def Jam: Vendetta as proof of the possibilities and apply that to the WWE. The potential here is amazing.

So there you have it. Twenty one essential includes that we'd like to see in the next iteration of SmackDown! vs. RAW. Will they ever happen? We can't say just yet, but it doesn't hurt to dream (or to beg, in this case) now does it? Unfortunately we'll have to wait a couple more months before we know what the new version of the game will bring for sure, but in the meantime we'd love to hear what you think of these ideas and what you'd like to see yourself. We'll be back with more on SmackDown! vs. RAW 2 (or whatever it ends up being called) as soon as the info breaks.

straight from ps2.ign.com

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

post what you wanna see in it here and on the Smackdown video game board over at ps2.ign.com where THQ themselves will be checking in to see what you want in and try to input it

[Shaggy]

What about Maven?....sure Im one of the only few that likes him but he was in one of them and then they took him out for the newest one. What a rip off. Hopefully since hes more of a tv person now they will have him in the next one.

I would like to see the create an entrance type thing that the gamecube wrestling game had.

[Gouda]

I definatley want to see a "dynasty mode" type thing. Managerial things and all. Along with aging and injuries and stuff.

Also a better online mode.

[DS]

That all sounded pretty nice but I would still love to see WCW's 3 Cage Match. I would buy the game just for that. Oh and inferno matches. Not like ECWs brimstone where they caught on fire and disappeared, I want a nice inferno match.

[el fregadero]

More wrestlers and a longer career mode are the definite must-haves for it. Things like the exhaustion thing, better damage infliction, revamped CAW, and the stats influx also wouldn't hurt.

[DaveBrawl]

Long career mode that doesn't constantly repeat, plus the damage carrying over year after year and adding up is a great idea.

[Scarface]

I love creating my own wrestlers and I agree with the Def Jam FFNY thing they put. It doesnt have to look painted on. Also not being able to assault your opponent when they are doing a move on a tag partner is hella annoying. Put in this feature from DOR.

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

me personally, I would like to have the full roster, better call-names and have what they did with Wrestlemania 21 were even CAWs have voice-overs and a hometown

[Disturbed316]

Longer, better career mode, CAW voice over and LA FUCKING RESISTANCE :rant:

[PorkSoda]

Better online mode. As in you can wrestle with all the modes or at least more than just a single or a bra and panties. If you can't do all, get singles, tag match and like 5 gimmick matches or so. I played about 5 matches so far online and got my ass kicked in all of them :rofl:

The roster is one thing they definitly need to focus on. Put in EVERYONE including La Resistance, William Regal, Lita, Rosey, Spike Dudley, Shannon Moore, Nunzio, etc.

Story mode has to be good. Yeah.

CAW should be great. Better than SmvsRaw.

I think it would be a nice touch, but what if they bring back the create a ring feature like they did in WWF Attitude for N64? Or Create a fan? Create an entrance (Ring lights, music, pose) and create a move. I'd be interested in those :wave:

[el fregadero]

Create a ring and create a fan should be at the bottom of their list of things to add to the game.

[KingofOldSchool]

I don't think the game needs more match types, actually I think a few of the current match types in Smackdown vs. Raw could be tossed away. What I really want to see is a longer, more drawn out story mode much like No Mercy's story mode. And I *WANT* these wrestlers in the game this year...

Raw:
SNITSKY!!!
Maven
Rob Conway
Slyvain Grenier
EUGENE!
William Regal
Simon Dean
Muhammad Hassan
Lita
Tyson Tomko

Smackdown:
HEINDENREICH!
Paul London
Kidman
Spike Dudley
Akio
Orlando Jordan
The Bashams
Luther Reigns

[Nervous Ferret]

create an entrance, deeper rosters, ect. whats been mentioned in this thread :y:

[Disturbed316]

Oh yeah, and put back in the tag titles.

[Volchok]

screw just the Tag Titles.. put back all the titles...

[Hired Hitman]

Better moves, no more of those stupid looking punches and kicks and throws, it looks stupid when you do a lightning fast throw then the next move is very slow.

[DaveWadding]

They need to start by making a game that doesnt suck fat black dick.

[Hired Hitman]

They need to stop taking notes from David Wadding's Sex Life :o

[El Santo]

Hey, is THQ still slated to make the next Smackdown game? I thought WWE and THQ had a falling out over THQ withholding money. That doesn't mean that WWE can't work with Yuke's, however.

[Cool King]

Get rid of the Parking Lot Brawl,It just SUCKS!

Make The Divas playable in Story and make them bleed.

Put the Legends Videos in with there music too.

I can't think of anymore,so when I do,I'll post them.

[Marcyo]

Make up some videos. There are original themes in that game, why don't they make up some videos? Just, IE, show some clips from a graveyard for those who'd wish to make an ''undead'' wrestler, or funny/colorful clips for clowns. Anything and everything. At least 10 videos.

And yes, I'll say the same as Cool King, make the freakin divas BLEED!

Also, a longer - and i mean loooonger - season mode would be appreciated.

[Marcyo]

Get rid of the Parking Lot Brawl,It just SUCKS!

Word. :n: at Parking Lot Brawl, :y: at Inferno Matches, Casket and Buried Alive matches, 2 on 3 handicaps, WCW 3 cages, Ambulance, Texas Bullrope, Last ride matches... Anything they can come up with.

[Cool King]

Make up some videos. There are original themes in that game, why don't they make up some videos? Just, IE, show some clips from a graveyard for those who'd wish to make an ''undead'' wrestler, or funny/colorful clips for clowns. Anything and everything. At least 10 videos.

I was just gonna post that.

[Drakul]

Make up some videos. There are original themes in that game, why don't they make up some videos? Just, IE, show some clips from a graveyard for those who'd wish to make an ''undead'' wrestler, or funny/colorful clips for clowns. Anything and everything.
I've been saying that for years.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

I found Parking Lot Brawl fun, I'd be willing to drop it for another game mode though.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

Also:

More, if not all wrestlers currently contracted to WWE
Get rid of Bra and Panties for something useful (it would also free up some more space for extra textures)
TNA move sets
Better CAW, SYM had it nearly perfect, except for painted on clothes and no entrance attires, then they fucked with it too much, and get rid of those stupid blurs on the front of tights and on women's chests, just because some people like to make nude CAWs, why make the rest suffer?
WCW/ECW PPV logos POSSIBLY
Create an Arena WWF Attitude style POSSIBLY
Better AI, for fucks sake, make it so that Legend difficulty makes them wrestle better, not just reverse everything.
Custom call names, as mentioned above
No voice overs in season, all it did was waste disc space, make the game less up to date and make season mode unbearably repetetive.
Legends could be better, but no real complaints after last years selection

[deathtrap]

My Arena's were always bright gold, everywhere.

[Cool King]

Make the CAWS better during a match.

Well,when I play and I try to hit a CAW with a weapon it goes right through them,it also does that when I run and grapple and other stuff like that.

And I agree with HardKore UK,make the A.I better. It's just really bad.:n:

And get rid of Bra and Panties too. If THQ do get rid of the Parking Lot Brawl they could replace it with an Ambulance match or they could do Legend Matches,they could have an Inferno Match,the Old Cage match(The one with the little blue cage) and other old matches.:y:

[Mike the Metal Ed]

I also think an old school Bingo Hall arena for Legends would be good.

[Cool King]

Yeah,and have the In Your House and the Old RAW and SmackDown! Arenas.

And in the next game,you should be able to defend your Title whenever you want.(Like SmackDown! 1)

And make the prices for Create A Belt cheaper.

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

Legends have their proper video/theme at the time they whore the attire they were given

Everyone have there current themes with the exception of Stacy as we all know why she will never have her theme in the games, but Ric Flair should have 2001 Space Odassy theme not his 1992 theme

Defent titles in exibition like Cool King said since it was in Smackdown 1 and No Mercy

as me and many ppl above me said, FULL ROSTER WITH EVERYONE CURRENTLY EMPOLYED IN WWE, LA FREAKING RESISTANCE MORE THAN ANYONE AS THEY WERE SUPPOSED 2 BE IN FOR 2 YEARS, and each time they were the Tag Team Champs at the time,

Bring back the Tag/World Tag/Women and Cruiserweight Titles

NEW legends like "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Jake "The Snake Roberts", Ultimate Warrior, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Razor Ramon, "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith(this time keep him in and not partically remove him, I said partically because his model is still in and if you want to use him look at Code X (http://cbx.proboards22.com/index.cgi) to find out how), Owen Hart, Harley Race, Austin and Hogan but keep Bret, Andre, Superfly, Piper, Foley(change to Foley), Rock(make current)

how about a special season challanges, meaning ask Bischoff or Long for a Tag Team Title match, after you prove yourself be defeating the Tag Team Champs, you get a shot for the belts and when you win them, every week a new Tag Team challanges you, like the night after you win the belts say Ax and Smash of Demolition challange you for the tag belts, then the next we if you chose RAW The Rockers challange you, if Smackdown The Bushwackers, I think that would be a nice thing to add in season, and if you beat those teams you win them as selectable superstars, but Michaels would be Legend Michaels as he'd look like how he did then and not now

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

Legends have their proper video/theme at the time they whore the attire they were given

Everyone have there current themes with the exception of Stacy as we all know why she will never have her theme in the games, but Ric Flair should have 2001 Space Odassy theme not his 1992 theme

Defent titles in exibition like Cool King said since it was in Smackdown 1 and No Mercy

as me and many ppl above me said, FULL ROSTER WITH EVERYONE CURRENTLY EMPOLYED IN WWE, LA FREAKING RESISTANCE MORE THAN ANYONE AS THEY WERE SUPPOSED 2 BE IN FOR 2 YEARS, and each time they were the Tag Team Champs at the time,

Bring back the Tag/World Tag/Women and Cruiserweight Titles

NEW legends like "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Jake "The Snake Roberts", Ultimate Warrior, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Razor Ramon, "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith(this time keep him in and not partically remove him, I said partically because his model is still in and if you want to use him look at Code X (http://cbx.proboards22.com/index.cgi) to find out how), Owen Hart, Harley Race, Austin and Hogan but keep Bret, Andre, Superfly, Piper, Foley(change to Foley), Rock(make current) and LOD but make LOD the new Tag Team Legends, read below for the other teams that would go under that catagory

how about a special season challanges, meaning ask Bischoff or Long for a Tag Team Title match, after you prove yourself be defeating the Tag Team Champs, you get a shot for the belts and when you win them, every week a new Tag Team challanges you, like the night after you win the belts say Ax and Smash of Demolition challange you for the tag belts, then the next we if you chose RAW The Rockers challange you, if Smackdown The Bushwackers, I think that would be a nice thing to add in season, and if you beat those teams you win them as selectable superstars, but Michaels would be Legend Michaels as he'd look like how he did then and not now

[Joe Kerr]

I didnt read all that but my understanding is its being released for playstation 3...and Playstation 3 is being released around christmas time 2005

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

check the PS3 thread I made awhile back I post some more info on it

[Jaded-Dragon]

Here's what I had to say about everything on IGNorant...

Just a few things I would like to see.....


The exhaustion system:

I'm not too fond of the fact that I all I have to do is beat a person down until their head or body is in the red, then hit my finisher and the match is over. I've never liked that. I very much enjoyed the system used in THQ's N64 wrestling games. It was some-what like an exhaustion system. Even if you beat an opponent down for 15 minutes, then hit your finisher, if their spirit (attitude) was high enough, they would still kick out. This made for some intense back and forth matches.

Also, if a person had been getting beat down for a couple of minutes and had low spirit, then was able to pull off a big move, it gave them a large increase in their spirit meter. Much like a momentum shift in a normal wrestling match.

I think a sytem similar to this should be implemented.


More specific damage:

It seems a little odd that I work an opponents body down to the red and the only thing that happens due to this, is after they try to do a move to me, they kind of stagger and clutch their side.

If I work on a guys leg, I want to see him limping and moving slower. If I work on his body, I want to see him clutching his side as he moves around the ring. If I work on his arm, I don't think he should have an easy time trying to power bomb me. Perhaps if my above suggestion was used, the spirit meter level would determine if he could pull the move off or not.


A GM/Dynasty mode/booker mode:

I should be allowed to take the role of a GM. I should be able to book a card and decide who gets to go up for titles. In smackdown! 1 THQ had a feature that showed how over your match was with the fans by a percent value. A system like this could be used to determine how good of a booker the fans think you are.

Random feuds should start between superstars and escalate to the point where you decide how they should end the feud (Hell in a cell, ladder match, iron man match, etc.). For instance, let's say I make a match between Chris Jericho and Edge. Jericho wins, and after the match is giving an interview backstage, suddenly Edge attacks from behind and the two start feuding. Something of that nature.

You should also be able to make special stipulation matches. Like say I want to have a 6 man battle royale with stars who's superstar points are under 80 and the winner gets a shot at the title. Since normally there are only 2 or 3 people who are able to challenege for the title, this would give me more options for creating a card and storyline, and give someone a chance to win the title, who other wise may not ever get the chance to challenge for it.

Another angle could start as a wrestler feeling that I have not been giving him the oppurtunity he deserves. He becoms bitter and decides he is going to take on the entire WWE and take me down, starting an NWO-esque story angle.


A more in-depth and everlasting career mode:

I partial to the system used in Smackdown!2. The events that happened were all pretty random, as far as who you were feuding with. I also think the match rating system should return. Your rating should determine how much you get paid for the match, and also how fast you raise through the rankings. Doing something like this could make using the cheap table DQ win virtually useless.

The career mode should go on forever, and I should be allowed to switch who I am controlling at anytime, much like Smackdown!2, and control multiple people. A second player should also be able to join in, like the earlier smackdown games. I remember in Smackdown! 1 me and my friend made caw's and had them both in season as a tag team. Even though we rarely were in a tag match together, we atleast could play with our caw's in season at the same time, and the ability for a tag team was there.


Oh yeah, counters and reversals should definitely be more skill oriented. Button mashing is lame... period. I hate to refer to this game for anything, BUT... Backyard Wrestling had a system that was more based on timing. If you were to take a system similar to that and expand upon it, such as having a higher technique skill would grant you a larger window of oppurtunity to press the reversal button. But if you press the button and miss your chance, your opponent should land the move with extra damage.

The technique skill could also determine which counter you can perform. For instance... RVD is wrestling agains't a jobber. If the jobber can get one off, it should be simple and basic like RVD goes for a sleeper hold, the jobber escapes by backing againgst the ropes and shrugging off RVD.

Now same situation... This time the Jobber has a moderately high Tech skill. RVD goes for the sleep. Now our Jobber is able to grab the top of RVD's head and do a chin breaker.

And the last situation...
Jobbie's Tech skills are maxed now, so let's see what hppenes when RVD goes for the sleeper. RVD hooks on the sleeper, Jobber works his way to the side of RVD, then lifts him up for a back suplex and RVD comes crashing down.


So more points would not only determine your defense against these very things happeneing to you, but it also effects the length of time a person has to press the counter or revearsable button for a successful counter.

I hope some of that made sense... I'm a little torn up at the moment. What I was trying to say is cool and neat, I'll come back on tomorrow and try to clean some of it up a bit.

Ok, minus a few typos, my post came out pretty decipherable. Anyway, the technique stat should have much more to do with the reversal system, rather than just how often your guy reverses. As for the window of oppurtunity to reverse a move, I was thinking something along the lines of like .25 seconds for skill 1 - 4.5, .5 seconds for skill 5 - 9.5, and 1 second for a skill of 10. One second is a fairly decent time to see and react, so it would still be challenging, but not impossible.

I'm against the 4-way TLC match... for now. If they change the engine a bit I would be all for it. Example: I beat my opponent down until his or her entire body is in the red, I clothesline them down.... now strictly speaking, they should be near death regardless, but I somehow still have to hit them with my finisher to keep them down long enough for me to grab the belt. If they're hurt, they should be hurt. They shouldn't be hurt, but are still able to get up in .25 seconds. Fix that, and I'm all for it.

Casket matches, No. They tried that in Smackdown 2 and it was horrible. All it was, in a nut shell, was an I quit match. Meaning it used the same type of premise.

However, I do like the idea of being able to mix and match the types of matches you want. Way back on PSone, WWF Attitude had a feature like that. You could pick a first match type (singles, tag, cage, etc.) then set a special stipulation for winning, like first blood.

I'd also like to see the King of the ring tournament make a return, especially if they do include a GM/booker mode.

Oh and one last thing, also in Attitude you could customize the entrance ways and the ring. Like choose what color lights you wanted, what ring apron, the color of the mat, the color of the ring ropes, etc. That needs to be implemented as well.

[Marcyo]

And make the prices for Create A Belt cheaper.

Yeah. Having a reasonnably cool belt costs 300 000$. :o

[KingofOldSchool]

I didnt read all that but my understanding is its being released for playstation 3...and Playstation 3 is being released around christmas time 2005

No, the new WWE game will be on the PS2, which will be the last game that will be released for the PS2.

