The Official Smackdown vs Raw 2007 Thread

**Dark-Slicer Diago** · 10-02-2006, 10:27 AM

page 3

But having a cool locker room means more than just looking cool. Like last year, it serves an actual purpose for your loaded profile. In addition to the Wall of Fame, Challenge Mode, belt case, and WWE magazines highlighted above, for example, players can also access a loading screen manager (32 screens in total), customize CAW attributes, access profile stats, and purchase new bonuses at the WWE shopzone. The shopzone is much easier to navigate this year too, and provides a great one-stop spot to pick up new legends, new moves, and cool championship belt alternatives (like the Smoking Skull and NWO variants). The locker room also grants admission to "The Desk" which is an invaluable tool for a variety of Season Mode reasons.

And what about Season Mode? How does it work and how is it different? Well, it begins rather simply -- after choosing an existing or created superstar from the menu screen, the game shifts to your locker room desktop. Here you can check your messages and get info from your general manager. For the purposes of our play-through, we used Bobby Lashley and began with two messages from Teddy Long. The first was a welcome note and a promise that if we won four matches in a row that we'd get a shot at the title; the second letter was an assignment to play special guest referee in the main event for that evening's program (Benoit vs. Undertaker).

Before heading off into SmackDown, a number of other options are available as well. Checking the calendar, for example, allows users to adjust season mode options (difficulty, subtitles, and email reminders) and clicking on desktop PC brings up WWE.com. Here, we have all the same options that the locker room normally brings with two exceptions: one, we can save our season mode progress from there, and two, we can click on an article that sets up the current storylines (in this case, the Benoit vs. Undertaker match-up). Once out of the locker room, the view shifts to a backstage look at the arena and we're once again given the option of saving, changing our difficulty setting, going back to where we came from, or starting our week.

Starting the week begins the pre-match screen which looks pretty much identical to previous years (rules are shown, you can choose to play, to skip, or whatever). One new option, however, is the new "Multiplayer" feature. By selecting this button, gamers can choose to play whichever character they want (ie: we can choose to play as Undertaker instead of Lashley if we don't feel like refereeing). Even better, a second player can hop in to play as one of the two remaining characters too -- it's a nice touch to say the least.

Personally, we've always felt that SmackDown's "special referee" option was always boring -- so we just went ahead and skipped it. Even so, when we shifted back to our locker room we had a voicemail from Teddy Long (yep, the real guy) telling us that the Undertaker was pissed at us for not calling the match down the middle. Strangely, The Undertaker won his match -- so without the benefit of a cutscene to tell us what happened (we didn't get one when skipping) or understanding why he'd be angry at us for winning, we found ourselves in a quick rivalry with the Deadman (luckily, clicking on WWE.com explains what happened when we checked it out... cool!).

You can bet that our very next match was against "Mr. Old-school" himself and we have to admit, that the commentary as the match began was pretty impressive. Tazz and Cole completely recalled the events of the special referee bout -- they talked about how Undertaker was mad about it, who his opponent was, and what happened to get us to this point; and all this was during his intro as he walked to the ring (that's right, no special videos -- they talked normally just as they do on television). Sadly, there was a long silence after they finished their talk (no small talk), but the commentating duo did pick things up again once our boy Lashley stepped out on the ramp.

10-02-2006, 10:27 AM	#11
Dark-Slicer Diago The Darkness Has Awoken Posts: 2,619	page 3 But having a cool locker room means more than just looking cool. Like last year, it serves an actual purpose for your loaded profile. In addition to the Wall of Fame, Challenge Mode, belt case, and WWE magazines highlighted above, for example, players can also access a loading screen manager (32 screens in total), customize CAW attributes, access profile stats, and purchase new bonuses at the WWE shopzone. The shopzone is much easier to navigate this year too, and provides a great one-stop spot to pick up new legends, new moves, and cool championship belt alternatives (like the Smoking Skull and NWO variants). The locker room also grants admission to "The Desk" which is an invaluable tool for a variety of Season Mode reasons. And what about Season Mode? How does it work and how is it different? Well, it begins rather simply -- after choosing an existing or created superstar from the menu screen, the game shifts to your locker room desktop. Here you can check your messages and get info from your general manager. For the purposes of our play-through, we used Bobby Lashley and began with two messages from Teddy Long. The first was a welcome note and a promise that if we won four matches in a row that we'd get a shot at the title; the second letter was an assignment to play special guest referee in the main event for that evening's program (Benoit vs. Undertaker). Before heading off into SmackDown, a number of other options are available as well. Checking the calendar, for example, allows users to adjust season mode options (difficulty, subtitles, and email reminders) and clicking on desktop PC brings up WWE.com. Here, we have all the same options that the locker room normally brings with two exceptions: one, we can save our season mode progress from there, and two, we can click on an article that sets up the current storylines (in this case, the Benoit vs. Undertaker match-up). Once out of the locker room, the view shifts to a backstage look at the arena and we're once again given the option of saving, changing our difficulty setting, going back to where we came from, or starting our week. Starting the week begins the pre-match screen which looks pretty much identical to previous years (rules are shown, you can choose to play, to skip, or whatever). One new option, however, is the new "Multiplayer" feature. By selecting this button, gamers can choose to play whichever character they want (ie: we can choose to play as Undertaker instead of Lashley if we don't feel like refereeing). Even better, a second player can hop in to play as one of the two remaining characters too -- it's a nice touch to say the least. Personally, we've always felt that SmackDown's "special referee" option was always boring -- so we just went ahead and skipped it. Even so, when we shifted back to our locker room we had a voicemail from Teddy Long (yep, the real guy) telling us that the Undertaker was pissed at us for not calling the match down the middle. Strangely, The Undertaker won his match -- so without the benefit of a cutscene to tell us what happened (we didn't get one when skipping) or understanding why he'd be angry at us for winning, we found ourselves in a quick rivalry with the Deadman (luckily, clicking on WWE.com explains what happened when we checked it out... cool!). You can bet that our very next match was against "Mr. Old-school" himself and we have to admit, that the commentary as the match began was pretty impressive. Tazz and Cole completely recalled the events of the special referee bout -- they talked about how Undertaker was mad about it, who his opponent was, and what happened to get us to this point; and all this was during his intro as he walked to the ring (that's right, no special videos -- they talked normally just as they do on television). Sadly, there was a long silence after they finished their talk (no small talk), but the commentating duo did pick things up again once our boy Lashley stepped out on the ramp.