So for you No Mercy fans, how does it stand up? Is it going to drive me crazy trying to play this game (like all the other Smackdown's have... though I didn't get to play SYM) or has the grapple system come far enough that I can actually enjoy season mode again?
-Jag
To Make Jeb Feel Better: ;)
Note to self:
The less I post, the fewer chances I have to look like an ass.
My first season is with Benoit. Second show I won the US title from Eddie. A few weeks later JR said you can have a shot at the tag titles but you have to tag with Piper, so I said screw the tag titles. Then the very next week and went and asked Steph for a tag title match and didn't have to use Piper! So I chose Ultimo Dragon. So now i'm the US and Tag champion. Almost all of my matches so far have been against Los Guerreos (or just Eddie) and WGTT (or just Charlie).
I like the new damage too, it did cost me too though. I was wrestling Brock, who is really tough, and was getting by butt kicked. Finally I got an opening and starting getting some offense in but I was so beaten up from Brock's power moves that every time I did a big move i would stand up and then grab my head and fall to one knee.
Also I like the realism in being able to lift people. In a three way match i was in Eddie could not lift the Big Show, however Benoit was able to, because Benoit is just a beast.
Also there is a profile section in season mode. You can go there choose any wrestler and it will tell you their win/loss record all the titles they've had, how many times they've wrestled each person and it even has a history of all their matches (up to 200 matches). Poor Eddie is 0 - 7. I'm 10 - 4 and my tag team partner Ultimo Dragon is undefeated at 4 - 0.
At my last show I got to judge the beauty contest between Sable and Torrie, I chose Torrie.
(edited by Quezzy on 28.10.03 1630) Lance's Response:
Update on my thrilling feud with Rikishi. After I beat him on the last episode of Smackdown I went back to drive off in my nice car. Oddly enough, someone had killed the battery. As Matt struggled to get the car started Rikishi picked it up with a fork lift and dropped it upside down on the roof.
The following week Matt returned from the hospital, but Rikishi jumped me from behind and threw him in the trunk of his car and drove off. Sadly Matt could not find the safety release that Kane did.
Next weeks Smackdown opened up with Rikishi gloating in the ring when I suddenly appeared backstage in a monster truck and ran over Rikishi's car. Needless to say, Rikishi was pissed. I challenged him to a Last Man Standing Match at Unforgiven and he accepted. Before the PPV we actually got a black and white PPV promo recapping our feud. Awesome!
I gave Rikishi a brutal beating with a steel chair eventually busting him open and was victorious. He was then carted out of the arena on a stretcher. A year's worth of car related storylines all wrapped up in a three week package. =D
"You won't see that on Everybody Loves Raymond!" -J.R. after Trish gets pasted with a chair
I had a thrilling Stables feud. My stable (created within the season) was Cena, Richards (I don't know WHY I picked him, he sucked it up in all my tag matches ), Kane (who basically killed everyone in tag matches), and our manager Victoria. Vince McMahon created a face stable of RVD, Goldberg, Michaels, Nash and Stacy to counter. I wrestle RVD about 5,000 times in that stretch. It all culminated in an Elimination chamber with me against the four guys and Booker T (who I'd feuded with just prior). That was pretty neat. They blew up Team Thuganomics' bus though.
I've been trading the I.C. belt back and forth between Jericho and Booker and myself. It's really hurting my win/loss record to keep losing these three-ways though.
Wisconsin Badgers: 6-3 (Uh...yeah. That pretty much sucked.)
Minnesota Vikings: 6-1 (That sucked as well. It's been a bad weekend.)
This game rocks. I started a season with O'Haire on default difficulty and I found that it matters who you wrestle greatly. Benoit or Angle or Taker get their meters up QUICK, but Chavo and the like are easier. I quickly got the tag team titles with Matt, but then he attacked Vince and got suspeneded and I lost the match to get him reinstated, and had to go 1 vs 2 aganist Benoit and Angle, lost and now am playing second fiddle in a Torrie vs Sable fued. Sigh.... from Tag Team Champ to the reason two divas are fueding and not getting booked as much.
"I wear it for the thousands who have died, believen' that the Lord was on their side. I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died, believen' that we all were on their side." RIP Johnny Cash
I got the "you can get a tag title shot if you team up with this undesirable person" angle too, but in my case the person was Kane and I took the deal. We had a few squabbles, and there was one scene where he threw a birthday party for me in the ring, complete with cake and balloons -- and shockingly, did not smash my face into the cake. I stayed nice to him, expecting him to turn on me every step of the way -- especially since I'm playing a face, RVD -- but we've stayed good buddies and recently won the tag titles from the Dudleyz in an absolute corker of a TLC match.
