Post by #HEEL Dark Lord on Sept 9, 2009 18:36:00 GMT -5
September 9, 2009 - Hallelujah, there's finally some more WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 news. I know that 2009 has been tough, WWE videogame fans. Usually, THQ's happy to tell us all about what's coming in its annual installment of SVR, but that pipeline of information was cut off this year. I mean, we just saw the title in action for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and it's set to come out in about a month.
Craziness!
However, like Paul Bearer soothing the Undertaker's wounds back in the day, I'm here to help you by delivering a whole heaping of hands-on impressions centered on one of SmackDown vs. Raw 2010's biggest selling points -- your power to create. Now, I've already filed an initial report on how the game plays in the ring, so this article will focus more on all the cool stuff you can do outside of the squared circle to make the WWE experience your own. You can create characters, finishing moves, entrance videos, logos, and more; plus, you're going to be able to upload and share this stuff with SVR players all over the world.
Before we jump into this deep dive, it's important to note that this was just a preview build of the game with a whole bunch of stuff locked out. It's reasonable to believe things will be added and subtracted as the game nears completion, so any specifics mentioned herein could change.
Of course, Create A Superstar is back, and some would say it's better than ever seeing as how parts load in a flash. This time around you're going to be able to have 50 CAS, which includes the guys you've whipped up as well as the ones you've downloaded from the SVR community, and they're each able to have three alternate costumes to their default duds. A nice touch: you can name these alternate attires so you know exactly what you're grabbing off of the character select screen. You can edit your guy or gal's entrance attire, cinematic attire, and ring attire, choose a screen pose, and so much more. Plus, these folks and all their accessories are in 3D this time around, so "shirts" won't just be painted onto their skin anymore.
One of the biggest changes to Create A Superstar for 2010 is the elimination of the layer restriction -- in past games, you could only have so many layers of clothing, paint, and other junk on a guy -- and the addition of a point system. When you're creating your character, you'll have 48 points to work with. Adding certain clothing pieces and items costs you a certain amount of points. If you don't have enough points left for a kickass pair of boots or something, you have to go back and make room in your pool or accept your shoeless hero.
Now, a lot of fans have spoken out on the IGN SVR boards about this system -- namely that it's new and confusing to them. Sadly, there's no way for me to break down every item and tell you what it'll cost you -- not every shirt costs the same amount of points, get it? If you check out the videos I've posted with this preview, you'll see I made a decent Green Lantern (Yes, I know you're better than me at creating guys), and he didn't use any more of the points than the original naked dude. Green Lantern's eye mask, tank top, shirt, gloves, pants and boots accounted for zero points on the SVR CAS scale. Meanwhile, when I took that same naked due and popped on a pair of ski goggles (4 points) and a giant chicken head (16 points), my points remaining dropped to a level where I couldn't add the bib-jean outfit because it would've left me with negative 12 points.
Still, the massive chicken hat that engulfs your whole head seems to be the exception to the rule. A normal baseball cap, a Cobra-looking shroud, and a giant sombrero all cost you eight points apiece. Plus, general wrestling attire -- like the Owen Hart, Vader, and Andre unitards -- doesn't appear to cost anything; this is the same for logos on your shirt and a number of other options. Basically, it looks like if you're trying to create real life wrestlers, you're going to be fine. If you're trying to create insane characters you'd never see wrestling in real life, you might be screwed… even though Superman and his cape didn't come close to maxing out the system.
If you're looking for nitty gritty details, the build I have has 76 hairstyles in it including Mr. Perfect and Jake the Snake-looking hairdos, there's a Foley-like flannel, British Bulldog dreads and pants, and so on. When it comes to giving your character a name the announcers can call him, currently, the list is just 35 generic titles such as "The Princess" and "Dynamite." Hopefully, that list will be expanded in the final product. When it comes to assigning your Superstar or Diva an allegiance, you can place him or her with Raw, SmackDown, ECW, WCW, WWE Legends, or the Free Agent pool.
Although the CAS program has undoubtedly been improved, there are still some classic SVR issues in this build. Even though you can pick your pose for the pre-match screen, the characters still look pixilated and nowhere near as smooth as the WWE counterpart he or she is facing off against. On top of that, clipping issues and the inability to make things hang naturally seem to be back. Hair looks good and moves around as a character moves, but if you watch the videos I posted today of my created Superman, you'll find that his cape is incredibly stiff and split down the middle in some shots. Similarly, when the Green Lantern was wrestling Rey Mysterio, I noticed the phantom grabs of old where GL had Rey in an arm lock but was pulling on the wrestler's arm a good foot from where his actual arm was.
