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I used to play all the Smackdown, Raw vs. Smackdown, and then whatever they evolved to after that on Playstation. I quit buying them after 2008 or so. Much like EA football games, not much was changing besides a few roster moves, and those were easily corrected with created characters.

Used to love playing the NWO Revenge, 2000 Wrestlemania (The WWF equivalent to Revenge, same engine), and WWF Royal Rumble on SNES. I go as far back as the old WWF Wrestlemania game on NES and Pro Wrestling, that was the shit.

Anyway, I heard a lot of good reviews for '13, but you say it sucked, Bucklion? I was interested to see how 2K would handle it since I think THQ was handling the wrestling games for many years before they folded. Maybe I'll wait till they've had a year or so to fine tune things and add more features, unless this year's game turns out to be pretty good.
 
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WCW/NWO Revenge and the first Smackdown game were both awesome. In fact, the WCW/NWO Revenge on N64 I played so much that the cartridge died. I haven't really played them since. I bought the WWE All-Stars game, played it once, and never played it again.
 
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http://extramustard.si.com/2013/10/30/wwe-2k14-reviews-are-out-heres-what-critics-are-saying/

wwe.jpg



The much-hyped WWE 2K14 hits store shelves in two days, and the first batch of reviews is out. The general consensus is that, though the game offer a plethora of new options and benefits from 2K’s superb presentation, the same gameplay problems that plagued the last few WWE releases persist.

Let’s start with the best review. IGN.com gives WWE 2K14 8.7 out of 10, praising the game’s 30 Years of Wrestlemania mode, but knocking the game’s dumb AI:

It still lacks the brains to deliver competent AI and commentators, but WWE 2K14 has more than enough brawn to make up for it. 30 Years of Wrestlemania provides the strongest campaign backbone the series has had in a long time, the in-ring action is faster and more fluid than it’s been in years, and thanks to WWE 2K14′s continually expanding creation suite, we’re swimming in more options than we ever knew we wanted. It is indeed “time to play the game.”

GameSpot is much more critical, giving the game a 6 out of 10, mostly because they consider the game’s action to be “clunky”:

It’s a shame the wrestling isn’t up to par in WWE 2K14 because the elements surrounding it are so interesting…For anyone who grew up loving professional wrestling, be prepared to be swept away in a tide of nostalgia. If only the core action could have been as compelling.

Game Informer, meanwhile, also praises the 30 Years of Wrestlemania mode but says the game’s objective-driven single player mode becomes tedious:

WWE 2K14 has some issues, but I still enjoyed the majority of my time with it. THQ attempted similar historical themes in the past with Legends of WrestleMania and WWE All-Stars, but 2K14 complements its historical angle with deep mechanics. 2K’s first stab at sports entertainment is a lot of fun (especially for history buffs), but the feeling of déjà vu left me wanting the developer to move the full experience forward with the same enthusiasm that it embraced the past.

Gaming Age gives the game a B+, crediting the game’s myriad of modes and customization options. But says the game’s graphics are sub-par:

Visually the series hasn’t been what you would call a “looker” for quite a while now, but honestly I’ll take slick game play over visuals any year. Sometimes WWE 2K14 looks brilliant, but there are times when the game and even player models look downright wrong.

In the same review, Gaming Age also calls the AI “spotty”.

So there you have it — WWE 2K14 has some significant flaws, but is worth a purchase for a big fan of the WWE, especially if you were a fan back when it was called the WWF.

Tags: Games, Video game reviews, WWE, WWE2K14
 
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I used to play all the Smackdown, Raw vs. Smackdown, and then whatever they evolved to after that on Playstation. I quit buying them after 2008 or so. Much like EA football games, not much was changing besides a few roster moves, and those were easily corrected with created characters.

Used to love playing the NWO Revenge, 2000 Wrestlemania (The WWF equivalent to Revenge, same engine), and WWF Royal Rumble on SNES. I go as far back as the old WWF Wrestlemania game on NES and Pro Wrestling, that was the [Mark May].

Anyway, I heard a lot of good reviews for '13, but you say it sucked, Bucklion? I was interested to see how 2K would handle it since I think THQ was handling the wrestling games for many years before they folded. Maybe I'll wait till they've had a year or so to fine tune things and add more features, unless this year's game turns out to be pretty good.


WWE 13 was bad. The AI was awful. They always went for OMG moments which ruined the gameplay. The Universe mode was bad because you only saw the good cut scenes if you used the Attitude Era guys. So if you do all CAW Universe you saw the same 10 scenes and they never made any sense.

The biggest complaint this year that I have read is they still haven't figured out the Tag Team issues. If The Rock and Mankind are a tag team and everything is set up correctly they should not wrestle against each other. It seems the game still puts them against each other from time to time with no reason. I think this game could be amazing if you could use the created stories from the community and place them inside your Universe.
 
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I picked up 2K14 and I've played it a lot this week. I'm about 2/3 of the way through the 30 Years of Wrestlemania mode. It's fun, but I liked the Attitude Era mode from last year a little more. Last year's mode had those extra optional matches that didn't have anything to do with the storyline thrown in. That's not in this year's game.

That being said, I loved the Macho Man as a kid, so I'm enjoying using him.
 
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I'm almost done with Wrestlemania story mode. I have three WM 29 matches to go. The mode definitely gets tedious once the last half of Ruthless Aggression is started. There are a couple fun ones (HBK/Flair, Punk/Jericho), but my god, the triple threat matches are horrible and frustrating as hell. On a different note, Roddy Piper not being in the game is almost unforgivable. The developers said it was because they couldn't come to an agreement with Mr. T, so the tag match from WM 1 couldn't be used, but he should still be an unlockable in the game. Fortunately, his face, enterance, and moves are templates in the game, so he's an easy creation.
 
