Mortal Kombat!!!!

As some of you may or may not know, Warner Bros. has a new Mortal Kombat game coming out this April for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.  The new game, simply titled Mortal Kombat, is an attempt to bring the series back to its roots while still maintaining some of the modern touches of the more recent titles.

The demo was released a week ago for those who subscribe (and pay extra money) for Sony’s Playstation Plus program.  For the rest of us, it was unlocked this past weekend for a free download.

First, some background.  When the first Mortal Kombat game dropped in the early 90’s I begged my parents for a Sega Genesis for Christmas so that I could experience it in it’s uncensored glory.  One of the neighborhood kids got the Super Nintendo version that fall when the game was released and my friends and I spent many afternoons playing it, but always dreaming about getting our hands on the much hyped Genesis version.  It was rumored that the Genesis version of the game contained a code to unlock the censors put in place by Midway.  Nintendo, wanting to keep its family friendly image, had the developers replace the blood with gray, misty, sweat.  Many of the signature fatalities were removed, including Sub-Zero’s head rip and Kano’s heart pull, and even certain simple moves were removed because of the violence factor.  It was lame, and to a group of 10 year olds it was extremely lame.  We wanted blood!

The problem was, nobody had a Sega Genesis.  Before Mortal Kombat, the Genesis was the system kids received when the stores were sold out of Super Nintendo.  Sure it had some cool games, like Sonic the Hedgehog and Outrun, but it was kind of clunky and the controller only had three buttons.  Plus, the SNES had better graphics and all of the big Nintendo franchises everyone grew up with.  I had just received a Super Nintendo the previous Christmas, so getting my parents to give me a Genesis seemed like a long shot at best.

In the end, my parents proved themselves awesome that Christmas and got me the Genesis II and grandma took care of the rest with a copy of Mortal Kombat.  I remember calling my best friend at the time, Saad, that morning to see if he knew the blood code.  He didn’t, but he called around for me and eventually was able to produce the code and directions on where to enter it.  That code, ABACABB – Get over here! – proved a success and I was soon reveling in bloody goodness.  It was probably the next day I had my buds over, none of them were fortunate enough to get the Genesis+MK combo for Xmas, and we began a ritual that would last months.  We just played that game constantly and over time we figured out the various fatalities (I wrote them all down in the game’s instruction booklet, these are the kinds of things kids today don’t have to do thanks to the internet).  To this day, my favorite is still Sub-Zero’s.

Mortal Kombat (2011)

Now, almost 20 years later, I find myself getting excited over a new Mortal Kombat game.  I actually wasn’t even all that excited until I played the demo and found it to be a very satisfying experience.  The demo includes four characters: Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Mileena, and Johnny Cage.  You select a character, difficulty setting, and then the game pits you against each one.  After the fourth character is felled, the demo teases a Goro fight before going into a trailer hyping the full version of the game.

First off, the game looks pretty nice.  That’s kind of a given in this day and age but I like the character designs.  They stick close to the original designs of each character while adding a modern touch.  Sub-Zero’s costume is given some armor and nice textures, while Scorpion’s takes the skeleton imagery from his Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 appearance and builds on it.  Mileena is absurdly sexy and curvaceous while her costume is sort of a hybrid of her original MK2 look and her MK3 costume.  Johnny Cage’s costume differs very little from his MK2 appearance.  The graphics are fully rendered in 3D, but the game is strictly a 2D fighter.  For anyone that played the 3D fighters in the series’ past, this is a welcome move.

The classic special moves are all here from Scorpion’s spear to Sub-Zero’s freeze blast.  Though while the early games were methodical and special move oriented, this one is pretty fast and if you can’t string combos together you won’t last.  I first tried out my old standby, Sub-Zero, but found his special moves kind of slow and switched to Scorpion, my consistent backup.  I liked him so much that I haven’t even tried the other two, though I plan to.  Scorpion moves quickly, like all of the characters, but his moves work well with my style.  His teleport punch is still present and can be done while airborne.  I found it the perfect counter anytime my opponent tried a projectile attack.  Most of his combos leave the opponent momentarily stunned and wide open for his lack grab move or demon fire.  And his fatality, where he slashes his opponent up with his sword, was pretty damn cool.

I was able to breeze through the four opponents on the Medium difficulty setting, but received a healthy challenge when I bumped it up to hard though I still managed to get through all four without using a continue.  I am not at all concerned about the game being too easy though, because the next Mortal Kombat game that is too easy will be the first.

The game, despite my overall good impressions, is not perfect.  Scorpion’s teleport punch is very effective, perhaps too effective.  The game also has a special attack called an X-Ray that is initiated after a meter is filled.  This meter is not hard to fill within a round, and the move is executed just by pressing two shoulder buttons simultaneously and does massive damage if it connects.  Scorpion’s is a teleport attack and really easy to pull off.  I think the move is intended to give a player who’s getting beat a last resort option, but I found myself using it to finish my opponent off when it got down to about a third of its health.  I felt a little guilty using it, as I’d wager I was successful with the attack 4 out of every 5 attempts.  It might not be a bad idea to tone it down for the final release.

Aside from that though, I came away very encouraged.  I suppose this is what a successful demo strives to accomplish as I went into it not planning on making the purchase when the game gets released to seriously considering it.  I’d be even more likely to get it if I hadn’t just spent 60 bucks on Marvel Vs Capcom 3 a few weeks ago.  The game doesn’t come out until April 19th so I’ll have plenty of time to experiment further with the demo and come to an ultimate conclusion.

