Smackdown vs Raw 2012.

Here are my thoughts on the next game. Predictions, hopes, ideas.

First of all, Smackdown vs Raw is always about the big innovations and the expanding of features. What was the biggest feature of last year? Well, arguably, most people would say that was WWE Universe. Here's what I think about how to expand it next year. We'll see what actually happens but this is my realistic predictions and hopes for that mode:

WWE Universe---

THQ has said that they really wanted this mode to be everything they hoped but they couldn't get a lot of it in due to programming and had to stop their ideas at one point and continue it in the next. I would like to see this expanded...

* All Belts and Titles have specific rankings, and are usable. WCW Championship. Hardcore Championship, you name it. And presuming created belts are back, those, too. Choose the weight class, or other choosable restrictions, to make the belts be individual and carry some weight. divas, superstars, guys under or over a certain rating amount, creations only, or maybe even be able to check and uncheck names of characters to allow eligibility only to characters you specifiy (like if it's based on a criteria the game itself can't automatically recongize, like "what CAW's are TNA characters" and so on.

* Calender arranging, as well as adding new Brands and altering others. Change shows, turn Monday into Smackdown night, put Raw's on Saturdays, or just jumble them up, and special Raw's, redesign a raw into "Attitude" night or something, Make it so that any show can be put in any arena on any Monday to Sunday night. Also change the PPV's around even, or create NEW Pay Per Views with new names with Create-An-Arena.

Also, assign them with paint tool for a logo, if you're bringing back WCW, or creating a new CXA show.

* More than 3-4 matches each show. You should be able to have as many match slots as you can add. I'd say up to 7 or 10, maybe. For all shows. Maybe we'd use them all, maybe we wouldn't, maybe we should be able to set the amount, but more than just it gives us and that's it.

3 could be the minimum you HAVE to book, but for each one, it should ask you "Would you like to add another match?"

* Set title defenses. Set them on Raw, Custom Brand or Smackdown or Pay-Per View or whenever. THQ has said the reason they wouldn't let you defend belts on shows or choose your own belts for the PPV's, they said it was "to make them mean something.". I disagree with that, but if they really want to put a restriction on you, it should be a softer one.

Then they should give us a number like 3 or 4 title defenses on non-PPV's. Everytime you use a title defense on Raw, that's one less you can do. Let it do them up to 2 or 3 times a week, thereby making it so that they can't be defended in EVERY week, but some weeks would be realistic, because they do that on WWE. Like, after PPV's the first Raw of the month usually includes a rematch clause, right?

* Moments that aren't as random, and have more set-up and consequences. I'd like stories to play out a little more traditionally in Universe. If someone attacks me after a match, it should do more than just add me into their "enemy" spot. The guy should come out each week, and build up towards saying something he wants from me.

A title shot, maybe I stole his girlfreind 3 years ago, maybe he just doesn't like my haircut, maybe he thinks i'm getting to close to his spot, it'd just be nice if the guy gave me a reason that he hated me, and led up to a PPV match. Also, on this note, it creates and breaks up teams too much. Stop doing that, game.

* Let other people online see how my Universe results are going. That'd be a beat little feature. When looking up someone's online info, it could pull up a list of all my Universe activity. Who had what matches, what I booked, who won what.

I would like to just read what you guys have been doing, for instance, and I think some of you might wanna just scroll down and see what other's you know have been doing. Just a thought.

* Connect Universe with other parts of the game more + better ranking system. Keep track of stats, like the older games used to. I'd love a screen telling me how many finishers got used in Universe, how many title defenses there have been, who is used too much, who isn't used enough. If it gave me some stats, I could look at the stats and either change the way I do things, or make more of an effort to use some guy that my game tells me is my "Least used character".

Also the ranking seems arbitrary and wonky sometimes. Guys who don't win sometimes go up, and sometimes the game decides that #1 contenders just show up by default sometimes. That could use polish.

* There should be more effort to look like WWE Programming. The fireworks into for each show, the announcers chatting (also, they could do this inbetween your matches... that'd be cool), and I know this is weird but.... bring back the "This Match is Brought To You By" advertisements. What happened to those? I loved those in SvR10. I actually thought it was realistic telling me that this show was sponsored by The Office, Castrol GTX, or Mountain Dew. C'mon guys, bring that back.

