The Official Smackdown vs Raw 2 thread
 

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/ar...0072255197.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?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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:

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

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

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

Oh yeah, and put back in the tag titles.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

I've been saying that for years.

My Arena's were always bright gold, everywhere.

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 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

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 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

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

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

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.

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

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

The last game or the last wrestling game? :o

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

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.

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!!!

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

<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>

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.

Jannetty should be the on the normal roster.

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.

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

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

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

The Day is OFFICIAL -- July 4

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

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.

Has Demoliton ever been in a wrestling game besides Wrestlefest?

Are they in this one?

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

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.

It's Firefly, shut the fuck up.

Bra and panties doesn't belong in SvR. It belongs in friggin' Rumble Roses.

A stripe is rather easy to do as well, unless of course you're four years old.

SMACKDOWN vs. RAW Not Old School vs. New School.

Rated T for Teen

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.

<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> :(

A small ECW invasion storyline during season would be sweet.

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.

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

Why waste space on a Women's Season Mode?

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

All credit goes to IGN. Link 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.

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.

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.

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:

Pics:

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ar...4005210544.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ar...4005218027.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ar...4005217137.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ar...4005216137.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ar...4005215231.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ar...4005214356.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ar...4005213418.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ar...4005212481.jpg
http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ar...4005211622.jpg


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

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

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

great post Disturbed

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

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ar...216137-000.jpg

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/ar...218027-000.jpg

not bad.

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...

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

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

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.

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

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

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...

They need Hassan.

This was posted over at Gamefaqs:

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

http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ture0010xy.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ture0021jd.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/b188/m...Picture003.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/b188/m...Picture004.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/b188/m...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

so this comes out in 2006 or something?

This was posted at Gamefaqs:

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

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/5...ture0010xy.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2...ture0021jd.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Picture003.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Picture004.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Picture005.jpg

credit to mr_highlight for scans

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