Mass Effect 2

I mentioned in an earlier post that one of the few video games I was excited to play was Mass Effect 2.  I don’t own an Xbox 360 so I had to wait until the Playstation 3 version was released this past month to experience the game.  I’ve had it for a few weeks and just finished my first play through last night so I figured I would post my impressions of the game.

Overall, my experience was a good one.  Bioware is a pretty consistent developer and when it tackles an RPG you kind of know what you’re in for.  Ever since Baldur’s Gate on the PC their RPG’s have taken the same path.  Sure the perspective has changed from an overhead view to a behind the character view, and with Mass Effect the genre has switched from medieval fantasy to sci-fi space opera.  The only real difference is the switch from primarily close-quarters hack and slash combat to gun play.  In Baldur’s Gate/Neverwinter Nights/Dragon Age combat is done via clicking the mouse or pressing an attack button with little consideration for the player’s dexterity with a controller.  This may seem like a small thing, but in ME the player actually has to aim the weapon and weather you hit or miss is entirely dependent on you, not some behind the scenes calculations done by the game.  Even in those older games if you chose to go with a bow and arrow instead of a sword the only thing you had to do was click your mouse over your intended target and the game did all of the work.  The approach of ME would be considered a more action based approach and one that I favor.  The old method worked well when the games were trying to emulate a Dungeons & Dragons experience but are kind of dated now.  At least now when I miss a target I know I missed the target.

Because of this approach to combat, the leveling system is rather simplistic.  In other games as your character advances in level you’re usually given a pool of ability points that will improve your character in one of 8 or so possibilities.  They’re pretty generic across all games, usually Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and so on.  In ME2 there

You have the option to recruit several squad members in Mass Effect 2. Some of them are displayed here, left to right: Thane, Miranda, Shepard, Grunt, and Jack (Subject Zero).

are no such statistics and instead your character starts off able to put ability points into his talents you select at the start of your game.  The talents available depend on what class you go with.  I always prefer stealth and assassin type characters so my Commander Shepard is a male Infiltrator.  As such he began the game with access to two ammo types, a tactical cloak, incinerate, AI hacking (ability to commandeer robotic enemies), and the generic squad leader type of thing.  Later in the game, you get the ability to add another talent dependent on if you do your squad members’ specific loyalty quest.  This adds another possibility depending on whom you recruit.  I went with the fortification talent which allows my Shepard to increase his defense for a short duration.

I mentioned my Shepard is male and had I wanted it to be so he could have been a she.  This has no effect on gameplay outside of the romance options.  It’s become some-what common in Bioware games to give the player a possible romantic interest

Play your cards right and your Commander Shepard can get laid, though don't expect to see anything more beyond this, you pervert.

in each game.  Usually they’re pretty liberal and give you male and female options no matter what gender your character is but here it’s hetero all the way.  Yes, there is a pseudo lesbian relationship should you choose to pursue it but it’s basically a one night stand type of deal and I don’t think it is something that will carry over into Mass Effect 3.  As far as I know, the female Shepard has two choices for a boy-toy, Jake and the alien Garrus, while a male Shapard gets his pick of three lovely ladies in Miranda, Jack, and Mass Effect 1 holdover Tali.  Tali is the alien option if that’s your fetish while Miranda is the babe and Jack is the hardened but secretly vulnerable option.  I went with the babe and romanced her throughout the game giving me a corny sex scene to enjoy before the final mission.  And in case you’re wondering, no, you don’t see anything beyond what’s present on daytime television.

Anyways, the bulk of the game is spent on your ship the Normandy as you traverse solar systems in search of quests.  The main objective is to assemble a crew, acquire what is called the Reaper IFF, and complete the “suicide mission” to take out the enemy.  The main story-line only consists of about 4 missions and, if you wish, the game could be completed fairly quickly.  If you go the speedy route though you risk failure as it is entirely possible to beat the game but have your Shepard meet the reaper as a result.  The opposite is also true and that suicide label they place over the fateful mission can be brushed aside.  In my first attempt I lost one squad member during the final mission.  It occurred off-screen so I re-loaded a save and changed my team around until I was able to keep everyone alive and have a nice clean save to import into Mass Effect 3.  The survival rate depends on if they’re loyal to you and how you deploy them.  You’re given decisions such as picking an engineer for a specific task and someone to be a squad leader for a secondary strike force.  Choose someone not fit for a given role and they run the risk of dying.  Also, while you and two squad mates take on the final boss the rest of your team is left to hold position.  There’s a random chance the less hardy characters will perish during this, which is what happened to me.  So I put the character who died into my squad and re-played the final boss fight and was able to achieve the “perfect” ending.

If the game had sucked, I would have never made it that far and thankfully the game is a lot better than suck, it’s pretty awesome.  While the version I played was released this year, I still consider this a 2010 release.  Given that, it’s probably my second favorite game from 2010 behind only Red Dead Redemption.  They’re both totally different experiences though so it does little to compare the two.  ME2 is pretty

Shepard has access to biotech powers, though what powers you have depends on your character class and how you invest your squad points.

simple in its execution.  You always lead a team of three and you have free choice over who is in your squad (unless you’re doing a character specific loyalty mission, then that character needs to be in your squad).  You only can play as Shepard but you can issue commands to the other two in your squad.  The commands are pretty simple but get the job done.  You can tell them to stay close or go ahead and give them specific places to stand.  You also have access to their weapon and tech wheels and are able to micro-manage fights if you desire.  I was a mostly hands-off squad leader when it came to weapons, but I would direct my squads bio-tech powers where necessary.  For the most part the AI is competent, though they’re not afraid to cross in front of you when you’re firing which can get annoying.  Especially when you’re trying to score a head-shot with a sniper rifle.