Did people actually complain about that or something? WHY? It was realism!! I really thought it added to the WWE feel. Yes, I actually miss the ads. Hell, I was even disappointed that there weren't ads between the entrance and the match. I want JR to tell me more about Snickers, god dammit.

* Choices. It'd be cool if, instead of merely things happening TO other people, that Universe let the guys make some in-ring choices back at them. Do I want to attack Miz or Kofi after they've been bothering me for weeks or buying tickets to the event?

Will I face the GM getting angry at me if I DQ too much? It seems in Universe that guys come out and attack the other guy, or Vince comes out and changes the matches on you, or you're reacting to things that happen to you. Let me input a choice, or give me the ability to decide how to choose the end of a cutscene.

* Kill All Babies. Y'know sometimes, I just want to Kill All Babies. Not just the ones in the arena, but just babies in general. Bite their heads off, or toss them into the back row. Or at least raise one from infancy to adulthood and then suddenly spring the news on them, that I only had them so I could see them succeed at things I failed at in life vicariously and since they weren't able to, that I have no choice but to kill them when they walked home from failing their college exam, tonight. But more than that. Babies.

Also, I just wonder at what point they stop tasting like chicken.

That has nothing to do with Smackdown vs Raw or the WWE at all. But seriously man. Don't try to act like you don't know what i'm talking about.


Uh... i'll post more about other modes. >_> Sorry.

I like a lot of your ideas, even if I dont necessarily think we will get them all. I'll do a proper reply on the points, and on what I'd like to see, tomorrow.

Ok, I said I’d come back with some further thoughts.

As I said, I think a lot of what Mike wants would be on my wish list as well. However, we have to accept that the WWE will still control the content of this game, and that obviously means that certain things will be ruled out. The WWE will still have the main aim for the game of it recreating their current television product and selling the message that that product is the pinnacle of wrestling entertainment. At its heart, Smackdown .v. Raw 2012 is an advert for the television programme and PPVs, and therefore the main elements of the game will still be around that.

What that means is that its likely the Monday Night RAW, Friday Night Smackdown, Monthly PPV format will remain for Universe mode, and the monthly PPV shows will remain on a Sunday. I think it also means that other game modes (and probably Universe as well) will have a bias toward promoting current stars and products.

However, within that premise, I’d like to see.

Create an Arena – even if its just for exhibition matches, but preferably for a third brand during the week between Smackdown and RAW. Mike has set out the options we’d like around staging, lighting, trons, ropes, mats, etc, and they are all good. I’d really like the use of paint tool logos on the mats as well. I’d like the WWE to dip into the history of the things it owns here as well. Give us the parts for classic Nitro, Thunder, and Worldwide WCW arenas. Give us the classic ECW arena, something with the AWA logo on it, classic RAW and Smackdown, Wrestling Challenge/Primetime, and the UK RAW/Smackdown set.

More options to steer your character in Universe mode – Mike already touched on this but I’d like to have pre-during-and post match options to further a face or heel progression. I want to be able to decide not to come out for a tag match, to attack an opponent on his way to the ring, to interfere in a match, to turn on a tag partner during or after a match, to beat up an opponent post-match. I want to be able to run in as the babyface to save someone from a beat down, or attack the heel. I want those Smackdown and RAW shows to feel like a real show with real friend and enemy progression. The tracking this year is a good start, but it needs to build. I also like the idea of being able to manipulate rankings for titles more easily, including setting up number 1 contender matches when you want to. I can see the argument for not having title matches all the time, but I would like the option to do them on the weekly shows on occasion. Maybe one defence of each title between PPVs, as well as the option to change matches at the PPVs and make them title matches.

Similarly, Mike is right about adding more matches to each show if you want to. Even upping the Max to 6 for a weekly show, then 9 or 10 for a PPV, would be good.

In Universe Mode, I’d like to be able to add another brand altogether, as Mike has touched on.

Create a belt should be brought back to go with the creation of new brands and new shows.

I’d like more clothing items added to CAW mode, including more classic WWE, ECW, and WCW stuff. They know people spend ages recreating the old guys, so why not make it easier? CAW mode in general needs an overhaul. They need to look at what people are doing with in the online community, and then provide the parts that make that easier for us.