[el fregadero]

The last game or the last wrestling game? :o

[Gouda]

Oh yeah, get rid of that gay superstar points thing.

[Just John]

we also should e able to hear the superstars yell in pain when they are in submissions

[Mike the Metal Ed]

we also should e able to hear the superstars yell in pain when they are in submissions
A few years ago I would have agreed, but after SvR we've established that any superstar voice acting just holds the game back, not so much space issues as up to date rosters, it's just best they wash their hands of it.

[Cool King]

A few years ago I would have agreed, but after SvR we've established that any superstar voice acting just holds the game back, not so much space issues as up to date rosters, it's just best they wash their hands of it.

Yeah,and if the did do the voices(When they were in pain) it would probably be repetative(Like WarZone)plus it would get a little bit annoying after a while.

[XL]

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned...

I would love to be a heel in season mode...a real heel that is!

Granted in the most recent SD game there were points where you could be heel (e.g. teaming with Vince) but in the end you always end up as a face!

Also, Shane McMahon!!!

[Hitman84]

Other legends who should be added are Dynamite Kid, Jim Neidhart and Marty Janetty. The rest of the suggestions sound really cool.

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>I just hope that this doesn't end up as big a let down as SvR was...I haven't even touched SvR in about a month</font>

[Gouda]

Yeah,and if the did do the voices(When they were in pain) it would probably be repetative(Like WarZone)plus it would get a little bit annoying after a while.

I loved the sounds they would make in the N64 gameswhile in a submission. They'd be all like "Errrrg arrrg....errg...arrg" and then if you make them submit you hear this squishing sound like something has been snapped and they'reall like "Yeeeeargh! *taps*"

Good times.

[Rob]

Other legends who should be added are Dynamite Kid, Jim Neidhart and Marty Janetty. The rest of the suggestions sound really cool.

Jannetty should be the on the normal roster.

[Kane Knight]

A few years ago I would have agreed, but after SvR we've established that any superstar voice acting just holds the game back, not so much space issues as up to date rosters, it's just best they wash their hands of it.
Yeah, I love how people think the problem is voiceovers on a disc.

Well, no, it's just that you have to voiceover everyone or the effect is lost. This limits your options grossly.

I don't want voiceovers in a game. About the only voiceover stuff I like at all is the announcing of a name as you enter.

And to think, this is one of the big selling points of SVR.

I'm hoping they learn from their mistakes. HCTP was a MAJOR step up. SVR was, well, not.

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

Gamestop.com says the release for the last smackdown game for ps2 as October 3, 2005

[KingofOldSchool]

Of course the actual date will end up being around Thanksgiving.

[Kalyx triaD]

I just want a good wrestling game. After playing Wrestlemania 21 and seeing just how crack-headed developers, FROM THE SAME COUNTRY OF THE WWE, can screw up a game.

It made me love the Smackdown! and Nintendo series much more.

[Disturbed316]

Makaze over at IGN has said that they are going to be starting coverage of SvR2 at the begining/early July.

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

The Day is OFFICIAL -- July 4

http://boards.ign.com/WWE_SmackDown!/b6546/91274573/?68

[The Highlander]

Create an entrance: Try to get an entrance creator like DOR. I hate having to use Randy's entrance just to get the lighting.

Create a Move: I actually create moves, so I hate having to pick a move because it's "close enough", such as using the mexican strech bomb (which hooks two legs) instead of the Teiraryzor (which hooks one) or the Downward spiral instead of the Pittsburgh Punisher (Which looks more like a Rock bottom in the wrong direction.).Or maybe add or delete taunts in certain parts of moves (such as taking away Ric Flair's walk around whooing for about six and a half minutes during the figure four, or adding Blaze MacLeod's finger in the face taunt before turning the Sharpshooter).

More divas/CAWs in Bra and Panties: Most CAWs I make are female, so I'd like to be able to put them in this match. Plus, where was Lita, Christy, Dawn Marie, Stephanie, hell, anyone who wasn't a damn blonde in DOR or, other than Vicky, SvR.

Old theme music: I'd love for the game to have Slaughter's theme, Hogan's theme, hell, even Blackman's and Hunter Hearst-Helmsley's theme.

Unlock old gimmicks: Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, Crazy Vicky, Masked Psychosis, Rocky Maivia, Biker Taker, Fake Diesel, Issac Yankem, The Ringmaster, Avatar, Eddy Guerrero, Pegasus Kid, Leviathan, Nick Dinsmore, Sugar Shane Helms, Bradshaw, Super Nova, Mabel, Sparky Plugg, "Too Hot" Scott Taylor, even pre-op Shannon Moore.

The non-theme music from SvR and DOR: GET RID OF IT!!!!!! IF I HEAR "FIREFLIES" ONE MORE TIME, I AM GOING TO GO COMPLETELY FUCKING INSANE!!!

Stop gender segregation. I use characters from the stories I write, and at least half the women could make a run for the WWE Title. One of my female characters is 6'3", 225 lb genetically altered Marine from one of my stories. She would kill Trish in a heartbeat, and could probably beat the hell out of Batista. GCW integrates the genders, let me do it on my game.

Simplify the CAW: Can I please put a stripe on my tights? No overcomplicated tribal tattoo designs, no letters with shitty fonts, no intracate pictures, no WWE logos, just a goddamn gold stripe!

No more voice overs. They SUCK! The announcing sucks to, but that's because instead of hearing "Blaze MacLeod", "Highlander", "The Pittsburgh Original" or "Greatness Himself", I have to be called "The Kid", "Legend", "Half Man, Half Amazing", "The Immortal" or some other jackass nickname that doesn't sound right.

Why take so many steps to stop CAW females from being created nude? It's a waste of time. If somebody can turn dots into boobs, let them. It's not worth the space to "fix" it.

Make it so they actually have to try to get off of something. I'm tired of trying to do my finisher through a table only to have the just appear on the floor halfway through.

What the hell was that "Character must be between x and y ability points to be in a tag team" bullshit? Jim was never on Bret's level. Marty was never on Shawn's. Morely was not on Lance's. Some teams are like that.

[weather vane]

Has Demoliton ever been in a wrestling game besides Wrestlefest?

Are they in this one?

[Disturbed316]

Dont think so, I cant remember any. I think it's about time La Resistance finally got in a wrestling game btw.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

Create a Move: I actually create moves, so I hate having to pick a move because it's "close enough", such as using the mexican strech bomb (which hooks two legs) instead of the Teiraryzor (which hooks one) or the Downward spiral instead of the Pittsburgh Punisher (Which looks more like a Rock bottom in the wrong direction.).Or maybe add or delete taunts in certain parts of moves (such as taking away Ric Flair's walk around whooing for about six and a half minutes during the figure four, or adding Blaze MacLeod's finger in the face taunt before turning the Sharpshooter).

More divas/CAWs in Bra and Panties: Most CAWs I make are female, so I'd like to be able to put them in this match. Plus, where was Lita, Christy, Dawn Marie, Stephanie, hell, anyone who wasn't a damn blonde in DOR or, other than Vicky, SvR.

Old theme music: I'd love for the game to have Slaughter's theme, Hogan's theme, hell, even Blackman's and Hunter Hearst-Helmsley's theme.

Unlock old gimmicks: Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, Crazy Vicky, Masked Psychosis, Rocky Maivia, Biker Taker, Fake Diesel, Issac Yankem, The Ringmaster, Avatar, Eddy Guerrero, Pegasus Kid, Leviathan, Nick Dinsmore, Sugar Shane Helms, Bradshaw, Super Nova, Mabel, Sparky Plugg, "Too Hot" Scott Taylor, even pre-op Shannon Moore.

The non-theme music from SvR and DOR: GET RID OF IT!!!!!! IF I HEAR "FIREFLIES" ONE MORE TIME, I AM GOING TO GO COMPLETELY FUCKING INSANE!!!

Simplify the CAW: Can I please put a stripe on my tights? No overcomplicated tribal tattoo designs, no letters with shitty fonts, no intracate pictures, no WWE logos, just a goddamn gold stripe!

No more voice overs. They SUCK! The announcing sucks to, but that's because instead of hearing "Blaze MacLeod", "Highlander", "The Pittsburgh Original" or "Greatness Himself", I have to be called "The Kid", "Legend", "Half Man, Half Amazing", "The Immortal" or some other jackass nickname that doesn't sound right.

OK, we will tell THQ to tailor-make the game for your needs. :)

[PorkSoda]

Unlock old gimmicks: Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, Crazy Vicky, Masked Psychosis, Rocky Maivia, Biker Taker, Fake Diesel, Issac Yankem, The Ringmaster, Avatar, Eddy Guerrero, Pegasus Kid, Leviathan, Nick Dinsmore, Sugar Shane Helms, Bradshaw, Super Nova, Mabel, Sparky Plugg, "Too Hot" Scott Taylor, even pre-op Shannon Moore.

Just reading those names......it was awesome.

I agree with create an entrance and create a move. Create a move would be interesting, and so would create an entrance. I skip the entrances most of the time but being able to create one would make me watch it.

[M. Banana]

The non-theme music from SvR and DOR: GET RID OF IT!!!!!! IF I HEAR "FIREFLIES" ONE MORE TIME, I AM GOING TO GO COMPLETELY FUCKING INSANE!!!
It's Firefly, shut the fuck up.

[M. Banana]

More divas/CAWs in Bra and Panties: Most CAWs I make are female, so I'd like to be able to put them in this match. Plus, where was Lita, Christy, Dawn Marie, Stephanie, hell, anyone who wasn't a damn blonde in DOR or, other than Vicky, SvR.
Bra and panties doesn't belong in SvR. It belongs in friggin' Rumble Roses.

Simplify the CAW: Can I please put a stripe on my tights? No overcomplicated tribal tattoo designs, no letters with shitty fonts, no intracate pictures, no WWE logos, just a goddamn gold stripe!
A stripe is rather easy to do as well, unless of course you're four years old.

Unlock old gimmicks: Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, Crazy Vicky, Masked Psychosis, Rocky Maivia, Biker Taker, Fake Diesel, Issac Yankem, The Ringmaster, Avatar, Eddy Guerrero, Pegasus Kid, Leviathan, Nick Dinsmore, Sugar Shane Helms, Bradshaw, Super Nova, Mabel, Sparky Plugg, "Too Hot" Scott Taylor, even pre-op Shannon Moore.
SMACKDOWN vs. RAW Not Old School vs. New School.

Why take so many steps to stop CAW females from being created nude? It's a waste of time. If somebody can turn dots into boobs, let them. It's not worth the space to "fix" it.
Rated T for Teen

[Eunos]

Please add the following Wrestlers in this game.

Raw:
Carlito Carribean Cool
Gene Snitsky
Robert Conway
Sylvein Grenier
Eugene (I don't care that he hasnt wrestled since January he should still be in)
Simon Dean
Maven
The Hurricane
Rosey
William Regal
Steven Richards
Tyson Tomko (I like the problem solver.. So what?)
Val Venis

Smackdown
Akio
Muhammed Hassan
Daivari
Paul London
Orlando Jordon
Doug Basham
Danny Basham
Nunzio
Funaki
Shannon Moore
Matt Morgan
Heidenreich
Super crazy
Pschicosis
Juventud (Bet they wont)
Billy kidman

Remove:
Hardcore Holly
The Dudley Boyz (lets be honest.. Except for the brief ECW invasion they havent done anything at all.)
Any wrestler who has been released since SVR. (A Train, Rico, Matt Hardy :( , Sable etc)

Everyone else can stay.

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>If London is still CW champ at the cutoff it'll be highway robbery if they leave him out...

Voiceovers had better not be in this time, as it severely limits the game...I say make some wrestlers have one line of voiceover and that's it (cause face it, how awesome would it be to be on the Cabana in season and have Carlito say "DAS NOT COOL" and spit in your face?) :cool:

Also, I'd love to see them put ECW stuff in the game (cause face it, after the PPV and everything they'd be fools to not put ECW stuff in)...I'd say put in the Hammerstein Ballroom (complete with balcony that can be used to dive off of) :cool:

Also, I doubt this would happen......but I'd love to see them scrap the legends and put in ECW Stars instead......The Sandman, Tommy, The Dudleyz (in old school attire), Sabu, The Impact Playaz, Rhino, Taz, The Chair Swinging Freaks, etc.

Never gonna happen, but hey I can dream, can't I?</font> :(

[Team Sheep]

A small ECW invasion storyline during season would be sweet.

[Jonster]

Voiceovers had better not be in this time, as it severely limits the game...I say make some wrestlers have one line of voiceover and that's it (cause face it, how awesome would it be to be on the Cabana in season and have Carlito say "DAS NOT COOL" and spit in your face?) :cool:
No voiceover at all > A tiny bit of voiceover.

I seriously hate games that do that, it seems so cheesy and out of place.
There's more reasons, but I can't think of them as you've scared me at the thought.

[MVP]

I will only buy it if the online mode has every type of match.

[Fryza]

Stated several times, and stated in the original "Official Raw vs. SmackDown thread":

-More wrestlers from the mid-card and under. Where has La Résistance been? For fuck's sake...

-Better CAW. I know they can't do the custom soundtracks, but good lord, give us more options as far as clothing, music, movies, etc etc.

-Drop Bra and Panties, voice over (except for announcing the wrestler), etc.

-Have major cities listed, so when a wrestler is called to the ring, they'd call off name, nickname (made optional), city, height, weight, current title(s) (maybe not in that order).

-Longer season mode with angles from 2000 to present and tons of new ones.

-Ability to edit superstars to some extent.

-Keep create a title, and make it a permanent title.

-Ability to edit the brands how you like, including GM. And each wrestler will be a different GM than the other.

-TWO PLAYER AND WOMEN SEASON MODES. FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

*shrug* That's about all I can think of for now.

[KingofOldSchool]

-TWO PLAYER AND WOMEN SEASON MODES. FOR FUCK'S SAKE.



Why waste space on a Women's Season Mode?

[Fryza]

Just something that I enjoyed if I made female CAWs. The ability to play as one through season mode. I mean, the last few games had a Women's title... Why have it if you can't go for it?

Either include NO female characters (period), or allow them to be playable in season... Having them and not being able to use them without making them male or playing exhibition is- in my train of thought anyway- retard.

[Gonzo]

Create a PPV and getting rated on it was fun as hell. Forget what game that was though.

[Fryza]

Create a PPV and getting rated on it was fun as hell. Forget what game that was though.

The first SmackDown. I remember that feature made up for the (after what we have now) horrible entrances and CAW feature.

[PorkSoda]

Female's should also be able to particpate in hardcore matches. In SVR you can't do that, and there's only one backstage area. That's pretty stoopid.

Online Mode...definitly more than two matches.

[Batsu]

Simplify the CAW: Can I please put a stripe on my tights? No overcomplicated tribal tattoo designs, no letters with shitty fonts, no intracate pictures, no WWE logos, just a goddamn gold stripe!

No more voice overs. They SUCK! The announcing sucks to, but that's because instead of hearing "Blaze MacLeod", "Highlander", "The Pittsburgh Original" or "Greatness Himself", I have to be called "The Kid", "Legend", "Half Man, Half Amazing", "The Immortal" or some other jackass nickname that doesn't sound right.

Why take so many steps to stop CAW females from being created nude? It's a waste of time. If somebody can turn dots into boobs, let them. It's not worth the space to "fix" it.

What the hell was that "Character must be between x and y ability points to be in a tag team" bullshit? Jim was never on Bret's level. Marty was never on Shawn's. Morely was not on Lance's. Some teams are like that.


Excellent. Especially the last bit.

Here's something I wrote on another forum about this game:

Looking at the SmackDown! series since game 1, I really thought THQ was hitting the nail on the head with Here Comes The Pain. While SmackDown! Vs. Raw added some nice elements, the loss of some enjoyable components due to the fact they crammed a bunch of unneeded "extras" was kind of grating.

As far as I am concerned, most aspects of gameplay are a few steps away from undisputedly stellar. They only need minor tweaks to make it "perfect". For example:

- All "generic" attacks should be elminated. In the turnbuckle, the "chop" contest should be either optional, or done with a special motion unrelated to the four attacks that can be used there. In the cage match, the wrestlers should be allowed to use their signature turnbuckle grapples. In the Hell in a Cell match, all the wrestlers regular attacks should work on the outside of the ring. It is very odd (and somewhat lazy) to see Triple H doing the moves of Stone Cold while outside the ring. In the Bra and Panties match (which I'd rather see scrapped in favor of women doing something more...substantial), the "spank" shouldn't override a normal move...

- All submissions in the game should be either "Type A" or "Type B". The "button masher" submissions should always have the chance to get to the rope except when done outside the ring. Like the "Type B" submissions, the Square button should be used to cancel the hold. Sometimes you may select a submission and not mean to hold it on. However, submissions from a move of which that the other player can not fight his or her way out are kind of lame, and need to be tweaked. The ability for the other player to interrupt submissions, while annoying to the submission holder, was a much needed addition, and should remain.

