On the heels of a couple of really good WWE programming, I’m going to do the unthinkable: I’m not gonna talk about actual wrestling. So if you’re the kind of person where that sort of thing bothers you, I’ll see you next week. No hard feelings.
Okay, are they gone? So this is wrestling-related, I swear. But let’s be honest, when there is little to complain about (or you’re tired of complaining about Sheamus) then that leaves little content to talk about on RAGER. So what I’ve done, I found the one recent subject that I can really sink my whining teeth into:
WWE2K14
Be warned, I’m no gaming expert. I’m actually not an expert on anything except for film and television (and even that’s severely limited).
I’ll stay away from all the whining going on over Rock being on the cover because, let’s be honest, there’s roughly 5 people on the planet that buy games only based on who’s on the cover. Madden could have Bret Favre’s penis on the cover every year for a decade and I probably would still buy it every single year. Sure, it makes little sense to put someone that hardly ever would do publicity for WWE when he was it’s champion, let alone when he’s not even wrestling right now but ultimately, it makes very little difference in overall sales.
Why do people buy WWE games? Mostly because they (or their parents) get it every year out of habit (or tradition, if you want to be sentimental about it). Another reason is because they’ve heard about it somewhere, become excited and start looking up information about it and, if the info isn’t discouraging, they’ll slap down their $59.99 the day it comes out.
Why am I bringing all of this up? Because in an age where WWE is trying so hard to stay ahead (and mostly failing) of the internet when it comes to the subject matter of their television programming, it’s astonishing to think WWE continues to shovel out video games of such horrible quality. We all (myself included) were so optimistic when Take Two bought the rights to WWE video games back in February and it was foolish of us to think there would be much of an improvement in graphics by the time WWE2K14 was revealed.
Don’t get me wrong, WWE ’13 wasn’t terrible. I found the gameplay to be more enjoyable than its predecessors but that’s almost like saying a potato is closer to being a computer than a rock. I was also a devoted fan of the SSX series and the graphics in their new game was really impressive but the gameplay was simply disappointing.
The Attitude Era concept was really interesting and it allowed a giant vault of additional playable content to be included that extended way beyond the usual current roster. The creative mode always seem to be the highlight of their games because they seem to open it up more every year to simply do almost whatever you want with it.
The problems? go on youtube and you can become completely submerged with all the blooper-like videos captured off WWE13 featuring some of the most astonishing glitches one has ever witnessed. I say ‘astonishing’ because I’m almost impressed just how bad/lazy the developers must have been to allow such glaring glitches to occur even with any patch that they might come up with. And then the graphics, I feel like this point has been hammered through the floor many many times by many people. However, no matter how many times it is pointed out, very little is done to the graphics between versions. The initial trailer for WWE2K14 came out this week and featured bits from the game that look EXACTLY like, if not worse than, WWE13. Just look at Ryback alone. Push aside whatever foul feelings you may have towards the guy and admit that WWE puts out plush dolls that look closer to the real thing than that.
Who’s to blame? Well we threw all of the blame on THQ for so long and now it’s painfully obvious that was mistaken considering they were the distributors. Instead, the blame needs to go towards Yuks, the actual developers who apparently also traveled with WWE over to Take Two and is now “partnering” with 2K’s in-house developers Visual Concepts (which develops 2K’s sports games). I was never much of a 2K fan, myself, in the past and always preferred EA. However, I will say Visual Concepts and 2K did a fantastic job on NBA2K13 and that made me optimistic about WWE’s future gaming endeavors. And then the trailer came out and all that optimism went up in flames like Kane in a kitten store (because we all know he prefers puppies…the pets, not Lawler’s pervy power source). What’s even worse about the trailer was that the footage we saw was just finishing move cut-scenes aka the stuff that’s SUPPOSE to look better than anything else; it wasn’t even actual gameplay, imagine how bad that’ll be.
Yes, I enjoyed the gameplay in WWE13 and I’ve never been one to judge a game only on graphics because it doesn’t even matter if it’s a good game (hence why people are still into retro gaming). Also, the dumbest thing about this was the fact that WWE2K14 was only announced for PS3 and XBox 360, knowing that their game would be debuting about a month before we get all new consoles and it doesn’t help that the game looks like it was developed for PS2 and the original Xbox. But this is a bigger deal for Xbox One users because there will be no attempt at making the console backwards compatible seeing as how One is getting a Bluray drive. Granted PS4 isn’t necessarily going to be backwards compatible either but they won’t shut up about this cloud that’ll allow users to play games for older consoles, so at least that’s something. Above all else, I expect the new consoles being released will be the biggest reason if sales take a dive this year.
Will I be purchasing the game? Yes, because I write a wrestling blog and co-host a wrestling podcast (follow us on twitter @CRAttire) and it’s easy material to talk about but it doesn’t mean I’ll be happy about it. Can we just get Bethesda to develop everything from now on?
Come back next week when our regular wrestling talks will continue. Until then, go enjoy last week’s Classy Ring Attire.
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris
The Answer: The “I gave all my fat clothes to my fat friends” guy is still the biggest dick on television. He must have giants blood.