Created finishers needs to have a new position from when the opponent is lying down, and then also needs to add more options.

Finally, on gameplay, they need to add back in some quick grapples with no set-up, using a modifier button to go into chain grapples. They also need to add more groggy grapples (with a modifier button if necessary) as four simple is not enough.

All the points Mike raises are good. specially the title defences. Justifying having no title matches except at PPV's to make them mean something goes out the window by allowing you to swap champions without even a match! And have the belts defendable against more than just the #1 contender.

I think Stables are a thing they really need to sort out. Have the ability to put people in as many stables as they want. You can have huge "NWO Invasion" angles then, or the WCW invasion. Be able to create stables within stables so tag team matches aren't two random people in a stable. Back in the NWO heyday you wouldn't have seen The Giant and Kevin Nash going for the tag team titles. It would be Scott Hall & Nash. Also be able to assign a Stable Leader in a stable more than 2 people, or not at all. maybe add in a feature to 'lock' the stable so the CPU won't break them up or add random people, or 'unlock', so the CPU is free to break up and add people as they go along and have adjustable 'friction' stats between each stable member. Keep good teamwork moves and tagging in stables to decrease friction or attack your partner to increase. When the friction meter gets too much, one of the stable kicks off and is booted out/leaves the stable. Obviously make it fully customisable as well so you can trigger stable splits whenever & wherever you want.

Stat tracker would be real nice. I'd like to see the win-loss ratios of my characters, it might shed a bit of light as to why my guys never seem to go up the title ranking ladder perhaps.

More customisation on tag team entrances required. Be able to control each superstars' entrance in a tag/trio entrance individually and manage character interactions during the entrance. Also, none of this seperate-entrance-for-the-tag-champs business.

The faction/stable thing is a very good point and certainly that does need work. Your ideas are all good. It wouldn't be a difficult thing to fix either - let us set up a stable, and then within the stable set a leader and some established tag teams and trios.

Also let us assign tag finishers to more than one partner and more than one way around. So if I work the Trinity in a 6 man match, and Reaper tags Myron, they do the Coast to Coast with Myron going up. But if he tags me I don't do that, I do something else instead. And if I tag in Fireball, we do the stroke of midnight.

Actually, on that, create a finisher for tag teams would be excellent.

I will post in-depth feelings about what they can do with all the other modes, soon.

They may be even longer than the Universe one.

ok, time for the next part...

Road To Wrestlemania....

To be quite honest, to me, Road To Wrestlemania was by far the worst aspect of SvR2011.

However, on the bright side/silver lining side of things, this also speaks to how good I think the game is overall, when the most broken thing about the game is just an annoyance and not a serious problem.

Either way, however, this is one mode that kinda failed. It's easy enough for me to just say "Well, then they should just regress it back to how it was in SvR2010", but that's not how these games evolve.

They evolve by building forward. Which is what this mode TRIED to do this year but was so poorly conceived and planned out in theory that it failed even though i'm sure it looked good on paper.

My intention here is to talk about how I think they can improve RTWM, and aside from entirely new feature ideas like Create-An-Arena, I think this is the biggest way they can fix what they attempted this year already.

I can most do this by first mentioning what went horribly wrong.


A populated, living, breathing, sandbox backstage was good on paper and in theory. However, it was a tedious, repeptitive, boring mess of trudging through the same hallway over and over again at a snails pace, where there isn't much going on, and no relevance to anything important other than stupid busywork and putting long jogs between you and other areas you MIGHT need to go.

First thing is first. Smaller building, shorter hallways, more going on, wrestlers everywhere, vending machines you can interact with, side missions that toggle on, freedom to do whatever you want, GTA style, better events, and giving you some reason you might want to explore other than the jogging chore just to hear a snippy one liner from a wrestler telling you "I don't want to talk to you, go away."

This mode would have been so much better if it didn't feel like it was deliberately wasting my goddamn time.

At any given time, to make exploration even worth it, I need to have more than Zero or Two other things I can do. Try more like, dozens.

If I explore all the way to this hallway or go in this room, maybe a wrestler might want me to find something they dropped, or talk to some other guy and beat their rival up to retrieve their royal rumble number they stole.

