Thanks to Wayne Daly for sending in the following review:
Today, I got the chance to check out a pre-release of the new WWE: Smackdown Vs. RAW 2010 video game from THQ, released October 20th in North America and October 23rd in Europe. I have to say that this game has got a complete overhaul in my opinion and looks much better than the previous years versions of the game. Many new additions to this game include no HUD bar, a WWE Live Icon during play giving it the current WWE authentic feel and many more, we will talk more about these soon.
The game engine seems faster to load things up than previous versions, but the main talking point in this game this year is creativity allowing the user to create various things within the WWE world. The creative WWE Gamer will enjoy these features as will the new gamers also, whereas the gamers who just want to play for fun will enjoy the new influx of wrestlers on the talent roster as well as better overall gameplay and A.I.
I got to try out 3 different things of the game today and I will give them to you in detail now:
1.) Superstar Threads: From only getting 2 hours to play around with this pre-release version, this was one of my favourites and most fun aspects of the game. I edited a few wrestlers attires such as giving Rey Mysterio an American look to his attire with red, white and blue to giving MVP a Green & Black attire (for those DX Fans). It’s a really fun addition and allows users to choose what kind of attires they would like to see on their favourite superstars or what kind of really bad attires they would like to see on their most hated superstars. I really liked this feature and can’t wait to try it out when the game is fully released.
2.) Roster & New Additions: In the pre-release version I would say there was approximately 20 wrestlers for us to try our hands on. The regulars like John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Randy Orton, The Undertaker and Chris Jericho are in this game but the game has new additions this year from the likes of Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler, Vladimir Kozlov, Christian and many others. I wont spoil too much but entrances in this year’s game actually look the way they are supposed to for certain superstars. Plus a new addition to entrances should have many creating (again playing on the creativity) various entrances and videos (which they can use for another feature) to put to good use.
3.) Story Mode: Last but my no means least, I got to try my hands on the all new Creative Story Mode, where YOU the player create various storylines for a brand and create the line-ups for PPV’s. Fans of GM Mode made their voices heard when GM Mode was taken away in Smackdown Vs. RAW 2009 and believe me when I say this, fans of GM Mode will really enjoy this feature. I booked an episode of RAW which features various backstage segments as I didnt focus as much on the matches. I wanted to see what was available to me. This has great features such as a particular superstar getting run down by a car, the car exploding, a romantic on-screen relationship, some DX skits and EVEN THE ARRIVAL OF MR. MCMAHON himself to the building, which leads me to believe that he will be a playable character this year. The mode is absolutely fantastic and will have fans (including myself) coming back to play it over and over again with various segments to use. I believe a pack with more segments in Downloadable Content (DLC) will make the player want to play this even more, as due to what I was able to play around with, it really looked like a great addition to a great game.
Based on that, I hope you will enjoy the game as much as I will as I await the release date on October 23rd in Europe. Props go to THQ for making an awesome game this year, quite possibly one of the best I have played in the past 6 years.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
