Smackdown VS Raw 2006

[ragingfear79 0]

well guys here it is, the first few tidbits of info about the game. Sounds interesting but we have to wait and see what happens. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/631/631085p1.html

[Aero 0]

I just finished reading it a few minutes ago. It's sounds really good compared to last year's. It says the match types will be more realistic, so hopefully Cage and Ladder matches, among others, will be changed. From the cage match picture caption, I think that means at least they will.

 

I wasn't begging for buried alive matches, but at least it's something new. It think it says it only happens in one arena, and the grave has Survivor Series on it. Hopefully they'll allow you to fight into the ringside area.

 

The graphics look great, as usual.

 

The Roster. It says there will slightly be more superstars. Slightly? Last year's game had too small of a roster which forced them to get rid of the Tag and Cruiserweight titles from Season. They're expanding the legends roster as well. I'd rather just have a bigger roster than any legends.

 

I hope they allow you to defend titles in exhibition.

 

He only says that Season is really cool. I hope this means that not almost every single story involves hooking up with a diva. And rejoice, voice-overs are back. He says they're improved, but last year's were really horrible. I think we could all do without them.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

They finally put "Steal taunt" back.

 

These ideas all sound great but by now I'm leary of "ideas". There's a good chance they won't come to fruition or, once applied, will not work out as hoped. They even said in the interview the meter from last year didn't work out as they hoped.

 

Edit: Having read a bit further, I must say I'm really hopeful that Stamina idea pays off.

 

I also enjoyed this answer:

 

"I would personally love to do that [alternate outfits], 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"

[cbacon 0]

I never understood all the demand for the Buried Alive matches. Hopefully its gimmick specific in season mode (i.e. Undertaker or Kane matches only).

 

I hate the fact that voice overs are back again, which probably means we won't be able to switch the rosters around again.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

 

Love the picture.

[AndrewTS 0]

"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."

 

" It's cool because we reward you for pulling off the finisher at the right time."

 

IOW = "We've made a few baby steps towards being like the AKI games."

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

Smackdown games shouldn't have threads this early because all it does is get people overhyped and leads to the ever delightful "I'm not buying this game because _____ was cut out."

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

Wow! Stamina meter... just like Fire Pro Wrestling.

Momentum meter... just like Raw.

(Wrestlers pull their finishers out of nowhere.)

 

 

I'll probably buy this. I didn't buy Smackdown vs. Raw.

Fans should demand that cruiserweights switch movesets when going against the Big Show iinstead of trying to bodyslam him. I hope The Rock and Stone Cold aren't counted as legends.

[Use Your Illusion 0]

It'll suck, when will you people learn?

[fazzle 0]

I hope The Rock and Sstone Cold aren't counted as legends.

 

Of course they will be

 

The legends will be Rock, Austin, Hogan, Foley, and one or two 80s midcarders that really don't deserve to be called legends.

[Aero 0]

It'll suck, when will you people learn?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, I loved both SYM and HCTP when they came out. Like those, this actually looks like they're improving or changing alot of the features. Last year's seemed like an overall downgrade due to the smaller roster, bad season with voiceovers, and smaller CAW. The only really improvement was graphics and basic gameplay, which was pretty much the same as HCTP. I've never played the first three SD games, so I'd say that 2/3 games being good to most people doesn't automatically mean that this year's will be bad. I wouldn't just dismiss it right away.

 

BTW, I can't be the only one that's glad that they're going with the logical SD vs. RAW 2006 title instead of a stupid catchphrase like 'You Can't See Me'?

[BHK 0]

I'll wait for a PS3 or XB360 specific WWE game.

[dubq 0]

Can someone copy/paste the article? IGN is a gamesite, and therefore, is blocked from my place of work.

[dubq 0]

And rejoice, voice-overs are back. He says they're improved, but last year's were really horrible. I think we could all do without them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

100% agree there. Voiceovers and commentary, I could COMPLETELY do without.

[Guest Mosaicv2]

 

Love the picture.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Woo, WWE shooting on that pic.

[AndrewTS 0]

HCTP sucked hard. But it had a good story mode.

 

SvR sucked moderately hard, had a weak story mode, and had online play.

 

I got Day of Reckoning for 10 bucks--and I still feel ripped off.

[Aero 0]

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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 want to 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!

[dubq 0]

Is it just me or does the screen get more and more cluttered with meters with every new installment of this series?

[Aero 0]

Well, from the Batista-HHH picture above, the stamina/life meters look alot like No Mercy's, and they're much smaller, too. Hopefully it'll be possible to fit maybe four or three meters across. In the past two games, the screen was way too full during Rumbles with four meters on the bottom, two on top, and each having a ring-out meter. Hopefully with smaller meters, it won't be so cluttered.