Maybe they'll add me to their list of freinds. Maybe I can call on them to come out for interference in my matches if I need them, later.

Maybe I can build a list of everyone in my FREINDS list on my cell phone, and either continue to help them out, engaging more parts to a "mission side plot" with each of them, or call them to help me out. Or keep a list of my ENEMIES with my cell phone that I can choose to antagonize and further these missions of wrecking their lives and their standing in the rankings by fucking with them and unlocking more of a story against them each time, in addition to my main quest for the title.

Maybe instead of beating up the guy they wanted me to beat up, I can turn heel on the guy that requested the favor from me, and then HELP the theif come back and beat the FIRST guy up 2 on 1? And the SECOND (heel) guy would then be my friend instead of the first guy. That would be very cool if I had these choices to make.

Even more so, if I had this story with these two guys that I could get involved with, OR the choice of maybe THREE other unrelated issues I could stick my neck in, if I didn;t care for this one.

If this mode gave me simultaneous events backstage I could choose to go one of two ways in, each, and making it so that I will have to pass up some opportunities to get involved in others, there would be a risk/reward system, and I might care about the plethora of choices in front of me. Or even have a reason to play it more times to see all of what I could have done had I chose to go talk to Miz instead of Kofi, or Punk instead of Cena. Or Triple H instead of Edge.

Also, fighting backstage should work all in real time. I shouldn't have to shove someone three times to turn it into a separate backstage fight after a loading screen. I should just be able to run around, punching people right then and there.

Also, this mode needs to remember who you like and who you don't like.

Likewise, there needs to be better choices for RTWM's if they really are going to go this route again next year. To be honest, I was underwhemed the choices I had.

In fact, get rid of the separate select screens, and just have the SAME populated, sandbox RTWM story-driven backstage mission-based RTWM and just give me the choice of 5 different people for the same mode, whose difference is that the cutscenes and plot is different, but the mode is essentially the same thing except for the custom tailored plotline bits.

Another interesting idea also would be that maybe, at any time I can jump BETWEEN the different Superstar plotlines in this one big RTWM sandbox, at any time, and jump between the same ONE story from different people's point of view of the events, depending on which guy I like the most.

Maybe on the other hand, instead of 5 different plots to choose, it could all be ONE major, big, epic WWE: The Movie-esque style plot (like Day Of Reconking) but I choose, not one of 5, but one of maybe 20 or 30 different wrestlers in the roster that I decide I want to experience this story from their point of view, with custom dialogue that sounds like the kinds of reactions they'd have to this ONE story.

These are just musings of things that might be cool for them to try or explore.

But even if they don't, they need, at the very least, a RTWM where choice, depth, many forks in the road, and a densely populated "always something to do, see, decide or choose" kind of WWE sandbox going on.

Any one of these ideas would be a good idea, and would work a hell of a lot better than the RTWM's in these modes did.

And for god's sake, at least let us have a Miz-centric plotline somewhere. He has clearly been the most vastly improved personality in the WWE lately, and if there isn't some main Miz-involved presence in 2012's story mode, that would almost be criminal.




Lastly, maybe they could just say "fuck off" to all of that and just do something completly different. A Road To Wrestlemania that is a "What If" elseworlds version of WWE....

An alternate history of WWE being invaded by WCW, and ECW, this time done right. If these end up being options for creatable stages or brands with Create-An-Arena, maybe this game's story mode could utilize this "historical" "what if" concept.

You pick your side of the warring triangle and re-write history the way you figure that this giant war for the future of Sports Entertainment could have played out, or the way you would have liked to see it go.

Although...

Out of all those rambling ideas or possible concepts, here's the one I like the most:

ONE big epic storyline that involves EVERONE in the company. Some big major bombshell that could be the end of the WWE as we know it... one big major WWE: The Movie-style story.... and 10-15 different selectable points of view to experience it from.

This one I like the best, if it was also combined with the sandbox type GTA-ish gameplay I also mentioned. This is the way i'd go about this mode.

The only story I have played on RTWM so far is the vs. Undertaker one. I dunno if I'll do the others really. RTWM isn't a very important feature for me. For the 2012 edition of SvR I'd be quite happy with a revision of this game + the solution I proposed to the crap stable mechanics, extra customizability of Universe mode, C-A-Arena & C-A-Brand