WWE Smackdown VS. Raw 2011 Review

Them fighting words?

I am glad that I said the things I said about Smackdown VS. Raw 2011, because upon more play - I can't believe how low Yuke's Media have taken the franchise.

What goes hand in hand with any WWE game is everything about the WWE.  This too, has fallen to the bottom of the credibility ladder.

Again, you have characters that look like plastic figurines, the flow of every match is buggy as you could have, for instance, Maryse magically slide across the ring by herself when Eve is about to do her signature move.  Triple H falling off a ladder, hitting the ropes, then in the next frame he has somehow found himself laying on the floor of the ring mat.

It appears Yuke's have decided to steal other game idea's such as the Street Fighter character selection menu and use it themselves.  The thing is, it just doesn't wash.  In matches, your characters will have strength bars below where they're positioned on the screen instead of fixed in the top corners.  It is almost like a Final Fantasy game.  I like the mechanics of how you play, I won't say more.

Plus, there is a glitch that if you delete your saved game but keep your created superstars, they go out the window too.

WWE Smackdown VS. Raw 2011 is poor in many aspects.  OXM and GameInformer were too generous in their reviews.  The game scored an eight.  You've got to be fucking kidding me.

Get the 2009 release if you want a weighty wrestling simulator.  If you can do without the latest roster and storyline creator then do so.  If what the 2009 update had what the 2011 update has, it would be an awesome experience.

Maybe they'll make up for this lousy effort come this time next year.

David bowie fandom

He is called "the chameleon of pop" and or "Mr. Showbiz".  Another revelation about this long time famous veteran singer is my fandom of him could be a lie.

Let me attempt to explain.  The seventies in particular was (despite me not knowing myself as I was not alive then) an unusual decade.  Homosexuality in the music industry was common.  Freddie Mercury, Boy George, George Michael, Mick Jagger... David Bowie.  My point?  I guess the product of their music voluntary exposed the lifestyles they lived.

Osama Bin Laden is an anagram for seventies David Bowie persona Aladdin Sane.  Like I said, alot of strange shit went on in the sixties, seventies and eighties.  It wasn't until later on that society reformed.  I am suggesting that Osama Bin Laden is a lie.  There really is no Osama Bin Laden.  There never was an Osama Bin Laden.  This is more evidence of the United States government having 9/11 as an inside job.  I think as long as there is the internet, conspiracy theories about 9/11 will never cease to exist. 

In closing, am I on to something here?  How does one debunk this?  Aladdin Sane?  Osama Bin Laden?

Design

You might have noticed that this blog has been changing from time to time.  Mainly the header has changed.  Well, right now I prefer the header the way it is from an image I made up at an excellent graphics site called http://www.flamingtext.com/ to just simple text in the font, what I think is, Arial.

I think I might even change the position of where "My People" are to somewhere else on the page.  I have been clicking on "Next Blog" and have seen some truly spectacular blogs that have been made up well.

I don't usually do this, and that is type in entries without writing them on paper first in my exercise books.  But consider this entry some clarification on what is happening with this blog to do with design.

GameInformer

In the words of Robert DeNiro,"One of you is a rat".  GameInformer.

I think I still prefer Official Xbox Magazine.  One, because I only own an Xbox 360.  Two, OXM doesn't overwhelm you with columns of small printing on almost every page.  And three, you get a disc that if you get one really good playable demo, e.g. Tropico 3, Colin McCrae DiRT 2, Guitar Hero: Metallica - is worth the price of like three magazines and more!  OXM evidently is being slowly stripped down, however.  I am really at a loss to explain why.

I was happy to read about the Medal of Honor/Taleban controversy in the latest issue of GameInformer.  I have commented about this on another site.  Operation Fallujah, another realistic type war simulation, was based on the siege of Fallujah.  In Medal of Honors case, its only until players can simulate Taleban or now "OPFOR", there is an outrage.  What about games like Wolfenstein that you can play as Nazi's of the Third Reich?  Yakuza?  Mafia 1 and 2?  If its okay to play as those characters in those other games then lets get ready to behead some American infidel in Medal of Honor!  They should have no exception.

The families that complained don't appreciate and understand Medal of Honor.  They don't see it like we do.  Given that, it is for the wrong reasons, though.  We think shooting an American soldier is fun as a Taleban militant.  There is no capacity for the game Medal of Honor in multiplayer to be seen, to be really understood any other way besides that.  The intention of Electronic Arts wasn't to put out a game like Medal of Honor to insult the war effort.  Medal of Honor in campaign mode is suppost to tell a story.  That is something the families should recognise.

New year's eve

Its that time again!  A past year is forgotten (me, at least) and a new one begins.