The tech powers I’ve alluded to function like magic in other Bioware games.  Some are even just like old spells such as incinerate, which is basically a fireball.  Whenever a character uses one there’s a cool down period of a few seconds where no other tech powers can be used.  The ammo powers do not apply and they last until you switch them out.  I was quite fond of my Shepard’s cryo ammo, a cold based attribute that would freeze enemies after a few hits.  I’d equip that to my sub-machine gun, which was by default adept at cutting through armor, and enjoyed great success that way.  My Shepard also had a cloaking device which made him invisible for a quick duration.  This was good if I found myself getting blasted and needed to get away.  It’s best use though is that when firing from a cloaked position your attack goes up, especially if you invest enough squad points to max it out (20 squad points are needed to get an ability to level 4, the highest it can go).  By the end of the game I was using my cloak as an offensive weapon, constantly cloaking and firing my sniper rifle to score 1-hit kills on most enemies.

The sniper rifle was easily my favorite weapon and preferred method of combat.  It didn’t work well in close-quarters but that’s a given.  The only downside is the best sniper rifle available to me can only hold 13 shots maximum, so running out of ammo was a constant annoyance.  In this game you don’t necessarily use ammo, instead you gather cooling clips that cool down your weapon.  It functions the same as ammo though.  Enemies drop these clips but not always, so you never had to buy ammo but running out mid-mission does occur.  The second best sniper rifle is a semi-auto gun that can hold 50-something rounds but it’s counter-balanced by its weakness against armored foes.  This isn’t a drawback early in the game but by the game’s end most enemies are shielded in some way.  You can outfit Shepard with pieces of armor that increase ammo capacity but usually only by 5 or 10% making it ultimately not worth it.  I’d rather equip something more beneficial.

The DLC (included with the PS3) allows your Shepard to reconnect with Liara from the first game. If you romanced her in the first game and do not pursue a relationship in Mass Effect 2 you can presumably pick up where you left off with her in Mass Effect 3.

Shepard has four weapons at all times and the ones available depend on Shepard’s class.  My Shepard had a standard pistol (I assume all have this no matter the class), a fully-automatic machine gun, a sniper rifle, and the heavy weapon slot.  The heavy weapon is common to all Shepard’s and what’s available depends on what you’ve found or invested in.  I mostly stuck with the collector particle beam.  All of them are potent though, and you have to find special heavy ammo to use them on any given mission.  This encourages you to only use them when absolutely necessary.  Other weapons in the game include shotguns and assault rifles, which my Shepard could not use but certain squad members could.  Each weapon category has 2 to 3 options that you find or purchase over the course of the game.  Each one has 4 upgrades that increase damage output or ammo capacity.

Shepard can also customize his armor.  There are full outfits available (such as the Blood Dragon armor if you have a Dragon Age save on your machine) or just pieces that can be mixed and match.  Early in the game the outfits are probably the way to go, especially if you have access to the Dragon armor, but once you’ve compiled enough pieces you’ll probably want to mix and match.  You can also customize the color and details of the armor for a unique look.

Equipment and upgrades can be found or purchased.  The game’s currency is credits, and you find credits during missions and are awarded credits for completing missions.  Upgrades can be researched at the Normandy and consume resources.  There are four resource types in the game that can be found during missions, but in order to get all of the upgrades you’ll have to mine for them on planets.  The mining mini game is boring but ultimately not very time consuming.  I was able to stockpile more than enough of each of the four resources to research everything I needed to.  As you add crew members they’ll give Shepard suggestions on upgrades that you can research.  Researching the available Normandy upgrades leads to a better survival rate during the last mission.

Your crew can be as big or as small as you want it to be, it’s your choice.  I chose to recruit everyone and complete each one’s loyalty quest.  Having a loyal crew member gives them access to their best abilities for you to invest squad points in and also

In addition to playing well, Mass Effect 2 is visually impressive.

gives them a second attire.  If you want to pursue a romance you also need that individual to be loyal to Shepard.  There are a couple of moments in the game where your loyalty to certain crew members will be tested.  Choose unwisely and you will lose the loyalty of a crew member and the chance for romance.  An un-loyal crew member is far more likely to perish during the game’s final mission than a loyal one.

The loyalty quests were pretty much universally entertaining.  Some are better than others, but they all provide insight into the character’s history.  You can also speak with your crew members at any time on the Normandy, but some are more tight-lipped than others.  Getting them to open up is when the loyalty mission becomes available.  Your Yeoman, Kelly, will also inform you if someone wants to talk to you.  Some loyalty missions can be failed, and doing so will prevent that character from ever being loyal to you, so be careful.

If you lose the loyalty of a crew member you will need a high paragon or renegade score to win their loyalty back.  Whether you are high in one or the other depends on the choices you’ve made throughout the game.  In general, paragon choices are more honorable and heroic, while renegade ones are ruthless and bad ass.  I went the renegade route.  These two roles should not be confused with good and evil, though there is at least one choice that I can think of that could qualify as such.  Nonetheless, the choice is yours.  You have a meter for each that fills as you make choices dependent on that role.  They are independent of each other though, meaning if you do something to increase your paragon score it will not decrease your renegade score.  For the most part, it doesn’t matter which one you’re high in so long as you have a high score in one, though I did find that I could not win Tali’s loyalty (after losing it) with a max renegade score but could do so with the character of Legion.  This leads me to believe if you lose Tali’s loyalty only a high paragon score can win her back and maybe the inverse is true of Legion.  Certain crew members seem to respond better to renegade vs paragon.  Grunt is a good example who seems to value the directness and toughness of a renegade Shepard.