- When a lower-weight wrestler faces a super-heavyweight, or someone out of his or her "liftable" weight class, the submission "tug-of-war" meter should initiate so that a lighter wrestler can attempt to toss the larger one, similar to the system used in the No Mercy games. If it is actually successful, there should be some kind of bonus for the lighter wrestler. Maybe a "spirit" meter boost, or a "Clean"/"Dirty" meter boost. Perhaps, maybe the end result of a successful tug-of-war should differ between Clean and Dirty modes.

- The cage match, virtually unchanged except somewhat aesthetically from the first SmackDown! game, is well overdue for an overhaul. Look no further than the Wrestlemania/Day of Reckoning series on GameCube as to where the cage match should lead. Anyone escaping the cage should have to "fight" i.e. the "tug of war" meter or the new system implemented in the Royal Rumble matches to escape it. In addition, the cage should look very much like a smaller version of the Hell in a Cell, but with an open top, and the option to escape.

- In Guest Referee matches, the guest ref should be able to call (or ignore) submissions. The tapping does not count unless a ref visibly makes the call.

- when putting someone through a table, the ability to use one's own grapples instead of the generic ones should be the default. This was allowed in SmackDown! Vs. Raw, but only after something I wonder whether it was intentional or not.

Other things I'd like to see:

- More outside-of-WWE finishers and moves. The Cradle Piledriver used in Rumble Roses (programmed by Yukes), the Canadian Destroyer, the TKO, the Steiner Screwdriver, and moves of the sort would be nice to see in a SmackDown! game. Booker T's old Book End and Rock's old Rock Bottom (the SmackDown!: Know Your Role version) should return as regular grapples. The finisher versions have too much of the "taunt" effect, and should only remain finisher-only.

- bring back Tazz's signature suplexes (most of them were gone), the "non-Benoit/Justin Credible" version of the Tombstone Piledriver (used by Kane as a non-finisher attack in earlier SmackDown! games), and some of the other missing moves.

- go back to the move allowances among ready grapples found in HCTP. It was very annoying that a number of the "big" suplexes and DDTs were only allowed in the "Power" grapple set. It was a good thing that the "T-Bone DDT" version of the T-Bone Suplex was allowed back as a non-finisher, but a lot of the restrictions in the move sets were very annoying.

- if voiceovers must exist, scale some of the unnecessary soundbites in Season Mode. Those were just garnish that could have left more space for moves, and designs.

- in CAW - PLEASE nix the million and one useless floral patterns, and add more WWE/WCW/ECW costume designs and patterns, since a lot of CAW makers like to make actual wrestlers. This, along with the loss of being able to easily two-tone some designs because of the horrendous color options, was very annoying.

- also, in CAW, bring back premade face types. Too many CAWs looked identical because of the unified facial options. Another annoying thing about the CAW was that rarely would the finished product measure up against the regular wrestlers, not so much because of polygon count, but in sheer size.

- Even though women's wrestling in WWE has declined as of late, female wrestlers should be allowed to work their way to the Women's title in Season Mode. Even if it's something as generic as the Just Bring It road to the top and title defenses, this is a glaring omission that is somewhat inconsistent with the (then) WWE storylines.

- Get RID of the stupid OVR rating restrictions on making stables. This was the most annoying thing in SD! Vs. Raw. Especially since you had tag entrances involving a male and a female. How was one supposed to use them if the males and females had largely disparate (with good reason) ratings?

- Bring back the ability to head backstage and to the parking lot from the main area. Replacing this ability with the ultra-lame "Parking Lot Brawl" match was three step backwards. That match was perfect in Here Comes The Pain.

- As mentioned before, more call names for the superstars (-IF- ring announcing is retained), and a fatigue system would be nice.

- Some superfluous gimmick matches: The Parking Lot Brawl, for example, should be eliminated.

When it seemed like Here Comes The Pain was really moving forward to something great, SmackDown! Vs. Raw had some great additions, but removed so much of the progress in the series.

In short, don't overload the game with extras (all the voice-overs), at the expense of CAW parts, moves in the game, and much-needed gameplay tweaks.

[SukkaChump]

I was thinking they should add in a minor Edit a superstar mode, kinda like Tekken 5 did, you choose a superstar in create an appearence and then edit from there, nothing huge or outlandish, but also make the clothing/accesories look as if they were supposed to be there all the time, IE, John Cena, could keep his chain on and take the armband/wrist bands off, put different kinds of jersey's on the guy.

Any other wrestler in general you could put on their WWE Shopzone shirts, or fuck, alternate attires, i hate it when i constantly see the same looking guy over and over again, like RVD and Mysterio, the same golden pants and the same gray and green "RVD" lettering gets old after awhile... making it so you could change superstars appearances just a little different would wanna make me buy the game 10x more then i already would want to

[egoslam]

Definitely add back in 2-player season mode. It doesn't have to be as in depth as what we all hope the new one will be, but just something. It would be nice to play the game with some friends and not have it get stale after 15 minutes.

[Disturbed316]

Info is up. It's 8 pages long :D

All credit goes to IGN. Link (http://ps2.ign.com/articles/631/631085p1.html) to the article.

SmackDown vs. RAW 2006: World Premiere
First screenshots and gameplay details, roster info, feature improvements, PS3 development, and Buried Alive!
by Jeremy Dunham
July 4, 2005 - After thousands of email requests and more than eight months since WWE SmackDown vs. RAW first hit store shelves, THQ is finally ready to reveal the next iteration of its million-selling franchise to the faithful IGN readership. Officially known as WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2006 (a title meant to reflect its new direction towards a sports and simulation feel), the new game from Yuke's Media Creations and the Toy Headquarters is undoubtedly the most ambitious game in the series so far. The brand new momentum system, the addition of attributes like Stamina and Hardcore, improved reversal mechanics, enhanced online features, and a host of other cool improvements are just a few of the several-dozen extras planned for this year's wrestling extravaganza.



To get the best possible explanation of what to expect, we sat down with THQ Creative Manager Cory Ledesma and Product Manager Devin Knudsen for the official explanation of all things SvR '06. After almost an hour of conversation and plenty of revelations, here's what they had to say:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


IGN: Thanks for doing this guys, we always appreciate it.

Devin Knudsen: Hey man, what's up?

Cory Ledesma: No problem, we have a lot we've been waiting to get out.

IGN: Cool, then let's get started. The title this year is simply WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2006 and it's reminiscent of the naming conventions that a lot of sports games use. Is that the plan for the series from now on or is that just a working title?

Cory Ledesma: Creatively, the product really is more of a sports-style game anyway. I'm not going to say that it's completely a sports game like a Madden, I'm not going to compare it to that, but it has a lot of sports elements and we want to push that angle. Also, wrestling is all about "sports entertainment" anyway -- so it makes a lot of sense to lean towards the sports gamer when naming our game. I mean, I play sports games all the time and usually end wanting to include a lot of the features found in those games in our own and that's the direction we're heading. But no, it's not a working title and that's what we're going for.


The Dead Man is back (Duh).

Besides, it was getting to be a real pain in the ass to figure out new taglines every year. Know Your Role, Here Comes the Pain, Shut Your Mouth, etc. It could have been "You Can't See Me," maybe, but nah.

Devin Knudsen: [laughs] Yeah, but we want them TO see it, though, so 2006 made a lot more sense.

IGN: How long have you been working on it?

Cory Ledesma: We started work right after the last one finished, so since November of 2004. That's when we started our pre-production prototyping phase.

IGN: After going back and looking at it, what did you learn from SmackDown vs. RAW that needed to be addressed for 2006?

Cory Ledesma: We gathered quite an extensive list of improvements and new features that we wanted to add to the game. We gathered a lot of stuff, obviously, from all the reviews we got... especially from you [Laughs]. But we also got a lot from the fans on all the major message boards. In the end, we walked away with a really extensive list and we were really ambitious this year and we are planning on having a lot of new features.

Some of the bigger things that we definitely needed to make some better improvements on, for example, was giving the gameplay an all-new feel. It's obvious that SmackDown has had the same feel for quite awhile, so we really wanted to add a new strategic element to the game as well as start to incorporate the match pacing that you see on WWE programming. We wanted to make it seem like, when you are playing your matches, that it looks and feels like a match you'd see on Spike or UPN -- that is really important to us. And as I hinted earlier, that kind of pacing would add a lot of strategy and a lot of fun to what's already a fun experience. That was really the key for us.

Another big change we wanted to make was to the AI. We felt that the AI was nowhere near as good as it could be, so we're definitely making strides to make substantial improvements in that area.

IGN: On that note, what are some example of the AI improvements and how will that affect the gaming experience?



Cory Ledesma: Breaking it down to basics, it's really all about how the CPU reacts to your actions and how much more calculating they are than before. We went through an extensive process in identifying the areas where the AI doesn't act intelligently and where it was easy to cheat it before. Above average players, for example, could find easy ways around most of the CPU's tactics and beat it really quickly. Knowing that, we did a lot of research and play testing to identify those formulas and weak points to come up with ways to make that better.

Another fix we made was to the AI's difficulty. We realized that the SmackDown fans are diehard and buy each game when they come out, and therefore, were looking for a more challenging experience. So we wanted to make sure that we want to give that to them. We've done that in a number of ways that would be too technical to list here, but playing it you can definitely feel the difference. Casual players needn't worry, though, as they'll be able to enjoy the game too. We've made sure that we've made it fun for both ends of the ability spectrum.

IGN: How does the new momentum system work into this? It's one of your biggest additions this year and I was wondering if you could tell us how it works.

Cory Ledesma: Sure. The momentum system is basically just a better version of something we already had in last year's product. Last year we had a basic adrenaline meter where you just built up your adrenaline to get a basic finisher and we also had the "Dirty/Clean" strategic meter. This momentum system incorporates both of those into one -- so whether you're doing attacks or reversals or taunts (as well as tactics relating to whether you're dirty or clean), you'll build up momentum on the same system. It simplifies the whole process.

IGN: Other than just simplifying the process are there any other benefits that the condensed system brings to the table?

Cory Ledesma: Well, in the adrenaline meter from last year the negative boosts didn't work the way we wanted them to when playing through a match (as in, you never got any). It was just way too limited. Also, if you went on a streak of building your adrenaline meter and got close to using your finisher, no matter how much your opponent beat up on you, your status was unaffected. Now all that has changed and the momentum meter is reflective of how you're doing at all times. This means that just because you were successful in the beginning of the match, it doesn't mean that you'll continue that later on.


Expect cage matches (and every other bout) to play out more realistically.

Devin Knudsen: It really ties into the ebb and flow of a match. You know, in real programming the momentum goes back and forth. Well in our game it wasn't that way. You just built up a certain amount and that's what you had to work with and that was that no matter what was going on. Now it's tied together the way it's supposed to be, so these bouts are going to feel like real WWE contests.

IGN: Has this affected the way that finishers work too?

Cory Ledesma: Definitely. To be fair, it's both similar and different. It's similar in regards to the fact that once you've built your momentum to the max you can decide to use your finisher right then just as before (you'll have about a 10-15 second window of opportunity) or you can store it for future use. What's cool about storing it is where the new stuff comes into play -- as we're giving the user a couple of different options on how to use it down the road.

Of course, you can just use the finisher later on in the match as you always could, but this time, how much damage it does relates to how maxed your momentum meter is at that point. You can also keep it stored altogether and build up your momentum meter a second time to activate a Super Dirty or Super Clean move.

Devin Knudsen: Before you ask your next question, I'd like to add something. The way the whole finishing system works is pretty cool, actually, and not just because we've adjusted the way you earn the moves. It's cool because we reward you for pulling off the finisher at the right time. So, for example, when you first earn your finisher and you have that window of opportunity that Cory mentioned earlier, you'd do a lot more damage at that moment compared to any other time. Using it at some random part of the match later makes it a lot less effective. It's just one of the ways we want to prove that using the timing and momentum of the match has a lot of advantages.

[Disturbed316]

IGN: Will the Super Dirty moves be the same as they were before? It was kind of limited last year. Are they character-specific for instance? And how about the Super Clean moves... what can we expect there?



Cory Ledesma: Super Dirty moves will be general, and not character specific. They will be the cheapest moves in the game, though, and they'll cause a lot more damage. The Super Clean moves, on the other hand, are where you steal your opponent's finisher. In other words, the dirty/clean dynamic should be a lot more balanced this time.

Oh and before I forget, you can also steal your opponent's taunt. It's a very valuable strategic move that'll allow you to steal all of his momentum away. We put that in there as a "risk/reward" counter to someone storing a finisher instead of using it. So if they've stored their finisher and are about to double it up or get high momentum again, you can take the power of that move away and pretty much make it useless. That works on the flipside too. So if you have a stored finisher but start getting your butt kicked which lowers your own momentum (therefore making your stored finisher weaker), you can steal your opponent's raising momentum and quickly do a powerful finisher to regain the upper hand.

Regardless of the circumstances, though, just remember that if you're attacked when stealing a taunt you not only lose the possible momentum that you were gaining, but also whatever finisher you had stored. It's another strategic decision to get you thinking.

IGN: I suppose this a bit of a fanboy question, but let's suppose that the finisher of your opponent is a dirty move itself and you do a super clean steal. Does that mean that the Super Clean steal would do more damage than if that same move was used for Super Dirty? Would it be the same?

Cory Ledesma: [Laughs] Well hopefully neither. This year we're making strides to limit what moves you can assign as finishers. That means that dirty moves won't be allowed for your finisher.

IGN: Is there an onscreen indicator that lets the user know when the best time to use their special moves is? That is, beyond the usual blinking icon.

Devin Knudsen: Yeah that window of opportunity is shown onscreen through the HUD and the saved finisher slot works in the same way it has in previous years -- so it should be familiar and won't be like WrestleMania 21 was, for instance.


If Benoit had a better hardcore rating, he could chair Taker's ass.

Cory Ledesma: Yeah, the HUD is what we decided to go with because it has worked in the past and there's really no way for players to miss it. But to your point, it will be obvious to the user that they're doing damage with a finisher at the right time as opposed to not, because we'll give perfectly timed finishers a special camera treatment. It'll also be reflected in the returning limb damage display that we've brought back from last year.

IGN: There are two new attributes added to the character ratings this year, Stamina and Hardcore. But the one I'm really curious about is Hardcore. Why the need for that stat and what are some examples of the differences between guys with high hardcore ratings and low ones?

Cory Ledesma: Well last year we noticed quite a big flaw in the system where all superstars could inflict the same amount of damage using weapons... including the divas. This meant that Stacy Keibler could do the same amount of damage as RVD with the chair. That didn't make a lot of sense to us, so we wanted to reward the superstars with the ability and experience to use weapons effectively. It pretty much stems from the big ECW fan following out there, who know that ECW wrestlers know how to inflict a lot of damage with foreign objects as opposed to your usual WWE superstar.

Anyhow, this rating will affect the amount of damage that a weapon causes as well as your ability to reverse weapon attacks. So even though this is known as a rating officially, it really breaks down to an experience with being hardcore as opposed to not.

IGN: Will a higher rating also mean a change of animation for wrestlers using weapons, or could it change the move altogether?

Cory Ledesma: We've discussed doing something like that and having special animations for guys that are proficient like that, but to be honest with you it hasn't been finalized among our team yet as to whether or not we'll be able to do it. But yeah, it's something we're looking into and we think it would be a cool idea.

IGN: How about the stamina? How does this system work and can you regenerate lost health because of it?



Cory Ledesma: The way this system works is that most of your core actions take away from your stamina meter, so the harder and more strenuous the actions you perform, the more energy is ultimately removed from your bar. Essentially this makes you exhausted similar to what you suggested with your article on improvements you'd like to see from a couple months ago. During your most tired moments, you'll pretty much be incapacitated -- giving your opponent time to gain an upper hand and beat on you a little bit. The damage done by you won't be as effective either.

IGN: Will that tie into the weight system? So if Rey Mysterio tried to pick up Big Show and couldn't, would it drain his stamina rating a bit?

Cory Ledesma: It won't necessarily affect them in that way, or should I say, as much in that scenario. But stamina ratings will be more prolific for smaller more action-packed guys like Rey as opposed to Show. Big Show will get tired a lot faster and he won't be able to do anything while he's like that.

IGN: How do you recover from being completely exhausted? If you're incapacitated how can you even hope to?

Cory Ledesma: Your stamina can be regenerated anytime you want during the match. That's part of the strategy. So in the past, once you knocked your opponent down you probably beat on him some more or taunted. Now you may want to use that time conserve your stamina and hold it for when it's time to pull of your finisher.

Devin Knudsen: There's an actual button press that manually regenerates your stamina. But even if you don't use it, you'll slowly gain it back depending on your stamina attribute. But trust me, it's better to use the manual stamina regenerator -- it's a lot more useful.

Cory Ledesma: Yeah, that manual button is almost like you're selling your injury or how much your guy is breathing in anger. And that rewards you with a quicker stamina boost than just allowing it to come back normally.


Here we see Triple H ruining Angle's stamina... and teeth.

Devin Knudsen: And that's what gives the user choices. This means that I can taunt and build up my momentum or just rebuild some stamina to look further into the match than the immediate actions. You really have to look at where you're at in the bout and make good decisions based on what's going on.

