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Post by Chris Lionheart on May 24, 2012 1:55:25 GMT
Just got my new copy of this after losing my old one. Thought I'd give my impressions of it with fresh eyes rather than nostalgia goggles:
- I am surprised at the speed of everything. Such as going through the menus/loading screens. If I ever thought this game had long loading I must have been playing the PSP version which notoriously did have long loading, or my old disc was dying (which it did, had to burn-off several copies of the iso on my old modded PS2).
- The default set-up is for CPU vs CPU matches, rather than 1Player vs CPU. I have to move 1Player to one of the controller slots in order to play a match, but this would me much better if I were still simming matches on SVR06 for an efed.
- 30 CAW Slots per profile. I 'think' you can have more than one profile on each PS2 memory card, but even if not I have 5 PS2 memory cards easily to hand.
- I am amazed at how many cool CAW hair styles we have lost. But totally bummed to see older hair styles I used to use all the time - which I would never touch with a 20foot pole now, due to the move to 3D CAW parts completely messing up their proportions and making them 'too bulky'.
- In SVR06 we can resize our CAW's 'designs' up/down and left/right independantly of each other, instead of only having 4 pre-set sizes. However we only have 4 sizes for each direction. I believe it was SVR07 where we could resize by individual clicks, which is a shame.
More impressions as I go...
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Post by Chris Lionheart on May 24, 2012 2:02:05 GMT
- 'VS Screen' animation loads incredibly fast for in-game superstars, using their trademark moves. For CAWs it can take a while for them to load-in individually. Not sure if there was a way to pick which animation your CAW had depending on, say, which weightclass or Superstar A.I. you chose (there wasn't a 'menu screen pose' option to choose from), but the animations seem to be random and varied anyway and not the same one every time you load them up, so it's cool.
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Post by Chris Lionheart on May 24, 2012 2:13:01 GMT
- This game has the elusive 5 man Battle Royal match, which was always usefull to have if the situation called for it.
- Simming an all CPU 6Man Battle Royal between my older CAWs, with entrances on. Going back and watching these entrances, I am seeing entrance move animations and CAW parts such as arm tatts etc. placed on the CAW's bodies, which all seem to fit the characters perfectly. It makes me realise how bland simply 'not quite right' some of my attempts on later games have been. I guess when you have a picture in your mind of a character's looks and their mannerisms, that it's hard to re-do them when the options are taken out of later games.
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Post by Chris Lionheart on May 24, 2012 2:50:39 GMT
- During Battle Royals the eliminated opponents continue to fight on the outside, still able to gain finishers and use them. I had actually completely forgotten about this feature in the classic games.
- There is a LOT more whipping into the turnbuckle than there is in modern games. This is good because the animation isn't automatically hit the exposed turnbuckle and do a fall forward onto your face. There's this really violent animation where the back hits the turnbuckle, force knocks him forward and then back into the turnbuckle with the guy writhing in pain in the corner still. Looks bloody vicious.
- There also seems to be a lot more of quickly blocking a punch to follow up with your own attack fro the front, and ducking under a punch to end up facing the opponent's back ready to attack. These are fast paced animations which quickly allow you to do your own offense, rather than in later games where we seemed to get these long, drawn out 'reveral animation sequences'. SO much better.
- In the course of one match I've seen a few of the great old moves we used to have. A real Death Valley Driver, the Rear Naked Choke, and some violent-looking twist move from behind where an underhook suplex looking setup leads to a powerslam finish? I'll deffinatly have to check out Keith Williams' moveset to see just what in the fuck that was. I've also seen some running and diving moves that are beautifully animated and look great, not the sorry-ass reanimations we have gotten ever since SVR09 and the introduction of Create A Finisher where many move animaitons became horrendusly 'choppy' and disjointed, because CAF was using their animations in 'stages' to create finishers with. If I had a choice between the animations of these moves in every match, and being able to create my own finisher, I'd return to these move animations in a heartbeat.
- SVR06 does have the Special Referee match, but it is only for one referee. In Shut Your Mouth you could have two special referees, so that option died somewhere between those two games. I'm guessing it didn't make it into HCTP, just like the I Quit match was last seen in Shut Your Mouth.
So far in my new time with SVR06 it has completely backed-up my feelings that whilst it didn't have ALL the match types and features of the older games such as SYM/HCTP (like Hardcore Time Limit Title, I Quit, 2 Special Referees, Slobber Knocker, being able to go from the ring to branching backstage areas) - that it more than makes up for this with it's CAW Mode/Moves/Gameplay freedom. Unlike SYM/HCTP's CAW mode which are both horrendus to go back to and try to work with (I tried last month), or SVR05's where the body proportions make everyone look like huge cheekboned mutants, that SVR06's CAW Mode gets things 'just right' with a few noticable exceptions. Such as not being able to resize designs per click, and I believe it was SVR06 where if you changed your CAW's weightclass then half of your moveset reset too.
So it's not perfect, but it doest strike a nice balance between what it does right, and all the restrictions we would later suffer throughout the series, which all started with SVR07. SVR07 started mucking around with everything, such as removing 300 moves from the game, separating moves and actions to specific weightclasses and 'moveset types/fighting styles/abilities', and replacing pinning moves (when performed in non-pinning matches) with generic elbow drops etc. With relation to later games in the series, SVR06 lets me tap-out my opponents with all submission moves. It lets me have men and women fight, and lets me put females as managers in a male vs male match. It has Create A Title Belt etc.
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Post by Chris Lionheart on May 24, 2012 3:55:32 GMT
- SVR06 does have the 'A.I. Sliders' which we're all used-to now. I had initially feared that it was too early in the series to include them.
- The sound options can indipendantly configure Commentary, Sound Effects, Entrance Music, and Music from the menu system. I hate most of the soundtrack for SVR06 with it's various rap songs, so I turn them off. If I was simming matches every week on SVR06 I have the option of turning off the in-game music so that I can edit-in my own character's songs in video editing. Or if I'm not, I have my pick of WWE themesongs etc. Something so simple and yet we don't have this level of customizability in recent games, and I now hate Cody Rhodes' Smoke And Mirrors thanks to SVR2010/2011.
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Post by Chris Lionheart on May 24, 2012 7:58:34 GMT
- loving the option to have multiple kneepads/elbow pads etc. due to the CAW parts not being 3D. We usually see wrestlers with support things sticking up from underneath their kneepads. Or Stone Cold-style kneebraces over the top of actual kneepads. I also used to have a little trick where if you couldn't adjust the length of shorts to just the right amount (not so high up the leg they are underwear sized, but not so far down the leg they look rediculous) that you could turn a pair of HUGE kneepads into skin color, then put another pair of smaller kneepads over the top of them.
- Being able to store finishers until later is good too. Some more cool moves I had forgotten about that are in this game: The Regal Cutter and Jamie Noble's Trailerhitch.
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