Ultimately, I had a really good time with this game.  It took me just over 40 game hours to beat it but it didn’t feel that long.  I played on the normal difficulty setting and found it to be a suitable challenge.  Certain areas were harder than others but nothing overwhelming.  The hardest areas were just the ones not geared towards my style of play, such as areas with swarming melee enemies better suited for a shotgun wielding Shepard.  I died here and there, but the game’s auto-save is pretty generous so dying was rarely frustrating and often just pointed out that my approach was wrong.  The biggest flaw this game has is a minor one, the load times.  The load times are too long for a game released in 2010 and too frequent, especially on the Normandy.  Changing floors necessitates a lengthy load which gets annoying.  They’re probably 25-30 seconds in length, which doesn’t sound like much, but is noticeable.  I never saw mention of the loading times in reviews so I assume the length is pretty consistent across all platforms and would be longer if you chose not to install it to your hard drive.  The game also froze up on me maybe half a dozen times, which is unusual for my PS3.

Jack is one of the more interesting characters. She's a psycho who prefers tattoos over clothing.

I enjoyed the combat in the game and also the supporting characters.  The combat gave me a suitable number of options when approaching a given situation, though I would suggest a greater variety in abilities for the sequel.  The same can be said for the available weapons.  The characters are well done from an aesthetic standpoint and a personality one.  The two downloadable ones are noticeably less interesting than the ones created for the game initially but that is to be expected.  The character of Zaed, for example, is a throw-away.  Some abilities and strengths overlap amongst the characters which makes many of them interchangeable.  I assume that was the goal but I wouldn’t mind seeing a greater variety here as well.  The voice acting is very good for each one as well.  The odd exception is the voice actor for Shepard (the male one, at least) which is pretty spotty.  I assume that’s because they tried to make him kind of neutral sounding, except when picking an obvious renegade or paragon option, but it is distracting and could be improved upon.

Mass Effect 3 has vaulted to the top of my list for most anticipated title of 2011.

Mass Effect 2 may not have reignited my passion for video gaming but it did at least create an interest in this series.  It’s both a refreshing and familiar style of gaming for Bioware and one that I found more entertaining than Dragon Age.  I’m looking forward to Mass Effect 3 and am quite eager to continue my Commander Shepard’s journey.  I don’t know where it will lead but I’m sure I’ll enjoy the ride.

The flagship title for the past several years of WWE centered video games.

I thought about making this title “The State of Wrestling Games” but what would be the point?  The Fire Pro series has been shelved, and THQ has exclusive rights to the WWE, which pretty much has a monopoly on the wrestling world.  Yeah, there’s that organization called TNA floating around but it has done nothing to even dent the WWE behemoth.  Plus I never played the lone TNA video game, though I heard it was pretty terrible.

By default, this ends up being a topic on WWE related games.  Now, I posted at length about my current WWE and wrestling related affections earlier.  Which is to say, while I enjoy the spectacle and talent it takes to produce a fun night of professional wrestling, I am not an active fan of the WWE.  I also mentioned in that post, as well as others, that I still find the video games appealing, mostly because of their create aspects and because the gameplay usually delivers an overall solid experience.

Unlike the NFL or MLB, which used to have multiple publishers putting out an annual game, the WWE (or then, WWF) always had one publisher working on their games.  Early on it was Acclaim which produced the bulk of the 8-bit and 16-bit games like “Superstars” and “Royal Rumble.”  During the Playstation dominated era, THQ, together with Japanese developer Aki, emerged as the big play-maker in the wrestling video game world with their hits based on the WCW brand, “World Tour” and “Revenge.”  This prompted the WWF to ditch their longtime partner and switch to THQ.

Initially THQ maintained the same strategy with the WWF that it did with WCW,

Acclaim was never considered a great publisher, but they can at least take credit for popularizing the create a superstar mode, first introduced in WWF Warzone.

which was to use different development houses for the different platforms available.  For the Playstation, the developer Yukes was used which had a successful Japan only series under its belt called “Toukon Retsuden” while Aki was left as the Nintendo 64 developer.  Yukes was given the Smackdown title, while Aki would go with a PPV name for its game, “Wrestlemania 2000” and the following “No Mercy.”  This approach created a sort-of false competition.  While THQ ultimately won no matter which game consumers sided with, there was a great debate each year over which title was superior.  Both were  very different experiences.  The Smackdown series was faster with more animations present despite being on the inferior Playstation hardware while the N64 games were more methodical and featured the tried and true WCW game engine.  Despite not being a very realistic (and I know how silly that sounds on the surface given that “real” is hardly the way most would describe the world of pro wrestling) experience in-ring, the N64 games were given the label of being a simulation based experience.  The Smackdown series was viewed as a more arcade experience, meaning it was more about entertainment than authenticity.

For many fans, WWF No Mercy is still the benchmark for all wrestling games.

I was a Playstation guy so naturally my bias was slanted towards the Smackdown series.  For me, after spending many many hours with the WCW games, it was a breath of fresh air.  The first game was unrealistically fast, but the approach was more appropriate in terms of emulating what was seen on television.  In the N64 games, just about every move was preceded with a tie-up, meaning the two wrestlers grappled each other’s shoulders and would execute moves from there.  While a fun and useful gameplay mechanic, it didn’t look realistic.  At the same time though, in a Smackdown game a guy could get blasted with a steel chair and then get right back up.  Slow moving characters like Mankind zoomed around the ring and practically ran up the turnbuckle.  The N64’s more methodical pace, while too slow for some characters, was more authentic.

