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Tuesday 2 November 2010

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii | Game review


WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 … bouts can last a good half hour
Whether you're a fan of WWE's finger-mangling controls or not, you certainly can't accuse it of short-changing fans. Just about every new version shoe-horns in a mess of new features, with last year's Smackdown vs Raw 2010 being notable for introducing a story creator along with the obligatory new fighters, modes and stadiums. This time around, SvR 2011 has really pushed the boat out, expanding on almost every part of an already huge game.
So now we have more than 70 WWE stars, 100 match-types and a host of new arenas, story modes, backstage areas and customisable features. Fighter likenesses are generally good, despite their typically airbrushed look, with most of their signature moves on show. Combat has been significantly tweaked, with the AI at higher levels more adept at performing reversals, making it essential you use the new four-hit combos to reduce your opponent's alertness before moving in for a finish. There's also impressive implementation of the Havok physics engine, ensuring that any objects dragged into the ring behave, bend or break more realistically.
And yet, despite all this, you either love WWE's style of context-sensitive moves and combos or find it a literal pain in the neck (and just about every other upper body muscle). Bouts can last a good half hour, so be prepared for occasional trips to the chiropractor if you're planning on taking on the new WWE Universe mode that balances and schedules your career over the course of a year. Things are kept interesting by the dynamic nature of relationships between fighters, new fight types such as Hell in a Cell, and an expanded total of over 100 random effects, that can completely change the course of a match.
However, there's no avoiding the fact that the auto-targeting system remains as imprecise as ever, frequently making you attack the ref or climb out of the ring when you intended to perform a kick or throw. Naturally, practice minimises the pain and the training levels provide a sold grounding, but for me it always lacks the kind of precision and responsiveness I'd expect from the best beat-em-ups.
However, if you're a WWE fan this is the best and certainly the biggest of them all, packing in enough new features to justify the admittedly steepish price. Although, I've never been wholly impressed by the "sport", you have to give the developers credit for producing an epic and highly competitive experience you'll probably still be enjoying with your mates long after Christmas.


Cheers!

1 comments:

Unknown said...

This is a nice post in an interesting line of content. Thanks for sharing this article, great way of bring such topic to discussion.

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