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Originally posted by: Ian Sane
Personally I think wrestling games should have a performance mode where you and your opponent co-operate and set up spots and such to put on a great match. Like you're an actual wrestler and the booker told you to wrestle some guy for 15 minutes with this move getting the pin and with this high spot occuring three quarters the way through and you controlling for this amount of time.
The WWE Developmental and Heat phase of the Day of Reckoning storyline had scenarios very similar to what you're describing.
Personally I don't think this gen turned out all that bad, at least from a GC perspective (I haven't played any of the wrestling games on PS2 or Xbox) and compared to all of the repsective gens in the past. the N64 age so far has been more of an exception than a budding rule. However as a fan of wrestling in general I'm not too down on it. Yes WMX8 was trash beyond trash and a huge step down from No Mercy, but Yukes fixed the wrestling aspect in XIX, fixed the story aspect in DoR (depending on how you feel about being limited to only CAWs for the story), and from what I've seen are planning on improving the graphical aspect for DoR2 while tweaking said fixes from previous games. I don't think the end result will have anywhere near the flexibility that No Mercy offered (WHY hasn't a wrestling game since allowed a tweakable Royal Rumble is insanity to me), but it will be a very good game in the competitive sense.
The biggest problems still left to tackle are the aforementioned flexibility, the AI, and a problem that has plagued wrestlers since day one, collision detection. Better hardware (and of course adept handling of said hardware) should hopefully help iron out collision detection issues and make for a more realistic game. AI is something that will need lots of hands-on attention though. Not so much the difficulty of the CPU, but other details like utilizing a wider variety of moves in a moveset, quicker moving refs who don't get hung up in the ropes, CPU opponents that don't follow each other in and out of the ring constantly, CPU opponents who are AWARE of match stipulations (no letting up on submissions in a submission match, using as many bleeder moves as possible in a first blood match, etc) and such affairs. Flexibility....well for a WWE game, that could be a problem. Not saying Yukes isn't capable, but I really think they're being limited by WWE programming itself. They won't include a submission only 40 man Royal Rumble because WWE doesn't do that. So I would hope they would AT LEAST include matches and other things that DO happen, like best of 3 falls, the Elimination Chamber and PPV/belt creation and defenses in those various match types. Whew, Yukes (or anyone) has a lot of work cut out for them. And that's just stuff I feel is necessary.
In my eternal lists of wants, I'd like for a restructuring of the tag team mode. I've never played a fun tag team match, with or without friends. Add a new stipulation or a mandantory tag timer, let the idle partner have something to do while waiting that will affect the match, SOMETHING to make it fun. I'd like editable or replacable superstars. I don't want or need Rosey on my game, so let me create my own. Most other stuff I'd like falls back into that flexibility gripe, and is probably a mere pipe dream.
Pushing ALLLLLLL that aside,
here is a link to an interview that may get you all tingly inside.