Official cover

http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/ar...0093457462.jpg
http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/ar...0093455869.jpg
http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/ar...0093451509.jpg

Don't like the cover, honestly.

WWE 12? Ummm....okay? Does this mean that this game is designed for 12 year olds considering the PG era? GOD IHOP ENOT!

See what I did there? I put IHOP in that sentence. Clever, huh?

Hopefully they got a brand new engine for this game. WWE 12 (huh?) should be different than the Smackdown series.

I'm thrilled that they stole the wake up taunt from the Wrestle Kingdom games. If it's what I'm thinking, it's not a specific animation, ie, it's not a ground grapple taunt that results in them getting up like the old games. Instead, it's a normal taunt that forces people to stagger to their feet in a dazed state. Could be awesome.

Also, yay for stored finishers.

I am curious to see how the grappling works. They say it depends on how much damage the guy has sustained. Since it's mapped to face buttons, I'm guessing it's five grapples a damage state ( the button, and then the button along with each of the four directions.) I'm guessing there's unphased, tired, and dizzy. That would be 15 front grapples total, plus 2 sigs and two finishers. Then add in back grapples, etc, I'd be okay with that.

If it ends up being like 8 grapples total, I'll be pissed though.

It clearly isn't a new engine based on the shots up there.

Yeah, the wake up thing after a taunt is awesome. Loved doing that to hit an EX Finisher in VPW2.

Speaking of VPW and grapple moves though, I really miss just holding the button longer for stronger grapples. If you get the system right, you just make it so they're ridiculously easy to reverse early on.

Didn't WWE Day of Recognizing 1 & 2 do the same thing with the break up of any move and even went as far as if anyone else was within the falling wrestler, they would get hit as well?

Then again I think all the wrestling games on the Gamecube did the same thing although they also all had the constant mashing of the A button to get up and the ganging up of the CPU to always beat up the player and not each other.

Yes the GC games had that, which is why we know it's awesome.

My DoR CAW always had a broad kick as a special, I really hope you can do any sort of move to break up other moves.

I think you're paranoid about the last part though. I still play a LOT of DoR2 due to it ebig the only WWE game in the past 6 or so years with a decent engine. I play with the CPU on max difficulty and if you leave them alone, 2 will square off and fight each other.

Only problem with interrupting moves. Pretty much makes handicap matches impossible.

How so? 1 guy can't block simultaneous yet different attacks? I don't get what you're sayin' here.:?:

If moves can be interrupted, it's going to be hard to hit a move on someone when their partner can interrupt it. Basically, you're going to have a hell of a hard time doing moves to your opponents because they'll be able to interrupt you. I highly doubt you're going to be able to block attacks while doing a suplex.

Then try harder. :)

This system makes you appreciate landing moves.

I think the cover looks cool. RKO!

wow I went from definitely not getting to likely getting after all this info.

Until people try to play online, and the matches consist of 90% strikes because that's the only thing people can land. Then people will whine that the game is cheap. What it really comes down to is the fact that you can't please everybody.

Have you ever played DoR?

Word. I was like 99% sure I was skipping this year. I'm like 50-50 now.
Kalyx is on point here. It makes matches sooooo much more epic. I especially hope they keep the DoR feature where not only can you interrupt moves, you can use use things like overhead belly to belly suplexes to throw one dude into another and take them both out. First thing I'm doing when my brothers are in town this week is firing up DoR 2 and having a Fatal 4 way last man standing match.

I have an image in my head right now with one guy trying to suplex another onto the steps and a third person broad kicking the guy doing the suplex into the steps and the other guy being dropped head first onto him. Physics + interruptable moves could = awesome.

You know what I loved in DoR? Spearing a dude out of Sweet Chin Music, Stunnering the other guy and then locking a Sharpshooter back on the first guy and winning the triple threat. Seriously, so many good times with those 2 games.

EXACTLY.

Unless it was the first round of specials of the game, then HBK would get up and knock you down and apply some more SCM.

Wait wait wait... I've just read that IGN thing. It's faster and no more teleporting moves <3

God. Gonna have to fire up dor2 later today if i can find my gamecube controller.

Yeah, I have. I know how it works. I'm not denying it can cause for some epic matches. I'm just saying that A. I hope the AI is closer to DOR, as opposed to the last Smackdown game, because then it's going to be near impossible to do things other than strikes in a handicap match. (In DOR the computer wasn't at strike crazy as they are in the Smackdown games.) B. It's going to give people to already play cheaply a whole new avenue of cheapness. You know who I'm talking about. Like the guys who will do a triple threat match, but play it like a handicap match.

Anyway, I'm not saying it's a bad feature. It's a feature I LIKE in wrestling games. I'm just concerned that it won't mesh well with their engine/style. They need to fix the AI, the selling, and the distance of some moves. If not, I could see the move interrupting being really annoying/frustrating, and not in the good way..

Private matches. That seems to be the best route for every game ever, unless the developer has a heavy hand on their online suite - which I don't see from this team.

Private games, avoid assholes.

Yeah the move-interrupting will either be really cool or completely ruin the game. That may be a little melodramatic, but yeah, as has been said, being in a 2 on 1 match it will be incredibly annoying having every move broken up and having to resort to spamming strikes and running attacks.

2 on 1 matches are supposed to be very hard, canon and realistically speaking.

I remember taking on Vince and Shane McMahon handicap style in No Mercy's story mode. That was some difficult shit.

Kayfabe: The Game :y:

I hope they fix recovery times for this one. MITB from '11 is horrendous since nobody stays down.

MITB in every game since it was included has always been fucking horrendous.

I've only played '11, but from what I gather every single Smackdown vs Raw game was pretty much the same.

I don't know about all that.

Yeah, they haven't fixed that shit in like 5 games or something. Doubt it'll happen.

I don't like the time-based ladder system anyway. I always complain about this, and it never gets fixed. They need to incorporate a mini game that gets progressively easier in addition to the time limit in ladder matches. That way, you can either win right out of the gate with some luck, or just do it the current way. It'd fix the drawn-out ladder matches and make them enjoyable for me again.

Well, they were enjoyable in 11 because of the physics. But MITB and even ones with less participants can go an hour, which is ridiculous.

I'd say having to fiddle with the hook for a minute is unrealistic, but Jack Swagger shattered that perception.

First gameplay vid before we get a better one next week while it's at E3

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Don't know about that camera. Seems too jittery. I get what they're going for with it, but it really doesn't have the real thing nailed down. Really hope it's fixed.

Looks okay. The taunt into the RKO was awesome. Otherwise, looks like the same game. Might even be even lower quality in terms of textures.

But I know it's an early build, so I won't base much off of that video.

That's what I thought, hopefully the E3 vids will look better.

Moves are loud this year.

The new angle slam and punt animations look great.

The graphics do look lower quality slightly... I wonder if it's the video, or the game. If it's the game, I wonder if we'll finally get 8 man matches.

Still looks meh to me. Kinda looks like the same Smackdown engine it has been.

Can't tell much from that video and I'm not going to judge right away....I'll wait longer and see more

Someone suggested bring back Create a PPV earlier? Well you can use story designer as one now.

I wonder if Booker T will be color on Smackdown or will they just have Cole and King again recycled.