Cory Ledesma: Another great benefit of the stamina system is that we're really balancing the differences between an experienced user and a new user. Veteran guys are no longer going to be able to be completely offensive and beat the newbie down as he could before. Now they're going to get exhausted and will have to plan out their attacks and pace themselves. It'll give new users or smaller superstars a chance to recover and get back into the match,

IGN: Will the stats work with the same visual cues as before (A 10-point system with half points in-between)?

Cory Ledesma: Yep, that cue will be identical to last year's -- the interface for most everything will be very similar.

IGN: One thing I'm really curious about is how long a match is going to play now. With the momentum meter, the additional stats, and the exhaustion, it sounds like they'll last a lot longer than before.

Cory Ledesma: It all depends on the player's strategy, it really does. We want the matches to be a little longer and more dramatic. I wouldn't say they're slower, though, because the speed of the game is pretty much the same -- it's just the strategies you employ during a match that alter things. Also, if you pick Rey Mysterio or some of our other fast guys, then you can still expect it to be a fast match and you stamina won't be as much of a factor. If two experienced players are going at it at the same time, however, you can expect a lot of strategy and back and forth. Expect a lot of drama at the end of those match-ups.

The good news is that just like any sports game, you'll be able to turn off a lot of the features. So you can switch the stamina meter on and off as you please. We understand that some users like the arcade feel and they don't want to deal with Stamina, so that option will be in there for them. But we're also making sure that we're tuning it to be a lot of fun no matter which way they play, though I think that most fans will like the dramatic strategy of the stamina meter.

[Disturbed316]

IGN: Are there any changes to the reversal system?



Cory Ledesma: There sure are. The reversal system has been the same for a couple years now, and we wanted to add a little spice and strategy to that as well. We want to give users as many options as possible.

That said, the big change this year is that once you've reversed a strike you'll actually be in a holding pattern where you can then easily follow it up with an action of your own fairly quickly. Because of this speedy reversal recovery, your opponent will be able to do the same thing and reverse whatever you do just as quickly. If you're good, you'll be able to reverse up to three times in one chain and it's another way we wanted to reward experienced users for sticking with us for so long.

IGN: Is the reversal system the only change to the gameplay mechanics?

Cory Ledesma: No it isn't. In fact, we've added something that I've seen tossed around on the IGN message boards quite a bit: A power Irish Whip.

It's really cool because, though the basic Irish Whip is still in there, the power Irish Whip opens up an additional move set. Using it allows you to toss a guy right outside the ring, throw an opponent hard into a cage to cause a lot more damage, and things like that.

IGN: How does that work exactly? Do you charge the Irish Whip and release or is it something different?

Cory Ledesma: Actually, it's all-new. Last year for the regular Irish Whip you just tapped the Circle Button; this year you have to tap Triangle and Circle together for an Irish Whip and hold Triangle and Circle for the power Whip. It's similar to the GameCube Day of Reckoning Irish Whip system in terms of the controls, as we got some really positive responses about that setup. And on a personal level, the team and I really like how it feels for SmackDown vs. RAW 2006 as well.

Anyway, not only do the two Irish Whips add another layer of strategy brought on by our other systems, it also ties into the stamina system -- doing a power whip drains your stamina a lot faster than a regular one and it does their as well. So part of your strategy going into a match could be to keep Irish Whipping your opponent on a frequent basis to make them tired quicker; but just make sure that you recover some of your own to capitalize on it.


New button mapping makes Undertaker cry... blood.

IGN: Nice! Any other mechanical changes?

Cory Ledesma: There's one last little change and it relates to the button mapping. Obviously we moved the Irish Whip command, and that's because through focus testing we noticed that a lot of users were pushing Circle button but wanted to do grapples. So to support new users, Circle button is a new grapple category -- this means that there will be five grapple categories per superstar. In numerical terms, last year's 16 grapples have been expanded to 25. So it's a small little thing that will benefit both new and experienced users.

IGN: One of my biggest gripes with the last game was the online play and the lack of things to do. When we were talking a few months back you told me that it was a feature you really wanted to focus on for SvR06. So did you and what's different?

Cory Ledesma: The only thing I can tell you right now is that there are definitely some cool changes planned for the final game and that it will be very, very, robust. But we also don't want to give those away just yet either -- we want to wait until further down the road before we reveal them to ensure that everything we want to put in there makes it.

But yeah, that was on the top of our list as things we seriously needed to address for this year and improve upon by far.

IGN: What can you tell us about SVR 06's feature set?

Cory Ledesma: We're really excited about this year's feature set. It's as ambitious as we've ever been and I want everyone to know that I think the fans are going to be extremely happy. When going into development for this year, we had a giant wish list of things that people wanted to see and the amazing thing is that a lot of it is coming true. I'm so excited about this year's title I don't even think I can express it.

At the top of the list of things that we think most people are going to get happy about is the Buried Alive match. We've finally added it after years of people asking for it. As for how it works, it's pretty much an extension of the old casket match. At the start of the bout, there's a stationary casket and you have to bury the guy once he's in it. Essentially it's two matches in one and we felt that we absolutely had to put in the feature list -- no doubt about it. We've even come up with some pretty cool and original back and forth action when people battle over the casket itself. There are some killer winning animations for it as well.

IGN: Is Buried Alive based on a particular match from history? Like the McMahon/Undertaker confrontation from a few years ago?



Cory Ledesma: It's the same setup as that match yeah. But there's more about the Buried Alive match than just that. You'll be able to do finishers into the casket, for instance. So you can do the Chokeslam from Hell right into the box and win the match. It'll be awesome. We're adding some new HUD elements for this mode as well. Oh and before I forget, that whole fighting area is going to be pretty interactive so there's a bunch of different stuff you can do on top of just throwing the guy into the casket.

IGN: That reminds me: is there going to be more than one backstage area this year? Last year's one stage was pretty disappointing after Here Comes the Pain's bazillion different environments.

Cory Ledesma: [Laughs] Yes. Don't worry about that.

IGN: Getting back to Buried Alive, can you do more than just the standard match? Would it be possible to do a Triple Threat or Tag Team Buried Alive, for example?

Cory Ledesma: Nope it's just a one-on-one match, but we think people are going to have a lot of fun with it.

IGN: Are there any other feature improvements you want to mention?

Cory Ledesma: Yep! We're incorporating a profile system this year. It won't be like the limited option in Here Comes the Pain, though, as it'll be similar to what you'd see in a sports game that offers profiles. You'll be able to keep multiple profiles on one memory card, for instance, and it'll boast complete stat tracking. What cash you've earned, what unlockables you'd found, and other stuff like that will be included in there too. One of the big benefits of this is that if you're playing with a buddy or sibling or something, you won't have to share stats or the same season -- you can do your own thing and not have to worry about messing up the other guy.

The stat tracking will follow everything you do too, and tell you what you've done in Exhibition as well as Season Mode. All the stats that were tracked in Here Comes the Pain will tracked in SvR 2006, but there will be additional stats on top of that. Who your opponent was last (human or CPU), is just one of them.


Buried Alive brings back the casket too.

IGN: Season mode: spill it. What can we expect there?

Cory Ledesma: Like the online info, I can't really discuss that yet. But it's cool! Know that.

IGN: Can you talk a bit about some of the visual upgrades that have been made? Apparently there are quite a few more than expected.

Cory Ledesma: Well we felt that we still had areas of graphical improvement and we wanted to push the limits of what we could do. So this year, there's going to be a big upgrade -- especially with the likenesses. We thought the models looked good last time and we thought we got some of the likenesses down, but we're paying extra special attention towards face and body detail this year. The skin tone and skin texturing are some good examples of this and were really important towards getting the characters to looking like their real-life counterparts.

We've also made big improvements to the diva models. The team felt that the divas didn't look as lifelike or as sexy as they should, so we wanted to make sure that they looked their best... particularly when it came to their curves and hair.

IGN: How about alternate outfits? Will each wrestler finally have alternate togs so that we don't have to use just one costume all season long?

Cory Ledesma: I would personally love to do that, but it's just so much work for us to do that it's difficult... especially with a roster of more than 60 different superstars. Doing an alternate outfit for each guy would take a long, long time. That said, we are going to have alternate outfits for some characters but not all of them. Don't expect them on the lower-tier guys that wrestle in essentially the same costume all the time, though. And the reason, before you hammer us on it [laughs], is because we think that fans would probably be disappointed that we spent time on that rather than give them more and better unlockables for going through season mode.

[Disturbed316]

IGN: Speaking of the roster, that's the million dollar question. Of all the emails and letters I get asking about this game, the lineup is the one I get most often. So who can we expect to see this year and how many are there? Will there still be a number of legends instead of regular guys in the lineup for instance?



Cory Ledesma: The roster will be somewhat similar in the breakdown between superstars and legends. A big reason for that is because we're offering a season mode, we want to make sure that it offers storylines that would make sense on your typical WWE programming. In order to do that, we want to focus on the guys that are currently on television. Also, the WWE dictates a lot of how the roster turns out. Sure it is a partnership and THQ and the WWE decide the roster together, but in the end they have final say over who can and can't be in there. We also want the legends to be viewed as more of an unlockable bonus to the user and not a regular member of the lineup.

The good news is that the superstar potion of the roster is slightly bigger than last year, and the legend portion will be slightly bigger as well. So there will be a lot of guys (and divas) from which to choose.

IGN: Is there anyone that you can confirm for the roster at all at this point? Trust me, people want to know... big time.

Cory Ledesma: There characters shown in your screenshots are the only ones we want to mention right now (Kurt Angle, The Undertaker, Triple H, Batista, Randy Orton, and Chris Benoit). But don't worry, when it's time to reveal the entire lineup everyone will know where to go.

IGN: Has Create-A-Superstar changed at all?

Cory Ledesma: I can't go into detail about that yet. We have made some significant changes to that mode, yes -- we've added a couple of new features and streamlined the interface -- but I want to save some surprises for down the road. Don't worry, though, we didn't ignore it. People are going to be happy with it this year.

IGN: My HDTV has grown angry at the SmackDown series. Will it finally get the widescreen and progressive scan support it demands? Please?

Cory Ledesma: Sadly, we won't be supporting either of those this year.


If Triple H tried this for real, he might have won his belt back.

IGN: How about stadiums? Have you guys on in and licensed actual locations like Acclaim used to do with Legends of Wrestling?

Cory Ledesma: That's something we were definitely looking at but felt that ultimately didn't have a lot of bang for its buck. It's something that adds a definite authenticity and realism to the game, but it's also something for the cost and time necessary to do it, isn't worth it. We think focusing elsewhere is money and time better spent.

IGN: Anything else you want to mention at this point?

Cory Ledesma: [Laughs] Yes, yes there are. We've made some cool presentation improvements this year that should really make you happy. We wanted the game to look like WWE programming and have that same feel, so we've improved the entrances. This year your opponent will be ringside during your entrance... he won't just disappear as he did in the past. So if your first guy is Jericho, you'll see Chris waiting ringside for his opponent to come out when the new entrance music starts.

We've decided to have some slight interactions during entrances too. It won't be like Xbox versions of RAW used to be and allow you to attack people, but based on who you pick your opponents react differently. So if you pick Kane or Undertaker, the opponent will most likely be scared and won't be waiting inside the ring but outside of it. But if you pick a lower-tier guy like Scotty 2 Hotty, your opponent probably won't be scared at all and will seem extra ready to get into the match and beat you down. So you'll some cool little additions like that that brings realism to the match that we didn't have before.

Let's see, some other little things are the announcers. Lillian Garcia and Tony Chimmel will be in the ring when they make their announcements, for example. The announcing teams will also be present in their proper areas during entrances. They're going to have a lot of neat ambient animations going during this time too. Superstar voice-overs are back too and should be better than before, but I can't go too much into that because it's season related.

One last thing that I want to touch on, though (and one that I know particularly bugged you last year), is that the winning scenes are back entirely. Winning scenes for particular match types, exhibition bouts, special main events, title matches, and all sorts of other scenarios are in there. So don't think we didn't listen [Laughs].



IGN: Thanks, that's good to hear. Sometimes it's the little things -- the subtleties that make a big difference when it comes to pulling off an effective presentation.

Cory Ledesma: We completely agree, and we did a lot of mo-cap work in anticipation for it, so all the entrances and winning scenes will be made from motion-captured animations. There are even character-specific win poses for a select few of the wrestlers!

IGN: Now for the biggest question of them all. Has production on the PlayStation 3 version of SmackDown vs. RAW begun yet and when can we expect to play it?

Cory Ledesma: Unfortunately we can't talk about anything for the next-gen systems at this point other than to say that THQ plans on bringing its biggest franchises along for the ride. But there's nothing else to say about that right now, sorry.

IGN: Well thanks a lot for hooking us up with all this info guys, as always I really appreciate it and I'm sure the millions of rabid wrestling fans we have do too.

Devin Knudsen: Thanks Jeremy!

Cory Ledesma: Our pleasure, but hey -- are we going to have our rematch this year?

IGN: Of course, if you want. But I don't have to beat you again though -- that would make two years in a row.

Cory Ledesma: [Laughs] This one will be a quick match that will end a lot differently!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


We'd like to thank all the folks at THQ for their time and assistance, especially Cory Ledesma, Devin Knudsen, and Kristina Kirk -- you're the goods.


HOLY MOTHER FUCKING CHRIST! :love::love::love:

[Disturbed316]

Pics:

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005210544.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005218027.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005217137.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005216137.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005215231.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005214356.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005213418.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005212481.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005211622.jpg


:love: :love: :love: :love: :love:

[Team Sheep]

Sorry, I only read some of that. Did it mention anything about online?

[Disturbed316]

They said they couldn't really mention anything about it, apart from it will be better than last years.

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

great post Disturbed

[The Answer]

Buried Alive match :yes: :y: :y:

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005216137-000.jpg

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005218027-000.jpg

[Hired Hitman]

not bad.

[Batsu]

Whoa, KICK ASS.

That casket match actually looks wily now...

[The Answer]

Whoa, KICK ASS.

That casket match actually looks wily now...

Buried alive match not a casket match. You have to put the person in the casket and then put him into the grave...

[Team Sheep]

They said they couldn't really mention anything about it, apart from it will be better than last years.

They may even add tag team matches this year. :eek:

[Volchok]

Looks and sounds awesome, I for one can't wait for this one.

[Boondock Saint]

Nice. Recently started playing SD vs RAW again after many months, not as disappointing as I remembered, with the exception of too few wrestlers too choose from and the shiity voice over.

[Bricktop]

The Triple H character model looks good for once. I have high hopes for this one, since Raw vs SD was sorta Meh.

[Disturbed316]

Nice. Recently started playing SD vs RAW again after many months, not as disappointing as I remembered, with the exception of too few wrestlers too choose from and the shiity voice over.

Yeah same here. I've also lost my touch abit as I've lost a couple of matches, which hardly ever happened.

[M. Banana]

Last time I played SvR was in January or so. I loved that game so much... but now my PS2 is broken and I can't play it.

SvR 2006 looks great too...

[Savio]

They need Hassan.

[Disturbed316]

This was posted over at Gamefaqs:

http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture5by.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0010xy.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0021jd.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/b188/mr_highlight/?action=view&current=Picture003.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/b188/mr_highlight/?action=view&current=Picture004.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/b188/mr_highlight/?action=view&current=Picture005.jpg

credit to mr_highlight for scans


From scan 1...
New facial expressions, blood, grinding with boot onto cage

Scan 2
Batista bomb and some good gfx.

Scan 3
Survivor series 04 and Summerslam 04 sets are in.
New/old RKO? With facial expressions
Flying headbutt

Scan4
Armegedon arena as well, vintage taker legdrop


Scan 5
Spear onto benoit by edge
Armmegeddon arena 04, at the top right, you can make out the ARM. in armegeddon

Scan 6
Prettier girls, more smut, better story mode, hardcore, online
Crossface, good facial expression
FLYING HEADBUT FROM THE TOP OF THE CAGE

[Loose Cannon]

so this comes out in 2006 or something?

[Disturbed316]

This was posted at Gamefaqs:

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1630/picture5by.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/522/picture0010xy.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2024/picture0021jd.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/mr_highlight/Picture003.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/mr_highlight/Picture004.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b188/mr_highlight/Picture005.jpg

credit to mr_highlight for scans

[Cool King]

:lol: They have the year wrong on the Shane VS Kane match, they say it's from 2004 even though the pic has the year 2003.

But the game looks brilliant.:y:

[AareDub]

The pic of Benoit off the top of the cage looks pretty sick.

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

great pics

[Loose Cannon]

me and Disturbed vs whomever when it comes out online. We will be the TPWW tag champs. :cool:

"Loosely Disturbed"

[Mike the Metal Ed]

Me and Nicksturbed are gonna be a team. :mad:

[Mike the Metal Ed]

Or we could form a stable, the Disturbed HardKore Loose Cannons. :cool:

[Jonster]

The game to give my Network Adapter some use maybe?