[Jericholic82 0]

I noticed that Batista appears to be wearing the same trunks he had in sd vs raw. Which are ones that he never uses anymore/ Hopefully he will have his newer trunks (perhaps his mania ones with his pic on the back) in the final game but of course we have seen dumber things before like Orton having the same tights in HCTP as he did in SYM.

 

As for one suggestion to Yukes/THQ Can you please make it possible to turn off the in game music during matches only?

[Jericholic82 0]

Is it just me or does the screen get more and more cluttered with meters with every new installment of this series?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yep, that had always bugged me as well.

 

When will they just relent and bring in the AKI like spirit meter? I guess they legally cant but at least a rip off of it.

[The Tino Standard 0]

I wasn't exactly clamoring for a Buried Alive match either, but now that I'm looking at it, I don't see what's different about their version in comparison to their Casket Match, other than that the coffin is on a dirt hill instead of ringside.

[dubq 0]

I wasn't exactly clamoring for a Buried Alive match either, but now that I'm looking at it, I don't see what's different about their version in comparison to their Casket Match, other than that the coffin is on a dirt hill instead of ringside.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You have to bury the opponent after he's locked in the coffin...

[Guest shaqaustin34]

First off they better have Rock and Stone Cold. Second I am not a big fan of Buried Alive Matches, but if they are going to have that in their then in needs to be more interactive instead of a bunch of cut scenes. After you throw the wrestler in the grave you should be able to actually get the shovel or whatever your using to throw the dirt on him, instead of being a cut scene of you covering him in dirt. Also I was a fan of Here Comes the Pain, but the main problem I have with these smackdown games are that it's too much cut scenes during the matches. I just don't feel like I am in an actual wrestling match, unlike No Mercy where there were no cut scenes in the matches. For example, if you are doing a top rope move in No Mercy you did it and it them wherever you jumped to, where in SvR if you are doing the top rope move and as you are about hit them the actuall contact is a cut scene. Like the flying head bud, even if you aim for the head as soon as you are about to make contact it does a cut scene like thingy where you head bud him in the stomach even if aim for his head or his legs. So I just dont feel it. And if you are doing Eddy's frog splash and you have the opponent set up wrong on the ground(his legs facing the turnbuckle) it will do the short cut scene as you are about to hit him, and you will hit him perfectly no matter how bad he was set up on the ground. So to me that just takes away realism for me.

[Jericholic82 0]

since when does a buried alive match involve putting someone in a casket first?

[Toshiaki Koala 0]

Aw, I was really hoping they would call it "Smackdown vs. Raw: It Wasn't My Fault!"

[dubq 0]

First off they better have Rock and Stone Cold. Second I am not a big fan of Buried Alive Matches, but if they are going to have that in their then in needs to be more interactive instead of a bunch of cut scenes. After you throw the wrestler in the grave you should be able to actually get the shovel or whatever your using to throw the dirt on him, instead of being a cut scene of you covering him in dirt. Also I was a fan of Here Comes the Pain, but the main problem I have with these smackdown games are that it's too much cut scenes during the matches. I just don't feel like I am in an actual wrestling match, unlike No Mercy where there were no cut scenes in the matches. For example, if you are doing a top rope move in No Mercy you did it and it them wherever you jumped to, where in SvR if you are doing the top rope move and as you are about hit them the actuall contact is a cut scene. Like the flying head bud, even if you aim for the head as soon as you are about to make contact it does a cut scene like thingy where you head bud him in the stomach even if aim for his head or his legs. So I just dont feel it.  And if you are doing Eddy's frog splash and you have the opponent set up wrong on the ground(his legs facing the turnbuckle) it will do the short cut scene as you are about to hit him, and you will hit him perfectly no matter how bad he was set up on the ground. So to me that just takes away realism for me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Those cut-scenes you speak of aren't really cut-scenes. At least not in HCTP. They're camera angles and you can turn them off.

[Guest shaqaustin34]

Those cut-scenes you speak of aren't really cut-scenes. At least not in HCTP. They're camera angles and you can turn them off.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I am not talking about that, I am talking about when the moves connect it does a very small cutscene like thingy. Even if you are aiming a frog splash at the legs it will still hit his stomach, so don't really have to set him up, and it just takes away the realism.

[Jericholic82 0]

Like when you say do cenas five kuncle shuffle and it immediately switches to a camera angle/cut scene showing the opponent lying perfectly in the middle of the ring, no matter where you originated the move at, this also happens with RVDS off the ropes handspring moonsault.

[Aero 0]

Just a random thought I had while watching the JBL-Cena I Quit match from Judgment Day. Since they're doing voice-overs again, if they decided to have I Quit matches in the game, again, they should record everyone saying 'I Quit' in an agonizing voice for the finishes. Unless the voice-overs came out in a normal voice, I'd say it would be much better than slowly standing over your opponent's head and shoving a mic in his face.