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**Disturbed316** · 07-04-2005, 06:05 PM

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.

07-04-2005, 06:05 PM	#79
Disturbed316 Posts: 22,695	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.