[Loose Cannon]

Or we could form a stable, the Disturbed HardKore Loose Cannons. :cool:

yea and we beat down Jonster. gang attack_style.

[Disturbed316]

Fuck yeah :cool:

Some retard over at Gamefaqs said that IGN are going to release more info tomorrow. I doubt it to be honest, but you never know.

[Jonster]

yea and we beat down Jonster. gang attack_style.
Yay! I can be the bitch.

[Volchok]

I recently bought Smackdown:Shut Your Mouth, I hope the unlockables are like they were in that one so you dont unlock everything so quick... and that roster totally killed SvR.

[Just John]

Nice, I cant wait to get it!

[starfox8500]

When does this kick @$$ game come out

[Jonster]

Probably November.
It's only potentially kickass so far, much like Wrestlemania 21 was.

[PorkSoda]

Damn, looking forward to this one.

While reading the interview, they need to include everyone on the roster. Including Scotty, Hassan, Masters, Kerwin White (He's there now), Regal, Tajiri, La Resistance, Bashams, everyone. Or I think so.

Buried Alive looks sweet.

[Just John]

lol theres an explanation of the word "Mark" marks are gonna call us marks now and think they're big for saying it...

[Disturbed316]

Play.com have the UK release down as 11th November, but that is likely to change as we get closer.

[Disturbed316]

Just had a look at THQ.co.uk and found this:


From the most successful wrestling game series of all-time comes the ultimate achievement in sports entertainment - WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2006.

Enter the ring for the fight of your life against top WWE™ Superstars and if you're good enough, the Championship. WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2006 will redefine the wrestling genre by delivering the deepest and most realistic wrestling experience ever, whilst remaining easy enough for casual gamers to pick up and play. New high-resolution textures and, for the first time in the series, motion-capture technology will bring WWE™ programming to life like never before. The improved fighting system will bring a new level of realism and tactical thinking to matches, while the enhanced online mode will create the first ever virtual WWE™ Championship on PS2.

An amazing 100 different match types to challenge your wrestling skill and from the halls of immortality, a new roster of celebrated WWE™ Legends. Lace up your boots for the definitive wrestling experience that is WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2006!
• Amazing Realism - New high-resolution textures and for the 1st time in the series, motion-capture technology bring WWE™ programming to life like never before

• Improved Fighting System - Revolutionary momentum system adds increased depth with less complexity, while the all-new stamina system brings a new level of realism and strategy to matches

• Enhanced Online Mode - Defend your belt online against anyone to gain prestige in a virtual WWE™ Championship (monthly and career leader boards with permanent ID system to tracks all your vital stats)

• Best Ever Season Mode - 2 full seasons to play without story repetition and for the first time ever, superstar specific story lines and VO for your own character

• 100 Different Match Types - Fulfill your fantasy in 3 ways then watch WWE™ divas rip off each others costumes (nurse, school girl, french maid). Buried-Alive Match, Bar Brawl, Backstage Area and others

• Unprecedented Attention To Detail - Ability to play possum, sleeper hold submission system, Create-An-Entrance, fully customizable 3D locker room (first time ever in 3D), 3 levels of blood and more

• New WWE™ Legends - A new roster of some of your favourite legends of all-time


:cool:

[PorkSoda]

Damn....100 different match types? Bar Brawl? This game is looks and sounds like its going to be total kickass :drool:

I was thinking, when you do finishers, should they add a meter on how powerful it should be? Like in SvsR when you do a chop battle, the meter goes from weak to powerful, should that be with finishers? Like when you hit L1 a meter comes up with Sloppy and like Accurate and if you do it sloppy, its less effective if you do it Accurately? I don't know.

Hope they add more than one backstage area. Create an Entrance should be pretty sweet.

[Hired Hitman]

The different match types could(and probably is) different options for a match.

I.e.

Singles match DQ on
Singles match DQ off
Singles match Pin off
Singles match pin and Submission off, KO on
Singles match Pin, Submission and KO off, Count-out on

etc.

[Jonster]

Damn....100 different match types? Bar Brawl? This game is looks and sounds like its going to be total kickass :drool:

I was thinking, when you do finishers, should they add a meter on how powerful it should be? Like in SvsR when you do a chop battle, the meter goes from weak to powerful, should that be with finishers? Like when you hit L1 a meter comes up with Sloppy and like Accurate and if you do it sloppy, its less effective if you do it Accurately? I don't know.

Hope they add more than one backstage area. Create an Entrance should be pretty sweet.
They said they were gonna make it to do with the momentum, so the more you have, the more effect it will have. That sounds fine with me, a meter would make it too slow in execution I think.

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>This is some guy's 64-person roster on the IGN boards:


John Cena, Triple H, Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Ric Flair, Kane, Edge, Matt Hardy, Carlito, Shelton Benjamin, RVD, Big Show, Eugene, Hurricane,Rosey, Masters, Snitsky, Tajiri, Kerwin White, Val Venis, Trish, Christy, Lita, Victoria, Stacy, Batista, JBL, Undertaker, Lesnar, Booker T, Christian, Benoit, Orton, Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Hassan, OJ, Heidenreich, Paul London, Mexicools, Nunzio, Regal, Richards, Nova, Hardcore Holly, MNM, Torrie Wilson

Austin, Hogan, Rock, Foley, Bret, Owen, Razor, Diesel, Davey Boy Smith, Jake Roberts, Savage, Piper

-----------

That would be a damn good roster...the only people left off that should get in are Blue Meanie and Daivairi........I'd love to give Holly the axe but realistically they'd likely get rid of Nunzio and probably Val to fit Meanie/Daivairi in</font>

[Fryza]

Create-An-Entrance? Dat's Cool.

[KingofOldSchool]

The Blue Meanie has no chance in hell of making the game.

I mean Christ he's only been on one freaking show so far, that means jack.

[KingofOldSchool]

Oh and Lesnar won't even be back before the cutoff date.

[Evil Vito]

The Blue Meanie has no chance in hell of making the game.

I mean Christ he's only been on one freaking show so far, that means jack.

<font color=goldenrod>I dunno, I'm just going with the assumption that they will keep the bWo around for awhile, Meanie included..

You're probably right about Lesnar, though I'd rather see him make the game rather than some jobber.</font>

[M. Banana]

Leave the fucking legends out.

[M. Banana]

Oh, and Texas Bull Rope Match, not Texas Strap Match

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

from IGN

In a surprise move made by THQ's European division today, additional details regarding the upcoming brawler, SmackDown! vs. RAW 2006 were revealed on the company's official mini-site (THQ.co.uk) -- all of which should come as good news for diehard wrestling fans.

Of course, the most important bit of news was that title belts could now be defended online via a "virtual WWE Championship" with career leader boards and a permanent ID system that tracks all of your user stats. Additionally, fixes to the season mode have been made so that players can now play through two full seasons without repetition, and superstar-specific storylines complete with voice-over have also been included.

Other interesting details included the revelation that there are more than 100 different match types, including the already-revealed Buried Alive contest and a still-mysterious Bar Brawl. New removable costumes for the divas have been added as well, so the guys who always wanted to rip off nurse, school girl, and French maid outfits from their favorite female superstar can finally do so in a legal way. Wrestlers and their environments have been given added functionality too -- with the ability to play possum and a new "sleeper hold submission system" joining fully customizable 3D locker rooms and an extensive create-an-entrance option. Brand new (unannounced) legends and three levels of blood will also be implemented.

As you can see the new list of features is pretty promising, but how all of it is going to work is a question we can't answer until we see it firsthand. Stay tuned for more as it develops.

credit - Jeremy Dunham

[Disturbed316]

Page 3 ;)

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

sry

[Nervous Ferret]

I call Jonster as my partner. :cool:

[TheNamelessOne]

Anyone here really give a shit about the divas in the Smackdown games?

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

not really, but if the womens title is in, why not?

[Loose Cannon]

so it's still only single player online mode? :mad:

[Danny Electric]

I'm going to win the belt with Hassan and I'm goin got go to create a player and listen to his entrance music and smile.

[Drakul]

I didn't scan these, I just found them online so sorry for the blurriness
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/8282/dsc002298ph.jpg
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/6572/dsc002374nd.jpg
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/7755/dsc002380ug.jpg


The second pic shows a chokeslam into the casket! So I know one of the moves I'm giving myself lol. :D

The HHH/Orton cage pic looks like the cage matches will be worth playing this time.

and the pics show the blood will go down to the chest this time. :y:

Also it says they have brought back the Speacial Finisher Camera effects and the grapples on ladders.

[Disturbed316]

Wow, someone really needs to learn how to scan better. Nice find though.

[AareDub]

Haha, those last 2 captions are great. Especially the Orton one.

[Drakul]

Is this game gonna have commentery? If it does I hope its better than JBI.

Links to the commentery from JBI:
http://content.ytmnd.com//92000/92297/sound.mp3 (Tazz really sells the clothesline from hell near the end :wtf: :shifty: )
http://content.ytmnd.com//38000/38309/sound.mp3 (lol the guy set this one up to just be a parody)

[Skippord]

What the Fuck PERRY SATURN is a really great man

[Shaggy]

I hope you can actually exit the cage through the door....I know its the pussies way out but I just wish you could do that sometimes.

Hmmm all this sounds pretty interesting....

[Evil Vito]

Is this game gonna have commentery? If it does I hope its better than JBI.

Links to the commentery from JBI:
http://content.ytmnd.com//92000/92297/sound.mp3 (Tazz really sells the clothesline from hell near the end :wtf: :shifty: )
http://content.ytmnd.com//38000/38309/sound.mp3 (lol the guy set this one up to just be a parody)

<font color=goldenrod>LOL @ "WALLS OF JERICHO!!!!".."clothesline from hell..."

I'm tempted to boot up JBI (yes, I still have all the old SD games :o) just to hear that in action</font>

[House of Pancakes]

the best thing that the new game can do is have fatigue. it doesn't make sense to have a 30-minute TLC match and to have the wrestlers moving as fast as they were at the beginning of the match. i would love to have epic matches with crawl-on pin attempts. they also need to make more accidents happen; ie, the ref getting knocked out, or you accidentally hitting your tag team partner with a chair, setting up the loss. stuff like that. it still has the arcade "i can win any time i want" feel to it which takes some of the fun out.

[Disturbed316]

SWEEP

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>I'd like to see them fix up the Ladder match a little bit more...it's annoying having a really long ladder (or TLC title) match with a friend and for us both to have a lot of body parts in the red only for him to hit me with his finisher and sprint up the ladder/win in about 15 seconds...they should fix it so it takes longer to ascend the ladder as the fatigue builds up.

Also, as mentioned...the cage match is in the need of the most rehaul...as the cage can't even be used as a weapon, thus making there no point in the match.

Also, I'll give them credit...the Royal Rumble was much better last year with the new additions, but it could still use a little more tweaking. For example, I think they should make it so that if you have a red body part you're automatically eliminated if you're thrown into the ropes. They should make it so that you still get thrown over/have to get pushed out, just make it go by really fast...this way if you can eliminate people when red you can still give yourself something of a chance. Also, I dunno if it'd be possible, but I think it'd be cool to have larger gang-ups on guys like Show/Batista/Andre/anyone else that can pick up people and toss them out. This way it'll somewhat even things out so that they don't automatically dominate. Plus, how cool would it be to be ruling the ring as Show or something only for everyone in the ring to just start attacking you at once? :cool:

Also, it's a request that I've had for several years now and doubtful to be put in, but I think they should tweak the finishers with automatic pins at the end of them...make it so that if you simply press L1 the move will happen, but if you press and hold L1, the move will have a pin immidiately after....they could actually do this for most finishers...but I know everyone would want this feature, cause how sucky is it when you're RVD in a Rumble or Ladder/TLC Title Match and you do the 5-Star, only to roll into a pin and the opponent pops right back up after? It makes the move pointless...

Ah fuck it who am I kidding, I'm a dreamer...</font>

[loopydate]

I don't mind the automatic pins, but I agree that it sucks that they automatically get right up when you get off the pin. I'd be all for the auto pin after a Five-Star, if they'd just stay the hell down after I get up.

[Loose Cannon]

gimme online Rumble and online tag and I'm happy. That's all I want

[Hired Hitman]

"I think they should make it so that if you have a red body part you're automatically eliminated if you're thrown into the ropes."

They had that in SvR :cool:

... but you probably ment from far away, not close up to the ropes :o

which I don't agree with... it was fine last game.

[Evil Vito]

"I think they should make it so that if you have a red body part you're automatically eliminated if you're thrown into the ropes."

They had that in SvR :cool:

... but you probably ment from far away, not close up to the ropes :o

which I don't agree with... it was fine last game.

<font color=goldenrod>I meant to put a "not" before automatically :o

I dunno, it seemed kind of cheesy to start the Rumble at #1....last close tothe end, and then realize you had a red body part and had no chance</font>

[Joe Kerr]

Some thoughts on the game.

I hope the mexicools are in it. also when the Hell does Rosey get to be in a game? they are the tag champs which...I hope they include tag team titles in here. as for legends I think at least a handful but not copys of Superstars in the game (Undertaker, Kane) Just give them an alternate costume of there legend self.

I think legends in the game from this point on should be the legends honored at Wrestlemania. that way every year you get 5 true legends thrown in that have the status of legend. (kane is not a legend nor is the Rock yet)

If cena is going to come out blabbing on the mic. FOR GODS SAKE GIVE HIM SOME WORDS!!

Online play sucks...fix it. Be able to defend created titles and play main events . also one on one sucks make a 4 corners tag option online.

i like the bringing back of the casket match as long as you cant pick it up and use it as a baseball bat.

I d like to edit the wrestlers this time to, you know dress RVD up in a ECW shirt give Matt Hardy his punisher clothes (if he's in the game)

last games create a character was weak all ive got to say is ..Layers.

i hope to have a roster list soon so I can bitch about who i have to spend time making because they were left out

[Volchok]

And for the Hell In A Cell match when they fall of the cell please dont have them bounce around like a damn bouncy ball, its soooooo unrealistic its not even funny.

Btw I was playing as Rhyno in SvR and I gored Brutus off the cell..:cool:

[Volchok]

and btw they shouldn't climb the cage that fast either...

[Volchok]

Holy Shit moment.. Same match as above, I went to Gore Brutus off the cell and he ducked and I went flying off the cell. :cool:

[Disturbed316]

lol

Yeah, they need to change the speed of it to the same as when you climb in cage matches. They should also do that on ladder match too.

More info is going up on Wednesday on IGN at 2pm. Makaze said '... And it's not what you think it is!'

Hmmmm

[Volchok]

Can't wait.. this game could seriously be the savior of the Smackdown series..

[Danny Electric]

I'll get it but I know no one near me who can challenge me apart from this hot chick.

[Volchok]

Let her pin you..;)

[Hired Hitman]

With SvR06 coming out later this year, I uploaded two clips of things I did in SvR... Out of boredom.


Mankind vs Randy Orton - RKO off stage through table (Mankind bounces back onto Stage Area.) (http://rapidshare.de/files/3207365/Orton_RKOoffstage_svr.mpg.html)

Randy Orton vs HHH - HHH Reverses RKO from the top of the Cell (looks very good, motions match each other and HHH taunts right after) (http://rapidshare.de/files/3207353/Orton_CounterRKO_svr.mpg.html)

Note: Scroll down and click on "FREE" then wait for the counter to stop at the bottom of the next page, If you don't know.

[Disturbed316]

If rapidshare didn't suck dick then I would download them. Got about 5 minutes till the info, I bet it's something crap like the boxart or something.

[Disturbed316]

lol we got swerved. No new info about the PS2 version, just some stuff about it coming out on the PSP. Here is the link if you are interested:

http://psp.ign.com/articles/635/635098p1.html

[starfox8500]

screw just the Tag Titles.. put back all the titles...

Yes, yes we do. And am I the only one who liked the feature of Shut your mouth to switch titles, BEFORE season mode?

[Hired Hitman]

Sons of Bitches!

We Want Enformation!

:shifty:

[AareDub]

The PSP information actually sounds pretty sweet. It isn't going to be a scaled down version of the game. You can move a CAW back and forth between the two. It supports 4 player multiplayer. They're hinting at an exclusive addition to the PSP roster, as well as a few things you can only unlock via the PSP.

[Impact!]

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005218027.jpg
HHH is even buring people in the game

:shifty:

[Drakul]

*rimshot*

[Mike the Metal Ed]

The PSP information actually sounds pretty sweet. It isn't going to be a scaled down version of the game. You can move a CAW back and forth between the two. It supports 4 player multiplayer. They're hinting at an exclusive addition to the PSP roster, as well as a few things you can only unlock via the PSP.

Which I'll be getting with an Action Replay Max. It's a joke to expect people to unlock things with a PSP.

[Disturbed316]

IGN are going to be releasing more info in the first week of August. The info will be for the PS2 version.

[TerranRich]

I'm really excited for this new SmackDown [vs RAW] game. Then again, I'm always excited every time a new game comes out. SmackDown vs RAW was the whole reason why I got back into wrestling after I quit watching through most of 2003 and the first half of 2004.