Regardless, I do feel both titles helped push the other.  When it was announced that “No Mercy” would have a ladder match, Yukes responded by not only adding one to their game, but also added the Hell in a Cell match and casket match.

After “No Mercy,” THQ dropped Aki in a cost-cutting move.  THQ gave Yukes the Playstation consoles as well as the Gamecube for their games.  For the Playstation 2, the Smackdown brand was continued while the Gamecube had a Wrestlemania based series followed by the “Day of Reckoning” series.  The Gamecube games tried to emulate the Aki developed games and while the early titles were dismissed, the “Day of Reckoning” series was mostly well received.  Anchor was given the Xbox and made two lackluster games released under the Raw subtitle.  Again, to cut costs, THQ consolidated everything under Yukes after a few years and decided to focus solely on the Smackdown game, now titled Smackdown vs Raw.

This is how it has been for the last few years and will likely continue, with occasional off-shoots like “WWE Legends” or the upcoming “WWE All-Stars.”  To say things have grown a bit stagnant would be an understatement.  While there was never true competition at the publisher level within the WWE games (though there certainly was when WCW and ECW were viable brands), there was at least some at the developer level.  Now that Yukes focuses mostly on one game released across all consoles that sense of competition is all but gone.

I have not been an annual purchaser of the Smackdown vs Raw brand, preferring to

Considered by many to be the finest entry in the series, WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain introduced a more simulation style of gameplay while still retaining some of the speed that gave the previous games their identity. This one helped erase the stain of developer Aki's departure from THQ.

take a year or two off because each installment is usually pretty similar to the previous one.  Even with that approach, there’s still a lot of of stagnation from one release to the next (that I play).  I’m going to now focus on this past year’s release, the 2011 version of Smackdown vs Raw.

From a gameplay perspective, it is unchanged.  The only change I can notice is that some moves have been removed, and some new ones added.  It definitely does not feel balanced as more moves were removed than added.  And given the storage capacity of today’s disc mediums (especially the Playstation 3’s Blu Ray), there doesn’t seem to be a logical reason to remove any moves unless of course it is just to re-introduce them in a later game as something “new.”  Match-wise, I do not see any additions here either.  The last new match was added a couple of year’s ago and was the Inferno match, which to put mildly, sucks.  Smackdown 2 added a casket match, which no longer exists (admittedly, it was terrible), while the first game introduced the “I Quit” match which was actually pretty interesting and I don’t why it was ever removed.  The special referee match is also gone which allowed the player to play as a wrestler serving as a ref.  If for nothing else, this match should still exist for story-line possibilities  in the game’s story designer.  One of the cooler matches the series added was the Buried Alive match.  In this match the combatants brawled in a no holds barred setting, with the ultimate goal being to get your opponent into a casket on the stage and then bury them.  It was a suitable replacement for the casket match and one that actually worked well.  There was a gameplay mechanic that let the user perform a “casket finisher” which was the only thing that needed refinement.  Which is to say, they just needed more finishers animated so that nearly everyone wasn’t just performing a powerbomb.  Unfortunately, the match no longer exists.

Smackdown vs Raw 2006 introduced the Buried Alive match. Despite being well received it has vanished from the series.

A match that has never worked well is the tables match.  And since the tables match is still fairly common for the television product (unlike the previously mentioned buried alive match) so it has remained in the games for awhile now.  Early on it was even worse, the matches would usually last about 30 seconds as it was fairly easy to put an opponent through a table.  Now it’s more challenging.  If you manage to get a table set-up and perform a move that would put an opponent through it (like a suplex, for example) the table will often buckle but not break if the opponent hasn’t been significantly weakened.  The AI will often reverse other moves designed to put it through.  What annoys me is that the ability to stand on a table has been removed from both the weapon-based table (found under the ring or laying at ring-side during a tables match) and the announcer’s table.  The announcer’s table is more annoying because that one is big, normally allowing for both wrestlers to stand on it at the same time.  In past games it was possible, but no longer.  It’s a fairly common site at a pay-per view event to see a wrestler go through an announcer’s table (usually spanish) but in the game it can only happen via a top rope move.  Superficial complaint?  Of course, but if it was possible last year why isn’t it this year?  The game used to have a few stock animations for the regular tables for this, usually powerbombs and piledrivers with a few special moves thrown in.  At least now it is possible to perform standing moves beside a table to put someone through, but if my character does not have a directional based finisher (as in, one that allows the user to control the direction the opponent is being thrown as a result of the move) he can’t use it to put someone through a table.  This means no Rock Bottoms through the table, or Stone Cold Stunners, or the majority of created finishers.  My favored created wrestler has what is basically “The Dominator”* as his finishing move, which is one that most would think would be something that could be easily performed through a table, but no luck.

*For those unfamiliar with the former WCW and Attitude era WWF/E wrestler Faarooq, The Dominator is basically a side powerbomb.  Instead of the opponent landing on his back, he lands on his stomach/face.