While I'm talking about Green Lantern and Superman, we might as well talk about my jump into the Paint Tool. If you're just joining us, the Paint Tool gives you the chance to sit down with a simple set of commands (there's a pen, circle creator, line tool, eraser, rotate option, paint can, trash and color palette) and put whatever you can think up on the digital canvas. You select the mode, choose one of the 20 slots you have at your fingertips, select if you want the canvas to be 128 x 128 pixels or 265 x 256 pixels, and you're off. Important note for planners: you can't have hi-res and low-res logos on the same character and you can only have two hi-res logos and 10 lo-res images on one dude or dudette.
If you've used Microsoft Paint or any other basic creation tool, these commands should be simple enough for you. You're on a grid to help you line stuff up, the pen follows wherever you push the joystick, the circle's center will be where your crosshairs are, and so on. There's a bit of a learning curve to the tools because you're switching parts of the screen with L2, using the joystick to pick tools, and tapping the D-Pad to make for fatter lines and such, but after a few tries, things should get to be second nature.
As you can see in our media galleries, I created crappy Green Lantern and Superman logos, but these are my own artistic shortcomings and not those of the Paint Tool. If I had practiced a bit more, both would've been a lot more solid; hell, I didn't even bother to use the multi-level zoom tool to get in and smooth things out. Luckily, everything you create here can be uploaded and tagged to the SVR servers, so if you don't feel like getting good, you can just download the work of others and use it as your own. Personally, I can't wait to see this stuff get in your hands and watch what you come up with.
These creations can then be put on your characters just like regular old logos could be. Thing is -- with my two superheroes as test subjects -- it seems how the logos look in the create mode isn't always how they look in the ring. When I put the Green Lantern logo on my guy in CAS mode, the white circle ran right up to the green tunic and looks slick. However, when I took Green Lantern into the ring, I found bits of black popping up when the logo met the green shirt -- almost like the bottom layer shirt was trying to crawl out from the seam. A similar set of off-color pixels popped up with my horrible-looking Superman logo. We'll have to see if this glitch makes it into the final game.
Another quick observation to toss out there is that I was initally a bit disappointed by the fact that you can only -- at least in this build -- have 20 logos saved in terms of both your creations and the ones you've downloaded. After fooling with the options for a while, I'm fine with it. See, after you've put a logo on someone or something, it's there. You can change the logo in the Paint Tool or delete it altogether and the content will still exist wherever it is that you pasted it. Chances are anything I create I'll only use once or twice, so tossing it out isn't a big deal. Plus, if I can upload it and save it to the SVR servers, it's theoretically there for me to download again. We'll need to get the final game to see if that's really the case.
That's not all for the creation stuff, kiddos. Create A Finisher is also on this preview disc and allows you to save 30 special moves. Although it has been overhauled visually and loads a hell of a lot quicker -- I mean, you pick a move part and you're seeing it instantaneously -- the big addition here is diving finishers. When you choose to create a new move, you need to pick at the very start if it's a front grapple move or a diving one. The front grapple one's the same system we saw before (start with 36 moves such as Poison Fog and Wrestling Hero Slam Clutch 01 as options and then start branching out into different holds and finishers from there) even though new moves have been added, but a diving finisher starts you on the top turnbuckle.
Your first decision is choosing one of 16 taunts or 53 take off animations such as simple leaps and the beginnings of flips. From there, you have more than 60 dives to begin stringing together that range from sunset flips to Superman poses to flying punches. After that, it's more dives, new descents, and finishing moves. It's sweet, and all the better because you're creating 10-step processes that could never happen in real life. I mean, some of the stuff I have created here has guys just flipping through the air and hanging in the sky for no reason. You can change the speed the guys are moving at as well as what trajectory each part of the move is coming in at so things get crazy quickly. It's insane and one of the few times I've been able to round up my coworkers to have them watch SVR and actually be entertained.
A quick hit before I end this preview, I got the chance to fool with Superstar Threads here as well. This is a pretty simple concept, so I won't beat a dead horse. You pick an existing WWE Superstar and get to save three alternative versions of their attire. You're not redressing them, just taking what they're already wearing and re-coloring it. So, you can only jump in and change the color of Cena's jean shorts, sweatbands, etc. You can't add or subtract these things and you can't add or change any logos the wrestler may or may not have. This is a simple way to keep your roster looking like it does on programming as well as changing Triple H into a pink outfit.
I'll be the first to admit that I expected the worst when THQ was saying nothing about this game, but WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 has me very excited to play the final game. When I got my first hands-on with the title, the TV-like presentation had me jazzed, and the fact that this creation stuff is so slick is only adding to that feeling. Toss in that I'm going to be able to share all this content with players like you, there's a Create A Story mode that I haven't even seen in person, the game's got a brand new Road to WrestleMania, and that we can create entrance videos from Highlight Reel clips, and you've got me ready and waiting for Oct. 20, 2009.