And I STILL have no idea who Garrison Cade is! Sheesh! ;)

But yeah, SVR 06 looks very promising. Apparently they're actually listening to the fans on this one, and I've heard there will be over 100 match types in the game (most likely combinations of how many people, what type of win, specialty matches, and B&P match costumes).

Yeah, the B&P matches got old after 2 or 3 (I just wanted to see the 3D models in their underwear :shifty: ), but you gotta have women in there. I say only have women that can or have been known to wrestle. Christy Hemme? Grudgingly yes. Might be entertaining for a Season mode. AND LET THE WOMEN PARTICIPATE IN SEASON MODES!

And, like in other SD! games, if (s)he won't be included in the game, at least include CAW stuff for them. I think it was Shut Your Mouth that had pre-made CAWs for Chris Nowinski and Nidia, since I guess they arrived after the cutoff date. Something like that for, say, Brock Lesnar and some OVW/dark match hopefuls would be nice. With the brand split, the rosters are definitely large for a video game to handle, but what about this idea...

Having add-on wrestlers available for purchase (free!!!) online, like WWE.com or THQ.com or something. Hacking and piracy concerns aside, I believe it could work out, maybe like a pre-set CAW within a saved file that most people can download to their system/memory card. I forgot how it works exactly, but isn't it possible to do?

Also, I agree that all titles should be included...how hard is it? Keep the create-a-belt feature, I have my own fictional organization running called the FWF, which is where all of my original CAWs came from (yes, I'm sad, I have a whole storyline for each of them and angles for them), so having a belt (or two or several) for them would be nice.

The Legend thing concerns me, too. Kane is not a legend, as stated above. Having Hall-of-Famer legends would make the most sense, especially on a year-by-year basis. By right, Hogan, Orndorff, Graham, Orton, and (dammit I forgot the 5th) should be in there, but other HOFers like Andre the Giant, Greg Valentine, Jesse Ventura, Jimmy Snuka, and Tito Santana should be in there as well.

And as was stated above, a Legend version of the Season Mode would definitely rock. Legends that return for another run, etc. That idea fascinates me, but probably won't be included...ever. For space reasons, I'm sure.

And I would be more than willing to sacrifice voiceovers for more features and details. I can imagine them yelling and insulting each other, I don't need voices to accompany them. Besides, CAWs won't be able to have voices under that scheme anyway. Just leave 'em out, I say.

(And that concludes my first ever post outside of the Wrestling Forum. :p)

[The Answer]

So I guess Hassan won't be in the game :(

[PorkSoda]

BOO

[loopydate]

Okay, let me be the first (on this page) to post what I think the rosters will be for the game. I'm limiting myself to 25 people per show.

RAW

Big Show
Carlito
Chris Jericho
Chris Masters
Christy Hemme
Daivari
Edge
Eugene
Gene Snitsky
Hurricane
John Cena
Kane
Kurt Angle
Lita
Muhammad Hassan
Ric Flair
Rob Van Dam
Rosey
Shawn Michaels
Shelton Benjamin
Stacy Keibler
Triple H
Trish Stratus
Victoria
Viscera
I wish I didn't have to snub Tajiri, Kerwin White or the Heart Throbs, but this seems like the kind of roster WWE would want in their game.

SmackDown!

Batista
Booker T
Candice Michelle
Chris Benoit
Christian
Eddie Guerrero
Hardcore Holly
Heidenreich
JBL
Joey Mercury
Johnny Nitro
Juventud
Melina
Michelle McCool
Orlando Jordan
Paul London
Psicosis
Randy Orton
Rey Mysterio
Simon Dean
Stevie Richards
Super Crazy
Torrie Wilson
Undertaker
William Regal
Not crazy about having to leave out Frankie Kazarian, Funaki, and Nunzio, and they'd probably replace Stevie with Scotty 2 Hotty, but I'm going to remain optimistic.

[Cuzziebro]

Daivari and Hassan are in Smackdown so therefore on the game they shoud be on Smackdown, but then again who would you replace them with on Raw?
Somehow i dont think Super Crazy, Psicosis. and Juventud will be added onto the game but i would really like them on there.

[Volchok]

grr... Wrestling forum there's a thread how Long said they could go to Raw.

[TerranRich]

Hey, has anyone ever taken the SVR game, replaced the music they didn't like with music they'd rather have in the game? I did at one time, but I forgot where I found the directions for it. Basically, I ripped all the music to see what was what, and re-inserted my favorite themes, replacing Stacy's for example with her real theme, and getting rid of all those "Original" entrance themes with other themes not in the game for my CAWs (Carlito, Dawn Marie, etc., at the time).

I was just wondering if anyone knew where I could find directions so I could do it again. I have better themes for my non-WWE CAWs and a lot of WWE wrestlers have new music since I last made my personal version of SVR.

[DeadMan90]

Probably the best place is gamefaqs, but I think there is just a faq to rip the music and not replace it. Then again, you could check and see.

[Fox]

My only question: Will there be a create a PPV mode or not?

[DeadMan90]

There should be. They finally added it back in to SvR after it was out for about 3-4 games. I don't see why they would take it out again, but I wouldn't be surprised one bit if they did.

Just have to wait for confirmation from Yukes and THQ is all I could suggest.

I am however liking the news of a resting and recovery type of game being implemented. I love firepro d, so if it's anything like that system, I'll have one more reason to buy this new Smackdown. Then you have the option to shut it off and on, which is even better for those who enjoy the arcade type play more, because they can just shut the resting and recovery type system off.

Not since SD:SYM have I been this excited for a SD game. HCTP was good, but I always had a soft spot for SYM, and hopefully, SvR:2006 replaces SYM as the best SD game for me.

[Evil Vito]

Okay, let me be the first (on this page) to post what I think the rosters will be for the game. I'm limiting myself to 25 people per show.

RAW

Big Show
Carlito
Chris Jericho
Chris Masters
Christy Hemme
Daivari
Edge
Eugene
Gene Snitsky
Hurricane
John Cena
Kane
Kurt Angle
Lita
Muhammad Hassan
Ric Flair
Rob Van Dam
Rosey
Shawn Michaels
Shelton Benjamin
Stacy Keibler
Triple H
Trish Stratus
Victoria
Viscera
I wish I didn't have to snub Tajiri, Kerwin White or the Heart Throbs, but this seems like the kind of roster WWE would want in their game.

SmackDown!

Batista
Booker T
Candice Michelle
Chris Benoit
Christian
Eddie Guerrero
Hardcore Holly
Heidenreich
JBL
Joey Mercury
Johnny Nitro
Juventud
Melina
Michelle McCool
Orlando Jordan
Paul London
Psicosis
Randy Orton
Rey Mysterio
Simon Dean
Stevie Richards
Super Crazy
Torrie Wilson
Undertaker
William Regal
Not crazy about having to leave out Frankie Kazarian, Funaki, and Nunzio, and they'd probably replace Stevie with Scotty 2 Hotty, but I'm going to remain optimistic.

<font color=goldenrod>Yeah...those rosters are probably about right...I just hope that they don't do something stupid like put Juvi in and leave out the other 2 or something, nothing pisses me off more than watching my 3-man group come out and 2 of the members look horribly fake and with painted on clothes. Unfortunately, that's more than likely what will happen with the bWo :(

Anyways, the game is looking great thus far and I can't wait for the new info the be released...but still, part of me is having a hard time getting hyped up for the game when I was so hyped last year only for the major game flaws (horrible out-of-date roster, repetetive season, unable to have more control pver your season, CAW takes forever, etc.) to dampen my hype and in turn cause me to cancel my pre-order and get San Andreas instead. I've barely played SvR at all.

I hope they cut voiceovers in this game, as they take up too much space and were responsible for many of SvR's flaws</font>

[Disturbed316]

Someone over at Gamefaqs posted info from the UK edition of the Gamesmaster magazine:

1st page

The good news is, the next yearly update of smackdown aims to correct last year’s failings and add some genuinely exciting new stuff. The most obvious is the appearance of the Super brutal buried alive match – shift your eyes to the quality woodwork over the page – but at heart of the game is a new, more realistic approach to match pacing.
For a start, there’s a stamina meter, similar to the one seen in day of reckoning. But this time if you’re getting tired you can tap the ‘sell’ button to help your wrestler recover by wheezing and clutching their chest. Secondly, the clean and dirty bars have been combined with the smackdown meter to form the all-new momentum bar, which’ll reward high-risk moves and low blows with the ability to pull of special moves.
The super clean and super dirty moves are more balanced now, too-the ‘dirty’ option is still the traditional whack in the chutneys, but the ‘clean’ option now involves stealing your opponent’s finisher. The number of ‘basic’ grapples has extended from 16 to 25 thanks to the addition of O as an extra grapple button, and a ‘power’ Irish whip (for throwing wrestlers over the ropes) is available by holding the Square and triangle buttons together. All that and Lilian Garcia appears in the ring for the first time. Its going to be a winner…


Pictures
Angle doing Ankle lock to Taker
- It'll be possible to reverse Kurt Angles ankle lock into a vicious boot to the face.

Taker doing the Tombstone
-Look at the improved facial animation on the undertaker. Thats a lovely scowl

Taker doing the darkness pin
-Rest in piece baby - obviously the usal array of special pins and finishers is varied as ever.

HHH knee'ing Angle
-Signature moves like HHH's Knee to the face will build up his momentum meter.

Buried Alive!
As most wrestling fans know, there’s a big difference between a casket match and a buried alive bout. In the former you simple have to trap your opponent inside a coffin, but in the latter you have to actually get them to say in a grave while you tip soil on top of it. Smackdowns buried alive match will actually combine both systems, but yuke’s won’t say how whether there’s a dirt shovelling mini-game. For what its worth, we’re predicting endings similar to Undertaker vs Vince McMahon, where Vinnie used a digger to do the ‘dirty’ work for him.

Pictures

Batista power bombing HHH
-The roster in SvR 06 be updated as late as possible, so there’s no guarantee that Batista’s going to continue his dominant streak into the finished

Then two pics of the buried alive match that are already on the internet
-You’ve got to get the lid closed on top of them
-Alternatively, you can start a power struggle to simply shove them in head first.
Taker chokeslamming Orton in the casket
-And once one of you is inside there’s a button-tapping power struggle to escape.

Now entering the ring…
In the new entrance system, the first wrestler comes in as normal, but then they’ll stick around and ‘react’ to the second wrestler’s entrance.
Pictures
HHH-In Triple h’s entrance, they’ll probably just fall asleep. It does take a long time.
The Batista picture at new years revolution-But faced with batista, they’re more likely to get out of the ring and cower by the apron.
A pretty good pic of Orton doing his arm thing-Watching Randy Orton mince his way down the ramp, any grappler worth his salt will be raring to go.

Rage in the Cage
It’s never been our favourite match type-Running away to win is a bit babyish for our liking- but the cage match has been massively improved this season. Check this out…

HHH kneeing Orton into the cage.
-There’s a new array of face gratting badness, like this knee in the neck
Orton about to slingshot HHH into the cage
-You can pull off popular moves like the slingshot into the bars.
HHH climbing while Orton is tugging his pants
-When one wrestler ties to climb out you can tug at their shorts instead of just rattling the cage.
Orton holding onto the top of the cage while HHH is pulling him off
-…Or climb up with them and fight for supremacy on the top of the cage. This happens a lot in real matches.
Benoit doing headbutt off the cage
-Or, of course you can just jump off the top like a nutter, As Chris Benoit’s demonstrating here.

Confused about how the new momentum system works?. Don’t be, its really quite simple. Here Edge and Chris Benoit takes us through the basics…


Theres some pretty good edge and Benoit pics which are kinda hard to explain but ohwell

Edge kicking Benoit
-You need to build momentum with your wrestlers best moves- high risk ones if your clean, and cheating if you’re dirty
Edge on turnbuckle
-once you’ve done enough to build up your finisher bar, you’ve got a couple of options to consider…
Benoit doing head but
-You can do it straight away to reflect the momentum on your side
Edge spearing Benoit
-Or you can store it to use later-as in previous Smackdowns
Edge doing taunt
-A stored finisher can be used to ‘steal’ an opponents taunt, which’ll reverse their momentum if they’re doing well.
-A blooded Benoit doing headbut
If you’ve got one smackdown ‘stored’, it’s time to hit a ‘super clean’ or ‘super dirty’ move….
Benoit doing crossface
-…so it’s all knowing the right time to go for the finish. Tap. Hippy Tap!

The Road to victory
One thing Yuke’s definitely won’t say anything about-apart from promising that it’s going to be loads better than last year’s- is season mode. What we do know is that wrestler voices will be back and once again proper wwe script bods will be inventing new storylines and events. What we don’t know is how much freedom you’ll have. In previous games you’ve been pretty much ridigly held to the script the entire way through. For what its worth, we’re hoping for a feuding system where you can deliberately interfere with people’s matches until they get so annoyed they give you a title shot-y’know, like in the real wwe. Observe a likely scenario…
Theres not captions with any information so I will just describe the pics
Edge and Benoit taunting each other with the unforgiven arena in the background
Pic of benoit with the back of Edges head
The pic of a blooded Benoit doing a headbut to a bloody Edge

Role Reversal
Sometimes you’ll notice wrestlers like Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam do an awful lot is reversing each other’s moves very quickly at the start of the match, and never quite hitting each other in a show of technical prowess that gets technically headed grapple fans all excited. In Smackdown, this is represented by the new reversal system which allows each wrestler to reverse moves as many as three times, combining with multiple animations for that flowing look. Nice touch.
A Picture of HHH doing a pedigree to Orton
-Pedigree’s can be reversed into a back drop or a catapult, natch.

The hard sell
In wrestling circles, ‘selling’ refers to ‘pretending moves hurt’. In the new smackdown, it’s represented – as always – by wrestlers limping when they’ve taken too many shots to the legs, or leaving an arm dangling after one tricky crossface escape.
HHH doing a knee drop to Orton
-A quick knee in the face is fine, but repeated shots will tire the bloke out doing the knee’s
Taker chokeslamming Benoit
-Whereas a move like the chokeslam takes one bug burst of stamina but does huge damage, making it quite efficient if you can land it.

This is hardcore
Remember when Stacy Keibler could knock out the Big show with a hammer? That won’t be happening any more. Each wrestler now has a hardcore attribute governing how effective they are with weapons. ECW boys will do loads of damage, while divas hardly do any.
Lots of pics with bloody most of em weve seen before on the internet
-Sadly no word on wether wrestlers with high ratings get extra moves- we’d love to see Edge doing the one man con chair to
-As you’d expect HHH is a bit nifty with a sledge hammer
-From what we’ve seen, ‘juiced’ wrestlers look a lot bloodier
-Kurt Angle Illustrates the new claret intensity by leaking like a broken fridge
-Again, sledge hammer animations have been improved to look more realistic.

It’s a knockout
How else has smackdown improved? Let us count the ways
*the picture of Orton RKO’ing Taker
-More reversal animations mean the taker could stop this move with the traditional throw him forwards move
-25%-30% more poly gons per wrestler mean randy ortons nipples are defined like never before. Look at that quality
-The wrestlers motion-captured their own moves, so this is the definitive Orton RKO
-Improved facial animations show off whether wrestlers are angry, sacred or just plain knackered

VERDICT
GM LOVES
+Burying people alive
+The Divas, although we haven’t seen them yet
GM HATES
-The collision detection on tables. Surely it’ll be better this year
-The Season mode
Most wanted meter-5(the highest it can be)
It’s sure to be the best wrestling game ever but will it have the balanced gameplay it needs to stand up against more conventional beat em ups?


Some interesting stuff, he also scanned the pages, but they are really bad and you cant make anything out on them.

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>Motion-captured moves</font> :cool:

[loopydate]

Didn't the Attitude/Warzone/Anarchy Rulz/Hardcore Revolution games use mocap?

Of course, the technology is way better now than it was then.

[Disturbed316]

Plus, it was Acclaim who published it, not THQ.

[DeadMan90]

Sounding good...

And I agree with Vito... theres nothing more irritating than making a C.A.W. and seeing him come out without the music, without the full look, and with painted on clothing.

Half the time it's like you made a guy around your town that looks KIND OF like the wrestler you wanted to make, but instead of coming out with the right attire, he's wearing a painted on shirt and coming out to some shitty generic techno music. How I envy X-Box owners at times...

[Drakul]

IGN are going to be releasing more info in the first week of August. The info will be for the PS2 version.
And may actually be videos since I checked and the guy said he played it.So Id assume he may put up a video or two.
He said he'd post them after Smackdown! this week.
Heres a link: http://boards.ign.com/WWE_SmackDown!/b6546/94793548/?120

Hope it's not insider only.Unless someone who is an insider downloads it and posts it here :shifty:

[Disturbed316]

Hope it is only Insider, still got my subscription :cool:

[DeadMan90]

I never did get the concept of being an Insider. The vids are almost always leaked and there aren't many perks to go with it. Not only that, but I can swear that there was a user here a few years back that got a free Insider subscription by mistake and definitely used it to his advantage.