A feature added in 2006, GM mode, is also no longer present.  A suitable replacement has never been introduced.  For those that skipped that version, the GM mode gave the user control of one brand, Smackdown or Raw, and put it in competition with the other brand.  You created the card for each event and were allowed to cultivate rivalries between wrestlers that could be monitored.  Keeping a rivalry going as long as possible made the crowd more interested leading to a bigger payoff in the form of ratings when the two combatants squared off.  Keep a rivalry going too long though and the crowd would get bored with it.  You could simulate everything or actually play the matches which gave you a chance to affect the outcome.  It was a fun mode but was over once you beat the other brand over the course of a year.  Ever since experiencing it I wanted the developer to take it one step further.  Perhaps the WWE balked on such an idea, but I wanted it to be a realistic portrayal of the actual television product.  Meaning it could be scripted, instead of existing in the “kay-fabe” world.  You would operate as a director, perhaps to give the mode a plot set-up you would be Vince McMahon’s hand-picked commissioner/GM/whatever challenged to generate better ratings and attendance for the product.  You would still have to manage superstar personalities and egos.  Perhaps Triple H doesn’t want to lose to Chris Jericho, which makes him unhappy leading to a subpar performance and bad matches.  You would have to somehow placate his ego to make him happy again.  Happy wrestlers mean more inspired wrestlers which lead to better matches and better fan reactions.  Not only would you pick the card and winners and losers, you would also have story-lines to choose from.  Maybe Big Show is injured and needs some R&R, so you pick the “run over by car” plot to get him off TV for a few months.  And then when he comes back he gets to seek revenge on his mystery attacker.  The mode would basically combine the GM mode with the story designer mode, it would just add goals.  It could even keep the Smackdown vs Raw angle and give you control over only one show with Vince wanting to see which show could get the best ratings.

In older games you could do stuff like climb the Titantron, create your own title belt, or ride the Undertaker's motorcycle. Not so anymore...

This is the part where  I nit-pick the current game even more.  As I mentioned before, I love the create aspects of wrestling games.  Naturally, I use almost exclusively created wrestlers so anything that makes my guy more authentic is awesome.  The ability to use custom soundtracks for entrances was a great addition sparked by the addition of hard drives in most consoles.  Now any song I can think of my guy can enter to.  This year’s game attempted to let the user create an entrance movie from clips and stock animations.  The clips can be from a saved match.  This sounds good, but doesn’t work very well.  For one, the clips all have to come from one match and you have to either manually save them after a big spot or pick from the highlights the game selects after the match has concluded.  You can’t mix and match the two.  Being limited to one match makes the resulting video look redundant.  My guy is just beating on John Cena in all of his clips.  There’s no logical explanation for this limitation other than THQ/Yukes is lazy and/or greedy.  It’s also buggy, as in my only attempt all of the clips I saved resulted in my character appearing as a sort-of mashup of his various different attires.  His body is his default attire, but for some reason his head ended up as his attire 3 head.  Considering it was a pain-staking process to create the spots and save each one down, I never tried it again.  He has his own entrance video, it just looks pretty stupid but I guess it’s still better than seeing the generic WWE logo on the big screen.

Another thing that disappoints me is the underwhelming story designer.  On the

One of the biggest complaints early on with the Smackdown series was the inability defend belts at any time. This would eventually be rectified but has since been removed once again. Fans have stated it's an important feature, but Yukes seemingly doesn't care.

surface, the story designer sounds like something that was created just for me.  As a kid, I like many others, would create story-lines in my head and play them out endlessly.  Usually this resulted in me creating a PPV card for my various rivalries to be settled.  Now I can make this come to life.  The only problem is the small amount of animations at my disposal.  I have so far only made one scenario (“Masked Kane Returns” on the servers) and it takes place over a year.  By the end of it I felt like I was all out of animations to use and had already re-used several.  In THQ’s defense, I made my story linear meaning I omitted the branching category of animations but even there, there aren’t a lot of variety.  Specifically speaking, there needs to be more “attack” animations.  Say after a match, I want Kane to run in and chokeslam Edge, I can’t do that.  I can have him run-in and punch him or hit him with a chair, but he can’t perform his finisher.  A simple “finisher” animation where the character runs in and does his finishing move seems like an easy thing to code.  There needs to be more match-interrupting attacks too, there are basically two.  I need my guy to get screwed out of a few matches, how about one where he gets hit with a title belt or the opponent uses the ropes for a leverage pin?  Maybe a crooked ref moment a-la Survivor Series ’97?  There needs to be more beat-up animations as well.  I want to have a guy taken out of commission for a month or so, my only options are the chair beating or car rundown.  A simple “throw through table” would work, or con-chairto (guy’s head gets smashed between two chairs).  Adding on this premise, an animation that puts a guy in a wheelchair or on crutches would also be effective for when he comes back, is searching for his mystery attacker, etc.  This may seem like a lot to ask, but the truth is that Yukes didn’t really add anything to this mode from year one to year two, which is unacceptable.  I’d like to create more scenarios but I don’t know if I can do so without feeling like I just created the same thing.  The creator also really needs more ways to end a match.  Right now, the person playing is told what needs to happen in order for a match to be completed.  There are people who are really good at the game, and it’s also not the hardest game ever created, so simply stacking the decks in the AI’s favor to make the player lose is not feasible.  Plus, if I want them to lose they’re told so before the match begins, which isn’t much fun.  The alternative is to have a match end once they’ve inflicted a certain amount of damage on the CPU controlled wrestler(s).  Then an animation can be triggered showing the player get screwed out of a win.  I want more options to end a match.  Say I schedule a Hell in a Cell match, how about the match ends when both opponents are on top of the cell after the AI wrestler has taken X amount of damage?  A cut-scene could then trigger where someone gets thrown off the cell and is hurt so bad the match ends.  Or in a ladder match there could be an option for the match to end just before the player removes the belt/briefcase from its hanging position over the ring.  This could again trigger some sort of cut scene where the player is forced to lose.  In the end, the player still has to “win” the match and as the creator I get to insure that the script continues on the way I want it to.

At the end of the day, THQ only cares about making money. As long as people keep buying their WWE games they'll continue to add and remove features, only to bring them back and re-sell them as "new and improved," to screw consumers out of a worthwhile gaming experience.