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I'm almost done with Wrestlemania story mode. I have three WM 29 matches to go. The mode definitely gets tedious once the last half of Ruthless Aggression is started. There are a couple fun ones (HBK/Flair, Punk/Jericho), but my god, the triple threat matches are horrible and frustrating as hell. On a different note, Roddy Piper not being in the game is almost unforgivable. The developers said it was because they couldn't come to an agreement with Mr. T, so the tag match from WM 1 couldn't be used, but he should still be an unlockable in the game. Fortunately, his face, enterance, and moves are templates in the game, so he's an easy creation.

Thats good to know.
"Just when they think they have the answers, I change the questions." I've gone as Piper to a few Halloween parties in the past lol
 
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First off, if you don't want the AI to book matches for you and you would rather do them yourself, then ignore this post and move on. For everyone else, like me, who would rather let Universe play out, I have some tips to help coax the AI into booking reasonably.

**Rivalries**

Decide at the beginning if you are going to touch Rivalries or not. If you want to do rivalries (or want to mess with them at all) then set Auto-Rivalries to OFF. Otherwise, leave them alone and the let the Universe do it's thing. Manual and Auto-Rivalries do not mix well.

**Roster Size and Shows**

You can make your roster sizes anything you want, but Universe seems to work best if you keep it around 15-25. I'll explain later, but you want your minor shows to happen AFTER your Main Shows in the week. So I recommend cancelling Superstars and having Saturday Night Main Event instead.

**How the AI Booking Is Done**

I have tested this through multiple restarts, and have trolled a few forums. I believe that Universe books based upon the ranking system and set rivalries. Cheer/Boo and Ally/Rival settings do not affect booking. By default, every superstar on the roster competes for both the Main and Secondary titles, and every team on that brand competes for the tag titles.

The main event (and co-main events) of every Main Show is based on Rivalries.

The AI will book matches on the Main Show based on who is near who in the rankings for whichever title. If Divas are on the roster, the AI tries to book 1 Diva match. The AI often (not always) includes a tag team match in the tag rankings. The matches are booked so that people close to one another in the rankings are paired off. Occasionally, they will book tag matches of random teams assigned from these rankings. This is why you may see Tag Team partners face each other, because the match is booked for a singles title ranking and not for the tag titles ranking.

If a superstar is not part of the Rivalry match (not necessarily the Rivalry) then he/she is back into the pool of superstars. So if I have a Rivalry of KANE vs. EDGE, and the nights match is booked as EDGE vs. CENA, then it's possible for Kane to appear in a match earlier in the card as part of his general title hunt.

Any superstars that do not appear on the week's Main Show have a greatly increased chance of appearing on any Minor Show. Otherwise, superstars are booked based on their rankings again just like the major show. However, the AI seems to forget what happened week to week, so if you want your Minor Show to feature stars that didn't make the Main Show cut, have your show appear AFTER the Main Shows. So move Superstars to Saturday, is what I'm saying.

**How to coax the AI**

AI books based on rankings, so the easy way to fix this is to adjust the rankings and remove superstars from the lists. This year you can turn off rankings by the individual superstar for both the Main AND Secondary title!

So if you don't want to see Triple H vs. Santino, then put them in separate rankings. Turn off Secondary for Triple H and turn off Main for Santino. They will never fight on a Main Show (unless it's a tag team match).

Turning off BOTH main and secondary titles will force a superstar into the tag team rankings. If they don't have a tag team, they will NEVER get booked on a Main Show outside of a rivalry. This is useful if you want a guy like Undertaker in rivalries but not in title hunts. Also useful if you want a jobber like Zack Ryder to never appear on TV.

By Default, everybody competes for every title. This creates the booking matches that don't make sense. You could see the #1 contender for the WWE Title face the #16 contender, because the two of them are next to each other in the US title hunt.

The AI only cares about the rankings. So if you make a title for more than one show (like the tag and diva titles) then the roster split is tossed out the window. Seriously: Rank is all that matters.

You can adjust the order of the rankings as well to coax them further. Keep in mind that the rankings change based on Wins or Losses. So if you leave Santino in the World Title hunt, and he goes on a Cobra Poking Spree...then he might be a contender someday.

Or, turn off Santino's world title hunt and slap that WWE glass ceiling firmly in place.

You can keep guys like Dolph Ziggler and Kane in both hunts (if you want), but I recommend taking Main Eventers out of the Secondary title picture and Mid-Carders out of the world title picture. If you want a dedicated tag team, take both members out of both single title hunts. Set your rivalries (or let the AI do it) and sit back and enjoy.

If you don't make these changes before you start, wait until after the next PPV to see results.

Note: Rankings and Booking does not affect interference and cutscenes.

Interference is based exclusively off Ally/Rival settings for the individual superstar. Cutscenes are based on a random element, rivalry settings, Ally/Rival, and cheer/boo settings. These tips are to help coax the *booking* of matches and not the what actually happens during the match.

Some tips on how to improve your Universe.

https://www.2ksports.com/forums/showthread.php?t=380496
 
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This is one of those games I play for a couple weeks then put it down for a couple months before playing it again. I picked it back up a week or so ago to have some fun with the Universe mode. I have to admit, having a CM Punk/Hulk Hogan rivalry is pretty cool.
 
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