Craziness!
However, like Paul Bearer soothing the Undertaker's wounds back in the day, I'm here to help you by delivering a whole heaping of hands-on impressions centered on one of SmackDown vs. Raw 2010's biggest selling points -- your power to create. Now, I've already filed an initial report on how the game plays in the ring, so this article will focus more on all the cool stuff you can do outside of the squared circle to make the WWE experience your own. You can create characters, finishing moves, entrance videos, logos, and more; plus, you're going to be able to upload and share this stuff with SVR players all over the world.
Before we jump into this deep dive, it's important to note that this was just a preview build of the game with a whole bunch of stuff locked out. It's reasonable to believe things will be added and subtracted as the game nears completion, so any specifics mentioned herein could change.
Of course, Create A Superstar is back, and some would say it's better than ever seeing as how parts load in a flash. This time around you're going to be able to have 50 CAS, which includes the guys you've whipped up as well as the ones you've downloaded from the SVR community, and they're each able to have three alternate costumes to their default duds. A nice touch: you can name these alternate attires so you know exactly what you're grabbing off of the character select screen. You can edit your guy or gal's entrance attire, cinematic attire, and ring attire, choose a screen pose, and so much more. Plus, these folks and all their accessories are in 3D this time around, so "shirts" won't just be painted onto their skin anymore.
One of the biggest changes to Create A Superstar for 2010 is the elimination of the layer restriction -- in past games, you could only have so many layers of clothing, paint, and other junk on a guy -- and the addition of a point system. When you're creating your character, you'll have 48 points to work with. Adding certain clothing pieces and items costs you a certain amount of points. If you don't have enough points left for a kickass pair of boots or something, you have to go back and make room in your pool or accept your shoeless hero.
Now, a lot of fans have spoken out on the IGN SVR boards about this system -- namely that it's new and confusing to them. Sadly, there's no way for me to break down every item and tell you what it'll cost you -- not every shirt costs the same amount of points, get it? If you check out the videos I've posted with this preview, you'll see I made a decent Green Lantern (Yes, I know you're better than me at creating guys), and he didn't use any more of the points than the original naked dude. Green Lantern's eye mask, tank top, shirt, gloves, pants and boots accounted for zero points on the SVR CAS scale. Meanwhile, when I took that same naked due and popped on a pair of ski goggles (4 points) and a giant chicken head (16 points), my points remaining dropped to a level where I couldn't add the bib-jean outfit because it would've left me with negative 12 points.
Still, the massive chicken hat that engulfs your whole head seems to be the exception to the rule. A normal baseball cap, a Cobra-looking shroud, and a giant sombrero all cost you eight points apiece. Plus, general wrestling attire -- like the Owen Hart, Vader, and Andre unitards -- doesn't appear to cost anything; this is the same for logos on your shirt and a number of other options. Basically, it looks like if you're trying to create real life wrestlers, you're going to be fine. If you're trying to create insane characters you'd never see wrestling in real life, you might be screwed… even though Superman and his cape didn't come close to maxing out the system.
If you're looking for nitty gritty details, the build I have has 76 hairstyles in it including Mr. Perfect and Jake the Snake-looking hairdos, there's a Foley-like flannel, British Bulldog dreads and pants, and so on. When it comes to giving your character a name the announcers can call him, currently, the list is just 35 generic titles such as "The Princess" and "Dynamite." Hopefully, that list will be expanded in the final product. When it comes to assigning your Superstar or Diva an allegiance, you can place him or her with Raw, SmackDown, ECW, WCW, WWE Legends, or the Free Agent pool.
Although the CAS program has undoubtedly been improved, there are still some classic SVR issues in this build. Even though you can pick your pose for the pre-match screen, the characters still look pixilated and nowhere near as smooth as the WWE counterpart he or she is facing off against. On top of that, clipping issues and the inability to make things hang naturally seem to be back. Hair looks good and moves around as a character moves, but if you watch the videos I posted today of my created Superman, you'll find that his cape is incredibly stiff and split down the middle in some shots. Similarly, when the Green Lantern was wrestling Rey Mysterio, I noticed the phantom grabs of old where GL had Rey in an arm lock but was pulling on the wrestler's arm a good foot from where his actual arm was.