As someone not interested in the TV product, I don’t really care who is on the active roster.  I do care when some guys are just hastily added.  For last year’s game, my ire is directed at Yukes and their version of WWE Legend Stone Cold Steve Austin.  I would like to create a scenario centered on him, but his character is so terrible I’m not sure it’s worth it.  And he’s terrible strictly because Yukes is lazy (and they used a horrible actor to motion capture his entrance).  For one, he has only one attire which is his standard black boots and black trunks.  Ever since 1997 Austin has always entered the ring at least sporting his trademark vest.  Not present.  Backstage he would usually sport denim shorts and a Stone Cold t-shirt of some kind.  In any story I create for him he’ll have to wear his black trunks and black boots, and only that regardless of his environment, which will look pretty dumb and redundant.  Am I nit-picking?  Of course, but if Yukes is going to take the time to add the character at least do it right, or don’t do it at all.  Why would I ever pay money to download additional wrestlers if the ones in the game are this shoddy?

This post turned into more of a rant than I anticipated.  Truth be told, I’ve spent countless hours with WWE games over the years including the 2011 version, but I am nearing the point of burn-out.  Without real change for next year’s game I don’t see myself buying it.  And that goes for the following year.  I do not regret my most recent purchase but it certainly hasn’t turned out the way I had hoped, but unfortunately it mostly turned out the way I expected it to.  I was mostly drawn in by the scenario editor, but knew it would be severely limited (you also pretty much can’t make one where a created wrestler is the focal point, since it limits you to how many times a created wrestler can be used – it’s stupid) and would only scratch the surface of what I wanted it to be.  Perhaps the genre is just dying a slow death.  If only the Fire Pro series could get some funding for a big, over the top, release.  At least with Fire Pro the gameplay is there, it was just alway lacking the bells and whistles.  I can deal without big entrances and that sort of crap, but how about simple chair shots and tables?  Nope.  Wrestling fans still gobble up the latest game but I am left to wonder if wrestling fans will ever get the game they truly want, let alone the one they truly deserve.  Smackdown vs Raw has become the Madden of wrestling games, much to the delight of THQ, and much to the ire of fans across the globe.

Who didn't have one of these?

My generation is the one that grew up with a Nintendo in every household.  It was rare to encounter someone as a kid who didn’t know who Mario was or what the “blood code” was.  Sure there was the occasional classmate who’s parents were opposed to video games, but they were the ones with the biggest obsession.  For them a Nintendo was some kind of forbidden fruit, you never knew if they were your friend or just using you to feed their addiction.

I received my first Nintendo Entertainment System when I was four.  It was a Christmas gift from my grandparents and quite a happy time for me.  It was the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt bundle edition with two controllers and a light gun.  I don’t know how much time I spent with it, but I know it was a lot.  I was never very good at Super Mario.  I knew where all the warp zones were but my methodical pace always doomed me on the longer stages in World 8.  As for Duck Hunt, I could hold my own for a few levels but once things got fast and furious I had that plastic gun barrel up against the glass to avoid hearing that incessant dog laugh at my poor shooting.

My NES collection never got very big.  I can still remember every game I owned.  Aside from the Mario bundle, I had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which was incredibly hard), Battle Toads (which was brutally hard), Super Mario Bros. 3, and Dr. Mario.  My sister had some terrible Barbie game, but that was it.  I’d rent games often and play other games at friend’s or cousin’s houses so I was readily familiar with Zelda, Mega Man, and the other usual suspects.  I also had a Game Genie, which was awesome because it made me feel like less of a failure.  Looking back, I’m not sure if I ever legitimately beat any NES games.  Usually just reaching certain levels was a huge accomplishment, like getting past the water level in TMNT or level 3 in Battle Toads (the one on the hover bikes, that was a game that was still impossible even with Game Genie).  Frustration ruined my persistence, so I would just get mad at a game and then go play with my action figures or something.

I had even less Super Nintendo games.  I had to wait a little while before my parents

would get me one, and it was one of my favorite Christmas gifts.  It was like a scene

My friends and I would spend hours after school watching this fatality over and over. It's kind of surprising none of us turned out to be a serial killer.

from A Christmas Story where I begged my parents for months and then didn’t notice it hidden behind a dining room chair until my dad pointed it out to me.  Aside form the pack-in Super Mario World, the only other SNES games I would ever get would be Mario Paint, Turtles in Time, and the horribly disappointing Spider-Man and the X-Men.  I remember thinking there was no way a game starring both Spidey and the X-Men could be anything less than unbelievable, but it was utter garbage.  I should add, by this time I was at least respectable at video games and managed to completely beat Super Mario World and destroy the very easy Turtles in Time, even on the hard difficulty!  And while I liked the SNES, I was at an age where I never had enough of my own money to buy games and the following Christmas I got a Sega Genesis.  From that point on, my parents and relatives would only ever buy me Sega games for some reason.  Oh well.

I only wanted the Genesis for Mortal Kombat, because the Super Nintendo version was censored while the Genesis version had a code that would enable blood and the gory fatalities.  My friends and I got quite a bit of milage out of that game!

One of my first Playstation games, and one I loved.

It was around that time where games became my favorite past time.  I moved on from Genesis to Playstation, camped out on launch night for a Playstation 2, and acquired just about every major console that has followed (with the notable exceptions being the two X-Box consoles).  I don’t know how many games I’ve owned over the years, but it’s a significant amount.  There’s been plenty who have owned more, but many hours of my life have been spent with a controller in hand.