2011 will be more of the same.  Terrorism, or rather an insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan that won't go away.  More terrorism, but from that murderous tyrant god.  New Zealand is hosting the IRB rugby world cup.  It will be mainly played at a stadium called Eden Park.  Are Al-Qaeda planning on suiting up their suicide bombing vests for that one?

2011 will mark the ten year anniversary of 9/11 - in September - on the eleventh.  Who knows?  Perhaps the war on terrorism will end "at a date and time of our choosing" just like Dubya said.  Then, the United States will move on to their next enemy.  Go back to fighting communists?  It seems that that country wants a new enemy every ten years.  I know that those clowns in the Central Intelligence Agency can't help but keep the Osama Bin Laden nightmare alive because of partly their alliance to the mob.  What?

Like Lennon said too,"Another year over and a new one just begun."  In that song, he also asks,"What have you done?".

Corrections and clarifications

• Yuke's Media are the developers of the underwhelming Smackdown VS. Raw 2011.
• Little Rio or New Rio?  Take your damn pick.  But me moving out of this unfriendly town seems promising.
• Please, if someone could, let me use your computer to do my Xbox 360 movie editing.  Contact details can be found on the Countdown customer service board.
• A Nazi kid?  You better believe it.  I saw a ten year old do a Nazi salute today.  A once in a lifetime moment, if I had my camera.  I was on a bus by the beach.
• I have been thinking about starting a new blog devoted to computer gaming.
• Finally, a question.  If pussy is like a jellybean - which colour does it taste like?  Because I don't know.

WWE Smackdown VS. Raw 2011 Review

Games are continuing to change.  The people who make them, developers, are always finding new ways to present them.  With that, it is why in Smackdown VS. Raw 2011 you get straight in the ring as practice (once you get past all the load screens) then unlock 10g if you complete all the moves.

For those new to the WWE franchise, something like that is helpful.  But experienced WWE gamers like myself could even find it helpful too.

Debuting in the 2010 update, the storyline creator, has not been dropped for 2011.  Smackdown VS. Raw 2011 can apparently boast the largest roster compared to any WWE game before it.  It could be 2014 until we can simulate an x-rated nude mud wrestling match between created superstars Mariah Carey and Beyonce Knowles for the Queen of Pop Diva title.  Then, with the new 'WWE family first policy' - no chance!

The beauty of WWE games is any search online with the keywords, CAW smackdown raw xbox, you should find the games have created a community that helps you to go so far to create your dream matches.  The information you need to create your characters to put inside the game are all there on those sites.

CAW means, create a wrestler.  But, like almost everything else on this blog, its probably unreliable and wrong.

The default controls remain the same unless you change them.  B and left stick for an Irish whip for instance.  My first gripe is with the visuals.  Figures really do look like something out of like Wallace and Gromit - unlike what they appeared in 2009 or 2010.  The clayness of the characters make the simulation less realistic.  I think though, unsuccessfully, realism is what they were trying to achieve.

"Why are you hitting yourself?  Are you mad at yourself?"

The menu buttons look lame.  But it is weird how I say that yet in 2009 the main options were just large bolded white text that gave an arcade feel.  The other options are even more simpler in that version.  The keep it simple stupid (KISS) idea must have worked.

Maybe there could be an ability to throw your opponent over the barrier then fight amongst the crowd?  Also, new and unusual weapons in hardcore matches could jazz up the game.  For now, I've created former WCW superstar Bill Goldberg.  The muscle who had pretty much every other wrestler on the WCW roster job to him.  Which if you know the business, means, give away wins for the credibility sake of your opponent by accepting the request of management to be defeated.  Yes, the concept was have some former bald footballer dude come in, enter matches, spear, jackhammer then go away with the victory every one hundred and sixty or so times without being defeated once.  It was brash, but it worked.  Most matches only lasted under thirty seconds which made jobbing all the more obvious.

The nitty gritty of Smackdown VS. Raw 2011 would have to be an exhibition match.  Playing what this game is all about though, feels lame and extremely awkward.  The gameplay moves so quickly, it is not like a televised match on what is now called 'WWE HD', but like a film being fast forwarded without the ripples.  What makes part of that description are the cameras that come in from all angles when you do a signature or finishing move.  Combined with the play-doh wrestlers it is well, something else.

I really do think THQ must do this on purpose and that is fuck up a franchise that I thought was going strong until the 2009 game.  There is a likelihood that the game may need more time to grow on me but at the date of this review?  I strongly recommend purchasing the 2009 game and find out how better of a simulator it is compared to this.

Roid rage.

Official Xbox Magazine gave the game a six.  I will join and stand by that.