[Volchok]

Deadman90 Would you please shut the hell up?

[Drakul]

tons of pics:

http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_02_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_03_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_04_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_05_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_06_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_07_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_08_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_09_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_10_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_13_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_15_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_16_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_17_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_18_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_19_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_21_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_22_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_23_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_24_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_25_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_27_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_28_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_29_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_30_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_31_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_32_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_33_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_34_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_35_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_36_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_37_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_38_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_39_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_40_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_42_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_44_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_46_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_47_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_48_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_49_big.jpg
tons of pics. 4 or 5 have already been posted I'm sure.
I just copy/pasted the link to one of the pics,since they where posted on another site so I never knew what the origonal site contained. I got some very gross pics by typing the wrong numbers in :wtf: .

Anyway the detail in the game looks great. Look at HHH's shoe as hes climbing the cell with Randy. Its bent like it should be when climbing the cage.Nice attention to detail there and judging by the Batistas entrance pic he won't have his pyro.:-\

[Hired Hitman]

http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_44_big.jpg

That is a nice RKO :eek:

http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_35_big.jpg

:shifty:

[Disturbed316]

Here is the article from where the pictures came from:

WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2006: manhandled



We step into the ring with THQ's latest grappler for PlayStation 2 and play it until it taps out.

"Every year we identify a theme," explains Nick Wlodyka, creative director of THQ's WWE titles. "For Smackdown! vs. RAW 2006, it's addressing the critics." He's not just talking about the likes of PlayStation.com and Girthy Grappling Games Fortnightly, but also the harshest critics of them all: you.

So yes, you can expect the usual enhancements - even more realistic wrestler models, superior animation, and an expanded, up-to-date roster (roughly 70 superstars this time) - but you'll also notice that a great deal of effort has gone into making the gameplay tighter than Batista's abs.

While the basic system remains largely the same, various tweaks and subtle additions have resulted in a better-rounded, and ultimately more authentic, grappling experience.

Staredowns and stamina

The first key tweak is the ability to select manually the nature of your pre-match face-off with a quick nudge of the right analog stick. Although you could opt to do the decent thing and start cleanly, it's far more fun to have a staredown, shoving match, or engage in a test of strength, each with a slightly different, reflex-testing mini-game to determine who draws first blood.

Once the match bell has tolled, it seems like business as usual; attempt your usual tactics of wearing your opponent down with repeated running attacks and power grapples, however, and you'll notice something different: your wrestler will be absolutely exhausted. Finally... stamina has come back to Smackdown!

No longer is it possible for one player to relentlessly beat down on the other, as your characters will exert energy and ultimately 'blow up' (wrestler slang for running out of steam). Only by holding Select can you regain stamina and continue showing your opponent who the daddy is.

Obviously, this means you're going to have to take some tactical breaks, which is where the new heavy Irish whip comes in. Holding Triangle and Circle will send your opponent crashing into a turnbuckle violently, or flying over the ropes, giving you time to take a recuperative breather.

Although simple in execution, it benefits the pacing of matches and should ensure that there'll be a more frequent shift of momentum during bouts. Our only concern is that wrestlers with lower stamina ratings could be prone to tiring too often, making them frustrating to use.

Other welcome improvements include multiple reversals, which promotes 'chain' wrestling (although it's still far too easy to counter), and a streamlined Momentum system, which combines the previous instalment's many gauges into one, easy-to-fill bar.

No! Anything but the coffin!

We also had a chance to sample a Buried Alive match, which finally makes it in after years of passionate requests from the fans. As the name suggests, the objective is to force your rival into a coffin (situated by the ring entrance), and force them inside it. As with most of Smackdown! vs. RAW's main events, it's largely a case of wearing down your foe sufficiently enough to beat them in a button-bashing battle and seal their fate.

According to THQ, these refinements represent only roughly half of what Smackdown! vs. RAW 2006 has to offer. Here's hoping that an improved online experience and EyeToy compatibility for the create-a-wrestler mode constitute at least some of the other 50 per cent. We'll discover what else THQ has concealed in its spandex tights when this highly promising update slams into stores this November.

Wow, a game finally has purpose to use the select button properly.

[Gouda]

http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_10_big.jpg

I thought in the ankle lock you were supposed to actually twist their ankle and not just hold their foot. :shifty:

Co-incidentally, wouldn't it be kinda cool if Angle could take down his straps in the middle of the match? It's not going to happen but... it would be cool.

[Dark-Slicer Diago]

2 more pics

http://eu.playstation.com/iw_images//assets/images/previews/s/smackdown_vs_raw_2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_11_big.jpg
http://eu.playstation.com/iw_images//assets/images/previews/s/smackdown_vs_raw_2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_50_big.jpg

[Batsu]

I'm really excited for this new SmackDown [vs RAW] game. Then again, I'm always excited every time a new game comes out. SmackDown vs RAW was the whole reason why I got back into wrestling after I quit watching through most of 2003 and the first half of 2004.

And I STILL have no idea who Garrison Cade is! Sheesh! ;)

But yeah, SVR 06 looks very promising. Apparently they're actually listening to the fans on this one, and I've heard there will be over 100 match types in the game (most likely combinations of how many people, what type of win, specialty matches, and B&P match costumes).

Yeah, the B&P matches got old after 2 or 3 (I just wanted to see the 3D models in their underwear :shifty: ), but you gotta have women in there. I say only have women that can or have been known to wrestle. Christy Hemme? Grudgingly yes. Might be entertaining for a Season mode. AND LET THE WOMEN PARTICIPATE IN SEASON MODES!

And, like in other SD! games, if (s)he won't be included in the game, at least include CAW stuff for them. I think it was Shut Your Mouth that had pre-made CAWs for Chris Nowinski and Nidia, since I guess they arrived after the cutoff date. Something like that for, say, Brock Lesnar and some OVW/dark match hopefuls would be nice. With the brand split, the rosters are definitely large for a video game to handle, but what about this idea...

Having add-on wrestlers available for purchase (free!!!) online, like WWE.com or THQ.com or something. Hacking and piracy concerns aside, I believe it could work out, maybe like a pre-set CAW within a saved file that most people can download to their system/memory card. I forgot how it works exactly, but isn't it possible to do?

Also, I agree that all titles should be included...how hard is it? Keep the create-a-belt feature, I have my own fictional organization running called the FWF, which is where all of my original CAWs came from (yes, I'm sad, I have a whole storyline for each of them and angles for them), so having a belt (or two or several) for them would be nice.

The Legend thing concerns me, too. Kane is not a legend, as stated above. Having Hall-of-Famer legends would make the most sense, especially on a year-by-year basis. By right, Hogan, Orndorff, Graham, Orton, and (dammit I forgot the 5th) should be in there, but other HOFers like Andre the Giant, Greg Valentine, Jesse Ventura, Jimmy Snuka, and Tito Santana should be in there as well.

And as was stated above, a Legend version of the Season Mode would definitely rock. Legends that return for another run, etc. That idea fascinates me, but probably won't be included...ever. For space reasons, I'm sure.

And I would be more than willing to sacrifice voiceovers for more features and details. I can imagine them yelling and insulting each other, I don't need voices to accompany them. Besides, CAWs won't be able to have voices under that scheme anyway. Just leave 'em out, I say.

(And that concludes my first ever post outside of the Wrestling Forum. :p)


^^^^^ 100% un-Hassan-ed TRUTH

[DeadMan90]

Deadman90 Would you please shut the hell up?

Any reason why I should? Do you like trying to start a flame war with me? I mean, it's not going to happen because you want it to you know, so just stop while you're ahead ol' chap. I'm not a goof who talks about his friend "cracky" and I'm not a moron who claims to have "0wn3d" Lance Storm. I'm here for discussion of this game and for discussion of whatever else on the other boards, so if you can learn to grow up, please do. Oh, and thanks for your time, Ecko.

Anyway, by way of how the pics look, it's turning out good so far. My main gripe is theres still many old animations being used. They said that the animations would be revamped this time around and even completely redone, so I still have faith as far as that goes.

And Gouda is right. They should definitely fix the hit detection, clipping, and floating body parts during certain moves (Like Gouda pointed out, look at Taker in the ankle lock) before it's released.

[loopydate]

This is just a minor thing, but...

http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_36_big.jpg
http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_05_big.jpg

Look at Benoit's chest in the first pic vs. Orton's in the second. Not every bloody (in the literal sense) match looks exactly the same? :drool:

[Drakul]

I doubt it will but wouldn't it be cool if the blood flowed in real time. Like you see it running down there face instead of just popping out of nowhere.

[loopydate]

That would be amazing. I'd just be happy to see opponents' blood rub off on you. Like, you put a bloody opponent in a headlock, your chest is smeared with blood (like Benoit's in the headbutt pic)

[Drakul]

yeah.LoW had the blood drip and stain the mat.That would look cool to.

[Tornado]

Here's hoping that an improved online experience and EyeToy compatibility for the create-a-wrestler mode constitute at least some of the other 50 per cent.

EyeToy use would be awesome.

[Cool King]

yeah.LoW had the blood drip and stain the mat.That would look cool to.

Yeah and like Loopy said, It would be great to see opponents' blood rub off on you , but I dunno if this has been spoken about but, I hope the Royal Rumble is better in SvR2, because in SvR as soon as you started the Rumble, the timeer would pop up and then again, straight after the other superstar gets in the ring.

I really like my Rumbles to be like the actual ones, all hectic and really tough, well I actually like all my wresting matches on WWE Games to be really hard and hectic, but my brother likes them to be single one on ones, which I find really boring.

[Tornado]

Yeah and like Loopy said, It would be great to see opponents' blood rub off on you , but I dunno if this has been spoken about but, I hope the Royal Rumble is better in SvR2, because in SvR as soon as you started the Rumble, the timeer would pop up and then again, straight after the other superstar gets in the ring.

I really like my Rumbles to be like the actual ones, all hectic and really tough, well I actually like all my wresting matches on WWE Games to be really hard and hectic, but my brother likes them to be single one on ones, which I find really boring.

Yeah it'd be better if there was some time between entrants instead of people constantly entering.

[Cool King]

EyeToy use would be awesome.

I was just think about using the EyeToy for SvR2 today, I was thinking that you could maybe use it to record videos for your entrance, so If you make yourself, you actually have a decent video and not one you chose only because the wrestler has the same hair as you or whatever.

[Cuzziebro]

Yeah it'd be better if there was some time between entrants instead of people constantly entering.

It would be good if more than six people coud be in the ring at the same time. And have Classic Survivor Series matches such as 8 man or 10 man elim. tag matches. That would be cool!

[Disturbed316]

To clear things up about the blood. It is being said that there is going to be "three stages of blood". The little cut, like on Orton:

http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_05_big.jpg

Blood all over the face, see Batista:

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/631/631085/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050704005218027.jpg

Then all over the face and chest:

http://www.nawwe.com/svr2006/smackdown_vs_raw_2006_36_big.jpg

Oh and on the IGN update tonight, there is going to be videos of the gameplay :D

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>SSSSSSSS @ videos of gameplay :cool:

I'm thinking I'll go to FuncoLand for my annual pre-order tomorrow...hopefully this year I won't have to go cancelling it</font> :D

[DeadMan90]

I was just wondering if any of you guys remember around the time when SD:JBI was in the early stages of development that there was talk of face mapping.

I seem to remember that, but I don't remember what it's called. It was pretty great to imagine your face in the newest smackdown, but the idea was shot down and was possibly only a rumor...

But it's been what now? About 4 or 5 years since then? It'd be pretty cool if they started to take advantage of that type of technology, but the question is why don't they? I mean, if it took a little more time to work on the game, I wouldn't be opposed, because it was the main problem with SvR, they just didn't take enough time with it.

[KingofOldSchool]

I get this game early and at a discount.

I rock.

[Disturbed316]

The info is up! Here is the link to the article: http://ps2.ign.com/articles/638/638978p1.html

Copied & Pasted for the lazy gits:

WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2006
Listen up wrestling fans! Brand new screens, hands-on impressions, and the first ever gameplay videos await you.
by Jeremy Dunham
August 4, 2005 - Before our annual SmackDown coverage kicked off early last month, THQ production members Cory Ledesma and Devin Knudsen told me privately that this was the year that the team wanted to go all out... the year that Yuke's and THQ planned to reinforce their idea that WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2006 would emerge as the premier wrestling game of its day -- and that when I finally had the chance to sit down and play the product for the very first time, that there was no way that I could doubt them...


They were right.
Presumptuous as it may be, it's safe to say that SmackDown vs. RAW 2006 is definitely heading towards the same kind of lofty acclaim given to 2003's big man on campus, Here Comes the Pain. Even now in its earliest form (a pre-alpha build that's as barebones as you can get), the game is already a noticeable improvement over last year's strong but subdued follow-up. In fact, based on what I've seen so far, THQ has listened to its fans this season more than ever -- providing so many new features, modes, and subtle little gameplay additions that it eclipses all other SmackDown sequels comparatively.

Take, for example, the large improvement to the visuals. To make things as realistic as possible, the artists have gone back to the beginning and reanimated 40-50% of all animations in the entire game. Not only does this mean that a good chunk of the in-ring moves have been completely overhauled, but that every single cutscene and ring entrance has been redone from scratch as well. Even better is the fact that those same entrances and cutscenes have been motion-captured for the utmost in authenticity -- whereas only a few of those moments had been mo-capped and reused for the entire franchise previously.

This attention to detail really shines through in wrestler entrances too, as every ringwalk that I've witnessed so far matches up with its real life counterpart almost exactly. Triple H, for instance, has retained the same cocky nuances in his digital strut that he has in real life -- from the way he throws his bottle into the crowd, to the way he poses after spraying its retained water from his mouth. Entrances are also helped by the fact that Yuke's has finally turned off the time limit that cut the previous ringwalks short (which was usually kept to a minute or less). Now, if a stroll to the arena is supposed to take two or three minutes to complete in real life, that's also how long it'll take to complete in the game. I've even noticed a few alternate camera angles during the same wrestler's ringwalk a couple of times... but whether or not that's an actual feature or just a result of the earliness of the build is hard to say.


Another impressive graphical upgrade comes in the form of wrestler skin tones, hair, and textures. Just look at the hulking Batista who looks exactly like the real thing. From the incomplete dragon tattoo on his back to the veins flowing through his heavily-exercised chest, the level of realism here is rather imposing. To achieve this, THQ has meticulously scanned the faces of each of the WWE superstars and divas so that they are as accurate to their real world counterparts as possible. And when you add the entirely 3D polygonal crowd (last year's was a mix of 2D and 3D), enhanced lighting and pyro effects, and the fact that every character's eyes follow the movements of their opponent, you have all the elements necessary for some kick-ass visual entertainment.

Unfortunately, because of the early nature of the build I played for this preview, all of the wrestler entrances are incomplete. TitanTron videos, the correct background music, voice-over, and the majority of the sound effects aren't even in the game yet (which leads me to wonder just how cool the final ringwalks may ultimately turn out to be). At least wrestlers, ring announcers, and commentators appear in and outside the ring during the introductions, though, which at the very least adds a nice and long overdue presentational touch.

Also unfinished in our preview build was the roster, as THQ hasn't finalized the complete lineup quite yet. I did manage to confirm, however, at least 13 of the superstars who will definitely make their way into the finished product (and counted almost 30 more in the regular lineup excluding divas and legends). But before you can ask about anyone other than the 15 guys listed below, you have to remember that the WWE and THQ isn't ready to go on record about who else is in there, so you might as well save your breath. With that in mind, here are the 15 people you can definitely expect to see in SmackDown vs. RAW 2006.

Batista
Carlito Caribbean Cool
Chris Benoit
Christian
Eddie Guerrero
Edge
JBL
John Cena
Kane
Kurt Angle
Randy Orton
Rey Mysterio
Shelton Benjamin
Triple H
The Undertaker

[Disturbed316]

THQ did go on record, however, regarding several of SmackDown's modes and features (and how they're going to work). The playable arenas, for example, total 17 in all and there's a chance that we may even see a few more if time permits. All the familiar PPV venues have been included in here too, with no-brainers such as WrestleMania 21 and Royal Rumble appearing in addition to more surprising locations like Taboo Tuesday. The previously whispered "girly" outfits for the Divas were confirmed as well, which means that players can expect to see all their favorite WWE women sporting nurse's outfits, schoolgirl uniforms, and French maid getups.