I’ve now reached the point where they’re losing their luster.  This past year I only purchased three games on my own, Red Dead Redemption, Smackdown vs Raw, and Rock Band 3, the latter I only got because I wanted to see if I could learn anything by using the new keyboard (to be determined).  Outside of Red Dead Redemption, games just aren’t holding my attention any longer.  I can’t put my finger on it, but I think it’s a host of things that have lead to my indifference.

Great games can still hold my attention as I did spend many hours with Red Dead Redemption as I did just about everything there was to do in that game.  That used to be the norm for me though.  Over the last few years I’ve amassed a sizable collection of games that have gone neglected.  Off the top of my head, I can think of several games that I have played 3 or fewer times, among them would be Mad World, Battalion Wars, Dissidia, and Uncharted 2.  Most of these are actually pretty good games.  Uncharted 2 is celebrated as one of the best games to come out in the last few years.  I received it as a gift in 2009 and never even played it until this past fall.  Even when I play it, I know it’s pretty good and something that I should enjoy but I just haven’t gone back to it.  I’m actually going to force myself to resume playing it in the next few days along with Super Mario Galaxy 2, which I’ve probably completed about 50% of and I’ve had it since June.  Since getting Rock Band 3 at Christmas time, I’ve only played that once.  I probably played the first Rock Band only 3 or 4 times, I can’t remember.

I also have a DSi and a PSP, both of which I rarely play.  Recently I’ve made myself pick up the DS again as I have a train ride as part of my commute each morning that lasts about 45 minutes.  As a result, I’ve hit the 90 hour mark on Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and am pretty much sick of it.  If not for my commute I would have never put that much time into it as the game is too easy and the plot is atrocious.  I have a bunch of games I’ve spent little time with that I’ll have to pick up (maybe Final Fantasy III) in its place.

I've spent many hours with this game, only because it was there in front of me.

Things do not look any different going forward.  The 3DS will be the next big piece of hardware to launch and I won’t be partaking in that.  I can’t justify getting in line for one when I’ve barely touched the handhelds I do have.  Mass Effect 2, many outlets pick for best game of 2010, gets a PS3 release tomorrow and I am intrigued.  Since I don’t own an Xbox 360 I’ve never played a Mass Effect game but have heard good things.  I won’t let myself buy a copy though until I’ve at least beat Uncharted 2, I don’t want to see it “go to waste” by never beating it.  I have reasonably high hopes for ME2 as I enjoy the RPG genre and haven’t played a new one in some time.  Final Fantasy XIII did not sound appealing to me so I skipped it, first time I’ve done that ever (not including the online only Final Fantasy XI) with a Final Fantasy title.  My thirst for an RPG was some-what quenched last winter when I borrowed a copy of Final Fantasy XI for the Gameboy Advance, which I played mostly on the train.  I also fired up my PS2 and played through one of my favorite games of all-time, Xenogears, this past summer.  I know ME2 shares little in common with Japanese RPG’s but that’s okay, I also enjoy the American ones such as Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls.

Beyond Mass Effect 2 though there is virtually nothing on the horizon I am looking forward to.  As someone who does enjoy Batman, I’ll probably end up with a copy of the Arkham Asylum sequel which is supposed to come out in the fall.  I’ll keep an eye on the Dragon Age sequal and the Oblivion follow-up but I’m not excited for either one.  It’s a time of transition for me where my free time seems more valuable now than it did when I was a teenager.  I can remember coming home from school and playing Playstation until dinner time, even doing the mundane such as level grinding in a Final Fantasy title or flying through a fighting game with every character just to unlock a new costume or something pointless.  Stuff like that just doesn’t interest me anymore.  Every game today comes with a list of unlockable trophies or achievements for people to spend time on and most of them are just stupid and require little skill, just a lot of free time.  It can get to the point where playing a game feels like a chore.

Perhaps this game will give me reason to get excited once again.

The thing that really irks me is the downloadable content some games provide.  Normally such a thing would be welcomed, but as I mentioned before, this year I purchased the latest Smackdown vs Raw game (a guilty pleasure) and was sickened to see what some of the downloadable content was.  Most of it is the kind of stuff that would be unlockable in a game by completing a certain task, or something that would be given from the start such as the ability to augment the wrestler’s abilities in-game.  Now that stuff is something the user has to pay for.  It’s a small fee but the fact that it exists disgusts me enough to consider forgoing purchasing any future games in the series.  I can remember getting WWF Attitude when it came out.  Every wrestler in the game had 4 attires, now most only have one and if you want more you have to pay more.  It’s just nickel and diming by the publisher.  Perhaps if the product was of exceptional quality I could forgive such a practice but it’s not.  Every year content is removed from the game to be re-added years later as something new and exciting.  It’s pathetic.

At least I'll always have Xenogears.

I suppose I should be happy my interest is waning as this opens up time, and money, for me to pursue other things.  It is what it is, I suppose.  Maybe something will come along that will re-ignite my interest again, but I don’t know.  I thought the long-await Starcraft 2 would be such a game, but Blizzard’s decision to release each campaign scenario separately just left a sour taste in my mouth.  That and the game is virtually unchanged from the first, which was released in 1998.  Diablo 3, which probably won’t be released until 2012 anyways, looks to be the same – an old game with a fresh coat of paint.  I guess that’s the root of my disinterest, every game just feels like something I’ve played before.  Video games are incredibly expensive to develop these days and publishers are afraid to take chances as a result – I get that.  It’s still disappointing though that with all of this technology we’re left playing games where the visuals are shiny and new but the game underneath it is 10 years old.  I still have most of the games I bought and played 10 years ago, so why spend $60 on something I’ve already played?  Forget Uncharted, where’s my copy of Chrono Trigger?!