Other than that, it's been quiet angle-wise. I have a long-running feud with Jericho, but I've whipped him most times we met. There was a bit where Vince came to the ring to tell me he could make or break me. I smarted off to him backstage afterward, and he booked me into a three-on-one handicap against him, Triple H, and Flair. To say I got my ass righteously stomped was an understatement. No follow-up on that, though.
The coolest thing so far, though? In one of my matches with Jericho, I hit the taunt where RVD jumps and does the splits in midair -- just as Jericho charged. And he went right UNDER me. For a second there I felt like the King of All Video Games.
"I do have a degree in electrical engineering... from almost 20 years ago. Punchcard systems were just becoming obsolete, we had rotary phones in the dorms, and a modem was still a gizmo the size of a shoebox into which you squooshed the phone receiver itself. In short, we lived like animals.
The instant obsolesence is why I became a writer. The rate of punctuation in a sentence doesn't double every 18 friggin' months, and you never have some 22-year-old looming over your shoulder, shaking his head, saying "dude... you're still using adverbs...?"
I'm a couple months into my season with Jericho, I took the IC belt from Christian. Lawler told me I could go for tag belts if I teamed with Stone Cold, and I had the inring birthday party too. However, I lost the TLC match against HHH & Flair for the belt (HHH was able to get 6 smackdowns throughout the match to my 2 and Stone Colds 3, man even in video games he holds Jericho down :)). But all was not lost as I got to choose a manager, Jazz or Victoria (took Victoria). After my first match with her, Stacy Kiebler was tryin to get into my pants, but I stayed true to Victoria (although.....err wait, I'll save that thought for later). All in all it is a great game, though how quickly opponants can build up smackdowns still kind of annoys me.
Mr. Burns: You are of course familiar with our state usury laws? Homer:U-sur-y? Mr. Burns: Oh silly me, I must have just used a word that doesn't exist.
I've been playing for a few hours, but pretty much just messing with the CAW stuff -- recreating my favorite made-up tag team, mostly. They've made some changes to the way things are structured that may make creating specific attire easier once I figure it out, but thus far I'm annoyed by.
Entrance attire is very cool (I gave my team matching letterman jackets for their entrance). Also cool is the fact that your made-up CAWs appear in the "promo shot" announcing who's about to have a match -- before there was always a generic green figure. They pose and stuff just like on TV!
I'll create a singles guy and jump into season mode tomorrow. (I get bored using real wrestlers.)
These are awesome stories. I can't wait to spend more time on it. I've only been able to put about 2 hrs into it so far and it's just not enough. Hell, I almost called in sick today. I can't wait to explore all the new features.
There is so much to catch up on, I don't know what's what in WWE anymore; As far as heels and faces and the past angles. Guess I'll have to see how it goes. I didn't know Ultimo Dragon was on the roster, a match with Rey Jr. is mandatory.
Right now, I'm using a created player in the likeness of my SYM CAW, I thought I would just be able pick up where I left off. Ignoring the fact that I have to build up my stats, I used my CAW against the 'normal' Goldberg in an exhibition, BIG MISTAKE, man-handled is an understatement...
But no worries though, cuz it's only a matter of time before I begin to use my "political influence" to effectively suppress anyone who tries to oppose. There are several dream-matches to make, but I want to know the controls better. Goldberg vs. Lesnar gives me chills. Any other matches out there?
"NOW YOU GET YOUR WHININ ASS OUTTA HERE!!" Sid Vicious after slapping Bret Hart
You can set which wrestlers are heel and which are face at the start of the season. I don't know yet if you can actually change it during the season by your actions. One annoying niggle is that wrestlers' heel/face status doesn't appear in the roster list during the season -- that would suggest to me that it's fixed once you set it, though, since there'd be no way to track changes.
"I do have a degree in electrical engineering... from almost 20 years ago. Punchcard systems were just becoming obsolete, we had rotary phones in the dorms, and a modem was still a gizmo the size of a shoebox into which you squooshed the phone receiver itself. In short, we lived like animals.
The instant obsolesence is why I became a writer. The rate of punctuation in a sentence doesn't double every 18 friggin' months, and you never have some 22-year-old looming over your shoulder, shaking his head, saying "dude... you're still using adverbs...?"
I also got the option to make a faction so I made the MFers team of Benoit, Mattitude, Charlie Haas and Sable (only because she was my only choice because she's the only heel manager on Smackdown). I also ended up on the five on one Elimination Chamber against Rikishi, who was on neither side, and Undertaker, Angle, Cena, and Ultimo Dragon, who were in the Corporation, and well I got my butt kicked.