In fact, these new and exotic attires link nicely into one of SmackDown vs. RAW's brand new Main Event types, the "Fulfill Your Fantasy" match. A replacement for the somewhat repetitive "Bra and Panties" contest found in the products from the past two years, "FYF" takes the previous idea and expands on it by quite a bit. Now, not only can players select to outfit their Diva in any one of the aforementioned costumes, but they'll also be able to use them inside a red satin wrestling ring... complete with a super bouncy bed (that the girls can jump up and down on, no less) and purple comfort chairs with big fluffy pillows. Don't worry, though, you'll still be able to rip each other's clothes off just like before -- but in order to win the match properly you'll have to participate in a good old-fashioned pillow fight that adds reaction points to your overall victory meter. And yes, it's surprisingly enjoyable.
The most talked about new main event, however, has to be the long-awaited Buried Alive match (which users have been asking for forever). Setup with no-holds barred rules and mirroring the Vince McMahon / Undertaker match from a few years back, it uses several never-before-seen mechanics to give it quite a freshened edge. If you want to be technical about it, it's not a buried alive match at all since it's essentially finished once you've slammed your opponent into a casket (and then the a cutscene takes over from there). Even so, the control theory behind the bout is actually pretty neat -- presenting players with three different button puzzles in order to get the most out of it.

It all begins when you throw your foe into the edge of the casket and force them into a subdued and stationary position; from there, a simple grapple in any direction then turns the opponent over face-first thus initiating a mini-game. At that point, the struggle is all about who can push the buttons faster as a vertical submission bar appears to reflect the struggle for placement in the coffin. If the aggressor can make it to the top of the bar before time runs, it means that you've successfully put your enemy into the coffin and the next mini-game begins. This one is a little less difficult too, as the player just has to move the right analog stick up and down to close the lid on the tomb -- but if your opponent can hit the R2 or L2 buttons fast enough, the attempt is reversed and he'll make it out alive. Needless to say, it's quite the entertaining match type. It'll be interesting to see how interactive the surrounding environment gets as development progresses.

Speaking of interesting, the all-new Backstage Brawl Event type has also been made available and it boasts three distinct non-arena battles to participate in. The good news is that all three locations are brand new and have never been used before (ie: a revamped backstage area, a bar, and a redesigned parking lot). What's cool about it, though, is that despite being a pre-alpha build the environments are highly interactive and sport fresh object reactions. So while the first SmackDown vs. RAW certainly offered specialty animations when you were thrown into cars, none of them are repeated here. Granted, you may see a few variations on pre-existing maneuvers, but at least they're not rehashes.

One aspect of the Backstage Brawls that I liked in particular is that they're full of WWE staff members going about their daily routine. If you really want to, you can go ahead and attack them in the middle of a conflict with your regular opponent and involve them in whatever beating you want to dish out. These third parties add a bit of strategy to the match too, since the staff can be just as detrimental as your adversary can.

Just because there are a bunch of new Main Event types, though, doesn't mean that old Main Events have been neglected. In the 2006 version of the Cage Match, for example, things play out a lot more realistically. To start, you can now chase your rival up the cage and pull him down mid-climb instead of having to constantly bump into the fence. There's also a neat little timing-based mini-game that makes scaling the cage or crawling to the door much more strategic using a variation on the pre-existing submission system. The ability to throw your foe into fence for more damage and increased blood loss (three levels of blood loss, in fact), a mysterious bonus cage match type known as "Legend Cage" should also add some incentives.

Title belt defenses and title belt creation have also been expanded upon, as players can now create Tag Team straps in addition to singles titles. You'll be able to compete against other players in "title-for-title" matches as well (you may remember this feature from Know Your Role), or try and win a slew of pre-existing belts already available from the outset. All modern belts (and several older ones) are represented here too, with the WWE; World; WWE Tag; World Tag; Intercontinental; U.S; Cruiserweight; Women's; Hardcore; and a special surprise belt yours from the taking right from the beginning.

In the brief time I've spent with SvR 2006 so far, I can also tell you that the gameplay has changed rather dramatically. A lot more deliberate in pace, the average match seems to take twice as long as it used too -- thanks to the brand new stamina system that drains wrestlers of energy for doing more spectacular moves. The idea here is certainly a good one and it balances out confrontations between newbies and veterans, but stamina seems to be lost a little too quickly right now. Using Rey Mysterio (a guy with a substantial stamina rating), I still seemed to tired out after only 6-7 seemingly moderate moves -- requiring me to press select to manually regenerate my stamina on a regular basis. If balanced correctly, stamina will prove to be the single most important element in any match... that's for sure.

A couple of other gameplay tweaks also change the way matches play out, as they're amore user-friendly than before. When a bout first begins, for instance, you can now use the right analog stick to choose what kind of pre-match scenario you want to engage in (stare down, test of strength, lockup) or decide to skip that step altogether. An all-new set of moves (which I can't seem to pigeonhole yet) have also joined the submission, signature, power, and quick movesets because Triangle and Circle are now used for Power Irish Whips. You can still do regular Irish Whips while running and tapping circle, but regular whips are no longer possible when standing still.

Most impressive of all, though, would have to be the improved enemy AI. Still not operating at 100%, the aggression and strategy of the CPU is pretty hardcore -- and much higher than it used to be in any previous SmackDown. THQ and Yuke's finally recognized that hardcore players are the ones who usually buy the majority of their games every year anyway, so why not make it harder? Even at this stage, the CPU AI does pulls off some pretty nasty stuff: three-move reversals, clever positioning between you and the referee when he's hurt, and frequent pin attempts when you're in trouble. Finally, we have a formidable artificial opponent and I can't wait to see how much more advanced it's going to get.

That about wraps it up for my first playthrough with WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2006, but it doesn't even begin to tell you what the game has in store. There are dozens of other cool things I've been asked not to tell you about yet, in addition to all the remaining superstars, divas, and legends yet to be confirmed. There's even a brand new sleeper hold submission system and the ability to play possum for sneak attacks! Check back with us again next week for another update, and be sure and click on the media page below for all-new screenshots and the first-ever videos.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs :cool:

[Disturbed316]

The videos show how promising this game is going to be. I would recommend people watching them, you can already see improvements from SvR.

[Disturbed316]

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/638/638978/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050804014354247.jpg

Hahahahahaha :D

[Disturbed316]

Dancing Dave

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/638/638978/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050804014338028.jpg

Store your finisher

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/638/638978/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050804014336341.jpg

Wrestling Cunt

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/638/638978/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050804014344575.jpg

Go for it Chris

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/638/638978/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050804014341388.jpg

TWO FUCKING LADDERS

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/638/638978/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050804014331747.jpg

Wow

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/638/638978/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050804002152622.jpg

[KingofOldSchool]

That one of Kane is :drool:

[Volchok]

Okay and when does this come out?

[Drakul]

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/638/638978/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050804002150794.jpg
Looks good so far.Not sure about theface though.

[Hired Hitman]

:eek:

[Eunos]

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/638/638978/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-
*MARKS THE FUCK OUT*

One of the biggest dissapointments about last years addition was the lack of New Wrestlers.. Fair enough we had returnies (Bradshaw, Scotty) But only 3 Wrestlers were actually new to the Series (Jindrak, Dupree, Cade).

I hope we get alot of new guys this year.

[Cool King]

Red X:(

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>Yeah....definately going to pre-order this tonight</font> :cool:

[Disturbed316]

There is a new video up on IGN. It's an interview with one of the guys making the game. It's pretty decent, you see the Burried Alive Match in action and a clips from some enterances. Check it out.

[Just John]

Cool, I skipped that one

[PorkSoda]

The new animations look awesome. Like in ladder matches it takes like 3 seconds to get to the top of the ladder instead you just rush up there and your automatically there. You better be able to bring the second ladder in the ring too.

[Volchok]

I think i'm in love..:love:

[Just John]

Cool, you can fight for dominance on the top of the cage also you can defend titles in exhibition mode

[Yashamaga]

holy shit, look at the detail in the Batista pic :eek:

[Gouda]

Looks like they need to work on their afro mechanism a bit more.

[TerranRich]

Heh, Carlito looks awesome except for his afro...it needs more substance to it, it looks too thinned out.

Also: Now, you all might not agree with me, but when Chris Masters comes to the ring, I WANT his 3-minute long entrance, posing and all. I want authenticity, not shortcuts. I'm loving SVR 06 more and more. This also means full-length themes that I can rip for my site! :D

Man, I'm preordering this baby! :D

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>Preordered several hours ago......getting really hyped up for this shit already</font> :cool:

[Hired Hitman]

Heh, Carlito looks awesome except for his afro...it needs more substance to it, it looks too thinned out.

Also: Now, you all might not agree with me, but when Chris Masters comes to the ring, I WANT his 3-minute long entrance, posing and all. I want authenticity, not shortcuts. I'm loving SVR 06 more and more. This also means full-length themes that I can rip for my site! :D

Man, I'm preordering this baby! :D
deeee.... GONG.... GONG...... GONG....Daaaaaassssssssss-GONG... da da tis da da tis da da tis... :shifty:

[Mike the Metal Ed]

If Chris Masters entrance isn't properly synced, I'll get a refund. :mad:

[loopydate]

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/638/638978/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-20050804014354247.jpg

CARLITO: Static electricity? Das not cool.

[Just John]

Look at the 2 ladders pic, I spot a Eugene T-shirt....

[TerranRich]

If Chris Masters entrance isn't properly synced, I'll get a refund. :mad:

I hear ya. Say what you want about the wrestler, I want everything to be authentic, even if that means spending a week refining his entrance in the game. :lol:

[Just John]

Yeah, as much as I hate Cena I'd still like his currnet music in the game jus t to make it more authentic

[Just John]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/jrt/wwe-smackdown-vs-raw-2006-200508040.jpg


New attire for Rey Rey anyone?

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>Acording to the video interview, he said "We're going to have a HUGE roster of over 60 superstars, and an increased legends roster as well"

I'm assuming that means 60+ CURRENT superstars plus legends...........since I'm bored, I'll make a dream roster (except for the divas.....who I will put in just for the sake of not being TOO unrealistic)

RAW
-Antonio
-Big Show
-Carlito Caribbean Cool
-Chris Jericho
-Chris Masters
-Edge
-Eugene
-Gene Snitsky
-Hulk Hogan :shifty:
-John Cena
-Kane
-Kerwin White
-Kurt Angle
-Lita
-Matt Hardy
-Ric Flair
-Rob Conway
-Rob Van Dam
-Romeo
-Rosey
-Shawn Michaels
-Shelton Benjamin
-Stacy Keibler
-Tajiri
-Tatanka :shifty: (hey, he DID sign a contract)
-The Hurricane
-Triple H
-Trish Stratus
-Victoria
-Viscera

SmackDown!
-Batista
-Big Stevie Cool
-Big Vito
-Booker T
-Brock Lesnar :shifty:
-Candice Michelle
-Chris Benoit
-Christian
-Da Blue Guy
-Daivairi
-Eddie Guerrero
-Frankie Kazarian
-Heidenreich
-Hollywood Nova
-Joey Mercury
-John Bradshaw Layfield
-Johnny Nitro
-Juventud Guerrera
-Melina
-Muhammad Hassan (or whatever the fuck his new gimmick is)
-Nunzio
-Orlando Jordan
-Paul London
-Psicosis
-Randy Orton
-Rey Mysterio
-Super Crazy
-The Undertaker
-Torrie Wilson
-William Regal

-------------

Now will the real rosters be like that? No, not even close........Victoria will be axed in favor of Christy, the bWo will get cut for Scotty 2 Hotty, Hardcore Holly, and Simon Dean.......they'd probably get rid of Vito for Michelle McCool or something, etc. My rosters have no chance in hell of happening, but that would be an AWESOME roster</font>

[PorkSoda]

Yeah, that would be a kickass roster. I really don't see Kazarian in the game, as well as the Heart Throbs, but if they say 60+ then they do have a chance in getting in

[TerranRich]

Everywhere I go, people bash the idea of even having a Simon Dean CAW for SVR. What is everybody's problem with him? He's a gimmick, and can be entertaining sometimes (especially when he was with Maven, he had his moments). But yeah, 60+ superstars AND the legends, that's quite an announcement by the makers of SVR 2006, and I'm glad. Now all I need to hear about is the CAW feature and how much it's improved. :D

[loopydate]

New page, new predicted roster now that I know I get five more people per show (and I have nothing else to do atm):

RAW

Antonio
Big Show
Carlito
Chris Jericho
Chris Masters
Christy Hemme
Edge
Eugene
Gene Snitsky
John Cena
Kane
Kerwin White
Kurt Angle
Lita
Maria
Matt Hardy
Ric Flair
Rob Conway
Rob Van Dam
Romeo
Rosey
Shawn Michaels
Shelton Benjamin
Stacy Keibler
Tajiri
The Hurricane
Triple H
Trish Stratus
Victoria
VisceraI'm leaving out Hogan, hoping WWE will take a cue from last year and use him as a Legend, leaving a RAW roster spot open. If he's in as a RAW superstar, then they'd probably drop the Heart Throbs and have Hogan and Tyson Tomko take the last two spots. As is, I'm leaving out Tomko, Rene Dupree, Val Venis, and Danny Basham, although I could see Tomko, Dupree, or Venis replacing Maria. But I think with the "Fulfill Your Fantasy Match" option, they'll want to include as many divas as possible. Foley, Austin, and Rock can be Legends, although I kinda hope they're not. They're easy as hell to make in CAW, so use those slots for some underappreciated Legends.

SmackDown!


Batista
Booker T
Candice
Chris Benoit
Christian
Eddie Guerrero
Frankie Kazarian
Funaki
Hardcore Holly
Heidenreich
JBL
Jillian
Joey Mercury
Johnny Nitro
Juventud
Melina
Michelle McCool
Nunzio
Orlando Jordan
Paul London
Psicosis
Randy Orton
Rey Mysterio
Sharmell
Simon Dean
Steven Richards
Super Crazy
Torrie Wilson
Undertaker
William RegalI'm leaving out Road Warrior Animal for the same reasons as Hogan. Let him be a Legend, since they've used the Warriors as such every game, anyway. The rest of the cutting-room floor choices were easy. Scotty 2 Hotty, Doug Basham, and Sylvain Grenier aren't doing anything. Although, if they decide to put bWo in, I'd guess they'll cut either Funaki, Kazarian, or Sharmell. But, again, the FTF match suggests a large diva roster.

And then for Legends, I'd include Hogan and the Road Warriors as mentioned before. I think it would be cool if we got people like Tito Santana, Paul Orndorff, Junkyard Dog, Harley Race, and Greg Valentine, but probably not. Kind of a funny touch (and I can't believe I'm suggesting this) would be throwing Moolah and Mae in as Legends with the option of using them in the FTF match.

[Drakul]

I watched the IGN interview and it shows you Carlito Vs Batista in a cage.
You can see the cage door is open, just after Batista powerbombs Carlito. I'm assuming this means you can escape through the door....Finally.

Sorry if they mentioned this already.

[Just John]

I dont think I'll use that what with the new way of climbig and the fighting for dominance at the top.

[Drakul]

I agree but It could be good if you're playing against someone and you are being destroyed and you just whip them into the exposed turnbuckle furthest from the door (causing that long animation then theyd be stunned in the corner) and you run out the door. Its cheap,it works and you get the excuse to do that evil laugh super-villans do.

[Just John]

Yeah, just as someones climbing up the long way, you get up and just take the door.

[Gouda]

I'm thinking that there are only certain times you can go out the door. Like after you've done your finisher or something and the guy is out.

Cause if you could just run out at anytime... kinda...makes it bad.

[Just John]

Nah, I think you'll have to call for the door to be opened, which will take some time

[Disturbed316]

LOW had the door thing locked down good. First part was gay, as you had to attack the door and make it weak before it opened. But when it did, you had to rapidly button bash to get out. Although it sounds stupid, it actually made the matches more exciting and would try to get out over the top.

[Batsu]

Just because there are a bunch of new Main Event types, though, doesn't mean that old Main Events have been neglected. In the 2006 version of the Cage Match, for example, things play out a lot more realistically. To start, you can now chase your rival up the cage and pull him down mid-climb instead of having to constantly bump into the fence. There's also a neat little timing-based mini-game that makes scaling the cage or crawling to the door much more strategic using a variation on the pre-existing submission system. The ability to throw your foe into fence for more damage and increased blood loss (three levels of blood loss, in fact), a mysterious bonus cage match type known as "Legend Cage" should also add some incentives.


YES. FINALLY!!

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>Seeing as this is more than likely the last edition of SD on the PS2......I hope they surprise us and give us the CAW Password system we've been asking for for ages, rather than having to be faced with the decision of spending at least an hour using a formula to create a great-looking CAW or spending 15 minutes making a half-assed one</font> :(

[TerranRich]

CAW password system? You mean like including wrestlers they dropped from the roster as pre-made CAWs? That'd be a great feature. I wouldn't mind a CAW version of the dropped guys.

[Drakul]

No, I read that in HCTP there was supposedly going to be a system where you made your CAW and once you saved them to your memory card you got a password. You would then give the password to people you knew who would then type it in on there game then the computer would build the CAW automatically without having to do the pain staking formulas.
So yeah, instead of using a formula to make a CAW you would input a password.Basically.

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>I also hope they make the Rumble a little more random in this game.....it's fairly obvious that THQ rigged it in SVR so that the upper-midcard guys come out early and the main eventers all enter towards the end (I'm assuming as a way to keep the jobbers in it from having a chance, but it kinda takes the fun out of it when it's obviously not random)</font>