WWE Day of Reckoning 2

http://cube.ign.com/articles/600/600463p1.html

Thank you Jesus!

"March 31, 2005 - Last year, publishing giant THQ made some changes. The company moved the WWE WrestleMania franchise, which had for years remained exclusive to Nintendo's console, to Microsoft's Xbox. GameCube owners barely had a chance to react before news hit that a fresh take on the entertainment of wrestling would debut on Nintendo's system in the other's place. WWE Day of Reckoning was born. The title, developed by Japanese studio Yuke's, responsible for all of GameCube's WrestleMania efforts, explored the medium from a new angle. In the title's simple, but enjoyable story mode, players created a wrestler from scratch and started at the very bottom, taking part in throwaway matches against no-talents, and gradually working their way through the ranks in the WWE, into the spotlight, and ultimately to the top of the food chain to become champion.

Day of Reckoning was well received by fans and critics alike, due in large to the title's pick-up-and-play control mechanics, a decent selection of superstars, divas, and venues, a fun story mode, and a deep create-a-wrestler feature. Without doubt, the fundamentals were in place, and they worked. But the title was not without shortcomings. As intuitive as the game's grappling system proved to be, the control configuration lent itself to button mashing, which turned some hardcore wrestling game fans off. Meanwhile, the story mode was positively shallow compared to some other wrestling projects on the market. And sure enough, some critics complained that the title looked less realistic than its counterparts.
The 20-something team at Yuke's and the creative gurus at THQ combed the message boards, compiled a list of what worked and what didn't, and ran with it. The result is WWE Day of Reckoning 2, the aptly named sequel to last year's game. DOR 2, which has been in development ever since the first shipped, is a true sequel in every sense. It doesn't dismiss the mechanics of its predecessor for all new ones, but rather builds on top of them, enabling a bigger, meatier product on all fronts.

If all goes as planned, Day of Reckoning will be, to use associate creative manager Matt Greig's own words, "the definitive GameCube product for WWE." He explains further: "What we mean by that is that it's a superset of everything that came before on GameCube. We're not taking anything out. We're using Day of Reckoning as a starting point and building in features from previous games, and adding new stuff that we prototyped and realized would work well. We're looking at it as a collector's edition. Obviously, GameCube is nearing the end of its lifecycle so we're trying to put something out there that will stand the test of time for several years to come."

No easy goal, to be sure, but the team at Yuke's believes it has the right priorities in mind and that it knows where to start, which, as it turns out, is exactly where the last game left off. By the time gamers bested the original title, they had advanced from the wrestling slums to superstardom. Day of Reckoning 2 continues from exactly that point. It's in the same universe. And it acknowledges all of the events that transpired in the first title. "It's not a sequel just in name," explains Greig. "It continues on with the story. There are actual ties in content. You're already a champion. You won the storyline in the first game, so you're starting out as a champion. This gives us a lot of opportunities to explore how we can advance the story when players are already starting as a successful WWE character. And this is actually something we haven't done before."

I am happy!

[ Edited by Sharpshot on 2005/4/4 10:40 ]

I hope this is at least as good as the first one, which I was playing just yesterday. More wrestlers, more moves, more match types please! The story mode could also branch more rather than just being linear. I'd like the pace slowed down a tad, and the reversals need to be cut down, because sometimes the original becomes just a big reversal-fest. Oh, and an option to not have music playing during the match...

I look forward to it! We'll hear more at E3 I'd imagine!

EDIT: Those IGN videos! The crowd! The announcer on the intros! *froths* The submission system sounds pretty good as well, but I want to hear more about it. I'm not sure about the size of the energy bars on the videos either, but I'd get used to them.

[ Edited by Mason on 2005/4/4 12:57 ]

I'm willing to try wresting games, so long as there is a good character creation tool (and hopefully a character improment structure...), even though the genre doesn't appeal to me... I'm insane.

It is using the same engine as the first Day of Reckoning and that had a brillaint Create a Wrestler, you could make your own logos and everything.

I am a little worried about the submission system, I personally liked the button bashing system for submissions, but it seems a lot of fans wnated it removed, which is a shame. The new one could be good, but it says they haven;t finalsied it, so I hope they will try to make it work. I love the presentation it looks great, and the music -brilliant.

I agree though, less reversals are needed and the story line is meant to be much more in-depth, which I am loving. I hope it has lots of alternate paths on offer.

Now all I want is back stage areas, elimination chamber, night gown match, buried alive matches, inferno matches and having 6 people in the ring at a time. Somehow I doubt all this will make it in there, but I would love it if it did happen. Royal Rumbles would be awesome.

Also you need to be able to make your own stables and have more than one person coming at entrances and have managers as well as people accompanying you to ring side.

So I hope a lot is put in, I doubt it will, but never know, it could happen. Either way it is looking very cool.

Looks top quality..but i don't like wresling games.

Sharpshot wrote:
I am a little worried about the submission system, I personally liked the button bashing system for submissions, but it seems a lot of fans wnated it removed, which is a shame. The new one could be good, but it says they haven;t finalsied it, so I hope they will try to make it work. I love the presentation it looks great, and the music -brilliant.