My win/loss record also suffers in multiple man matches. Especially ladder matches. I remember one four way ladder match was myself (Benoit), Eddie, Big SHow and Nikolia Volkoff. At the sound of he bell Eddie and Big Show charge me all three of us are fighting in the corner. Volkoff picks up the ladder sets it up, grabs the belt and wins in about 20 seconds.
I've wrestled Kurt and Eddie six times each beating Kurt four times and Eddie five times. Undertaker is my toughest opponent. I'm 1 - 4 against him so far. I am 14 - 1 in matches that end in submission though.
I'm currently in a mini feud with Austin. I just barely beat him in a grueling 20 minute match only because i countered the Stunner three times.
As for your quetion Eddie. At the beginning of the season you can choose what wrestlers to be in the season, which show they are on and if they are heel or face. I've only been able to change my alignment during the season once and that was when I (a face) formed my faction with Matt (a heel) and so JR said one of us had to turn.
Yes, before you begin the season, you can decide who's a heel and who's a face. I don't think there's anything that the game didn't include, there's even blood this time.
One more thing: I like the way that the bar fills up so quickly. It gives me that "anytime, anywhere" feeling. However, I hate the way they kick out of them so easily.
(edited by NEO on 29.10.03 0728) "NOW YOU GET YOUR WHININ ASS OUTTA HERE!!" Sid Vicious after slapping Bret Hart
Originally posted by Karlos the JackalAlso cool is the fact that your made-up CAWs appear in the "promo shot" announcing who's about to have a match -- before there was always a generic green figure. They pose and stuff just like on TV!
I don't get that with my CAW! All I get is a black space where my CAW should be. Is there something I'm missing? Do I have to turn something on for that to work?
I got this game yesterday, and I have to say I LOVE IT!! It's so freakin great. Every aspect I hated about the old Smackdown! games has been improved.
Great new submission and grapple system. This was my biggest complaint about the game for the last few years. The matches were TOO damn fast. A finisher(special)ended it so quickly. Now it doesn't matter, cuase you don't wear down your opponent, then it won't end the match.
The graphics are great looking on the level of RAW 2 in my opinion. The Entrances rock too, my only complaint...Lack of ring announcing. HELL, I'am be ok with no commentary. HELL, I turned it off in SYM. But the ring announcing I would have like to have in, cause it completes the authentic part of the entrances, when having the them being introduce.
The season mode rocks, I love how it's so unpredictable and how most things never repat itself. It's so great. HERE'S MY SEASON with being the Undertaker so far...
Only after my first month, I'm the WWE Champion(on fourth week, no less) and engaged in a brutal fued with Brock Lesnar(former champ). I beat him in a Ladder rematch at BackLash. Now Vince McMahon is a very unlikely story that will never ever happen, gives Steven Richards the next WWE Title shot as Judgment Day. And if Richards loses, he's fired. RICHARDS is DOOMED!!
THIS GAME ROCKS!!
(edited by talena696 on 29.10.03 0912) sic gorgiamos alas subjectatos nunc
Originally posted by Karlos the JackalAlso cool is the fact that your made-up CAWs appear in the "promo shot" announcing who's about to have a match -- before there was always a generic green figure. They pose and stuff just like on TV!
I don't get that with my CAW! All I get is a black space where my CAW should be. Is there something I'm missing? Do I have to turn something on for that to work?
--Monte N
I saw the blank space too and was all "man, that SUCKS"...but then he loaded a few seconds later. For whatever reason, the CAW DOES actually show up, but much later than the in-game wrestlers. You probably saw the blank space and skipped the screen. Just wait a few secs and he should pop up.
Cool. I'll try that. I actually did a bit of reading on some other sites and saw some people who said sometimes it takes a good 10-15 seconds for him to pop up. I'll just have to be more patient.
Yeah, it takes a few seconds. With my CAW tag team, it takes a few seconds for the first guy, and then a few more before the second guy pops up.
I went ahead and started a season with one of my tag guys. I've been getting my ass handed to me by the likes of Steven Richards. The only match I've managed to win so far is a handicap match with my tag team...against Rico. I suck at this game so bad.
Hey, in tag matches, is there a way to break up a submission hold? I can't figure it out, if there is.
I haven't got the newest Smackdown game yet, but what I did in the last Smackdown game was beat down the referee when the opponent had my partner in a submission hold. It always worked for me since the referee is out and can't see your partner tap out.
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