While I'm talking about Green Lantern and Superman, we might as well talk about my jump into the Paint Tool. If you're just joining us, the Paint Tool gives you the chance to sit down with a simple set of commands (there's a pen, circle creator, line tool, eraser, rotate option, paint can, trash and color palette) and put whatever you can think up on the digital canvas. You select the mode, choose one of the 20 slots you have at your fingertips, select if you want the canvas to be 128 x 128 pixels or 265 x 256 pixels, and you're off. Important note for planners: you can't have hi-res and low-res logos on the same character and you can only have two hi-res logos and 10 lo-res images on one dude or dudette.
If you've used Microsoft Paint or any other basic creation tool, these commands should be simple enough for you. You're on a grid to help you line stuff up, the pen follows wherever you push the joystick, the circle's center will be where your crosshairs are, and so on. There's a bit of a learning curve to the tools because you're switching parts of the screen with L2, using the joystick to pick tools, and tapping the D-Pad to make for fatter lines and such, but after a few tries, things should get to be second nature.
As you can see in our media galleries, I created crappy Green Lantern and Superman logos, but these are my own artistic shortcomings and not those of the Paint Tool. If I had practiced a bit more, both would've been a lot more solid; hell, I didn't even bother to use the multi-level zoom tool to get in and smooth things out. Luckily, everything you create here can be uploaded and tagged to the SVR servers, so if you don't feel like getting good, you can just download the work of others and use it as your own. Personally, I can't wait to see this stuff get in your hands and watch what you come up with.
These creations can then be put on your characters just like regular old logos could be. Thing is -- with my two superheroes as test subjects -- it seems how the logos look in the create mode isn't always how they look in the ring. When I put the Green Lantern logo on my guy in CAS mode, the white circle ran right up to the green tunic and looks slick. However, when I took Green Lantern into the ring, I found bits of black popping up when the logo met the green shirt -- almost like the bottom layer shirt was trying to crawl out from the seam. A similar set of off-color pixels popped up with my horrible-looking Superman logo. We'll have to see if this glitch makes it into the final game.
Another quick observation to toss out there is that I was initally a bit disappointed by the fact that you can only -- at least in this build -- have 20 logos saved in terms of both your creations and the ones you've downloaded. After fooling with the options for a while, I'm fine with it. See, after you've put a logo on someone or something, it's there. You can change the logo in the Paint Tool or delete it altogether and the content will still exist wherever it is that you pasted it. Chances are anything I create I'll only use once or twice, so tossing it out isn't a big deal. Plus, if I can upload it and save it to the SVR servers, it's theoretically there for me to download again. We'll need to get the final game to see if that's really the case.
That's not all for the creation stuff, kiddos. Create A Finisher is also on this preview disc and allows you to save 30 special moves. Although it has been overhauled visually and loads a hell of a lot quicker -- I mean, you pick a move part and you're seeing it instantaneously -- the big addition here is diving finishers. When you choose to create a new move, you need to pick at the very start if it's a front grapple move or a diving one. The front grapple one's the same system we saw before (start with 36 moves such as Poison Fog and Wrestling Hero Slam Clutch 01 as options and then start branching out into different holds and finishers from there) even though new moves have been added, but a diving finisher starts you on the top turnbuckle.
Your first decision is choosing one of 16 taunts or 53 take off animations such as simple leaps and the beginnings of flips. From there, you have more than 60 dives to begin stringing together that range from sunset flips to Superman poses to flying punches. After that, it's more dives, new descents, and finishing moves. It's sweet, and all the better because you're creating 10-step processes that could never happen in real life. I mean, some of the stuff I have created here has guys just flipping through the air and hanging in the sky for no reason. You can change the speed the guys are moving at as well as what trajectory each part of the move is coming in at so things get crazy quickly. It's insane and one of the few times I've been able to round up my coworkers to have them watch SVR and actually be entertained.
A quick hit before I end this preview, I got the chance to fool with Superstar Threads here as well. This is a pretty simple concept, so I won't beat a dead horse. You pick an existing WWE Superstar and get to save three alternative versions of their attire. You're not redressing them, just taking what they're already wearing and re-coloring it. So, you can only jump in and change the color of Cena's jean shorts, sweatbands, etc. You can't add or subtract these things and you can't add or change any logos the wrestler may or may not have. This is a simple way to keep your roster looking like it does on programming as well as changing Triple H into a pink outfit.
I'll be the first to admit that I expected the worst when THQ was saying nothing about this game, but WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 has me very excited to play the final game. When I got my first hands-on with the title, the TV-like presentation had me jazzed, and the fact that this creation stuff is so slick is only adding to that feeling. Toss in that I'm going to be able to share all this content with players like you, there's a Create A Story mode that I haven't even seen in person, the game's got a brand new Road to WrestleMania, and that we can create entrance videos from Highlight Reel clips, and you've got me ready and waiting for Oct. 20, 2009.