I enjoyed the button bashing submission things as well; it added to the desperation of getting out of a move/keeping a move on to win or stay in the match. I really like the idea of different kinds of submissions though, such as the humiliation submission - has any other wrestling game done this before?

Now all I want is back stage areas, elimination chamber, night gown match, buried alive matches, inferno matches and having 6 people in the ring at a time. Somehow I doubt all this will make it in there, but I would love it if it did happen. Royal Rumbles would be awesome.

Wasn't the official quote around the first one that it wouldn't be possible to fit 6 people on screen at a time (and don't forget the referee) with that level of graphics on this generation of consoles? Smackdown! models have less detail I think, which makes it possible. This time, the graphics are improved, and there are polygonal crowds as well, so I don't see it happening. I'm sure it's possible if they push the Gamecube - look at RE4, the new Zelda, for example - but I wouldn't say it's likely. If they don't, I'd still like them to include a 4 man Elimination Chamber though. They also definitely need to have an elimination tag match, elimination triple threat and elimination fatal fourway, because it was annoying to win the latter with a single pin over a single wrestler in the last game. Buried Alive matches and Inferno matches should be pretty easy to add, so hopefully they'll be in. I'm not so bothered about the night gown match, we've already got one waste of space in the bra and panties matches.

Also you need to be able to make your own stables and have more than one person coming at entrances and have managers as well as people accompanying you to ring side.

This is a must, especially for tag team entrances.

Agh... I just hate wrestling games.

Are you good with Randy the legend killer Orton in seasn i'm the wwe world heavy weight champion on RAW

Hey waz! You lied! You said you knew nothing about this wresting game!

Agh... I just hate wrestling games.

Mason wrote:

Wasn't the official quote around the first one that it wouldn't be possible to fit 6 people on screen at a time (and don't forget the referee) with that level of graphics on this generation of consoles? Smackdown! models have less detail I think, which makes it possible. This time, the graphics are improved, and there are polygonal crowds as well, so I don't see it happening. I'm sure it's possible if they push the Gamecube - look at RE4, the new Zelda, for example - but I wouldn't say it's likely. If they don't, I'd still like them to include a 4 man Elimination Chamber though. They also definitely need to have an elimination tag match, elimination triple threat and elimination fatal fourway, because it was annoying to win the latter with a single pin over a single wrestler in the last game. Buried Alive matches and Inferno matches should be pretty easy to add, so hopefully they'll be in. I'm not so bothered about the night gown match, we've already got one waste of space in the bra and panties matches.

This is a must, especially for tag team entrances.

Bah that 6 man thing sucks a bit, but it does make sense. It would get crowded but I just want Royal Rumble on the Dreamcast like matches, although the game was a little shallow, 6 wrestlers on screen was great. But if it doesn't make it in, I won't be too pissed. The PS2 does do it, but your right the models are noway near as good as those found in DOR.

I think it is the first time the submission mode has been used and like the idea of strategy, as it wil finally make use of the stamina system and not make it just a bar that changes colour.

I'd love Elimination chamber and toher match types as that was one of my only quarrels, the fact SMackdown! games had more match types. And for the Night gown match...meh I'm a pervert, but we need some more divas, And it would be cool if we could make our own women to strip...geek fantasy.

The managers thing has to happen, I played No Mercy so much just to make those stables and keep them up to date with what was actually happening.

In DOR I'm pretty sure you couldn't play as superstars already in Season mode, but I teamed up with Batista in the end.

Sharpshot wrote:
Bah that 6 man thing sucks a bit, but it does make sense. It would get crowded but I just want Royal Rumble on the Dreamcast like matches, although the game was a little shallow, 6 wrestlers on screen was great. But if it doesn't make it in, I won't be too pissed. The PS2 does do it, but your right the models are noway near as good as those found in DOR.

I'd love a real Royal Rumble match done in a good fashion. We can hope, but I think we'll get disappointed. Again.

I'd love Elimination chamber and toher match types as that was one of my only quarrels, the fact SMackdown! games had more match types. And for the Night gown match...meh I'm a pervert, but we need some more divas, And it would be cool if we could make our own women to strip...geek fantasy.

There are supposed to be 5 extra wrestlers than last time, and I don't really want anymore than 5 divas in the game. However, you've got a point - the women made should be able to participate in the women-specific match types. It made bra and panties mode pretty pointless when you could only have the 4 divas in the game featured in them. I know why they did it - so gamers couldn't make them appear naked during those games - but still, it was a waste of time having the mode if created wrestlers couldn't be used.

In DOR I'm pretty sure you couldn't play as superstars already in Season mode, but I teamed up with Batista in the end.

You couldn't, which was a shame. Maybe this'll be allowed in the new one. Probably not. Maybe you'll be able to load your character data from the first one?

I thought of another must have: title defences in exhibition mode. I used to love that on No Mercy.

The story focuses from where you are a champion, so I imagine they will let you play as anyone, as it has skipped out the underdog storyline, so it now makes sense to play as a proper superstar.

God yes I loved that, having the belt in normal exhibition modes, they need to make the belt more integral to the superstar.

I think THQ stop worried about abusing women when we got lingerie matches, so we may as well all get the spoils and not just the PS2 gamers! The matches were pretty short anyway!

I worry about how many new match modes will be added, it needs to be filled out abit in my mind, with more stipulations, like guest referees and stuff. Even some old school matches, like lumberjack matches, or pink slip matches. That would be awesome.

Ooh! Guest referee! I missed that a lot in Day Of Reckoning.

I'm really picky about wrestling games. If done badly or not upto my standard, they're horrible and they have to go right back to the shop (Wrestlemania 19 had this fate), but if they're done well they're some of the most amazing games ever - I played No Mercy basically every single day at some point for 2 years, even if it was just for 5 minutes.

You could have all the match situations you want, Elimination Chamber, Inferno, Casket Matches, but if you don't nail the actual wrestling system and balance the gameplay, you're going nowhere. Create a Wrestler, Entrances, Backstage

Soundworks wrote:
Hence why Raw 2 looked so good on paper, but still played like a piece of dog crap warmed by the sun in reality.

Realism

Raw was so terrible it was unbelievable. It was sad, it looked really good.

Sooner or later, we'll have to accept we're not going to get a true No Mercy sequel now. Yukes are developing now, not AKI, and it's always going to have a slightly Smackdown-ish feel to it with them. They can deliver the modes, but will they ever deliver perfect gameplay? We can hope, but I doubt it. The best we can hope for is 'very good'. Being overly critical again, but nothing is ever going to truely match No Mercy in my eyes I don't think.

The realism is another big factor - the 'get up if the affected body part is in orange' was a joke. I don't want 'instant pin' moves, but I do want it to be slightly more difficult to kick out of a pin/get up after you've just been Pedigreed 4 times in a row...

You make great points about the depth, it did suck a lot when they get up straight after your special, and those alternate moves are a must! I remember how complete No Mercy felt as whoever you played as they felt different to everyone else. It is weird how they still can not deliver the same package as an N64 game, they know whats work, so just use it man! It is what we all want!

The reason no one has nailed the same depth and all out awesomeness of No Mercy is because THQ handed over the developing rights from AKI to Yukes, probably because of better sales of the Smackdown Series.

I'm still hoping that we'll see the sequel one day, but it doesn't look very promising at this stage. The closest I think we'll get is maybe a DS remake, depending on the ownership situation between THQ, AKI and the game itself.

AKI made the Def Jam Vendetta series, which are both on the Gamecube at the moment. So you might want to check them out, unless you already have, ignoring the whole gangster/rap theme and the fact there are no extra match types at all except for Tag Teams, you've got yourself the closest thing your going to get to a all out No Mercy sequel.

It's quite a bit faster than the actual game; presumably the speed just didn't fit with the theme, they must have preferred the more in your face, button basher type game rather than the more strategy-type game that is No Mercy itself.

Been meaning to get Def Jam, just being an 18 meant I needed an adult which was a shame. Forgot completely about how AKI had dropped the ball on WWE games, still they could port over more ideas from No Mercy, they have done it with the grapple system so will probably do it sooner or later.

I actually liked the location specific damage a lot, but really it just came to a point where you wanted to get them in red all the time and ignored specific areas. Although still being able to fight at the point of damage was very unrealistic, hopefully they may balance that bit better in future.

Def Jam's a good little game, but I'd prefer a real wrestler in that style rather than with rappers. The second game became a lot more brawling-based than wrestling, anyway.

I agree about the location specific damage. I liked it, but it should have been harder to damage areas I think, because it was all too easy to repeatedly do 'minor' submission moves or hits to get the opponent into red (the one I'm thinking of most in Day Of Reckoning was when the opponent was lay face down, you could keep grabbing his leg and slamming his knee to the mat, and you could do this a fair bit in a row, basically destroying his leg area).

Am I the only one who finds Wrestling games just plain old boring?

I'm sure you're not the only one blizz. I barely even watch wrestling (I keep up to date with it via news sites) but I love the games for some reason.

I can't wait for this game. I got the first one and it's awesome, i like making up my own story lines and champions by letting computers fight. I dont know why lol...

I hope they make it like No Mercy, so you have certain paths you can go in Story Mode.

rap4life96 wrote:
I hope they make it like No Mercy, so you have certain paths you can go in Story Mode.

year that was the best bit about no mercy. that and the guest ref mode. that has to be in this new game. if not i will destroy the company with the sword of thunderous power and sarcasm shield.

WWE Day of Reckoning 2 will be my second wrestling game purchase ever.

I hate watching wrestling on TV but, when a decent wrestling game is released, invite 4 mates round, and have a tag team match. Classic multiplayer fun!

Other fighting games (except SSBM) just dont seem to be as much fun in multiplayer mode

yeah i didnt like SSBM as much as the first one, dont know why..

I hate watching WWE on tv too, its so fake, and the acting is really bad(i used to)...But the games have always been a hit in my mind